Czech Institute of Egyptology
The Czech Institute of Egyptology was founded in 1958, as a successor to the Egyptological Seminar at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Prague. Its founding father was Frantisek Lexa, an expert in Late Egyptian writing. The first fieldwork undertaken by the new Institute in the 1960s was in Nubia, where Prague Egyptologists took an active part in the rescue of Nubian sites and artefacts from dam construction. The Nubian series of Institute publications, published mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, are particularly important as they are the sole record of sites that are no longer accessible to researchers. The Institute started work at its most famous excavation site, Abusir, just after beginning its Nubian campaign. Abusir, the northernmost part of the Saqqara necropolis, has produced an unexpected richness of material, including a royal cemetery of 5th Dynasty pyramids, a Necropolis of officials dating from the 4th to 6th Dynasties, and Saite-Persian shaft tombs. The excavations are still continuing, with only a few months break every year during the intense heat of the summer months. Studies at the Abusir necropolis are making huge contributions to our knowledge of the society and culture of the Memphite region. Recently, a new area has been added to the Czech archaeological permit area - a zone in Western desert, in the area of Hayez, Bahariya oasis, and work is starting there. A range of archaeological works at the site are published in the Abusir series, which now extends to number VII. The archaeological reports on Abusir are not the only part of their publishing activities – these include also broader syntheses and future plans include a special series devoted to the heritage of Ancient and Islamic Egypt. A short series will also report on the Hayez expedition. Future plans also include a dissertation series. The future looks bright for Czech Egyptology, now celebrating over 50 years of scholarship. The recent merging of the Institute with the National Centre for Egyptology has brought the financial and scholarly resources of the discipline together and, in the next few years, it is hoped that the program of publications will become ever larger and more prestigious.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 307
ISBN: 9788073087708
Pub Date: 30 Oct 2018
Illustrations: Color, b-w
Description:
The superbly illustrated volume “The Art of Describing” presents a wide array of subject-matter dealing with the visual culture of the Old Kingdom. The topics range from many in-depth studies of various two-dimensional motifs as well as sculpture encountered in the tombs of the Memphite necropolises, the presentation of complete overviews of wall scenes, and the art of carving, to selected royal scenes as well as the decorative programme of burial chambers. Many of the issues touch upon hitherto unpublished material and tombs only recently discovered.
The book was compiled in honour of Yvonne Harpur, the doyenne of the study of art and decoration of tombs from the pyramid age. Her life-long passion for tomb decoration and scenes details have influenced and helped students and scholars around the world. Thus, the contributions collected in this album amicorum not only reflect the great interest but also the potential in dealing with the art of the Old Kingdom.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 696
ISBN: 9788073087586
Pub Date: 31 May 2018
Illustrations: Black and white photographs, plans and figures
Description:
The Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague has since the start of the third millennium established the tradition of organising on a regular basis a platform for scholars, active in the pyramid fields and the cemeteries of the Memphite region (Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur and Giza in particular), to meet, exchange information and establish further cooperation. The present volume, containing 43 contributions by 53 scholars, is the result of the already fourth "Abusir and Saqqara" conference held in June 2015. The volume reflects the widespread, often multidisciplinary interest of many researchers into a wide variety of different topics related to the Memphite necropoleis.
Recurring topics of the studies include a focus on archaeology, the theory of artefacts, iconographic and art historian studies, and the research of largely unpublished archival materials. An overwhelming number of contributions (31) is dedicated to various aspects of Old Kingdom archaeology and most present specific aspects linked with archaeological excavations, both past and present.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 259
ISBN: 9788073087456
Pub Date: 12 Dec 2017
Series: Abusir Monographs
Illustrations: 107
Description:
Czech archaeological team discovered in the mortuary temple of Raneferef in Abusir in the 1980s fragments of about a dozen of the statues of the king, including his six complete likenesses. The monograph presents a detailed description and discussion of Raneferef’s statues in the broader context of the royal sculpture of the Fifth Dynasty.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 346
ISBN: 9788073086688
Pub Date: 14 Dec 2016
Illustrations: Colour and b/w illus.
Description:
27 authors-friends of Anthony Spalinger contributed to the Studies in Honour of hiis 70th Feast of Thoth.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 55
ISBN: 9788073086725
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2016
Illustrations: Colour illus.
Description:
This book is concerned with the field research carried out in the Middle Nile region by the expeditions of the Czech (former Czechoslovak) Institute of Egyptology (Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague). The field projects described include the works performed in Lower Nubia in the framework of the UNESCO-organised salvage campaign necessitated in the 1960s by the building of the Aswan High Dam and, more recently, two research projects initiated by the Institute in the Sudan following an invitation by the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums in 2009. The overview of the field projects is set into a broader context of the civilizational developments in the Middle Nile region and the history of its uncovering from the 19th century onwards.
In that way, this richly illustrated book can serve as an introduction into the archaeology and cultural heritage of the Middle Nile.Discover the world's research Research paper: From Aswan to Khartoum: Czech archaeological explorations between the Nile cataracts. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309224483_From_Aswan_to_Khartoum_Czech_archaeological_explorations_between_the_Nile_cataracts [accessed Apr 5, 2017].
Format: Hardback
Pages: 556
ISBN: 9788073085759
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2015
Illustrations: 197
Description:
The volume presents proceedings of the second international conference dedited to the study of relations between Egypt, the Aegean, the Levant and the Sudan in the 2nd and 1st millenia BCE.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9788073085421
Pub Date: 01 Apr 2015
Series: Abusir Monographs
Description:
The monograph evaluates results of the archaeological research of the area of the Fifth-Dynasty Tomb AC 26 (formerly known as Pyramid Lepsius no. 23) and Late Sixth-Dynasty Tombs AC 32 carried out by the Czech Institute of Egyptology during three archaeological seasons from 2006 until 2009. The publication focuses on archaeological contexts dated to the Old Kingdom.
Tomb AC 26 is located next to the pyramid complex of Queen Khentkaus II – in the centre of the royal necropolis – it thus demonstrates an important position of its tomb owner. It is also one of the most devastated monuments in the Abusir royal necropolis. This fact made the field work and the evaluation of its results rather difficult. Regardless of its large-scaled destruction it was possible to ascribe Tomb AC 26 to “the Eldest son of the King”, Werkaure. Individual chapters of the book deal with the description and evaluation of the architecture of the tombs, finds datable to the Old Kingdom, a large collection of pottery, masons’ inscriptions and signs, archaeobotanical analyses of macroremains from mud bricks and conclusions – concerning especially dating of the Tombs AC 26 and AC 32.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 247
ISBN: 9788073085445
Pub Date: 01 Mar 2015
Description:
This publication is the latest monographic outcome of a long-term project of survey and research of the archaeological site of Abusir, focusing on a particular set of cemeteries located at Abusir South. The present volume of the Abusir series concentrates on the mastaba of Neferinpu (AS 37). It aims to present primary data and their basic analysis and interpretation acquired during the tomb examination by the Czech Institute of Egyptology during two subsequent seasons of 2006 and 2007 and followed by some minor campaigns in 2012 and 2013 and a specific analytical campaign in September 2014 carried out by the Japanese team from Tokyo University of Science.
The mastaba was built by a sun priest and official Neferinpu who reached the peak of his career during the reign of Nyuserra and Djedkara.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 306
ISBN: 9788073085414
Pub Date: 01 Mar 2015
Description:
Result of archaeological Research at Abusir, V.th Dynasty
Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2010
Volume 2
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9788073083854
Pub Date: 31 Oct 2013
Description:
The Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague has since the start of the third millennium established the tradition of organising on a regular basis a platform for scholars, active in the pyramid fields and the cemeteries of the Abusir-Saqqara-Dahshur region, to meet, exchange information and establish further cooperation. The present two part volume, containing 51 contributions in total, is the result of the already third "Abusir and Saqqara" conference held in late May and early June 2010.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 314
ISBN: 9788073084578
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2013
Illustrations: 8 pages of colour plates
Description:
Through its 14 chapters, this book presents the outcomes of the recent exploration of Bahriya, an Egyptian oasis located in the Western Desert about 350 km south-west of Cairo. Part I of the volume is devoted to the southern part of the Oasis (also known as El-Hayz) and the exploration carried out there by the team led by the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University in Prague.Part II concentrates on the northern part of the same oasis bringing forth the results of scholarly research by the French team led by Université de Strasbourg.
Complementing the two parts is Part III with the final chapter which deals with water-management in the Western Desert as a whole. Containing chapters written by archaeologists, Egyptologists, philologists and natural scientists, this richly illustrated book attempts at providing as comprehensive picture of the past of the Bahriya Oasis as can be drawn from the hitherto research, encompassing a wide range of aspects from settlement history and environment to material culture and written evidence.Lenka Suková graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague in 2008. In 2003–2006, she was the Assistant Curator of the Department of Prehistory and Ancient History of the Near East and North Africa of the Náprstek Museum-National Museum in Prague. Since 2007, she works in the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague where she is concerned with the research into the history and dynamics of occupation of Eastern Sahara during the Early and Middle Holocene. Since 2009, she is the director of the Institute’s interdisciplinary research project concerned with the prehistoric occupation of Jebel Sabaloka in the Sudan. She is a PhD candidate at the same institute, with a research project focused on the rock art of Northeast Africa in the context of landscape and archaeology.Marek Dospěl holds master’s degrees in History, Latin, Egyptology, and Classical Archaeology and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. programme at the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University in Prague. He is involved in the Institute’s exploration of Bahriya as a specialist in late antique and Byzantine Egypt, with focus on Coptology, documentary papyrology, and the interplay between the informative value of contextualized texts on the one side and archaeological data on the other. His publications include studies on Egyptian Christianity, material culture of late antique Egypt, as well as editions and annotated translations of Greek, Latin, and Coptic texts – both literary and documentary. He has also extensively published on Franciscan missionaries in Ottoman Egypt and Abyssinia.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 221
ISBN: 9788073084448
Pub Date: 31 Jul 2013
Description:
The book includes contributions of the following authors: Hartwig Altenmüller, Ladislav Bareš, Miroslav Bárta, Andreas Effland, Martin Fitzenreiter, Hans Goedicke, Peter Jánosi, Dieter Kurth, Christian Loeben, Juan Carlos Moreno García, Jana Mynářová, Anthony Spalinger, Miroslav Verner, Hana Vymazalová, Wolfgang Waitkus.
Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2010
Volume 1
Format: Hardback
Pages: 904
ISBN: 9788073083847
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2012
Description:
The Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague has since the start of the third millennium established the tradition of organising on a regular basis a platform for scholars, active in the pyramid fields and the cemeteries of the Abusir-Saqqara-Dahshur region, to meet, exchange information and establish further cooperation. The present two part volume, containing 51 contributions in total, is the result of the already third "Abusir and Saqqara" conference held in late May and early June 2010. The volume reflects the widespread, often multidisciplinary interest of many researchers into a wide variety of different topics related to the region of Abusir, Saqqara and Dahshur.
The focus of the majority of the articles is on these cemeteries of the Memphite region at the time of the Old Kingdom, but not a single period is left untouched. A number of articles also move outside the core region, studying material and developments elsewhere in Egypt, but always against the background of the Memphite necropolis.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 405
ISBN: 9788073083816
Pub Date: 30 May 2012
Illustrations: 122 b/w illus
Description:
This study of individual Egyptian queens is based on an earlier study, The Wives of the Egyptian Kings, Dynasties I-XVII, which was a doctoral dissertation ny this author presented at Macquaire University in 1992. This book differs from the first in many ways because we now understand much more abou these royal women.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 360
ISBN: 9788073083809
Pub Date: 30 Mar 2012
Description:
The tomb published in this volume is the third large Late Period shaft tomb that has been excavated in the south-western part of the Abusir cemetery. It belongs to Menekhibnekau, who held a number of important titles (among the "General", "Overseer of Libyans", "Overseer of the kbnwt-vessels", etc) under Ahmose II and may have lived until the beginning of Dynasty 27. Although his tomb had been robbed, a number of important and interesting pieces from his burial equipment, including a seal of the necropolis and a faience menit with the name of Ahmose II, have been found in his burial chamber.
In a separate shaft, large embalmer's cache has been found that contained more than three hundred large storage vessels and a number of smaller receptacles of different kind. On many of them, short inscriptions were preserved that often mention materials used during the mummification process including the presupposed dates of their use. In the excursi, texts from the embalmer's deposit, Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions on a Phoenician storage jar and a xylotomic analysis of wooden objects from the embalmer's deposit are published. The religious texts and scenes that originally had decorated the burial chamber should appear in the second volume of this book (presently under preparation).
Format: Paperback
Pages: 342
ISBN: 9788073083830
Pub Date: 30 Mar 2012
Description:
This book is intended as a commented summary of some of the major trends and most important features that can be encountered when analysing ancient Egyptian society of the Old Kingdom. We have to bear in mind that around 3000 BCE one of the first centralised states in our recorded history rose, and the Old Kingdom represents certainly one of its apogees. Moreover, there is hardly any comparable society that left behind such a wealth of archaeological and literary evidence, a welcome companion for our journey back in time.
The goal for writing this book was to outline general trends in the history of the non-royal tomb development of the period. The reason is rather simple and straightforward: ancient Egyptians considered the tomb to be their afterlife residence for eternity. In the afterlife they replicated the life they experienced during the lifetime. Thus the tomb architecture, decoration, inscriptions and equipment paradoxically represent a major tool for our understanding of the everyday life of the ancient Egyptians and enable a better comprehension of the development and dynamics of the Old Kingdom. The book is divided into nine chapters covering, step by step, the development of the Egyptian tomb and society from the Predynastic Period to the end of the first six Egyptian dynasties, a lengthy period of time which covers the Early Dynastic and the Old Kingdom periods. These six chapters are accompanied by three additional chapters on religious aspects of the Old Kingdom society, its economy and environment.
