Gianluca Miniaci
Biographic Data
| ID | 4071860 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gianluca Miniaci |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gianluca |
| FAMILY NAME | Miniaci |
| SIGNATURE | MINIACI G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pisa |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0877-4409 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The unpublished manuscript of von Bissing for the Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire *CG 19500–19549 for the treasure of Queen Ahhotep
Conceiving Elements of Divinity
Research on how forms of religiosity are produced through the interaction of local, exogenous, and hybrid elements is fundamental for the improvement of religious studies. This becomes particularly noteworthy in the context of the Levant during the Second Millennium BCE when cultural hybridization phenomena played a pivotal role in shaping novel religious beliefs. Such an exploration, in fact, opens up avenues in the process that ultimately led t…
Ancient World Revisited
Early Dynastic Votives as Source for Late Middle Kingdom Iconography
The material culture of the late Middle Kingdom is marked by an increased presence of figurines in different materials, pooled together by a common range of forms, types, and iconographic or stylistic motifs. The subjects and variety of these figurines do not find any precedent in the recent past, while – unexpectedly – the closest comparanda go back to the early/mid-third millennium BC, in the votive material of the so-called Early Dynastic temp…
Breaking Images
Profiling the people behind clay figurines
Clay figurines represent one of the ideal object categories for tracing the profile of their makers since they preserve traces of the maker’s gestures. The scope of the article is to reconstruct the different manufacturing steps of clay figurines, assess the complexity of the shaping sequences and study fingerprints to trace the profile of people who produced such artefacts in the ancient village of Lahun (Egypt, MBA II, c. 1800–1700 BC). The hig…
Shabti precursors
Global History in Egyptology
Global history is generally viewed as solely pertinent to 1492 CE and subsequent centuries; nonetheless it should not be understood in such literal terms. The world has been interconnected for far longer. Globalization—that is, multiple connections across regions—affected Egypt and the Near East far more deeply than has often been accepted. The methods and approaches developed within the global perspective offered by “global history” have been us…
From Tenochtitlán to Punt
This article aims to analyse the behavioural response generated by people who came into contact with civilisations and places whose existence was previously unknown or only remotely registered in their collective knowledge. Three major cases have been taken into consideration: a.) the “discovery” of America during the sixteenth century CE when Europeans entered in contact with Aztecs, Cakchiquels, and Andeans; b.) the encounters with the civilisa…
The material entanglement in the Egyptian Cemetery in Kerma (Sudan, 1750-1500 BC)
Topography and 3D Survey in the Tomb of Khunes at Zawyet Sultan, Egypt
Purchase online the PDF of Topography and 3D Survey in the Tomb of Khunes at Zawyet Sultan, Egypt : Preliminary Results, Taccola, Emanuele,Tiribilli, Elena,Bussmann, Richard,Miniaci, Gianluca - Pisa University Press - Article
Multiple Burials in Ancient Societies
The paper aims at providing theoretical models and data interpretation applied to multiple burials. Challenging the current fuzzy definition of multiple burials in ancient societies, the paper proposes a more accurate classification of multiple burials, with particular reference to ancient Egypt funerary culture, based on two main parameters, which may have influenced the association of bodies: p1) architecture; p2) time span, and three flexible …
Burial Equipment of Rishi Coffins and the Osmosis of the ‘Rebirth Machine’ at the End of the Middle Kingdom
This paper aims to cast light on the transitional phase between the late Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period (1800-1550 BC), when the first anthropoid coffins were introduced in Egypt. Although originally conceived as the innermost element of a set of box-shaped coffins, the anthropoid coffin independently evolved into a new type decorated with stylised feathers, now known as rishi (‘feathered’). The passage from rectangular to anthropo…
Reuniting Philology and Archaeology
The present article aims to combine an accurate philological analysis of the letter to the dead UC16163 and its archaeological context. The letter is a double document containing two letters addressed by Shepsi to both his dead parents (Iinkhenmut and Iy). In fact, the letter was found in an undisturbed tomb, no. 7695, in the necropolis of Qau, where only a single male deceased lay in the funerary chamber, with no evidence/traces of any further i…
The Case of the Third Intermediate Period ‘Shabti-Maker (?) of the Amun Domain’ Diamun / Padiamun and the Change in Conception of Shabti Statuettes
This article is divided into two main sections: the first presents considerations inspired by a detailed stylistic, typological, and philological analysis of a previously unpublished shabti box preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and inscribed for the ‘shabti-maker/priest of the Amun domain’, Diamun or Padiamun. The particular shape of the box is potentially linked to a transitional phase in burial customs of the Third Intermediate Period an…
The Collapse of Faience Figurine Production at the End of the Middle Kingdom
The aim of the article is to trace the history of faience figurines in late Middle Kingdom Egypt, following a metanarrative level of synthesis. Moving from one of the most visible changes in the course of history, the turn from Modernism to Postmodernism, the article defines a key to read the path of faience figurine production from their appearance in the late Middle Kingdom to their disuse at the end of the Second Intermediate Period: changes i…
Years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron
The earliest known iron artefacts are nine small beads securely dated to circa 3200 BC, from two burials in Gerzeh, northern Egypt. We show that these beads were made from meteoritic iron, and shaped by careful hammering the metal into thin sheets before rolling them into tubes. The study demonstrates the ability of neutron and X-ray methods to determine the nature of the material even after complete corrosion of the iron metal. The iron beads we…
Years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron
The earliest known iron artefacts are nine small beads securely dated to circa 3200 BC, from two burials in Gerzeh, northern Egypt. We show that these beads were made from meteoritic iron, and shaped by careful hammering the metal into thin sheets before rolling them into tubes. The study demonstrates the ability of neutron and X-ray methods to determine the nature of the material even after complete corrosion of the iron metal. The iron beads we…
Multiple Burials in Ancient Societies
The paper aims at providing theoretical models and data interpretation applied to multiple burials. Challenging the current fuzzy definition of multiple burials in ancient societies, the paper proposes a more accurate classification of multiple burials, with particular reference to ancient Egypt funerary culture, based on two main parameters, which may have influenced the association of bodies: p1) architecture; p2) time span, and three flexible …
Profiling the people behind clay figurines
Clay figurines represent one of the ideal object categories for tracing the profile of their makers since they preserve traces of the maker’s gestures. The scope of the article is to reconstruct the different manufacturing steps of clay figurines, assess the complexity of the shaping sequences and study fingerprints to trace the profile of people who produced such artefacts in the ancient village of Lahun (Egypt, MBA II, c. 1800–1700 BC). The hig…
Reuniting Philology and Archaeology
The present article aims to combine an accurate philological analysis of the letter to the dead UC16163 and its archaeological context. The letter is a double document containing two letters addressed by Shepsi to both his dead parents (Iinkhenmut and Iy). In fact, the letter was found in an undisturbed tomb, no. 7695, in the necropolis of Qau, where only a single male deceased lay in the funerary chamber, with no evidence/traces of any further i…
Years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron
The earliest known iron artefacts are nine small beads securely dated to circa 3200 BC, from two burials in Gerzeh, northern Egypt. We show that these beads were made from meteoritic iron, and shaped by careful hammering the metal into thin sheets before rolling them into tubes. The study demonstrates the ability of neutron and X-ray methods to determine the nature of the material even after complete corrosion of the iron metal. The iron beads we…
The Case of the Third Intermediate Period ‘Shabti-Maker (?) of the Amun Domain’ Diamun / Padiamun and the Change in Conception of Shabti Statuettes
This article is divided into two main sections: the first presents considerations inspired by a detailed stylistic, typological, and philological analysis of a previously unpublished shabti box preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and inscribed for the ‘shabti-maker/priest of the Amun domain’, Diamun or Padiamun. The particular shape of the box is potentially linked to a transitional phase in burial customs of the Third Intermediate Period an…
The Collapse of Faience Figurine Production at the End of the Middle Kingdom
The aim of the article is to trace the history of faience figurines in late Middle Kingdom Egypt, following a metanarrative level of synthesis. Moving from one of the most visible changes in the course of history, the turn from Modernism to Postmodernism, the article defines a key to read the path of faience figurine production from their appearance in the late Middle Kingdom to their disuse at the end of the Second Intermediate Period: changes i…
Reuniting Philology and Archaeology
The present article aims to combine an accurate philological analysis of the letter to the dead UC16163 and its archaeological context. The letter is a double document containing two letters addressed by Shepsi to both his dead parents (Iinkhenmut and Iy). In fact, the letter was found in an undisturbed tomb, no. 7695, in the necropolis of Qau, where only a single male deceased lay in the funerary chamber, with no evidence/traces of any further i…
Burial Equipment of Rishi Coffins and the Osmosis of the ‘Rebirth Machine’ at the End of the Middle Kingdom
This paper aims to cast light on the transitional phase between the late Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period (1800-1550 BC), when the first anthropoid coffins were introduced in Egypt. Although originally conceived as the innermost element of a set of box-shaped coffins, the anthropoid coffin independently evolved into a new type decorated with stylised feathers, now known as rishi (‘feathered’). The passage from rectangular to anthropo…
Multiple Burials in Ancient Societies
The paper aims at providing theoretical models and data interpretation applied to multiple burials. Challenging the current fuzzy definition of multiple burials in ancient societies, the paper proposes a more accurate classification of multiple burials, with particular reference to ancient Egypt funerary culture, based on two main parameters, which may have influenced the association of bodies: p1) architecture; p2) time span, and three flexible …
The material entanglement in the Egyptian Cemetery in Kerma (Sudan, 1750-1500 BC)
Topography and 3D Survey in the Tomb of Khunes at Zawyet Sultan, Egypt
Purchase online the PDF of Topography and 3D Survey in the Tomb of Khunes at Zawyet Sultan, Egypt : Preliminary Results, Taccola, Emanuele,Tiribilli, Elena,Bussmann, Richard,Miniaci, Gianluca - Pisa University Press - Article
Shabti precursors
Global History in Egyptology
Global history is generally viewed as solely pertinent to 1492 CE and subsequent centuries; nonetheless it should not be understood in such literal terms. The world has been interconnected for far longer. Globalization—that is, multiple connections across regions—affected Egypt and the Near East far more deeply than has often been accepted. The methods and approaches developed within the global perspective offered by “global history” have been us…
From Tenochtitlán to Punt
This article aims to analyse the behavioural response generated by people who came into contact with civilisations and places whose existence was previously unknown or only remotely registered in their collective knowledge. Three major cases have been taken into consideration: a.) the “discovery” of America during the sixteenth century CE when Europeans entered in contact with Aztecs, Cakchiquels, and Andeans; b.) the encounters with the civilisa…
Breaking Images
Profiling the people behind clay figurines
Clay figurines represent one of the ideal object categories for tracing the profile of their makers since they preserve traces of the maker’s gestures. The scope of the article is to reconstruct the different manufacturing steps of clay figurines, assess the complexity of the shaping sequences and study fingerprints to trace the profile of people who produced such artefacts in the ancient village of Lahun (Egypt, MBA II, c. 1800–1700 BC). The hig…
Ancient World Revisited
Early Dynastic Votives as Source for Late Middle Kingdom Iconography
The material culture of the late Middle Kingdom is marked by an increased presence of figurines in different materials, pooled together by a common range of forms, types, and iconographic or stylistic motifs. The subjects and variety of these figurines do not find any precedent in the recent past, while – unexpectedly – the closest comparanda go back to the early/mid-third millennium BC, in the votive material of the so-called Early Dynastic temp…
The unpublished manuscript of von Bissing for the Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire *CG 19500–19549 for the treasure of Queen Ahhotep
Conceiving Elements of Divinity
Research on how forms of religiosity are produced through the interaction of local, exogenous, and hybrid elements is fundamental for the improvement of religious studies. This becomes particularly noteworthy in the context of the Levant during the Second Millennium BCE when cultural hybridization phenomena played a pivotal role in shaping novel religious beliefs. Such an exploration, in fact, opens up avenues in the process that ultimately led t…
Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (12 works) · History (11 works) · Ancient history (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Art (9 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Ancient Near East History (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Geology (4 works)