Wednesday Weekly # 1

This is the first edition of Wednesday Weekly, your weekly dose of links to Egyptology news, articles, blogs, events and more.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

82nd & Fifth: Idolized by Diana Patch

A closer look at a cult image of the God Ptah. You can view a video and see close ups of this little statue of Ptah.

http://82nd-and-fifth.metmuseum.org/idolized?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=statusupdate&utm_content=idolized&utm_campaign=82ndandfifth

HAIR AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Amazing site by María Rosa Valdesogo Martín

Read the latest additions to her site:

Hair, Mourners and Opening of the Mouth in Ancient Egypt

http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/hair-mourners-and-opening-of-the-mouth-in-ancient-egypt/

Hair, Mourners and Moon in Ancient Egypt
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/hair-mourners-and-moon-in-ancient-egypt/

EGYPT CENTRE, SWANSEA

Blog by Carolyn Graves-Brown

Her latest addition to her blog:

http://egyptcentre.blogspot.nl/2013/09/a-diversion-from-my-work-but-related.html?spref=tw

NIAGARA FALLS HISTORY MUSEUM

Egypt Gift of the Nile. New exhibition starting 12 September 2013 untill 5 January 2014.

http://niagarafallsmuseums.ca/exhibitions/current/egypt-gift-of-the-nile.aspx

IN THE ARTIFACT LAB

Two new additions to the Penn Museum blog:

A final report from Abydos
http://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/2013/09/12/wrapping-up-another-season-in-abydos/

Wrapping up the cat mummy
http://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/2013/09/14/wrapping-up-the-cat-mummy/

HIDDEN LUXOR

Learn all about Luxor and its splendours brought to you by Jane Akshar in a series of 13 lectures.

Hidden Luxor - Karnak Temple: Module 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS3ggWydJ00&list=PLVk3kQi2eqOaMYBSNeGxcxNCNybIWxhEd&index=2

CITY OF THE SUN GOD: AMARNA AND ITS RULERS, AKHENATEN AND NEFERTITI

Join world renowned Egyptologist Barry Kemp as he discusses the most recent discoveries at the enigmatic ancient Egyptian capital of controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Lecture: 19th September 2013, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

for more info and tickets:
http://www.rom.on.ca/en/activities-programs/events-calendar/city-of-the-sun-god-amarna-and-its-rulers-akhenaten-and

HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

New article: King Tutankhamun and the Royal Family of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

http://historyoftheancientworld.com/2013/09/king-tutankhamun-and-the-royal-family-of-the-eighteenth-dynasty-of-ancient-egypt/

PAST HORIZONS

New article: Radiocarbon dating tightens Egyptian chronology

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2013/radiocarbon-dating-tightens-egyptian-chronology

LUXOR TIMES

New additions to the blog: 

Exclusive footage: A walk down the Avenue of Sphinx
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.nl/2013/09/exclusive-footage-walk-down-avenue-of.html

13 more objects from Mallawi Museum are back
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.nl/2013/09/13-more-objects-from-mallawi-museum-are.html

THE HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE

CLEOPATRA - Special screening in honor of their new Hall of Ancient Egypt

Date: 20th September - 6:30 P.M.

For more info:
http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=636&Itemid=668&utm_content=buffercf8d8&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

Egypt's ancient artifacts feel nation's ills

by Nancy A. Youssef

Yasmin el Shazly, an Egyptologist, last gave a VIP tour through the Egyptian Museum two years ago, before the uprising just outside the museum doors in Tahrir Square led to the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Before that, el Shazly once lectured Paris Hilton and Charlize Theron about the world's greatest collection of Egyptian artifacts. Now the museum is an empty monument to a nation shunned by tourists and unwilling, or perhaps unable, to preserve its history, both recent and ancient.

As el Shazly prepared to return to work after a 15-month maternity leave, she stopped by her office and discovered a museum all but abandoned since the ouster July 3 of former President Mohammed Morsi, a development that officials say killed the last vestiges of tourism here.

Shocked by the emptiness of the world's oldest museum building, el Shazly offered to give her friends a VIP tour last week. As she spoke about the artifacts, she and her friends discovered that even Egypt's rich history, which gave rise to modern civilisation, hasn't been spared from today's volatility: Ten army tanks and long strings of barbed wire lined the streets to protect the already-once-looted building and its collection, a visual reminder of where Egypt's past and present collide.

A century with the Penn Museum’s Sphinx

By Heather A. Davis

In 1913, a massive piece of granite arrived in Philadelphia that forever changed the scope of the Penn Museum’s collection.

This was the arrival of the Sphinx, an approximately 15-ton single piece of red granite from Memphis, Egypt. The Sphinx—the largest such stone sculpture in the Western Hemisphere and the sixth largest in the world—caused a stir when it landed in the city. According to a Philadelphia Inquirer article from October of 1913, “Its coming was unheralded and street car motorists, taxicab chauffeurs and pedestrians stopped all work to see the strange, solid sphinx, oblivious to the furor it was causing.”

It also helped put the Penn Museum and its then-fledgling Egyptian collection on the map.

“It helped us begin the Egyptological program, both at the Museum and at the University itself, and established this as the center for Egyptology as it is today,” says David Silverman, curator-in-charge of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian Section and the Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr., Professor in the Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations. “It anchored the Museum in a fantastic place.”

Archaeologists Recover Ancient Boat Near Great Pyramid in Egypt

Wed, Sep 11, 2013

Team races time to uncover 4,500-year-old royal bark.

It was like looking at wood planks and timbers that were cut from their trees and shaped just a few decades ago. But these pieces were thousands of years old. About 4,500 years old, in fact. 

With a sense of urgency, a team donned in special white hazmat-like suites, gloves and face-masks, like surgeons, swiftly yet methodically removed, handled and examined scores of carefully and artfully cut pieces of wood. They were priceless, because these specimens were as old as the pyramids of Egypt and they were in danger of beginning to disappear before their excavator's eyes, like phantoms, if they weren't handled and processed appropriately. These were parts of Pharaoh Khufu's solar funerary vessel, anciently disassembled and packed meticulously into a stone pit grave beneath the sand at the foot of Khufu's great pyramid over 4,500 years ago. Khufu was ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom pharaoh at that time, or WAS before this boat was buried. But in 1987 the seal of the entombed boat had been breached and water, insects and fungi began to degrade the ancient, vulnerable wood. Severe damage had occurred as a result to some parts of the wood, and scientists found themselves in a race against time to recover the vessel before the outside world did more damage.

Museum Pieces - Mummy portrait of a young girl

Photocredit: Allard Pierson Museum (UvA)

Mummy portrait of a young girl

Painted on wood with laurel of gold leaf in her hair
Hight 302 mm
Roman Period, 50 - 75 AD
Inventory nr: APM00724

Allard Pierson Museum

Source: http://allardpiersonmuseum.nl/english/


Current exhibition at the Allard Pierson Museum:

Eternal Egypt Experience

Discover the vast history of Ancient Egypt in an unexpected way
12 July 2013 to 5 January 2014 

Eternal Egypt Experience. Discover the vast history of Ancient Egypt in an unexpected way. The heart of the experience is Culturama, a large multimedia show with nine, metre-high screens and a 180° view. In just 20 minutes a guide will take you through the highlights of Ancient Egypt - from prehistory, pharaohs and the great pyramids to the early-Christian Coptic era.

This exciting show is combined with a review of current Dutch and Flemish archaeological research in Egypt. Seven presentations allow visitors to experience work behind the scenes. What factors play a role in these archaeological excavations? How do the archaeologists go about their job, have their findings confirmed existing ideas and what new insights have these discoveries produced? A unique aspect of these excavation presentations is the overview they provide of the chronology of Ancient Egypt, reinforcing the narrative of the experience. Top pieces from the museum's own Egyptian collection, including a mummy, beautifully painted sarcophagi, crisp reliefs and sophisticated bronzes, illustrate the presentations.

Eternal Egypt Experience can be seen in the Allard Pierson Museum from 12 July 2013 to 5 January 2014.

Address
Visiting address: Oude Turfmarkt 127, Amsterdam
Postal address: P.O.box 94057, 1090GB Amsterdam
Telephone: + 31 (0)20 52 52 556
Fax: + 31 (0)20 52 52 561
E-mail: allard.pierson.museum@uva.nl

8 Rulers of Ancient Egypt: Most Precise Timeline Revealed

By Laura Poppick, Staff Writer   |   September 03, 2013

The most precise chronology of Early Egypt yet suggests the country formed much more quickly than previously thought.

The new finding reveals a robust timeline for the first eight kings and queens of Egypt, including, in order of succession Aha, Djer, Djet, Queen Merneith, Den, Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qa'a. The accession of King Aha to the throne is often thought to define the start of the Egyptian state, with the new study suggesting (with 68 percent probability) that he became king between 3111 B.C. and 3045 B.C.

Existing timelines of Egypt's transition from a nomadic community along the Nile River to a permanent state are mainly based on changes in pottery artifacts found at various locations around the country. However, such timelines are flawed due to the subjectivity required to distinguish one pottery style from another, and because styles might vary from site to site without signifying a change in time period.

To create a more reliable timeline, archaeologists based at the University of Oxford have developed the most comprehensive chronological analyses of Early Egypt artifacts yet based on a computer model of existing and newly measured radiocarbon dates. The analyses suggest the rise to statehood occurred between 200 and 300 years faster than previously thought, beginning between 3800 B.C. and 3700 B.C., rather than the past estimate of 4000 B.C. The findings, which also suggest the preceding Neolithic period lasted longer than thought, are detailed Sept. 4 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Akhenaten: Egyptian Pharaoh, Nefertiti's Husband, Tut's Father

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor   |   August 30, 2013

Akhenaten was a pharaoh of Egypt who reigned over the country for about 17 years between roughly 1353 B.C. and 1335 B.C.

A religious reformer he made the Aten, the sun disc, the center of Egypt’s religious life and carried out an iconoclasm that saw the names of Amun, a pre-eminent Egyptian god, and his consort Mut, be erased from monuments and documents throughout Egypt’s empire. 

When he ascended the throne his name was Amenhotep IV, but in his sixth year of rule he changed it to “Akhenaten” a name that the late Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat translated roughly as the “Benevolent one of (or for) the Aten.”

In honor of the Aten, he constructed an entirely new capital at an uninhabited place, which we now call Amarna, out in the desert. Its location was chosen so that its sunrise conveyed a symbolic meaning. “East of Amarna the sun rises in a break in the surrounding cliffs. In this landscape the sunrise could be literally ‘read’ as if it were the hieroglyph spelling Akhet-aten or ‘Horizon of the Aten’ — the name of the new city,” wrote Montserrat in his book "Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt" (Routledge, 2000).

He notes that this capital would quickly grow to become about 4.6 square miles (roughly 12 square kilometers) in size. After his death, the pharaoh’s religious reforms quickly collapsed, his new capital became abandoned and his successors denounced him.

Akhenaten, either before or shortly after he became pharaoh, would marry Nefertiti, who in some works of art is shown standing equal next to her husband. Some have even speculated that she may have become a co-, or even sole, ruler of Egypt.