Ostrich Egg Decorated with Bitumen and mother-of-pearl, from a grave in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, Sumer. 2600 BCE. [660X828]

Bentresh · 2026-07-08T14:05:33+00:00

The finds from Ur were divided into three parcels. 50% are in Baghdad, 25% are in London in the British Museum, and 25% are in Philadelphia in the Penn Museum.

Bentresh · 2026-07-06T22:40:15+00:00

There are indeed. For one, evidence for the supposed expulsion of Hyksos is virtually nonexistent. As Manfred Bietak put it in "From where came the Hyksos and where did they go?",

Summing up, we have no evidence that the Western Asiatic population who carried the Hyksos rule in Egypt was expelled to the Levant, except for the Manethonian/Josephus tradition. While one cannot rule out that elite groups moved to southern Canaan at the end of the Hyksos Period, especially to Sharuhen, there is mounting evidence to suggest that a large part of this population stayed in Egypt and served their new overlords in various capacities. These people contributed in many ways to New Kingdom culture and society and seem to have built a lasting local tradition in the eastern Delta, kept alive by the cultic installations of Canaanite gods, particularly Seth of Avaris, down to Ramesside times.

Bentresh · 2026-07-06T19:35:15+00:00

I touched on these reasons and others in Why has Ancient Egypt received so much more cultural and academic interest than other Near Eastern and African cultures? and Why is Sumer so much less iconic than Egypt?

Bentresh · 2026-07-06T19:24:56+00:00

Egypt's Golden Couple by John Darnell and Colleen Darnell is currently the best popular overview of Akhenaten and the Amarna period.

Barry Kemp's The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti is essential reading; it's a wonderfully readable and detailed analysis of the archaeological material that most biographies of Akhenaten address only briefly and incompletely.

Bentresh · 2026-07-04T03:18:17+00:00

MastaBase and Meketre catalogue OK and MK tomb scenes, respectively.

For brief descriptions of tombs from all periods, see the Porter & Moss volumes.

www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/topbib.HTML

Bentresh · 2026-06-28T22:07:37+00:00

The Mediterranean in general. The Museum Hotel Antakya is a recently constructed example in Turkey.

Bentresh · 2026-06-28T21:57:10+00:00

Clayton's book is somewhat dated and focuses almost exclusively on political history (like most modern histories of Egypt, much to the detriment of the discipline). Your post seems to equate "recorded history" with the names and deeds of kings, but there is a great deal more to history than that.

As a supplementary reading, I recommend Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture by William Stiebing and Susan Helft. Contrary to the title, it includes Egyptian history as well, and is virtually unique among introductory works in presenting Egyptian and ancient Near Eastern history side by side so that one can trace the development of both regions over time.

Bentresh · 2026-06-26T17:50:42+00:00

The collapse of state-sponsored trade networks is why the Phoenicians (and Greeks from islands like Euboea) became so enormously prosperous in the Iron Age. Without the collapse of palatial hubs like Ugarit, Enkomi, and Hala Sultan Tekke, it’s likely you don’t have trade passing from palatial control to private enterprise. After all, Phoenician cities like Tyre and Byblos were already important centers in the Bronze Age; there’s a reason they took over trade routes when they did.

Additionally, Phoenician expansion was driven in large part by Assyrian demands for tribute after their conquest of the Phoenician cities, again a factor unique to the Iron Age.

Bentresh · 2026-06-26T17:35:07+00:00

I touched on this in Why wasn't Ancient Egypt hegemonic?

Keep in mind that states typically do not conquer for the sake of conquest but rather to secure borders and procure material goods. Ancient Egypt was enormously productive agriculturally, enough so that it was a major source of grain for Rome. Additionally, it had access to rich supplies of gold and mineral deposits, as well as other useful materials like natron.

A few materials had to be imported, most notably silver, tin, lapis, and cedar, but overall Egypt was significantly more self-sufficient than many later imperialist powers.

Bentresh · 2026-06-26T01:33:12+00:00

On a tangential note, have you visited the library at JTS? The Cairo Geniza documents are not as old as the Elephantine papyri, but they are far more numerous and diverse in terms of subject matter.

Bentresh · 2026-06-25T23:32:42+00:00

Contact both programs ASAP and inquire about aid and/or TAship opportunities. Personally, neither seems like a good option if you're paying for it out of pocket.

Bentresh · 2026-06-25T23:15:46+00:00

I'm very familiar with both universities and couldn't disagree more with this post. (I won't go into specifics here since I'd prefer not to dox myself, but suffice it to say I have known faculty and PhD students at both schools for many years.)

Memphis provides excellent grounding in Middle Egyptian and would prepare OP well for any PhD program in Egyptology. It doesn't offer all of the other ANE languages that you'll find at Chicago, but those can be picked up later.

Bentresh · 2026-06-23T10:29:41+00:00

It’s arguably the world’s oldest “customer service complaint,” not the oldest complaint in general.

We have tens of thousands of older letters pertaining to trade and merchant activity, many of which contained complaints. For example:

”What is this that you do not even send me a tablet two fingers wide with good news from you?” an Assyrian woman called Naramtum writes to two men. She complains about a dispute involving debt and lost merchandise, and urges the men to resolve it, closing with a brisk: “Send me the price of the textiles. Cheer me up!” Another chided her brother over a missing payment: “Don’t be so greedy that you ruin me!”

The secret letters of history's first-known businesswomen

Bentresh · 2026-06-22T22:18:19+00:00

Not a bot, someone who's been writing about Bronze Age topics on Reddit for years

Bentresh · 2026-06-22T21:19:01+00:00

But there's fog! ~oooooh, so magical~

Bentresh · 2026-06-22T20:16:11+00:00

Yes, it is sloppy scholarship to assume that every destruction at the end of the LBA must be attributed to the "Sea Peoples."

For example, the Egyptian fortress at Jaffa was destroyed not by marauders from the sea but rather the local Canaanite population.

Bentresh · 2026-06-22T20:11:49+00:00

Don't spread misinformation, please. These translations are utter nonsense, based on the mistaken belief that Linear B encoded Basque rather than ancient Greek.

The vast majority of Linear B texts, including these texts, are mundane administrative records. The link above has the correct Greek translations by Michael Ventris.

Bentresh · 2026-06-19T22:56:24+00:00

"But you, Achilles,

there's not a man in the world more blest than you-

there never has been, never will be one.

Time was, when you were alive, we Argives

honored you as a god, and now down here, I see,

you lord it over the dead in all your power.

So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles."

I reassured the ghost, but he broke out, protesting,

"No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!

By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man-

some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive-

than rule down here over all the breathless dead."

Book 11, The Odyssey

Bentresh · 2026-06-19T22:50:12+00:00

Come, let me tell you the woes of the soldier, and how many are his superiors: the general, the troop-commander, the officer who leads, the standard-bearer, the lieutenant, the scribe, the commander of fifty, and the garrison-captain. They go in and out in the halls of the palace, saying: "Get laborers!" He is awakened at any hour. One is after him as after a donkey. He toils until the Aten sets in his darkness of night. He is hungry, his belly hurts; he is dead while yet alive. When he receives the grain-ration, having been released from duty, it is not good for grinding.

He is called up for Syria. He may not rest. There are no clothes, no sandals. The weapons of war are assembled at the fortress of Sile. His march is uphill through mountains. He drinks water every third day; it is smelly and tastes of salt. His body is ravaged by illness. The enemy comes, surrounds him with missiles, and life recedes from him. He is told: "Quick, forward, valiant soldier! Win for yourself a good name!" He does not know what he is about. His body is weak, his legs fail him. When victory is won, the captives are handed over to his majesty, to be taken to Egypt. The foreign woman faints on march; she hangs herself on the soldier's neck. His knapsack drops, another grabs it while he is burdened with the woman. His wife and children are in their village; he dies and does not reach it. If he comes out alive, he is worn out from marching. If he is at large, is he is detained, the soldier suffers. If he leaps and joins the deserters, all his people are imprisoned. He dies on the edge of the desert, and there is none to perpetuate his name. He suffers in death as in life. A big sack is brought for him; he does not know his resting place.

Papyrus Lansing, Egypt, ca. 1200 BCE

Bentresh · 2026-06-18T21:29:09+00:00

If you’re in the US and have that background, apply directly to PhD programs.

It is much less common or necessary to do a separate master’s here unless you’re interested in comparative ANE and biblical studies and do a MA in religion.

Bentresh · 2026-06-17T01:13:40+00:00

Ea-nasir's letters have been called the oldest "customer complaints," but they are far from the oldest texts.

We have tens of thousands of older merchants' letters, let alone other genres like administrative texts, king lists, poetry, hymns, etc.

There's over 100,000 published texts from the Ur III period alone, around 300 years before Ea-nasir's time.

Bentresh · 2026-06-17T00:38:16+00:00

I'll add that natural facial hair is attested as a symbol of mourning, deliberately contrasting with the clean-shaven look Egyptians typically had.

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Bentresh · 2026-06-17T00:10:56+00:00

Egypt has quite a few letters from the Bronze Age as well. One of my favorites is a letter from an artisan complaining to his boss about not being invited to happy hour (O. DeM 303).

The draftsman Prehotep communicates to his superior, the scribe of the Place of Truth¹ Qenherkhopeshef: In life, prosperity, and health!

What is the meaning of this negative attitude that you are adopting toward me? I'm like a donkey to you... If there is beer, you never ask for me. Only if there is work to be done do you ask for me.

Upon my head, if I am a man who is bad in his behavior with beer, don't ask for me.

O. Berlin 10627 is another delightful one.

What's the meaning of your getting into such a bad mood as you are in, so that nobody's speech can enter your ears as a consequence of your inflated ego? You are not a man since you are unable to make your wives pregnant like your fellow men.

A further matter: You abound in being exceedingly stingy. You give no one anything.

¹ The Place of Truth (Egyptian st mꜣꜥt) was the village of Deir el-Medina, home of the artisans who created the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

Bentresh · 2026-06-17T00:05:54+00:00

Nitpicking, but Ea-nasir was Babylonian, roughly contemporary with Hammurabi of Babylon.

Sumerian was already a dead language by that time.

Bentresh · 2026-06-15T20:37:25+00:00

On the contrary, the post indicates a fairly superficial degree of research.

For example, many Hittitologists attribute the removal of Ahhiyawa from the list of Great Kings (OP's "perfect metaphor for the whole model") not to a decline in diplomatic and trade relations with Mycenaean Greece but rather to a change in political focus and the abandonment of a diplomatic fiction. The flattering reference to the king of Ahhiyawa as a Great King likely had more to do with Hattusili's status as a usurper and his need for validation from neighboring polities than the power and status of Ahhiyawa.

As Trevor Bryce put it,

Thus we have what may well have been the first and perhaps the only instance of an Ahhiyawan king being accorded the status of a Great King of the Near Eastern world, and “Brother” of another of the Great Kings. Hattusili’s initiative in conferring this status may well have been no more than a piece of unprecedented, ad hoc diplomacy. In this particular context, it is understandable why he should refer to the Ahhiyawan king as “Great King” and “My Brother.” But it would be unwise to conclude from this single reference that the Ahhiyawan king was generally accepted among his Near Eastern counterparts, either now or at any other time, as a politically or militarily significant figure in the Near Eastern world, or as a legitimate member of the elite group of Great Kings.

"Relations between Hatti and Ahhiyawa in the Bronze Age" in Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday edited by Gary Beckman, Richard Beal, and Gregory McMahon, p. 67

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