Egyptian archaeologists refute claims by German amateurs on Great Pyramid

Head of ancient Egyptian antiquities explains why he thinks claims by two German amateurs concerning the construction date of the Great Pyramid are wrong

by Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 27 Nov 2013

In response to the alleged stealing of samples from the Great Pyramid by two German amateur archaeologists, Egypt's antiquities ministry issued a press release Wednesday discrediting all findings by the German pair.

The archaeologists took a piece of Khufu's cartouche from a small compartment above his burial chamber and smuggled it to Germany for study, the Ancient Egyptian section of the Ministry of State of Antiquities (MSA) reported.

The results announced by the two Germans cast doubt on the construction date of the Great Pyramid and consequently the Pharaoh for which it was built.

The results suggest that the pyramid was built in an era preceding Khufu's reign. It also suggests that the Pyramid is not the burial place for a king but a centre of power.

Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, head of the ancient Egyptian department, asserted in a press release on Wednesday that a multitude of scientific research from the past two centuries shows that the Great Pyramid belongs to King Khufu, the second king of the fourth dynasty, and that it was built during his reign to be used as his royal burial place for eternity.

Wednesday Weekly # 11

Welcome to the Wednesday Weekly, your weekly dose of links to Egyptology news, articles, blogs, events and more.


THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

By Brenda Wang:

Penn Museum live: saving mummies
http://www.thedp.com/article/2013/11/in-the-artifact-lab-conserving-egyptian-mummies-penn-museum

DEMONTHINGS - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DEMONOLOGY PROJECT

The Demon Blog by Dr. Kasia Szpakowska:

Ancient Egyptian Chariot pulled by griffins
http://www.demonthings.com/chariot-griffins/

IN THE ARTIFACT LAB

New blog entries:

Looking inside our falcon mummy
http://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/2013/11/21/looking-inside-our-falcon-mummy/

Flippin' coffins
http://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/2013/11/23/flippin-coffins/

HAIR AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT

by María Rosa Valdesogo Martín

Open Reflections on Cutting and Offering Hair in Ancient Egypt
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/open-reflections-on-cutting-and-offering-hair-in-ancient-egypt/

Shaking, Pulling, Cutting and Offering the Hair in Ancient Egypt Funerals
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/shaking-pulling-cutting-and-offering-the-hair-in-ancient-egypt-funerals/

HARVARD GAZETTE

by Alvin Powell:

'Wonderful things', indeed
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/11/who-can-resist-a-mummy/

AL-AHRAM WEEKLY

Article by Ati Metwaly:

Nefertiti's foster home
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/4691/47/Nefertiti%E2%80%99s-foster-home.aspx

Article by Nevine El-Aref:

Restoring the Egyptian Museum
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/4690/47/Restoring--the-Egyptian--Museum.aspx

DAILY NEWS EGYPT

Article by Joel Gulhane:

Siwa: Sun, sand and springs
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/11/21/siwa-sun-sand-and-springs/

BBC HISTORY

Game: Make a mummy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/launch_gms_mummy_maker.shtml

DISCOVERY NEWS

by Rossella Lorenzi:

Weird Facts About King Tut and His Mummy
http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-egypt/weird-facts-about-king-tut-mummy-131122.htm

HAMPSTEAD AND HIGHGATE EXPRESS

Article by Tom Marshall:

Heritage: Hampstead resident Sir Flinders Petrie measured the pyramids of Giza and laid the foundations of Egyptology
http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/heritage_hampstead_resident_sir_flinders_petrie_measured_the_pyramids_of_giza_and_laid_the_foundations_of_egyptology_1_3032036

THE CAIRO POST

By Abdallah Salah:

Pharaonic tomb discoverd in Aswan
http://thecairopost.youm7.com/news/42351/news/pharaonic-mummies-found-with-robbers-in-aswan

AHRAM ONLINE

by Nevine El-Aref:

Penalties imposed on two amateur German archaeologists
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/87435/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Penalties-imposed-on-two-amateur-German-archaeolog.aspx

'WONDERFUL THINGS'

New blog of the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford:

Can you see anything?
http://blog.griffith.ox.ac.uk/?p=23

FORBES

by Christian de Vartavan:

Value for 'Money' in Ancient Egypt
http://www.forbes.am/am/featured/2D61H6JWR9K9I7KA

AMERICAN RESEARCH CENTER IN EGYPT

Qurna Site updates:
http://arce.org/conservation/Qurna/q/q03
http://arce.org/conservation/Qurna/q/q05
http://arce.org/conservation/Qurna/q/q14

Value for ‘Money’ in Ancient Egypt

by Christian de Vartavan

Years ago in Paris, as we were having at home an elegant Christmas dinner, I saw my father silent and with an enigmatic smile playing with the very large Ptolemaic stater he had just offered himself. These magnificent coins, which rarely survive in gold and silver but usually in bronze, are truly pleasant to handle because of their large size (42 mm), heavy weight (72gm) and soft patina. As I dared inquire of the reasons of his smile he softly responded, but with a larger grin:  ‘Do you realize that two thousand years ago a soldier could have paid an Alexandrian prostitute with this coin?’. [Silence – laugh!]. Well, considering the Empire wide reputation and skills of Alexandrian ladies of the time, I thought that the legionnaire might have had value for money and at a time when there was parity between the weight of the coin and its metal value?  But did he? I mean… did the value of the coin suffice to match the service provided? Or did it need more coins of the same?

Value for money. The point is that until the Greeks introduced coins in Ancient Egypt around the mid first millennium before Christ and formalized their first mint under Alexander’s reign (320 BC) or Ptolemy I around 290 BC, there was no money - i.e. metal coins even less paper notes – as we understand it today. The Ancient Egyptian economy was based on barter and hence ‘value for money’ meant something completely different. It is hard for us today to imagine an economy without exchangeable currencies, but the fact is the pharaonic civilisation fared extremely well for more than three millennia without them. And not only did it fare extremely well but it developed an extremely sophisticated economic model which time and time again not only proved itself efficient, but allowed pharaohs to build empires. How?

Heritage: Hampstead resident Sir Flinders Petrie measured the pyramids of Giza and laid the foundations of Egyptology

by Tom Marshall

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie was a Victorian explorer who measured the Pyramids at Giza, laid the foundations for Egyptology – the study of ancient Egypt – and was the first biblical archaeologist in Palestine.

His insatiable curiosity led him to unearth how ancient civilization lived, worked and functioned. He discovered the world’s oldest portraits and evidence – through inscriptions – of written communication between Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Semitic alphabet. Another find was Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, the oldest known medical text. He once stumbled across a stone slab with what is believed to be the earliest Egyptian reference to Israel.

His sense of precision was top drawer. Aged 19 he measured Stonehenge with 100 per cent accuracy and was said to know the exact distance between his eye and the tip of his finger.

In the field he was remembered as an eccentric and would dig in the nude, but dress suitably for formal luncheon in his tent. In order to maximise efficiency – on location – he often drew his findings with both hands at the same time, wielding a pencil in each. A forward thinker, he established archaeology as a science by painstakingly documenting his findings. He built a camera from scratch, a contraption that would become famous as the “biscuit-tin camera” and probably took the earliest extant group of pinhole photographs.

At home in Hampstead he would discuss and develop his beliefs in eugenics with his good friend and neighbour, the statistician Karl Pearson (1857–1936). His mission was to preserve and understand artefacts rather than simply pilfer, purloin and profit and once wrote that, “spoiling the past has an acute moral wrong in it”.

‘Wonderful things,’ indeed

Wide fascination with ancient Egypt has long history, specialist says

By Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer

Britain’s Lord Carnarvon asked famed archaeologist Howard Carter what he saw as he first peered into King Tut’s tomb.

“Wonderful things,” Carter supposedly replied.

Carter would eventually catalog thousands of objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king, including some of archaeology’s most recognizable artifacts. The 1922 find sparked a craze for all things ancient Egypt, but that was just the latest wave of “Egyptomania” to wash over the world, according to Bob Brier, a Long Island University senior research fellow and Egyptologist with a particular expertise in mummies.

The phenomenon started in force more than 200 years ago, Brier says, with Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 invasion of Egypt, where he defeated a Mamluk army in a battle fought near Cairo, within sight of the pyramids. French rule of the country wouldn’t last long, collapsing after British Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet days later in the Battle of the Nile.

But Napoleon did not go away empty-handed. His gains included the records of more than 100 artists, engineers, and scientists who, as the fighting raged, collected, drew, and documented the natural and manmade wonders of Egypt. The publication of their work in France fed a curiosity that hasn’t faded. According to Brier, it flows largely from three spheres of interest: mummies, the mystery of hieroglyphics, and the allure of a lost civilization, epitomized by Carter’s discovery of Tut’s tomb.

'Meat Mummies' Kept Egyptian Royalty Well-Fed After Death

By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer   |   November 18, 2013

Care for some ribs? The royal mummies of ancient Egypt apparently did, as a new study finds that "meat mummies" left in Egyptian tombs as sustenance for the afterlife were treated with elaborate balms to preserve them.

Mummified cuts of meat are common finds in ancient Egyptian burials, with the oldest dating back to at least 3300 B.C. The tradition extended into the latest periods of mummification in the fourth century A.D. The famous pharaoh King Tutankhamun went to his final resting place accompanied by 48 cases of beef and poultry.

But meat mummies have been mostly unstudied until now. University of Bristol biogeochemist Richard Evershed and his colleagues were curious about how these cuts were prepared. They also wondered if the mummification methods for meat differed from how Egyptians mummified people or pets.

The team analyzed four samples from meat mummies archived at the Cairo and British museums. The oldest was a rack of cattle ribs from the tomb of Tjuiu, an Egyptian noblewoman, and her courtier Yuya. The beef dates back to between 1386 B.C. and 1349 B.C.

Egypt: Italian technology to save Egyptian museum papyri

High tech instruments part of cooperation project

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, NOVEMBER 18 - Italian technology will allow the restoration and preservation of thousands of very delicate papyri at the Egyptian museum in Cairo.

The initiative was presented on Monday morning during a ceremony at the museum attended by Gianpaolo Cantini, director general for the cooperation for development, Egyptian antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim, Italian ambassador Maurizio Massari and the museum's director Tarek el Awadi. It is part of the 'commodity aid' programme of Italian cooperation.

High tech instruments in particular provided by Italtrend Spa and produced by Bresciani Srl, which will play a role in saving the museum's secular papyri, were shown during the ceremony. They are a laser and a portable instrument. The laser, an Italian-made groundbreaking tool in the preservation of artwork, uses non-invasive technology to clean very delicate and sensitive surfaces and allows not to use chemical products. The spectrometer is used for chemical-physical measurements and to analyze material without the extraction of samples.

In order to save and preserve the precious papyri of the Egyptian museum, a low-pressure table with a humidifier to restore paper documents has been provided together with ten humidifiers and thermometers and five climatic chambers to preserve the findings to recreate the same condition as in the tombs where the papyri were found.

They were also especially planned for the museum overlooking the famous Tahrir square, one of the busiest in Cairo, and were made with special gas filters against pollution.

The initiative in favour of the Egyptian antiquities ministry is part of a programme of aid which aims to import to Egypt high tech Italian products and train specialized personnel in a number of sectors.

The programme which spans almost two decades was agreed in 1994, kicked off in 1996 and has funded until today the importation of Italian goods worth 37 million euros. The instalment for the Egyptian museum has a value of 300,000 euros.

(ANSAmed)

Source: http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/culture/2013/11/18/Egypt-Italian-technology-save-Egyptian-museum-papyri_9638580.html