What did ?religion? mean for the Ancient Egyptians? Was the state involved in acting as a unifying and founding force for Egyptian religion or can we still identify some clashes between different religious practices? To what extent did different rituals, practices, and beliefs intersect and merge across time and space? Such questions have long preoccupied scholars working in the field, but they have often only been considered through the lens of official, ?centralized? texts. Yet increasingly, there is an acknowledgment that such texts require calibration from archaeological data in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of how people must have lived and worshipped. The chapters gathered in the volume aim to offer a thorough exploration of Egyptian cultural and religious beliefs, and to explore how these impacted on other areas of daily life. Contributors explore the connection between religion and central power, the paradigms around burial and access to the afterlife, the interconnections between religion, demonology, magic, and medicine, and the impact of multicultural interaction on the religious landscape. What emerges from this discussion is an understanding that the only truly identifiable clash is that between modern, Eurocentric perspectives and the views of the ancient Egyptians themselves. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations 1. Introduction: Clashing Religions? Marilina Betrò 2. Religion and Community in Egypt in the Third Millennium BC Juan Carlos Moreno García 3. Festivals, Religion and Economy. The Evidence from the Sun Temple of Niuserre Massimiliano Nuzzolo 4. The Changing Face of Royal Patronage at Abydos in The Old Kingdom (Fourth ? Sixth Dynasties) Paul Whelan 5. Ancient Egyptian Demonology between Modern Preconceptions and New Perspectives Gabriele Mario Conte 6. A Princess? Burial: Funerals and Ancestor Cult in the Extended Royal Family in the Time of Amenhotep III Susanne Bickel 7. Modelling Strategies of Commemoration. The Case of the Huy Clan Lara Weiss 8. Athena-Minerva and Zeus-Jupiter in Egypt. Reflections on a Relief in the Cairo Museum (CGC 27570) Gaelle Tallet 9. Poseidon in the Theban Desert. Stratigraphies of Beliefs and Layered Reminiscences of the Religious Past in Late Antique Egyptian Literature Paola Buzi 10. When Religion Becomes Countable: The Case of Ancient Egypt Gianluca Miniaci