tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29255431617622687462024-03-10T21:04:07.174+01:00Amun-Ra Egyptology BlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger862125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-9802064629116161072017-10-04T15:05:00.002+02:002017-10-04T15:05:52.815+02:00Ancient wall markings of wild animals uncovered in South Aswan<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Pre-Dynastic wall markings have been uncovered in Subeira Valley near Aswan</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 4 Oct 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During an archaeological survey in the desert of Subeira Valley, south Aswan, an Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities stumbled upon pre-Dynastic rock markings.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUiEZzBImwxQDb3javJv6hS-6hCqyjZWqPTa6M09uz0X5dk2i77DNi1U09O0OHN1hQz81AU7ZGUQHdjInRWCXlsR-mIp1pXLLUO5pF07CrZa5OvL9M120AfwgL4Y9AqBWP1FcVmcrSbnk/s1600/2017-636426506328043372-804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="460" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUiEZzBImwxQDb3javJv6hS-6hCqyjZWqPTa6M09uz0X5dk2i77DNi1U09O0OHN1hQz81AU7ZGUQHdjInRWCXlsR-mIp1pXLLUO5pF07CrZa5OvL9M120AfwgL4Y9AqBWP1FcVmcrSbnk/s320/2017-636426506328043372-804.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Ahram Online</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the markings can be dated to the late pre-Dynastic era, and were found engraved on sandstone rocks. They depict scenes of troops of renowned animals at that time, such as hippopotamuses, wild bulls and donkeys, as well as gazelles. Markings showing workshops for the production of tools and instruments were also found on some of the rocks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nasr Salama, director general of Aswan and Nubia Antiquities, described the newly discovered markings as "unique and rare" in Egypt. He pointed out that similar markings were previously uncovered at sites in Al-Qarta and Abu Tanqoura, north of Komombo town.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"These markings helped archaeologists to determine the exact dating of the newly discovered ones in Subeira Valley," Salama asserted. He added that 10 new sections of wall markings at around 15,000 years old had been discovered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Adel Kelani described the discovery as important because it dates to the same period of markings founds in caves in southern France, Spain and Italy, which confirms the idea that art and civilisation during that time spread from Africa to Europe and not vice versa.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/278221/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Ancient-wall-markings-of-wild-animals-uncovered-in.aspx</span></i></b><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-38997306689525429072017-09-30T14:58:00.000+02:002017-10-04T15:01:03.616+02:00Gypsum head of King Akhenaten statue unearthed in Egypt's Minya<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 30 Sep 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A British-Egyptian archaeological mission from Cambridge University has discovered a gypsum head from a statue of King Akhenaten (around 1300 BC) during excavation work in Tel El-Amarna in Egypt’s Minya governorate.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxX-Ih9KGdtTYA4GXgwzASbHyh0xyv7cOyVeZF5w7aqZVPHEBM1SaGVxQgcxZ2wGRqGFohLedGmlptoy1zhNm93EOsLatQ2z-nX2WtkuFGQu7-qCPC6tUNrErQfXdGejoT9IGCVNyCK0/s1600/2017-636423764919461519-946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxX-Ih9KGdtTYA4GXgwzASbHyh0xyv7cOyVeZF5w7aqZVPHEBM1SaGVxQgcxZ2wGRqGFohLedGmlptoy1zhNm93EOsLatQ2z-nX2WtkuFGQu7-qCPC6tUNrErQfXdGejoT9IGCVNyCK0/s320/2017-636423764919461519-946.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Ahram Online</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The head – which is 9cm tall, 13.5 cm long and 8 cm wide – was unearthed during excavation work in the first hall of the Great Atun Temple in Tel El-Amarna, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri told Ahram Online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Waziri says the discovery is important because it sheds more light on the city that was Egypt's capital during the reign of King Akhenaten, the 10th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty whose reign was among the most controversial in ancient Egyptian history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Cambridge University mission is led by archaeologist Barry Kemp, who started excavations in Tel El-Amarna in 1977 at several sites including the grand Aten Temple, the Al-Ahgar village, the northern palace, and the Re and Banehsi houses, according to director-general of Antiquities in Middle Egypt Gamal El-Semestawi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The mission has also carried out restoration works at the Small Atun Temple and the northern palace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tel El-Amarna, which lies around 12 kilometers to the southwest of Minya city, holds the ruins of the city constructed by King Akhenaten and his wife Queen Nefertiti to be the home of the cult of the sun god Aten. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The ruins of this great city include magnificent temples, palaces and tombs.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/278025/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Gypsum-head-of-King-Akhenaten-statue-unearthed-in-.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-18606996591379375342017-09-22T14:48:00.000+02:002017-10-04T14:53:53.765+02:00Sphinx, Baboon and Cat Statues Found in Ancient Egyptian Burial<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | September 21, 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After years of being washed, perfumed and fed in ancient Egypt, the statue of a revered Egyptian deity was given a proper burial with other "dead" statues more than 2,000 years ago, a new study finds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ancient Egyptians buried the statue of the deity Ptah — the god of craftsmen and sculptors — with other revered statues, including those of a sphinx, baboon, cat, Osiris and Mut, in a pit next to Ptah's temple.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The statue of Ptah had likely sat in the temple for years, but it and the other sacred objects were respectfully buried after they accumulated damage and were declared useless by the ancient Egyptians, the researchers said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"We can consider that when a new statue was erected in the temple, this one [of Ptah] was set aside in a pit," said study co-researcher Christophe Thiers, director of the French-Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak. "The other artifacts were also previously damaged during their 'lifetime' in the temple, and then they were buried with the Ptah statue."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Archaeologists discovered the pit in December 2014 at Karnak, an Egyptian temple precinct, and spent about a month excavating its rich assemblage. The pit held 38 objects, including:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fourteen statuettes and figurines of Osiris.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eleven fragments of inlay from statues. The inlay included that of an iris, a cornea, a false beard, a cap, a strand of hair and an inlay plaque.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Three baboon statuettes (representing the god Thoth).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Two statuettes of the goddess Mut (one with hieroglyphic inscriptions).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Two unidentified statuette bases.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One head and one fragmentary statuette of a cat (Bastet).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One small fragmentary faience stele (a stone slab) recording the name of the god Ptah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One head of a statuette of a man in gilded limestone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One lower part of a statue of the seated god Ptah, sawn and repaired.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One sphinx.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One unidentified metal piece.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It appeared that the artifacts were buried in a certain order. After digging the pit, also known as a favissa (a cache of sacred objects that are no longer in use), the ancient Egyptians would have put down the lower part of Ptah's limestone statue. The statue was large, and it probably took two to three people to carry it, the researchers said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next to the statue, the Egyptians would have placed a wooden effigy of the god Osiris that had metal appliqué, including a beard and two feathers in its crown. Then, the other artifacts would have been distributed around these two artifacts, which were then covered with about 8 inches (20 centimeters) of backfill. This is where the ancient Egyptians placed a statue of a small limestone sphinx.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The pit was then covered with more backfill. At the top, the Egyptians placed a small male head made of gilded limestone, likely for protection, the researchers said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The objects were made at different times, the researchers found. The statue of Ptah dates to the New Kingdom; the style of the sphinx supports a late Ptolemaic date; and the gilded head dates to the early Ptolemaic period, the researchers said. However, by studying the site's rock layers, the researchers found that the artifacts were buried by the temple's priests during the second half of the Ptolemaic period, between the second century B.C. and the middle of the first century B.C., the researchers wrote in the study.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Rebirth awaits</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The vast number of buried Osiris figurines and statues intrigued the archaeologists. Osiris was the god of fertility and of the dead in the underworld, but also of rebirth. It's possible the priests placed Osiris with Ptah because of his role in rebirth and regeneration, the researchers said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"[Ptah] is waiting for rebirth," study lead researcher Guillaume Charloux, an archaeologist with the French-Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak, told Live Science. "It's protected by the sphinx. It's surrounded by the Osiris statues. We have the feeling here that it's waiting for rebirth, like mummies of pharaohs."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The study was published online today (Sept. 21) in the journal Antiquity.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: https://www.livescience.com/60484-egyptian-statues-found-in-pit.html</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-71721273250235528272017-09-10T14:41:00.000+02:002017-10-04T14:41:45.825+02:00Amun-Re goldsmith tomb uncovered in Draa Abul Naga necropolis on Luxor's west bank<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The tomb was discovered along with a number of others by an Egyptian archaeological mission led by Mostafa Waziri</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 9 Sep 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In a gala ceremony held in Draa Abul-Naga necropolis on Luxor's West Bank on Saturday, Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany announced the discovery of an 18th Dynasty tomb of god Amun-Re’s goldsmith, Amenemhat (Kampp 390), and a Middle Kingdom burial shaft for a family.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Luxor Governor Mohamed Badr attended the ceremony as well as members of parliament, the Greek and Cypriot ambassadors to Egypt, as well as China's cultural attaché and the Swiss head of mission.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The discovery was made by an Egyptian archaeological mission led by Mostafa Waziri. The newly discovered tomb includes an entrance located in the courtyard of another Middle Kingdom tomb, Kampp 150.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The entrance leads to a squared chamber where a niche with a duo statue depicting the tomb owner and his wife is found on one end. The statue shows Amenemhat sitting on a high backed chair beside his wife who wears a long dress and wig.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Between their legs stands, on a smaller scale, a small figure of one of their sons. Waziri told Ahram Online that the tomb has two burial shafts: the main one for the tomb’s owner and his wife.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is seven metres deep and has a collection of mummies, sarcophagi and funerary masks carved in wood along with a collection of ushabti figurines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The second shaft was uncovered to the left of the tomb’s main chamber and bears a collection of 21st and 22nd dynasty sarcophagi subject to deterioration during the Late Period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the open courtyard, the mission stumbled upon a collection of Middle Kingdom burial shafts, where a family burial of a woman and her two children was unearthed. It includes of two wooden coffins with mummies and a collection of head-rests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Osteologist Sherine Ahmed Shawqi, who studied the mummies’ bones, explains that early studies on these mummies show that the woman died at the age of 50 and that during her life she was suffering from cavities that led to abscesses in her jaw and a bacterial disease in her bones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"This woman probably cried extensively as the size of her carbuncular are abnormally enlarged," Shawqi said, adding that inside the coffin the head-rest of the deceased woman was found as well as a group of pottery vessels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Studies on the mummies of her two children show that they were two adult males of age ranging between 20 to 30 years old. Both mummies are in a very good state of conservation with the bones still having mummification liquids.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Waziri asserted that one of the male mummies shows that he was suffering from cavities during his life while the second shows that it was probably put later in the same coffin because the bones were bare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Archaeologist Mohamed Baabash, who is a member of the excavation team, said that during excavations the mission stumbled upon several funerary objects, some of which belong to the tomb owner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Among the discovered artifacts are limestone remains of an offering table; four wooden sarcophagi partly damaged and decorated with hieroglyphic text and scenes of different ancient Egyptian deities; and a sandstone duo statue of a trader in King Tuthmose III’s temple named “Mah.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A collection of 150 ushabti figurines carved in faience, wood, burned clay, limestone and mud brick was also unearthed. The mission also unearthed a collection of 50 funerary cones, 40 of which are evidence of the presence of other tombs belonging to four officials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The exact location of the latter has not been yet found. These officials are Maati, Bengy, Rourou and vizier Ptahmes. The other stamps belong to Neb-Amun, the grain harvester and supervisor of Amun's grain storehouses, whose tomb is probably TT145, and Nebsenu, the high priest of Amun whose tomb is probably Kampp 143.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/276757/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/AmunRe-goldsmith-tomb-uncovered-in-Draa-Abul-Naga-.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-75514298496624169932017-08-25T08:00:00.000+02:002017-08-25T08:00:22.710+02:00Meet King Tut’s Father, Egypt’s First Revolutionary<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Akhenaten upended the religion, art, and politics of ancient Egypt, and then his legacy was buried. Now he endures as a symbol of change.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Peter Hessler</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Photograph by Rena Effendi</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes the most powerful commentary on a king is made by those who are silent. One morning in Amarna, a village in Upper Egypt about 200 miles south of Cairo, a set of delicate, sparrowlike bones were arranged atop a wooden table. “The clavicle is here, and the upper arm, the ribs, the lower legs,” said Ashley Shidner, an American bioarchaeologist. “This one is about a year and a half to two years old.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The skeleton belonged to a child who lived at Amarna more than 3,300 years ago, when the site was Egypt’s capital. The city was founded by Akhenaten, a king who, along with his wife Nefertiti and his son, Tutankhamun, has captured the modern imagination as much as any other figure from ancient Egypt. This anonymous skeleton, in contrast, had been excavated from an unmarked grave. But the bones showed evidence of malnutrition, which Shidner and others have observed in the remains of dozens of Amarna children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The growth delay starts around seven and a half months,” Shidner said. “That’s when you start transition feeding from breast milk to solid food.” At Amarna this transition seems to have been delayed for many children. “Possibly the mother is making the decision that there’s not enough food.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Until recently Akhenaten’s subjects seemed to be the only people who hadn’t weighed in on his legacy. Others have had plenty to say about the king, who ruled from around 1353 B.C. until 1336 B.C. and tried to transform Egyptian religion, art, and governance. Akhenaten’s successors were mostly scathing about his reign. Even Tutankhamun—whose brief reign has been a subject of fascination since his tomb was discovered in 1922—issued a decree criticizing conditions under his father: “The land was in distress; the gods had abandoned this land.” During the next dynasty, Akhenaten was referred to as “the criminal” and “the rebel,” and pharaohs destroyed his statues and images, trying to remove him from history entirely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Opinion swung to the opposite extreme during modern times, when archaeologists rediscovered Akhenaten. In 1905 Egyptologist James Henry Breasted described the king as “the first individual in human history.” To Breasted and many others, Akhenaten was a revolutionary whose ideas, especially the concept of monotheism, seemed far ahead of his time. And the archaeological record has always been thin enough to allow for excavations of the imagination. Dominic Montserrat, whose Akhenaten book is subtitled History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt, noted that we often take scattered evidence from ancient times and organize it into narratives that make sense in our world. We do this, he wrote, “so that the past could be held up to the present, like a mirror.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That modern mirror of Akhenaten has reflected almost every identity imaginable. The king has been portrayed as a proto-Christian, a peace-loving environmentalist, an out-and-proud homosexual, and a totalitarian dictator. His image was embraced with equal enthusiasm by both the Nazis and the Afrocentrist movement. Thomas Mann, Naguib Mahfouz, and Frida Kahlo all incorporated the pharaoh into their art. When Philip Glass wrote three operas about visionary thinkers, his trinity consisted of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and Akhenaten. Sigmund Freud once fainted during a heated argument with Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung about whether the Egyptian king had suffered from excessive love of his mother. (Freud’s diagnosis: Akhenaten was oedipal, almost a thousand years before Oedipus.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Archaeologists always tried to resist such interpretations, but key pieces of the puzzle were missing. Much study of Amarna has focused on elite culture: royal sculpture and architecture, and inscriptions from the tombs of high officials. For years scholars hoped for the opportunity to study the burial places of common people, knowing that Amarna’s brief window of existence—17 years—meant that a cemetery would provide a rare snapshot of everyday life. But it wasn’t until the early 2000s that a detailed survey of the surrounding desert finally located evidence of four separate cemeteries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After the discovery, archaeologists and bioarchaeologists spent nearly a decade excavating and analyzing the largest of these cemeteries. They collected a sample of skeletons from at least 432 people, and their findings were grim. Of the burials where age at death was known, 70 percent of the individuals had died before reaching 35, and only nine appear to have lived beyond 50. More than one-third were dead before they turned 15. The growth patterns of children were delayed by as much as two years. Many adults had suffered spinal damage, which bioarchaeologists believe is evidence that people were being overworked, perhaps in order to build the new capital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2015 the team proceeded to another cemetery, to the north of Amarna, where they excavated 135 bodies. Anna Stevens, an Australian archaeologist who directs the cemetery fieldwork, told me that excavators soon noticed something different about these burials. Many of the bodies appear to have been buried hastily, in graves that contain almost no goods or objects. There isn’t evidence of violent death, but family groupings seem to have broken down; in many cases it looks as if two or three unrelated people were tossed together into a grave. They were young—92 percent of the individuals in this cemetery were no older than 25. More than half died between the ages of seven and 15.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This is very clearly not a normal death curve,” Stevens said. “It may be no coincidence that this area had the king’s limestone quarries. Is this a group of workers who are being conscripted on the basis of their youth—and effectively being worked to death?” In her opinion, one thing is clear: “It absolutely dispels any lingering sense that Amarna was a nice place to live.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For Akhenaten, Amarna represented something pure and profoundly visionary. “No official has ever advised me concerning it,” the king wrote proudly of his founding of the brand-new capital city. He chose the site, a broad stretch of virgin desert above the east bank of the Nile, because it was uncontaminated by the worship of any god.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He also may have been motivated by the example of his father, Amenhotep III, who was one of the greatest builders of monuments, temples, and palaces in Egyptian history. Both kings were part of the 18th dynasty, which came to power after defeating the Hyksos, a group from the eastern Mediterranean that had invaded northern Egypt. The forefathers of the 18th dynasty were based in southern Egypt, and in order to drive out the Hyksos, they incorporated key innovations from their enemy, including the horse-drawn chariot and the composite bow. The Egyptians professionalized their military, and unlike most previous dynasties, the 18th maintained a standing army.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They were also skilled at diplomacy, and the empire eventually stretched from current-day Sudan to Syria. Foreigners brought new wealth and skills to the Egyptian court, and the effects were profound. Under Amenhotep III, who ruled from around 1390 to 1353 B.C., the style of royal art shifted in ways that would be described today as more naturalistic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even as Amenhotep III welcomed new ideas, he was also looking back to the distant past. He studied the pyramids of kings who had lived more than a thousand years earlier, and he incorporated traditional elements into festivals, temples, and royal palaces. He continued to worship Amun, who was the patron god of the city of Thebes. But Amenhotep III also began to emphasize Aten, a form of the sun god Re, portrayed as a solar disk, that recalled older patterns of worship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The king’s son took the throne as Amenhotep IV, but during the fifth year of his reign he made two momentous decisions. He changed his name to Akhenaten—Devoted to Aten—and he decided to move the capital to the site now known as Amarna. The king called his city Akhetaten, or Horizon of the Sun Disk, and soon this stretch of empty desert became home to an estimated 30,000 people. Palaces and temples were built quickly, at astonishing scale—the Great Aten Temple, the city’s largest ritual complex, was nearly a half mile long.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Meanwhile Egyptian art was also being revolutionized. For centuries strict traditions had defined the correct subject matter, proportions, and poses of paintings and sculptures. Under Akhenaten, artisans were unleashed from these guidelines. They created lifelike, fluid scenes of the natural world, and they began to portray Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti, in unusually natural and intimate poses. Often the royal couple would be shown kissing and caressing their daughters; one scene even featured the king and queen about to get into bed together. The portrayal of Akhenaten’s features seems designed to shock: massive jaw, drooping lips, and elongated, otherworldly eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the king’s vision, religion became radically simplified. Egyptians worshipped as many as a thousand gods, but Akhenaten was loyal only to one. He and Nefertiti functioned as the sole intermediaries between the people and Aten, taking on the traditional role of the priesthood. Nefertiti was named co-regent, and while it’s unclear whether she wielded political power, her religious and symbolic status was highly unusual for a queen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All of this must have threatened priests of the old order who served Amun. After a few years at Amarna, the pharaoh ordered work crews to gouge out all images of Amun in state temples. It was an act of unbelievable boldness: the first time in history that a king had attacked a god. But revolutions have a way of turning against their greatest enthusiasts, and this violence eventually would consume Akhenaten’s own creations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I arrived at the site of the Great Aten Temple one day just as Barry Kemp found a piece of a broken statue of Akhenaten. Kemp is a professor emeritus from Cambridge University who directs the Amarna Project, and he’s worked at the site since 1977. He’s spent more than three times as many years digging through the city’s ruins as Akhenaten spent building it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This is beautifully made,” he said, holding up the piece of carved stone statuary, on which only the king’s lower legs were visible. “This is not accidentally damaged.” Amarna archaeology has a forensic quality because so many artifacts were deliberately destroyed after the sudden death of the king around 1336 B.C. His only son and heir was Tutankhaten, no more than 10 years old, who soon replaced the “Aten” in his name with the title of the god that his father had hated: Tutankhamun. He abandoned Amarna and returned to the old traditions. Tutankhamun died unexpectedly, and soon the head of the army, Horemheb, declared himself pharaoh—possibly the first military coup in history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Horemheb and his successors, including Ramses the Great, dismantled Amarna’s royal buildings and temples. They destroyed statues of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and they omitted the names of the heretic king and his successors from official lists of Egyptian rulers. This act of damnatio memoriae was so successful that it was one of the reasons Tutankhamun’s tomb escaped significant looting in the Valley of the Kings. Tut’s tomb may even contain further secrets—during the past year archaeologists have been investigating signs of possible hidden doorways in two walls of the burial chamber. In pharaonic times generations of looters usually combed through such tombs, but Tut’s was largely left intact. People simply forgot that it was there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They also forgot most details of Amarna life. Kemp’s recent excavations have shown that the Great Aten Temple was destroyed and rebuilt sometime around Akhenaten’s 12th regnal year. The piece of statuary that he showed me dated to this event—it had been shattered at the command of the king himself, not his successors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s an odd thing for them to have done, from our perspective,” Kemp said, explaining that Akhenaten used such fragments as the foundation for a new, revised temple. “The statue is no longer needed, so they reduce it to hard core. We have no commentary on what’s going on.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But other evidence is often remarkably intact. Ancient settlement sites were usually located in the Nile Valley, where millennia of floods and habitation destroyed original structures. In contrast, Amarna is situated in the desert above the river, where drinking water had to be hauled in. This was why the site was uninhabited before Akhenaten, and it’s why it was abandoned so completely. Even today you can still see the original brick walls of Amarna houses, and broken pottery is everywhere. It’s possible to visit the 3,300-year-old building where the famous painted bust of Nefertiti was excavated by a German archaeological team in 1912.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kemp told me that he was originally attracted to Amarna by the intact city site, not the outsize figure of Akhenaten. He believes that too many modern characteristics have been ascribed to the king, and in Kemp’s opinion, even the word religion is “mischievous” when applied to ancient Egypt. Like most scholars nowadays, he does not describe Akhenaten as a monotheist. The word is too charged by subsequent religious traditions, and during Akhenaten’s reign most Egyptians continued to worship other gods.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nevertheless, Kemp can’t entirely resist speculating about the king’s character. He’s impressed by the changeability of Akhenaten’s mind and by his ability to force workers to carry out his whims. At the Great Aten Temple, Kemp showed me traces of several large mud-brick offering tables that would have once been heaped with food and incense as part of rituals. The number of these tables is staggering—more than 1,700. “It’s an insight into his mind, a man with a rather obsessive literalist mind,” Kemp said. He once wrote: “The danger of being an absolute ruler is that no one dares tell you that what you have just decreed is not a good idea.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This lack of accountability probably also inspired artistic freedom. Ray Johnson, who directs the Chicago House, the University of Chicago’s research center in Luxor, believes that Akhenaten must have been “wildly creative,” despite his obsessive and despotic tendencies. “The later artistic representation at Amarna is so beautiful you could cry,” Johnson said. “Akhenaten rejected his own early exaggerated art style for a much softer naturalism later in his reign. The representations of women in particular are incredibly sensual.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Johnson has recently pieced together broken wall reliefs and statuary from collections scattered all around the world. Digitization makes work like this faster. Johnson showed me a virtual “join” in which he had matched a photograph of one fragment located in Copenhagen with another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “They’re 4,000 miles apart, but I realized that they join,” he said. The connection reveals a surprising scene: Akhenaten performs a ritual not with Nefertiti, but with Kiya, another wife, who didn’t have the status of queen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A small number of scholars are involved in such work, and the ones I met seemed to have a softer view of Akhenaten, perhaps because of intimate contact with the art. This proved to be the king’s most lasting legacy, at least until his rediscovery in modern times. His city and his ritual practices were quickly abandoned, but the Amarna artistic style influenced subsequent periods. Marsha Hill, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, told me that handling Amarna’s sculpture fragments makes her feel more positive about Akhenaten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Everybody likes revolutionaries at some level,” she said. “Someone who has a real good, strong idea that makes it seem like things are going to get better. I don’t see him as destructive. Of course, it didn’t work out. It usually doesn’t. Steam builds up under the ground until it explodes, and then you have to put it all together again.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Egypt’s modern revolution has made it even harder for archaeologists to study the scattered and shattered evidence of Akhenaten’s reign. In February 2011 protests on Cairo’s Tahrir Square forced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled for nearly three decades. In 2012 Egypt held its first ever democratic presidential election, which was won by Mohamed Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. But after just a year in office he was removed by a military coup. In the aftermath of this event, security forces massacred hundreds of Morsi supporters in Cairo. Protests raged across the country, including in Mallawi, a city across the Nile from Amarna. In August 2013 a local mob of Morsi supporters attacked a Coptic Christian church, a government office building, and the Mallawi Museum. During the violence the museum’s ticket taker was killed and every portable artifact was stolen—more than a thousand in all. Since then the police have recovered most of the pieces, but it took three years for the museum to reopen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At Amarna agricultural encroachment is an even greater threat than looting. Now that diesel-powered pumps bring water up from the river, farmers are reclaiming desert land, including parts of the ancient city that have yet to be excavated. Officially the site is protected, but enforcement has been badly weakened by the revolution. Mohammed Khallaf, then the director of the office of antiquities in Minya, the regional capital, told me that villagers around Amarna are legally limited to about 300 acres of cultivated land. “But they’ve added another 300 through violations,” he said. “Eighty percent of the encroachment has happened since the revolution.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The revolution also halted construction of the Aten Museum, the most impressive building in Minya. Designed by German and Egyptian architects, the modernist structure rises nearly 200 feet beside the Nile, in a shape reminiscent of a pyramid. In all of Egypt, Akhenaten is the only pharaoh who is still being honored by the creation of monumental architecture. It’s a testament to the fact that the country’s Muslim leaders embrace Akhenaten’s popular identity as a monotheist, but nevertheless his legacy can’t seem to escape political upheaval. More than $10 million was spent on the museum before the funding abruptly ended, a victim of the post-Tahrir economic collapse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One day I visited the site and found 11 employees sitting in a darkened office with the air-conditioning off. Outside it was 109°F. Mohammed Shaben introduced himself as the museum’s IT manager and apologized for the heat—they had no electricity. I asked what an IT manager does without electricity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I don’t have anything to do,” Shaben said. “Everybody is waiting.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He was 26, and most of the others were even younger. All were educated: curators, interior designers, restoration specialists. In Egypt about 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30, and young people dominated the Tahrir protests. They’ve also paid the highest price for the revolution’s failure. Since the coup there’s been a brutal crackdown on dissent, and Egyptian jails are home to tens of thousands of political prisoners, many of them young. Nearly a third of the country’s youth are unemployed. Shaben told me that he and other government employees were required to come and sit idly every day, despite the fact that construction on the facility had halted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He gave me a tour of the museum, which featured five floors, 14 exhibition halls, and a theater, everything unfinished and open to the elements. A pack of stray dogs had taken up residence inside the museum; the site was strewn with tiles, rebar, and rusting air-conditioner ducts. “Look out for the bats,” Shaben said, when we entered the theater. He told me that someday it will seat 800.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A young antiquities inspector named Ahmed Gaafar accompanied us, complaining that the political upheaval had stymied his career as a curator. This pattern seems eternal, from the graves of Amarna to the frustration of Tahrir: In every time and in every place, revolutions eat the young. Gaafar mentioned Egypt’s recent presidential election, which had been won by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the general who had led the coup that ousted Morsi, the Islamist leader. Gaafar saw a connection between this coup and Akhenaten’s era.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Some people say that Morsi is like Akhenaten, and Sisi is like Horemheb,” Gaafar said. “Horemheb liberated Egypt from a theocratic state that was growing weaker and weaker.” He continued, hopefully: “And he prepared the way for the Ramesside period, which was the greatest in Egyptian history. It’s the same with Sisi—he’s preparing Egypt to be great again.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That sentiment—preparing Egypt to be great again—is far older than Sisi or even Akhenaten. In ancient Egypt, after periods of weakness or disunity, leaders often declared a wehem mesut, literally “repeating a birth”—a renaissance. They turned to ancient symbols as a way of using past glories to promise future success. Tutankhamun declared a wehem mesut, and it seems Horemheb may have as well. And the strategy continues today. Revolutions gain legitimacy if they’re connected to the past, which is why Tahrir slogans were often accompanied by images of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat. It’s also why marginalized groups around the world, ranging from gay-rights activists to Afrocentrists, have gravitated to the figure of Akhenaten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2012, after Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood came to power, they passed a constitution that cited Akhenaten’s “monotheism,” and they named their policy program Nahda, Arabic for Renaissance. Three short years after Morsi was deposed, another charismatic leader on the other side of the world, Donald Trump, would rise under his own version of wehem mesut: “Make America Great Again.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Egypt there’s always a temptation to hold that modern mirror to the distant past, remaking the pharaonic world in our image. But it’s also true that ancient Egyptians developed sophisticated political tactics—their system, after all, lasted more than 3,000 years. They introduced us to the concept of divine kingship, as well as many universal symbols of power, including the crown and the scepter. Amarna art often functioned as propaganda, portraying Akhenaten giving prizes to sycophants and parading around the city with deferential bodyguards. Barry Kemp has written that those scenes provide “an unintended caricature of all modern leaders who indulge in the trappings of charismatic display.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the site of the Great Aten Temple, I asked Kemp whether such patterns of thought and behavior are universal across time. “We’re all the same species,” he said. “We’re wired up to some extent to think and behave the same way. But long-developed traditions moderate individual societies. That’s the responsibility—to find the balance between universal patterns and those that are distinctive culturally.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Amarna Project, which organizes research at the site, keeps a Cairo office in a building next to Tahrir. Anna Stevens said that this environment has given her a new perspective on the past. “Living through this time has made me think much more about Akhenaten and the impact of revolutions,” she said, referring to the rise of Sisi. “I’m struck by this interest in a strong male leader.” She commented that at Amarna, the tombs of high officials feature Aten and the royal family, but thus far these images haven’t been found in the commoners’ cemeteries. “There’s no mention of Akhenaten or Nefertiti,” Stevens said. “It’s like it’s not their place.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She observed a similar dynamic with the elitism of today’s politics. “You can have very radical changes at the top, but below that, nothing changes,” she said. “You can shift a whole city to another part of Egypt; you can shift a whole group of people to Tahrir Square—but nothing changes.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In her view a revolution is an act of selective storytelling. “Akhenaten is creating a narrative,” Stevens said one day in her office. And then she pointed to an image of skeletons from a commoners’ cemetery. “But this narrative isn’t for these people, really.” Their stories will never be fully known, in the same way that the lives of most contemporary Egyptians are ignored when we focus on the dominant figures of national politics: Mubarak, Morsi, and Sisi. If we find it hard to capture the full range of revolutionary experiences during the past six years, what are the odds that we can truly understand the politics of the mid-14th century B.C.?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“That’s the way life is,” Stevens said. She sat six stories above Tahrir, surrounded by a mess of data from Amarna excavations. But she seemed comfortable with Akhenaten’s fundamental uncertainty: the mysteries of his faith, the messages of his people’s bones, and all the broken pieces that would never be put together again. She smiled and said, “There’s no clear narrative.”</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/05/akhenaten-revolutionary-egypt-king/</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-91578912455232871842017-08-24T22:12:00.000+02:002017-08-24T22:12:16.115+02:002,000-Year-Old Tombs from Roman Period Found in Egypt<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | August 24, 2017</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A series of tombs dating back about 2,000 years, to the time when the Romans controlled Egypt, has been discovered, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced yesterday (Aug. 23).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Excavations at Bir esh-Shaghala in the Dakhla Oasis have uncovered tombs made of mudbrick and some are quite large containing multiple burial chambers. Some of the tombs have vaulted roofs and one tomb has a roof built in the shape of a pyramid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Five of the tombs were recently discovered while eight more were found within the past six excavation seasons, ministry officials said in a statement. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Artifacts were found in the tombs, including mummy masks and pieces of inscribed pottery known as ostraca. Giant containers were also found that may have held wine or olive oil, although chemical tests will need to be done to confirm this. The discovery of the tombs was made by a team of archaeologists from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities. The excavations at Bir esh-Shaghala are scheduled to continue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Romans took over Egypt in 30 B.C., following Cleopatra VII's suicide after her navy was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Octavian at the Battle of Actium. While the Roman emperors ruled Egypt from Rome, the Egyptians revered the emperors as pharaohs. Their traditional Egyptian funerary customs (including mummification) and religious practices continued until the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion during the fourth century A.D.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Located in the Western Desert, about 217 miles (350 kilometers) west of Luxor, the Dakhla Oasis contains a vast amount of archaeological remains that date from prehistoric to modern times. A number of settlements from the Roman era flourished in the Dakhla Oasis. In 2014, Live Science reported that one of the Roman era settlements in the oasis had yielded the remains of an ancient school covered with writing that included references to drug use.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source: https://www.livescience.com/60223-2000-year-old-egyptian-tombs-from-roman-period.html</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-56977793222830327962017-08-17T15:53:00.000+02:002017-08-17T16:18:20.953+02:00Three Ptolemaic tombs uncovered in Egypt's Minya, contents suggest a 'large cemetery'<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Three new discoveries in El-Kamin El-Sahrawi point to a large cemetery spanning the 27th Dynasty and the Graeco-Roman era</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 15 Aug 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Three rock-hewn tombs from the Ptolemaic era have been discovered during excavation work in the El-Kamin El-Sahrawi area of Minya governorate, the Ministry of Antiquities announced on Tuesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The discovery was made by an Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities working in the lesser-known area to the south-east of the town of Samalout.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The tombs contain a number of sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes, as well as a collection of clay fragments, according to ministry officials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ayman Ashmawy, head of the ministry's Ancient Egyptian Sector, said that studies carried out on the clay fragments suggest the tombs are from the 27th Dynasty and the Graeco-Roman era.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"This fact suggests that the area was a large cemetery over a long period of time," said Ashmawy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ashmawy describes the discovery as "very important" because it reveals more secrets from the El-Kamil El-Sahrawi archaeological site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During previous excavation work, the mission uncovered about 20 tombs built in the catacomb architectural style, which was widespread during the 27th Dynasty and the Graeco-Roman era.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ali El-Bakry, head of the excavation mission,told Ahram Online that the three newly discovered tombs have a different architectural design from the previous ones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first tomb is composed of a perpendicular burial shaft engraved in rock and leading to a burial chamber containing four sarcophagi with anthropoid lids. Nine burial holes were also uncovered inside.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second tomb consists of a perpendicular burial shaft and two burial chambers. The first chamber is located to the north and runs from east to west, with the remains of two sarcophagi, suggesting that it was for the burial of two people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A collection of six burial holes was also found among them, one for a small child.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"This was the first time to find a burial of a child at the El-Kamin El-Sahrawi site," El-Bakry said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He added that the second room is located at the end of the shaft and does not contain anything except of remains of a wooden coffin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Excavation Works at the third tomb have not yet been finished.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">El-Bakry said examination of the bones shows them to be from men, women and children of different ages, supporting the notion that the tombs were part of a large cemetery for a large city, and not for a military garrison as some suggest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Excavation work started in 2015 when the mission unearthed a collection of five sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes, as well as the remains of a wooden sarcophagus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The second session began in October 2016, with five tombs were uncovered. Four of them have similar interior designs, while the fifth consists of a burial shaft.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Work is under way to reveal more secrets at the site.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/275381/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Three-Ptolemaic-tombs-uncovered-in-Egypts-Minya,-c.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-55126078790653937232017-06-21T18:29:00.002+02:002017-06-21T18:29:40.419+02:00Yale archaeologists discover earliest monumental Egyptian hieroglyphs<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Bess Connolly Martell</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of YaleNews</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A joint Yale and Royal Museums of Art and History (Brussels) expedition to explore the the ancient Egyptian city of Elkab has uncovered some previously unknown rock inscriptions, which include the earliest monumental hieroglyphs dating back around 5,200 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These new inscriptions were not previously recorded by any expedition and are of great significance in the history of the ancient Egyptian writing systems, according to Egyptologist John Coleman Darnell, professor in Yale's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale, who co-directs the Elkab Desert Survey Project.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This newly discovered rock art site of El-Khawy preserves some of the earliest — and largest — signs from the formative stages of the hieroglyphic script and provides evidence for how the ancient Egyptians invented their unique writing system,” says Darnell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The researchers also discovered rock art depicting a herd of elephants that was carved between 4,000-3,500 B.C.E. One of the elephants has a little elephant inside of it, which, according to Darnell, “is an incredibly rare way of representing a pregnant female animal.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The archaeologists also identified a panel of four signs, created circa 3,250 B.C.E. and written right to left — the dominant writing direction in later Egyptian texts — portraying animal images of a bull’s head on a short pole followed by two back-to-back saddlebill storks with a bald ibis bird above and between them. The arrangement of symbols is common in later Egyptian representations of the solar cycle and with the concept of luminosity. “These images may express the concept of royal authority over the ordered cosmos,” says Darnell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Darnell says that the team was “absolutely flabbergasted” by the find because of the immense size of not just the individual tableaus, but the individual elements as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This discovery isn’t new in the sense that this is the first time that anyone has seen these hieroglyphs; this is the first time that anyone has seen them on such a massive scale. These individual hieroglyphs each measure just over a half meter in height, and the entire tableau is about 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) in height. Previously found signs were only one or two centimeters in size,” says Darnell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He continues: “In the modern world this would be akin to seeing smaller text on your computer screen and then suddenly seeing very large ones made the same way only on a billboard.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The area where the researchers located the inscriptions is in the northern desert hinterland of Elkab. This area, along with Hierakonpolis, located across the river and known as its twin city, were very important centers in ancient Egypt, says Darnell, and demonstrate that the communicative system in these areas is not limited to the more commonly found small tokens or labels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Darnell explains that these discoveries reveal that there was not a slow development of writing primarily for bureaucratic use as previously believed, but that hieroglyphic writing was more geographically widespread and topically diverse at the time of or shortly after its development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This also suggests that there is a much more expansive use of the early writing system than is indicated from other surviving archaeological material,” says Darnell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The team of archaeologists located these rock inscriptions by mapping out routes based on road networks in Egypt. Most rock inscriptions in Egypt that Darnell has seen, he says, are not randomly placed: Most inscriptions are located along major roads, either roads that parallel the Nile or roads that head out into the desert. They are usually at a juncture or crossroads. “Any place where someone might pause in their journey,” says Darnell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Using a new recording technique pioneered at Yale, Darnell and Alberto Urcia, a digital archaeologist and associate research scientist in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, created a series of 3D images of the inscriptions from photographs taken in the field.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This new technology makes it possible to record sites at a level of accuracy and detail that was absolutely impossible before,” says Darnell, adding, “It also means that we can record the site as a place, or a location, and not just as a series of inscriptions.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“This was not what I was expecting to find when I set out on this period of work on the expedition,” says Darnell. “It was completely shocking to me.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The team members this season also include Colleen Darnell, Egyptologist and curatorial affiliate, Yale Peabody Museum; Massimilliano Montanari, digital archaeology and 3D modeling specialist; and Elizabeth Hines ’17 and Reed Morgan ’17.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The expedition, which was directed by Darnell and Dirk Huyge, was undertaken in cooperation with the Ministry of Antiquities and the Aswan and Edfu inspectorates.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://news.yale.edu/2017/06/20/yale-archaeologists-discover-earliest-monumental-egyptian-hieroglyphs#.WUmxeDE_rZU.twitter</span></i></b></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-30847692595374923712017-06-20T18:43:00.000+02:002017-06-21T18:43:52.930+02:00Ancient Tomb of Gold Worker Found Along Nile River<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | June 19, 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A 3,400-year-old tomb holding the remains of more than a dozen possibly mummified people has been discovered on Sai Island, along the Nile River in northern Sudan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Archaeologists discovered the tomb in 2015, though it wasn't until 2017 that a team with the AcrossBorders archaeological research project fully excavated the site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The island is part of an ancient land known as Nubia that Egypt controlled 3,400 years ago. The Egyptians built settlements and fortifications throughout Nubia, including on Sai Island, which had a settlement and a gold mine. The tomb, which contains multiple chambers, appears to hold the remains of Egyptians who lived in or near that settlement and worked in gold production.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The artifacts found in the tomb include scarabs (a type of amulet widely used in Egypt), ceramic vessels, a gold ring, the remains of gold funerary masks worn by the deceased and a small stone sculpture known as a shabti. The ancient Egyptians believed that shabtis could do the work of the deceased for them in the afterlife. Some of the artifacts bore Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions that revealed the tomb was originally created for a man named Khnummose, who was a "master gold worker."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The remains of Khnummose (which may have been mummified) were found next to those of a woman who may have been his wife. Some of the other people found in tomb may have been relatives of Khnummose, the researchers said, adding that they planned to conduct DNA analyses of the remains.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"We will try to extract ancient DNA from the [bones] of the bodies in question," said Julia Budka, professor for Egyptian Archaeology and Art History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. "If the [ancient] DNA is preserved, this will help us a lot. Otherwise, it all remains tentative," said Budka, who noted that the samples are already at the Department for Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The archaeologists said they aren't sure how many of the bodies were mummified.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The state of preservation is very difficult here," Budka said. "I am waiting for the report of my physical anthropologists. For now, the position and also traces of bitumen speak for some kind of mummification for all persons in Tomb 26 who were placed in wooden coffins." Bitumen is a type of petroleum that the ancient Egyptians sometimes used in mummification.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many of the coffins are also poorly preserved, and it's uncertain exactly how many of the people were buried in coffins, Budka said.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: https://www.livescience.com/59534-ancient-nubia-tomb-of-gold-worker-found.html</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-49372474947745191692017-06-02T17:36:00.002+02:002017-06-02T17:36:57.242+02:00First complete genome data extracted from ancient Egyptian mummies<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Study finds that ancient Egyptians were most closely related to ancient populations from the Middle East and Western Asia. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An international team of researchers have successfully recovered and analysed ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies dating from approximately 1400 BCE to 400 BCE, including the first genome-wide data from three individuals. The study found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did, whereas ancient Egyptians were found to be most closely related to ancient people from the Middle East and Western Asia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This study counters prior scepticism about the possibility of recovering reliable ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies. Despite the potential issues of degradation and contamination caused by climate and mummification methods, the authors were able to use high-throughput DNA sequencing and robust authentication methods to ensure the ancient origin and reliability of the data. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that Egyptian mummies can be a reliable source of ancient DNA, and can contribute to a more accurate and refined understanding of Egypt’s history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Egypt is a promising location for the study of ancient populations. It has a rich and well-documented history, and its geographic location and many interactions with populations from surrounding areas, in Africa, Asia and Europe, make it a dynamic region. Recent advances in the study of ancient DNA present an opportunity to test existing understandings of Egyptian history using ancient genetic data.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, genetic studies of ancient Egyptian mummies are rare due to methodological and contamination issues. Although some of the first extractions of ancient DNA were from mummified remains, scientists have raised doubts as to whether genetic data, especially the nuclear DNA which encodes for the majority of the genome, from mummies would be reliable, and whether it could be recovered at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The potential preservation of DNA has to be regarded with scepticism,” said Johannes Krause, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and senior author of the study. “The hot Egyptian climate, the high humidity levels in many tombs and some of the chemicals used in mummification techniques, contribute to DNA degradation and are thought to make the long-term survival of DNA in Egyptian mummies unlikely.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For this study, the team, led by the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, and including researchers from the University of Cambridge, looked at genetic differentiation and population continuity over a 1,300 year timespan, and compared these results to modern populations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The team sampled 151 mummified individuals from the archaeological site of Abusir el-Meleq, along the Nile River in Middle Egypt, from two anthropological collections hosted and curated at the University of Tübingen and the Felix von Luschan Skull Collection at the Museum of Prehistory of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preussicher Kulturbesitz.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In total, the authors recovered partial genomes from 90 individuals, and genome-wide datasets from three individuals. They were able to use the data gathered to test previous hypotheses drawn from archaeological and historical data, and from studies of modern DNA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“In particular, we were interested in looking at changes and continuities in the genetic makeup of the ancient inhabitants of Abusir el-Meleq,” said Alexander Peltzer, one of the lead authors of the study from the University of Tübingen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The team wanted to determine if the investigated ancient populations were affected at the genetic level by foreign conquest and domination during the time period under study, and compared these populations to modern Egyptian comparative populations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“There is literary and archaeological evidence for foreign influence at the site, including the presence of individuals with Greek and Latin names and the use of foreign material culture,” said co-author W. Paul van Pelt from Cambridge’s Division of Archaeology. “However, neither of these provides direct evidence for the presence of foreigners or of individuals with a migration background, because many markers of Greek and Roman identity became ‘status symbols’ and were adopted by natives and foreigners alike. The combined use of artefacts, textual evidence and ancient DNA data allows a more holistic study of past identities and cultural exchange or ‘entanglement’.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The study found that the inhabitants of Absur el-Meleq were most closely related to ancient populations in the Levant, and were also closely related to Neolithic populations from the Anatolian Peninsula and Europe. “The genetics of the Abusir el-Meleq community did not undergo any major shifts during the 1,300 year timespan we studied, suggesting that the population remained genetically relatively unaffected by foreign conquest and rule,” said Wolfgang Haak, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and a co-author of the paper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The data shows that modern Egyptians share approximately 8% more ancestry on the nuclear level with sub-Saharan African populations than the inhabitants of Abusir el-Meleq, suggesting that an increase in sub-Saharan African gene flow into Egypt occurred within the last 2,000 years. Possible causal factors may have been improved mobility down the Nile River, increased long-distance trade between sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt, and the trans-Saharan slave trade that began approximately 1,300 years ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Reference:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Verena J. Schuenemann et al. ‘Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods.’ Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15694</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Adapted from a press release from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.</i></span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/first-complete-genome-data-extracted-from-ancient-egyptian-mummies</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-1272473900147251022017-05-27T21:26:00.001+02:002017-05-27T21:26:40.317+02:00Lintel bearing Middle Kingdom cartouches unearthed at Ihnasya site in Egypt<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>A lintel inscribed with the cartouche of Sesostris II was unearthed at Heryshef temple in Ihnasya</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 27 May 2017</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photocredit: Ahram Online</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A large temple lintel made of red granite was discovered by an Egyptian-Spanish mission during excavation work at the temple of Heryshef at an archaeological site in Ihnasya El-Medina, Beni Suef.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, announced the discovery on Saturday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He described it as “very important” because the lintel is engraved with two cartouches containing the name of the Middle Kingdom King Sesostris II, (c.1895 – 1889 BC), who built the Lahun pyramid located 10 km away from Ihnasya.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The presence of the lintel at the Heryshef temple proves the interest of Sesostris II in this site, and in Fayoum in general.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maria Carmen Perez-Die, the director of the mission from the Antiquities Museum in Madrid, said that the mission had uncovered several constructions levels, one dating to the early 18th dynasty, which concluded with the reign of Thutmosis III (c. 1479 – 1425 BC) and another to that of Ramesses II (c.1279 – 1213 BC).</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/269618/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Lintel-bearing-Middle-Kingdom-cartouches-unearthed.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-88842822656930667102017-05-11T22:33:00.001+02:002017-05-11T22:33:10.644+02:00Burial chamber of recently unearthed 13th Dynasty Pyramid in Dahshur uncovered<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The wooden box of the canopic jars and remains of an anthropoid sarcophagus were uncovered inside the newly discovered pyramid remains in Dahshur necropolis</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 10 May 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities uncovered the burial chamber of a 13th Dynasty Pyramid discovered last month at Dahshur archaeological site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Adel Okasha, head of the mission and the general director of the Dahshur site, explained that after removing the stones that covered the burial chamber, the mission discovered a wooden box engraved with three lines of hieroglyphics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These lines are rituals to protect the deceased and the name of its owner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sherif Abdel Moneim, assistant to the minister of antiquities, revealed that the box housed the four canopic jars of the deceased with their name engraved, that of the daughter of the 13th Dynasty King Emnikamaw, whose pyramid is located 600 metres away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He said that the mission also discovered last month a relief with 10 lines of hieroglyphics bearing the cartouche of King Emenikamaw. Hence the box may belong to the King’s daughter, or one of his family. Inside the box, the mission found wrappings of the deceased's liver, intestines, stomach and lungs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Remains of an anthropoid sarcophagus have been found but in a very bad state of conservation. Excavation works would continue to uncover more of the pyramid's secrets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Khaled El-Enany, minister of antiquities, visited the site this morning to inspect the excavation works.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/268521/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Burial-chamber-of-recently-unearthed-th-Dynasty-Py.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-82283607556509303702017-05-05T22:17:00.000+02:002017-05-11T22:18:46.880+02:00Unique funerary garden unearthed in Thebes<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>For the first time, an almost 4000 year-old funerary garden is uncovered in Draa Abul Naga necropolis on Luxor’s west bank</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 3 May 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During excavation work in the area around the early 18th Dynasty rock-cut tombs of Djehuty and Hery (ca 1500‐1450 BCE) in Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis, a Spanish archaeological mission unearthed a unique funerary garden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities sector at the Ministry of Antiquities told Ahram Online that the garden was found in the open courtyard of a Middle Kingdom rock-cut tomb and the layout of the garden measures 3m x 2m and is divided into squares of about 30cm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These squares, he pointed out, seem to have contained different kinds of plants and flowers. In the middle of the garden the mission has located two elevated spots that was once used for the cultivation of a small tree or bush.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At one of the corners, Afifi continued, the roots and the trunk of a 4,000 year-old small tree have been preserved to a height of 30cm. Next to it, a bowl containing dried dates and other fruits, which could have been presented as offerings, were found.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The discovery of the garden may shed light on the environment and gardening in ancient Thebes during the Middle Kingdom, around 2000 BCE,” said Jose Galan, head of the Spanish mission and research professor at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He explained that similar funerary gardens were only found on the walls of a number of New Kingdom tombs where a small and squared garden is represented at the entrance of the funerary monument, with a couple of trees next to it. It probably had a symbolic meaning and must have played a role in the funerary rites. However, Galan asserted, these gardens have never been found in ancient Thebes and the recent discovery offers archaeological confirmation of an aspect of ancient Egyptian culture and religion that was hitherto only known through iconography.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Moreover, he pointed out, near the entrance of the Middle Kingdom rock-cut tomb, a small mud-brick chapel measuring 46cm x 70cm x 55cm was discovered attached to the façade. Inside it three stelae of the 13th Dynasty, around ca 1800 BCE, were found in situ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He explained that early studies reveal that the owner of one of them was called Renef‐Seneb, and the owner of the second was “the citizen Khemenit, son of the lady of the house, Idenu.” The latter mentions the gods Montu, Ptah, Sokar and Osiris.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“These discoveries underscore the relevance of the central area of Dra Abul Naga as a sacred place for the performance of a variety of cultic activities during the Middle Kingdom,” asserted Galan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Spanish mission has been working for 16 years in Dra Abul Naga, on the West Bank of Luxor, around the early 18th Dynasty rock-cut tombs of Djehuty and Hery. </span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/267024/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Unique-funerary-garden-unearthed-in-Thebes.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-82227903386050224372017-04-05T21:00:00.001+02:002017-04-05T21:00:45.531+02:002nd Pyramid Bearing Pharaoh Ameny Qemau's Name Is Found<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | April 4, 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A 3,800-year-old pyramid found with an alabaster block bearing the name of pharaoh Ameny Qemau has been discovered at the site of Dahshur in Egypt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another pyramid containing artifacts bearing the name of Ameny Qemau (also spelled Qemaw) was discovered in 1957 in Dahshur, a royal necropolis in the desert on the Nile River's west bank. The finding has left Egyptologists with a mystery as to why the same pharaoh seemingly has two pyramids to his name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The remains of the pyramid's inner structure were discovered by a team of Egyptian archaeologists and announced today (April 4) by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The uncovered remains of the pyramid represents a part of its inner structure, which is composed of a corridor leading to the inner side of the pyramid and a hall, which leads to a southern ramp and a room to the western end," Adel Okasha, the director general of the Dahshur necropolis, said in a statement from the ministry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Within the inner structure, the team discovered an alabaster block containing 10 lines of hieroglyphic writing. The ministry said it had not yet deciphered the writing on the block.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Live Science showed pictures of the pyramid's block, released by the ministry, to several Egyptologists. Both James Allen, a professor of Egyptology at Brown University, and Aidan Dodson, a research fellow at the University of Bristol, said that inscribed on the block is a type of religious text used to line the walls of pyramids, and that it bears the name of the pharaoh Ameny Qemau.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"He was the fifth king of Dynasty XIII and ruled for about two years, [around] 1790 B.C.," Allen said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thomas Schneider, a professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern studies at the University of British Columbia, also agreed that the name of the pharaoh on the hieroglyphic inscription is Ameny Qemau. "The resolution of the photo is not very good; however, I believe I can read the name of Ameny Qemau," he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dodson, who co-authored a 1998 paper on the artifacts from the Qemau pyramid discovered in 1957, noted the peculiarity of two pyramids holding the pharaoh's name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why both pyramids would have artifacts bearing the name of the same pharaoh is a mystery, Dodson said. Perhaps, the newly found pyramid doesn't actually belong to Ameny Qemau, but rather to one of his predecessors, he said. Along that line of thinking, perhaps upon rising to power, Qemau chiseled out the name of his predecessor on the block and inserted his own name instead, Dodson said. The hieroglyphic symbols representing the name of Ameny Qemau are of poor quality, indicating that the carver had to inscribe them over a chiseled-out area, Dodson added.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Why Ameny Qemau would have added his name is unclear, as Ameny Qemau's actual pyramid was found in 1957," Dodson said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The antiquities ministry said in a statement that excavations of the pyramid are not yet complete and that "further excavation is to take place to reveal more parts."</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://www.livescience.com/58531-second-pyramid-pharaoh-ameny-qemau-discovered.html</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-62697627524414757912017-04-02T20:44:00.000+02:002017-04-05T20:49:01.748+02:004th century imperial bath complex inaugurated in Egypt's Alexandria<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 1 Apr 2017</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and members of parliment inaugurated Alexandria's cistern and imperial bathing complex area in the Kom El-Dikka archaeological site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The area had been undergoing excavation and restoration since 1960 by an Egyptian-Polish mission from Warsaw University.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mahmoud Afifi, head of the ministry's Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department, said that the newly inaugurated area will be included within the Kom Al-Dikka tourist path, which includes the Roman amphitheater, the bird villa and residential houses from the Hellenistic period until the Islamic era.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">El-Enany describes the bathing complex as "one of the finest edifices of its time," and that the bathing halls had welcomed hundreds of bathers at a time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The complex also includes palestrae for physical exercises, colonnade passages and amenities such as public latrines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Water was supplied to the complex using huge cisterns and heated by a complex system of furnaces and pipes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The minister and the parlimentary delegates also paid a visit to the planned Mosaic museum in downtown Alexandria to inspect the ongoing work and address any obstacles to its completion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During the tour, Mohamed Abdelmaguid, director-general of the Underwater Archaeological Department, introduced a three-phase plan to develop the Qayet Bey Citadel and its surroundings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Abdelmaguid also reviewed a plan for the construction of the first underwater museum beneath the city's eastern harbour, which once was the ancient Alexandria royal area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Abdelmaguid suggests the building of an underwater park to promote diving as well as the establishment of a training centre for underwater archaeology.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/41/262047/Heritage/GrecoRoman/th-century-imperial-bath-complex-inaugurated-in-Eg.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-29285058823213746552017-03-24T07:00:00.000+01:002017-03-24T07:00:16.037+01:00Can a long-lost Egyptian colossus save ancient Heliopolis?<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Garry Shaw 21 March 2017</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Earlier this month, news of the discovery of a colossal statue of an ancient Egyptian king took the world by storm. Working deep in a water-logged pit, a joint team of Egyptian and German archaeologists discovered the eight metre-high colossus broken into two large pieces: a torso and lower part of the face, with a part of the pharaoh’s false beard present, and the top of its head, wearing a crown. These pieces have now been lifted to the surface, and taken for conservation at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where they will be temporarily displayed. Afterwards, the statue will be exhibited at the Grand Egyptian Museum, currently under construction at Giza and scheduled to open in 2018. Though early reports indicated that the quartzite colossus might have been erected under the famous King Ramesses II (c. 1279–1212 BC), it has since been shown to bear the name of King Psamtik I (c. 664–610 BC) of the Late Period – an arguably equally important pharaoh, though lacking the star power of the earlier, better known ruler.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The colossus was discovered in Matariya, a northeast suburb of Cairo. Now a densely packed area of apartment buildings, for thousands of years it was part of one of ancient Egypt’s greatest cities, better known today by its Greek name: Heliopolis, ‘City of the Sun’ (not to be confused with modern Heliopolis, a couple of kilometres to its east). From the beginning of Egyptian history, ancient Heliopolis was the main centre of Egypt’s sun cult, where priests worshipped the god Re, and developed myths proclaiming his temple to be built on the first land that rose from the floodwaters after creation. Ancient descriptions and depictions present it as a city of statues, obelisks (two of which are now in London and New York), sphinxes, shrines, large and elaborate temple complexes, housing, fields and farms, connected to the Nile by canal. It was a place of learning, where astronomical observations were made. Such was the city’s prestige that occasionally the office of high priest of Re was held by a royal prince.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite its importance, the city fell into decline after the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, when it became a mine for building materials. Its finest statues and other monuments were carted off to other, more prosperous cities. Later, whatever stonework remained was used to help build Cairo, which slowly expanded over the years to engulf ancient Heliopolis. Consequently, Heliopolis’ remains are spread out beneath various heavily populated Cairo districts, accessible only in undeveloped patches, including at Matariya, where most of its major temples were probably situated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Little survives, and despite investigations since the mid 19th century, much about ancient Heliopolis’ layout and temple complexes remains unknown. Indeed, tourists in search of the ancient city at Matariya are met only by a single obelisk from the reign of King Senwosret I (c. 1974–1929 BC), which stands alongside various assorted architectural remains and reconstructed tombs in a small, often overlooked open-air museum. This lies on the edge of Matariya’s wider archaeological site, encircled by apartment blocks and busy roads.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ancient Heliopolis was excavated intermittently over the course of the 20th century, revealing pieces of royal colossi, statues of kings and courtiers, reliefs bearing inscriptions, tombs of high priests, and other assorted architectural remains from across Egyptian history, always in a fragmented state. In 2005, a jointly-run mission by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Leipzig started excavating at Matariya, focusing their attention on the western part of the area; this had not previously been excavated, though 18th-century writers had noted the presence of large statuary. The team soon uncovered what seemed to be a temple courtyard from the time of Ramesses II, where fragmentary colossal and life-size statues once stood. Some of these statues were of Ramesses II himself, while others were of the earlier King Senwosret I, and had been moved there under Ramesses to adorn his courtyard. (Such finds connected with Ramesses in this area, as well as the pharaoh’s penchant for monumental works, is why the colossus was initially thought to date to his reign.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the years since the 2011 revolution, due to the ensuing lack of security, the various surviving preserved patches of ancient Heliopolis fell victim to encroachment from illegal building work and rubbish dumping, in addition to the ongoing danger posed by the rising water table. One part was even turned into a football pitch. In 2013, Monica Hanna, founder of Egypt’s Heritage Task Force, raised awareness of ancient Heliopolis’ plight by organising volunteers and antiquities inspectors to clean up the accumulated garbage in the area of Arab el-Hisn – another Cairo district where a patch of ancient Heliopolis remains – and wrote about the threats facing the archaeological remains.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since the recent return to stability, illegal site encroachment in the area has ceased, but waste dumping remains a problem. Legal building work, however, also poses a threat to the area’s slowly vanishing ancient heritage. In 2015, the joint Egyptian-German excavation team received an emergency grant to investigate a part of ancient Heliopolis that was to be officially redeveloped by the governorate into schools and youth clubs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The recently discovered colossus is a testament to the fame and architectural splendours of ancient Heliopolis – a city rich in history, with many secrets left to be uncovered. Though the discovery of the colossus is not too surprising, given the other finds made at Heliopolis over the past 150 years, it is encouraging to see it receive so much media attention (the presumed connection with Ramesses II no doubt helped). Not only does it add an extra clue to reconstructing the ancient city, but perhaps more importantly, by shedding a light on the remains of this much neglected site, the media can help bring its existence to a wider public.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing in the Daily News Egypt in 2013, Monica Hanna said that the best way to protect ancient Heliopolis would be to turn it into a tourist attraction and enhance the connection between it and the local community. Discoveries such as the colossus can help lead to such increased awareness. A thriving and expanded open-air museum – similar to that at nearby ancient Memphis, where coach-loads of visitors arrive each day to see Pharaonic statues – would be a boon for tourists and Matariya’s local community alike. It may have lost its headline-grabbing association with Ramesses II, and perhaps some of the media’s attention with it, but perhaps the colossus’ newfound star power can still make a difference. Perhaps its fame is a first step towards a better future for ancient Heliopolis.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: https://www.apollo-magazine.com/can-long-lost-egyptian-colossus-save-ancient-heliopolis/</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-62816992178545674202017-03-23T21:46:00.001+01:002017-03-23T21:46:19.613+01:00Archaeologists unearth statue of Queen Tiye in Egypt's Luxor<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The discovery of the statue was made by the European-Egyptian mission, working under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 23 Mar 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A unique statue, possibly of Queen Tiye, the wife of King Amenhotep III and grandmother of King Tutankhamun, has been unearthed at her husband's funerary temple in Kom El-Hittan on Luxor's west bank.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The exciting find was made by the European-Egyptian mission, working under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany who visited the site to inspect the discovery, described the staute as "unique and distinghuised".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He told Ahram Online that no alabaster statues of Queen Tiye have been found before now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"All previous statues of her unearthed in the temple were carved of quartzite," he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hourig Sourouzian, head of the mission said that the statue is very well preserved and has kept is colours well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She said the statue was founded accidentally while archaeologists were lifting up the lower part of a statue of king Amenhotep III that was buried in the sand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The Queen Tiye statue appeared beside the left leg of the King Amenhotep III statue," Sourouzian said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She added that the statue will be the subject of restoration work. </span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/261512/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Archaeologists-unearth-statue-of-Queen-Tiye-in-Egy.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-86860621805046364132017-03-23T07:00:00.000+01:002017-03-23T07:00:21.669+01:00Neolithic rock art discovered in Egypt<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The depictions feature an artistic marriage between Egyptian iconography and stylistics and pre-Egyptian method and motif.</b></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Brooks Hays | <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>March 22, 2017 </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">March 22 (UPI) -- Newly discovered rock art may offer a link between the Neolithic period and Ancient Egyptian culture.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-t13sSFWyccYSMke5YqIGnrCf8MFpymyA1xBLwjjaCiUVTGm1wSO270Koi3WJVZZo6T5k82nCFPI72UFuH0RLzPBwzOF-3QEQWTPQ_l6siku58OuRil4SwqrN6UfhxIg2SqJNwzMXUpw/s1600/Neolithic-rock-art-discovered-in-Egypt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-t13sSFWyccYSMke5YqIGnrCf8MFpymyA1xBLwjjaCiUVTGm1wSO270Koi3WJVZZo6T5k82nCFPI72UFuH0RLzPBwzOF-3QEQWTPQ_l6siku58OuRil4SwqrN6UfhxIg2SqJNwzMXUpw/s320/Neolithic-rock-art-discovered-in-Egypt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photocredit: David Sabel/University of Bonn</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The ritualistic engravings were discovered by Egyptologists at the University of Bonn and dated to the 4th millennium BC. The art features a series of small dots -- similar to pointillism -- depicting hunting scenes. Researchers suggest the scenes recall shamanistic art found elsewhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Scientists found the engravings while excavating a necropolis near Aswan, a city of ancient origins situated on the Nile in southeastern Egypt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The necropolis, Qubbet el-Hawa, home to more than 80 burial mounds, has offered archaeologists a wealth of Egyptian artifacts through the decades, but the latest find is unique.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Previous discoveries showcased the lives of noble Egyptians living between 2200 and the 4th century BC. The rock engravings are much older.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Style and iconography provide solid clues when dating these," Ludwig Morenz, head of the Egyptology department at Bonn, said in a news release. "It opens up a new archeological dimension."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Researchers suggest the depictions feature an artistic marriage between Egyptian iconography and stylistics and pre-Egyptian method and motif. The indentations are worn with age, but a close examination revealed three figures: a hunter with a bow, a shaman-like man dancing with his arms raised and, in between, an African ostrich.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The archer clearly shows hunting for the large flightless bird, while the man with raised arms can be identified as a hunt dancer," explained Morenz.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Scientists say the hunt dancer appears to be sporting a bird mask. Similar shamanistic hunting depictions, featuring female dancers and bird masks were discovered at Hierakonpolis, an ancient Upper Egyptian city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"This social practice and the associated complex of ideas have barely been looked at in Egyptology," Morenz concluded. "This opens up new horizons for research."</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2017/03/22/Neolithic-rock-art-discovered-in-Egypt/9831490190673/</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-79551346160412879602017-03-22T19:18:00.001+01:002017-03-22T19:18:24.627+01:00New discovery: Intact tomb uncovered in Aswan<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The intact tomb of the brother of a 12th Dynasty Elephantine governor has been uncovered, containing a range of funerary goods</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ahram Online , Wednesday 22 Mar 2017</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNC1w_R6x1-erKRDELbc8i5ea8Y91xEYYAPTxCX9WaGkOS9prdCaNF-YaVCKCYEJt5sAKp1P6_bGM723omLXcZg8vQRqs6KhzHrkM-didevVpB0n_F7XUXnlEEXewp7KSVqvpt_qdg1tQ/s1600/2017-636257812954784821-478.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNC1w_R6x1-erKRDELbc8i5ea8Y91xEYYAPTxCX9WaGkOS9prdCaNF-YaVCKCYEJt5sAKp1P6_bGM723omLXcZg8vQRqs6KhzHrkM-didevVpB0n_F7XUXnlEEXewp7KSVqvpt_qdg1tQ/s320/2017-636257812954784821-478.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photocredit: Ahram Online</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Spanish Archaeological Mission in Qubbet El-Hawa, west Aswan, has discovered an intact structure where the brother of one of the most important governors of the 12th Dynasty, Sarenput II, was buried.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mahmoud Afifi, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department, described the discovery as “important” not only for the richness of the burial chamber, but also in shedding light on individuals close to those in power. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nasr Salama, director general of Aswan Antiquities, said that the find is unique with funerary goods that consist of pottery, two cedar coffins (outer and inner) and a set of wooden models, which represent funerary boats and scenes of daily life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano, head of the Spanish mission from the University of Jaen, said that a mummy was also discovered but is still under study. It is covered with a polychrome cartonnage with a beautiful mask and collars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Inscriptions on the coffins bear the name of the deceased, Shemai. followed respectively by his mother and father, Satethotep and Khema. The latter was governor of Elephantine under the reign of Amenemhat II.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He explained that Sarenput II, the eldest brother of Shemai, was one of the most powerful governors of Egypt under the reigns of Senwosret II and Senwosret III. Apart from his duties as governor of Elephantine, he was general of the Egyptian troops and was responsible for the cult of different gods.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With this discovery, Serrano asserted, the University of Jaen mission in Qubbet El-Hawa adds more data to previous discoveries of 14 members of the ruling family of Elephantine during the 12th Dynasty. Such high numbers of individuals provide a unique opportunity to study the living conditions of the upper class in Egypt more than 3,800 years ago.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/261435/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/New-discovery-Intact-tomb-uncovered-in-Aswan.aspx</span></i></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-21541415057495299562017-03-12T20:31:00.001+01:002017-03-12T20:31:01.190+01:00Colossal Statue of Egyptian Pharaoh Discovered in Mud Pit<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Rossella Lorenzi, Live Science Contributor | March 9, 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Archaeologists have discovered a colossal statue, possibly depicting Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great, in a muddy pit in a Cairo suburb, Egypt's antiquities ministry announced today (March 9).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Split in fragments, the quartzite statue was found by Egyptian and German archaeologists in the heavily populated Ain Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis — the cult center for sun-god worship — once stood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Indeed, the statue was found in a courtyard near the ruins of the sun temple founded by Ramses II, better known as Ramesses the Great.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"We found two big fragments so far, covering the head and the chest," said Dietrich Raue, head of the German archaeological team that discovered the statue. "As of yet, we do not have the base and the legs as well as the kilt," Raue told Live Science.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Raue, a curator at the Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig, estimates that the statue is about 26 feet (8 meters) tall. Although his team did not find any artifacts or engravings that could identify the subject of the colossal sculpture, its location in front of Ramesses II's temple suggests that it could have belonged to the pharaoh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"It was indeed used by the pharaoh as a colossal statue, but we cannot yet be sure that it wasn't an older statue he reused," Raue said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ramesses II was the third king of Egypt's 19th dynasty. He ruled for 66 years (1279 to 1213 B.C.). During his long reign, he built more temples and monuments, took more wives and fathered more children (over 100) than any other Egyptian pharaoh, archaeologists have found.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A mighty warrior, Ramesses II created an empire that stretched from present-day Libya to Iraq in the east, to Turkey in the north and to Sudan in the south.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nearby, the archaeologists uncovered part of a life-size statue of Pharaoh Seti II, Ramesses I's son. (Ramesses I was the grandfather of Ramesses II.) The statue measures nearly 3 feet (80 centimeters) tall and includes detailed facial features.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian archaeological team, the discovery of the colossal statue is very important because it shows that the sun temple was impressive, with "magnificent structures, distinguished engravings, soaring colossi and obelisks."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The temple suffered damages during the Greco-Roman period (about 332 B.C. to A.D. 395), and most of its obelisks and colossal statues were moved to Alexandria and Europe, Ashmawy said. The rest of the monument disappeared during the Islamic era (eighth to 13th century A.D.), and its blocks were used in the construction of historic Cairo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Raue said his team will continue to excavate the area in search of other fragments. "We have not finished the excavation of the courtyard," he said. "It is possible we will find the missing fragments, and — who knows — maybe other statues."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If all of the fragments are found and the colossal statue is pieced together, it will be put on display at the entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is scheduled to open in 2018.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://www.livescience.com/58197-colossal-statue-of-egyptian-pharaoh-discovered.html</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-37127786541233049392017-03-09T18:16:00.000+01:002017-03-12T18:16:42.140+01:00Statue of Amenhotep III, 66 of goddess Sekhmet unearthed in Luxor<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The discoveries shed further light on what the eighteenth dynasty pharaoh's temple would have looked like</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 8 Mar 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project has discovered a magnificent statue in black granite representing king Amenhotep III seated on the throne.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Project director Hourig Sourouzian told Ahram Online that the statue is 248 cm high, 61 cm wide and 110cm deep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was found in the great court of the temple of Amenhotep III on Luxor's West Bank.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"It is a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian sculpture: extremely well carved and perfectly polished," Sourouzian said, adding that the statue shows the king with very juvenile facial features, which indicates that it was probably commissioned early in his reign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A similar statue was discovered by the same team in 2009 and is now temporarily on display in the Luxor Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When the site's restoration is complete, Sourouzian said, the pair of statues would be displayed again in the temple, in their original positions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ministry of Antiquities Ancient Egyptian antiquities department said the team has discovered up to 66 parts of statues of the goddess Sekhmet this archaeological season. These statues represent the goddess sitting or standing holding a papyrus sceptre and an ankh — the symbol of life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On many of these statues the goddess' lion head is preserved. Other pieces include busts, heads detached from their bases, as well as several other parts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sourouzian said this series of statues was found during excavation between the ruined temple's Peristyle Court and the Hypostyle Hall, as archaeologists searched for remains of the wall separating the two areas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The sculptures are of great artistic quality and of greatest archaeological interest, as they survived extensive quarrying of the temple remains in the Ramesside Period, after a heavy earthquake toppled the walls and the columns," she told Ahram Online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As her name indicates (derived from Sekhem, meaning "might"), the lion-headed Sekhmet is a powerful goddess who protects the sun god against his enemies. King Amenhotep III commissioned hundreds of statues of the goddess for the temples he constructed in Thebes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In his funerary temple particularly, which was called the "temple for millions of years," the great number of these statues was intended to protect the ruler from evil and repel or cure diseases.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"All of these statues of the goddess will be placed back in their original setting as soon as the site is restored," Sourouzian said.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/260538/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Statue-of-Amenhotep-III,--of-goddess-Sekhmet-unear.aspx</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-34827028756169808922017-02-08T22:08:00.001+01:002017-02-08T22:08:10.358+01:00'Monumental' building complex discovered at Qantir in Egypt's Nile Delta<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>A mortar pit with children's footprints still preserved was also uncovered at the site</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>By Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 7 Feb 2017</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the ancient city of Piramesse, which was Egypt's capital during the reign of the King Ramses II, an excavation team from the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim in Germany has uncovered parts of a building complex as well as a mortar pit with children’s footprints.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at Egypt’s antiquities ministry, Mahmoud Afifi, describes the newly discovered building complex as "truly monumental," covering about 200 by 160 metres.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The layout suggests the complex was likely a palace or a temple, Afifi told Ahram Online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The mission director, Henning Franzmeier, explained magnetic measurements were carried out last year in order to determine the structure of the ancient city, and through those measurements the building complex was located.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The site of excavation had been chosen, he explained, not just because of its archaeological potential but because of its proximity to the edges of the modern village of Qantir, which is endangering the nearby antiquities under its fields due to rapid expansion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Franzmeier told Ahram Online that the team has also uncovered an area of about 200 square metres in its excavations. It is the goal of this work to locate a potential entrance to the monumental building, which seems not to be located as is typical in the axis of the complex, but rather in its north-western corner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Furthermore a second small trench was laid out in an area where the excavators believe the enclosure wall can be traced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The finds and archaeological features uncovered are most promising," he said, adding that just a couple of centimetres beneath the surface a multitude of walls was uncovered, all dating to the Pharaonic period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Due to the limited size of the trenches no buildings can be reconstructed so far. Nonetheless it is obvious that the stratigraphy is extremely dense and several construction phases are preserved, and not all the walls are contemporaneous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The team has also found a mortar pit extending to at least 2.5 by 8 metres. At the bottom, a layer of mortar was uncovered, in which children’s footprints have been preserved. Even more extraordinary is the filling of the pit, consisting of smashed pieces of painted wall plaster.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"No motifs are recognisable so far but we are certainly dealing with the remains of large-scale multi-coloured wall paintings," said Franzmeier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The team fragments have been cleaned in situ and subsequently removed. A comprehensive excavation of all fragments followed by permanent conservation and the reconstruction of motifs will be the subject of future seasons.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/257745/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Monumental-building-complex-discovered-at-Qantir-i.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-12818653834178871762017-02-04T21:32:00.000+01:002017-02-04T21:32:37.287+01:00Princess tomb<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The recent discovery of the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess from the Fifth Dynasty has opened a new chapter in the saga of the Abusir necropolis, says Nevine El-Aref</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An archaeological mission from the Czech Institute of Egyptology at the Charles University in Prague, who is carrying out routine excavations on the north side of the Abusir necropolis, 30km south of the Giza Plateau, has been taken by surprise with the discovery of an important rock-hewn tomb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The tomb belonged to a Fifth-Dynasty princess named Sheretnebty, and alongside it were four tombs belonging to high–ranking officials. An era enclosed within a courtyard. The tombs had been robbed in antiquity and no mummies were found inside them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the Czech mission’s archaeological report, a copy of which has been given to Al-Ahram Weekly, traces of the courtyard were first detected in 2010 while archaeologists were investigating a neighbouring mastaba (bench tomb). However, active exploration of the royal tomb was not undertaken until this year, when it was discovered that the ancient Egyptian builders used a natural depression in the bedrock to dig a four-metre-deep tomb almost hidden amidst the mastaba tombs constructed around it on higher ground. Four rock-hewn tombs were also unearthed within the courtyard surrounding the royal tomb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The north and west walls of the princess’s tomb were cased with limestone blocks, while its south wall was cut in the bedrock. The east wall was also carved in limestone, along with the staircase and slabs descending from north to south.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The courtyard of the tomb has four limestone pillars which originally supported architraves and roofing blocks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the tomb’s south side are four pillars engraved with hieroglyphic inscriptions stating: “The king’s daughter of his body, his beloved, revered in front of the great god, Sheretnebty.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Miroslav Barta, head of the Czech mission, says early investigations have revealed that the owner of the tomb was previously unknown, but that it most probably belonged to the family of a Fifth-Dynasty king. The preliminary date of the structure, based on the stratigraphy of the site and analysis of the name, Barta says, falls in the second half of the Fifth Dynasty. It is surprising that the tomb should not be located in Abusir south, among the tombs of non-royal officials, considering that most members of the Fifth-Dynasty royal family are buried 2km north of Abusir pyramid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While digging inside Sheretnebty’s tomb, the Czech archaeologists found a corridor that contains the entrances to four rock-hewn tombs of top officials of the Fifth Dynasty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Barta says two tombs have been completely explored so far. The first belonged to the chief of justice of the great house, Shepespuptah, and the second to Duaptah, the inspector of the palace attendants. Both tombs probably date from the reign of King Djedkare Isesi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The remaining two are still under excavation, but early investigation reveal that one belonged to the overseer of the scribes of the crews, Nefer, whose false door is still in situ. This tomb has a hidden tunnel in which excavators have unearthed three statues of the owner, one showing the deceased as a scribe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mohamed Al-Beyali, head of the ancient Egyptian and Graeco-Roman antiquities section, said that between the entrances to the four tombs the mission unearthed three naoi (sanctuaries) with engaged limestone statues bearing small traces of the original polychromy. The statues, which show excellent quality craftsmanship, depict the features of an unknown man alone, with his son and with his wife and son.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Several fragments of a false door engraved with the various titles and names of princess Sheretnebty were also uncovered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More statues have been found inside the fourth tomb, which had a hidden tunnel that was blocked with limestone fragments and brown sand. Barta says that although tomb raiders entered the tunnel in antiquity, it seems that they did not appreciate the beauty of the statues and left them buried inside. Regrettably, however, while they were carrying out their activities in the tomb they broke some of the statues into two pieces. Luckily some were found intact. These statues were carved in wood and limestone, and some were found standing in their original position while others rested on the floor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the statues was inscribed with the name of the tomb’s owner who is named as Iti, the inspector of crews. Excavations show that at least nine statues were placed in the tunnel, two carved in wood and the other seven in limestone. Only three statues were in a very good state of preservation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim described the discovery as a new chapter in the history of the Abusir necropolis and Saqqara, since the tomb was discovered in an area midway between Abusir and Saqqara necropolis. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The exploration of the tombs is not yet complete, but it has already provided us with a lot of information,” Barta says. He adds that both the architecture of the tombs and the remains of their original equipment provide indications about the beliefs, traditions and burial practices of the tombs’ owners, and about ancient Egyptian society, the environment, history and art in the Fifth Dynasty. The discovery of the statues in the corridor next to the princess’s courtyard, in addition to Nefer’s decorated false-door and four statues in his serdab (statue chamber), are unique finds in Abusir south.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“We are very fortunate to have this new window through which we can go back in time and follow and document the step-by-step life and death of several historically important individuals of the great pyramid-age era,” Barta says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Czech mission will continue its exploration and documentation work to reveal more about the new collection. The mission from the Charles University in Prague has been working at Abusir since the 1960s, and over the ensuing decades they have explored monuments in the royal necropolis including the pyramid complex of the Fifth-Dynasty King Raneferef, where they discovered an enormous number of objects. South of the pyramids are the tombs of officials, among which they found the courtyard of Sheretnebty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the western part of Abusir the mission found shaft tombs dating from the Late Period, including the intact tomb of a priest, Iufaa, which contained a huge sarcophagus containing the mummy and walls covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions recording ancient Egyptian religious beliefs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Abusir is the Arabic name for the Greek Busiris, which in turn is a rendering of the Ancient Egyptian name Per-Usir, which means The House of Osiris, the god of the dead and resurrection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The royal interest in Abusir began with the reign of Userkaf, the founder of the Fifth Dynasty, who chose the site to built a remarkable and unique solar temple. Some of his successors built their own burial and solar temples there, the last solar temple being built by King Menkauhor at the end of the dynasty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first three pyramids at Abusir, built a couple of hundred of metres south of Userkaf’s Solar Temple, had their northwest corner aligned on the same diagonal. This diagonal is believed to have pointed to Iwnw (Heliopolis), a city on the Nile’s east bank located to the northeast of Memphis and dedicated to the cult of the solar god. Two later royal pyramids were built and break the diagonal alignment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Several mastabas built for senior courtiers were built among them, one belonging to the royal hairdresser and vizier Ptahshepses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An important necropolis for the Memphite aristocracy has also been located to the west of the pyramid field. Here there are also tombs dating from the 26th and 27th dynasties, showing that Abusir remained an important funerary site until the end of the Pharaonic era.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/291.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-24544689809279463872017-02-01T17:20:00.001+01:002017-02-01T17:20:09.839+01:00Tomb of Ramesside-era royal scribe uncovered in Luxor<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 31 Jan 2017</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A Japanese mission from Waseda University discovered a private tomb in the Theban necropolis in Luxor, Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the antiquities ministry's Ancient Egypt Department, said on Tuesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Afifi says that the tomb, located at the El-Khokha area on the west bank of the Nile, is beautifully decorated and likely dates to the Ramesside period, based on its style. Early inspection of the tomb suggests that it belonged to a royal scribe named Khonsu .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jiro Kondo, the head of the Japanese mission, told Ahram Online that the tomb was discovered while excavators were cleaning the area to the east of the forecourt of the tomb of Userhat, a high official under king Amenhotep III.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He added that the team aslso stumbled upon a hole hewn connected to the south wall of the transverse hall of the previously unknown tomb of Khonsu.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The tomb is built on a T-shape on an east-west axis, with the main entrance, currently covered in debris, facing the east.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The tomb measures approximately 4.6m in length from the entrance to the rear wall of the inner chamber, while the transverse hall measures approximately 5.5 m in width.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kondo explains that on the north wall of the entrance doorway, a scene shows the solar boat of the god Ra-Atum being worshipped by four baboons in a pose of adoration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the adjacent wall, hieroglyphic texts are inscribed vertically describing Khonsu as a “true renowned scribe.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the southern part of the eastern wall in the transverse hall, Khonsu and his wife worship the gods Osiris and Isis in a kiosk, behind which is a depiction of the two ram-headed deity, likely Khnum or Khnum-Re.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the upper register of the northern part of the tomb, there are carved seated figures of Osiris and Isis, though the upper parts of their bodies are broken.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the lower register, a portion of the paintings shows the followers of the tomb owners.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Regretfully, most of the wall paintings on the western wall of the transverse hall are no longer there," says Kondo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hani Abul Azm, the head of the Central Administration for Upper Egyptian Antiquities, says that the wall where the hole hewn is found hold vertical inscriptions at the top.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The name and title of tomb's owner are identified. The frieze pattern near the ceiling shows a typical khekher-frize of the Ramesside period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The ceiling decorations are better preserved than the wall paintings, while more images may be discovered in the inner chamber once the debris is cleared.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/257292/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Tomb-of-Ramessideera-royal-scribe-uncovered-in-Lux.aspx</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925543161762268746.post-55873552038664568582017-01-26T20:50:00.001+01:002017-01-26T20:50:47.765+01:00Polish researcher investigates the health of children in ancient Egypt<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Anaemia, chronic sinusitis, tooth decay are among the most commonly recognized diseases in children whose burials Polish bioarchaeologist investigated in the Egyptian necropolis dating back more than two thousand years at Saqqara, near the oldest pyramid in the world.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Excavations in the extensive Egyptian necropolis at Saqqara were conducted for nearly twenty years by Prof. Karol Myśliwiec of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures PAS. Currently the project leader is Dr. Kamil O. Kuraszkiewicz from the Department of Egyptology, University of Warsaw. Since the beginning, research at Saqqara is conducted under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology UW.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The biggest publicity had the discovery of beautifully decorated rock tombs of nobles from over 4 thousand years ago, from the Old Kingdom. Prof. Myśliwiec was awarded the Foundation for Polish Science Prizes, called Polish Nobel, for the publication documenting the discovery of the tomb of Merefnebef.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Necropolis at Saqqara was founded about 6 thousand years ago, at the beginning of the so-called Old Kingdom, and remained in use almost continuously over the next few millennia. In contrast to the Old Kingdom period, after two thousand years, this area of the cemetery was used as a burial place for ordinary members of the community, and not just the elite, as before" - told PAP bioarchaeologist from the University of Manchester, Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin, who studied many of the discovered skeletons and mummies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Burials of the Ptolemaic-Roman period (IV BC-I AD) were much more numerous and simple in form than those of the Old Kingdom - the dead were mostly buried directly in the desert sand. In total, archaeologists discovered more than half a thousand of such burials in the studied area of the necropolis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some of the dead were subjected to the process of mummification, the rest were buried in shallow pits in the sand. Sand and high ambient temperatures contributed to the natural mummification of bodies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Among more than 500 graves from this period there were only 83 burials of children, of which Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin examined the remains of 29 children ranging in age from a few weeks to 12 years. Most of these burials were preserved in the form of skeletons, sometimes wrapped in linen shrouds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For Polish researchers it is puzzling that children are such a small group of the dead buried at Saqqara. Given their high mortality in those days, especially those under the age of five, one would expect a lot more burials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the researcher, lower than expected number of buried children does not mean their lower mortality. There could be many reasons for their smaller numbers: perhaps there are more graves in the part of the necropolis that has not been studied yet, or some of them did not survive to our time (they could have been robbed or destroyed by wild animals). Another possibility is related to the funeral practices - it is possible that some of the youngest children were buried within households. Such cases have occurred in other parts of Egypt - Polish researcher points to the results of excavations in the Nile Delta, in Tell el-Retaba.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Among the remains of 29 children examined by Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin, most numerous are those that belonged to people who died at the age of three to five years. According to the researcher, this fact can be associated with the early loss of immunity in the important period following the end of breastfeeding, at approx. 2.5-3 years of age. From that moment, children depended solely on a solid diet - according to information provided by the bioarchaeologist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"After that, children had to become independent. End of the period of breastfeeding was the moment in which children lost access to an easily attainable and available source of nutrients contained in breast milk. Some of the children buried at Saqqara could have died from diseases and infections, to which they were more susceptible because of lower resistance after changing diet" - said Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Changes within the orbital bone in the form of porosity (cribra orbitalia) observed by the researcher can be evidence of anaemia caused by deficiency of minerals, such as iron or vitamin B12 and B9 (folic acid), or a result of chronic parasitic disease, such as malaria. The expert also noticed so-called hypoplastic lines on the teeth that could be a result of the body's struggle with the disease, at the expense of growth and proper development.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the case of the remains of one of the children, the age estimated based on analysis of the teeth pointed to four years, while the age estimated based on the length of the long bones was only about 1-1.5 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"This means that a slowdown or temporary inhibition of the child's growth occurred, probably caused by a disease or a diet low in nutrients essential for proper development and growth" - said the bioarchaeologist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Based on the examination of the teeth of children the researcher determined that some of them, like today, had problems with tooth decay. This could be caused by a diet rich in sugar and carbohydrates, for example bread.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The combination of these two elements in the diet can contribute to the incidence of dental caries to a much greater extent than sugar alone" - added the researcher.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The fact that natural conditions in which the children buried at Saqqara had lived, were not conducive to their health, is further evidenced by the changes in their sinuses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"They probably suffered from chronic sinusitis associated with the environmental conditions in which they lived. They were constantly exposed to inhalation of air contaminated with dust and particles of desert sand. It easily penetrated into the interior of the houses" - said Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Interestingly, the bone remains of majority of children did not show any changes that could indicate a disease or cause of death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The lack of any bone changes does not mean, however, that the child was in such good health. On the contrary - it could mean that due to a weak immune system it succumbed to disease very quickly. So quickly that the disease process left no trace in the skeleton of the child" - ventured the bioarchaeologist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She noted that only children with a strong immune system are capable of fighting the disease for a long time. Evidence of this struggle is often seen on the bone remains of the dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Paradoxically, the dead who show signs of lesions were healthier than those, whose skeletons have no such changes" - she added.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The researchers are planning further studies on the health, diet and living conditions of children from the necropolis at Saqqara during the next seasons of excavations. It is possible that the vitamin deficiencies in some of them were due to lack of sufficient amount of food. Famines occurred in Egypt, especially when the flooding of the Nile was not high enough to ensure a good harvest, and thus the sufficient amount of food for the local community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the time when the necropolis was active, Egypt lost its independence and became part of the state of Alexander the Great, and later his successors, who started the longest reigning - Ptolemaic - dynasty in Egypt, and other dynasties in the Hellenistic kingdoms. Its most famous representative was shrouded in legend Cleopatra VIII.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Szymon Zdziebłowski</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source: http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news,412783,polish-researcher-investigates-the-health-of-children-in-ancient-egypt.html</span></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0