Meet King Tut’s Father, Egypt’s First Revolutionary

Akhenaten upended the religion, art, and politics of ancient Egypt, and then his legacy was buried. Now he endures as a symbol of change.

By Peter Hessler
Photograph by Rena Effendi

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.”

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.

“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.”

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.

Archaeologists unearth statue of Queen Tiye in Egypt's Luxor

The discovery of the statue was made by the European-Egyptian mission, working under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute

By Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 23 Mar 2017

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.

The exciting find was made by the European-Egyptian mission, working under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany who visited the site to inspect the discovery, described the staute as "unique and distinghuised".

He told Ahram Online that no alabaster statues of Queen Tiye have been found before now.

"All previous statues of her unearthed in the temple were carved of quartzite," he said.

Hourig Sourouzian, head of the mission said that the statue is very well preserved and has kept is colours well.

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.

"The Queen Tiye statue appeared beside the left leg of the King Amenhotep III statue," Sourouzian said.

She added that the statue will be the subject of restoration work. 

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/261512/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Archaeologists-unearth-statue-of-Queen-Tiye-in-Egy.aspx

Statue of Amenhotep III, 66 of goddess Sekhmet unearthed in Luxor

The discoveries shed further light on what the eighteenth dynasty pharaoh's temple would have looked like

By Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 8 Mar 2017

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.
Project director Hourig Sourouzian told Ahram Online that the statue is 248 cm high, 61 cm wide and 110cm deep.

It was found in the great court of the temple of Amenhotep III on Luxor's West Bank.

"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.

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.

When the site's restoration is complete, Sourouzian said, the pair of statues would be displayed again in the temple, in their original positions.

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.

Statues of lioness goddess Sekhmet unearthed in Luxor's Kom El-Hettan excavation

by Nevine El-Aref , Friday 9 Dec 2016

Egyptian archaeologists excavating the Mortuary Temple of King Amenhotep III in Luxor have unearthed a number of statues of the goddess Sekhmet, daughter of the ancient Egyptian sun god Re, project director Hourig Sourouzian told Ahram Online on Thursday.

"They are of great artistic quality" Sourouzian said of the statues, which were found in four parts, including three busts and one headless torso, in the Kom El-Hettan archaeological area on Luxor's west bank.

Sourouzian oversees the work of the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, which is working to save the remains of the more than 3,000 year-old temple and eventually restore its dispersed artefacts to the site, to be presented in their original layout.

The project director said her team found the Sekhmet pieces in very good condition, buried in the temple's hypostyle hall—a roofed structure supported by columns. Several other statues of the goddess have been found previously on the same site.

According to Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet was charged with defending her father Re against enemies.

The many statues of the goddess in the temple of Amenhotep III would also have been intended to protect the ruler from evil and disease, Afifi told Ahram Online. 

"All statues of the goddess are now stored in warehouses supervised by the Ministry of Antiquities for security reasons,” Afifi said, adding that when excavations at the temple are completed and the site is opened to visitors, the statues will be placed back in their original setting.

In addition to the statues of Sekhmet, Sourouzian's team have uncovered large pieces of sphinxes carved in limestone, as well as a small torso of a deity in black granite, within the vicinity of the funerary temple's third pylon.  

“The sphinxes are in a bad state of preservation and will need to be treated before being exposed,” she said.

Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany is set to travel to Luxor on Monday, to inspect the newly discovered statues and attend the opening of a temporary exhibit to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Luxor Museum.

The exhibit will display a collection of 40 artefacts discovered by archaeologists on the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project.

The artefacts will include a collection of amulets, Greco-Roman coins, remains of clay pots and religious stelae—stone tablets or columns erected as tombstones or boundary markers.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/251690/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Statues-of-lioness-goddess-Sekhmet-unearthed-in-Lu.aspx

Finding the missing pieces

An important restoration of the colossal statue of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye has been made possible by the discovery of long-missing fragments, writes Zahi Hawass

In 1859, the Frenchman Auguste Mariette found a huge double statue of Amenhotep III and his favourite queen, Tiye. Mariette was the first director of antiquities in Egypt and “discovered” famous monuments like the Serapeum at Saqqara and the Valley Temple of Chephren at Giza.

 The statue was found at Medinet Habu, the great temple of Ramses III in western Thebes, near the Roman Court. But the statue originally stood at the great southern gate of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III at Kom Al-Hitan, to the east of Medinet Habu.

When the statue was discovered, many sections of the figures of the king and queen were missing and had to be restored by filling in the gaps. The restoration work was carried out at the turn of the last century, by an Italian artist and restorer. He clearly showed the difference between the original parts of the statue and the restored portions.

The statue is now housed in the Cairo Museum, at the end of the main hall on the ground floor. The king is shown seated, with his hands placed flat on his knees. Queen Tiye sits beside him, with one arm placed around the king’s waist. Between them is a small statue of one of their daughters, perhaps the one who married her brother Akhenaton and was the mother of Tutankhamun.

Museum Pieces - Kneeling Amenhotep III as the god Neferhotep

Kneeling Amenhotep III as the god Neferhotep

Photocredit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

DIMENSIONS
Height x width x depth: 13 x 3.8 x 5.3 cm (5 1/8 x 1 1/2 x 2 1/16 in.)

MEDIUM
Glazed steatite

CLASSIFICATION
Sculpture

ACCESSION NUMBER
1970.636

PERIOD
1390–1352 B.C.

There is more to this charming statuette of Amenhotep III than meets the eye. The king is wide-eyed, innocent-looking, and decidedly chubby, his bare chest revealing his baby fat. But despite his youthful appearance, Amenhotep III was no child when this statue was created, for it is one of a number of closely related statuettes made in celebration of the king's thirty-year jubilee. Thirty years symbolized a generation, and during the celebration of the jubilee, the king was born again. Amenhotep III would have been at least in his forties at the time, but he appears as a child in token of his spiritual rebirth. The inscription on the back of the statuette calls Amenhotep III, "the son of Isis, who dwells in Edfu," so presumably the figure was placed in the temple of Edfu as an offering to Isis. True to his name, the king kneels to present an offering, now lost, to his mother.

The statuette's distinctive headdress - a round curly wig with uraeus, surmounted by the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt - identifies the ruler with the child god Neferhotep. The crowns were meant to confer stability, while implicit in any child god is the prospect of a new beginning full of promise. The statuette is thus a visual pun, and even the color added to its symbolism. Originally, the figure was glazed a lustrous blue-green, now almost entirely worn away. In ancient Egypt as today, to be green meant to be young; in ancient Egyptian, the words for "green" and "to be young," renput and renpy, had the same root. Additional meaning is provided by the word for glazed material, tjehenet, "dazzling, luminous," which was also applied to sunlight, and by extension, to gold. In this image of himself as the child god Neferhotep, Amenhotep III - who liked to call himself the "dazzling sun-disk of all lands" - found the perfect form of self-expression.

Source: http://www.mfa.org/node/9457

Resurrection at Thebes?

Could the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III be returning to something like its original splendour after 3,200 years in ruins, asks Nevine El-Aref

At Wadi Al-Hittan on Luxor’s west bank, the two lonely Colossi of Memnon are seated, greeting visitors to the Theban necropolis. However, last week things were different from usual, as the temple that the monoliths once safeguarded is progressively re-emerging from oblivion for the first time since its collapse 3,200 years ago after a massive earthquake.

The originally awe-inspiring temple of the pharaoh Amenhotep III now appears as just slight elevations and depressions in the packed earth, with blocks, statues and fragments scattered across the surface. However, three of the temple’s original pylons can now be discerned, along with the statues and stelae that decorated its different courts.

The efforts exerted by the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project (CMATCP) and the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) under the supervision of Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian may be making the dream of the reconstruction of the lost temple come true.

The temple was built throughout the 38 years of the pharaoh’s reign in the first half of the 14th century BCE. Some 150 years later, it was toppled after a destructive earthquake hit the country around 1,200BCE.

The site was then used as a quarry, and most of the blocks and decorative elements were re-used in the construction of surrounding temples and structures.

Later, the remains of the temple were regularly subjected to floods and it was covered with the alluvial layers of the Nile.

Statue of Amenhotep III's daughter unearthed in Luxor

Iset, the daughter of Amenhotep III, was the aunt of Tutankhamun

by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 10 Mar 2014

Archaeologists have discovered a new statue depicting the daughter of King Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun’s grandfather and ruler of Egypt over 3,000 years ago.

During routine excavation works at Amenhotep III's funerary temple in the Kom El-Hittan area on Luxor's west bank, a European archaeological mission uncovered the statue of the king's daughter Iset.

The statue, which is 1.7m tall and 52cm wide, forms part of a huge, 14m high alabaster statute of Amenhotep III.

Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online that several parts of the colossal Amenhotep statue had been unearthed during previous excavation seasons.

"It is a very important discovery because it is the first time to unearth a statue that shows the king with his daughter, alone without her mother, brothers or sister," Ibrahim said.

There are several extant statues that show Iset with all the members of her family.

Ali El-Asfar, head of the Ancient Egyptian antiquities sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, explains that the original colossus shows the king sitting on the throne with his hands on his legs, while between his leg stands Iset wearing a rounded wig and long tight garb.

The statue’s face has suffered serious damage due to erosion, and the statue’s legs are missing.

El-Asfar said that the Amenhotep III statue is being restored, and on completion the Iset statue will be installed in its original position between the king's legs. The colossus will be re-erected at its original position in the temple.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/96352.aspx

A part of Memnon colossi uncovered in Luxor

Quartzite blocks belong to the colossi of Memnon was discovered Sunday at King Amenhotep III's funerary temple on Luxor's west bank

by Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 16 Feb 2014

The European-Egyptian archaeological mission headed by famed Egyptologist Horig Sourouzian has unearthed a collection of quartzite blocks that had been missing since antiquity from Memnon colossi, at the entrance of King Amenhotep III's temple at Kom El-Hitan on Luxor's west bank.

Egypt's antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online on Sunday that the blocks belong to the northern colossus and depict a part of the statue's arm, painted belt and skirt.

These blocks, Ibrahim went on, were missing since antiquity following an earthquake that led to the destruction of the temple, with the exception of these two colossi which once decorated the temple's entrance gate.

Aly El-Asfar, head of the ministry's ancient Egyptian antiquities section, said that in addition to the 88cm tall and 76cm large blocks, the mission had also uncovered others that were once part of the colossus' royal crown and foundation stone.

"It is a very important discovery," said El-Asfar, adding that the discovery of these blocks will lead archaeologists to reconstruct both colossi and return them to their original glory.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/94392/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/A-part-of-Memnon-colossi-uncovered-in-Luxor.aspx

Pharaoh power-sharing unearthed in Egypt

Conclusive evidence that revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten shared power with his father.

A handout picture provided by the Egyptian Ministry of state for Antiquities on February 6, 2014 shows inscriptions discovered in a tomb in the ancient city of Luxor (Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities/AFP)

AFP –  Egypt’s antiquities ministry on Thursday revealed what it called conclusive evidence that revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten shared power with his father.

Scholars had long debated whether Akhenaten, who tried to revolutionise ancient Egyptian religion, had shared power with his ailing father Amenhotep III.

The evidence came from the tomb of a pharaonic minister in the southern city of Luxor, inscribed with the cartouches of both pharaohs.

It was traditional for a minister’s tomb to be adorned with the cartouche of the ruler.
The inscriptions found in the minister’s tomb by an Egyptian-Spanish team dated back to a religious celebration marking Amenhotep III’s 30th year in power, roughly eight years before his death and Akhenaten’s ascension around 1,300 BC.

It is “definitive evidence of the co-regency between Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV,” said antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim in a statement, referring to Akhenaten by his early title.

Akhenaten, who tried to impose monotheism with the worship of Aten, the sun disc, later fathered the famed boy king Tutankhamun.

Elsewhere, Egyptian archeologists discovered the mummified body of a woman buried with 180 funerary statues in Daqahleya province, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cairo, the antiquities ministry said on Wednesday.

The number of statues indicates the high social rank of the woman when she died. Her mummy was well preserved.

Source: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/02/06/pharaoh-power-sharing-unearthed-egypt/

Museum Pieces - Wooden statue of Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III

The dynamics of permanence and change in Egyptian art are well reflected in this statuette of Amunhotep III. The form of the striding male figure dates back to as early as Dynasty 3 (circa 2675–2625 B.C.). The Blue Crown, an element of iconography, did not appear until right before Dynasty 18 (circa 1539 B.C.), more than one thousand years later. The style was completely new: unlike most Egyptian kings, Amunhotep III allowed himself to be portrayed as an aging man with a noticeable paunch and sagging jowls.

Medium: Wood, gilded

Possible Place Collected: Thebes, Egypt

Dates: ca. 1390-1352 B.C.E.

Dynasty: late XVIII Dyansty

Period: New Kingdom

Dimensions: 10 3/8 in. (26.3 cm) Base: 6 5/16 x 1 1/16 x 2 3/8 in. (16 x 2.7 x 6 cm)  (show scale)

Collections:Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

Accession Number: 48.28

Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY

Caption: Amunhotep III, ca. 1390-1352 B.C.E. Wood, gilded, 10 3/8 in. (26.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.28. Creative Commons-BY

Image: overall, 48.28_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

More Sekhmet statues unearthed at Amenhotep III's temple in Luxor

Black granite statues of the ancient Egyptian lioness goddess Sekhmet were unearthed Monday at King Amenhotep III's temple on the west bank of Luxor

by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 11 Mar 2013


Egyptian and European excavators unearthed a collection of black granite statues depicting the ancient Egyptian lioness Goddess Sekhmet during their routine excavation at King Amenhotep III funerary temple in the Kom Al-Hittan area on the west bank of Luxor.
The statues depict the goddess Sekhmet in her usual form, sitting on the throne with a human body and lioness's head.

"This is not the first time statues of the lioness goddess have been unearthed at Kom Al-Hittan," said Mohamed Ibrahim, minister of state for antiquities adding that the Egyptian-European mission led by German Egyptologist Horig Sourouzian has previously unearthed 64 statues of Sekhment of different shapes and sizes.

Ibrahim explained that such a large number highlights the important role of the goddess during the reign of the 18th dynasty king Amenhotep III, father of the monotheistic king Akhnaten and grandfather of the golden king Tutankhamun.

Sekhmet was believed to be a protective goddess as she was also the goddess of war and destruction. "Some Egyptologists," pointed out Ibrahim, "believe that king Amenhotep constructed a large number of goddess Sekhmets in an attempt to cure him of a specific disease that he suffered during his reign." Sekhmet was well known of her supposed ability to cure critical deseases.

The Egyptian Fortress in Jaffa

By Aaron A. Burke and Martin Peilstöcker   Sun, Mar 03, 2013

Archaeologists are rediscovering a Late Bronze Age Egyptian stronghold in the land of ancient Canaan.


In a very real sense, the ancient port city of Jaffa may offer a valuable historical and archaeological example of the age-old issues and dynamics that have beset occupying powers the world over for thousands of years. Archaeologists have been exploring and studying the ancient Egyptian fortress at this coastal city to obtain insights on what it was like for both conqueror and conquered when there are "strangers in the land"..........

Situated on the central coast of Israel, on the south side of Tel Aviv, and 60 km to the northwest of Jerusalem, Jaffa’s antiquity and importance as a Mediterranean port was well established before the resumption of excavations in 2008 by the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project. While the biblical texts have served as a primary historical referent, Jaffa’s importance in other periods is much more clearly understood in classical sources including Josephus, but also even from Egyptian New Kingdom literature and administrative documents. Following excavations during the 1950s of the archaeological remains of an Egyptian fortress in Jaffa, a fortress that existed for most of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1460 to 1130 BC), seeking to understand Jaffa’s role in the Egyptian New Kingdom imperial control of Canaan became of paramount importance.

In 2007 the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project was established by Aaron A. Burke of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles and Martin Peilstöcker of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The project’s overarching goal is to facilitate long-term research of Jaffa’s cultural heritage through the integration of research and salvage excavations, cultural and historical studies, and multidisciplinary scientific approaches to Jaffa’s history and archaeology. Central to this objective was the renewal of excavations on the mound of ancient Jaffa (Tel Yafo). As part of the initial phase of the project, the Kaplan Excavations Publication Initiative was conceived to provide an in-depth analysis of the unpublished excavations by the site’s most prolific excavator, Jacob Kaplan, who conducted excavations on behalf of the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums from 1955 to 1974. We present here the preliminary results of our synthesis of the results of the old excavations since the resumption of excavations in the same area in 2011 by the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project.

Newly discovered colossi of Amenhotep III to be restored

Pair of Pharaoh Amenhotep III colossal statues to undergo intensive restoration as a part of Egypt's conservation project

by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 11 Feb 2013


The mortuary temple of the18th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III on Luxor's west bank was a hive of activity on Monday, as workers along with Egyptian and foreign archaeologists have packed a pair of colossal statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in an attempt to transport it to an area almost 60 km far of the temple for restoration.
Horig Sourouzian, head of the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project (CMATCP), told Ahram Online that both statues once stood at the northern gate of the temple, 200 metres behind the Colossi of Memnon. However, the statues collapsed and broke into several pieces in 27 BC during a destructive earthquake. These were originally discovered in situ in 1933 but recovered by sand. In 2010, the CMATCP mission uncovered them in the passageway leading to the third pylon of the temple.

“The two colossi are the only ones of this size that have been preserved,” Sourouzian said. “They are estimated to have been about 14 metres tall and show Pharaoh Amenhotep III seated on his throne, wearing the royal beard, the nemes head dress and a pleated shendjyt kilt."

“In order to restore and conserve both statues carved in sand stone, they have been removed to a more dry area almost 60 metres far of the mortuary temple,” said Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud deputy of head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities section at the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA).

“The conservation project aims at returning both statues to their original condition through reassembling all their pieces and fragments as well as consolidating them. Scenes and hieroglyphic texts engraved on the statues bases will be also cleaned and restored,” he explained.

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim described the statues as one of the most beautifully carved images of Pharaoh Amenhotep III known, and called it "a masterpiece of a royal portrait.”

The statues show the facial features of Pharaoh Amenhotep III with the almond eyes prolonged with cosmetic bands, a small nose and a large mouth with wide lips outlined with a sharp ridge.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/64549/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Newly-discovered-colossi-of-Amenhotep-III-to-be-re.aspx

Piece of glass has been identified as part of 3,000-year-old Egyptian vase

by James Rush

A piece of glass on display at Swansea University has been identified as a lost fragment of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian vase at Cairo Museum.

The fragment is believed to have come from a 15in high vase from the tomb of queen Tiye, the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned from 1386 to 1349BC.

The piece of glass, which is on loan to the university's Egypt Centre from Swansea Museum, is part of an amphora, a kind of vessel usually used for transporting wine.

The rest of the vessel is currently on display in Cairo.

Although it was found in the tomb of the wife of Amenhotep III, the 4cm fragment bears the name of his grandfather Amenhotep II, who is thought to have ruled Egypt between 1427-1401BC and was given to the museum by the family of Harold Jones in 1959. Mr Jones  was an artist in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings in the early 20th century.

Photo Credit: D. Legakis Photo/Athena Pictures

The long piece of glass displays two names of the king picked out in red and yellow on a background of brilliant blue.

The names are surmounted by red sun-disks and yellow feathers. The missing piece was originally prefabricated separately and then sunk into the body of the 40cm high glass amphora.

The complete vessel consists of a white amphora decorated with brown and light blue decoration.

Photo Credit: D. Legakis Photo/Athena Pictures

Dr Carolyn Graves-Brown, Curator of the Egypt Centre, said: 'Glass of this date is extremely rare in Egypt and was usually given as diplomatic gifts between the kings of the region.

'Vessels and other artefacts from the reign of Amenhotep II are part of an extraordinary array of sophisticated techniques from an innovative period of glass production.

'Large vessels such as that in Cairo Museum, from which our fragment originated, were not attempted even in later years. At this date the manufacture of glass was a royal monopoly and as valuable as gold and silver.'

Amenhotep III's reign is said to mark the zenith of civilisation in ancient Egypt, for both its cultural achievement and political power.

He is thought to have died around 1354 BC and was buried in a tomb in the secluded western branch of the Valley of the Kings.

The Swansea piece which bears his grandfather’s name would have been prefabricated and placed upon the body of the vessel while it was still in a molten state.

Interestingly, one of the names for glass in ancient Egyptian was ‘the stone that flows’.

Garethe El-Tawab, Curator of Swansea Museum said: 'The loan of this very rare piece of ancient glass by the Museum to our colleagues in the Egypt Centre is a marvellous example of partnership working in international research.'

Visitors will be able to see the rare piece of Egyptian glass for themselves when they come to the centre which is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and is free to the public.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262577/Ancient-glass-fragment-Swansea-University-discovered-3-000-year-old-vase-tomb-Egyptian-queen-Tiye.html

The Story of Nefertiti

As queen of Egypt married to the iconoclastic pharaoh Akhenaton, Nefertiti helped in the temporary transformation of the cultures traditional religion into a monotheistic cult of sun worship. She also had an important role in ruling the empire and inspired standards of female beauty.

Akhenaton, Nefertiti and children

Early Life

Nefertiti was born in the royal city of Thebes on the Nile River in Upper Egypt; her name means "the beautiful one has come." Her origins and much about her life are unclear. Her supposed mother or stepmother, Tiy, was also described as her "nurse" and "governess." Her putative father was Ay, at first a scribe and keeper of the king's records. Eventually, Ay was to become grand vizier, or chief minister, as well as commander of the king's chariotry.

Perhaps her father's ascendancy made it possible for Nefertiti to secure an entrée to the court and to become friendly with the king's oldest son, the younger Amenhotep, a year her senior. Amenhotep happened to have her father, Ay, as tutor. Nefertiti had a younger sister, Mudnodjme, whom some scholars posit became the chief wife of King Horemheb, a view contested by others.

Given her father's presumed ambitions and the young prince's affection for her, at age eleven Nefertiti already appeared to have been groomed to be queen. It is agreed that she spent much of the her childhood in the royal palace at Thebes, a magnificent city beautified by Ay, this time in his capacity as chief architect to King Amenhotep III, the prince's father.

After the young King Amenhotep IV ascended the throne at about age sixteen upon his father's death, he married Nefertiti, then fifteen. She thus became Queen Nefertiti, empress of the two Egypts, Upper and Lower. During the Eighteenth Dynasty, royal couples were considered the intermediaries between the people and their gods; Amenhotep and Nefertiti, according to custom, were thus ascribed near-divine attributes.

The new king, however, broke rank with his predecessors. He evinced little interest in hunting, the affairs of state, or warfare. Rather, his focus was primarily theological. In fact, the sovereign became a religious reformer and was eventually considered a heretic. In contrast to his ancestors, Amenhotep IV replaced Amun-Re, the supreme god of all Egyptian gods, with a new paramount, powerful, and eventually sole god, Aton, whose manifestation was the sun-disk, the physical embodiment of the planet. Until then, Aton had been only a minor Theban god. Symbolically, in Year 5 of his reign, Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaton. Because of mounting opposition to his iconoclasm and to his closure of the temples of the other gods, Akhenaton decided to build a new capital, Akhetaton (the modern Tell el-Amârna, on the Nile in Middle Egypt some 250 miles north of Thebes). The royal family and a good part of the court then moved there.

Egypt's Golden Empire - Pharaohs of the Sun (video)

Credits: Lion Television

It's an oldie, just for fun!

Much needed makeover for three goddesses

by Nevine El-Aref

The temples of the Karnak complex stand majestically on the east bank of the Nile at Luxor, their awe-inspiring architecture flaunting the great and noble civilisation of ancient Egypt. We know from historical records that Karnak's vast medley of temples, chapels, columns, pylons, obelisks and above all the sacred lake have fascinated visitors for at least 2,000 years.

To the south of the Amun-Re temple complex, beneath the tenth pylon, stands the ruined temple of the mother goddess Mut. Since its construction by Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1388-1360 BC) the temple became a centre of interest for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom up until the Ptolemies (310-30 BC), who built several temples associated with the original Mut temple and its crescent-shaped lake.

The Mut precinct preserved its importance even after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, but its decline began not long afterwards. Regrettably the temple has been devastated over time; it has lost some of its features completely, and most of its blocks were usurped in antiquity and reused to construct other structures at Karnak. Except for some walls, foundations and no less than 600 black granite statuettes of the lioness goddess Sekhmet found scattered at the courtyard. Some Theban residents even built residential houses within the precincts of the Mut temples.

The temple closed its doors to the public. In 1976 so that the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) and the Brooklyn Museum could tart excavation and conservation work at the Mut precinct. This was followed by another mission from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 led by American archaeologist Betsy Bryan.

According to ARCE's website, while work was carried out at the Mut temple from 2007 to 2009 Bryan and her team continued to support the project to conserve the foundations. They found that the intermittent rise and fall of the Nile-fed sacred lake over many centuries had caused subsidence on the west side of the temple, creating a slippage of more than 10 centimetres in some areas of the wall.

Raising Amenhotep III's colossus

Photo courtesy of AhramOnline

Colossus of King Amenhotep III to be erected on Saturday at its funerary temple on Luxor’s west bank

by Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 3 Mar 2012

A quartzite colossus of 18th Dynasty King Amenhotep III is to be raised on Luxor's west bank on Saturday.

The colossus was unearthed in 2004 by an Egyptian-European archaeological mission led by Horig Sourouzian during routine excavation work. It was 100 meters behind the gigantic colossi of Memnon which represent the same king at the main entrance of its temple. The colossus was half buried under Nile alluvia in seven pieces.

In 2011 the restoration work was completed and Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim is to witness the raising of the colossi at its original location.

Sourouzian said it is the first time that such a monumental sculpture will raised by combining Pharaonic methods and modern air-cushion techniques. She explained that the statue was one of a pair that once stood at the temple’s northern gate but a massive earthquake in 1200 BC destroyed the whole temple.

Ibrahim described the colossus as a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian royal sculpture. It is 13 metres tall and depicts King Amenhotep III seated on a decorated throne and accompanied by a very well preserved statue of his wife Queen Tiye.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/35902/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Raising-Amenhotep-IIIs-colossus.aspx

Luxor Memnon restoration to go ahead

Project to restore the colossi of Memnon on Luxor’s west bank to go ahead, says Supreme Council of Antiquities

 

By Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 1 Dec 2011

In collaboration with the European archaeological mission, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is undertaking a comprehensive project to restore the colossi of Memnon on Luxor’s west bank.

The project aims to return the 19.5 meters tall colossi to their original appearance when the New Kingdom’s King Amenhotep III built them to decorate the façade of his mortuary temple.

SCA secretary-general Mostafa Amin told Ahram Online that the restoration would also return all the missing pieces of the colossi, collapsed during the Roman period, to their original positions.

Amin went on to say that the bodies of both colossi would be consolidated, as well as two Amenhotep III’s statues that were unearthed last year by the European archaeological mission, which has been working at the site for more than ten years.

In 27 BC, a large earthquake reportedly shattered the eastern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower half. Following its rupture, the remaining lower half of the statue was then reputed to "sing" on various occasions – always within an hour or two of sunrise, usually right at dawn. The sound was most often reported in February or March, but this is probably more a reflection of the tourist season rather than any actual pattern.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/9/40/28215/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Luxor-Memnon-restoration-to-go-ahead.aspx