Burial chamber discovered in Asasif on Luxor's west bank

The burial chamber and sarcophagus of a 25th Dynasty Thebes Mayor has been discovered

by Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 25 Aug 2016

During excavation and cleaning work carried out in the tomb of the 25th Dynasty Thebes Mayor Karabasken in south Asasif, on Luxor's west bank, the Egyptian American South Asasif Conservation Project discovered his burial chamber and sarcophagus.

“The sarcophagus is a unique example of Kushite sarcophagi in an elite tomb,” Mahmoud Affifi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities told Ahram Online, adding that the sarcophagus is carved in plain red granite and does not bear any engravings or paintings.

Elena Pischikova, director of the archaeological mission, explained that the burial chamber was found accidently during excavation work carried out in a room of the tomb. As an was found in its centre and it led to the burial chamber.

Pischikova said that the base and lid of the sarcophagus bore deliberate damage — evidence of two attempts to break into the sarcophagus at some time in antiquity.

“The interior of the sarcophagus was flooded after the first attempt, but further cleaning work will show if any fragments of the wooden coffin or other burial equipment are still preserved inside,” Pischikova said.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/241662/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Burial-chamber-discovered-in-Asasif-on-Luxors-west.aspx

Polish archaeologists studied a unique necropolis in Egypt

Polish scientists studied a cemetery from the times of the reign XXIII and XXV Dynasty (VIII - VII century BC) in Egypt. The royal necropolis is located in the ... temple of Hatshepsut.

Archaeologists have summed up the 10-year study of an unusual cemetery, which was founded in the times of unrest in Egypt - the so-called Third Intermediate Period, when the power in Egypt was taken over by the kings who came from Libya, and then from the Nubian kingdom of Kush, which is today's Sudan. The latter were described as "black pharaohs".

Even before the year 900 BC, Hatshepsut temple was destroyed by great cataclysm. Probably as a result of an earthquake, hundreds of tons of debris fell on the sanctuary from the surrounding hills. The famous temples of Karnak and Luxor located on the east bank of the Nile also sustained serious damage.

"Members of the royal family - XXIII and XXV dynasty - took advantage of the situation. They consciously decided to build tombs on the upper terrace of the ruins of the Temple of Hatshepsut" - told PAP Dr. Zbigniew Szafrański, leader of the Polish-Egyptian restoration and archaeological mission in the temple of the famous queen. According to the researcher, even after its destruction the temple considered a sacred place.

In total, scientists have discovered nearly 20 tombs. The entrance in the form of several meters deep shaft carved into the rock, ending in a single, undecorated burial chamber, was located in the floor of the temple.

Museum Pieces - Tomb Relief

Tomb relief with an inscription in raised relief: rp´ h3tj-´ (sd3wtj) bjtj.

Photocredit: Medelhavsmuseet 2013

 
Titles and status were important. This relief fragment tells that the tomb owner was a nobleman, a member of the elite and a governor. The bee at the bottom of the column hints at a connection with the king, which was very prestigious.

Photocredit: Medelhavsmuseet 2013

Inventory number: MM 11433

Object: Relief

Material: Limestone; Stone

Period: 25th Dynasty (c.735-656 BC), Late Period

Dimensions: H. 36,5 cm, W. 25 cm, D. 4 cm

The ancient Egyptian Bee (hieroglyph), Gardiner sign listed no. L2, is the representation of a honeybee. The bee figures prominently throughout Ancient Egyptian history, and started in the early Protodynastic Period, for example with Pharaoh Den. His timeperiod famously produced 20 tomb-labels (tags) that recorded events, and told short stories, with the first use of hieroglyphs, that by 2900 BC time had included biliterals, some triliterals, and the Egyptian hieroglyphic uniliterals.

The form of the bee on Den's labels, and others in the timeperiod (Semerkhet), show similar form, a flying bee, at an angle. The later forms are more "horizontal, wings outspread".

 

The bee became the symbol for "King of the North" (the Nile Delta (Lower Egypt), and northern Egypt); the sedge (hieroglyph)

represented the opposite: the "King of the South" (the King of Upper Egypt). A combined form also came to be used: the "King of the South & and the King of the North".

Sources:
http://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-mhm/web/object/3013029
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_(hieroglyph)

Osiris tomb discovered in Luxor

A symbolic tomb of the god Osiris has been discovered at Al-Gorna on Luxor’s west bank

By Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 4 Jan 2015

A Spanish-Italian archaeological mission has discovered a complete symbolic tomb of the god Osiris with multiple shafts and chambers at Al-Gorna necropolis on Luxor’s west bank.
Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told Ahram Online that the discovery is important because the newly discovered tomb is a small version of the design of the Osirion found in Abydos in the Upper Egypt city of Sohag.

Abdel Hakim Karar, head of Antiquities of Upper Egypt, explains that the newly discovered tomb can be dated to the 25th Dynasty and consists of a large hall supported with five pillars. Its northern wall has a hall with a rock-hewn staircase that leads down to a funerary complex where an Osiris statue is found in the core of a vaulted chapel.

To the west of the chapel, said Karar, a funerary hall is found decorated with a relief depicting ancient Egyptian gods holding knives in order to protect the dead.

At the opposite side of the Osiris statue is another staircase leading to a nine metre deep shaft that leads to another chamber that has a seven metre deep shaft with two rooms full of debris.

María Milagros Álvarez Sosa, head of the mission, said that part of the tomb was initially discovered by archaeologist Philippe Virey in the 1880s and some attempts were made to sketch out the main structure in the 20th century. However, it was not until recently that the full extent of the structure was discovered through excavation.

The funerary complex will continue to be explored and the chambers cleared of debris in the autumn of this year.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/119421/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Osiris-tomb-discovered-in-Luxor.aspx

The Meaning Behind a Nubian Ruler’s Offering to a Falcon God

Taharqa offering to Hemen. The Louvre, Paris.

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

For many, the grandeur of ancient Egypt is evoked by its great monuments of architecture and colossal sculptures. Works of more modest dimensions, however, are far more numerous and quite arguably more revealing of the complex culture that produced them.

Such is certainly the case with the small-scale, delicately crafted work shown here. On a silver base, the figure of Taharqa—ruler of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt—kneels before the giant figure of the falcon god Hemen.

This stunning work is both aesthetically and technically unique. The most straightforward part of its manufacture is the solid-bronze figure of Taharqa, cast and then incised with linear detail. The image of Hemen, on the other hand, is carved from stone and covered with sheets of thin gold. The figures rest on a wooden base covered with a silver revetment.

Dressed only in the pleated linen kilt worn by Egyptian royalty, Taharqa offers the god two small jars of wine. He wears the double-uraeus headdress representing rule over his native Nubia as well as the whole land of Egypt to the north. An inscription on the back of his belt identifies him by name and extols his divine status: “The perfect god. Taharqa alive for eternity.”

Museum Pieces - Apis carrying the mummy

Separated from the mummy-shaped coffin of which it once formed the footboard, the board now appears to have been created as an independent work of art: a lively depiction of a bull with black spots, carrying a mummy on its back. According to a myth, the sacred Apis bull carried the corpse of Osiris for Horus. It is a rare image which the priest of Montu Nes(er)-amun has utilized in order to achieve resurrection like Osiris.

Present location:   KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM [09/001] VIENNA
Inventory number:   912
Dating:   25TH DYNASTY AND CONTEMPORARIES
Archaeological Site:   UNKNOWN
Category:   COFFIN/SARCOPHAGUS ELEMENT
Material:   WOOD
Technique:   PAINTED
Height:   36.2 cm
Width:   27 cm
Depth:   2 cm

Translation

Speech by Osiris, the great god, and by Montu, the Lord of the West. Nes(er)-amun, the lord of veneration.

Bibliography

Bergmann, E. von, Inschriftliche Denkmäler, in: Recueil de Travaux rélatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes (RecTrav) 9 (1887) 49: Nr. 22.

Katalog "5000 Jahre Aegyptische Kunst", Wien (1961/62) 86, Nr. 154.

Katalog: "Osiris, Kreuz und Halbmond", Stuttgart (1984), 100, 102, Nr. 78.

Satzinger, H., Das Kunsthistorische Museum in Wien. Die Ägyptisch-Orientalische Sammlung. Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie 14. Mainz. 1994.

Source: http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=5822

Museum Pieces - Sphinx of Shepenupet II

Photocredit: Jürgen Liepe

Sphinx of Shepenupet, "God's Wife of Amun"
Statue
25th Dynasty (Kushite)
Karnak (Tempel)
Granit
46 x 25 x 83 cm
120 kg
Ident.Nr. ÄM 7972


Shepenupet II (alt. Shepenwepet II, prenomen: Henutneferumut Irietre) was an Ancient Egyptian princess of the Twenty-fifth dynasty and the Divine Adoratrice of Amun from around 700 BC to 650 BC. She was the daughter of the first Kushite pharaoh Piye, and sister of Piye's successors Taharqa and Shabaka. She was adopted by her predecessor in office, Amenirdis I, a sister of Piye. Shepenupet was God's Wife from the beginning of Taharqa's reign until Year 9 of Pharaoh Psamtik I. While in office she had to come to a power sharing arrangement with the mayor of Thebes, Montuemhet.

Her niece Amenirdis, the daughter of Taharqa, was appointed as her heiress. Shepenupet was compelled to adopt Nitocris, daughter of pharaoh Psamtik I who reunited Egypt after the Assyrian conquest. This is evidenced by the so-called Adoption Stela of Nitocris. In 656 BC, in Year 9 of the reign of Psamtik I, she received Nitocris at Thebes.

Her tomb is located in the grounds of Medinet Habu. She was succeeded by Amenirdis II who was succeeded by Nitocris I.


Sources: Ägyptisches Museum, wikipedia.org

Dynasties Of Egypt Part V: Late Period

Kushite Period, or Dynasty 25 (ca. 712–664 B.C.)

From ca. 728 to 656 B.C., the Nubian kings of Dynasty 25 dominated Egypt. Like the Libyans before them, they governed as Egyptian pharaohs. Their control was strongest in the south. In the north, Tefnakht's successor, Bakenrenef, ruled for four years (ca. 717–713 B.C.) at Sais until Piankhy's successor, Shabaqo (ca. 712–698 B.C.), overthrew him and established Nubian control over the entire country. The accession of Shabaqo can be considered the end of the Third Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Late Period in Egypt.

Nubian rule, which viewed itself as restoring the true traditions of Egypt, benefited Egypt economically and was accompanied by a revival in temple building and the arts that continued throughout the Late Period. At the same time, however, the country faced a growing threat from the Assyrian empire to its east. After forty years of relative security, Nubian control—and Egypt's peace—were broken by an Assyrian invasion in ca. 671 B.C. The current pharaoh, Taharqo (ca. 690–664 B.C.), retreated south and the Assyrians established a number of local vassals to rule in their stead in the Delta. One of them, Necho I of Sais (ca. 672–664 B.C.), is recognized as the founder of the separate Dynasty 26. For the next eight years, Egypt was the battleground between Nubia and Assyria. A brutal Assyrian invasion in 663 B.C. finally ended Nubian control of the country. The last pharaoh of Dynasty 25, Tanutamani (664–653 B.C.), retreated to Napata. There, in relative isolation, he and his descendants continued to rule Nubia, eventually becoming the Meroitic civilization, which flourished in Nubia until the fourth century A.D. 

Sudan’s Nubian pyramids: Gebel Barkal and Napata

Ancient Egyptians had their own version of 'Mount Olympus' in Gebel Barkal in Sudan which served as the house of god Amon

by Mohammed Elrazzaz, Thursday 31 Jan 2013

The Greeks were not the first to have a "Mount Olympus" where their pantheon of gods resided. Long before them, the Ancient Egyptians had their own version of Mount Olympus, but it was neither located in Greece nor Egypt. Named Gebel Barkal, the holy mountain in Sudan served as the place where the god Amon lived.


Old capital of Napata

The Kushite Kingdom is in fact two kingdoms: one that had its birth pangs around 2500 BC and underwent a serious downfall in the mid-second millennium BC when its political power alarmed its Egyptian neighbours, and a second kingdom that rose in the mid-eleventh century BC and lasted till the fourth century AD.

Crossing the Bayuda Desert, we slowly approached the first of five archaeological sites collectively known as Gebel Barkal and the Napata Region. Napata was the capital of Kush between the eighth and third centuries BC, lending its name to the flourishing Napata culture. This very same spot was the birthplace of the Black Pharaohs that ruled Egypt between the eighth and seventh centuries BC.

Dynasties Of Egypt Part IV: New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period

The New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. 

The New Kingdom (1570–1070 BC) followed the Second Intermediate Period and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period. It was Egypt’s most prosperous time and marked the zenith of its power.

Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt attempt to create a buffer between the Levant and Egypt, and attained its greatest territorial extent. It expanded far south into Nubia and held wide territories in the Near East. Egyptian armies fought Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria.

The Eighteenth Dynasty contained some of Egypt's most famous pharaohs including Ahmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amunhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun.

The founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose I (reign 1550-1525 BC) had a turbulent childhood. At the age of seven, his father Seqenenre Tao II was killed, probably while putting down members of the Asiatic tribe known as Hyskos, who were rebelling against the Thebean Royal House in Lower Egypt. At the age of ten, he saw his brother Kamose die of unknown causes after reigning for only three years. 

An Egyptian Renaissance: The Kushite 25th Dynasty

An Egyptian Renaissance: The Kushite 25th Dynasty

by Dr. Lisa Swart

Far from being a cultural and geographic backwater, the Kushite 25th Dynasty created one of the largest empires along the Nile in ancient and medieval times. A dynasty of charismatic Kushite kings assumed Egyptian titles and postures for over a century. Their sovereignty over Egypt was acknowledged by the Egyptians, all while retaining their own unique identities. The Kushites not only united a previously fragmented Egypt, which had slid into political and economic decline, but reinvigorated Egyptian material culture with a blend of their own distinctive characteristics with Egyptian prototypes.

Introduction

Extending south, along the Nile River from the First Cataract to the Shubaluqa Gorge (Sixth Cataract), is the land of Nubia. Today, this region is mostly located within the borders of modern Sudan, with a small portion crossing into southern Egypt. Known as Kush by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hebrews and Persians; and Ethiopia by the Greeks, Romans and 19th and early 20th century writers, it is one of only two African civilizations so far to have produced significant archaeological or written records from before 1000 CE (Depuydt, 1996: 531), However, even with rich Kushite archaeological remains along the course of the Nile Valley, compared with other great civilizations of the ancient world, relatively little is known about Nubia. Previously considered a geographical backwater, Nubia has been traditionally viewed with the flawed perception by scholars from within the shadow of the monolithic Egyptian empire. This opinion has its roots in the preconceptions of early African societies prevalent in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Confounding matters further, unlike Egypt, there is not an excess of textual artifacts, and of those found, many have been written in the undeciphered Meroitic language.

As ancient as its neighbour in the north, the history of Nubia is deeply interwoven with that of Egypt, a long-time rival, trading partner, colonial master, and subsequent colony. From obscure origins, the Kushite kings conquered and establised their domination over Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty during the mid-eighth century BCE. They ruled Egypt for over a century, until they were ousted by the Assyrians in the 650s BCE.

Egypt: The End of a Civilisation

By Dr Aidan Dodson

Defining the end point

The civilisation of ancient Egypt can be traced back in recognisable form to around 3000 BC. It was to endure for over three millennia and it is perhaps the most instantly recognisable of all ancient cultures today. The question of how it came to an end is a perennially popular one, but actually quite difficult to answer, as it is by no means agreed as to what constitutes 'the end' of Egypt as an ancient civilisation.

...the demise of the hieroglyphs was a manifestation of the decline and fall of the ancient religion...

Is it the definitive end of native Egyptian rule (at least until the 20th century)? In this case the answer would be the flight of King Nectanebo II in 342 BC. Is it Egypt's absorption into the Roman Empire in 30 BC? Or the last appearance of the ancient hieroglyphic script just before AD 400? Or the closure of the last pagan temples in the sixth century?

In many ways the last suggestion is perhaps the most appropriate, as in all the other cases, the core religious and artistic values of the country continued on, albeit increasingly debased and under pressure. However, the demise of the hieroglyphs was a manifestation of the decline and fall of the ancient religion in the face of Christianity, itself ultimately to be supplanted by Islam.

The 25th Dynasty

by Timothy Kendall

The Nubian Conquest of Egypt: 1080-650 BC

Egyptian control over Nubia lapsed after the death of Ramesses II (ca. 1224 BC), just as the pharaoh's control over Egypt itself began to wane. In the early eleventh century BC Egypt split into two semi-autonomous domains: Lower Egypt was governed by the pharaoh, and the much larger tract of Upper Egypt was governed in the name of the god Amun by his high priest at Thebes. Nubia's last imperial viceroy, Panehesy ("The Nubian") became a renegade by waging war against the Theban high priests who were themselves military commanders seeking to extend their authority southward. By early Dynasty 21, most of Lower Nubia had become a no-man's land. Upper Nubia (the northern Sudan) became independent under authorities unknown.

From the meager data available, it would appear that those who ultimately gained control in Upper Nubia were people who had been little influenced by Egyptian culture. The old centers of the New Kingdom show poor continuity of occupation, and their temples became derelict.

Not until Dynasty 22 are African products again listed among gifts dedicated to Amun of Karnak by an Egyptian king. The donor, Sheshonq I (ca. 945-924 BC), and his successor Osorkon I (ca. 924-889 BC) are also said in the Bible to have employed Kushite mercenaries and officers in their campaigns against Judah. Assyrian texts of the later ninth century further note that the pharaohs were sending African products to the Assyrian kings. Such evidence suggests that the Egyptians during this period had re-established trade relations with the far south, but they never reveal with whom they were dealing. One can only assume that from the tenth century on one or more dominant chiefdoms had emerged in Nubia - again, as in the case of Kerma centuries before, beginning a process of material, cultural, and political enrichment through commerce with Egypt.