Two Ptolemaic lion statues found in Fayoum

An archaeological mission discovered two sandstone statues of kneeling lions from the Ptolemaic era in Fayoum, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Ali announced Monday.

In a statement issued by the Antiquities Ministry, the minister said the two statues were found on the western bank of the Nile, in the area of Dima al-Sebaa in Fayoum Governorate.

The statues were found surrounded by ruins of parts of the temple of the god Sunkobaius.

They were used to decorate the gutter of temple, the minister explains, like those found on the roofs of the Greco-Roman eras temples in Upper Egypt.

A mission from the Italian University of Salento in Lecce discovered the statues.

Ali stressed that the two statues indicate that the temple, which dates back to the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, was built with high quality material, comparable to famous temples built in these eras in Upper Egypt.

This is the first time of its kind that lion-shaped statues were found adorning gutters at a Greco-Roman settlement in Fayoum, he said.

Professor Mario Capasso, head of the mission, said the two statues are in good condition, measuring 1.6 meters long, 0.9 meters deep and 0.8 meters high.

The lions’ facial features significantly simulate nature, but differ from one another in terms of shape and detail.

Source: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/two-ptolemaic-lion-statues-found-fayoum

Karnak: Temple Complex of Ancient Egypt

by Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor

30 November 2012

Karnak is an ancient Egyptian temple precinct located on the east bank of the Nile River in Thebes (modern-day Luxor). It covers more than 100 hectares, an area larger than some ancient cities.

The central sector of the site, which takes up the largest amount of space, is dedicated to Amun-Ra, a male god associated with Thebes. The area immediately around his main sanctuary was known in antiquity as “Ipet-Sun” which means “the most select of places.”

To the south of the central area is a smaller precinct dedicated to his wife, the goddess Mut. In the north, there is another precinct dedicated to Montu, the falcon-headed god of war. Also, to the east, there is an area — much of it destroyed intentionally in antiquity — dedicated to the Aten, the sun disk. 

Construction at Karnak started by 4,000 years ago and continued up until the time the Romans took control of Egypt, about 2,000 years ago. Each Egyptian ruler who worked at Karnak left his or her own architectural mark. The UCLA Digital Karnak project has reconstructed and modeled these changes online. Their model shows a bewildering array of temples, chapels, gateway shaped “pylons,” among many other buildings, that were gradually built, torn down and modified over more than 2,000 years.

Karnak would have made a great impression on ancient visitors, to say the least. “The pylons and great enclosure walls were painted white with the reliefs and inscriptions picked out in brilliant jewel-like colours, adding to their magnificence,” writes Egyptologist Heather Blyth in her book "Karnak: Evolution of a Temple" (Routledge, 2006).

“Behind the high walls, glimpses of gold-topped obelisks which pierced the blue sky, shrines, smaller temples, columns and statues, worked with gold, electrum and precious stones such as lapis lazuli must have shimmered in the dusty golden heat.”

Science both sacred and mundane

We all think we know the difference between religion and superstition. But how do these relate to magic, and ancient magic in particular? In the first of an occasional series on ancient Egyptian beliefs, Jenny Jobbins looks at how far back we need to go in search of an answer

Perhaps we pray to be delivered from evil: that is religion. We cross our fingers that we don’t catch flu: that is superstition. Or we might place a few items with a written charm in a drawstring pouch and wear during a full moon: that is magic. All different, but all ways to a similar end: the age-old desire for protection.

Perhaps, indeed, the need for protection was where it all began. Protection must have been a primal need, and may have developed with man’s first consciousness. Early humans would have protected themselves by enacting ritual observances, making propitiatory offerings, wearing jewellery and possessing sacred objects. Above them and their world hung the divine protection of the magical, mystical moon, the light that brought a pattern to the skies; that brought females of all kinds into season; that delivered one from darkness; that harnessed creation and seemed to be the point of it all. This was long before the advent of agriculture that many scholars believe issued in sun worship — the notion that death (the sinking sun, or the fallow period after harvest) must occur to ensure the continuance of life (dawn, or the birth of Spring).

By the time the society of the ancient Egyptians evolved, agriculture was the norm. People no longer depended on the moon to govern the fertility of the herds of wild or domestic animals that supplemented a diet of wild plants. Now they worshipped the Sun God (in his various and successive manifestations) whose cult centre was at Iwnw (City of Pillars), the city called by the Greeks Heliopolis, City of the Sun.

The tomb of Egypt's King Ramses II's son open to public

The royal tomb of the 19th dynasty King Merenptah in Luxor’s west bank is officially open to public

Nevine El-Aref from Luxor, Friday 30 Nov 2012

After three years of closing for restoration the tomb of King Ramses II’s beloved son, King Merenptah was officially inaugurated in an attempt to provide more tourist attractions and in a step forward to regain Egypt’s tourism industry, after turmoil in Egypt since the 2011 January revolution.

Restoration works aims at counteracting the deterioration of architectural features and decorations of the tomb resulted from natural causes or the misuse of the tomb visitors. The walls were reinforced, cracks removed, reliefs and colours consolidated. Since then new wooden stairways, flooring, lighting and special ventilation systems have been installed. Glass barriers that cover the tomb reliefs were cleaned or replaced.

Merenptah tomb is one of the most impressive royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings not only for its length, which reached 164,5 metres, but for its distinguished reliefs and the biggest granite sarcophagus ever found in the Valley.

The tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1903. It consists of three slopping corridors; the first one lead to the ritual shaft and the pillared hall with two pillar annex. The second corridor has a stairway.

The tomb is decorated with scenes from the Litany of Ra, Book of Gates, Imydwat, Book of the Dead, and scenes depicting the deceased, opening of the mouth rituals, along with several deities and members of his family.

It has also a very beautiful ceiling painted with golden stars on a blue background and the columns of the burial chamber are decorated with fine religious scenes.

Oldest Pharaoh Rock Art Rediscovered in Egypt

This ancient rock picture near Egypt's Nile River was first spotted by an explorer more than a century ago—and then almost completely forgotten.

Photograph courtesy Hendrickx/Darnell/Gatto, Antiquity

Scientists who rediscovered it now think it's the earliest known depiction of a pharaoh.

The royal figure at the center of the panel wears the "White Crown," the bowling pin-shaped headpiece that symbolized kingship of southern Egypt, and carries a long scepter. Two attendants bearing standards march ahead of him; behind him, an attendant waves a large fan to cool the royal head. A hound-like dog with pointed ears walks at the ruler's feet. Surrounding the king are large ships, symbols of dominance, towed by bearded men pulling on ropes.

The picture, which was engraved on a sheer cliff face in the desert northwest of the city of Aswan, was probably created between roughly 3200 and 3100 B.C., according to researchers who published their discovery in December's issue of the journal Antiquity.

At around the same time that the picture was crafted, northern and southern Egypt were united under the reign of a supreme monarch, or pharaoh. The pharaoh in the picture may be Narmer, the king who overcame the last vestiges of northern resistance to southern rule and is considered by many to be Egypt's founding pharaoh.

This rock art picture, known as tableau 7a, is nearly ten feet (three meters) wide. That makes it the largest of the pictures at the site, called Nag el-Hamdulab after the neighboring village.

Earlier Egyptian art tends to show not kings themselves, but emblems of royal or divine power, said Yale University's John Darnell, one of the paper's authors. An image of a bull or falcon, for example, was often used as a stand-in for the king. When human rulers were shown, they were small and peripheral, as if they didn't count for much.

But here, for the first time, the king is dominant. "It's an amazing depiction, artistically and textually, of the birth of dynastic Egypt," Darnell said.

The change in the king's depiction reflects changes in the nature of kingship at the time, said Yale University archaeologist Maria Gatto, another author of the paper.

"He's not just a regular man like everyone else," she said. "He's a god, someone special who can help you be in contact with the supernatural."

—Traci Watson

Published November 29, 2012

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/pictures/121129-oldest-pharaoh-rock-art-egypt-science/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ng/News/News_Main+(National+Geographic+News+-+Main)

Two Byzantine coins found in Beheira

Italian excavation mission discovers two well-preserved gold Byzantine coins in El-Baheira

Nevine El-Aref , Monday 26 Nov 2012

An Italian excavation mission headed by Dr. Loredana Sist from Milano University stumbled upon two well-preserved gold coins within the sand at the archaeological site Kom El-Ghoraf in El-Beheira governorate in Delta during routine excavations.

Each coin weighs 4,300 gr. The first coin depicts the figure of a Byzantine Emperor named Phocas (602-610 AD) holding in his right hand a cross. His name is on one side of the cross, while the other side shows the same emperor with a cane in one hand and a cross in the other.

The second coin shows the image of another Byzantine emperor named Heraclinus (610-641 AD) with his two sons, princes Konstantinos III and Heraclinus II, on one side while the other side features a large cross.

Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister of State of Antiquities, said the very important discovery gives Egyptologists a full and complete vision of the shapes, sizes and looks of coins during such an era. It also shows the high skills of craftsmen of the Byzantine period, he added.

Mostafa Roshdi, Director of El-Beheira Antiquities, told Ahram online that the area of Kom El-Ghoraf is a very important archaeological site located between Damanhur and Rosetta. It was previously a part of the seven Nomes of Lower Egypt, the district still little explored. In the Late Period this area was dominated by the city of Metelis, not yet identified.

The vast site was destroyed intensively since the late nineteenth century, as seen from topographical maps of different periods that record the progressive dismantling.

Dynasties Of Egypt Part II: Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period

The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley (the others being Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom).

The term Old Kingdom, coined during the nineteenth century, is somewhat arbitrary. Egyptians at that time would have seen no distinction between the Old Kingdom and the preceding Early Dynastic Period, since the last Early Dynastic king was related by blood to the first two kings of the Old Kingdom, and the Early Dynastic royal residence at Ineb-Hedj (translated as "The White Walls" for its majestic fortifications) remained unchanged except for the name. During the Old Kingdom, the capital was renamed Memphis. 

The basic justification for a separation between the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom is the revolutionary change in architecture accompanied and the effects that large-scale building projects had on Egyptian society and economy..

The Old Kingdom spanned the period from the Third Dynasty to the Sixth Dynasty (2,686 BC – 2,134 BC). Many Egyptologists also include the Memphite Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in the Old Kingdom as a continuation of the administration that had been firmly established at Memphis. Thereafter, the Old Kingdom was followed by a period of disunity and relative cultural decline (a "dark period that spanned the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and part of the Eleventh Dynasties) referred to by Egyptologists as the First Intermediate Period.