ANCIENT EGYPT www.ancientegyptmagazine.com MARCH/APRIL 2024 Volume 24•Number 3•Issue no.141 EDITORIAL Editor: J Peter Phillips peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com Deputy Editor: Sarah Grif fiths sarah@ancientegyptmagazine.com Consultant Editor: Professor Emerita Rosalie David, OBE Staf f Contributors: Hilar y Wilson, Peter Robinson, Dr Campbell Price Ar t Editor: Mark Edwards Designer: Emma Morgan Subeditor: Simon Coppock Publisher: Maria Earle Managing Director: Robert Selkirk COMMERCIAL Advertising Sales Manager: Mike Traylen mike@ancientegyptmagazine.com Marketing & Digital Manager: Emma Watts-Plumpkin emma@ancientegyptmagazine.com Commercial Director: Libby Selkirk SUBSCRIPTIONS Ancient Egypt is published six t imes a year by Current Publishing Ltd Website: www.ancientegyptmagazine.com UK: £31.95 Rest of the World: £43.95 Subscriptions should be sent to: Current Publishing, Of fice 120, 295 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4HH Phone: 020 8819 5580 Email: subs@ancientegyptmagazine.com USA and Canada USA: $55 Canada: CDN$67 Ancient Egypt March/April 2024 (ISSN 1470 -9996) is published 6 t imes a year (bi-monthly) by Current Publishing, Of fice 120, 295 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4HH, United Kingdom. Distributed in the US by NPS Media Group, 2 Enterprise Drive, Suite 420, Shelton, CT 06484. Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, CT and at additional mailing of fices . Postmaster: Send address changes to Ancient Egypt, PO Box 37052, Boone, IA 50037- 0052. Phone: 1- 8 6 6 - 4 01- 78 01 Email: aegcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com Printed in the UK by William Gibbons Unauthorised reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without written permission. The publisher, editor and authors accept no responsibility in respect of any products, goods or services which may be advertised or referred to in this issue. Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright material. In the event of any material being used inadvertently or where it has proved impossible to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be made in a future issue. A N C I E N T E G Y P T ANCIENT EGYPTEYTEYT THE HISTORY, PEOPLE, AND CULTURE OF THE NILE VALLEY QUEEN TIYE GREAT OF DREAD 1 4 1 CELESTIAL HARMONIES CELESTIAL HARMONIES Astronomical cycles at the Temple of Dendera Astronomical cycles at the Temple of Dendera £5.95 ISSUE 141 ON THE COVER The constellation of Taurus, as depicted on the ceiling of the pronaos of the Temple of Horus, Dendera. CREDIT José María Barrera I S S U E 141 editor From the Not all the superstitions of the ancient world are so different from our own. The signs of the zodiac used in newspaper and magazine horoscopes were already familiar to ancient Egyptians. They can be seen in the scenes on the ceiling of the pronaos of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, captured by José María Barrera in his remarkable photographs, one of which appears on the cover of this issue. Although we must all be aware of how different our modern multicultural, diverse world is from that in which previous generations lived, it comes as a shock to read the quotations in Aidan Dodson’s article in this issue. Many respected Egyptologists, whose works are still studied as foundation texts, held racist views that are totally abhorrent. As such, their interpretation of the civilisation of ancient Nubia and its interaction with the neighbouring Egyptian civilisation is fatally flawed and needs to be re-evaluated, especially following more recent discoveries. Ancient Nubia also features in Robert Morkot’s article about Tiye, Amenhotep III’s principal queen and chief adviser. If she resembled her small statuette now in the Neues Museum in Berlin, she was not a person to be crossed, and probably merited the epithet ‘great of dread of the foreign lands’. To alleviate the harshness of their lives, ancient Egyptians took every opportunity to have a party, as Hilary Wilson tells us, and believed in the power of magical talismans like the one described by W Benson Harer. Objects like it were in regular use for many centuries, and certainly under Roman rule, despite the reduction in power of the ancient Egyptian priesthood which is catalogued by Sean Rigby. BELOW The solar boat, part of the celestial ceiling at the Temple of Dendera. J Peter Phillips, Editor Barrera María : José Image 3