présentation de l'état d'avancement du dossier des papyrus du ouadi el-Jarf, dix ans après leur découverte, dans le cadre des "journées Champollion" organisées en 2022 grâce à un partenariat entre l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Sorbonne-Université /UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée et la Société française d'Egyptologie

The excavation of the sites of Ayn Sukhna and then Wadi el-Jarf on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea has made it possible, these last twenty years, to reassess the implication of the Pharaonic State in this area and its participation in the networks of exchanges in the Red Sea. From the beginning of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptian monarchy, whose need for copper was considerably increased by the policy of major works in the Nile Valley, set up an expeditionary system that allowed it to send teams of miners to the South Sinai zone, both by land and by sea. This involved the establishment of intermittent harbours – occupied only during the time of the expedition – on the maritime coast, which served as a logistical platform for the expeditions: Wadi el-Jarf first, then Ayn Sukhna. The recent work carried out on these two sites also allows a better understanding of the daily life of the expeditions, the organization of their supply, or to study the craft activities they practiced, which is a significant contribution to the history of techniques in ancient Egypt.

Publication du papyrus Bibliothèque Nationale n°202, qui constitue le début du «Papyrus d'Astarté», contenant un conte mythologique qui relate le conflit entre les dieux égyptiens et la mer. Les premières lignes du conte permettent de placer la rédaction de l'histoire sous le règne d'Amenhotep II et de mieux comprendre la portée de ce texte littéraire, qui emprunte nombre de traits à la mythologie proche-orientale, dans le contexte général de l'introduction des dieux asiatiques en Égypte, largement favorisée par ce roi. Une nouvelle traduction de l'ensemble du conte est proposée.

Within the Egyptian vocabulary related to the Aegean world, the kftjw boat (i.e. “Cretan type” = CTB) is mentioned three times in the documentation during the reigns of Thutmose III and that of his son and successor, Amenhotep II. Nevertheless, its meaning remains controversial. Earlier Egyptologists and Aegeanists scholars interpreted the term either as an indication of the ship’s destination, the origin of its construction or its home port. A reassessment of the textual documentation, however, demonstrates that these ships were built in Egypt, in the Egyptian way, by and for Egyptians.