Egyptology
The first Media appearance for Yalla Fan Festival Luxor 2012 hosted By Breakfast Show - YouTube
The first Media appearance for Yalla Fan Festival Luxor 2012 hosted By Breakfast Show - YouTube: - Sent using Google Toolbar
التصنيفات: Egyptology
A Mummy Switcheroo?
A mummy that was thought to be one of the ancient god Min's priests is actually the remains of another man.
التصنيفات: Egyptology
In Egypt turmoil, thieves hunt pharaonic treasures
Ahram Online
Google / Associated Press
Illegal digs near ancient temples and in isolated desert sites have swelled a staggering 100-fold over the past 16 months since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak's 29-year regime and security fell apart in many areas as police simply stopped doing their jobs. The pillaging comes on top of a wave of break-ins last year at archaeological storehouses - and even at Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum, the country's biggest repository of pharaonic artifacts.
Horrified archaeologists and antiquities authorities are scrambling to prevent smuggling, keeping a watch on European and American auction houses in case stolen artifacts show up there.
"Criminals became so bold they are digging in landmark areas." including near the Great Pyramids in Giza, other nearby pyramids and the grand temples of the southern city of Luxor, said Maj.-Gen. Abdel-Rahim Hassan, commander of the Tourism and Antiquities Police Department.
"It is no longer a crime motivated by poverty, it's naked greed and it involves educated people," he said.
In a country with more than 5,000 years of civilization buried under its sands, illegal digs have long been a problem. With only slight exaggeration, Egyptians like to joke you can dig anywhere and turn up something ancient, even if its just pottery shards or a statuette.
But in the security void, the treasure hunting has mushroomed, with 5,697 cases of illegal digs since the start of the anti-Mubarak uprising in early 2011 - 100 times more than the previous year, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press from the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police.Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Google / Associated Press
Illegal digs near ancient temples and in isolated desert sites have swelled a staggering 100-fold over the past 16 months since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak's 29-year regime and security fell apart in many areas as police simply stopped doing their jobs. The pillaging comes on top of a wave of break-ins last year at archaeological storehouses - and even at Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum, the country's biggest repository of pharaonic artifacts.
Horrified archaeologists and antiquities authorities are scrambling to prevent smuggling, keeping a watch on European and American auction houses in case stolen artifacts show up there.
"Criminals became so bold they are digging in landmark areas." including near the Great Pyramids in Giza, other nearby pyramids and the grand temples of the southern city of Luxor, said Maj.-Gen. Abdel-Rahim Hassan, commander of the Tourism and Antiquities Police Department.
"It is no longer a crime motivated by poverty, it's naked greed and it involves educated people," he said.
In a country with more than 5,000 years of civilization buried under its sands, illegal digs have long been a problem. With only slight exaggeration, Egyptians like to joke you can dig anywhere and turn up something ancient, even if its just pottery shards or a statuette.
But in the security void, the treasure hunting has mushroomed, with 5,697 cases of illegal digs since the start of the anti-Mubarak uprising in early 2011 - 100 times more than the previous year, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press from the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police.Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Police arrest illegal excavators in Luxor, Aswan
Egypt Independent
Tourism and antiquities police in Upper Egypt have seized 17 artifacts while on a mission targeting illegal excavators in Luxor and Aswan.
A security source said police had received a tip that illegal excavators were searching for ancient relics in Luxor and Aswan.
Two such attempts were foiled in Esna, south of Luxor and a third attempt was foiled in Aswan.
The same source said the relics belonged to the Roman era.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Tourism and antiquities police in Upper Egypt have seized 17 artifacts while on a mission targeting illegal excavators in Luxor and Aswan.
A security source said police had received a tip that illegal excavators were searching for ancient relics in Luxor and Aswan.
Two such attempts were foiled in Esna, south of Luxor and a third attempt was foiled in Aswan.
The same source said the relics belonged to the Roman era.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
University of Basel King's Valley Project - Perliminary Report 2012
University of Basel (Susanne Bickel, Elina Paulin-Grothe)
A very useful report on the work being carried out by the University of Basel in the Valley of the Kings (including KV64). With photos, including a lovely coloured fragment of 18th Dynasty glass from KV64, the tomb whose discovery was announced in January..
Preliminary Report on the Work Carried out During the Season 2012
In the undecorated tombs KV 26, KV 29, KV 30, KV 31, KV 32, KV 33, KV 37, KV 40, KV 59, KV 61, and KV 64 in the Valley of the Kings
This year’s season of the University of Basel in the Valley of the Kings started on January 07th, 2012 and lasted until April 15th, 2012. . . . .
KV 64
The principal event this season was the discovery of a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
During the season of 2011, three edges of an unknown man-made feature were revealed at 1.80m north of KV 40, on the 25th of January, the first day of the Egyptian revolution. Due to the situation, work was stopped and the feature was covered with an iron door (Fig. 1).
As this structure is so close to KV 40 and since it was impossible to know whether it was merely an unfinished shaft or a real tomb, we gave it the temporary number 40b. As soon as it became apparent during this year’s work that the structure was actually a tomb, the Egyptian authorities decided to give it the final designation KV 64. The discovery was officially announced on January 15th.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
A very useful report on the work being carried out by the University of Basel in the Valley of the Kings (including KV64). With photos, including a lovely coloured fragment of 18th Dynasty glass from KV64, the tomb whose discovery was announced in January..
Preliminary Report on the Work Carried out During the Season 2012
In the undecorated tombs KV 26, KV 29, KV 30, KV 31, KV 32, KV 33, KV 37, KV 40, KV 59, KV 61, and KV 64 in the Valley of the Kings
This year’s season of the University of Basel in the Valley of the Kings started on January 07th, 2012 and lasted until April 15th, 2012. . . . .
KV 64
The principal event this season was the discovery of a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
During the season of 2011, three edges of an unknown man-made feature were revealed at 1.80m north of KV 40, on the 25th of January, the first day of the Egyptian revolution. Due to the situation, work was stopped and the feature was covered with an iron door (Fig. 1).
As this structure is so close to KV 40 and since it was impossible to know whether it was merely an unfinished shaft or a real tomb, we gave it the temporary number 40b. As soon as it became apparent during this year’s work that the structure was actually a tomb, the Egyptian authorities decided to give it the final designation KV 64. The discovery was officially announced on January 15th.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Much needed makeover for three goddesses
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)
The temples of the Karnak complex stand majestically on the east bank of the Nile at Luxor, their awe-inspiring architecture flaunting the great and noble civilisation of ancient Egypt. We know from historical records that Karnak's vast medley of temples, chapels, columns, pylons, obelisks and above all the sacred lake have fascinated visitors for at least 2,000 years.
To the south of the Amun-Re temple complex, beneath the tenth pylon, stands the ruined temple of the mother goddess Mut. Since its construction by Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1388-1360 BC) the temple became a centre of interest for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom up until the Ptolemies (310-30 BC), who built several temples associated with the original Mut temple and its crescent-shaped lake.
The Mut precinct preserved its importance even after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, but its decline began not long afterwards. Regrettably the temple has been devastated over time; it has lost some of its features completely, and most of its blocks were usurped in antiquity and reused to construct other structures at Karnak. Except for some walls, foundations and no less than 600 black granite statuettes of the lioness goddess Sekhmet found scattered at the courtyard. Some Theban residents even built residential houses within the precincts of the Mut temples.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
The temples of the Karnak complex stand majestically on the east bank of the Nile at Luxor, their awe-inspiring architecture flaunting the great and noble civilisation of ancient Egypt. We know from historical records that Karnak's vast medley of temples, chapels, columns, pylons, obelisks and above all the sacred lake have fascinated visitors for at least 2,000 years.
To the south of the Amun-Re temple complex, beneath the tenth pylon, stands the ruined temple of the mother goddess Mut. Since its construction by Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1388-1360 BC) the temple became a centre of interest for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom up until the Ptolemies (310-30 BC), who built several temples associated with the original Mut temple and its crescent-shaped lake.
The Mut precinct preserved its importance even after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, but its decline began not long afterwards. Regrettably the temple has been devastated over time; it has lost some of its features completely, and most of its blocks were usurped in antiquity and reused to construct other structures at Karnak. Except for some walls, foundations and no less than 600 black granite statuettes of the lioness goddess Sekhmet found scattered at the courtyard. Some Theban residents even built residential houses within the precincts of the Mut temples.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
WWII archaeology in the Western Desert
The Telegraph, UK (Richard Alleyne)
With two photographs.
A friend who is an expert on aviation history says that this plane has actually been known for some time, and that removable odds and ends have been taken from it as souvenirs. The eternal story of the Western Desert - pristine archaeology being denuded by tourists and collectors.
WWII fighter plane hailed the 'aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb' found preserved in the Sahara.A Second World War aeroplane that crash landed in the Sahara Desert before the British pilot walked to his death has been found almost perfectly preserved 70 years later.
The single-seater fighter plane was discovered by chance by Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka exploring a remote region of the Western Desert in Egypt.
The Kittyhawk P-40 has remained unseen and untouched since it came down on the sand in June 1942 and has been hailed the "aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb".
It is thought the pilot survived the crash and initially used his parachute for shelter before making a desperate and futile attempt to reach civilisation by walking out of the desert.
The RAF airman, believed to have been Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping, 24, was never seen again.
The single-seater fighter plane was discovered by chance by Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka exploring a remote region of the Western Desert in Egypt, about 200 miles from the nearest town.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
With two photographs.
A friend who is an expert on aviation history says that this plane has actually been known for some time, and that removable odds and ends have been taken from it as souvenirs. The eternal story of the Western Desert - pristine archaeology being denuded by tourists and collectors.
WWII fighter plane hailed the 'aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb' found preserved in the Sahara.A Second World War aeroplane that crash landed in the Sahara Desert before the British pilot walked to his death has been found almost perfectly preserved 70 years later.
The single-seater fighter plane was discovered by chance by Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka exploring a remote region of the Western Desert in Egypt.
The Kittyhawk P-40 has remained unseen and untouched since it came down on the sand in June 1942 and has been hailed the "aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb".
It is thought the pilot survived the crash and initially used his parachute for shelter before making a desperate and futile attempt to reach civilisation by walking out of the desert.
The RAF airman, believed to have been Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping, 24, was never seen again.
The single-seater fighter plane was discovered by chance by Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka exploring a remote region of the Western Desert in Egypt, about 200 miles from the nearest town.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Ancient Egyptians Tracked Eclipsing Binary Star Algol
Discovery News (Jennifer Ouellette)
Turn your telescope to the constellation of Perseus and you might note an unusual star called Algol, dubbed the "Demon Star" or the "Raging One." You wouldn't notice anything much different at first, unless you happened to be looking during a window of a few hours -- every 2.867 days -- when Algol's brightness visibly dims.
This unusual feature was first noticed back in 1667 by an astronomer named Geminiano Montanari, and later confirmed -- with a proposed possible mechanism -- in 1783 by John Goodricke, who precisely measured the period of variability: it dims every 2.867 days.
But a new paper by researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, claims that the ancient Egyptians may have recorded Algol's periodic variability 3000 years ago, based on their statistical analysis of a bit of papyrus known as the Cairo Calendar.
This isn't the first time people have hypothesized that Algol's variable nature was known prior to its discovery in the 17th century. Certainly it was a familiar object, prominent in mythology and lore. In the second century, Ptolemy referred to Algol as the "Gorgon of Perseus," and associated it with death by decapitation. (In Greek mythology, the hero Perseus slays the snake-headed Gorgon, Medusa, by chopping off her head.)
Science News (Nadia Drake)
The blinking of a distant star may be chronicled in an ancient Egyptian calendar created more than 3,000 years ago to distinguish lucky days from unlucky ones.
Known today as the Demon Star, the three-star system Algol sparkles in the constellation Perseus, near the eye of Medusa’s severed head. Observers on Earth can see Algol twinkling when the two closest members of the system eclipse one another: Every 2.867 days, as the dimmer star crosses between Earth and the brighter star, the Demon Star’s light appears snuffed.
A repeating pattern of similar duration appears in the Cairo Calendar, a roll of papyrus dating to 1271 B.C. that characterizes each day as all good, all bad or a mix. The occurrence of all-good days matches Algol’s brightness fluctuations, researchers from the University of Helsinki report in a paper posted April 30 on arXiv.org.
“They seem to have established rather clearly that there is a periodicity,” astrophysicist Peter Eggleton of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, says of the team’s analysis of the calendar. “What they haven’t established to my mind is that it is most likely due to a variable star.”
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Turn your telescope to the constellation of Perseus and you might note an unusual star called Algol, dubbed the "Demon Star" or the "Raging One." You wouldn't notice anything much different at first, unless you happened to be looking during a window of a few hours -- every 2.867 days -- when Algol's brightness visibly dims.
This unusual feature was first noticed back in 1667 by an astronomer named Geminiano Montanari, and later confirmed -- with a proposed possible mechanism -- in 1783 by John Goodricke, who precisely measured the period of variability: it dims every 2.867 days.
But a new paper by researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, claims that the ancient Egyptians may have recorded Algol's periodic variability 3000 years ago, based on their statistical analysis of a bit of papyrus known as the Cairo Calendar.
This isn't the first time people have hypothesized that Algol's variable nature was known prior to its discovery in the 17th century. Certainly it was a familiar object, prominent in mythology and lore. In the second century, Ptolemy referred to Algol as the "Gorgon of Perseus," and associated it with death by decapitation. (In Greek mythology, the hero Perseus slays the snake-headed Gorgon, Medusa, by chopping off her head.)
Science News (Nadia Drake)
The blinking of a distant star may be chronicled in an ancient Egyptian calendar created more than 3,000 years ago to distinguish lucky days from unlucky ones.
Known today as the Demon Star, the three-star system Algol sparkles in the constellation Perseus, near the eye of Medusa’s severed head. Observers on Earth can see Algol twinkling when the two closest members of the system eclipse one another: Every 2.867 days, as the dimmer star crosses between Earth and the brighter star, the Demon Star’s light appears snuffed.
A repeating pattern of similar duration appears in the Cairo Calendar, a roll of papyrus dating to 1271 B.C. that characterizes each day as all good, all bad or a mix. The occurrence of all-good days matches Algol’s brightness fluctuations, researchers from the University of Helsinki report in a paper posted April 30 on arXiv.org.
“They seem to have established rather clearly that there is a periodicity,” astrophysicist Peter Eggleton of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, says of the team’s analysis of the calendar. “What they haven’t established to my mind is that it is most likely due to a variable star.”
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
The Palaeolithic rock art in Wadi Abu Subeira, Egypt: Landscape, archaeology, threats and conservation
Per Storemyr Archaeology and Conservation
Since the publication of the threats to the Palaeolithic rock art in Wadi Abu Subeira three weeks ago, there has been much response through e-mail and social media, and the case has been covered by many online magazines and blogs. People in Egypt and elsewhere are concerned, and I wish to thank you all for your interest and for bringing the case along to friends and colleagues, as well as to administrators and politicians. There now seems to be a need for an “unbiased”, comprehensive overview of what is actually known about the landscape, the archaeology, the rock art, the threats, current conservation efforts and options for the future. The overview below is based on published literature, and information that otherwise belongs to the public sphere. It is written in close cooperation with Adel Kelany, and we have benefited from input by Dirk Huyge.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Since the publication of the threats to the Palaeolithic rock art in Wadi Abu Subeira three weeks ago, there has been much response through e-mail and social media, and the case has been covered by many online magazines and blogs. People in Egypt and elsewhere are concerned, and I wish to thank you all for your interest and for bringing the case along to friends and colleagues, as well as to administrators and politicians. There now seems to be a need for an “unbiased”, comprehensive overview of what is actually known about the landscape, the archaeology, the rock art, the threats, current conservation efforts and options for the future. The overview below is based on published literature, and information that otherwise belongs to the public sphere. It is written in close cooperation with Adel Kelany, and we have benefited from input by Dirk Huyge.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Potential impacts of Toshka project on ancient sites
With thanks to Per Storemyr for this link.
Green Prophet (Bushra Azhar)
The Toshka Project is supposed to be completed in 2020, and according to Ministry of water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt, the valley will attract investment in terms of industrial, agricultural and tourism investment. It is also intended to house than three million residents and to increase Egypt’s arable land area by 10%. However, on-ground reality paints a completely different and dismal picture.
There is no documented environmental impact assessment done on the sight before the project was launched. An assessment of the possible positive or negative impact that a proposed project may have on the social and environmental landscape helps determine the feasibility of the project. According to the report in the Egypt Independent, “A look at some technical requirements show that not everything was taken into full consideration before the first ploughs started digging, and to this day, the Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry — responsible for the project — does not make public the different studies related to Toshka it may have conducted over the years”.
Cynicism over the supposed wisdom of reclaiming land in an area with extremely hostile and unpredictable weather has also been expressed. Temperatures ranging from 0°C to 50°C are routinely experienced in the area and this makes a number of construction activities a virtual impossibility. According to Conservationist Mindy Bahaa Eddin claims that Toshka would have caused great damage to the many ancient sites found in Kharga Oasis.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Green Prophet (Bushra Azhar)
The Toshka Project is supposed to be completed in 2020, and according to Ministry of water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt, the valley will attract investment in terms of industrial, agricultural and tourism investment. It is also intended to house than three million residents and to increase Egypt’s arable land area by 10%. However, on-ground reality paints a completely different and dismal picture.
There is no documented environmental impact assessment done on the sight before the project was launched. An assessment of the possible positive or negative impact that a proposed project may have on the social and environmental landscape helps determine the feasibility of the project. According to the report in the Egypt Independent, “A look at some technical requirements show that not everything was taken into full consideration before the first ploughs started digging, and to this day, the Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry — responsible for the project — does not make public the different studies related to Toshka it may have conducted over the years”.
Cynicism over the supposed wisdom of reclaiming land in an area with extremely hostile and unpredictable weather has also been expressed. Temperatures ranging from 0°C to 50°C are routinely experienced in the area and this makes a number of construction activities a virtual impossibility. According to Conservationist Mindy Bahaa Eddin claims that Toshka would have caused great damage to the many ancient sites found in Kharga Oasis.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Resultados excavaciones investigadores UJA en Egipto superan las expectativas
ideal.es
With thanks to Amigos de la Egiptologia for this link.
Alejandro Jiménez, director del equipo multidisciplinar de dieciocho investigadores de las universidades de Jaén, Granada y Londres, que ha estado trabajando desde el 2008 en la necrópolis de Qubbet el-Hawa (Egipto), ha asegurado hoy que los resultados obtenidos han superado todas las expectativas iniciales.
El director de este equipo de investigadores y profesor de Historia Antigua de la UJA ha presentado en Jaén los hallazgos de la última campaña de excavación, finalizada en marzo y que han descubierto la tumba más grande y monumental de esta necrópolis con más de cuatro mil años de antigüedad.
Según ha explicado a Efe el arqueólogo, esta última campaña dará para seis tesis doctorales de muy distintos campos, no solo de la arqueología o la geología, de hecho una de las características de este grupo de investigadores es el uso de nuevas tecnologías como el escaneo de piezas en 3D o una mejor lectura de jeroglíficos a través del RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging).
Asimismo, ha señalado que los egipcios están muy satisfechos con su grupo, con el compromiso, la metodología y las nuevas tecnologías utilizadas que marcan una diferencia con el "típico proyecto tradicional" de arqueólogos que llevan años excavando en la zona.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
With thanks to Amigos de la Egiptologia for this link.
Alejandro Jiménez, director del equipo multidisciplinar de dieciocho investigadores de las universidades de Jaén, Granada y Londres, que ha estado trabajando desde el 2008 en la necrópolis de Qubbet el-Hawa (Egipto), ha asegurado hoy que los resultados obtenidos han superado todas las expectativas iniciales.
El director de este equipo de investigadores y profesor de Historia Antigua de la UJA ha presentado en Jaén los hallazgos de la última campaña de excavación, finalizada en marzo y que han descubierto la tumba más grande y monumental de esta necrópolis con más de cuatro mil años de antigüedad.
Según ha explicado a Efe el arqueólogo, esta última campaña dará para seis tesis doctorales de muy distintos campos, no solo de la arqueología o la geología, de hecho una de las características de este grupo de investigadores es el uso de nuevas tecnologías como el escaneo de piezas en 3D o una mejor lectura de jeroglíficos a través del RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging).
Asimismo, ha señalado que los egipcios están muy satisfechos con su grupo, con el compromiso, la metodología y las nuevas tecnologías utilizadas que marcan una diferencia con el "típico proyecto tradicional" de arqueólogos que llevan años excavando en la zona.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Ministry of Antiquities Receives 80 Monuments From Belgium
Ahram Online (Nevine Al-Aref)
With photos.
The story started in April 2010 when Customs at Brussels Airport caught an Egyptian woman trying to smuggle 80 genuine objects concealed inside two large replica Egyptian statues.
The objects were confiscated by the Belgian police while Brussels National Museum verified their authenticity. According to routine, the museum referred the case to a Brussels court and Egypt succeeded in obtaining a court order that the artefasts be retrieved.
AllAfrica.com
Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said that a committee has been formed to receive the artifacts that were smuggled by an Egyptian woman inside two wooden replicas of ancient statues to Brussels in 2010.
He added that a series of legal procedures and measures as well as negotiations with the Belgian side were carried out since then until the monuments have been handed over to the Egyptian embassy in Brussels.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
With photos.
The story started in April 2010 when Customs at Brussels Airport caught an Egyptian woman trying to smuggle 80 genuine objects concealed inside two large replica Egyptian statues.
The objects were confiscated by the Belgian police while Brussels National Museum verified their authenticity. According to routine, the museum referred the case to a Brussels court and Egypt succeeded in obtaining a court order that the artefasts be retrieved.
AllAfrica.com
Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said that a committee has been formed to receive the artifacts that were smuggled by an Egyptian woman inside two wooden replicas of ancient statues to Brussels in 2010.
He added that a series of legal procedures and measures as well as negotiations with the Belgian side were carried out since then until the monuments have been handed over to the Egyptian embassy in Brussels.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
A walk through the Institut d'Egypte wreckage
Egypt Independent (Ola El-Saket)
With photos.
Since the Institut d'Egypte burned down in December during clashes resulting from a sit-in by the cabinet being violently dispersed by police, people have been concerned about the national treasures of rare books damaged by the fire.
Few knew of the books hosted in the historic building, except for the famous “Description de l'Égypte” (Description of Egypt). Thankfully, several copies of the 20-volume book written by a team of French scientists who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte during his invasion of Egypt (1798 – 1801) lie safely in the country’s old libraries. Several more important, yet less known, books, however, have been tragically damaged. And at Dar al-Kotob (The National Library), where the books have been moved, conservators continue to work diligently.
“More than 10,000 books have been completely burnt,” says Dar al-Kotob Director Zain Abdul Hady. About 20,000 books were damaged by the fire and water, while another 20,000 arrived in good shape, he adds.
“This is one of the largest book restoration initiatives that have taken place in modern times,” says Abdel Hady, adding that it's even more difficult than the major flood of the Arno River in 1966 that damaged nearly one-third of the holdings at the National Central Library of Florence, which consisted of about 25,000 books including, most notably, its periodicals and Palatine and Magliabechi collections.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
With photos.
Since the Institut d'Egypte burned down in December during clashes resulting from a sit-in by the cabinet being violently dispersed by police, people have been concerned about the national treasures of rare books damaged by the fire.
Few knew of the books hosted in the historic building, except for the famous “Description de l'Égypte” (Description of Egypt). Thankfully, several copies of the 20-volume book written by a team of French scientists who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte during his invasion of Egypt (1798 – 1801) lie safely in the country’s old libraries. Several more important, yet less known, books, however, have been tragically damaged. And at Dar al-Kotob (The National Library), where the books have been moved, conservators continue to work diligently.
“More than 10,000 books have been completely burnt,” says Dar al-Kotob Director Zain Abdul Hady. About 20,000 books were damaged by the fire and water, while another 20,000 arrived in good shape, he adds.
“This is one of the largest book restoration initiatives that have taken place in modern times,” says Abdel Hady, adding that it's even more difficult than the major flood of the Arno River in 1966 that damaged nearly one-third of the holdings at the National Central Library of Florence, which consisted of about 25,000 books including, most notably, its periodicals and Palatine and Magliabechi collections.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Virtual Giza
The Giza 3D website is at: http://giza3d.3ds.com/#discover
Fast Co Design (Cliff Kuang)
With photos.
Last November, three American students studying in Egypt were arrested as they watched the protests leading up to parliamentary elections from a rooftop in Tahrir Square. That’s sure to freak out parents whose budding Egyptologists are lobbying for Cairo-based study abroad programs.
Rest easy, 'rents. With new 3-D software, developed by the French firm Dassault Systèmes, Harvard University, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, anyone with a computer can roam the famous Giza plateau and wander through its pyramids for an archeologist’s close-up look at the mummies, tombs, shafts, and artifacts as they look now--and might have looked when pharaohs were in residence--without worrying about ending up in a damp cell in Cairo.
Giza 3D was officially unveiled at the Boston museum earlier this week.
Enhanced Online News
Harvard Egyptology students are being offered innovative courses using an immersive 3D real-time virtual reconstruction of the Giza plateau, based on actual archeological data gathered by Harvard and MFA expeditions to Egypt in the first part of the 20th century.
Peter Der Manuelian, the Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology at Harvard University, uses the immersive 3D experience to virtually transport his students to the Giza plateau itself and enhance the way ancient Egyptian history and archaeology are taught.
“The virtual environment provides a new means for learning about Egyptian civilization. The project has allowed my students and colleagues to visualize the Giza data and update and integrate them in a way that was not possible in the past,” stated Der Manuelian.
“Students transition from an environment where the instructor essentially drives the learning process to one where the students are immersed in the environment and drive the dialogue and discussion themselves,” added John Shaw, chair of Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “The technology associated with the project helps researchers portray their understanding of the past and show interpretations of the applicable science to students.”
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Fast Co Design (Cliff Kuang)
With photos.
Last November, three American students studying in Egypt were arrested as they watched the protests leading up to parliamentary elections from a rooftop in Tahrir Square. That’s sure to freak out parents whose budding Egyptologists are lobbying for Cairo-based study abroad programs.
Rest easy, 'rents. With new 3-D software, developed by the French firm Dassault Systèmes, Harvard University, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, anyone with a computer can roam the famous Giza plateau and wander through its pyramids for an archeologist’s close-up look at the mummies, tombs, shafts, and artifacts as they look now--and might have looked when pharaohs were in residence--without worrying about ending up in a damp cell in Cairo.
Giza 3D was officially unveiled at the Boston museum earlier this week.
Enhanced Online News
Harvard Egyptology students are being offered innovative courses using an immersive 3D real-time virtual reconstruction of the Giza plateau, based on actual archeological data gathered by Harvard and MFA expeditions to Egypt in the first part of the 20th century.
Peter Der Manuelian, the Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology at Harvard University, uses the immersive 3D experience to virtually transport his students to the Giza plateau itself and enhance the way ancient Egyptian history and archaeology are taught.
“The virtual environment provides a new means for learning about Egyptian civilization. The project has allowed my students and colleagues to visualize the Giza data and update and integrate them in a way that was not possible in the past,” stated Der Manuelian.
“Students transition from an environment where the instructor essentially drives the learning process to one where the students are immersed in the environment and drive the dialogue and discussion themselves,” added John Shaw, chair of Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “The technology associated with the project helps researchers portray their understanding of the past and show interpretations of the applicable science to students.”
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Remembering Carter: The man who found King Tut's tomb
Ahram Online (Nevine el-Aref)
With three B&W photos.
When Howard Carter left his home in Kensington in London at the tender age of 17, abandoning a career in his family business to join the Egypt Exploration Fund as an illustrator, he didn’t know that he would fall under the spell of Egypt and its ancient treasures.
At Beni Hassan archaeological site, Carter began his career as a tracer, copying scenes from the walls of the tombs of royal princesses for further study. He worked with pioneer Egyptologists at the time, and succeeded in recording the wall reliefs in Queen Hatshepsut’s temple at El-Deir El-Bahari on Luxor’s west bank.
Carter learned the nascent science of Egyptology from William Flinders Petrie, and, during his training courses at Tel Al-Amarna, he unearthed several important artefacts.
He then continued his training under Gaston Maspero, and in 1894 at the age of 25 he became the first inspector-general of monuments for Upper Egypt. In 1905, he was forced to resign from the post following an incident between Egyptian guards at Saqqara and a handful of drunken French tourists.
Seeking private funding for excavation work, Carter became supervisor of excavations for Lord Carnarvon V, who owned one of the most valuable collections of Egyptian artefacts in private hands at the time. Carter succeeded in discovering six tombs in the Valley of the Kings on Luxor's west bank, but was obsessed with finding the tomb of a relatively unknown Pharaoh named Tutankhamen.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
With three B&W photos.
When Howard Carter left his home in Kensington in London at the tender age of 17, abandoning a career in his family business to join the Egypt Exploration Fund as an illustrator, he didn’t know that he would fall under the spell of Egypt and its ancient treasures.
At Beni Hassan archaeological site, Carter began his career as a tracer, copying scenes from the walls of the tombs of royal princesses for further study. He worked with pioneer Egyptologists at the time, and succeeded in recording the wall reliefs in Queen Hatshepsut’s temple at El-Deir El-Bahari on Luxor’s west bank.
Carter learned the nascent science of Egyptology from William Flinders Petrie, and, during his training courses at Tel Al-Amarna, he unearthed several important artefacts.
He then continued his training under Gaston Maspero, and in 1894 at the age of 25 he became the first inspector-general of monuments for Upper Egypt. In 1905, he was forced to resign from the post following an incident between Egyptian guards at Saqqara and a handful of drunken French tourists.
Seeking private funding for excavation work, Carter became supervisor of excavations for Lord Carnarvon V, who owned one of the most valuable collections of Egyptian artefacts in private hands at the time. Carter succeeded in discovering six tombs in the Valley of the Kings on Luxor's west bank, but was obsessed with finding the tomb of a relatively unknown Pharaoh named Tutankhamen.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Object biography #5: A double-sided painted mummy portrait
Egypt at the Manchester Museum (Campbell Price)
With photos.
This delicate wooden panel (41 x 32.5 cm) is one of 13 painted mummy portraits in the Manchester Museum. Such panel portraits were produced during the Roman Period (c. 55-220 AD) and are amongst the most evocative images to have come from Egypt. Most were painted using an encaustic method, in which pigment is mixed with hot wax and applied directly onto the surface of thin wooden panels. The panels were attached over the head of the mummy, held in place with bandages around each edge. Whether they were painted during life, and if they were displayed prior to being attached to the mummy, has caused much debate.
The practice of creating portraits developed out of the Pharaonic tradition of covering the head of the mummy with an idealised image of the deceased.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
With photos.
This delicate wooden panel (41 x 32.5 cm) is one of 13 painted mummy portraits in the Manchester Museum. Such panel portraits were produced during the Roman Period (c. 55-220 AD) and are amongst the most evocative images to have come from Egypt. Most were painted using an encaustic method, in which pigment is mixed with hot wax and applied directly onto the surface of thin wooden panels. The panels were attached over the head of the mummy, held in place with bandages around each edge. Whether they were painted during life, and if they were displayed prior to being attached to the mummy, has caused much debate.
The practice of creating portraits developed out of the Pharaonic tradition of covering the head of the mummy with an idealised image of the deceased.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Exchange of Prisoners With Metropolitan Museum of Art
Penn Museum (Pam Kosty)
When Penn Museum agreed to lend objects from its Egyptian collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for their new exhibition, The Dawn of Egyptian Art (April 10 through August 5, 2012), Penn Museum’s Egyptian section curator made one special request—for a temporary “exchange of prisoners.”
Metropolitan Museum’s curator of the exhibition and University of Pennsylvania alumna Diana Craig Patch requested 10 objects from the Penn Museum, one of which is a spectacular stone door socket carved in the form of a captive, regularly on view in the Penn Museum’s Upper Egyptian Gallery. With his body flattened to the ground and his hands bound behind, the figure on the door socket bears the unhappy likeness of a prisoner of Egypt under Pharaoh’s domination. Once, part of a temple at the ancient cult site of Hierakonpolis, a heavy wooden door turned on a pivot that would have fit into the depression on the captive’s back. The artifact dates to the first or second Egyptian dynasties—between 3000 and 2675 BCE.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
When Penn Museum agreed to lend objects from its Egyptian collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for their new exhibition, The Dawn of Egyptian Art (April 10 through August 5, 2012), Penn Museum’s Egyptian section curator made one special request—for a temporary “exchange of prisoners.”
Metropolitan Museum’s curator of the exhibition and University of Pennsylvania alumna Diana Craig Patch requested 10 objects from the Penn Museum, one of which is a spectacular stone door socket carved in the form of a captive, regularly on view in the Penn Museum’s Upper Egyptian Gallery. With his body flattened to the ground and his hands bound behind, the figure on the door socket bears the unhappy likeness of a prisoner of Egypt under Pharaoh’s domination. Once, part of a temple at the ancient cult site of Hierakonpolis, a heavy wooden door turned on a pivot that would have fit into the depression on the captive’s back. The artifact dates to the first or second Egyptian dynasties—between 3000 and 2675 BCE.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Curator’s Diary 7/5/12: CT-scanning the mummies (I)
Egypt at the Manchester Museum (Campbell Price)
Does anyone know if there's a project collating the various mummy scan results world-wide?
Last week I followed in a proud Manchester Museum tradition when I accompanied four of our mummies to the Manchester University Children’s Hospital to be CT-scanned. The use of Computed Tomography (CT) has become an established method of non-invasive investigation of Egyptian human remains. The current work is part of a wider programme of investigation, using state-of-the-art methods, undertaken on the Museum’s Egyptian mummies by Prof. Rosalie David, former Egyptology curator at the Museum and authority on mummy studies, and Prof. Judith Adams, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Manchester’s School of Medicine. It was thanks to Judith’s previous work with Rosalie – and continuing interest in mummies – that we were able to book our ‘patients’ in when the scanner was not otherwise in use.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
Does anyone know if there's a project collating the various mummy scan results world-wide?
Last week I followed in a proud Manchester Museum tradition when I accompanied four of our mummies to the Manchester University Children’s Hospital to be CT-scanned. The use of Computed Tomography (CT) has become an established method of non-invasive investigation of Egyptian human remains. The current work is part of a wider programme of investigation, using state-of-the-art methods, undertaken on the Museum’s Egyptian mummies by Prof. Rosalie David, former Egyptology curator at the Museum and authority on mummy studies, and Prof. Judith Adams, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Manchester’s School of Medicine. It was thanks to Judith’s previous work with Rosalie – and continuing interest in mummies – that we were able to book our ‘patients’ in when the scanner was not otherwise in use.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Objects in Met’s Egyptian wing temporarily removed
The Art Newspaper (Laura Gilbert)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has unexpectedly closed around a quarter of its Egyptian wing, and removed some of the most fragile objects from galleries that remain open as a precaution against intense vibrations caused by drilling beneath the wing, The Art Newspaper understands. No public announcement of the drilling, closures or object removals was made in advance.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has unexpectedly closed around a quarter of its Egyptian wing, and removed some of the most fragile objects from galleries that remain open as a precaution against intense vibrations caused by drilling beneath the wing, The Art Newspaper understands. No public announcement of the drilling, closures or object removals was made in advance.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
Cairo's other pyramids emerge
The National (Rebecca Bundhun)
If you follow the Nile south of the smog of Cairo, and drive on for about 40km past the occasional donkey and herd of goats before heading west out into the desert, two large pyramids eventually come into view.
These are a long way from the famous Pyramids of Giza, which are right on the edge of Cairo, have a KFC and Pizza Hut on their doorstep, and attract millions of tourists each year.
Still, some 100,000 visitors make the journey annually to the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid, more than an hour from the city. Most only spend a couple of hours at the site before returning to Cairo.
But now all that could change with a multimillion-dollar eco-lodge and sustainable tourism project to try to get tourists to spend more time and money in the rural villages in Dahshur. This will help to reduce poverty in the communities through training the locals to work in the tourism sector. The plan is supported by the United Nations and Egypt's government.
Huffington Post (Andrew Burmon)
With photos and slideshow
The only English words heard in Said Gomaa's coffee shop are expletives shouted by the action stars blasting their way through a satellite network's afternoon feature. The TV hangs on a braided hemp wall that lets in the fertile smell of the farm next door.
"I would like tourists to come in greater numbers, but they have not come since the revolution," says Gomaa, 26, in Arabic.
He seems anxious. Unlike his nearby clothing stores or his share in a local sand and gravel mine, Gomaa's cafe in downtown Dahshur, a Cairo exurb, represents something of a gamble. He is betting that tourists will be willing to venture off the well-beaten path between Cairo and Giza, that they want more from their visits to the pyramids than snapshots and souvenirs.
If he's right, Gomaa will become a notable person, a young leader who helped Egypt usher in a new age of sustainable tourism, but his vision remains radical.
To appreciate just how radical, drive a little farther. Only a mile or so after passing the cafe and the concrete heart of town, the ribbon of pavement weaves past an empty parking lot, an oil refinery, the short dunes marking the edge of the Sahara and the two oldest pyramids in Egypt. The road is as empty as the desert.
Dahshur has a 4,600-year-old miscalculation to thank for its ancient endowment.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
If you follow the Nile south of the smog of Cairo, and drive on for about 40km past the occasional donkey and herd of goats before heading west out into the desert, two large pyramids eventually come into view.
These are a long way from the famous Pyramids of Giza, which are right on the edge of Cairo, have a KFC and Pizza Hut on their doorstep, and attract millions of tourists each year.
Still, some 100,000 visitors make the journey annually to the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid, more than an hour from the city. Most only spend a couple of hours at the site before returning to Cairo.
But now all that could change with a multimillion-dollar eco-lodge and sustainable tourism project to try to get tourists to spend more time and money in the rural villages in Dahshur. This will help to reduce poverty in the communities through training the locals to work in the tourism sector. The plan is supported by the United Nations and Egypt's government.
Huffington Post (Andrew Burmon)
With photos and slideshow
The only English words heard in Said Gomaa's coffee shop are expletives shouted by the action stars blasting their way through a satellite network's afternoon feature. The TV hangs on a braided hemp wall that lets in the fertile smell of the farm next door.
"I would like tourists to come in greater numbers, but they have not come since the revolution," says Gomaa, 26, in Arabic.
He seems anxious. Unlike his nearby clothing stores or his share in a local sand and gravel mine, Gomaa's cafe in downtown Dahshur, a Cairo exurb, represents something of a gamble. He is betting that tourists will be willing to venture off the well-beaten path between Cairo and Giza, that they want more from their visits to the pyramids than snapshots and souvenirs.
If he's right, Gomaa will become a notable person, a young leader who helped Egypt usher in a new age of sustainable tourism, but his vision remains radical.
To appreciate just how radical, drive a little farther. Only a mile or so after passing the cafe and the concrete heart of town, the ribbon of pavement weaves past an empty parking lot, an oil refinery, the short dunes marking the edge of the Sahara and the two oldest pyramids in Egypt. The road is as empty as the desert.
Dahshur has a 4,600-year-old miscalculation to thank for its ancient endowment.
Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes
التصنيفات: Egyptology
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