New Releases by David P. Silverman

During the Middle Kingdom, the term shena, was used by the ancient Egyptians to denote a food production area, primarily of bread and beer, which was attached to religious institutions. As a production area, the shena represented a place of pivotal importance in the economic structure of the Egyptian temple as a producer of divine offerings, wages and pensions for temple personnel, and as a taxpayer to the Egyptian state. In theory, every temple would have had a shena to provide for its cultic and economic needs. Although there are thousands of temples identified archaeologically from ancient Egypt, no shena have been fully investigated or published from and period of Egyptian history. Currently, all of our understanding of the nature of shena comes from textual and iconographic evidence. ^ The main focus of this dissertation is a study of the shena of divine offerings adjacent to the mortuary temple of Senwosret III at south Abydos, Egypt. Excavations in the 2004 clearly showed that the baking of bread and brewing of beer was the primary function of the shena at south Abydos. However, other activities were also brought to evident, including meat processing, fish procurement and processing, wine processing, metal-working, linen production, and pottery production. ^ Over 5000 seal impressions were recovered from the shena buildings and its midden. These seal impressions record the names and titles of both individuals and institutions. As a corpus it is possible to discern interactions between the shena and other religious and non-religious institutions. Further, it is possible to create a bureaucratic framework of the mortuary complex of Senwosret III at south Abydos which includes the mortuary temple, a hidden tomb, and a town. The shena attached to the Senwosret III temple provides an excellent opportunity to better understand non-cultic temple activities and bureaucracy through its architectural, artifactual, and textual remains.^

The Amarna Period, named after the site of an innovative capital city that was the center of the new religion, included the reigns of heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten and his presumed son, the boy king Tutankhamun.

Guía sobre los principales aspectos de la civilización egipcia, desde las vidas de los faraones y la construcción de las pirámides hasta el fascinante lenguaje de los jeroglíficos. En ella se abordan temas tan variados como la historia, la religión, el arte, la ciencia y la mitología de esta poderosa civilización de la antigüedad. Magníficamente ilustrada, nunca antes se había realizado una creación del mundo de los faraones. En este libro, el prestigioso egiptólogo David P. Silverman, junto con un magnífico equipo de investigadores, explora el legado cultural de esta civilización a través de una serie de interesantes y documentados ensayos basados en los últimos descubrimientos y teorías sobre el tema. Ilustrado con más de doscientas fotografías en color, mapas y tablas cronológicas, se crean las vívidas y simbólicas imágenes de esta fascinante cultura, desde las pirámides y los templos a los sacerdotes y los rituales; desde la escritura de los jeroglíficos hasta la vida cotidiana en la cuenca del Nilo, y desde las esculturas de los templos hasta su más que conocido culto a la muerte.

In "Ancient Egypt, " eminent Egyptologist Silverman and a team of leading scholars explore the cultural wealth of this civilization in a series of intriguing and authoritative essays based on the latest theories and discoveries. 200+ color photos, maps, and charts.

Lavishly illustrated in color, this book presents a spectacular collection of archaeological and artistic treasures covering the extent of Egyptian art from the Predynastic Period of the fourth millennium B.C. to the Greco-Roman period of the fourth century A.D. The volume features more than 130 objects ranging from architectural elements of a royal palace and funerary chapel to delicate jewelry and textile fragments, and contains many objects never previously shown in print. In an introductory essay David P. Silverman documents major expeditions to sites in Egypt and Nubia and summarizes the new information gleaned about ancient Egyptian civilization. Donald B. Redford provides a general treatment of ancient Egypt history. The objects themselves are introduced with concise essays by recognized Egyptologists: Edward Brovarski, Rita E. Freed, Arielle P. Kozloff, David O'Connor, Edna R. Russmann, William K. Simpson, and Josef W. Wegner. Contributors— Edward Brovarski, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Rita Freed, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Arielle Kozloff, Cleveland Museum of Art David O'Connor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Donald Redford, University of Toronto Edna. R. Russman, Brooklyn Museum of Art David Silverman, University of Pennsylvania William Kelly Simpson, Yale University Josef W. Wegner, University of Pennsylvania

Lectures given at a symposium held in 1987, sponsored by Fordham University.

Egyptologists have often neglected important sites in the Delta, and in the case of the tomb of Hsw (located at the ancient site of Naukratis), the neglect is particularly glaring since the tomb was first recorded by Egyptologists in 1910 but never studied or analyzed. This is the largest and most significant of the monuments of the Pharaonic Period at Naukratis, and its study yields important critical material on the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom. A careful analysis of the tomb provides local variations of Coffin Texts, formulaic inscriptions, and iconographic details.

Revision of thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Chicago, 1975.