Adventures in Archaeology @peabodyandemerson - Tumblr Blog

Gold Inlaid Bracelet of King Psusennes I

Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, reign of Psusennes I, c. 1047-1001 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 85160

team-ramses

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (first book in Amelia Peabody series) covers (from my favorite ➡️ to the most unhinged):

‼️ I did my best to match these covers with their pub dates and publishers. All inaccuracies are due to my own failings and those of Google.

1. Dodd, Mead and Co., 1975 - Glorious. Need it on my bookshelf. (Not cheap 😅)

2. Mysterious Press - I see you crocodile eye and I love you. 🐊

3. Cassell, 1976 - Take me to Egypt.

4. Mysterious Press, 1988 - The eighties purple and green. The crocodile. 👌

5. Robinson Publishing, 2006 - I love all these covers. Would be so cool to have the full set.

6. Coronet Books/Hodder Fawcett, 1978 - It’s the vibes for me.

7. Warner Books, 1988 - Crocodile on the sand but the bank is nowhere to be found. We do, however, get Emerson’s ever missing pith helmet.

8. Armchair Detective Library, 1990 - Put MPM on all my covers. 💯

9. Impress Mystery, 2004 - Simple and effective.

10. Robinson Publishing, 1999 - Adequate.

11. Editorial Alma, 2005 - Cute!

12. Grand Central Publishing, 2013 - Just the Warner cover but zoomed in?

13. Trusted Media Brands, Inc., 2019 - Ehh.

14. Fawcett Crest, 1976 - The cape! The SIDEBURNS! 👀

15. Librairie Generale Francaise, 1999 - Big plus: the crocodile is actually on a sandbank. Big minus: I’ll never believe Emerson bought, never mind wore, that hat.

16. ????? - What. Is. Happening? BLONDE. (I can’t find evidence this one is real, so if someone has a copy in the wild SHOW US PLEASE?!)

17. “The Secret of the Nile” (Dutch title) - It’s…off-putting? Perhaps because Emerson’s pants are…so, so high??

egypt-museum

Relief of the god Khnum from Elephantine, Aswan

photo by Djehouty, CC BY-SA 4.0

egypt-museum

The Avenue of Sphinxes, photographed c. 1910.

▫️The Avenue of Sphinxes or King's Festivities road, also known as Rams Road (Arabic: طريق الكباش), is a 2.7 km (1.7 mi) long avenue (dromos) that connects Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple. It was discovered in the ancient city of Thebes (modern Luxor), with sphinxes and ram-headed statues lined up on both flanks. Its construction began in the New Kingdom and was seemingly left "completed" after the reign of Nectanebo I during the Late Period.

Between 1984 and 2000, the whole course of the walkway was ultimately defined, leaving excavators to unearth the road. The original 1,057 statues are located along the road, and they come in varied forms, erected by various kings.

tridentandtales

Chapel of the hearing ear

The chapel (or rather the depicted ears) was intended to create a place where the gods could symbolically hear the requests of the people

egypt-museum

Cartonnage Applique

Late Ptolemaic Period to Roman Period, ca. 30 BC - 395 AD. From Akhmim. Now in the Brooklyn Museum. X744.2

memories-of-ancients

Gold fish pendant, Middle Kingdom Egypt, 12-13th Dynasty 1878-1749 BC

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

#fish!

victoryrifle

Death is only the beginning.

THE MUMMY (1999) dir. Stephen Sommers

egypt-museum

Cosmetics from a Woman’s Burial, including a Basket full of Plaited Hair Extensions

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, c. 1479–1458 B.C.

From below the Tomb of Senenmut (TT 71), Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes. Now at The Met.

▫ This woven grass basket, modest in scale yet rich in intimacy, was discovered within the burial of an unnamed woman living during the reign of Hatshepsut. Her lifetime coincided with that of Hatnefer, the well-documented mother of Senenmut, whose burial nearby provides a rare glimpse into the lives of elite women of the early New Kingdom.

Within the basket lay the discreet instruments of personal adornment: a small wooden box, a kohl jar with its applicator, and most evocatively, a cache of carefully prepared human hair. Fine plaited extensions and softly waved locks were intended to be woven into the wearer’s own hair, creating the elegant, voluminous hairstyles favoured in the mid-18th Dynasty. Such additions speak not of vanity, but of care, status, and the preservation of identity.

Nestled among the tresses was an alabaster kohl jar, its contents secured with linen and cloth, the polished ebony applicator threaded neatly through the fold. Kohl served not only as cosmetic, but as protection and charm. A small two-compartment wooden box, likely for jewellery or treasured personal items, completed the assemblage.

Together, these objects offer a tender glimpse into the private ritual of grooming, beauty, and self-presentation, carefully gathered and placed beside their owner as she was prepared for eternity. In such humble possessions, a life quietly endures.

archaeoart

The Sphinx and pyramids at Giza, Egypt, circa 1881.

egypt-museum

Sanctuary of Amun-Re at the Temple of Amun, Karnak

▫ At the heart of the vast Karnak complex lies the Sanctuary of Amun-Re, a space conceived in deliberate darkness and restraint. Rebuilt in stone during the reign of Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 B.C.), and later restored by New Kingdom kings including Amenhotep III, Seti I, and Ramesses II, this chamber formed the god’s most sacred earthly dwelling.

A small aperture in the ceiling admits a narrow shaft of sunlight, carefully controlled and symbolically charged. In a world where light signified creation itself, this descending beam evoked the moment when order emerged from the primeval waters of Nun, and when the god’s presence was made manifest.

Access to this chamber was strictly limited. Only the king and select priests could enter, bearing offerings and performing rituals to sustain divine order (Maʿat). Here, architecture, theology, and light converge; not for spectacle, but for communion.