ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2012) — A wooden statue of a king, a private offering chapel, a monumental building and remains of over 80 animal mummies found by a University of Toronto-led team in Abydos, Egypt reveal intriguing information about ritual activity associated with the great gods.
Professor Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations presented her team's findings at a recent meeting of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.
The wooden statue is one of very few existing royal wooden statues, and may represent the female king Hatshepsut. She was often portrayed as male in stone because the Egyptian pharaoh was understood to be son of the god Amon-Re (she was also known to dress as a man for the role). But this statue has a smaller waist and delicate jawline, acknowledging these aspects of her feminine physique. It is believed to be from a ceremonial procession in which wooden statues of the royal ancestors (spirits of the kings) and gods were carried in boat-shaped shrines by priests from the temple of Osiris to his tomb. The procession was part of a festival celebrating the afterlife of the god Osiris.
Egyptians from all levels of society built chapels and monuments along the processional route as a way of ensuring their eternal participation in the festival and their identification with Osiris. Building too close to the route, however, was prohibited by the state and infringement carried the threat of the death penalty. The offering chapel they uncovered is believed to be that of an elite person, dates from about 1990 -- 1650 BC and shows where the boundary to the route was.
"The offering chapel proves that people -- probably elites -- were able to build monuments right next to the processional route in the Middle Kingdom, and that at least one such chapel was allowed to stand in this increasingly densely built-up area and continued to receive offerings even 800 years after its initial construction," says Pouls Wegner.
A much larger structure discovered is likely either a temple or royal chapel from the Ramesside Period. Long after its initial construction, the structure was re-used as a repository for animal mummies. In this context, the researchers found a mass of animal bones and linen fragments. Two cats, three sheep or goats, and at least 83 dogs, ranging in age from puppies to adults, were discovered. Several of the animals had recovered from injuries, suggesting that they had been cared for before they were sacrificed, probably for the jackal god Wepwawet, who was an important deity in the Osiris festival as the leader of the procession and protector of the cemetery.
The dig was conducted in Egypt in June and July 2011. It was supported by a research grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation of Anthropological Research with photo and survey equipment provided by U of T's Archaeology Centre. Wegner's team included Ayman Damarany, Barakat 'Eid Ahmed and Mahmoud Mohamed of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, archaeological illustrator Tamara Bower and U of T graduate students Meredith Brand, Amber Hutchinson, Christina Geisen and Janet Khuu.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120312140250.htm
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Nine limestone reliefs are back home from Spain
The stolen artefacts were missing for over a decade until they turned up in Barcelona
by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 12 Mar 2012
After a thirteen year absence, nine ancient Egyptian limestone reliefs were returned to their original place in the Saqqara necropolis.
The story of the objects goes back to 1999, when the nine limestone reliefs were reported missing from their original location on the walls of the sixth dynasty tomb of a nobleman called Imep-Hor, located in Kom Al-Khamsin area in Saqqara, 15 miles south of the Giza plateau.
The reliefs are engraved with hieroglyphic texts showing different names of the tomb’s owner and religious chapters from the Book of the Dead.
Ahmed Mostafa, former head of the return antiquities department as the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), told Ahram Online that one of these reliefs was found three years ago on the list of a well known auction house in Spain. The Ministry, which was then called the Supreme Council of Antiquities, asked the Spanish government to stop the auction as the relief was an Egyptian possession that has been stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country.
A year later, the eight other reliefs were taken from the possession of an antiquities dealer in Barcelona. An Egyptian archaeological committee travelled to Spain to inspect the items and showed all the required documents to prove Egyptian ownership of the artefacts.
Legal procedures and diplomatic negotiations took place between both the Spanish and Egyptian governments over the last three years, and yesterday Egypt’s embassy in Spain received a letter from the Spanish government that the latter agreed to hand over the requested items to Egypt.
In a statement, Egypt’s Ambassador to Spain, Ayman Zaineddin, praised the cooperation shown by the Spanish during the discussions and Madrid's desire to follow the proper legal process to protect Egyptian rights. He said that “Spain's positive response embodies the friendly relations between the two countries.”
Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/36583/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Nine-limestone-reliefs-are-back-home-from-Spain.aspx
by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 12 Mar 2012
After a thirteen year absence, nine ancient Egyptian limestone reliefs were returned to their original place in the Saqqara necropolis.
The story of the objects goes back to 1999, when the nine limestone reliefs were reported missing from their original location on the walls of the sixth dynasty tomb of a nobleman called Imep-Hor, located in Kom Al-Khamsin area in Saqqara, 15 miles south of the Giza plateau.
The reliefs are engraved with hieroglyphic texts showing different names of the tomb’s owner and religious chapters from the Book of the Dead.
Ahmed Mostafa, former head of the return antiquities department as the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), told Ahram Online that one of these reliefs was found three years ago on the list of a well known auction house in Spain. The Ministry, which was then called the Supreme Council of Antiquities, asked the Spanish government to stop the auction as the relief was an Egyptian possession that has been stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country.
A year later, the eight other reliefs were taken from the possession of an antiquities dealer in Barcelona. An Egyptian archaeological committee travelled to Spain to inspect the items and showed all the required documents to prove Egyptian ownership of the artefacts.
Legal procedures and diplomatic negotiations took place between both the Spanish and Egyptian governments over the last three years, and yesterday Egypt’s embassy in Spain received a letter from the Spanish government that the latter agreed to hand over the requested items to Egypt.
In a statement, Egypt’s Ambassador to Spain, Ayman Zaineddin, praised the cooperation shown by the Spanish during the discussions and Madrid's desire to follow the proper legal process to protect Egyptian rights. He said that “Spain's positive response embodies the friendly relations between the two countries.”
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Hypatia of Alexandria
To conclude this "Alexandria" week and the International Women's Day read the following article about Hypatia of Alexandria:
In the four hundred and fifteenth year of the Common Era, in the city of Alexandria, a tragedy occurred that, according to those who write history, was so insignificant it has barely rated a mention in even the most extensive of historical records. However, this event was not only tragic for the individuals involved, but has had far-reaching consequences for anyone who has ever valued the importance of intellectual freedom and scientific enquiry.
Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician, was dragged from her carriage and savagely murdered by a Christian mob in 415CE. She is perhaps better remembered for how she died rather than the way in which she lived. However, Hypatia lived an extraordinary life as the pre-eminent mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and astrologer of her time.
It is not surprising that we have very little knowledge of Hypatia's life. Even in the early fifth century, Christian historians had achieved predominance and it is unlikely that they would have wanted to consign knowledge of this tragedy to history. She was a strong supporter of free enquiry and her murder is believed by many to symbolise the end of an era of intellectual freedom. Margaret Wertheim, in her excellent book 'Pythagoras' Trousers' states, "The great era of Greek mathematical science, which began with the birth of a man, finished with the death of a woman."
Hypatia was born at a time when attitudes to women were deeply influenced by the misogyny of Aristotelian philosophy. Although Plato, and Pythagoras before him, had believed in the intellectual equality of women and both philosophers had encouraged full education of women, Aristotle felt that they did not have the intellectual capabilities of their male counterparts. It was due to the good fortune of having an enlightened father that Hypatia was able to rise above this misogyny and become one of the most educated and influential people of her time.
"Life is an unfoldment, and the further we
travel, the more truth we comprehend. To understand the things that are at our
door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie
beyond."
Hypatia
Hypatia
In the four hundred and fifteenth year of the Common Era, in the city of Alexandria, a tragedy occurred that, according to those who write history, was so insignificant it has barely rated a mention in even the most extensive of historical records. However, this event was not only tragic for the individuals involved, but has had far-reaching consequences for anyone who has ever valued the importance of intellectual freedom and scientific enquiry.
Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician, was dragged from her carriage and savagely murdered by a Christian mob in 415CE. She is perhaps better remembered for how she died rather than the way in which she lived. However, Hypatia lived an extraordinary life as the pre-eminent mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and astrologer of her time.
It is not surprising that we have very little knowledge of Hypatia's life. Even in the early fifth century, Christian historians had achieved predominance and it is unlikely that they would have wanted to consign knowledge of this tragedy to history. She was a strong supporter of free enquiry and her murder is believed by many to symbolise the end of an era of intellectual freedom. Margaret Wertheim, in her excellent book 'Pythagoras' Trousers' states, "The great era of Greek mathematical science, which began with the birth of a man, finished with the death of a woman."
Hypatia was born at a time when attitudes to women were deeply influenced by the misogyny of Aristotelian philosophy. Although Plato, and Pythagoras before him, had believed in the intellectual equality of women and both philosophers had encouraged full education of women, Aristotle felt that they did not have the intellectual capabilities of their male counterparts. It was due to the good fortune of having an enlightened father that Hypatia was able to rise above this misogyny and become one of the most educated and influential people of her time.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Alexandria and Egypt
Alexandria, the brilliant Greek city state known as "The Bride of the
Mediterranean", wore its distinctly Egyptian flavour with pride, and it was more
pharaonic than previously supposed. Salvaged sphinxes, statues, papyrus columns
and blocks of stone inscribed with the names of pharaohs attest to this. The sea
bed in the Great (Eastern) harbour is carpeted with such works -- some usurped
from earlier structures and transported to adorn the Ptolemaic city.
Ptolemy I, the general who inherited Egypt, took immediate steps to accommodate the local population. On the spacious summit of a high rock in Alexandria (where the so-called Pompey's Pillar stands today) he constructed the Serapeum, a temple to house the god Osir-Apis (Serapis in Greek), a hybrid god is attributed to two sources: an Egyptian familiar with local tradition, and a priestly family acquainted with Greek rituals.
Rhakotis (Re-kadit), the site chosen by Alexander for his new capital, was neither a sparsely populated settlement of nomads and their cattle as often described, nor "the wretched fishing village" described by Idris Bell in his Egypt from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Its strategic suitability as a harbour was recognised as far back as Egypt's 18th Dynasty (c. 1567 BC) when an Egyptian community was settled there. It grew over a period of two centuries, and by the reign of Ramesses II had a large enough population for him to build a temple in honour of Osiris.
During the Saite Period in the sixth century BC, an Egyptian garrison was stationed at Rhakotis. The local population further expanded and the temple was enlarged. By the reign of Nektanebo II, the last Egyptian pharaoh before the Greek conquest, it was so important a community that plans were made (which did not materialise) to develop a royal necropolis for pharaonic burials.
When Dinocrates, an experienced Greek city planner from Rhodes, designed Alexandria on the rectangular blueprint of Hellenic cities, Rhakotis was automatically absorbed within the city limits. Today's districts of Mina Al-Bassal, Kom Al-Shufaga and Kermous are built on its ruins.
Underwater archaeology is a relatively new field of specialisation and one that is reaping remarkable rewards. Using modern equipment to map objects on the sea bed, a joint European-Egyptian mission under the directorship of Jean-Yves Empereur (renowned scholar and director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research, and of the Centre for Alexandrine Studies), was launched in 1997 to save the submerged remains of the port and palace area of Alexandria. Among the mass of stone objects that litter the sea bed is a part of a monolith, believed to be of Ptolemy I, that might be one of a pair of statues that stood at the entrance to the harbour -- which confirms that the city was more integrated with pharaonic tradition than previously supposed.
Source: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1087/he2.htm
Ptolemy I, the general who inherited Egypt, took immediate steps to accommodate the local population. On the spacious summit of a high rock in Alexandria (where the so-called Pompey's Pillar stands today) he constructed the Serapeum, a temple to house the god Osir-Apis (Serapis in Greek), a hybrid god is attributed to two sources: an Egyptian familiar with local tradition, and a priestly family acquainted with Greek rituals.
Rhakotis (Re-kadit), the site chosen by Alexander for his new capital, was neither a sparsely populated settlement of nomads and their cattle as often described, nor "the wretched fishing village" described by Idris Bell in his Egypt from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Its strategic suitability as a harbour was recognised as far back as Egypt's 18th Dynasty (c. 1567 BC) when an Egyptian community was settled there. It grew over a period of two centuries, and by the reign of Ramesses II had a large enough population for him to build a temple in honour of Osiris.
During the Saite Period in the sixth century BC, an Egyptian garrison was stationed at Rhakotis. The local population further expanded and the temple was enlarged. By the reign of Nektanebo II, the last Egyptian pharaoh before the Greek conquest, it was so important a community that plans were made (which did not materialise) to develop a royal necropolis for pharaonic burials.
When Dinocrates, an experienced Greek city planner from Rhodes, designed Alexandria on the rectangular blueprint of Hellenic cities, Rhakotis was automatically absorbed within the city limits. Today's districts of Mina Al-Bassal, Kom Al-Shufaga and Kermous are built on its ruins.
Underwater archaeology is a relatively new field of specialisation and one that is reaping remarkable rewards. Using modern equipment to map objects on the sea bed, a joint European-Egyptian mission under the directorship of Jean-Yves Empereur (renowned scholar and director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research, and of the Centre for Alexandrine Studies), was launched in 1997 to save the submerged remains of the port and palace area of Alexandria. Among the mass of stone objects that litter the sea bed is a part of a monolith, believed to be of Ptolemy I, that might be one of a pair of statues that stood at the entrance to the harbour -- which confirms that the city was more integrated with pharaonic tradition than previously supposed.
Source: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1087/he2.htm
Monday, March 5, 2012
Alexander and his Macedonian heirs
He stayed only a few years in Egypt yet Alexander left a lasting legacy. Jill
Kamil looks into recent research
Macedonian conquest of Egypt, its consequences and its reflection in literature and art were the subject of an international workshop at the University of Warsaw towards the end of 2011. Its aim was to explore the means by which Alexander's successors, the Ptolemies -- who successfully ruled Egypt for three centuries and made it once more a brilliant kingdom -- systematically elevated and propagated Alexander's memory by identifying themselves with the deceased hero and reusing his visual and literary heritage.
The colourful personality of Alexander the Great has been memorialised in fiction, films and biographies. His death and multiple burials have long held fascination. Indeed, the search for his tomb continues. Seeking clues from material remains, today's scholars continue to unravel the compelling mysteries that surround his brief stay in Egypt.
Alexander, son of Philip II of Macedonia, had already made himself master of the disunited Greek world when, after defeating the Persians in the Levant, he marched on Egypt. The country was then under Persian rule and the Egyptians in a state of revolt against their overlords. It was not without enthusiasm, therefore, that they joined Alexander's march towards their capital Memphis where the Persian garrison was quickly discharged
The local population forthwith called down blessing on Alexander as their liberator, and their welcome was genuine. Egyptians and Greeks not only shared a common enemy but a common culture. From the sixth century BC Greek traders and sailors had established colonies in Egypt, in the Delta, the Fayoum, Middle and Upper Egypt. Many Greeks had married Egyptians and had chosen either Egyptian or Greek names for their children. They shared the same gods (calling them either by their Egyptian or Greek names), and honoured the living pharaoh who was regarded as a god. What the Egyptians may have failed to realise, however, was that Alexander planned to join Egypt to his already widely extended empire, and that his arrival was to prove the beginning of the end of its identity as an independent nation.
Macedonian conquest of Egypt, its consequences and its reflection in literature and art were the subject of an international workshop at the University of Warsaw towards the end of 2011. Its aim was to explore the means by which Alexander's successors, the Ptolemies -- who successfully ruled Egypt for three centuries and made it once more a brilliant kingdom -- systematically elevated and propagated Alexander's memory by identifying themselves with the deceased hero and reusing his visual and literary heritage.
The colourful personality of Alexander the Great has been memorialised in fiction, films and biographies. His death and multiple burials have long held fascination. Indeed, the search for his tomb continues. Seeking clues from material remains, today's scholars continue to unravel the compelling mysteries that surround his brief stay in Egypt.
Alexander, son of Philip II of Macedonia, had already made himself master of the disunited Greek world when, after defeating the Persians in the Levant, he marched on Egypt. The country was then under Persian rule and the Egyptians in a state of revolt against their overlords. It was not without enthusiasm, therefore, that they joined Alexander's march towards their capital Memphis where the Persian garrison was quickly discharged
The local population forthwith called down blessing on Alexander as their liberator, and their welcome was genuine. Egyptians and Greeks not only shared a common enemy but a common culture. From the sixth century BC Greek traders and sailors had established colonies in Egypt, in the Delta, the Fayoum, Middle and Upper Egypt. Many Greeks had married Egyptians and had chosen either Egyptian or Greek names for their children. They shared the same gods (calling them either by their Egyptian or Greek names), and honoured the living pharaoh who was regarded as a god. What the Egyptians may have failed to realise, however, was that Alexander planned to join Egypt to his already widely extended empire, and that his arrival was to prove the beginning of the end of its identity as an independent nation.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Unknown Pharaoh discoverd at Karnak Temple
During his visit yesterday to Karnak temple, Dr. Mohamed
Ibrahim(Minister state of Antiquities) announced the discovery of a new
pharaoh’s name from the 17th dynasty that was not known to
Egyptologists which helps in revealing the chronological order of the Kings of
this dynasty.
It was the IFAO mission headed by Christophe Thiers that found a limestone door
at the north of Amon’s temple dated back to 17th dynasty with
hieroglyphics inscriptions and a royal cartouche bears the name of a King that
didn’t appear before in ancient Egyptian history and the name is “Sen Nakht N’
Ra”
The Minister confirmed that this discovery is the first of this
Pharaoh’s work as the text mentioned that he established buildings for God Amon
in Karnak with the limestone he quarried from Tora,near Cairo and demanded the
work to continue in the area in order to reveal more architecture elements that
had been established by this King.
This discovery will add a new King to the 17th dynasty
which witnesses the Hyksos occupation.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
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.
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