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Yale Papyri in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library IV springs from work undertaken at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, at its Papyrological Summer Institute in 2003. This fourth volume of Yale papyri presents three groups of texts dating from the second century BCE to the seventh century CE. Editions are presented in chronological order, and include items such as samples of scribal training, mathematical tables and exercises, schoolroom work, letters, tax- receipts, contracts, and petitions. Contributors in addition to the volume editors include Daniel Markovich, Charles W. Hedrick, Jr., Jitse H. F. Dijkstra, Kevin Wilkinson, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Richard L. Phillips, Gary Reger, Shane Berg, Elizabeth Penland, George Bevan, Josiah E. Davis, Mariam Dandamayeva, Andrew T. Crislip, and Jean Gascou.

How our understanding of the ancient Egyptian afterlife was shaped by Christianity.
 
Many of us are familiar with the ancient Egyptians’ obsession with immortality and the great efforts they made to secure the quality of their afterlife. But, as Rune Nyord shows, even today, our understanding of the Egyptian afterlife has been formulated to a striking extent in Christian terms. Nyord argues that this is no accident, but rather the result of a long history of Europeans systematically retelling the religion of ancient Egypt to fit the framework of Christianity. The idea of ancient Egyptians believing in postmortem judgment with rewards and punishments in the afterlife was developed during the early modern period through biased interpretations that were construed without any detailed knowledge of ancient Egyptian religion, hieroglyphs, and sources.
 
As a growing number of Egyptian images and texts became available through the nineteenth century, these materials tended to be incorporated into existing narratives rather than being used to question them. Against this historical background, Nyord argues that we need to return to the indigenous sources and shake off the Christian expectations that continue to shape scholarly and popular thinking about the ancient Egyptian afterlife.
 

Part visual history, part memoir, You Can Crush the Flowers is a chronicle of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and its aftermath, as it manifested itself not only in the art on the streets of Cairo but also through the wider visual culture that emerged during the revolution. Marking the ten-year anniversary of the revolution, celebrated Egyptian-Lebanese artist Bahia Shehab tells the stories that inspired both her own artwork and the work of her fellow revolutionaries. Shehab narrates the events of the revolution as they unfolded, describing on one hand the tactics deployed by the regime to drive protesters from the street—from the use of tear gas and snipers to brute force, intimidation techniques, and virginity tests—and on the other hand the retaliation by the protesters online and on the street in marches, chants, street art, and memes. Throughout this powerful and moving account, which includes over one hundred images, Shehab responds to all these aspects of the revolution as both artist and activist. The result bears witness to the brutality of the regime and pays tribute to the protestors who bravely defied it.