Meteorite impacts thousands of years ago may have helped to inspire ancient religion.
by Jo Marchant 29 May 2013
The 5,000-year-old iron bead might not look like much, but it hides a spectacular past: researchers have found that an ancient Egyptian trinket is made from a meteorite.
The result, published on 20 May in Meteoritics & Planetary Science 1, explains how ancient Egyptians obtained iron millennia before the earliest evidence of iron smelting in the region, solving an enduring mystery. It also hints that they regarded meteorites highly as they began to develop their religion.
“The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians,” says Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, UK, and a co-author of the paper. “Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods.”
The tube-shaped bead is one of nine found in 1911 in a cemetery at Gerzeh, around 70 kilometres south of Cairo. The cache dates from about 3,300 bc, making the beads the oldest known iron artefacts from Egypt.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Earliest Case of Child Abuse Discovered in Egyptian Cemetery
by Joseph Castro, LiveScience ContributorDate: 28 May 2013
A 2- to 3-year-old child from a Romano-Christian-period cemetery in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, shows evidence of physical child abuse, archaeologists have found. The child, who lived around 2,000 years ago, represents the earliest documented case of child abuse in the archaeological record, and the first case ever found in Egypt, researchers say.
The Dakhleh Oasis is one of seven oases in Egypt's Western Desert. The site has seen continuous human occupation since the Neolithic period, making it the focus of several archaeological investigations, said lead researcher Sandra Wheeler, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Central Florida. Moreover, the cemeteries in the oasis allow scientists to take a unique look at the beginnings of Christianity in Egypt.
In particular, the so-called Kellis 2 cemetery, which is located in the Dakhleh Oasis town of Kellis (southwest of Cairo), reflects Christian mortuary practices. For example, "instead of having children in different places, everyone is put in one place, which is an unusual practice at this time," Wheeler told LiveScience. Dating methods using radioactive carbon from skeletons suggest the cemetery was used between A.D. 50 and A.D. 450.
When the researchers came across the abused toddler — labeled "Burial 519" — in Kellis 2, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. But when Wheeler's colleague Tosha Duprasbegan brushing the sand away, she noticed prominent fractures on the child's arms.
"She thought, 'Whoa, this was weird,' and then she found another fracture on the collarbone," Wheeler said. "We have some other kids that show evidence of skeletal trauma, but this is the only one that had these really extreme fracture patterns."
A 2- to 3-year-old child from a Romano-Christian-period cemetery in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, shows evidence of physical child abuse, archaeologists have found. The child, who lived around 2,000 years ago, represents the earliest documented case of child abuse in the archaeological record, and the first case ever found in Egypt, researchers say.
The Dakhleh Oasis is one of seven oases in Egypt's Western Desert. The site has seen continuous human occupation since the Neolithic period, making it the focus of several archaeological investigations, said lead researcher Sandra Wheeler, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Central Florida. Moreover, the cemeteries in the oasis allow scientists to take a unique look at the beginnings of Christianity in Egypt.
In particular, the so-called Kellis 2 cemetery, which is located in the Dakhleh Oasis town of Kellis (southwest of Cairo), reflects Christian mortuary practices. For example, "instead of having children in different places, everyone is put in one place, which is an unusual practice at this time," Wheeler told LiveScience. Dating methods using radioactive carbon from skeletons suggest the cemetery was used between A.D. 50 and A.D. 450.
When the researchers came across the abused toddler — labeled "Burial 519" — in Kellis 2, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. But when Wheeler's colleague Tosha Duprasbegan brushing the sand away, she noticed prominent fractures on the child's arms.
"She thought, 'Whoa, this was weird,' and then she found another fracture on the collarbone," Wheeler said. "We have some other kids that show evidence of skeletal trauma, but this is the only one that had these really extreme fracture patterns."
Friday, May 24, 2013
Trip through time: a woman in Egypt
by Takashi Sadahiro
Among the ruins in southern Egypt sits Abydos, a quiet town where the Temple of Seti I is located. Seti I was a pharaoh who reigned from 1290BC to 1279BC.
During a two-hour visit to the town recently, I saw only three European groups touring the temple. It seemed more popular with sparrows who flitted around in the sunshine in front of a relief.
Unlike Luxor, a popular tourist destination that is home to the Valley of the Kings, time seems to pass slowly in Abydos.
The town held such a powerful attraction to one free-spirited British woman that she spent the later years of her life, from 1952 to 1981, living near the temple.
Because she named her son Seti, after the pharaoh enshrined in the temple, she became widely known as "Omm Sety," or mother of Seti. She believed she was the reincarnation of a priestess in the temple 3,000 years ago who had fallen in love with the pharaoh and was forced to kill herself because their love affair was forbidden.
Omm Sety’s real name was Dorothy Eady. When she was 3 and living in a London suburb, she fell down some stairs and afterward began to believe she was the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priestess.
Among the ruins in southern Egypt sits Abydos, a quiet town where the Temple of Seti I is located. Seti I was a pharaoh who reigned from 1290BC to 1279BC.
During a two-hour visit to the town recently, I saw only three European groups touring the temple. It seemed more popular with sparrows who flitted around in the sunshine in front of a relief.
Unlike Luxor, a popular tourist destination that is home to the Valley of the Kings, time seems to pass slowly in Abydos.
The town held such a powerful attraction to one free-spirited British woman that she spent the later years of her life, from 1952 to 1981, living near the temple.
Because she named her son Seti, after the pharaoh enshrined in the temple, she became widely known as "Omm Sety," or mother of Seti. She believed she was the reincarnation of a priestess in the temple 3,000 years ago who had fallen in love with the pharaoh and was forced to kill herself because their love affair was forbidden.
Omm Sety’s real name was Dorothy Eady. When she was 3 and living in a London suburb, she fell down some stairs and afterward began to believe she was the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priestess.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Zahi Hawass
The long-reigning king of Egyptian antiquities has been forced into exile—but he’s plotting a return
By Joshua Hammer
Smithsonian magazine, June 2013
Zahi Hawass doesn’t like what he’s seeing. Clad in his familiar denim safari suit and wide-brimmed bush hat, the famed archaeologist is standing inside the burial vault of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a six-tiered, lopsided mound of limestone blocks constructed nearly 5,000 years ago. The huge, gloomy space is filled with scaffolding. A restoration and conservation project, at Saqqara outside Cairo, initiated by Hawass in 2002, has been shoring up the sagging ceiling and walls and staving off collapse. But the February 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak—and also ended Hawass’ controversial reign as the supreme chief of all Egypt’s antiquities—is now threatening to unravel Hawass’ legacy as well. With tourists nearly gone, funds dried up and the Ministry of Antiquities leadership reshuffled several times in the past two years, preservation work on the pyramid has ground to a near halt. The new minister has diverted reconstruction money into hiring thousands of unemployed archaeology graduates, claims Hawass, in a desperate move to stop protests. “He has done nothing,” Hawass says, with perhaps a touch of schadenfreude in his voice, scrutinizing the rough limestone ceiling and walls.
Hawass alights on the subterranean floor and shines a flashlight on the Pharaoh Djoser’s granite sarcophagus. I follow him on hands and knees through a low tunnel, part of a network of five miles of passages that workers burrowed beneath the pyramid in the 27th century B.C. The air is redolent of mud and dust. “The dead king had to go through these tunnels to fight wild creatures until he could become Osiris, the god of the underworld,” he tells me, stepping back into the sunlight.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Library's papyrus leads to an ancient detective story
By Gwen Glazer
In 1889, Andrew Dickson White’s extensive travels found him in Cairo, where he purchased an 8-foot-long papyrus scroll found in an ancient tomb. A museum conservator told White it was Spell 125 from the “Book of the Dead,” a traditional Egyptian funeral text.
White shipped it to Ithaca and, trusting his account, no one translated the scroll after it arrived in the library’s archives – until now, when a collections assistant in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC) examined it carefully.
 A segment of the papyrus on display |
| Photocredit: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections |
Fredrika Loew ’12, a Near Eastern studies and archaeology major who knows hieroglyphics and began as a student assistant in RMC, consulted with her colleagues and found something odd about the text.
“It’s written in hieratic, the hieroglyphic equivalent for papyrus, and it’s clear from the drawing that it has something to do with death and burials,” Loew said. “But when I looked at it carefully, the words didn't seem familiar.”
Loew's was right: The scroll turned out to be a unique funerary text. It quotes parts of the “Book of the Dead,” but, as far as scholars know, it is an original text from the Ptolemaic period and dates to around 330-320 B.C.
With Thomas Christiansen, a hieratic scholar in Denmark, Loew is working to understand the text. She, Christiansen and Caitlin Barrett, assistant professor of classics, are also co-authoring a book about the papyrus.
The papyrus belonged to a Ptolemaic priest named Usir-Wer, and it describes what will happen to his body and soul (or “ba”) after death. Part of it reads:
“They will take your ba to the sky and they will take your corpse to the Duat. They will place the cloth of the southern and northern house on your mummy like the follower of Sokar, whom you made into one of the vigilant ones who are watching over the lord, the great god. ... Your ba will appear in a chamber of white gold. Royal linen will descend on your mummy bandages.”
Loew created an RMC exhibition around the papyrus – and several other Egypt-related artifacts from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and the library, including its anthropology collections – that will be open until June 15 in the Kroch Library rotunda. The display includes mummified birds, an amulet, a kohl jar and an 1824 book deciphering hieratic and hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone. Also on display are White's photographs from his travels in Egypt, including the excavation of the Sphinx.
The exhibition is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Source: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/05/librarys-papyrus-leads-ancient-detective-story
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Museum Pieces - Artist's Sketch of Pharaoh Spearing a Lion
Artist's Sketch of Pharaoh Spearing a Lion
In this lively hunting scene, an unidentified Ramesside pharaoh is represented symbolically slaying the enemies of Egypt in the form of a lion. The hieratic text reads: "The slaughter of every foreign land, the Pharaoh—may he live, prosper, and be healthy."
This ostracon, a limestone chip used for sketching, was found in the Valley of the Kings during excavations conducted by Howard Carter on behalf of the Earl of Carnarvon, who received the piece in the division of finds. Although many of the figured ostraca discovered in this royal cemetery were clearly trial sketches made to facilitate an artist's work, this scene is not found in royal tombs, nor do the figures conform to the strict proportions of a formal rendering.
The scene was drawn with great economy of line by the confident hand of a skilled artist who required no grid lines as a guide. It may have been done for the amusement of the maker, or it may graphically represent the artist's hope that the ruler should be a strong protector of Egypt.
Excavated by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1920. Acquired by Lord Carnarvon in the division of finds; Carnarvon Collection, 1920–1926. Purchased by the Museum from Lady Carnarvon, 1926.
 |
| Photocredit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
- Period:
- New Kingdom, Ramesside
- Dynasty:
- Dynasty 20
- Date:
- ca. 1186–1070 B.C.
- Geography:
- Country of Origin Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62), debris near the entrance, Carter/Carnarvon 1920
- Medium:
- Limestone, ink
- Dimensions:
- h. 14 cm (5 1/2 in), w. 12.5 cm (4 15/16 in), th. 1.5 cm (9/16 in)
- Credit Line:
- Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926
- Accession Number:
- 26.7.1453
In this lively hunting scene, an unidentified Ramesside pharaoh is represented symbolically slaying the enemies of Egypt in the form of a lion. The hieratic text reads: "The slaughter of every foreign land, the Pharaoh—may he live, prosper, and be healthy."
This ostracon, a limestone chip used for sketching, was found in the Valley of the Kings during excavations conducted by Howard Carter on behalf of the Earl of Carnarvon, who received the piece in the division of finds. Although many of the figured ostraca discovered in this royal cemetery were clearly trial sketches made to facilitate an artist's work, this scene is not found in royal tombs, nor do the figures conform to the strict proportions of a formal rendering.
The scene was drawn with great economy of line by the confident hand of a skilled artist who required no grid lines as a guide. It may have been done for the amusement of the maker, or it may graphically represent the artist's hope that the ruler should be a strong protector of Egypt.
Excavated by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1920. Acquired by Lord Carnarvon in the division of finds; Carnarvon Collection, 1920–1926. Purchased by the Museum from Lady Carnarvon, 1926.
Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/100000277?img=0
Skeleton of a Roman warrior unearthed in south Egypt
A human skeleton of a young Roman warrior has been unearthed in south Aswan, with the soldier showing signs of being killed in warfare
by Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 16 May 2013
At Bab Al-Heissn area in south Aswan, which was in antiquity the border between Egypt and Old Nubia, an Austrian archaeological mission has unearthed a well-preserved skeleton of a young Roman warrior.
The mission also uncovered a residential house along with a coin from the reign of Emperor Heracles (741-610 AD).
Erin Forestner Molar, head of the mission, explains that early studies carried out on the skeleton's bones revealed that it is well preserved and belongs to a young warrior who spent his life in the Roman army.
"He probably died at a young age, between 25 and 35 years old, during a war from a stab from a sharp sword," Molar said, adding that until now the mission failed to identify the soldier but that further studies could establish his identity.
"It is a very important discovery," Minister of State of Antiquities Ahmed Eissa told Ahram Online, adding that it reveals a very important moment in Egypt's history. It shows that in antiquity there was conflict from time to time in the area, and likely war.
Adel Hussein, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities at the Ministry of State of Antiquities (MSA) pointed out that studies also tell that the stab hit the left thigh and left a very deep wound. It is likely the soldier bled to death.
Hussein continued that the area of Bal Al-Heissn was destroyed in several wars, which makes it difficult for researchers to determine an exact day of the war when the warrior was killed, but that early studies indicate that the war likely occurred shortly after the Arabs invaded Egypt.
Inside the residential house the mission found a fully-equipped kitchen with a large oven and a number of clay pots and pans, as well as the remains of flora inside.
Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/41/71533/Heritage/GrecoRoman/Skeleton-of-a-Roman-warrior-unearthed-in-south-Egy.aspx
by Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 16 May 2013
At Bab Al-Heissn area in south Aswan, which was in antiquity the border between Egypt and Old Nubia, an Austrian archaeological mission has unearthed a well-preserved skeleton of a young Roman warrior.
The mission also uncovered a residential house along with a coin from the reign of Emperor Heracles (741-610 AD).
Erin Forestner Molar, head of the mission, explains that early studies carried out on the skeleton's bones revealed that it is well preserved and belongs to a young warrior who spent his life in the Roman army.
"He probably died at a young age, between 25 and 35 years old, during a war from a stab from a sharp sword," Molar said, adding that until now the mission failed to identify the soldier but that further studies could establish his identity.
"It is a very important discovery," Minister of State of Antiquities Ahmed Eissa told Ahram Online, adding that it reveals a very important moment in Egypt's history. It shows that in antiquity there was conflict from time to time in the area, and likely war.
Adel Hussein, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities at the Ministry of State of Antiquities (MSA) pointed out that studies also tell that the stab hit the left thigh and left a very deep wound. It is likely the soldier bled to death.
Hussein continued that the area of Bal Al-Heissn was destroyed in several wars, which makes it difficult for researchers to determine an exact day of the war when the warrior was killed, but that early studies indicate that the war likely occurred shortly after the Arabs invaded Egypt.
Inside the residential house the mission found a fully-equipped kitchen with a large oven and a number of clay pots and pans, as well as the remains of flora inside.
Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/41/71533/Heritage/GrecoRoman/Skeleton-of-a-Roman-warrior-unearthed-in-south-Egy.aspx
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