Egypt celebrates 90 year anniversary of Tutankhamun’s tomb discovery

Ninety years ago on November 22 the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in Egypt.

After years of finding smaller archaeological hauls in the area Egyptologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, opened the tomb and discovered an abundance of gold and fineries left with the king after his death and mummification.

On Thursday the great-grandson of the 5th Earl, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Lord Carnarvon attended an event to celebrate this anniversary at Howard Carter’s house which is now a museum a few miles from the Valley of the Kings.

Egypt's ministers of tourism and antiquities were present as were ambassadors to Egypt from the United States and Singapore amongst others.

The current Lord Carnarvon, George, explained the importance of the celebration.

“Well I’m here today in Luxor, indeed in Howard Carter’s house, Castle Carter as it’s known, because it's the 90th year following the first discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. When my great-grandfather and Howard Carter actually broke through the outer sealed door with Tutankhamun’s cartouche and crest on it and when they first saw into the ante-chamber of the tomb. This amazing archaeological discovery that has never been surpassed,” he said.

Carnarvon is a big fan of his great-grandfather but readily admits his wife Fiona is more of an expert on Egyptology than he is, even translating a certain amount of hieroglyphics. He says opening the tomb was a very dramatic moment.

“My great-grandfather says to Howard Carter ‘What do you see?’ and Carter famously replies ‘Just wonderful things.’ And he's looking back at this, in a way perhaps, theatre set of ancient civilization 3,100 years ago, everywhere the glint of gold off those beautiful wooden objects and that's just the start,” said Carnarvon.

The 8th Earl funded Carter's excavation work in the Valley of the Kings for several years. The pair were in their last year of working together when they made by far their greatest discovery: the tomb of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. It is still the best preserved of the pharaonic tombs in the area.

By Reuters

Friday, 23 November 2012

Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/23/251316.html

Two Old Kingdom engraved blocks return home

A New Zealand citizen turned over two ancient Egyptian artefacts which had been in the possession of his late friend

Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 22 Nov 2012

On Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over two Old Kingdom sandstone engravings to the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), which were for decades in the possession of a New Zealand photographer.

The blocks depict two scenes; one shows the lioness goddess of war Sekhmet wearing the Cobra crown, while the second is a hieroglyphic text uncovering a title of an Old Kingdom king saying: "King of Upper and Lower Egypt and the core of the two lands, Horus."

Osama El-Nahas, director of the retrieved antiquities section, relates that the story of these two blocks which were in the possession of a photographer from New Zealand who lived in Egypt during the 1940s and 1950s and died this year. Before his death, El-Nahas said, the photographer told his best friend Bruce Hall to hand over the two blocks to Egypt.

Antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online that the two blocks are now at the Egyptian Museum for restoration, and will be put on show in a special exhibition along with other artefacts that were retrieved last year. He added that the blocks will be studied to determine their original position and location.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/58901/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Two-Old-Kingdom-engraved-blocks-return-home.aspx

Monthu Temple reveals new pharaonic secrets

A royal statue of a yet unidentified New Kingdom king has been unearthed at Monthu Temple in Luxor

Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 21 Nov 2012

A French archaeological mission from the French Institute for Archaeological Studies have unearthed a yet unidentified royal statue of a New Kingdom king during routine excavations at Monthu Temple, northeast of Karnak Temple in Luxor.

The statue is 125 centimetres tall and made of black granite and depicts a standing king wearing short dress with hands aside.

Christopher Tiers, head of the archaeological mission, said that early studies of the statue suggest that the artistic features of the depicted king confirm its royalty.

The statue is to be transferred to the storage facilities of the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) for restoration and documentation. Tiers asserted that excavation at the site is in full swing in order to find any additional statues that may enable archaeologists to identify the New Kingdom king.

Monthu Temple is dedicated to the worship of the falcon-headed got of war Monthu. The temple is located five kilometres northeast of Karnak in an area called Armant on Luxor’s east bank.

Armant was excavated by French archaeologist Fernand Disson de la Roque from 1925 to the post-war period, when he revealed many buildings, including Monthu Temple. The temple replaced an older sanctuary from the Old Kingdom and consists of an open forum with a tower and enclosing two mounds that housed the chapels of worship.

The ruins of the last structure date to the reign of Ptolemy VIII, although decorations and additions continued to be added centuries later by the Romans. Along the span of time, Monthu Temple was a major centre of worshipping Apis bulls, that is why it contains many statues and reliefs of bulls. Most of these statues are now on display in various museums around the world.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/58811/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Monthu-Temple-reveals-new-pharaonic-secrets.aspx

The Louvre: A Passion for Egypt

As the Louvre in Paris prepares for its 220th anniversary, Ahram Online explores the history and highlights of its impressive collection of Egyptian Art

by Mohammed Elrazzaz, Monday 19 Nov 2012

It should come as no surprise that, two hundred and twenty years after its inauguration, the Louvre boasts unparalleled collections of artifacts and masterpieces, with Egypt having more than its fair share of representation.

From ancient Egyptian and Hellenistic art, all the way to Coptic and Islamic art, the quality and scope of the Egyptian collections are everything you would expect from a legendary museum in a country that paved the way for the Egyptomania that swept across Europe following Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign in 1798 and the publishing of the Description de l'Egypte a few years later.

A tour de force of Egyptian Art

While there are eight curatorial departments in the Grand Louvre, Egypt is the only country to have a full department dedicated exclusively to its art: The Egyptian Antiquities Department. Moreover, Hellenistic, Coptic and Islamic artifacts adorn the collections of other departments, and efforts are underway to inaugurate a ninth department that will feature many Egyptian artifacts: the Department of the East Mediterranean in the Roman Empire.

New permanent galleries have already been opened towards that purpose, exhibiting objects and artworks from the East Mediterranean (Egypt and around) from the period between the first century BC and the sixth century AD: Hellenistic funerary art, Coptic textiles, and Nubian artifacts.

In addition, the new Department of Islamic Art (opened last September) has some Egyptian masterpieces of international fame, like the magnificent eleventh-century Fatimid rock crystal ewer (previously displayed at the Department of Decorative Arts), originally part of the treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. A fifteenth-century Mamluk vestibule reassembled in an epic effort to put together three hundred stones is yet another example.

An Egyptian Renaissance: The Kushite 25th Dynasty

An Egyptian Renaissance: The Kushite 25th Dynasty

by Dr. Lisa Swart

Far from being a cultural and geographic backwater, the Kushite 25th Dynasty created one of the largest empires along the Nile in ancient and medieval times. A dynasty of charismatic Kushite kings assumed Egyptian titles and postures for over a century. Their sovereignty over Egypt was acknowledged by the Egyptians, all while retaining their own unique identities. The Kushites not only united a previously fragmented Egypt, which had slid into political and economic decline, but reinvigorated Egyptian material culture with a blend of their own distinctive characteristics with Egyptian prototypes.

Introduction

Extending south, along the Nile River from the First Cataract to the Shubaluqa Gorge (Sixth Cataract), is the land of Nubia. Today, this region is mostly located within the borders of modern Sudan, with a small portion crossing into southern Egypt. Known as Kush by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hebrews and Persians; and Ethiopia by the Greeks, Romans and 19th and early 20th century writers, it is one of only two African civilizations so far to have produced significant archaeological or written records from before 1000 CE (Depuydt, 1996: 531), However, even with rich Kushite archaeological remains along the course of the Nile Valley, compared with other great civilizations of the ancient world, relatively little is known about Nubia. Previously considered a geographical backwater, Nubia has been traditionally viewed with the flawed perception by scholars from within the shadow of the monolithic Egyptian empire. This opinion has its roots in the preconceptions of early African societies prevalent in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Confounding matters further, unlike Egypt, there is not an excess of textual artifacts, and of those found, many have been written in the undeciphered Meroitic language.

As ancient as its neighbour in the north, the history of Nubia is deeply interwoven with that of Egypt, a long-time rival, trading partner, colonial master, and subsequent colony. From obscure origins, the Kushite kings conquered and establised their domination over Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty during the mid-eighth century BCE. They ruled Egypt for over a century, until they were ousted by the Assyrians in the 650s BCE.

Statues of 5th dynasty top officials discovered in Abusir

Nine wooden and limestone statues unearthed by Czech archaeological mission at Abusir necropolis reveal 5th dynasty ancient burial customs, society, environment

by Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 18 Nov 2012

During routine excavations in Abusir South, 30km north of Giza plateau, Czech excavators from the Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague, unearthed a collection of fifth dynasty ancient Egyptian statues.

Photo courtesy of Czech Institute of Egyptology

Miroslav Barta, the head of the Czech mission told Ahram Online that the statues were found in a hidden tunnel located inside a rock-hewn tomb of Iti, the crew inspector. His tomb is located between two rock-hewn tombs of two fifth dynasty high officials: the overseer of the crew scribe, Nefer, and the chief of justice of the Shepespuptah great house.

Although the exploration of the tunnel suggests that it was subjected to looting in antiquity, nine wooden and painted limestone statues were found inside.

"It seems that tomb raiders did not recognise the importance, nor the beauty of such statues, so they left them in situ but, regretfully, six were broken into two as a result of the robbers' activities, with three found intact," Barta told Ahram Online. Perhaps, he continued, they were searching for jewellery or the like.

These statues were found scattered in the tunnel, some  standing in their original position, others laying on the floor. Two of the fragments were made of wood, while the rest of the statues were made of limestone and most of them still have polychromy. Only one statue is inscribed with the deceased's name, Iti.

Barta says the discovery is very important because it shows the traditions of ancient Egyptian burial practices, the society, environment, art and history of the fifth dynasty. Excavation is continuing for more evidence of that era in Egypt’s ancient history.

Abusir means The House of Osiris, the god of the dead and resurrection. Abusir became a royal burial place during the reign of King Userkaf, founder of the fifth dynasty, who built a remarkable and unique solar temple. Some of his successors built their own burial and solar temples there. The last solar temple was built by King Menkauhor at the end of the fifth dynasty.

A collection of mastaba tombs of higher courtiers are found there among them the one belongs to the royal hair dresser and vizier Ptahshepses.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/58445/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Statues-of-th-dynasty-top-officials-discovered-in-.aspx

Egyptian Idol

BY IAN STRAUGHN | NOVEMBER 15, 2012

In March 2001, Mullah Omar and the Afghan Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, exploding the statues and reducing to rubble some of Afghanistan's most important cultural relics. That act seemed to epitomize the cultural intolerance of the Taliban regime but also drew attention to the ways in which cultural heritage preservation has become used as a measure of civilized behavior of states in an era of global cosmopolitanism. For those concerned about the future of the world's antiquities, this week another threat emerged on the horizon. In an interview with Egyptian Dream TV over the weekend, Salafist leader Murgan Salem al-Gohary called on Muslims to destroy the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx as a religiously mandated act of iconoclasm. "The idols and statutes that fill Egypt must be destroyed. Muslims are tasked with applying the teachings of Islam and removing these idols, just like we did in Afghanistan when we smashed the Buddha statues," said Gohary, who claims to have participated in the destruction of Buddhas in Afghanistan and was arrested on several occasions under the Mubarak regime.

Forget for a minute the gross improbability of Gohary's threat to destroy millions tons of sheer rock and stone, monuments that have survived foreign invasions, rapacious pillagers, and environmental threats. It is a move almost guaranteed to draw media attention, particularly with the high level of anxiety surrounding the new political clout of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the rise of the Salafist al-Nour party as a significant force in both the government and the charting of a new constitution. Fears over how Islamists might fare in post-Mubarak Egypt have only intensified amid a roiling debate over issues such as the role of women, the inclusion of minorities, and the country's position toward Western interests. Amid this debate, Egypt's Pharaonic remains have now become the latest touchstone for controversy.