The latest issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine, number 156, has been published, with a line-up of features ranging from the new Tutankhamun galleries at the Grand Egyptian Museum to the Osirion at Abydos, as listed by The Past. The issue gathers several strands of current Egyptological interest under one cover, from museum openings and gemstone origins to questions of medicine, literacy and religious texts.
The cover feature turns to the Tutankhamun galleries, described as the crowning glory of the Grand Egyptian Museum. The much-anticipated museum at Giza has drawn steady attention as its displays have opened in stages, and the young king's treasures form the centrepiece of the collection.
Elsewhere in the issue, one article examines carnelian, described as ancient Egypt's most popular gemstone, and the uncertain origins of the warm reddish stone that the Egyptians prized for beads, amulets and inlay. Another feature looks at pain relief in ancient Egypt, considering both physical and magical interventions and the way the two approaches sat side by side in Egyptian practice.
The magazine also profiles the Litany of Ra, an important New Kingdom text. Compositions of this kind were inscribed in royal tombs and were bound up with the sun god's nightly journey and the king's hoped-for renewal, and they belong to the body of funerary literature that flourished in the New Kingdom.
A further article revisits the question of whether women were literate in ancient Egypt, a subject that has attracted renewed discussion among scholars weighing the scattered evidence for who could read and write. The issue continues the biographical thread that runs through the magazine with a piece on John Gardner Wilkinson, examining the life and legacy of a figure often counted among the pioneers of British Egyptology.
Rounding out the contents is a study of the Osirion at Abydos, presented as a cenotaph for Sety I. The subterranean structure behind the king's temple has long intrigued visitors and specialists alike for its massive masonry and its association with Osiris.
Several of the topics in this issue connect closely with the inscriptions and signs that survive from these periods. Readers who would like to work towards reading such texts for themselves can build the necessary sign knowledge with the Hierolyte app. The full issue is available through The Past.