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A small hoard of Huşi-Vovrieşti coins deposited in a Danubian kantharos underneath a Late Iron Age house at the site of Josipovac – Selište near modern Osijek most likely represents a foundation deposit. As such, the cache was not meant to be retrieved, and its deposition was part of a ritual of a sort, one we cannot reconstruct with any certainty. The use of a container otherwise involved in ritualistic practises, funerary and ceremonial, perhaps also the ritual demonetisation of coins with chop-marks, as well as precise and consistent application of these chop-marks, all point to a ritualistic background to the deposition. The hoard was probably interred during the LT C1 period, i.e., during the second half of the 3rd or perhaps at the very beginning of the 2nd century BC. This date is supported by the lower chronological limit of the production of the Huşi-Vovrieşti coins, the fact that the container in which they were deposited was produced either in LT B2 or LT C1 period, with its latest possible date of usage not later than the early 2nd century BC, as well as on an analogy with the hoards of the Huşi-Vovrieşti coins deposited in the Scordiscan area that can be dated independently of this particular coin-type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double foundation deposit was found in the souteastern part of the Tuthmosis III Hathor shrine at Deir el-Bahari. The architectural features, a pit with a niche at the bottom, confirm the dating of both of these deposits to the times of Tuthmosis III. An original feature of the southeastern one is the initial circular cavity changed into a semicircular one by the building of a mud-brick wall in the east. Several courses of mud bricks built up the rim of the pit above the rock-carved cavity. The whole structure was plastered inside with mud plaster. The bricks were mostly reused from the Middle Kingdom structure of Mentuhotep II. The content, although disturbed, still consists of organic offerings as well as ceramics, but no inscribed material.

Numerous botanical remains have been found in a recently discovered foundation deposit of Tuthmosis III, in his Hathor shrine at Deir el-Bahari. Identification of 12 plants (cereals, fruits, branches and leaves) is proposed and the exceptional diversity of such finds is considered in relation to the known botanical finds from foundation deposits prior to Tuthmosis III.

The paper presents the results of archaeological exploration in parts of the Hatshesut Temple, carried out by the Polish–Egyptian team in the 2020/2021 season. Excavations focused on the Southern Room of Amun on the Third Terrace of the Temple, the platform of the Hathor Shrine on the Middle Terrace level, and the so-called Hathor Path located between the southern retaining wall of the Middle Terrace and the northern stone wall of the main enclosure of Mentuhotep II’s mortuary complex. Of particular interest are the finds from an early Middle Kingdom rock-cut tomb in the western part of the Hathor Path, where remains of the original burial assemblage, a large deposit of votive offerings to the goddess Hathor and fragments of a yellow coffin were discovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we take a closer look at the process and contents of caching in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara. Most of the contents of the approximately 68 caches are unpublished, but we are using the information preserved in the excavation archive held at the Egypt Exploration Society in London. This study has three parts. First, we take a closer look at the conceptual categorization of caches, followed by a review of a particular deposition practice, that of foundation deposits. Then we consider in detail four caches of bronzes found during British excavations at the North Saqqara Sacred Animal Necropolis. Finally, we argue that these caches point towards a conceptual blending of foundation deposits with other categorizations of caches in the Late and Ptolemaic periods, opening up the possibility that new types of foundation deposits, otherwise unrecognized, may be added to the known corpus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Three early Medieval (12th c. AD) house deposits are examined from Croatia. • Explores how identity may manifest itself through individual/collective practice. • The results suggest shared 'folk' beliefs had a valued place in Dalmatian society. • The objects go beyond symbols of apotropaic magic but served multiple purposes. This paper examines three early medieval ritual house deposits from Bribirska glavica, Dalmatia, Croatia. Discovered over the last century these items bring to the fore questions regarding the relationship between state and secular religion in a region that experienced numerous encounters and confrontations within and between different social groups. This paper explores these complexities using the term 'religious imaginaries' to describe how a sense of collective identity may manifest itself through individual and collective practice, focusing on the value of the discovered objects (chickens, eggs, whetstones and plant remains) and their ritual framings. In particular, the recovery of archaeobotanical remains highlights the importance of examining plant use in ritual deposits. Overall, despite some variation in the interpretations of the practice of 'special' offerings, the majority of studies draw the conclusion that items hidden in this manner provide a broadly protective or apotropaic function. Thus, these finds provide important insights into the development of religious and ritual beliefs in early medieval Dalmatia, suggesting that the community's religious imaginary comprised a set of values and symbols that hybridised the Christian faith with elements of 'folk magic' to re-inforce the apotropaic power of their ritual acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]