Egyptology news

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Ancient peace
Part of a cuneiform tablet showing diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and the Hittites has been unearthed near the Delta village of Al-Qantir, reports Nevine El-Aref
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On the morning of 1 September, when the German archaeological mission of Hildesheim was clearing a dump next to a kiln used to produce glass near the ancient capital of Per-Ramses in the reign of Ramses II, a 5x5cm fragment of diplomatic correspondence came to light.

"This is an important discovery because it adds to the corpus of diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and the Hittite court after the signing of the famous Peace Treaty in the Year 21 of Ramses II's reign," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said. The tablet was found unexpectedly beside a 2m wide kiln dating to the Late Period. "Possibly it was thrown up from an earlier level," Hosni commented.

One of the faces of the tablet, which is burnt to dark red at its surface and has a red-orange inner core, is almost completely eroded, with only two or three signs preserved. The other shows the ends of 11 lines, eight of which are very well conserved.

Early studies of the wedge-shaped lines that make up the pictographic characters used in the writing, which developed in Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium, revealed that the text was written in Sumerian, most likely with the Hittite style of signs. "This means that the tablet was probably sent from the Hittite King Hattusili II to the Egyptian king Ramses II in Per-Ramses (1290-1224 BC)," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Initial reading of the signs has led to several suggestions for the possible contents of the letter. Edgar Pusch, field director of the mission, said that the title "Lord of the Lands" was legible but the word "land" was repeated, while the plural of the sign MES (denoting Pharaoh) was also shown, which means that the title could be "the Lord of the Two Lands". A part of Ramses II's name is also written on the tablet while, from lines two to seven, phrases from the Hittite-Egyptian peace treaty appear.

Rest at

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/659/hr2.htm

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French team discovers Old Kingdom necropolis in Sakkara

A new cemetery containing a number of rock-carved tombs of senior temple officials from the Old Kingdom (2400-2100 BC) has recently been discovered in Sakkara.

The excavation team from the French Institute of Eastern Antiquities made the find while working at the western side of south Sakkara.

The first tomb excavated belonged to the priest Haunefer who worked in the funerary temple of Pepi I, the second king of the 6th Dynasty.

Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary-General Zahi Hawass said that the priest, his wife Khotie and their 12 children are shown in relief paintings on the wall of the tomb, which have so far preserved their beautiful colors.

Hawass added that the tomb's entrance bears a splendid inscription with bright colors, showing Haunefer and his eldest son receiving an offering from Khotie.

rest at
http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html10/o091023q.htm

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Swiss judiciary considers Egyptian request to return 300 rare artefacts

The Swiss judiciary is considering a request by Prosecutor General Maher Abdel-Wahed to return 300 rare pieces of antiquities smuggled by Egypt through suspect Tareq Al-Sweisi and a number of his accomplices.

The smuggled artefacts include two gold-adorned coloured wooden sarcophagi, head of a statue of goddess Sikhmet and two statues of falcon-shaped god Horus.

State Security Prosecution investigations revealed that Sweisi possesses nine villas, two apartment buildings, three jeweler’s shops and 150 feddans of farmland. Sweisi was proved to have been involved in laundering $ 16 million and L.E 10 million.

Meanwhile, the Swiss Justice Ministry had announced on Friday that 200 stolen pieces of antiquities would be sent back to Egypt. The smuggled pieces, representing the Pharaonic, Islamic and Coptic eras, were seized in August and stored at the Geneva airport.

Rest at

http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html10/o041023h.htm

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Ancient materials: Analysis of a pharaonic embalming tar

JOHANN KOLLER*, URSULA BAUMER*, YOKA KAUP, MIRJAM SCHMID & ULRICH WESER†

* Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Doerner-Institut, 80799 München, Germany
† Physiologisch-Chemisches Institut, Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

Details of mummification techniques used in dynastic Egypt have emerged from writings in subsequent ancient texts, in which the application of oils (kedros, cedrium) derived from the cedar tree have been described by Herodotus (490–425 BC) and by Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24–79). But scholars have since argued that these products were prepared from juniper trees and not from cedar — an assertion that is widely accepted by Egyptologists but which has never been verified by chemical analysis. Here we use gas chromatography to analyse the constituents of a sample of unused entombed embalming material from 1500 BC at a site in Deir el-Bahari, Egypt, and find that its components probably originated from the cedar tree. We also identify one component, guaiacol, as having notable preservative properties.

from

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPa...25784a_fs.html

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Zahi Hawass and the Temple of Tate
Egyptian archaeologist discusses his greatest discoveries, future plans


By Veronica Terefenko Sports Editor
October 21, 2003


Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt�fs Supreme Council of Antiquities and director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation, presented his passion for archaeology at the Willis M. Tate Lecture series in McFarlin Auditorium Monday night.

�gI looked into a statue�fs eyes and fell in love with archaeology,�h Hawass said.

The famous archaeologist has made several very important discoveries at and around the pyramids, including the possible discovery of the tomb of King Seti I.

Located in the Valley of the Kings, it is believed that Seti�fs burial chamber is located at the end of a 300-foot shaft. Although Hawass has only been 217 feet inside the shaft, he remains optimistic and will continue to excavate the site upon his return to Cairo in the next week.

Rest at

http://www.smudailycampus.com/vnews/.../3f94dc6cbde27

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'A philosophy of colours'
Alexandria's long-awaited National Museum is open. Nevine El-Aref tours the state-of-the-art complex
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Click to view caption
Hosni and Hawass showing President and Mrs Mubarak Alexandria's ancient map at the museum; Greek mythological figure Medusa with snake hair; The family in Ancient Egyptian society represents unity and harmony; Alexander the Great; funerary mask of a woman
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As the principal anchorage of the Hellenic Empire, the Ptolemaic capital and Egypt's second largest metropolis, the Mediterranean port of Alexandria has always been a centre of cultural significance. Celebration of this has been a big part of Alexandria's recent development. Last year, the inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was an international event. Now, the opening of the Alexandria National Museum again draws attention to this Mediterranean gem.

Situated on Fouad Street, near the centre of the city, the resplendent white Italian-style museum sits in an expansive garden of rare trees and plants. Construction on the site was first undertaken in 1929 by well-known trader Bassili Pasha. His three-storey mansion became a beacon attracting the upper echelons of Egyptian society, including notables such as Egypt's former Prime Ministers Ismail Sedqi Pasha and Ali Maher Pasha. Sold first to the American Consulate in 1960, in 1997 the Ministry of Culture bought this prime slice of real estate for a mere LE12 million.

Rest at

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/662/heritage.htm

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Thesis on Christianity in Egypt Earns Papal Honor


ROME, NOV. 10, 2003 (Zenit.org).- A young scholar was given an award conferred by John Paul II for her doctoral thesis on the origins of Christianity in Egypt.

This year the pontifical academies awarded Giuseppina Cipriano, a student at Rome's Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, for her doctoral thesis on "Mausoleums of the Exodus and Peace in the Necropolis of El-Bagawat: Reflections on the Christian Origins of Egypt."

The 20,000-euro award was given Thursday at the annual session of the pontifical academies, whose theme was "The Martyrs and Their Monumental Memorials, Living Stones in the Making of Europe."

Rest at

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=44300

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Antiquities for sale
By Zahi Hawass
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Christie's and Sotheby's are just two of the most famous halls where antiquities are auctioned off every day. About a month ago, Al-Ahram, the Arabic daily, published an article about the antiquities for sale at Christie's. Up for bidding were statues, stelae, jewelry, shawabtis statuettes, pottery and furniture. Can you imagine? Those who understand even a little about history and cultural heritage wonder how an event like this can happen, and ask why it wasn't stopped.

We have to understand how this happened. I received a letter originally sent by a foreign Egyptologist who lives in Egypt. Her letter was handwritten to another Egyptologist who is prominent as a guide and aide to antiquities dealers. She was requesting his help in purchasing antiquities for a museum. To my sheer amazement, I learned that this lady is currently working to oversee and protect antiquities that are found during the construction of the sewage system in Luxor. I ask you: can we trust her to do this important work?

If you want to excavate in Egypt, don't get involved with antiquities dealers or the sale of antiquities. If any evidence is found linking a person (Egyptian or foreign) to the trade in antiquities then all ties should be broken. She or he has no place with us! However, for all those who are upset to hear about the development of this issue and want to help, it is important to understand the history of the antiquities market.

rest at

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/664/he3.htm

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Amazing Find Inside Egyptian Mummies
It's not just jewels, golden coins, and richly textured clothing that archaeologists have found buried in the tombs of Egyptian mummies. In recent years, they have found mummies that were stuffed with papyrus scrolls that contained words. Reuters reports that those words turned out to be the fragments of an original play written by Aeschylus, one of the greatest playwrights the world has ever known.

The play that has been found is a real treasure, perhaps more valuable than any mummy's jewels or gold. Called "Achilles," this trilogy about the Trojan War, was thought to have been lost forever when the Library of Alexandria burned to ashes in 48 BC. Historians knew the play existed because Aristophanes and other Greek playwrights of the time made mention of it. But there was no copy of it. Until now.

rest at
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...gyptianmummies

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Mysteries of ancient Egypt unveiled

The CKS Memorial Hall is hosting an exhibit that looks at thousands of years of Egyptian art
By Diana Freundl
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Sunday, Nov 23, 2003,Page 19

The paintings on this sarcophagus detail the life of a wealthy priest who lived between 1,500 and 1,000 BC.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CKS ART GALLERY.

Mummies are said to resemble time capsules in their ability to tell us about periods of ancient Egypt. However, a deeper understanding of their history often remains buried in their tombs.

For the next four months, people will have the opportunity to unveil some of these mysteries at an exhibition on loan from the Louvre titled "The Ancient Egyptian Art" on display at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

Making a rather interesting debut -- this is their first time outside the Louvre -- the 3,000-year-old mummified bodies of a girl and four animals gained national recognition when National Taiwan University Hospital performed x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests on them early last week.

Rest at

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat.../23/2003077018

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The king of the pharaohs

Tim Radford meets the man who put the Egypt back into Egyptology

Thursday November 27, 2003
The Guardian

Zahi Hawass is overlord of the underworld. At 56, he is the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The Sphinx, the great pyramids at Giza and the step pyramids of Saqqara all lie within his dominion. So too does all the buried treasure of Egypt, be it 100,000 years old or 100. The pharaohs of 30 dynasties are his, and all their coffins and grave goods, and in his care are the ruins left behind by the armies of Alexander, Marc Antony and Napoleon.
Hawass's sway matches that of any pharaoh, and his influence does not stop at Egypt's borders. He says things that can rattle teeth and raise dust in Berlin, New York and London, especially when he starts asking for his mummy back - the royal corpse of Rameses I was returned from Atlanta last month - or the bust of Queen Nefertiti from Germany, or the Rosetta Stone, key to the mystery of the hieroglyphs, now in the British Museum.

Hawass is not a demure man. He began a lecture in London last week with a 14-minute promotional video showing himself opening sarcophagi and exploring pyramids in his broad-brimmed hat, and stepping out with Bill Clinton, the Blairs and Laura Bush - with a cameo role for Egypt's most famous actor, Omar Sharif. By Hawass's own account, he gradually took charge of an underpaid and sometimes corrupt army of guards and inspectors, and a haphazard system of storage for two centuries of archaeological plunder, and turned it into an efficient professional bureaucracy. The French, British, Germans and Americans may have launched the science of Egyptology: but Hawass has begun to reclaim it for the Egyptians.

Rest at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/inter...093638,00.html

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Two decades after his passport was revoked, King Tut is set to travel again. Was it a case of diplomatic tit-for-tat?





THE PRICELESS TREASURES of Tutankhamun will soon visit Europe for the first time in over 20 years when a Swiss museum hosts 50 artifacts from the pharaoh's tomb as well as a collection of grave goods from other New Kingdom royal tombs.

"Museum directors are allowed to dream, too. But that the dream of staging an exhibition like 'Tutankhamun: The Golden Beyond - Treasures from the Valley of the Kings' would come true one day? Well, we hardly dared hope," says Peter Blome, director of the Basel Museum of Ancient Art.

Tutankhamun ruled Egypt from 1361-1352 BC during the New Kingdom. He was just nine years old at his accession and is believed to have been 19 when he died. A minor king, Tut might easily have been forgotten had it not been for British archaeologist Howard Carter's discovery of his tomb in 1922. The only pharaoh's tomb ever discovered intact, its stunning gold treasures have been the biggest draw at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for over 80 years.


Rest at

http://www.egypttoday.com/issues/0312/982C/0312982C.asp

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Pharaonic gate of Edfu Temple opens for first time since 2200 years

The Edfu Temple in the South Egyptian archaeological city of Aswan will receive visitors as of early next year at its original entrance that opens for the first time since 2200 years after the end of restoration and works in the monument built by ancient Egyptians.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said the project costs L.E 25 million and took 18 months, adding thatelectronic gates and closed-circuit TVs will be provided in the temple.

rest at

http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html10/o011223m.htm

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Nubian treasures offer different view of ancient Egypt
Hundreds of tourists fly in every year to see monuments along lake, which now covers everything of the historic land except the high hills
Ursula Lindsey
Special to The Daily Star

CAIRO: From the deck of one of the luxury cruise boats that sails the waters of Lake Nasser, tourists can enjoy a slightly different view of ancient Egypt than that available on the well-publicized Luxor-Aswan cruises. Here the setting is more silent and desolate, and the monuments, apart from the famous Abu Simbel, much less visited. As Hany Zarif, a tour guide with a degree in archaeology from Cairo University and a lifetime resident of Aswan, says: “All of Nubia is now completely under water. Only the high hills are left.”
But although the ancient land of Nubia _ which stretched along the Nile from Aswan to Khartoum, and was flooded by construction of the Aswan high dam _ may now be covered by the lake, the area’s silence is deceptive. A lot is happening around Lake Nasser, from agricultural mega-projects to developing tourism to thriving wildlife.
After its construction in the early 1960s, the Aswan High Dam provided the majority of Egypt’s electricity, and ended the seasonal flood of the Nile, allowing farmers to grow up to three crops a year instead of one. It also forced the moves of both the long-time inhabitants and the ancient monuments of the regions. While hundreds of thousands of Nubians were relocated to Egyptian cities further north, a dozen major pharaonic temples were saved by the pioneering efforts of teams of foreign archaeologists and engineers.
In the last decade, six boats have started offering tours of the lake. Guests of the cruise boats crowd into small skiffs, accompanied by the machine-gun-toting security details that have become commonplace since the Luxor attack of 1997. Tourists visit sites such as the temples of Amada and Dakka, where they can admire the fine reliefs of ancient Egyptian kings and gods _ overlaid, in places, with the graffiti of Arab caravan leaders or 19th century European “explorers.” Often the temple guards will have a scorpion, a horned viper or even a baby alligator at hand, which they will show to tourists in hope of a tip.
The major monuments along the lake are of course the temples of Abu Simbel, which hundreds of tourists fly to see every day. The temple of Ramses II, whose facade is decorated with massive 20-meter seated statues of the pharaoh, and that of his wife Nefertari were rescued from the rising waters of the lake in what remains an astonishing international salvage effort.
Following an appeal by Egypt to UNICEF in 1960, 50 nations pledged to help save the monuments along the Nile that would be submerged by the construction of the high dam. Fourteen different temples were moved, using a variety of ingenious and expensive feats of engineering. In the case of Abu Simbel, a barrier was built around the temple, its facade was covered with sand, and it and the surrounding rock were then carved into almost 9,000 blocks, which were reassembled on a nearby plateau. The blocks of the statues themselves were hand-cut so as not to damage the sculpture.

rest at

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/features/31_12_03_c.asp

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Army of Sand
writer: Cam McGrath


A safari operator is selling tourists the chance to help discover Cambyses' 2,500-year-old lost army, but the pros are unimpressed




For a fee, tourists can take part in the search for the legendary Army of Cambyses, which some believe marched into the Great Sand Sea never to be seen again.

HIDDEN BENEATH THE shifting sands of the Sahara is one of the great mysteries of archaeology. In 523 BC, according to legend, Persian King Cambyses II dispatched an army of 50,000 men to destroy the sacred oracle in Siwa that had been bad-mouthing him since his conquest of Egypt two years earlier. The soldiers marched into the desert never to be seen again.

According to an account related by the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus, the army left Thebes (Luxor) and after seven days reached an inhabited oasis, probably Kharga. The 50,000 soldiers continued with their guides into the Great Sand Sea towards Siwa, but met their demise in a massive sandstorm.

"A great and violent south wind arose, which buried them in the masses of sand which it bore, and so they disappeared from sight," he recounts.

rest at

http://www.egypttoday.com/issues/0401/4E76/04014E76.asp

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Lion King
First Mummified Lion Found in Egyptian Tomb

By Amanda Onion


Jan. 15 —Probing a tomb full of mummified cats, archaeologist Alain Zivie and his team recently came across a startling find: preserved bones from a much larger feline.

rest at

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/S..._040115-1.html

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A Thousand Relics Found in Egypt
Jan 28, 04 | 11:57 am



A French-Egyptian archaeology team has retrieved more than 1000 artifacts, including statues and busts of pharaonic gods and goddesses, from the Mediterranean Sea floor off Egypt's northern coast of Alexandria, according to the Egyptian antiquities officials earlier this week. The 2003 Abu Qir Bay Department of Archeology Mission under the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archeology unearthed artifacts during archaeological surveys which helped define the topography around the sanctuary site or the temple of Heracles. Dating back to the third and fifth centuries B.C. the finds reveal a cult that worshipped the ancient pharaonic deity Amon and his son Konshu in a bid to preserve the legitimacy of the Ptolemaic reign.

rest at

http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=940_0_1_0_M

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Follow John Hopkins University's excavations at Luxor on the web
at--

http://www.jhu.edu/neareast/egypttoday.html

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Ancient housing city for gold miners in Red Sea discovered

Minister of Culture Dr. Farouk Hosni asserted that a whole housing area inside the gold mine in Bakerba Valley in the Red Sea has been found.

The city is about 120 km.west of Marsa Alam City, added the minister, noting that this discovery came during a study by a Belgian University mission of the area of the gold mines in the Eastern Desert.

rest at

http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html11/o050524p.htm

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Death on the Nile

Abydos, the last resting place of the first kings of the first dynasty, is where ancient Egypt's cult of the dead was born. All this and tomb raiders, too. Tim Radford reports

Thursday July 15, 2004
The Guardian

In the alphabet of Egyptology, Abydos comes first. It is the last resting place of the first kings of the first dynasty, 5,000 years ago. It is the birthplace of the cult of the divine king. It is also the launchpad for the Egyptian cult of death. Abydos is several miles from the Nile, and roughly halfway between Cairo and Aswan: a long way from both ancient Memphis, and the stunning temples of Thebes and Luxor. But Egyptology begins in Abydos, in the first systematic evidence of the Egyptian pact with mortality.
It is where the pharaoh's undertakers buried his ships of the desert - a flotilla of 70ft long planked craft to ferry the dead king to his afterlife - and ritually killed and buried donkeys to carry his goods. They killed and buried his servants, too, to tend him beyond the grave.

rest at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/featu...261044,00.html