Egyptology

Washington Post

Archaeologists on Monday began restoration on a 4,500-year-old wooden boat found next to the pyramids, one of Egypt’s main tourist attractions.

The boat is one of two that were buried next to the Pharaoh Khufu, spokesmen for a joint Egyptian-Japanese team of archeologists said. The boats are believed to have been intended to carry pharaohs into the afterlife.

Khufu, also known as Cheops, is credited with building the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of the pyramids. Khufu, son of Snefru, was the second ruler of the 4th Dynasty around 2680 B.C. and ruled Egypt for 23 years.

Both boats, made from Lebanese cedar and Egyptian acacia trees, were originally discovered in 1954. One of the boats is on display at a museum near the pyramids.

The second boat, which is now undergoing the restoration, remained buried. It is thought to be smaller than its sister ship, which is about 140 feet (43 meters) long.

The head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mustafa Amin, said Egyptologists began taking samples of the wood for restoration on Monday.
Luxor Times

Dr. Mostafa Amin said that the team would collect samples of the boat’s wooden beams for analysis in Egypt and Japan in order to draw up accurate plans for the boat's restoration in situ.
Mr. Oshimora, Head of Waseda University Team said “The project started in 1992 and the problem we are facing is the condition of the wood as it needs special and delicate treatment before the restoration process and we will take sample of about 60 wooden pieces out of 600 pieces was found in the pit.” He added “The wood processing would take 2 years and the restoration and reconstruction of the boat should finish in 5 years and we hope that the political situation in Egypt will be stable so we could complete this project with no delays.”




Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

British Museum (Neal Spencer)

I've been enjoying this dig diary and will miss it. 

Work on site finished yesterday, with final recording, photography and then the logistics of getting all our equipment back by boat to the expedition house after sunset.

Some of our workmen, experienced in building mudbrick architecture on Ernetta island, constructed new walls along the ancient walls of house E13.7, to preserve the painted plaster surface from wind erosion over the coming months.Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

EES Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Project

Our first full day in the field was a great relief to us after our work was cut short last season. It is great to be back in Egypt and Luxor where everyone is as hospitable as ever. It’s a great time to visit the city and all the sites!

We have started a long Electrical Resistivity Tomography profile from the edge of the West Bank going into the floodplain along a dirt track just south of the Ramesseum. The tea was flowing from the villagers. There’s nothing glamorous about working in Donkey dung! But what could be better than the first pylon of the Ramesseum as your back drop. 

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

AllAfrica

Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said that as many as 6,000 artifacts have been restored from Israel. Ibrahim was responding to inquiries from members of the People's Assembly Culture, Media and Tourism Committee on Monday 20/2/2012.

The Antiquities Ministry is holding negotiations to retrieve a host of artifacts from Belgium, France and the US, he added.

He also said that the Egyptian antiquities which are abroad were out of the country according to the law which allowed the sharing of 50 %of the artifacts discovered between Egypt and foreign exploration missions.



Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine el-Aref)

The new Crocodile Museum stands on top of a 15-metre hillock on the doorstep of the Ptolemaic temple on the east bank of the Nile at Kom Ombo, where the ancient Egyptians worshipped the crocodile-headed Sobek, their god of fertility.

The cult of Sobek as a crocodile centred on the ancients' dependence on the River Nile. People who worked or travelled on the Nile hoped that if they prayed to Sobek, the Nile crocodile god would protect them from attack by crocodiles.

"Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, and Sobek in these circumstances was considered the army's patron, as a representation of strength and power," Mohamed El-Biali, director of Aswan antiquities, told Al-Ahram Weekly.


Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Al Ahram Weekly (Mohamed el-Biali)

To answer this question one must examine the physical attributes, lifestyle, and feeding patterns of this awesome beast. The African Nile crocodile, or crocodylus niloticus, is a carnivore reptile that can grow six meters in length. It spends most of the day lingering on the shores, spends most of the night underwater, and likes to hunt at the first light of dawn.

There is a stealthy air about crocodiles. They move quietly and do not emit any sound, but if attacked or injured their shrieks can be utterly terrifying.

The crocodile's method of feeding is curious. When it catches a prey, it holds the prey in its jaws and dives long enough to drown it. Then it buries it whole in a shallow spot and leaves it to putrefy, as it prefers to consume decomposed flesh rather than fresh one.

In ancient Egyptian vernacular, the word for crocodile (minus vowels) was M-S-H, possibly the origin of the current Arab word temsah. In religious texts, the crocodile was represented as Sobek, a deity associated with fertility. The Ptolemies worshipped the crocodile as Sokhos, a play on Sobek.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Egypt Independent

The governor of Aswan has decided to go ahead with the annual celebration to commemorate the biannual solar phenomenon at the Great Temple of Abu Simbel despite Egypt’s current security concerns and mourning over the deaths at Port Said Stadium earlier this month.

A smaller, symbolic celebration will be held inside the Great Temple, located south of Aswan, to send a positive message to potential tourists.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Egypt Today (Nadine El Sayed)

Nasser has had a standing interest in Egyptology and is an avid enthusiast and scholar versed in the philosophical and psychological heritage of ancient Egyptians. She's written various books on the subject, including a 40-part illustrated series for children on ancient Egypt, in an attempt to revive Egyptians’ interest in their heritage, especially the much-ignored rich intellectual heritage left by the ancient Egyptians.

Nasser wants to go beyond the Pyramids and the tombs and dig deeper into their ideologies and philosophies.


But 10 years ago, she decided it wasn’t enough to just write about it; so she placed all her eggs in one basket and literally put in all her funds into financing an eco cultural village in Minya.. . . .

But this isn’t your average eco-lodge in a no man’s land. Nasser is hoping the place will be “a beacon of light” for the surrounding community to rekindle Egyptians’ love for their heritage and promote the concept of responsible tourism for many sites to come. Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Egypt Today  (Farida Helmy)

While the layman in Fayoum would probably welcome the idea of a project bringing in income and job opportunity to the quiet governorate, experts are far less eager.

Fayoum is Egypt’s oldest city and is located 130 kilometers southwest of Cairo. It is also home to the 1385-square-kilometer Lake Qarun. The North of  the Lake Qarun area has been a protected area since the 1980s, and its boundaries have expanded gradually to include Gebel Qattrani.

Still an unspoiled wilderness, the north shore of Lake Qarun is a haven for bird migration; it is classified under BirdLife as an Important Bird Area (IBA), or an area that holds priority in conservation. It also contains one of the world’s most complete fossil records, according to UNESCO, which includes one of the world’s best preserved fossilized whales and Neolithic sites that reveal the evolution of the use of the stone tool artifacts. 



Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Egypt at the Manchester Museum (Campbell Price)

On Saturday, I met up with the Young Archaeologists Club (YAC) to do a spot of hieroglyph translation. For the session, I chose this short text on an object currently displayed in the Museum’s Discovery Centre.  The members of YAC, mostly aged around 10, were incredibly knowledgable and – with only a little help – cracked the code presented by this small stela. Rather than simply ‘make up’ hieroglyphic words using a phonetic alphabet, the chance to read a real text from ancient Egypt – and work out what the object was used for – was one the group really enjoyed.
This small limestone stela is one of a class of objects called ‘ear stelae’, common in the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BC), and records the name of a deity to whom it is dedicated as well as the man who made or comissioned it. It shows a pair of ears, between which reads: “Ptah-hearer-of-prayers (ptH sDm-nH)”. Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Definately one to add to my wish list. This temple is visible from the road, next door to Merenptah. University of Arizona Bookstore : WILKINSON / THE TEMPLE OF TAUSRET: WILKINSON / THE TEMPLE OF TAUSRET

The Temple of Tausret summarizes the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition’s excavation of the monument built by Queen Tausret, one of the few women to rule ancient Egypt as pharaoh in all the thousands of years of Egyptian history. This project, conducted between 2004-2011, not only demonstrated that the temple site was only partially excavated in the nineteenth century by the great British archaeologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, but also that the belief that the temple was unfinished in ancient times is unfounded. The book looks at the often surprising evidence the Arizona excavations have recovered regarding both the history of the temple and the reign of this little known female pharaoh. Individual chapters cover all aspects of the excavation, as well as the artifacts, pottery, burials, human remains, and inscriptions discovered. The book includes over one hundred illustrations and a CD ROM with every map, plan and photograph from the book, allowing the reader to view the illustrations at a much larger size and all in full color.

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The second boat in it's tomb The restoration of the second Khufu boat began yesterday as planned with the collection of samples of wood from the boat. The boats were made from Lebanese cedar and Egyptian acacia trees. Mustafa Amin, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities:

“The boat was found in a complete shape, intact and in place,” he said, adding that the focus now is on taking samples of the wood.

He said Egyptologists are studying “the different components and fungus in the wood in order to find the most sufficient and advanced way to work on the wood.”

Last year in June, a team of scientists lifted the first of 41 limestone slabs each weighing about 16 tons to uncover the pit in which the ancient ship was buried, said Sakuji Yoshimura, professor from Japan’s Waseda University.

Sources: Egypt begins restoring ancient boat near pyramids
Egypt begins restoring ancient boat near pyramids

Related posts:

1. Second Solar Boat Rises From the Grave Inside Khufu's 2nd solar boat pit Today the second solar...
2. Visitors view Khufu’s Second Boat Zahi Hawas, left, and Sakuji Yoshimura, right, from Waseda Universty...
3. Khufu’s Solar Boat: Then There Were Two Khufu’s second solar boat will soon be displayed in it’s...

Lots on the news about the new colossus being assembled at the Amenhotep III temple so as I was driving past I took some photos on my mobile.

Although almost every tourist goes to the Colossus of Memnon few notice the extensive work going on behind the two statues. So if you go past please have a look, you will be surprised.

Khufu’s second solar boat will soon be displayed in it’s own museum beside the Great Pyramid with an announcement to be made Monday.

Khufu's 1st Solar boat in it's own museum built above it's grave

At an international press conference held on Egypt’s Giza Plateau next Monday, Egyptian Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim is expected to announce the launch of the second phase of the Khufu solar boat restoration project, which is being carried out in collaboration with a Japanese archaeological team from Wasida University.

Ibrahim told Ahram Online that the team would collect samples of the boat’s wooden beams for analysis on Monday in order to draw up accurate plans for the boat’s restoration in a special museum located on the plateau.

The first phase of the project, carried out two years ago, assessed the area surrounding the second boat pit with the use of topographical radar surveys. A large hangar has since been built over the second pit, with a smaller hangar erected inside to cover the top of the boat itself. The hangars were especially designed to protect the wooden remains during the project’s analysis and treatment phases.

Read more: Ahram

Photo by zolakoma CC By

No related posts.

Europa Press   

Roughly, a team from the university of Jaen working in Aswan at the site of Qubbet el-Hawa have found 20 mummies from different periods as well as a large amount of other archaeological matieral inlcuding a wooden sarcophagus.  It's the fourth season of excavations focusing on the large tomb constructed by a provincial governor of the 12th Dynasty.  The wooden coffin is a later, intrusive addition to the tomb. Two smaller tombs have also been discovered. Excavations have been using new technologies including RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging), and 3D scanning of walls, to assist with greater accuracy in the reading of the tomb's hieroglyphs.  In the next few days the investigations will reach the oldest levels of the tomb, where there is clear evidence for more rooms "perhpas intact."

The article goes on to describe the project and its scope.

You can follow the ongoing work of the Qubbet el-Hawa project at their dig diary (in Spanish) at (www.qubbetelhawa.es), where there are some great images even if you don't speak the language.

From the Europa Press website El equipo de investigadores de la Universidad de Jaén (UJA) que desde hace un mes trabaja en la necrópolis de Qubbet el-Hawa en Asuán (Egipto) ha cosechado sus primeros resultados, con el hallazgo de veinte momias de diferentes periodos, así como una gran cantidad de material arqueológico, entre el que se encuentra un sarcófago de madera.

Se trata de la cuarta campaña de excavación que realiza este equipo, dirigido por el profesor de Historia Antigua de la UJA Alejandro Jiménez Serrano, que está centrando sus esfuerzos en una gran tumba construida por un gobernador provincial de la XII Dinastía (1830 a.C.), tal y como ha informado este lunes la institución jiennense.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

El Pais

Thanks to Amigos de la Egiptologia for the link to this story.

With a stunning photo.

Google Translate version here (I may get time to do a proper translation this weekend, but if not I hope that the rather bizarre translation will cover most of the essentials).

A los dos colosos de Memnon, uno de los iconos más emblemáticos y eternos del Egipto faraónico, que reciben al viajero a la entrada de la necrópolis de Luxor, en la orilla oeste del Nilo, les ha salido un hermano. Un tercer coloso se yergue desde esta semana cien metros por detrás de las dos famosas estatuas, consideradas epítome de las maravillas y misterios egipcios y admiradas ya por los primeros turistas griegos y romanos. Esta tercera estatua, también de cuarcita, formaba parte asimismo de la decoración monumental original del arrasado templo funerario de Amenofis III y cayó derrumbada, con su pareja (los colosos del edificio iban de dos en dos), durante un terremoto alrededor del 1.200 antes de Cristo.

La enorme escultura, el coloso norte de la segunda pareja, originalmente de 15 metros de altura, un poco más pequeña que sus dos famosos hermanos, de 18 metros y que también representa a Amenofis III (lo de Memnon es una atribución griega), quedó fragmentada en el suelo y con el tiempo fue semienterrada por agua y barro al subir el nivel freático. Se la redescubrió en 2002 y se la arrastró hasta terreno sólido donde se procedió a restaurarla mientras se consolidaba con cemento su pedestal. Después, se la ha llevado otra vez a su emplazamiento y se ha procedido a la delicadísima operación de volver a levantar semejante monstruo de piedra, proceso que culminó el lunes.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

With three photos.

At an international press conference held on Egypt's Giza Plateau next Monday, Egyptian Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim is expected to announce the launch of the second phase of the Khufu solar boat restoration project, which is being carried out in collaboration with a Japanese archaeological team from Wasida University.

Ibrahim told Ahram Online that the team would collect samples of the boat’s wooden beams for analysis on Monday in order to draw up accurate plans for the boat's restoration in a special museum located on the plateau.

The first phase of the project, carried out two years ago, assessed the area surrounding the second boat pit with the use of topographical radar surveys. A large hangar has since been built over the second pit, with a smaller hangar erected inside to cover the top of the boat itself. The hangars were especially designed to protect the wooden remains during the project's analysis and treatment phases.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

iMalqata  (Catherine Roehrig)

With two lovely photographs of the blue-painted pottery.

In the first days we were on the site, before we hired any workmen, I stood between several pairs of mounds and eventually chose what I thought was the most likely location. I’m still fairly certain that I have the right pair of mounds – but, after four days, we haven’t found any walls of the “narrow house.” All we’ve found so far are a jumble of mud bricks and some lovely fragments of the distinctive blue-painted pottery that comes from this period – including two joining pieces of an open-mouthed Hathor jar like one we have at the Metropolitan Museum. Pottery is something Malqata has by the ton – though most of it isn’t decorated.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

British Museum (Neal Spencer)

With photos.

Five weeks ago, Mary Shepperson revealed the remains of a stone doorway, tumbled into room two of house E13.6. Over the last few days we have reconstructed the gateway in the courtyard of our house – albeit laid flat on the ground rather than vertical…

The imposing appearance of the doorway is now more evident, standing 2.35m tall, with a passageway of 88cm wide by 1.75m tall. In terms of scale, many of our field team would have to stoop to walk through the door.

The lintel is made from an unusually fine sandstone – perhaps from Sai island – whereas the doorjambs are of the poor quality sandstone we more often encounter. This doorway would have been set into the mudbrick wall.

The jambs are not inscribed – any inscription would have been into a layer of white plaster, now largely disappeared. On the lintel, the red- and yellow-painted hieroglyphs invoke the god Amun-Ra and Horus Lord of Ta-sety, and also refer to king Tuthmosis III.

Interestingly, this door was not the main house door, but rather framed the entrance to the central reception room, with a low bench against its back wall.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes