 |
Joyce Ann Tyldesley OBE (born 25 February 1960) [1] is a British archaeologist and Egyptologist, academic, writer and broadcaster who specialises in the women of ancient Egypt. She was interviewed on the TV series 'Cunk on Earth', about Egypt's pyramids, in 2022. [2]
Tyldesley was born in Bolton, Lancashire [3] and attended Bolton School. [4] In 1981, she earned a first-class honours degree in the archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean from the University of Liverpool. Her doctoral studies were undertaken at Oxford University; first at St Anne's College then, following the award of a scholarship, at St Cross College. In 1986, she was awarded a doctorate in Prehistoric Archaeology from Oxford University. Her thesis was written about Mousterian bifaces (handaxes) in Northern Europe. Tyldesley then returned to Liverpool as a lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology.
Tyldesley next worked as a freelance Egyptologist/archaeologist; writing books, working with television companies, and teaching in further and higher education and online.
In 2007, she joined the University of Manchester, as a joint appointment between the Manchester Museum and the Faculty of Life Sciences. As of 2023 [update] , she is Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology where she is tutor and Programme Director of the three-year online Certificate in Egyptology programme, the two-year online Diploma in Egyptology programme and the two year part-time online MA in Egyptology programme. [5] She has devised, writes, directs and teaches a suite of on-line Short Courses in Egyptology, and has created several free online Egyptology courses (MOOCS), working in conjunction with the Manchester Museum. Mumford the Mummy is a series of lessons aimed at Key Stage 2 primary school children, freely available via Nearpod. [6]
In 2011, Tyldesley was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Bolton in recognition of her contribution to education. [7] She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Research Associate of the Manchester Museum. Tyldesley is President of Bolton Archaeology and Egyptology Society and a former trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society.
Tyldesley has extensive archaeological fieldwork experience, having excavated in Britain, Europe and Egypt where she worked with the British Museum at Ashmunein, with Liverpool University in the Eastern Nile Delta, and where she conducted her own field survey at Tuna el-Gebel.
Tyldesley has been interviewed on various TV series including Empires: Egypt's Golden Empire (2001), and The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes (2019). [8]
Tyldesley has two children.
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to Egyptology and heritage. [9]
Tyldesley is a part-qualified Chartered Accountant, and spent 17 years supporting her writing career by working as a small business manager for Crossley and Davis Chartered Accountants in Bolton.
In 2004 Tyldesley established, with Dr. Steven Snape, Rutherford Press Limited, a publishing firm dedicated to publishing serious but accessible books on ancient Egypt while raising money for Egyptology field work. Donations from RPL totaling £3,000 were made to Manchester Museum, the Egypt Exploration Society and the Liverpool University fieldwork project at Zawiyet umm el-Rakham. Rutherford Press closed in February 2017, to allow Tyldesley to concentrate on her teaching.[ citation needed ]
Tyldesley has written academic and popular books for adults and children, including books to accompany the television series Private Lives of the Pharaohs (Channel 4), Egypt's Golden Empire (Lion Television) and Egypt (BBC). In January 2008 book Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, was the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4. Her play for children, The Lost Scroll, premiered at Kendal Museum in 2011. Her book Tutankhamen's Curse (published as Tutankhamen in the USA) was awarded the 2014 Felicia A. Holton Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America.
Tyldesley has written about the role of women in power, in ancient Egypt, such as Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh, in the 18th dynasty. [10] She has written about Egyptian women and their lives, as well as the roles of power women held in ancient societies. She has described how in ancient Egypt, women:
'enjoyed a legal, social and sexual independence unrivalled by their Greek or Roman sisters, or in fact by most women until the late nineteenth century'. [11]
She has written about the lives of women in ancient Egypt. [12] Tyldesley commented that she thought Hatshepsut may have been 'keenly conscious of her exceptional place in history', as there were inscriptions on a pair of obelisks erected, which said:
"Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say—those who shall see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done." [13]
Tyldesley was also on a panel, hosted by Bettany Hughes of the BBC, on how Nefertiti, Cleopatra, and Hatshepsut ruled in positions of power, and 'flipped gender roles'. The panel discussed examples of women who were able to take and hold power via 'bravery, guile... self-reinvention... and the ability to control their own image'. [14]
Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he was likely a son of Akhenaten, thought to be the KV55 mummy. His mother was identified through DNA testing as The Younger Lady buried in KV35; she was a full sister of her husband.
Hatshepsut was the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II and the fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from c. 1479 BC until c. 1458 BC. She was Egypt's second confirmed queen regnant, the first being Sobekneferu/Nefrusobek in the Twelfth Dynasty.
Nefertiti was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted the earliest known form of monotheism, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. After her husband's death, some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as the female pharaoh known by the throne name, Neferneferuaten and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.
Tiye was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010, DNA analysis confirmed her as the mummy known as "The Elder Lady" found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in 1898.
Zahi Abass Hawass is an Egyptian archaeologist, Egyptologist, and former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, serving twice. He has worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert and the Upper Nile Valley.
Thutmose, also known as "The King's Favourite and Master of Works, the Sculptor Thutmose", was an Ancient Egyptian sculptor in the Amarna style. He flourished around 1350 BC, and is thought to have been the official court sculptor of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten in the latter part of his reign. A German archaeological expedition digging in Akhenaten's deserted city of Akhetaten, known today as Amarna, found a ruined house and studio complex in early December 1912; the building was identified as that of Thutmose based on an ivory horse blinker found in a rubbish pit in the courtyard inscribed with his name and job title. Since it gave his occupation as "sculptor" and the building was clearly a sculpture workshop, the determination seemed logical and has proven to be accurate.
Thutmose I was the third pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He received the throne after the death of the previous king, Amenhotep I. During his reign, he campaigned deep into the Levant and Nubia, pushing the borders of Egypt farther than ever before in each region. He also built many temples in Egypt, and a tomb for himself in the Valley of the Kings; he is the first king confirmed to have done this.
The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties. Through radiocarbon dating, the establishment of the New Kingdom has been placed between 1570 BC and 1544 BC. The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period. It was the most prosperous time for the Egyptian people and marked the peak of Egypt's power.
Robert Brier is an American Egyptologist specializing in paleopathology. A senior research fellow at Long Island University/LIU Post, he has researched and published on mummies and the mummification process and has appeared in many Discovery Civilization, TLC Network, and National Geographic documentaries, primarily on ancient Egypt. He is recognized as one of the world's foremost Egyptologists.
Ahmose-Nefertari was the first Great Royal Wife of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and wife to Ahmose I. Her son Amenhotep I became pharaoh and she may have served as his regent when he was young. Ahmose-Nefertari was deified after her death.
Joann Fletcher is an Egyptologist and an honorary visiting professor in the department of archaeology at the University of York. She has published a number of books and academic articles, including several on Cleopatra, and made numerous television and radio appearances. In 2003, she controversially claimed to have identified the mummy of Queen Nefertiti.
Neferneferure was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty. She was the fifth of six known daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti.
Mutnofret, also rendered as Mutneferet or Mutnefert, was a queen during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was a secondary wife of Thutmose I and the mother of his successor Thutmose II; Thutmose I's chief wife, however, was his sister Queen Ahmose, the mother of Hatshepsut.
Ramose was the father and Hatnofer the mother of Senenmut, one of the most important state officials under the reign of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut in the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The commoner origins of Ramose and the rise of his son Senenmut were long considered to be prime examples of high social mobility in New Kingdom Egypt. For instance, almost nothing is known of Ramose's origins, but he seems to have been a man of modest means—anything from a tenant peasant or farmer, to an artisan or even a small landowner. When Ramose died he was a man aged 50–60. Hatnofer was an elderly lady, with grey or even white hair. They are believed to have been born at Armant, a town only ten miles (16 km) south of Thebes within Upper Egypt presumably during the reign of Ahmose I, the founder of Egypt's illustrious 18th dynasty.
The Younger Lady is the informal name given to an ancient Egyptian mummy discovered within tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings by archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL and 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Through recent DNA tests, this mummy has been identified as the mother of the pharaoh Tutankhamun and a daughter of pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye. Early speculation that this mummy was the remains of Nefertiti was argued to be incorrect, as nowhere is Nefertiti accorded the title "King's daughter" unless this mummy was in fact a cousin of Akhenaten and not a sister
The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty spanned the period from 1550/1549 to 1292 BC. This dynasty is also known as the Thutmoside Dynasty) for the four pharaohs named Thutmose.
Women in ancient Egypt had some special rights other women did not have in other comparable societies. They could own property and were, at court, legally equal to men. However, Ancient Egypt was a patriarchal society dominated by men. Only a few women are known to have important positions in administration, though there were female rulers and even female pharaohs. Women at the royal court gained their positions by relationship to male kings.
Aidan Mark Dodson is an English Egyptologist and historian. He has been honorary professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol since 1 August 2018.
Ann Rosalie David is Emeritus Professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester, where she was the founding Director of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology in 2003 and was director of the International Mummy Database.
{{cite web}}: External link in |title=Tyldesley ... [takes] an everything you need to know about ancient women approach
