Episode 72: The Home Front (Letters to Ahmose) – The History of Egypt Podcast

Thutmose III (Part 6): Personal Correspondence in Thebes.

148 – 1460 BCE. Letters are a rare and exciting find in Egyptian archaeology. Imagine our good fortune to possess an entire corpus from one individual: Ahmose, “Peniaty’s man,” a middle-class Egyptian living and working in the Egypt of Thutmose III….

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The letter of Ptahu to Ahmose, concerning a maid-servant taken by Tetimose — The letter of Ptahu to Ahmose, concerning a maid-servant taken by Tetimose
British Museum

Two letters of the Ahmose corpus — Two letters of the Ahmose corpus
In transcription: (top) Teti writes to Ahmose concerning a house; (bottom) Ahmose writes to the treasurer Tey concerning a maid-servant.

A shabti (servant figurine) of Ahmose — A shabti (servant figurine) of Ahmose
(Glanville 1928)

A kohl (charcoal eye-liner) box of Ahmose — A kohl (charcoal eye-liner) box of Ahmose
(Glanville 1928)

Bibliography

Edward F. Wente, Letters from Ancient Egypt, 1990.
S.R.K. Glanville, “The Letters of Aahmose of Peniati,”Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 14 (1928) JSTOR
T. Eric Peet, “Two Eighteenth Dynasty Letters,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 12 (1926) JSTOR
Elizabeth Frood, “Social Structure and Daily Life,” in Toby Wilkinson (ed.) The Egyptian World 2010.

1 Comment

Angela

September 29, 2020, 1:30 pm

This was a lovely episode!

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