In addition to the triple point for solid, liquid, and gas
phases, a triple point may involve more than one solid phase, for
substances with multiple polymorphs. Helium-4
is unusual in that it has no sublimation/deposition curve and therefore
no triple points where its solid phase meets its gas phase. Instead, it
has a vapor-liquid-superfluid point, a solid-liquid-superfluid point, a
solid-solid-liquid point, and a solid-solid-superfluid point. None of
these should be confused with the Lambda Point, which is not any kind of triple point.
The triple point of water was used to define the kelvin, the base unit of thermodynamic temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The value of the triple point of water was fixed by definition, rather than by measurement, but that changed with the 2019 redefinition of SI base units. The triple points of several substances are used to define points in the ITS-90
international temperature scale, ranging from the triple point of
hydrogen (13.8033 K) to the triple point of water (273.16 K, 0.01 °C, or
32.018 °F).
The single combination of pressure and temperature at which liquid water, solid ice, and water vapor can coexist in a stable equilibrium occurs at 273.16±0.0001 K and a partial vapor pressure of 611.657 pascals (6.11657 mbar; 0.00603659 atm).
At that point, it is possible to change all of the substance to ice,
water, or vapor by making arbitrarily small changes in pressure and
temperature. Even if the total pressure of a system is well above the
triple point of water, provided that the partial pressure of the water vapor is 611.657 pascals,
then the system can still be brought to the triple point of water.
Strictly speaking, the surfaces separating the different phases should
also be perfectly flat, to negate the effects of surface tension.
The smallest pressure at which liquid water can exist is equal to
the triple point of water, at which gas, liquid, and solid phases can
coexist. At pressures below the triple point (as in outer space), solid ice when heated at constant pressure is converted directly into water vapor in a process known as sublimation.
Above the triple point, solid ice when heated at constant pressure
first melts to form liquid water, and then evaporates or boils to form
vapor at a higher temperature.
For most substances the gas–liquid–solid triple point is also the
minimum temperature at which the liquid can exist. For water, however,
this is not true because the melting point of ordinary ice decreases as a
function of pressure, as shown by the dashed green line in the phase diagram.
At temperatures just below the triple point, compression at constant
temperature transforms water vapor first to solid and then to liquid
(water ice has lower density than liquid water, so increasing pressure
leads to a liquefaction).
The triple point pressure of water was used during the Mariner 9 mission to Mars as a reference point to define "sea level". More recent missions use laser altimetry and gravity measurements instead of pressure to define elevation on Mars.
High-pressure phases
At high pressures, water has a complex phase diagram with 15 known phases of ice
and several triple points, including 10 whose coordinates are shown in
the diagram. For example, the triple point at 251 K (−22 °C) and 210 MPa
(2070 atm) corresponds to the conditions for the coexistence of ice Ih (ordinary ice), ice III and liquid water, all at equilibrium. There are also triple points for the coexistence of three solid phases, for example ice II, ice V and ice VI at 218 K (−55 °C) and 620 MPa (6120 atm).
For those high-pressure forms of ice which can exist in
equilibrium with liquid, the diagram shows that melting points increase
with pressure. At temperatures above 273 K (0 °C), increasing the
pressure on water vapor results first in liquid water and then a
high-pressure form of ice. In the range 251–273 K, ice I is formed first, followed by liquid water and then ice III or ice V, followed by other still denser high-pressure forms.
Phase
diagram of water including high-pressure forms ice II, ice III, etc.
The pressure axis is logarithmic. For detailed descriptions of these
phases, see Ice.
Triple-point cells are used in the calibration of thermometers.
For exacting work, triple-point cells are typically filled with a
highly pure chemical substance such as hydrogen, argon, mercury, or
water (depending on the desired temperature). The purity of these
substances can be such that only one part in a million is a contaminant,
called "six nines" because it is 99.9999% pure. A specific isotopic composition (for water, VSMOW)
is used because variations in isotopic composition cause small changes
in the triple point. Triple-point cells are so effective at achieving
highly precise, reproducible temperatures, that an international
calibration standard for thermometers called ITS–90 relies upon triple-point cells of hydrogen, neon, oxygen, argon, mercury, and water for delineating six of its defined temperature points.
Table of triple points
This table lists the gas–liquid–solid triple points of several substances. Unless otherwise noted, the data come from the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology).
Most historic Christian Churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, Methodist Churches and Reformed Churches, hold that the Old Covenant has three components: ceremonial, moral, and civil (cf. covenant theology). They teach that while the ceremonial and civil (judicial) laws have been fulfilled, the moral law of the Ten Commandments continues to bind Christian believers. Since the 19th century, certain Christian communities, such as the Plymouth Brethren, have espoused dispensationalist theology as contrasted to supersessionism and covenant theology. Additionally, as part of Christian–Jewish reconciliation,
the Roman Catholic Church has placed an increased emphasis on the
shared history between Christianity and the modern Jewish faith.
Rabbinic Judaism disregards supersessionism as offensive to Jewish history. Islam teaches that it is the final and most authentic expression of Abrahamicmonotheism, superseding both Judaism and Christianity. The Islamic doctrine of tahrif
teaches that earlier monotheistic scriptures or earlier interpretations
of them have been corrupted by later interpretations of them, while the
Quran presents a pure version of their divine message.
Etymology
The word supersessionism comes from the English verb to supersede, from the Latin verb sedeo, sedere, sedi, sessum, "to sit", plus super, "upon". It thus signifies one thing being replaced or supplanted by another.
Throughout Church history, many Christian theologians saw the New Covenant in Christ as a replacement for the Mosaic Covenant and the Church as the new people of God. The word supersession is used by Sydney Thelwall in the title of chapter three of his 1870 translation of Tertullian's An Answer to the Jews.
In the New Testament,
Jesus and others repeatedly give Jews priority in their mission, as in
Jesus's expression of him coming to the Jews rather than to Gentiles and in Paul the Apostle's formula "first for the Jew, then for the Gentile".
Yet after the death of Jesus, the inclusion of the Gentiles as equals
in this burgeoning sect of Judaism also caused problems, particularly
when it came to Gentiles keeping the Mosaic Law, which was both a major issue at the Council of Jerusalem and a theme of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, though the relationship of Paul and Judaism is still disputed today.
Paul's views on the Jews are complex, but he is generally
regarded as the first person to make the claim that by not accepting
claims of Jesus's divinity, Jews disqualified themselves from salvation. Paul himself was born a Jew, but after a conversion experience he came to accept Jesus's divinity later in his life. In the opinion of Roman Catholic ex-priest James Carroll,
accepting Jesus's divinity, for Paul, was dichotomous with being a Jew.
His personal conversion and his understanding of the dichotomy between
being Jewish and accepting Jesus's divinity, was the religious
philosophy he wanted to see adopted among other Jews of his time.
However, New Testament scholar N.T. Wright
argues that Paul saw his faith in Jesus as precisely the fulfillment of
his Judaism, not that there was any tension between being Jewish and
Christian. Christians quickly adopted Paul's views.
For most of Christian history, supersessionism has been the
mainstream interpretation of the New Testament of all three major
historical traditions within Christianity – Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant.
The text most often evident in favor of the supersessionist view is
Hebrews 8:13: "In speaking of 'a new covenant' [Jer. 31.31–32] he has
made the first one obsolete."
Church Fathers
Many Early Christian commentators taught that the Old Covenant was fulfilled and superseded by the New Covenant in Christ, for instance Justin Martyr wrote that the "true spiritual Israel" referred to those who had "been led to God through this crucified Christ". Irenaeus taught that, while the New Covenant had superseded the old, the moral law underlying the Law of Moses continued to stand in the New Covenant. Whereas, Tertullian believed that the New Covenant brought with it a new law,
writing: "Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught
by the new law, observe these practices, the old law being obliterated,
the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates.
...Therefore, as we have shown above that the coming cessation of the
old law and of the carnal circumcision
was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and the spiritual
circumcision has shone out into the voluntary observances of peace."
Augustine of Hippo followed the views of the earlier Church Fathers
but emphasized the importance to Christianity of the continued
existence of the separate Rabbinic Jewish faith: "The Jews ... are thus
by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the
prophecies about Christ." The Catholic church built its system of eschatology on his theology, where Christ rules the earth spiritually through his triumphant church. Augustine, however, also mentioned to "love" the Jews as a means to convert them to Christianity. Jeremy Cohen, followed by John Y. B. Hood and James Carroll,
sees this as having had decisive social consequences, with Carroll
saying, "It is not too much to say that, at this juncture, Christianity
'permitted' Judaism to endure because of Augustine."
Supersessionism is not the name of any official Roman Catholic Church
doctrine and the word appears in no Church documents, but official
Catholic teaching has reflected varying levels of supersessionist
thought throughout its history, especially prior to the mid-twentieth
century. The theology that the Jews dissent by continuing to exist
outside the Church is extensive in Catholic liturgy and literature. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) marked a shift in emphasis of official Catholic teaching about Judaism, a shift which may be described as a move from "hard" to "soft" supersessionism, to use the terminology of David Novak.
Prior to Vatican II, Catholic doctrine on the matter was
characterized by "displacement" or "substitution" theologies, according
to which the Church and its New Covenant took the place of Judaism and its "Old Covenant", the latter being rendered void by the coming of Jesus. The nullification of the Old Covenant was often explained in terms of the "deicide charge" that Jews forfeited their covenantal relationship with God by executing the divine Christ. As recently as 1943, Pope Pius XII stated in his encyclical Mystici corporis Christi:
By the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament
took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of
Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and
sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus
Christ. ... [O]n the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with
its decrees and fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the
Cross, establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race.
At the Second Vatican Council, which was convened two decades after the Holocaust, a different framework emerged on how Catholics should think about the status of the Jewish covenant. The declaration Nostra aetate,
which was promulgated in 1965, made several statements which signaled a
shift away from "hard supersessionist" replacement thinking which
posited that the Jews’ covenant was no longer acknowledged by God.
Retrieving Paul's language in chapter 11 of his Epistle to the Romans,
the declaration states, "God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of
their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls
He issues. …Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures."
Notably, a draft of the declaration contained a passage which
originally called for "the entry of that [Jewish] people into the
fullness of the people of God established by Christ;" however, at the suggestion of Catholic priest (and convert from Judaism) John M. Oesterreicher,
it was replaced in the final promulgated version with the following
language: “the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all
peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and ‘serve him shoulder
to shoulder’ (Zeph 3:9).”
Further developments in Catholic thinking on the covenantal status of Jews were led by Pope John Paul II. Among his most noteworthy statements on the matter is that which occurred during his historic visit to the synagogue in Mainz
(1980), where he called Jews the "people of God of the Old Covenant,
which has never been abrogated by God (cf. Romans 11:29, "for the gifts
and the calling of God are irrevocable" [NRSV])."
In 1997, John Paul II again affirmed the Jews’ covenantal status: “This
people continues in spite of everything to be the people of the
covenant and, despite human infidelity, the Lord is faithful to his
covenant.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI writes in his 1999 work Many Religions – One Covenant that "the Sinai [Mosaic] Covenant is indeed superseded."
The post-Vatican II shift toward acknowledging the Jews as a covenanted
people has led to heated discussions in the Catholic Church over the
issue of missionary activity directed toward Jews, with some Catholics theologians with Cardinal Avery Dulles reasoning that "if Christ is the redeemer of the world, every tongue should confess him", while others vehemently oppose "targeting Jews for conversion". Weighing in on this matter, Cardinal Walter Kasper, then President of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, reaffirmed the validity of the Jews’ covenant and then continued:
[B]ecause
as Christians we know that God's covenant with Israel by God's
faithfulness is not broken (Rom 11,29; cf. 3,4), mission understood as
call to conversion from idolatry to the living and true God (1 Thes 1,9)
does not apply and cannot be applied to Jews. …This is not a merely
abstract theological affirmation, but an affirmation that has concrete
and tangible consequences; namely, that there is no organised Catholic
missionary activity towards Jews as there is for all other non-Christian
religions.
— Walter Kasper, “The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews: A Crucial Endeavour of the Catholic Church" (2002)
We
hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with
God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are
irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an
important part of the sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the
covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian
identity (cf. Rom 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism
as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to
turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes 1:9). With them,
we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept
his revealed word.
— Pope Francis, “Evangelii Gaudium" (2013)
Similarly, the words of Cardinal Kasper, "God's grace, which is the
grace of Jesus Christ according to our faith, is available to all.
Therefore, the Church believes that Judaism, [as] the faithful response
of the Jewish people to God's irrevocable covenant, is salvific for
them, because God is faithful to his promises,"
highlight the covenantal relationship of God with the Jewish people,
but differs from Pope Francis in calling the Jewish faith salvific. In
2011, Kasper specifically repudiated the notion of "displacement"
theology, clarifying that the "New Covenant for Christians is not the
replacement (substitution), but the fulfillment of the Old Covenant."
These statements by Catholic officials signal a remaining point of
debate, wherein some adhere to a movement away from supersessionism, and
others remain with a "soft" notion of supersessionism. Traditionalist Catholic groups, such as the Society of St. Pius X, strongly oppose the theological developments concerning Judaism made at Vatican II and retain "hard" supersessionist views. Even among mainstream Catholic groups and official Catholic teaching, elements of "soft" supersessionism remain. The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to a future corporate repentance on the part of Jews:
The
glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until
his recognition by 'all Israel,' for 'a hardening has come upon part of
Israel' in their 'unbelief' toward Jesus [Rom 11:20-26; cf. Mt 23:39].
... The 'full inclusion' of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the
wake of 'the full number of the Gentiles' [Rom 11:12, 25; cf. Lk 21:24],
will enable the People of God to achieve 'the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ,' in which 'God may be all in all.' The Church teaches that there is an integral continuity between the covenants rather than a rupture.
In the Second Vatican Council's Lumen gentium
(1964), the Church stated that God "chose the race of Israel as a
people" and "set up a covenant" with them, instructing them and making
them holy. However, "all these things. …were done by way of preparation
and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant" instituted by and
ratified in Christ (no. 9). Vatican II also affirmed, "the Church is the
new people of God" without being "Israel according to the flesh", the
Jewish people.
In Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism
(1985), the Church stated that the "Church and Judaism cannot then be
seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to
Christ as the Redeemer of all."
Protestantism
Modern
Protestants hold to a range of positions on supersessionism and the
relationship between the Church and the Jewish people. These differences arise from dissimilar literal versus figurative approaches to understanding the relationships between the covenants of the Bible, particularly the relationship between the covenants of the Old Testament and the New Covenant.
Extensive discussion is found in Christian views on the Old Covenant and in the respective articles for each of these viewpoints: for example, there is a section within dispensationalism detailing that perspective's concept of Israel. Differing approaches influence how the land promise in Genesis 12, 15 and 17
is understood, whether it is interpreted literally or figuratively,
both with regard to the land and the identity of people who inherit it.
Paul van Buren developed a thoroughly nonsupersessionist position, in contrast to Karl Barth, his mentor.
He wrote, "The reality of the Jewish people, fixed in history by the
reality of their election, in their faithfulness in spite of their
unfaithfulness, is as solid and sure as that of the gentile church."
Mormonism
Mormonism
professes to be the restoration of the original Christian faith and
that the ancient Hebrew religion was a form of proto-Christianity.
Nevertheless, Latter-day Saints believe that the modern day descendants
of Israel are still God's covenant people, but they have nonetheless
apostatized from the proto-Christian faith that God anciently revealed
through the ancient patriarchs and Israel's prophets. For example, The Book of Moses narrates that the biblical patriarch Enoch was shown a vision of Jesus as the Messiah who should be crucified and resurrected. The Book of Abraham
narrates that God revealed to the titular biblical patriarch a vision
of the Son of Man (a common title for Jesus Christ) being chosen in a
premortal council to serve as the Redeemer of mankind.
Historically, Latter-day Saint leaders and church instructional
materials have promoted the idea that those who accept baptism into the
church are literal descendants of the scattered Israelites, primarily
the tribe of Ephraim.
However, those teachings have been de-emphasized since the latter 20th
century in favor of a competing narrative regarding members being
adopted or "grafted" into the House of Israel.
The title page of the Book of Mormon—which
is believed to be among the contents translated by Joseph Smith from
the gold plates—states that one of its primary purposes is "to the
convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal
God." The Nephites—whom
the Book of Mormon presents as ancient Israelites who escaped Jerusalem
just before the Babylonian captivity—are said to have kept the Law of
Moses with an understanding that it presaged Christ's messianic mission.
The Book of Mormon further teaches that because the Jews rejected and
crucified Christ, they will be scattered among the nations of the earth
and scourged across generations until they accept Christ as the true
Messiah. According to the Doctrine & Covenants, after Jesus reveals himself to the Jews, they will weep because of their iniquities.
In 1982, Elder Bruce R. McConkie, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, published a book titled The Millennial Messiah, which devotes an entire chapter to "The Jews and the Second Coming". It states:
"Let
this fact be engraved in the eternal records with a pen of steel: the
Jews were cursed, and smitten, and cursed anew, because they rejected
the gospel, cast out their Messiah, and crucified their King. ... Let
the spiritually illiterate suppose what they may, it was the Jewish
denial and rejection of the Holy One of Israel, whom their fathers
worshiped in the beauty and holiness, that has made them a hiss and
byword in all nations and that has taken millions of their fair sons and
daughters to untimely graves. ... What sayeth the holy word? "They
shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel,
and turn the hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power
and glory of the God of Israel. And because they turn their hearts
aside,…and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in
the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and by-word and be hated among
all nations.: (1 Ne. 19:13-14; 2 Ne. 6:9-11.) Such is the prophetic word
of Nephi."
Jews consider the Latter-day Saint practice of posthumous baptism a particularly disrespectful enactment of supersessionist beliefs, and have repeatedly requested that the Church desist from baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims.
Jewish and Muslim views
Rabbinic Judaism
rejects supersessionism, only discussing the topic as an idea upheld by
Christian and Muslim theologians. Some Modern Jews are offended by the
traditional Christian belief in supersessionism, as they believe it
undermines the history of their religion.
In its canonical form, the Islamic doctrine of tahrif
teaches that Jewish and Christian scriptures or their interpretations
have been corrupted, which has obscured the divine message that they
originally contained. According to this doctrine, the Quran
both points out and corrects these supposed errors introduced by
previous corruption of monotheistic scriptures, which makes it the final
and most pure divine revelation.
Sandra Toenis Keiting argues that Islam was supersessionist from
its inception, advocating the view that the Quranic revelations would
"replace the corrupted scriptures possessed by other communities", and
that early Islamic scriptures display a "clear theology of revelation
that is concerned with establishing the credibility of the nascent
community" vis-à-vis other religions. In contrast, Abdulaziz Sachedina
has argued that Islamic supersessionism stems not from the Quran or
hadith, but rather from the work of Muslim jurists who reinterpreted the
Quranic message about islam (in its literal meaning of
"submission") being "the only true religion with God" into an argument
about the religion of Islam being superior to other faiths, thereby
providing theoretical justification for Muslim political dominance and a
wider interpretation of the notion of jihad.
In Islamic legal exegesis (tafsir), abrogation (naskh) is the theory developed to resolve contradictory Quranic revelation by amending the earlier revelation. Only Quran 2:106 uses a form of the word naskh (specifically "nanskh" meaning "we abrogate"). Q2:106
indicates of two varieties of abrogation: "supersession" – the
"suspension" and replacement of the old verse without its elimination –
or "suppression" – the nullification of the old verse from the written
Quran (mus'haf).
Economic supersessionism is used in the technical theological sense of function (see economic Trinity).
It is the view that the practical purpose of the nation of Israel in
God's plan is replaced by the role of the Church. It is represented by
writers such as Justin Martyr, Augustine, and Barth.
Structural supersessionism is Soulen's term for the de facto marginalization of the Old Testament
as normative for Christian thought. In his words, "Structural
supersessionism refers to the narrative logic of the standard model
whereby it renders the Hebrew Scriptures largely indecisive for shaping
Christian convictions about how God's works as Consummator and Redeemer
engage humankind in universal and enduring ways." Soulen's terminology is used by Craig A. Blaising, in "The Future of Israel as a Theological Question".
These three views are neither mutually exclusive, nor logically
dependent, and it is possible to hold all of them or any one with or
without the others.
The work of Matthew Tapie attempts a further clarification of the
language of supersessionism in modern theology that Peter Ochs has
called "the clearest teaching on supersessionism in modern scholarship."
Tapie argued that Soulen's view of economic supersessionism shares
important similarities with those of Jules Isaac's thought (the
French-Jewish historian well known for his identification of "the
teaching of contempt" in the Christian tradition) and can ultimately be
traced to the medieval concept of the "cessation of the law" – the idea
that Jewish observance of the ceremonial law (Sabbath, circumcision, and
dietary laws) ceases to have a positive significance for Jews after the
passion of Christ. According to Soulen, Christians today often
repudiate supersessionism but they do not always carefully examine just
what that is supposed to mean. Soulen thinks Tapie's work is a remedy to
this situation.
The earliest explorers of ancient Egypt were the ancient Egyptians themselves. Inspired by a dream he had, Thutmose IV led an excavation of the Great Sphinx of Giza and inscribed a description of the dream on the Dream Stele. Less than two centuries later, Prince Khaemweset, fourth son of Ramesses II,
would gain fame for identifying and restoring historic buildings, tombs
and temples, including pyramids; and has subsequently been described as
the first Egyptologist.
Graeco–Roman Period
Some of the first historical accounts of Egypt were given by Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus and the largely lost work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest, during the reign of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II
in the 3rd century BC. The Ptolemies were very interested in the work
of the ancient Egyptians, and many of the Egyptian monuments, including
the pyramids, were restored by them. The Ptolemies also built many new
temples in the Egyptian style. The Romans also carried out restoration
work in Egypt.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, travelers on pilgrimages to the Holy Land would occasionally detour to visit sites in Egypt. Destinations would include Cairo and its environs, where the Holy Family was thought to have fled, and the great Pyramids, which were thought to be Joseph's Granaries, built by the Hebrew patriarch to store grain during the years of plenty. A number of their accounts (Itineraria) have survived and offer insights into conditions in their respective time periods.
Ibn Wahshiyya's 985 CE incorrect translation of the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph alphabet
In the early 17th century, John Greaves measured the pyramids, having inspected the broken Obelisk of Domitian in Rome, then intended for Lord Arundel's collection in London. He went on to publish the illustrated Pyramidographia in 1646.
The Jesuit scientist-priest Athanasius Kircher was perhaps the first to hint at the phonetic importance of Egyptian hieroglyphs, demonstrating Coptic as a vestige of early Egyptian, for which he is considered a founder of Egyptology.
Egyptology's modern history begins with the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte in the late 18th century. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. The study of many aspects of ancient Egypt became more scientifically oriented with the publication of Mémoires sur l'Égypte in 1800 and the more comprehensive Description de l'Egypte
between 1809 and 1829. These recorded Egyptian flora, fauna, and
history—making numerous ancient Egyptian source materials available to
Europeans for the first time.
The British captured Egypt from the French and gained the Rosetta Stone
in 1801, the Greek script of which was translated by 1803. In 1822, the
respective Egyptian hieroglyphs were transliterated by Jean-François Champollion,
marking the beginning of modern Egyptology. With increasing knowledge
of Egyptian writing, the study of ancient Egypt was able to proceed with
greater academic rigour. Champollion, Thomas Young and Ippolito Rosellini were some of the first Egyptologists of wide acclaim. The German Karl Richard Lepsius was an early participant in the investigations of Egypt—mapping, excavating and recording several sites.
English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie
(1853–1942) introduced archaeological techniques of field preservation,
recording, and excavation to the field. Many highly educated amateurs
also travelled to Egypt, including women such as Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale. Both of these left accounts of their travels, which revealed learned familiarity with all of the latest European Egyptology. Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the tomb of 18th Dynasty King Tutankhamun brought a greater understanding of Egyptian relics and wide acclaim to the field.
In the modern era, the Ministry of State for Antiquities controls excavation permits for Egyptologists to conduct their work. The field can now use geophysical methods and other applications of modern sensing techniques.
In June 2000,
the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), directed by
Franck Goddio, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities
discovered the ancient sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion in today's Abu
Qir Bay. The statues of a colossal King and Queen are on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum. Other discovered artefacts are exhibited at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Alexandria National Museum (ANM). The excavations are documented through several publications
In March 2017, the Egyptian-German team of archaeologists
unearthed an eight-meter 3,000-year-old statue that included a head and a
torso thought to depict Pharaoh Ramses II. According to Khaled El-Enany, the Egyptian Antiquities Minister, the statue was more likely thought to be King Psammetich I. Excavators also revealed an 80 cm-long part of a limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II while excavating the site.
In August 2017, archaeologists from the Ministry of Antiquities
announced the discovery of five mud-brick tombs at Bir esh-Shaghala,
dating back nearly 2,000 years. Researchers also revealed worn masks
gilded with gold, several large jars and a piece of pottery with
unsolved ancient Egyptian writing on it.
In November 2017 (25 October 2000), the Egyptian mission in
cooperation with the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology
announced the discovery of 2,000-year-old three sunken shipwrecks dated
back to the Roman Era in Alexandria's Abu Qir Bay.
The sunken cargo included a royal head of crystal perhaps belong
to the commander of the Roman armies of “Antonio”, three gold coins from
the era of Emperor Octavius Augustus, large wooden planks and pottery
vessels.
In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the head of the bust of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the Temple of Kom Ombo in Aswan during work to protect the site from groundwater.
In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the shrine of god Osiris- Ptah Neb, dating back to the 25th dynasty in the Temple of Karnak
in Luxor. According to archaeologist Essam Nagy, the material remains
from the area contained clay pots, the lower part of a sitting statue
and part of a stone panel showing an offering table filled with a sheep
and a goose which were the symbols of the god Amun.
In July 2018, German-Egyptian researchers’ team head by Ramadan Badry Hussein of the University of Tübingen
reported the discovery of an extremely rare gilded burial mask that
probably dates from the Saite-Persian period in a partly damaged wooden coffin in Saqqara. The last time a similar mask was found was in 1939. The eyes were covered with obsidian, calcite, and black hued gemstone possibly onyx.
"The finding of this mask could be called a sensation. Very few masks
of precious metal have been preserved to the present day, because the
tombs of most Ancient Egyptian dignitaries were looted in ancient
times." said Hussein.
In July 2018, archaeologists led by Zeinab Hashish announced the discovery of a 2,000-year-old 30-ton black granite sarcophagus in Alexandria. It contained three damaged skeletons in red-brown sewage water. According to archaeologist Mostafa Waziri,
the skeletons looked like a family burial with a middle-aged woman and
two men. Researchers also revealed a small gold artifact and three thin
sheets of gold.
In September 2018, a sandstone sphinx statue was discovered at
the temple of Kom Ombo. The statue, measuring approximately 28 cm
(11 in) in width and 38 cm (15 in) in height, likely dates to the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
In September 2018, several dozen cache of mummies dating 2,000
years back were found in Saqqara by a team of Polish archaeologists led
by Kamil Kuraszkiewicz from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw.
In November 2018, an Egyptian archaeological mission located
seven ancient Egyptian tombs at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara
containing a collection of scarab and cat mummies dating back to the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. Three of the tombs were used for cats, some dating back more than 6,000 years, while one of four other sarcophagi was unsealed. With the remains of cat mummies were unearthed gilded and 100 wooden statues of cats and one in bronze dedicated to the cat goddess Bastet. In addition, funerary items dating back to the 12th Dynasty were found besides the skeletal remains of cats.
In mid-December 2018, the Egyptian government announced the
discovery at Saqqara of a previously unknown 4,400-year-old tomb,
containing paintings and more than fifty sculptures. It belongs to Wahtye, a high-ranking priest who served under King Neferirkare Kakai during the Fifth Dynasty. The tomb also contains four shafts that lead to a sarcophagus below.
According to the Al-Ahram, in January 2019, archaeologists headed by Mostafa Waziri revealed a collection of 20 tombs dated back to the Second Intermediate Period
in Kom Al-Khelgan. The burials contained the remains of animals,
amulets, and scarabs carved from faience, round and oval pots with
handholds, flint knives, broken and burned pottery. All burials included
skulls and skeletons in the bending position and were not very
well-preserved.
In April 2019, archaeologists discovered 35 mummified remains of Egyptians in a tomb in Aswan. Italian archaeologist Patrizia Piacentini, professor of Egyptology at the University of Milan,
and Khaled El-Enany, the Egyptian minister of antiquities reported that
the tomb where the remains of ancient men, women and children were
found, dates back to the Greco-Roman period
between 332 BC and 395 AD. While the findings assumed belonging to a
mother and a child were well preserved, others had suffered major
destruction. Beside the mummies, artefacts including painted funerary
masks, vases of bitumen used in mummification, pottery and wooden
figurines were revealed. Thanks to the hieroglyphics on the tomb, it was detected that the tomb belongs to a tradesman named Tjit.
On 13 April 2019, an expedition led by a member of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Mohamed Megahed, discovered a 4,000-year-old tomb near Egypt's Saqqara Necropolis in Saqqara. Archaeologists confirmed that the tomb belonged to an influential person named Khuwy, who lived in Egypt during the 5th Dynasty.
"The L-shaped Khuwy tomb starts with a small corridor heading downwards
into an antechamber and from there a larger chamber with painted
reliefs depicting the tomb owner seated at an offerings table", reported
Megahed. Some paintings maintained their brightness over a long time in
the tomb. Mainly made of white limestone bricks, the tomb had a tunnel
entrance generally typical for pyramids. Archaeologists say that there
might be a connection between Khuwy and pharaoh because the mausoleum
was found near the pyramid of Egyptian Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi, who ruled during that time.
In July 2019, ancient granite columns and a smaller Greek temple,
treasure-laden ships, along with bronze coins from the reign of Ptolemy II, pottery dating back to the third and fourth centuries BC were found at the sunken city of Heracleion. The investigations were conducted by Egyptian and European divers led by underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio. They also uncovered the ruins of the city's main temple off of Egypt's north coast.
In September 2019, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 2,200-year-old temple believed to belong to the Ptolemy IV Philosopher of the Ptolemaic Kingdom
in Kom Shakau village of Tama township. Researchers also revealed
limestone walls carved with inscriptions of Hapi, the Nile god, and
inscriptions with fragments of text featuring the name of Ptolemy IV.
In May 2020, Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission head by Esther Ponce uncovered a unique cemetery dating back to the 26th Dynasty (so-called the El-Sawi era) at the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus.
Archaeologists found tombstones, bronze coins, small crosses, and clay
seals inside eight Roman-era tombs with domed and unmarked roofs.
On 3 October 2020, Khalid el-Anany, Egypt's tourism and
antiquities minister announced the discovery of at least 59 sealed
sarcophagi with mummies more than 2,600 years old in Saqqara. Archaeologists also revealed the 20 statues of Ptah-Soker and a carved 35-centimeter tall bronze statue of god Nefertem.
On 19 October 2020, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
announced the discovery of more than 2,500 years of colorful, sealed
sarcophagi in Saqqara. The archaeological team unearthed gilded, wooden statues and more than 80 coffins.
In November 2020, archaeologists unearthed more than 100
delicately painted wooden coffins and 40 funeral statues. The sealed,
wooden coffins, some containing mummies, date as far back as 2,500
years. Other artifacts discovered include funeral masks, canopic jars
and amulets. According to Khaled el-Anany, tourism and antiquities
minister, the items date back to the Ptolemaic dynasty. One of the coffins was opened and a mummy was scanned with an X-ray, determining it was most likely a man about the age of 40.
In January 2021, the Tourism and Antiquities
Ministry announced the discovery of more than 50 wooden sarcophagi in
52 burial shafts which date back to the New Kingdom period and a
13 ft-long papyrus that contains texts from the Book of the Dead. Archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass also found the funerary temple of Naert and warehouses made of bricks in Saqqara.
In January 2021, Egyptian-Dominican researchers led by Kathleen Martinez have announced the discovery of 2,000-year-old ancient tombs with golden tongues dating to the Greek and Roman periods at Taposiris Magna. The team also unearthed gold leaf amulets in the form of tongues placed for speaking with God Osiris afterlife. The mummies were depicted in different forms: one of them was wearing a crown,
decorated with horns, and the cobra snake at the forehead and the other
was depicted with gilded decorations representing the wide necklace.
A team of archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass also found the funerary temple of Naert or Narat and warehouses made of bricks in Saqqara. Researchers also revealed that Narat's name engraved on a fallen obelisk near the main entrance. Previously unknown to researchers, Naert was a wife of Teti, the first king of the sixth dynasty.
In February 2021, archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of a Ptolemaic period temple, a Roman fort, an early Coptic church and an inscription written in hieratic script at an archaeological site called Shiha Fort in Aswan. According to Mostafa Waziri,
crumbling temple was decorated with palm leaf carvings and an
incomplete sandstone panel that described a Roman emperor. According to
researcher Abdel Badie, generally, the church with about 2.1 meters
width contained oven that were used to bake pottery, four rooms, a long
hall, stairs, and stone tiles.
In April 2021, Egyptian archeologists announced the discovery of 110 burial tombs at the Koum el-Khulgan archeological site in Dakahlia Governorate. 68 oval-shaped tombs of them dated back to the Predynastic Period and 37 rectangular-shaped tombs were from Second Intermediate Period. Rest of them dated back to the Naqada III
period. The tombs also contained the remains of adults and a baby
(buried in a jar), a group of ovens, stoves, remnants of mud-brick
foundations, funerary equipment, cylindrical, pear-shaped vessels and a
bowl with geometric designs.
In September 2021, archaeologists announce the discovery of
ritualistic tools used in religious rituals at the ancient site of Tel
al-Fara in the Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. Remains included a limestone pillar depicting goddess Hathor, some incense burners with the head of the god Horus. Dr. Hossam Ghanim, said: “The
mission also discovered a huge building of polished limestone from the
inside, representing a well for holy water used in daily rituals”.
In May 2022, the discovery of the nearly 4,300-year-old tomb of
an ancient Egyptian high-ranked person who handled royal, sealed
documents of pharaoh was announced at Saqqara, Egypt. According to University of Warsaw’s Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology,
the elaborately decorated tomb belonged to a man named Mehtjetju who
served as a priest and an inspector of the royal property. Kamil O.
Kuraszkiewicz, expedition director stated that Mehtjetju most likely
lived at about the same time, at some point during the reigns of the
first three rulers of the Sixth Dynasty: Teti, Userkare and Pepy I.
In June 2022, archaeologists from The Cairo Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of an alabaster bust of Alexander the Great as well as molds and other materials for creating amulets for warriors and for statues of Alexander the Great.
In July 2022, archaeologists from the Prague’s Charles University led by Dr Miroslav Bárta discovered the robbed tomb of an ancient Egyptian military official named Wahibre merry Neith and a scarab in Giza's Abusir necropolis 12 km southeast of the Pyramids of Giza.
He commanded battalions of non-local soldiers and lived in the late
26th dynasty and early 27th century BC, around 500 BC, according to the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry.
The tomb's main well was about 6 meters deep and it was divided into
separate parts by narrow bridges cut into the natural rock. Inside the
main well there was a smaller and deeper shaft which contained two sarcophagi one inside the other where Wahibre-merry-Neith was buried. The external sarcophagus was made of white limestone while the internal coffin was made out of basalt
rock measures 2.30 meters long and 1.98 meters wide. The inner
sarcophagus contained an inscription from the 72nd chapter of the
Egyptian Book of Dead said Dr Marslav Barta.
In August 2022, archaeologists from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw announced the discovery of a 4,500-year-old temple dedicated to the Egyptian sun god Ra.
The recently discovered sun temple was made from mud bricks and was
about 60 meters long by 20 m wide. According to Massimiliano Nuzzolo,
co-director of the excavation, storage rooms and other rooms may have
been served for cultic purposes and the walls of the building were all
plastered in black and white. The L-shaped entrance portico had two limestone
columns and was partly made of white limestone. Dozens of
well-preserved beer jars and several well-made and red-lined vessels,
seal impressions, including seals of the pharaohs who ruled during the
fifth and sixth dynasties were also uncovered. One of the earliest seals
might belonged to pharaoh Shepseskare, who ruled Egypt before Nyuserre.
Bias in Egyptology
Various
scholars have highlighted the role of colonial racism in shaping the
attitudes of early Egyptologists, and criticised the continued
over-representation of North American and European perspectives in the
field. Cheikh Anta Diop
in his work, "The African Origin of Civilization" argued that the
prevailing views in Egyptology were driven by biased scholarship and
colonial attitudes. Similarly, Bruce Trigger
wrote that early modern scholarship on the Nile Valley populations had
been "marred by a confusion of race, language, and culture and by an
accompanying racism".
British Africanist Basil Davidson
wrote in 1995 that a number of unsatisfactory labels are often
attached—such as "Bushmen", "Negro", or "Negroid"—to indigenous, African
populations. He was also critical of the Hamitic hypothesis
and other categorisations of "North African stocks" as "white".
Davidson further added that the "ancient Egyptians belonged, that is,
not to any specific Egyptian region or Near Eastern heritage but to that
wide community of peoples who lived between the Red Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean, shared a common "Saharan-Sudanese culture", and drew
their reinforcements from the same great source, even though, as time
went by, they also absorbed a number of wanderers from the Near East".
In 2018, Stuart Tyson Smith
argued that a common practice among Egyptologists was to "divorce Egypt
from its proper northeast African context, instead framing it as
fundamentally part of a Near Eastern or "Mediterranean" economic, social
and political sphere, hardly African at all or at best a crossroad
between the Near East, the eastern Mediterranean and Africa, which
carries with it the implication that it is ultimately not really part of
Africa". He explicitly criticised the view that ancient Egypt was
clearly 'in Africa' it was not so clearly 'of Africa' as reflecting
"long-standing Egyptological biases". He concluded that the interrelated
cultural features shared between northeast African dynamic and
Pharaonic Egypt are not "survivals" or coincidence, but shared
traditions with common origins in the deep past".
In 2021, Marc Van De Mieroop
stated that "It was only recently that traditional scholarship started
to acknowledge the African background of Egyptian culture, partly in
response to world history's aim to replace dominant western-centered
narratives with others than focused more on the contributions of other
regions, including Africa. At the same time, primarily African diaspora
communities wanted the continent's ancient history to be approached
outside a Eurocentric context, and insisted, for example, on the use of
ancient Egyptian term kemet instead of the European one".
In 2022, Andrea Manzo argued that early Egyptologists had situated the origins of dynastic Egypt within a "broad Hamitic
horizon that characterised several regions of Africa" and that these
views had continued to dominate in the second half of the twentieth
century. Manzo stated more recent studies had "pointed out the relevance
of African elements to the rise of Egyptian culture, following earlier
suggestions on Egyptian kingship and religion by Henri Frankfort" which countered the traditional view that considered Egypt "more closely linked to the Near East than to the rest of Africa".
In 2023, Christopher Ehret outlined that the previous two centuries of Western scholarship had presented Egypt as an “offshoot of earlier Middle Eastern
developments”. Although, he acknowledged that recent generations of
scholars in Egypt and Nubia have been “uncovering extensive new bodies
of evidence” which have dispelled older assumptions. However, Ehret
continued to argue that these old ideas had influenced the attitudes of
scholars in other disciplines such as genetics.
Ehret reported that the physical anthropological findings from the
“major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the
fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant”.
Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental
affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the
surrounding areas of Northeastern Africa “such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa”. He further commented that the Naqada and Badarian
populations did not migrate “from somewhere else but were descendants
of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many
millennia. Ehret also cited supporting archaeological and linguistic evidence which situated ancient Egypt in a northeastern African context.
Academic discipline
Egyptology was established as an academic discipline through the research of Ippolito Rosellini in Italy, Emmanuel de Rougé in France, Samuel Birch in England, and Heinrich Brugsch in Germany. In 1880, Flinders Petrie,
another British Egyptologist, revolutionised the field of archaeology
through controlled and scientifically recorded excavations. Petrie's
work determined that Egyptian culture dated back as early as 4500 BC.
The British Egypt Exploration Fund
founded in 1882 and other Egyptologists promoted Petrie's methods.
Other scholars worked on producing a hieroglyphic dictionary, developing
a Demotic lexicon, and establishing an outline of ancient Egyptian
history.
In the United States, the founding of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the expedition of James Henry Breasted to Egypt and Nubia established Egyptology as a legitimate field of study. In 1924, Breasted also started the Epigraphic Survey to make and publish accurate copies of monuments. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the University of Pennsylvania; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Brooklyn Institute of Fine Arts; and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University also conducted
excavations in Egypt, expanding American collections.
The archaeology and history of Egypt (Egyptology) was first officially introduced in Greek university curricula in the Department of Mediterranean Studies (DMS) of the University of the Aegean. It was back in 1999 and the bright vision of Prof. Ioannis Liritzis,
that Egyptology was inaugurated as an academic discipline in Greek
academia. Prof. Ioannis Liritzis established the chair. Since 1998
official contacts between the DMS essentially formed by Prof Liritzis,
and the Egyptian authorities, were encouraged in research, fieldwork
and education, through Greek and European funding.Through Prof Liritzis the Hellenic-Egyptian relationship in
Egyptological studies in University curricula took off and has since
then credited in plethora of publications and interactions.
The professional organisation of scholars in Egyptology is the International Association of Egyptologists (IAE), under whose auspices an International Congress of Egyptologists (ICE) is held every four years.
Societies for Egyptology include:
The Society for the Study of Ancient Egypt
The Society for the Study of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities, Canada
Sussex Egyptology Society Online
Egypt Exploration Society
According to UCLA, the standard text that scholars referenced for studies of Egyptology was for three decades or more, the Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). The first volume published in 1975 (containing largely German-language articles, with a few in English and French).
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