This paper focuses on the concept and purpose of borders or frontiers in ancient Egypt from a geographical view.
Egypt is surrounded by desert on both sides of the Nile. The natural environment and isolated geographical location formed a natural barrier from foreign invasions, as well as providing very effective internal communications through the Nile.
The borders or frontiers of ancient Egypt were not consistent throughout history. They were not easily distinguishable by the lines of demarcation. Particularly away from the Nile, aecumene regions or ‘empty lands’ were geographically stretched out very wide.
The Definition of a border or frontier in ancient Egypt is diverse and sometimes contradictory. Historically they represent delineations of geographical, political, administrative, religious and cosmological order: aspects different from the modern borders or frontiers. Two terms which may be recognized as an expression of the borders and frontiers are in hieroglyphics: t3š expresses the actual geographical borders, and drw expresses the end of the cosmos, and frontiers far beyond the range of t3š.
When considering either the borders or frontiers of ancient Egypt from a functional point of view, at least five types can be considered: natural, administrative, political, religious, and ethnic borders or frontiers. Each had its own function and geographical range.
Natural borders were very stable geographically and geomorphologically only limited to the Nile Valley down to the First Cataract and the desert margins to the both sides of the Nile in the Delta regions. Administrative borders delineated by the margins of the frontier nomes were almost equal to the natural borders during the Dynastic era. The administrative borders extended much further than the natural borders at the Greco-Roman era by the establishment of new nomes outside of the traditional range of Egypt. Political borders, de facto limits of the state, were rather dynamic in its expansion, according to the foreign affairs. Guarding the borders from the foreign invaders and bedouins was recognized as one of the most important tasks for the pharaohs to undertake as lords of not only Upper and Lower Egypt, but also of foreign lands, beyond the borders of Egypt. Ethnic frontiers were not clearly distinguishable expect through their difference in faith, language and customs.
The activities of the agricultural production were not typically in the frontier regions. The temples, military parks, custom posts and fortresses were scattered and placed in strategic points in the frontier zones, near trading centers with the neighboring countries. Their location represented the geographical distance of the frontier as well as their position with respect to their neighbors.

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Resent research on ancient Near Eastern vitreous materials by non-destructive X-ray fluorescence revealed regional differences in glass manufacture based on chemical composition. Our high-powered synchrotron radiation energy-source enabled us to detect rare earth and heavy trace elements, which provided a chemical signature for the glass. In this study, we compared two ancient Egyptian glass vessels with Roman and Parthian glass.
The Egyptian vessels, both bearing the name of Amenhetep III of the 18^th dynasty, had nearly identical chemical compositions, suggesting that they were manufactured from the same batch of glass. The coloring agents include copper for blue, and antimony for white. The importation of antimony to supply the glass industry is further evidence of Egypt's role in international commerce.
We then compared the 18^th dynasty vessels with other glass specimens from Roman Egypt and the contemporary Parthian glass. The specimen for Roman glass was mainly obtained from Malkata South, a site close to the palace of Amenhetep III in Egypt. Other Parthian samples came from the site of Deilaman, Iran. The data revealed clear compositional differences between the 14^th century BC glass and Roman/Iranian glass. However, the Roman glass was not easily distinguished from the contemporary Iranian glass. The homogeneity of these glass samples suggests that the ingredients for making glass were obtained from the same geographic location.
During Graeco-Roman and Byzantine periods, a number of primary glass industries sprouted along the eastern Mediterranean coast. It appears that these local industries contributed to the creation of a vast commercial network throughout the Near East.

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The medieval Zoroastrianism, with all its name as the state religion in the Sasanian dynasty, was never firmly unified. According to the Pahlavi books, it seems, some Zoroastrian priests tried to establish the new doctrine different from the mythological dualism by uniting Greek philosophy (especially Neo-Platonism) and Zoroastrian angelology.
Because Zoroastrianism itself, overwhelmed by the offensive of the Muslim power, faced a serious crisis after the 7^th century, the new doctrine could not become the mainstream. Therefore, the Yazd-Kermanian Zoroastrians attached importance only to the mythological dualism, and did not show any interest in the philosophical doctrine.
Taking these conditions into consideration, I will examine Zoroastrianism after the Islamic age on the basis of New-Persian books of the 16^th century. The materials are hitherto-neglected books, and Iranologists have not so for taken up the subject I investigate. Despite those, I attempt to understand Azar Kayvan's doctrine expressed in those books by tying it to the doctrine of the philosophical priests of the 10^th century.
Upon examination, whereas the direct connection can not be shown, it has been confirmed that both doctrines resemble each other in the introduction of the emanationism. And moreover, I have shown that the Shirazian Zoroastrians quitted the mythological dualism more boldly than the priests of the 10^th century by symbolizing it as a mere ascetic tale.
Lastly, if I show this hypothesis in the history of Zoroastrianism in a diagram, it would look like the following:
_??_ the medieval priests who attached more importance to the traditional myth (the majority)→the Yazd-Kermanian Zoroastrians after the 13^th century→the Gujaratian Zoroastrians→the modern Parsis
_??_ the medieval priests who liked philosophical speculations (the minority)→the Shirazian Zoroastrians after the 16^th century→their extinction in the 17^th century in northern India

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The highest court titles, despot (δεσποτης), sevastokrator (σεβαστοκρατωρ), and Kaisar (καισαρ), had very important roles in the Late Byzantune Empire. The holders of these titles, normally members of the imperial family, had considerable influences not only on the political scene, but also on the provincal administration as they were the highest position of its apparatus. On the administrative role of the title holders, many scholars have explained that it had the same character as the Western appanage, and that the administration did not depend on his their titles, but simply on that they were a member of the imperial family; their administration was basically private, since it had no foundation in the Byzantine theory of government. I make my examination, therefore, in comparison with that Byzantine administrative apparatus and office of the governor considering its continuity.
There are many cases which one and the same person had both the office of governor (κεψαλη) and the court title. In such cases, the administrator more often signed himself, or was mentioned by others, as the latter rather than the former in documentary sources. This custom indicates that that person tried to raise his authority by using the court title which indicated his higher social status. It was probably an omission of formality as well because there was no need to refer oneself as the lower class of the kephali. And the absence of that reference after the second half of the fourteenth century indicates that this formal omission became more prevalent.
Substantially, there is no difference in the administratorship before and after 1349, when the Emperor Ioannis VI Kandakouzinos (1347-54) appointed his relatives as the administrator of imperial territory. The administration of the despots was definitely different from that of the co-Emperor Matthaios Kandakouzinos (1353-57), whose authority involved real autonomy. Though their authority was rapidly enlarged, it was not established as private (except for the case of Thessaloniki in the first half of fifteenth century) or autonomous. They lacked their own diplomacy and the rights to inheritance. Especially in the Morea, from Manouil Kandakouzinos (1349-80), the first, to Dimitrios Palaiologos (1449-60), the last, all the despotai were apparently the imperial governers rather than the private landlords. Although the tendency of feudalization continuously developed in the imperial territory, these administrators did not originate from that tendency.

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A heavily ruined palace-city founded by Amenhotep III is preserved at Malqata on the West bank of Thebes, Egypt. It consists of various structures in the desert; several residential palaces, a temple of Amen, a festival hall, houses and apartments for attendants, and a desert altar “Kom al-Samak”, all of which were constructed by mud bricks with gaily decorative paintings on walls and ceilings. Since 1985 this area has become a concession of the Waseda University Mission, and re-excavation works have been carried out at the several rooms in the main palace. The innermost room of the main palace is the king's bedchamber, from where numerous fragments of the paintings on ceiling have been recovered. One of the most remarkable motifs is a succession of great vultures representing the Goddess Nekhbet outspreading the wings as reported by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the former excavator, under each of which the names and titles of Amenhotep III are depicted. The succession of vultures is surrounded by geometrical patterns such as rosette and checker patterns.
The first attempt to reconstruct the whole ceiling painting was carried out in 1988, and a detailed study through the record work of each fragment with assembling trials since 1989 has revealed the fact that the images of Nekhbet had been 8, not 7 as supposed in the earlier stage of reconstruction. All the 9 lines of inscriptions are also reconstructed with considering the each find spot on the floor. In the King's bedchamber, the floor of the innermost part is raised where the king's bed had been placed. It was come to light that the ceiling of this upper level is drawn more elaborate than that of the lower level; The inscriptions is slightly longer, and the color of the center circle of rosette pattern is also changed from red to green.
The fragments of the northernmost ceiling suggest that the ceiling of this part would have been slightly curved down toward the north wall, and this reminds us a roof shape of pr-wr, a traditional shrine of the Upper Egypt, with a roof sloping down from the front. At the lower part of the walls the paneled pattern and a wavy line are depicted, but the rest of the interior decoration of this bed chamber is basically painted in glossy transparent yellow presumably imitating gold color, much similar to the shrines of Tutankhamun.
In this paper the reconstruction process is described, with some technical reports on the construction method for obtaining the vast painting area of the ceiling without projecting the large wooden beams.

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During 1997-1998 seasons of excavation in Tel Rehov, Israel, a small religious structure from the time of the United Kingdom (Iron Age IIA) was unearthed. Amihai Mazar, its excavator, has already published a preliminary report, in which he called this structure a “bamah”. However, he has not discussed its nature in detail and the ambiguity of the term “bamah” is well known. Since it is a fascinating structure in understanding the real picture of Israelite religion during the Kingdom period, we attempted to define its nature by setting it in the typological development of the religious structures in ancient Palestine.
As a result, we can point out the following significances.
1. This structure reflects the religious situation of the beginning of the Iron Age, when the great temples of LB period disappeared almost completely and small local sanctuaries increased. Small sanctuaries within towns closely related to daily activities are especially the hallmark of this period. This may suggest that the establishment of the Israelite State and the building of the central Temple in Jerusalem deprived the independent positions of the great temples of the Canaanite City States.
2. This structure will give insights to the variety of the local religious activities during the Israelite Kingdom. The small sanctuaries of this period can be subdivided into ones inside towns, outside towns, and around city gates. The first and the second both have interior and open-air types. The structure of Tel Rehov can be categorized as one inside the town and open-air. Animal sacrifice and community meal seem to have been included in its religious rite. Since most of the sanctuaries inside towns are of interior type, the one in Arad, which is not reported in detail, is the only other example of this type. The sanctuaries at Lachish and Hazor have both cult rooms and open courtyards. However, their open areas do not have any evidence of animal sacrifice, and in this sense they are not exactly the same as the ones in Tel Rehov and Arad. The religious structure found in Tel Rehov, therefore, is a unique example which enables us to clarify the full picture of th e local religious activities held in the open courtyard during the Iron Age.

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Dans le monde d'Islam, de nombreux philosophes ont expliqué l'origine des existants par l'émanation (fayd) de l'éxistence du Premier Existant. Un des premiers philosophes qui ont employé l'émanation est al-Farabi (m. 339/950). Mais, pour al-Farabi, l'émanation n'est pas seulement à expliquer l'origine des existants, mais aussi elle pose un but d'existence pour chaque existant. Nous pourrions appeller le lien étroit entre l'émanation et le but d'existence, “le système de l'émanation”.
Al-Farabi cite 4 fois Uthulujiya Aristatalis, un des textes néoplatoniciens, dans son Jam'bayn ra'yay al-hakimayn. Par conséquent it connaissait sûrement l'émanation plotinienne de l'âme humaine, exigeant son retour au monde supérieur. Mais al-Farabi a élaboré un système de l'émanation qui pouvait situer la perfection de l'existence de l'homme dans celle de l'existence des autres existants.
Dans al-Madinah al-fadilah l'émanation est liée à la formation de la hiérarchie des existants et au maintien de leur ordre, pour qu'ils atteignent, en tant que tout, à la perfection de leur existence. Si l'homme, un des existants et doué de la volonté et du choix, prenait l'exemple sur la totalité harmonieuse des existants, la cité éminente pourrait s'établir et tous les habitants pourraient perfectionner leur existence. Dans al-Siyasah al-madaniyah l'émanation est de donner de divers états à chaque existant, ce qui est à fixer de divers modes pour accomplir son existence. Chez l'homme aussi, il s'agit de divers modes d'accomplir son existence selon leur différence de nature et d'éducation, du fait que les bonheurs (sa'adat) que chaque habitant de la cité éminente acquiert sont différents et que certains hommes éminents sont reconnus dans des cités non éminentes.
Les différentes utilisations de l'émanation de ces deux œuvres posent les deux sortes de perfections des existants, à savoir leur perfection collective et leur perfection individuelle, qui jettent le fondement de deux sortes de perfections de l'homme.

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The 'Abbasid rule had been declining since the tenth century. This decline meant the beginning of the period of the rule by army corps in the Islamic world. In this period, it is the Ziyarids that had wielded power in the remote highlands of Daylam at the south-western corner of the Caspian Sea in 319-489/931-1090.
The preceding studies which specially dealt with the Ziyarids followed their whole activity. But it is not enough to only study the special features and historical position of the Ziyarids' army in Mardawij's period in Islamic history.
In this paper, the author tries to investigate the military organization of the Ziyarids in Mardawij's period and the special features of this army.
As a result of studying this army, the author made clear the following points:
(1) The military of the Ziyarids in Mardawij's period consisted of two kinds of military groups, that is, (1) Daylamites-Gilites and (2) Turks.
(2) In the case of the first group, the soldiers were of the ex-Asfar's soldiers, the Daylamites and Gilites who came to Mardawij after the death of Asfar, and the ex-Makin's soldiers. In the case of the second group, the soldiers were of the Amirs' soldiers and the his bodyguards.
(3) In this army, the military group of Daylamites-Gilites was more active than that of the Turks.
(4) The number of people in the army was around 40, 000-50, 000.
We can see that the military of the Ziyarids in Mardawij's period showed two kinds of features: first, this army was the great armed forces of western Iran and second, a rapid militarization of Daylamites-Gilites occurred in the first half of tenth century.

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