Cutting-edge research by twenty-four international scholars on female power, agency, health, and literacy in ancient Egypt

There has been considerable scholarship in the last fifty years on the role of ancient Egyptian women in society. With their ability to work outside the home, inherit and dispense of property, initiate divorce, testify in court, and serve in local government, Egyptian women exercised more legal rights and economic independence than their counterparts throughout antiquity. Yet, their agency and autonomy are often downplayed, undermined, or outright ignored. In Women in Ancient Egypt twenty-four international scholars offer a corrective to this view by presenting the latest cutting-edge research on women and gender in ancient Egypt.

Covering the entirety of Egyptian history, from earliest times to Late Antiquity, this volume commences with a thorough study of the earliest written evidence of Egyptian women, both royal and non-royal, before moving on to chapters that deal with various aspects of Egyptian queens, followed by studies on the legal status and economic roles of non-royal women and, finally, on women's health and body adornment. Within this sweeping chronological range, each study is intensely focused on the evidence recovered from a particular site or a specific time-period. Rather than following a strictly chronological arrangement, the thematic organization of chapters enables readers to discern diachronic patterns of continuity and change within each group of women.

* Clementine Audouit, Paul Valery University, Montpellier, France
* Anne Austin, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
* Mariam F. Ayad, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
* Romane Betbeze, Universite de Geneve, Switzerland, and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France
* Anke Ilona Bloebaum, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
* Eva-Maria Engel, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
* Renate Fellinger, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
* Kathrin Gabler, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
* Rahel Glanzmann, independent scholar, Basel, Switzerland.
* Izold Guegan, Swansea University, UK, and Sorbonne University, Paris, France
* Fayza Haikal, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
* Janet H. Johnson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Il, USA
* Katarzyna Kapiec, Institute of the Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
* Susan Anne Kelly, Macquarie University Sydney, Sydney, Australia
* AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
* Suzanne Onstine, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
* Jose Ramon Perez-Accino Picatoste, Facultad de Geografia e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
* Tara Sewell-Lasater, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
* Yasmin El Shazly, American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
* Reinert Skumsnes, Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
* Isabel Stunkel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA
* Inmaculada Vivas Sainz, National Distance Education University), Madrid, Spain
* Hana Vymazalova, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czeck Republic
* Jacquelyn Williamson, George Mason University, Fairfax, Viriginia, USA
* Annik Wuthrich, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, Austria

Cutting-edge research by twenty-four international scholars on female power, agency, health, and literacy in ancient Egypt

About the Author
Mariam F. Ayad is an associate professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. In 2020-2021 she was a visiting associate professor of Women's Studies and Near Eastern Religions and a research associate of Harvard Divinity School's Women's Studies in Religion Program. She is the author of God's Wife, God's Servant: The God's Wife of Amun (c. 740-525 BC), and the editor of three volumes on Coptic Culture, including Studies in Coptic Culture: Transmission and Interaction.

Reviews

"Women in Ancient Egypt: Revisiting, Power, Agency, and Autonomy provides an indispensable collection of the freshest and most creative research on women in ancient Egypt from the dawn of the state to Late Antiquity, exploring the lives of women at various levels of society as well as ancient Egyptian perceptions of the female body. This volume aims to be a counter to previous studies which have downplayed, dismissed, or oversexualized the evidence of women in the archaeological record, and it hits the mark."-Kara Cooney, UCLA

"This book is the first comprehensive treatment of women in ancient Egypt in general, both royal and non-royal, from the Early Dynastic Period to Late Antiquity. The brilliant in-depth studies covering diverse sources-texts, pictures, and material culture-provide excellent insight into very different aspects of the lives of women, thus illuminating a broad thematic framework. The inclusion of considerations of power, economy, law, and health and the body is a welcome extension to the focus on the feminine world in ancient Egypt."-Angelika Lohwasser, University of Munster, Germany

"If women are absent from the scholarship on ancient Egypt, it is not because they are absent from the sources. The stunning new research gathered here by Mariam Ayad demonstrates not only women's presence, but their power, diversity, and importance. Egyptology takes a huge step forward with topics ranging from the authority of royal women to incantations to stop bleeding after miscarriage."-Ann Braude, Harvard Divinity School

"Superb. A range of fascinating, challenging papers. Highly recommended!"-Campbell Price, Manchester Museum, University of Manchester

"[A]bounds with many illustrations and tables and utilizes a dizzying array of evidence, including tomb art, marriage documents, family contracts, gynecological papyri, furniture legs, graffiti, and tattooed corpses. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty."-CHOICE

Book Information
ISBN 9781649031808
Author Mariam F. Ayad
Format Hardback
Page Count 522
Imprint American University in Cairo Press
Publisher American University in Cairo Press