See the above page for more.Supporters of Swansea's Egypt Centre have been given a pat on the back this week after it achieved an accreditation award.
The museum, which is based on the campus of Swansea University, is also enjoying a double celebration — it is also the centre's 10th birthday.
Curator Carolyn Graves-Brown, who lives in Llanelli, said: "We are very pleased with the celebrations this week.
"We are very grateful for all the people who have supported us.
"The Egypt Centre very much works as a team."
Click here!
Mrs Graves-Brown said they have around 80 volunteers.
She said: "Our volunteers deliver a lot of our services, which also helped us get the award."
The award which is set by the Museums Libraries and Archives Accreditation Scheme, determines the standards for UK museums.
"The fact we have achieved the award, and we are up to that standard is brilliant," said Mrs Graves-Brown.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Egypt Centre achieves accreditation
This Is Swansea
Construction machines assist British Museum in Sudan
easier.comTwo Iveco Eurocargo 4x4’s and two New Holland Construction machines, a backhoe loader and a crawler excavator, have played a crucial role in the success of an archaeology recovery project which has seen the British Museum working in conjunction with the Sudan Archaeological Research Society (SARS), Iveco and New Holland Construction.
The expedition, carried out by the Castiglioni brothers and Derek Welsby, Curator of the ancient Egypt and Sudan department of the British Museum, organised the transfer of over 50 works of cave art dating back to between 5,000 BC – AD 1500 as well as 390 blocks of an early Kushite (c. 8th-5th century BC) granite pyramid, along with its offering chapel and enclosure wall. . . .
The archaeology project took place in the region surrounding the Fourth Cataract of the Nile, prior to the damming of the river. The Fourth Cataract is currently being flooded to provide hydroelectricity for Sudan, with the British Museum/SARS team being one of nine international missions under the banner of the “Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project”, which have uncovered thousands of sites dating from the Middle Paleolithic era (150,000 years ago) to the very recent past.
Until recently, the cataract zone was considered a poor and inhospitable region, marginalised at all periods. It was considered a border zone viewed primarily as a place of refuge. The discovery of vast numbers of sites of all periods, some of them of high status such as a granite pyramid and massive fortresses, is now forcing a total reappraisal of the nature and role of the region in its Nile Valley context. As a final phase of the project an appeal was made by the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) for missions to save the rock art, rock gongs and any buildings that could be moved from inundation, for display in a proposed new museum to be dedicated to the ancient and modern cultures of the region.
Iveco and New Holland Construction became involved in the project with the British Museum in direct response to this appeal, and in recognition of the efforts of this mission 20 blocks were donated to the British Museum and it is hoped that early next year some of these can be put on permanent display, along with other material from the region of the Fourth Cataract, to form part of a collection dedicated to ancient Egypt and the Sudan.
See the above page for the full press release.
Egyptomania: Giacometti, The Egyptian: The Altes Museum organizes an exhibition showing the Swiss sculptor’s passion for ancient Egypt
All About Egypt (Ben Morales-Correa)
Very classy Egyptomania, courtesy of Ben's translation skills. There's a photograph on the above page.
See the above page for the full story.
Very classy Egyptomania, courtesy of Ben's translation skills. There's a photograph on the above page.
Now integrated into the sculpture halls of the Egyptian Museum’s permanent exhibition, works by Giacometti from the Sammlung der Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung in Zurich invite visitors to listen in to a dialogue between artists as they communicate with each other in a common language of forms which traverses several millennia. By being placed in this context, Giacometti’s work reveals how steadfastly rooted in the past it is, as well as allowing the art of the Ancient Egyptians to once again exude an extraordinary freshness and relevance.
Unlike other modern artists, Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) lived obsessed by Egyptian aesthetics. The Altes Museum in Berlin celebrates the Egiptomania of Alberto Giacometti through twelve sculptures and two sketches by the Swiss sculptor, which today share the same space with the bust of Nefertiti and other works from the museum’s extensive Egyptian collection.
See the above page for the full story.
Conservation of mummy from Philadelphia museum
Lost Egypt
With photograph.
With photograph.
This week we begin conservation on the mummy that will be on display in Lost Egypt, on loan to us by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The mummy is of a girl approximately 14-18 years old, who lived in Egypt 2,300 years ago.
John Shaw, COSI’s Traveling Exhibit Manager, Josh, and I visited the Academy last week while we were in Philadelphia for the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) conference. We saw the mummy on display – she has a beautiful cartonnage mask.
We will be posting regular updates in the next few weeks as the conservation progresses!
The Universal Museum
Looting Matters (David Gill)
See the above page for the full story.
The argument for displaying antiquities outside their country of origin is that these pieces are part of our shared, universal, cosmopolitan culture. Does it matter if archaic Athenian funerary sculptures are displayed in Manhattan? South Italian pottery in Melbourne? Roman imperial portraits in Malibu? Greek architectural sculptures in Munich? Egyptian funerary portraits from the Faiyum in Manchester?
Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities can be enjoyed, appreciated, and discussed, whether they are in Cairo, Athens, Istanbul, Rome, or indeed Paris, Berlin or Boston. Indeed they have the power to inspire new generations of students and scholars who have the enthusiasm to engage with their subject. How many students in Cambridge during the 1920s and 1930s were drawn into the study of the prehistoric Aegean by the Prehistoric displays in the Fitzwilliam Museum designed by Winifred Lamb? The pioneering careers of Robert Carr Bosanquet (Palaikastro), Alan Wace (Mycenae) and John Pendlebury (Crete) started with the study of this major university collection.
Then there are the national “universal” collections. From the hub of the Great Court of the British Museum it is possible to gain access to major masterpieces from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and mainland Greece. Hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to see the finds from Ur, the Rosetta stone, or the reliefs from that wonder of the ancient world, the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. The collections are accessible (and free)—so long as you have a visa to get to the United Kingdom.
How were these collections formed?
See the above page for the full story.
Exhibition: "Bedazzled" at the Walters Museum
Antiques and the Arts Online
The Walters Art Museum is in Baltimore, U.S. Its website is at http://www.thewalters.org/
From an ancient Roman snake bracelet to a ceremonial Chinese headdress to a Tiffany & Co. glittering necklace, "Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry" highlights more than 200 pieces from the Walters Art Museum through January 4.
The exhibition features some of the Walters' greatest masterpieces, as well as many hidden treasures on view for the first time. The allure of gold and gems and the desire to design objects of adornment have remained constant throughout history and across a spectrum of cultures. . . . .
"Bedazzled" displays works from the ancient world, such as two pendants in the form of rams' heads demonstrating the development in multicolored glass production by the Fifth Century BC. Egyptian treasures will be presented, including a bright blue faience amulet featuring the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet as well as an intricate necklace strung with beads and amulets of gold, faience, carnelian and glass.
The Walters Art Museum is in Baltimore, U.S. Its website is at http://www.thewalters.org/
New Book: Egypt at its Origins 2
Béatrix Midant-Reynes & Yann Tristant have sent out an email announcing the publication of the proceedings of “Egypt at its Origns 2” colloquium (Toulouse, September 2005). I posted about this at the beginning of October but they seem keen to mention it again so here's a reminder:Egypt at its Origins 2. Proceedings of the International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Toulouse, 5-8 sept. 2005.
Midant-Reynes, B. ; Tristant, Y. (eds.) ; Rowland, J. & Hendrickx, S. (coll.), Peeters Publishers, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta (OLA) 172. Leuven/Paris/Dudley, 2008
http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz_print.asp?nr=8352
Abstracts of colloquium “Egypt at its Origins 3” held in London on July-August 2008 are available at the following address: http://www.origins3.org.uk/index.html
Summary:
The proceedings of the Second International Conference about Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt (Toulouse, France, 2005) present the results of the latest research on the rise of the Pharaonic culture in Ancient Egypt. It contains 65 contributions by 80 authors from different countries. The articles in this volume have been organised in nine thematic sections: craft and craft specialisation; physical anthropology; geoarchaeology and environmental sciences; interactions between Upper and Lower Egypt; interactions between the desert and the Nile Valley; foreign relations; birth of writing and kingship; cult, ideology and social complexity; excavations and museums.
Les actes de la Deuxième Conférence Internationale sur l'Égypte pré- et protodynastique (Toulouse, France, 2005) présentent les résultats des recherches les plus récentes sur l'émergence de la culture pharaonique dans l'Égypte ancienne. Ils contiennent 65 contributions rédigées par 80 auteurs de différents pays. Les articles de ce volume sont organisés en neuf sections thématiques: artisanat et spécialisation technique; anthropologie physique; géo-archéologie et sciences environnementales; interactions entre la Haute et la Basse-Égypte; interactions entre le désert et la Vallée du Nil; relations internationales; naissance de l'écriture et royauté; culte, idéologie et complexité sociale; travaux de terrain et musées.
Digging in the Delta
Bib Arch Seminary blog
Anyway, the above blog post talks about the excavations at Mendes. Here's a sample:
See the above page for more.
This is an odd post on the above blog. It says that the article has been used with the permission of Diggings Online, but when you go to the Diggings Online website there is a subscription page but no details of the magazine, the current issue or back issues. I would assume that it is connected to the magazine Archaeological Diggings (for which current issue details are mentioned above) but the look and feel of the two sites are both completely different. There is an article mentioned on the Archaeological Diggings page dating back to 2006 entitled "Massacre at Mendes". Any ideas, anyone? It would be nice to credit the article to the right magazine and the right author, and to know how old the article is!
Anyway, the above blog post talks about the excavations at Mendes. Here's a sample:
Excavations in the central delta region of Egypt are turning up a series of exciting finds in a newly discovered Old Kingdom cemetery near Tel el-Rabee, ancient Mendes. This was the place mentioned in our December 1999 issue of Diggings that was the perfume trading centre of ancient Egypt. Mendes was the capital of Egypt during the 29th Dynasty (399-380 BC) but the earliest mastabas in the necropolis go back to the First and Second Dynasties.
As is usual when excavating a cemetery, the objects found depend upon the tomb: a pharaoh or a nobleman might be buried with hordes of ushabtis and complete sets of furniture and household goods, whereas a poor man might only have a couple of pots and a pair of sandals. Nonetheless, these simple everyday objects can provide a wealth of information on the daily life of their erstwhile owners.
An example of this is the decoration on the fine pottery vessels that are being discovered. Some pots bear the symbol of the fish god Hat Meheit, a major deity in this delta region where fishing was one of the important "industries" of the area.
More exciting is the discovery of a fine slate palette 31 cm long, which bears echoes of the more famous Narmer Palette now in the Cairo Museum.
See the above page for more.
Archaeological Diggings October/November 2008
Archaeological Diggings
The Australian archaeology magazine has a number of Egyptology articles this month.
The Australian archaeology magazine has a number of Egyptology articles this month.
In the October/November issue:
Editor's Comment: The Olympic Games
* The Nubian Pharaohs
* Tut Poised To Take The Southlands
* Wonderful Things: The Harry Burton Photographs
* Digging at Paphos
* Cleopatra: Death of a Queen
Also in this issue:
* The 2008 Dig at Mareshah
* Animal Mummies
* Bethsaida: The Lost Village of Peter, Philip and Andrew
* Heliopolis
* Memphis at Macquarie
* Layard's Finds and Political Problems
Daily Photo - String of carnelian beads
String of beads: 30 carnelian spheroids; 4 carnelian rings; 2 carnelian wd3t; 1 carnelian pendant. Found with UC. 38915-UC.38921.
Period - Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-2024BCE)
Found at - Rifeh
Measurements - pendant width 0.5 cms pendant length 1.1 cms string length 14.0 cms
Period - Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-2024BCE)
Found at - Rifeh
Measurements - pendant width 0.5 cms pendant length 1.1 cms string length 14.0 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
1000 artworks to see before you die: Ancient Egypt
The Guardian, UK (Jonathan Jones)
See the above for more.
The most famous sculpture in Africa seems to be slowly melting back into the desert out of which it was carved. The Great Sphinx is hewn out of the natural bedrock beneath the sands of Giza in Egypt, where it sits in leonine grandeur by the causeway leading to the pyramid of Khafre, the middle-sized of the site's three pyramids. It was created in about 2500BC, early in ancient Egypt's long artistic triumph; more than two-and-a-half millennia later the Roman emperor Hadrian would build an Egyptian religious garden at his villa in Tivoli, drawing on a style of sculpture that was still very much alive in the early Christian era.
If many people's idea of art is dominated by the European model of a succession of styles and movements from Greek classicism to American minimalism and beyond, the art of ancient Egypt has — alone among non-European cultures — long been accepted into this grand narrative. When the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini placed an Egyptian obelisk on the back of a marble elephant in Rome as a homage to the "wise Egyptian", or Napoleon exorted his army at the Battle of Pyramids, they did not see Egyptians as a lesser people but as the oldest sages and artists, the fount of Europe's culture. But were they right?
In defiance of the reverence for Egypt so visible in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe, modern art historians have often found ways to cut the Egyptian influence out of their subject. In his famous book The Story of Art, EH Gombrich pointed out that Egyptian art changed little in its 3,000-year history and that Egyptian artists never progressed from stately profiles and sidelong views of feet to the fully rounded, action-packed art of Greece that, in his view, embodied a European "great awakening". But that is to look through the wrong end of the telescope.
See the above for more.
Ethical questions haunt museums’ acquisition of antiquities
KansasCity.com (Steve Paul)
See the above page for the full story.
When the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art announced last year that it had acquired a colorful, ancient Egyptian coffin, officials presented a small sheaf of paperwork affirming that all was on the up and up.
This was no back-door, black-market deal involving improperly exported cultural patrimony, the documents were meant to say.
Still, the paper trail went only so far.
There’s no telling what really occurred when the sarcophagus, which once held the remains of a noblewoman named Meretites, left a well-known Egyptian museum collection back in 1972, though Nelson curator Robert Cohon confirmed that heirs of the original private collector had been unloading the family holdings since the 1950s.
And there’s no real sense of the character and intentions of the German and Swiss middlemen with whom the coffin resided over most of the next three decades.
See the above page for the full story.
Basel Ancient Art Fair Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary in Switzerland
Suite 101 (Stan Parchin)
See the above page for more, including a list of some of the antiquities on sale.
Switzerland's Basel Ancient Art Fair (November 7-12, 2008), the premiere event for dealers and collectors of Near Eastern, Egyptian and classical antiquities, celebrates its fifth anniversary at the Baroque Reithalle Wenkenoff.
Each of the BAAF's vendors, a member of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA), adheres to a strict code of ethics regarding the authenticity and provenance of objects for sale. BAAF welcomes 16 merchants and representatives of the Art Loss Register, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the recovery of stolen artworks since 1991. New to this year's roster of attendees is Germany's Curt-Englehorn-Centre for Archaeometry. Its staff will offer information on the latest methods of scientific inquiry for obtaining specific facts about antiquities.
See the above page for more, including a list of some of the antiquities on sale.
Egypt Sees Lower Tourism Revenue, Warns of "Panic"
Bloomberg (Tarek Al-Issawi and Abdel Latif Wahba)
Egypt expects lower revenue from tourism this year because of the global financial crisis and its impact on the Egyptian economy, Egypt's minister of tourism said.
The country's tourism industry, especially the private sector, is panicking because of the economic turmoil and is starting a price war, which will harm the industry in the long- term, Zohair Garanah said in an interview on Oct. 23.
"We have to be realistic in our approach and thinking,'' he said in his office in Cairo. "There could be a decline in demand, but we have to manage the crisis to limit the damage as much as possible.''
Tourism is the number one source of foreign currency income for Egypt, generating revenue of nearly $10 billion last year, well ahead of workers remittances at about $8.6 billion and the Suez Canal, which brought in $5.1 billion.
Egypt, Italy sign MoU to develop Egyptian museum
African Press Agency
The visiting Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and the Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni witnessed on Monday the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries to strengthen the ties of friendship, cultural and scientific cooperation, and the protection of cultural heritage.
The secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, told reporters after the signing ceremony that the MoU provides for cooperation to develop the Egyptian Museum.
Egyptomania: Memphis, U.S.
New York Times (Dan Barry)
If you are asked for a username and password enter "egyptnews" into both fields.
If you are asked for a username and password enter "egyptnews" into both fields.
In a city whose name conjures young Elvis but evokes ancient Egypt, an expedition set out with a road map and some trail mix to find the world’s sixth-largest pyramid, said to have been all but abandoned by the civilization that built it. Legend or fact?
With only bottled water and a rental car’s coolness to ward against temperatures in the oppressive low 70s, the team soon despaired. It found houses and churches and rib joints, but no polyhedral structures of note. Then, just when membership in the Explorers Club was about to be risked for some pulled pork and coleslaw, the team noticed a shimmering, triangle-shaped mirage on the western horizon that grew larger upon approach.
Holy Moses! The Great American Pyramid of Memphis.
A glorious structure of poured concrete and shiny stainless steel, of form if not function, it rose 321 feet from the sedimentary banks of the Mississippi River, just an ibis’s glide from Interstate 40 and the Hernando de Soto Bridge. Nothing quite like this existed anywhere else on the continent, save the exotic metropolis of Vegas.
Forgetting all recent privations and postponing all plans for barbecue, the expedition drove past the empty, glass-encased guard booths; odd, that. It also had no difficulty finding a parking space in an otherwise empty lot. Hmmm.
Suddenly realizing the import of its discovery, the most colorful imprecations escaped the team’s collective lips. The Great American Pyramid was empty! Hollow! A pointy-headed tomb without occupant!
The legend was true, then; the legend passed on in scores of news accounts over two decades, and now stored in electronic databases for which access requires that a secret password — “Help, please!” — be whispered to a research librarian.
Daily Photo - Statue base of Senusret I
UC14597
Granite statue base of King Senusret I, with 2 feet of his queen (?);
right - toes of king on the 9 bows.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Measurements - length 66 cms width 51 cms
Granite statue base of King Senusret I, with 2 feet of his queen (?);
right - toes of king on the 9 bows.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Measurements - length 66 cms width 51 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt
The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World blog (Bill Caraher)
Read Quickly. The American Council of Learned Societies is making one of their humanities ebooks available to the public for one month only, after which it will only be available to subscribers. Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800. eds. Roger S. Bagnall, Raffaella Cribiore, with contributions by Evie Ahtaridis (Ann Arbor 2008, 2006). Lots of really cool stuff in it. The letters on ostraca are particular striking.
Exhibition: Back to the Source
GlyptotekEgypt – Back to the Source
10 Oct. 2008 – 8 Feb. 2009
Around 1890, the brewing magnate, Carl Jacobsen, founder of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, engaged Denmark’s leading Egyptologist, Valdemar Schmidt, to create an Egyptian collection in the newly-planned museum, and in the course of the following 35 years, Schmidt succeeded in putting together a collection of ancient Egyptian art matching Jacobsen’s other excellent collections of ancient art, from Greece, Etruria and the Roman Empire.
This exhibition is an opportunity to see the works which Schmidt brought back to Denmark from his extensive travels in Egypt. Other works on display come from excavations in that country which Schmidt persuaded the wealthy Jacobsen to sponsor.
Today it would be quite impossible to create a comparable collection, but Schmidt and Jacobsen lived in an age when the Egyptian authorities still permitted a limited, controlled export of antiquities. As a result, the Glyptotek today can present an Egyptian collection of truly international standing.
An Exhibition in Honour of the Egyptologist Valdemar Schmidt,
Creator of the Glyptotek’s Egyptian Collection
Visit Denmark
Around 1890, the brewing magnate, Carl Jacobsen, founder of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, engaged Denmark’s leading Egyptologist, Valdemar Schmidt, to create an Egyptian collection in the newly-planned museum, and in the course of the following 35 years, Schmidt succeeded in putting together a collection of ancient Egyptian art matching Jacobsen’s other excellent collections of ancient art, from Greece, Etruria and the Roman Empire.
This exhibition is an opportunity to see the works which Schmidt brought back to Denmark from his extensive travels in Egypt. Other works on display come from excavations in that country which Schmidt persuaded the wealthy Jacobsen to sponsor.
Art Daily
The Glyptotek presents Egypt - Back to the Source, on view through February 8, 2009. The Glyptotek’s magnificent treasures from Ancient Egypt owe their presence in Copenhagen to brewing magnate and museum founder Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914). He wanted to go back to Ancient Egypt as ‘the source of art’ – the place whence the Greeks and the Romans drew their inspiration and which in turn was passed down to all later Europeans.
The Glyptotek’s collection is one of the fi nest in the world. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Danish Egyptology, this exhibition tells the story of Jacobsen, his Egyptologist Valdemar Schmidt (1836-1925) and their exploits – from excavations with the English archaeologist Petrie through collaboration with the museum and authorities in Cairo to the display of works back in Copenhagen. Egypt – Back to the Source focuses on a number of the collection’s supreme masterpieces, among them the Black Head of a King which Schmidt bought in Egypt in 1894.
Africa's support important step for Egypt to win UNESCO top post
Egypt State Information Service
"The support of African countries for Egypt's candidate for the UNESCO top post will immensely help it win the prestigious position," said Culture Minister Farouq Hosni in statements he gave after returning home from a visit to Algeria where he attended the second conference of African Culture Ministers.
He said that the conferees were unanimous in backing his candidacy at the coming African summit in Ethiopia in January.
Hosni has already won the backing of Arab countries and gaining that of African States during the Ethiopia summit will shore up his chances to win the post.
‘Secret’ North Giza development project threatens residents
Egypt Daily Star News (Reem Abu Zahra)
Following over one year since the presidential decree to develop the entire district of North Giza in May 2007, the plans continue to trigger controversy due to the lack of information about the project.
The district of North Giza includes the underprivileged areas of Warrak, Munira and the large neighborhood of Embaba.
According to government sources, the project includes building roads linking Rod El Farag district to the Ring Road leading to Sixth of October City and linking Ahmed Orabi Street to the Ring Road through Embaba Airport Land, the site of what used to be Embaba Airport.
The project includes “making use” of the land surrounding Embaba Airport through encouraging investment in the area. The whole region of North Giza measures around 3,147 acres inhabited by 450,000 residents. The land surrounding Embaba Airport is around 160 acres.
The Popular Committee for the Protection of Embaba Airport Land, a grassroots group, has repeatedly criticized what they called “the secrecy” surrounding the development project and the lack of real data revealing its true nature.
Travel: Rain, thunder and lightening cloud Cairo
Egypt Daily Star News (Safaa Abdoun)
Anyone planning to be in Cairo soon? If so, this article might be of interest:
See the above page for more.
Anyone planning to be in Cairo soon? If so, this article might be of interest:
CAIRO: Heavy rain, thunder and lightening marked the weather on Friday which had Egypt under thick clouds all day.
The weather forecast for the day was a high of 27˚C, a low of 18˚C and clear skies. But who believes the weatherman anymore? At around noon, the rain started pouring and the skies lit up with lightening as thunder struck.
When it stopped at around 4 pm, it remained cloudy. By then the temperature was around 19˚C, and expected to drop another degree or so by nightfall.
Earlier this month, meteorologists warned against rainstorms they believed could hit Egypt any time during the fall season.
"According to meteorological studies, we are expecting more rainstorms on the coastal cities, Cairo, parts of Sinai and Upper Egypt," said Waheed Seoudi, head of the analysis unit at the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview.
See the above page for more.
Trivia: Soderbergh to make 3-D 'Cleopatra'
Variety
For his next directing effort, Steven Soderbergh is plotting a 3-D live-action rock ’n’ roll musical about Cleopatra.
He is courting Catherine Zeta-Jones to play the Egyptian queen and Hugh Jackman to play her lover, Marc Antony.
The $30 million "Cleo" will be shopped for financing and distribution within the next two weeks. Greg Jacobs is producing with Casey Silver.
The music has been written by the indie rock band Guided by Voices, and the script is by James Greer, a former bass player for the band and an author.
While Soderbergh has recently done a spate of wildly different projects, this one will be his first full-blown musical.
Fiction Review: The Graveyard Book
The Independent on Sunday, UKThe Graveyard Book, By Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
Reviewed by Nicholas Tucker
Thursday, 23 October 2008
It takes a graveyard rather than a village to raise a child in Neil Gaiman's latest novel. A toddler named Bod escapes from his parents' murderer by wandering into a cemetery. Swiftly taken into the care of kindly ghosts, he is allocated to a tomb inhabited by Mr and Mrs Owens, a respectable 18th-century couple who become his spirit parents. A neighbour, Caius Pompeius (died during the Roman occupation) is just one of the spectres keeping a friendly eye on him. The boy is in continual danger from the Jacks of all Trades, a sinister organisation from Ancient Egypt. Warned that an extraordinary youth will bring their order to an end, five evil men have correctly identified Bod as the most plausible candidate and are out to get him – so he must hide in the graveyard for all his young life.
See the above page for the complete review
Daily Photo - Greywacke vessel
Five pieces of greywacke vessel with ribs of a plant leaf in relief on exterior and plain concave interior; reconstructed with painted polyfilla gap fill to form a three-lobed dish in the form of Ficus caria (fig) with a curved stalk
Period - Dynasty 1 (2890BCE-3100BCE) till Dynasty 2 (2686BCE-2890BCE)
Found at - Abydos
Period - Dynasty 1 (2890BCE-3100BCE) till Dynasty 2 (2686BCE-2890BCE)
Found at - Abydos
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Saturday, October 25, 2008
British Museum in sudan rescue project
British Satellite News
Video piece which features Derek Welsby talking about rescue archaeology and the recovery of rock engravings. The full script is available on the above page if you don't wish to listen to it.
AUDIO: NATURAL SOUND AND ENGLISH SPEECH, DURATION: 2.48
SHOT LIST: (London, UK and Sudan)
1. Footage of the region and the dig (File courtesy of New Holland Construction)
2. SOT: (English Speech) super: Derek Welsby, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum
“Prior to the start…
3. Photograph of excavating rock art
4. Photograph of pots and objects excavated from the site
5. Pan of rock fortress
6. SOT: (English Speech) super: Derek Welsby, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum
“Some of the major…
7.Various of rock art from items donated to the British Museum
8. Demonstration of a rock gong
9. SOT: (English Speech) super: Derek Welsby, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum
“In this region…
10. Photograph of boulder with rock art in situ
11. Various of rock art pieces donated to the British museum
The donated rocks - featuring important animals and people - will form the cornerstone of a future exhibition at the British Museum, preserving at least some of this area’s fascinating cultural heritage.
Characters of Egypt fest celebrates tribal heritage
Egypt Daily Star News
The brainchild of Wadi Environmental Science Centre (WESC) and the Egyptian Desert Pioneers Society (EDPS) the “Characters of Egypt” festival (Oct. 29-31) is a three-day extravaganza celebrating the cultural heritage of tribes from seven desert areas of Egypt: Siwa and Farafra from the Western Desert, North and South Sinai, Nubia, and the Eastern and Southern Deserts which stretch from Marsa Allam to Alba Mountain.
Held in the pristine Fustat Wadi El Gemal National Park, 45 km south of Marsa Allam on the Red Sea, this first cultural event of its kind will showcase the diversity of fauna and flora in the area and the intricacy of tribal costumes and jewelry. Attendees will also learn how to shadow-read, navigate the desert and will participate with the tribesmen in a variety of activities including music, dance, poetry, sports, games, food tasting, a camel race, educational lectures on the tribes and the environment.
Despite the fact that approximately 300,000 people from 45 tribes lead a nomadic existence in Egypt, according to Founder of the EDPS Walid Ramadan, they are almost always forgotten.
Patrimoine fellowships awarded to young preservation professionals from around the world
UNESCO
Five young heritage professionals from Canada, Egypt, Hungary, Peru, and Zimbabwe, received UNESCO-Vocations Patrimoine fellowships to pursue post graduate research at University College Dublin (Ireland) and at the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus (Germany) in a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters on the evening of 22 October.
The fellowships were awarded by the Organization's Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura; Yves Coppens, President of the French non governmental organization, Vocations Patrimoine; Patrick de Cambourg, Chairman of the Group MAZARS; Laure Thibaud, AXA Group Executive Vice President for Communication and Sustainable Development; Béatrice de Foucauld, Vice-President of Vocations Patrimoine speaking for the Headley Trust; Victoire Bidegain di Rosa, Advisor to the French Foreign Minister; Anne Marie Cousin, General Inspector of Architecture and Heritage, representing the French Ministry of Culture. . . .
El Sayed Yones, from Egypt, will also spend two years at Brandenburg Technical University where he will study management issues concerning Abu Mena World Heritage site, surveying and assessing existing conditions, analysing threats and making technical plans for the safeguarding of the site. Mr Yones, a graduate of Cairo University, has been working as an archaeologist in the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities since 2002, and is now an inspector of archaeology.
Amenhotep's eye back to Cairo from Switzerland
Egypt State Information Service
The stolen eye of Pharaonic king Amenhotep III returned to Cairo from Switzerland on Thursday 23/10/52008, accompanied by Abdel-Hamid Ma'aruf, the director general of the Egyptian antiquities registration center.
The eye, which arrived on board an EgyptAir plane, had been stolen from a statue at Luxor some 36 years ago during a fire around the Luxor temple.
Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Culture Minister Farouq Hosni singed in 2007, a memo of understanding on the protection and retrieving monuments which illegally went out of Egypt, especially as Switzerland is a signatory of UNESCO agreement on the protection of monuments. The Swiss President had said his country gave back to Egypt one thousand pieces of antiquities.
Book review: The Disappearance of Writing Systems
Nature (Andrew Robinson)
The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication
Edited by John Baines, John Bennet and Stephen Houston
Equinox: 2008.
Here's an extract of the review:
The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication
Edited by John Baines, John Bennet and Stephen Houston
Equinox: 2008.
Here's an extract of the review:
The book came out of the first major conference to focus on the disappearance of ancient writing systems, held in 2004 in Oxford, UK, and organized by the three editors. Baines is professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford and well known for his work on literacy in ancient Egypt. John Bennet of the University of Sheffield, UK, is an expert on the Aegean scripts, notably Linear A and B, and Stephen Houston of Brown University in Rhode Island has been instrumental in the Maya decipherment revolution since the 1980s.
It is a pioneering, fascinating and authoritative book. The 17 contributors cover a surprising range of topics in detail and with comprehensive bibliographies. They discuss familiar lost scripts such as cuneiform, and more obscure examples, including the Kharosthi script of northwest India, the Meroitic script of Nubia in what is now northern Sudan, Aztec and Mexican pictography, the knotted-cord quipus of the Inca empire and its Andean successors, and the Manchu script of China, which fell out of favour with the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912 but was revived in the 1980s. Inevitably there are omissions, most regrettably the much-debated Rongorongo script of Easter Island in the southeastern Pacific, a script that probably flourished for less than 100 years until its rapid disappearance in the mid-nineteenth century.
Book Review: Loot
Truthdig (review by Karl E. Meyer)I devoured “Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World” with particular zest, having published in 1973 an earlier account of the same cultural underworld, “The Plundered Past.” A seasoned reporter with an Oxford degree in Middle East studies, Sharon Waxman has updated and surpassed my explorations, in part because the outcry over the illicit traffic has reached fever pitch, provoking voluble, angry and indiscreet utterances from curators, collectors, dealers and a new breed of watchdogs, viz.:
“You end up thinking we’re all a bunch of looters, thieves, exploiters, that we’re some kind of criminals … but who would be interested in Greek sculpture if it were all in Greece? These pieces are great because they’re in the Louvre.” So protests Aggy Leroule, the Louvre’s press attaché, and so complain directors, trustees and publicists at the many great temples of art and archaeology. Yet there are also dissidents, an unlikely example being Thomas Hoving, once the acquisition-obsessed director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and now a fallen Lucifer who recalls, almost with relish, his prevarications past. . . .
The first merit of Waxman’s book, the best on its subject, is her verbatim account of conversations with everybody who matters in the antiquities trade. This is especially true of her candid exchanges with the staffs and their overlords at the Louvre, the Met, the British Museum and the mega-endowed (circa $6 billion) J. Paul Getty Museum. As revealing are her encounters with the new flock of restitution hawks, led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, who demands the return or loan of such stellar prizes as the British Museum’s Rosetta Stone, the Louvre’s Zodiac ceiling and Berlin’s bust of Nefertiti. When the Boston Museum of Fine Arts declined to lend Egypt its sculpture of Ankhaf (the reputed architect of the second-largest Giza pyramid), which it acquired legally in 1925, claming it was too fragile for export, Hawass raged over the telephone: “I’m going to make this museum’s life especially miserable. They’re assholes. Everything—they get for free. They should be punished. I will ban them from working in Egypt, completely, officially.”
Hawass is every major museum director’s nightmare, an avenging prosecutor, an agile politician and insatiable self-publicist. Continually visible on Egyptian television, he is also among the most formidable of the post-Nasser governing elite: at home with Americans, having earned his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, and wondrously able to energize the world’s most ancient and torpid bureaucracy.
See the above page for the rest of the two-page review.
AUB president sheds light on female pharaoh
Lebanon Daily Star
See the above for more.
The American University of Beirut's (AUB) new president, Peter Dorman, who is also a professor of archeology and an expert on ancient Egypt, gave a presentation Wednesday about Hatshepsut, the only woman to reign as a male pharaoh over ancient Egypt.
Organized by the Society of the Friends of the AUB Museum and held at the AUB Archeological Museum, the illustrated lecture was titled "Gender Trouble in Ancient Egypt: The Case of King/Queen Hatshepsut." It attracted a large audience, including Culture Minister Tammam Salam and his wife.
In his talk, Dorman highlighted the uniqueness of the reign of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, who assumed the role of male king of ancient Egypt, through her garb and title, as depicted in the hieroglyphs contemporary to her time of rule.
Hatshepsut is the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (1500 BC) of Ancient Egypt and wife of Thutmose II - also Hatshepsut's half-brother - who died a few years after becoming king without a direct heir to the throne. Thutmose III, Hatshepsut's stepson and nephew, was too young to assume kingship at the time. As a result, Hatshepsut claimed power as queen regent, and then usurped it, by claiming to be the legitimate heir, by virtue of being the daughter of a king. Seven years into her rule, she also assumed the role of male king.
"Hatshepsut holds a unique place in ancient Egyptian history since she is the only woman to rule in the guise of a male ruler," said Dorman.
While surveying the circumstances that led to her becoming queen then assuming legitimacy for rightful heir for kingship, Dorman supported his observations with archaeological evidence - mostly derived from her funerary temple in Dayr al-Bahri on the banks of the Nile - that showed the evolution of her role from queen to king.
See the above for more.
Mummy unveiled at Burke Museum
The Daily UW (Heather Milligan)
See the above page for full details, with photographs.
Swaying reeds line the Nile River as a breeze carries the scent of spices and ripening figs past obelisks and pyramids. Hieroglyphics, engraved into these monuments, tell tales of mighty pharaohs and battles.
Many people hope to see these marvels of Egypt one day, but the distance often proves to be too far. However, the Burke Museum will make this journey possible for a few short hours, through various artifacts, exhibits and lectures during the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt family event, Oct. 26.
The exhibit will feature Seattle’s only Egyptian mummy, nicknamed Nellie, who dates back about 2,000 years ago, to the Ptolemaic period.
“I’ve never actually experienced a public event when the mummy was on display,” said Allison Deep, archaeology collections assistant at the Burke. “The last time she was on display at the Burke Museum was in 2003.”
Nellie has been kept under wraps because of Washington’s climate and because of the previous care she received.
Brought to the museum in 1902 by former UW regent Manson Backus, Nellie has been exposed to more humidity damage in the past 106 years than the previous two millennia.
See the above page for full details, with photographs.
Cairo historical buildings to become luxury hotels
RIA Novosti
Authorities in Cairo plan to restore historical buildings in the Egyptian capital and turn them into luxury hotels, the Al-Ahram newspaper said on Wednesday.Officials and academics believe the move could rescue several historical buildings. The plan concerns primarily Egyptian roadside inns, called caravanserais, located in the Islamic part of Cairo.
Traders, pilgrims and other travelers have stayed at these inns, located along famous caravan routes in the Middle East, for centuries, and they have become a feature of pre-Muslim and Muslim architecture.
"A tourist can never find a better place to stay in Cairo, where he or she can revisit history and discover the charm of the East," the country's culture minister Farouk Hosni said in an interview with the newspaper.
In addition, former palaces of the Egyptian nobility, which are now used as cultural centers, art galleries and museums, could also be turned into hotels.
Humanities museum showcases rare mummies
Golden Gate Xpress (Matt St.John)
See the above for more.
There are two dead bodies in the Humanities building, and everyone is invited to see.
Two mummies, part of SF State’s permanent archeological collection, will be on display in the Humanities building, along with other artifacts from the Sutro Egyptian Collection. The exhibit is from Nov. 3 through Dec. 12, and admission is free.
Staffers estimate that the two mummies are around 3,500 years old. In past exhibits, students from schools such as Lakeshore Elementary would gather around the mummies in excitement. Christine Fogarty, the program administrator for museum studies, said the amazed children would smell the mummies through small holes in the glass casings.
Heather Graybehl, a curatorial associate for museum studies, said the mummies sparked the children’s imaginations and many would invent theories as to how the preserved corpses died long ago.
See the above for more.
Q&A with Michelle Moran author of Nefertiti & The Heretic Queen
Peeking Between the Pages (blog by Dar)
Interview with Michelle Moran, author of fiction novels based in ancient Egypt. Here's the first question and answer. There are eight more on the above page, plus comments.
Interview with Michelle Moran, author of fiction novels based in ancient Egypt. Here's the first question and answer. There are eight more on the above page, plus comments.
1. Why did you choose Ancient Egypt as your focus for your novels?
My travels to archaeological sites around the world have been enormously influential in my writing career. In fact, my inspiration to write on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti happened while I was on an archaeological dig in Israel. During my sophomore year in college, I found myself sitting in Anthropology 101, and when the professor mentioned that she was looking for volunteers who would like to join a dig in Israel, I was one of the first students to sign up. When I got to Israel, however, all of my archaeological dreams were dashed (probably because they centered around Indiana Jones). There were no fedora wearing men, no cities carved into rock, and certainly no Ark of the Covenant. I was very disappointed. Not only would a fedora have seemed out of place, but I couldn’t even use the tiny brushes I had packed. Apparently, archaeology is more about digging big ditches with pickaxes rather than dusting off artifacts. And it had never occurred to me until then that in order to get to those artifacts, one had to dig deep into the earth. Volunteering on an archaeological dig was hot, it was sweaty, it was incredibly dirty, and when I look back on the experience through the rose-tinged glasses of time, I think, Wow, was it fantastic! Especially when our team discovered an Egyptian scarab that proved the ancient Israelites had once traded with the Egyptians. Looking at that scarab in the dirt, I began to wonder who had owned it, and what had possessed them to undertake the long journey from their homeland to the fledgling country of Israel.
On my flight back to America I stopped in Berlin, and with a newfound appreciation for Egyptology, I visited the museum where Nefertiti’s limestone bust was being housed. The graceful curve of Nefertiti’s neck, her high cheekbones, and the faintest hint of a smile were captivating to me. Who was this woman with her self-possessed gaze and stunning features? I wanted to know more about Nefertiti’s story, and thus began my forays into writing historical fiction set in ancient Egypt.
New fiction: The Smiting Texts
Thanks to Roy Lester Pond for letting me know that his new Egypt-based novel will be available shortly. Best wishes to the author for a successful launch. Here's his email:
http://theotheregyptblog-roylesterpond.blogspot.com
http://anileriverofconsciousness.blogspot.com
I have a new archaeological thriller, coming out in the UK for Christmas and wondered if it would interest you and your blog followers – (THE SMITING TEXTS - a modern archaeological thriller. An ancient, esoteric time bomb. Published by Austin & Macauley, UK.) It's still being printed as we speak, so it is estimated to hit shelves very early November, although it's already featured and available for pre-orders on Amazon, WH Smith, Blackwell sites etc. Below is a synopsis and early peek at the cover design.
I have also started a brand new Egyptology author's blog, in fact two!
The hero of my novel, renegade independent Egyptologist Anson Hunter, is also blogger in the novel, so, as well as my author's blog (called 'The Other Egypt'), I have given fictional character Anson a separate identity in the 'blogosphere' with his own blog of ruminations ('A River Nile of Consciousness - Anson Hunter's blog). Something a bit different.
Best regards,
Roy Lester Pond
http://theotheregyptblog-roylesterpond.blogspot.com
http://anileriverofconsciousness.blogspot.com
Anubis arrives
11alive.com
The Egyptian d Anubis has arrived to make way for the U.S. premiere of "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs."
Crews began installation of the five-ton, 25-foot tall statue of the ancient Egyptian god near 13th and Peachtree Streets in midtown on Thursday.
The jackal-headed god Anubis was believed to be the guide and protector of the dead in ancient Egypt, and has arrived in Atlanta to pave the way for King Tut's treasures.
The five-ton, 25-foot tall statue will be visible from the intersection of Peachtree Street and 13th Street in Midtown, as the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center undergoes final preparations for the U.S. premiere of "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs," which opens on November 15.
Met Museum director gets going-away exhibit
The Canadian Press
See the above page for the full story.
When Philippe de Montebello announced his retirement earlier this year, the curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art quickly came up with the perfect going-away gift for their long-serving director.
An exhibit, of course.
It was a mammoth task: In more than 30 years as director, de Montebello has overseen the acquisition of more than 84,000 objects, from sculptures to scrolls to paintings to pendants.
Around 300 of those artworks have been pulled together for "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," which opens Friday and runs through Feb. 1. De Montebello, 72, is retiring at the end of the year after being at the Met's helm since 1977.
De Montebello said the show came as "a wonderful surprise."
"When one's professional staff pays tribute to you, that gives you a sense that you've done something right," he said in an interview.
The curators had hoped to keep the exhibit a surprise for de Montebello, said Helen Evans, the curator who coordinated the show. . . .
Instead, the show moves roughly chronologically through de Montebello's years at the museum, with the result that works of art are juxtaposed with each other in ways they aren't normally. Paintings, sculptures, photographs, weapons, clothing, furniture - it's all there, sometimes making for some unusual neighbors, such as an Egyptian statue next to a sculpture from the people of Easter Island.
See the above page for the full story.
Museum Offers Workshops On School Arts Integration
Shawnee Sun
See the above for more.
The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art is offer two arts integration workshops designed to introduce teachers and future teachers to the value and ease of using artworks and art projects as inspiration and departure points for teaching creative classroom lessons for language arts, science, and social studies.
Using artworks from the MGMoA collection as their motivation, the workshop presenters will demonstrate how art can serve as an effective learning tool, meeting the needs of diverse learning styles.
"We hosted the first workshop, taught by arts integration specialist Patrick Riley, on Oct. 4. It was a great success with approximately 35 teachers attending," said Donna Merkt, MGMoA curator of education. "We all had a blast - who wouldn't have a great time making a four-foot-tall paper mummy?"
While creating this masterpiece of paper sculpture, each teacher also learned how to use such a project to teach other curricula subjects. "The teachers learned about the mummification process, including the function and placement of the internal organs, to tie the lesson into science curriculum. We also discussed how the mummy could be used as a spring board for social studies, math, and language arts lessons."
See the above for more.
Conference: Redefining the Sacred: Religious Identity, Ritual Practice, and Sacred Architecture in the Near East and Egypt, 1000 BC – 300 AD
Redefining the Sacred: Religious Identity, Ritual Practice, and Sacred Architecture in the Near East and Egypt, 1000 BC – 300 AD 19th – 21st March, 2009 Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, University of Oxford.
Organised by Elizabeth Frood (University of Oxford) and Rubina Raja (University of Aarhus)
Call for papers: Deadline November 30th, 2008
The conference theme is situated at the interface between the study of texts, architecture, and archaeology, integrating domains of evidence that are normally treated separately and often generate contradictory interpretations of religious ideas and practices. Sacred space and ritual landscapes have become a major focus of interest in archaeology over the last decade but, because of the richness of the material in these regions, few broader comparative studies have been undertaken.
Most studies concentrate on single contexts and isolated periods.
Despite the realities of geographical distance and political separation, the cultures of the Near East and Egypt from the first millennium BC to AD 300 were dynamically interconnected and mutually dependent. Religious architecture, which was central to ancient environments, is at the core of expressions of relationship and difference. By bringing together ancient historians, philologists, Assyriologists, classical archaeologists, and Egyptologists, the aim is to explore the immense potential of diachronic studies of sacred space.
We would like to invite proposals for papers from scholars and graduate students working in related areas. Please email a paper title and abstract, of no more than 500 words, to Elizabeth Frood:
For more information, please see the website:
http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/conferences/redefining_the_sacred/index.html
Organised by Elizabeth Frood (University of Oxford) and Rubina Raja (University of Aarhus)
Call for papers: Deadline November 30th, 2008
The conference theme is situated at the interface between the study of texts, architecture, and archaeology, integrating domains of evidence that are normally treated separately and often generate contradictory interpretations of religious ideas and practices. Sacred space and ritual landscapes have become a major focus of interest in archaeology over the last decade but, because of the richness of the material in these regions, few broader comparative studies have been undertaken.
Most studies concentrate on single contexts and isolated periods.
Despite the realities of geographical distance and political separation, the cultures of the Near East and Egypt from the first millennium BC to AD 300 were dynamically interconnected and mutually dependent. Religious architecture, which was central to ancient environments, is at the core of expressions of relationship and difference. By bringing together ancient historians, philologists, Assyriologists, classical archaeologists, and Egyptologists, the aim is to explore the immense potential of diachronic studies of sacred space.
We would like to invite proposals for papers from scholars and graduate students working in related areas. Please email a paper title and abstract, of no more than 500 words, to Elizabeth Frood:
For more information, please see the website:
http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/conferences/redefining_the_sacred/index.html
Conference: Third Eye conference to explore King Tut's ethnicity
Dallas News
What was the ethnicity of King Tut? Because Egypt is on the northern region of the African continent, some black culture enthusiasts vigorously proclaim long-standing theories that black Africans can claim the young pharaoh as a racial kinsman.
The Third Eye, a black history, heritage and culture study group, will explore King Tut's ethnicity as the topic of the group's 23rd annual African Awakening Conference, from 6 to 10 p.m. Nov. 1 at the South Dallas Cultural Center, 3400 S. Fitzhugh Ave.
The conference is an independent event designed to coincide with the much-heralded exhibition of Tutankhamun's artifacts and mummified body through May 17at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The Third Eye topic is "King Tut is Back and He's Still Black: The African Heritage of King Tutankhamun," a nod to the exhibition's previous U.S. tours and the mummy's skin that appears black. Noted Nile Valley history scholar Ashra Kwesi is the main speaker.
The 4th International Conference on Computer, Information, and Systems Sciences, and Engineering
I have no idea whether or not this conference will be of any interest to anyone, but the increase in archaeologists who are working specifically within the realm of information technology would argue that it might be of use to someone. Apologies if not.
This is a reminder that the extended and final paper submission deadline for the on-line International E-Conference on Computer, Information, and Systems Sciences, and Engineering [CISSE 2008] (http://www.cisse2008online.org/) is in one week (October 28, 2008). The Conference organizing committee has decided to extend the paper submission deadline due to numerous deadline extension requests from potential CISSE 2008 authors.
CISSE 2008 has received more than 450 paper submissions so far from over 70 countries and we are looking forward to your quality paper contributions.
Please note that this is a hard deadline, so that the technical committees can perform their paper reviewing duties in a timely manner.
You are invited to submit full papers electronically through the website of the conference at http://www.cisse2008online.org
Accepted papers must be presented in the virtual conference by one of the authors. To submit your paper, visit http://www.cisse2008online.org. The full conference call for papers including all the details about the on-line submission and virtual presentation of the papers is enclosed in this e-mail.
Paper submission Deadline: October 28, 2008
Notification of Acceptance: November 9, 2008
Final Manuscript and Registration: November 26, 2008
Daily Photo - String of beads
Mixed string of beads: blue glass scaraboid, three blue-green glass barrels, four blue-green faience barrels, one larger faience barrel, two carnelian barrels, two large carnelian barrels, 21 small carnelian spheroids, one blus glass spheroid, five blue-green
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Found at - Abydos
Measurements - length 64.5 cms
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Found at - Abydos
Measurements - length 64.5 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Egyptian Mummies Yield Earliest Evidence of Malaria
Discovery
Thanks very much to Rhio for forwarding me this story (Rhio, I promise to email soon!)
See the above page for the full story.
Thanks very much to Rhio for forwarding me this story (Rhio, I promise to email soon!)
Two Egyptian mummies who died more than 3,500 years ago have provided clear evidence for the earliest known cases of malaria, according to a study presented this week in Naples at an international conference on ancient DNA.
Pathologist Andreas Nerlich and colleagues at the Academic Teaching Hospital München-Bogenhausen in Munich, Germany, studied 91 bone tissue samples from ancient Egyptian mummies and skeletons dating from 3500 to 500 B.C.
Using special techniques from molecular biology, such as DNA amplification and gene sequencing, the researchers identified ancient DNA for the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in tissues from two mummies.
"We now know for sure that malaria was endemic in ancient Egypt. This was only been speculated on the basis reports by [the 5th century B.C. Greek historian] Herodotus and some very faint evidence from ancient Egyptian papyri," Nerlich told Discovery News.
Sun shines on Ramses II at Abu Simbel
About Egypt
See the above page for more.
The first rays of the morning sun lit up the the statue of pharaoh Ramses II at his temple in Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, a phenomenon that occurs only twice a year.
The sun began to enter the temple at 0555 local time (02.55 GMT) for 24 minutes to illuminate the figure of the king of the XIX dynasty of the New Empire (1539-1075 BC). During that brief time, the solar rays traveled along a distance of 60 meters until reaching the sanctum of the temple to announce the start of the month of ‘Bert’, which marked the beginning of the agricultural season for the ancient Egyptians.
The sanctum contains four statues depicting Ramses II as equal to the gods seated in the middle of Re-Herakhty and Amen, with the god Ptah to the right of Amen. The rising sun illuminates all the figures except that of Ptah.
See the above page for more.
Exhibition: Last call for Egyptian archaeology exhibit in Miami
examiner.com
See the above for more.
All summer, the Lowe Art Museum on the University of Miami campus has been exhibiting artifacts from ancient Egypt. This spectacular show, Excavating Egypt, ends Nov. 2. Try to see it before it leaves.
Excavating Egypt features the life and work of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), on whom the cinema hero Indiana Jones was based.
Petrie excavated in Egypt for well over half a century. The exhibition displays 221 of his most significant finds, including decorative art from the palace-city of the “heretic pharaoh” Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, gold mummy masks, funerary trappings, jewelry, sculpture and relief, vessels, painted vases, and objects of daily life.
See the above for more.
Travel: GPS in Egypt
Egypt Daily Star News
See the above page for the full story.
Technology lovers and modern car owners in Egypt consider themselves unlucky because of a government ban on the usage of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.
Telecoms Law 10/2003 outlaws the import of GPS-equipped mobile phones, and retailers found selling them could lead to the confiscation of their entire stock. The same applies to any kind of commercial use of GPS technology, which includes cars equipped with GPS devices.
Mobile phones like the Nokia N95, N82 as well as iPhones and some 3G phones are banned in Egypt, leaving the market deprived of the latest technology and features that are fast becoming standard in the new generation of mobile phones.
GPS helps users navigate to their destination inside cities and in remote areas. It also functions as a guide for places of interest as well as hospitals, police departments and businesses.
“GPS is allowed in Egypt but you must have a license after getting approval from security authorities,” Sherif Guinena, vice chairman of the National Telecommunication Regulator Agency (NTRA), told Daily News Egypt.
See the above page for the full story.
Tony Cagle moves web-home
http://www.acagle.net/ArchaeoBlog/
Anthony Cagle has moved his excellent ArchaeoBlog to the above location. Tony's blog is absolutely excellent and he has been running it since 2004. He covers all aspects of archaeology news around the globe. He has worked as an archaeologist in Egypt and elsewhere, conducting fieldwork with some of the top names in the field. He also shares an interest with me in classic cars, which is all to the good :-) Have a look at Tony's blog at its new home.
Daily Photo - Ivory figurine
Ivory statuette of naked young man with leonine face, similar to later images of Bes, with lion's hair, ears + long tail, + immature male human body. Holes in fists (? for metal snakes) - L foot broken (piece missing).
Period - Late Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-1850BCE)
Found at - Sedment
Measurements - height 10.5 cms width 3.05 cms
Period - Late Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-1850BCE)
Found at - Sedment
Measurements - height 10.5 cms width 3.05 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Kharga - Egypt's Frontier Oasis
Archaeology Magazine Volume 61 Number 6, November/December 2008
Details of the latest issue of Archaeology magazine are now on the publication's website. Articles include a piece by Salima Ikram on Kharga oasis, for which an abstract is available on the above page. There are some excellent photographs with detailed captions accompanying it. Here's an extract from the abstract:
Deep in the Libyan Desert, 125 miles west of Luxor, lies Kharga, Egypt's largest oasis. The North Kharga Oasis Survey (NKOS), of which I am co-director, has established that this remote area--more than 100 miles long and from 12 to 60 miles wide--was continuously occupied throughout Egyptian history. We now know that it is home to an extraordinary variety of sites, including prehistoric rock art, Neolithic encampments, pharaonic monuments and burials, Roman settlements and water-supply systems, and the stars of the oasis--five unique Roman forts that guarded this part of the empire's southernmost frontier. Newly discovered ancient graffiti has even provided the name of a previously unknown ruler, King Aa, in power around 3000 B.C., who sent an expedition to this remote area. The NKOS's results are also changing our understanding of ancient Egypt's connections with its neighbors. We can now show that Kharga played an important role in trade between Egypt and other parts of Africa, from the Old Kingdom up through the modern period.
Until recently, archaeologists have paid little attention to the Kharga Oasis, a depression in the desert that in the distant past was a large body of water that shrank over time, leaving smaller lakes and an easily tapped underground water supply.
Salima Ikram is professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and co-director of the North Kharga Oasis Survey.
New articles on Hawass website
guardians.net
Thanks to David Krueger for pointing me at the website of Zahi Hawass, which has two new articles, both available from the above page:
Manfred Bietak (Oct 2008)
Bastet The Cat (Oct 2008)
Thanks to David Krueger for pointing me at the website of Zahi Hawass, which has two new articles, both available from the above page:
Manfred Bietak (Oct 2008)
Bastet The Cat (Oct 2008)
Travel: Islamic Cairo
The Guardian, UK (David Shariatmadari)
See the above page for the rest of the three-page story.
The attendant, Samir, unlocked the wooden door to the minaret and left me to go in alone. I had taken off my shoes to cross the threshold, but he explained I would need them again for the minaret climb. As I walked unaccompanied up the stone steps in the half-light, avoiding assorted debris, I felt a bit like I was trespassing. But this wasn't a private part of Cairo's Mosque of al-Ghouri - the minaret is open to any visitors who want to see it. It's just that not many do.
Once on the roof I was able to look out across the mass of sand-coloured houses and shops towards the citadel and the Muqattam hills. From there a spiral staircase – I had to feel my way up part of it because it was pitch black – took me to a balcony about three-quarters of the way up the minaret. A creaky ladder led to the level at which the muezzin, in the days before loudspeakers, would have made his call to prayer. I decided not to risk it. Instead I just sat and looked at what could have been a vision from the middle ages: the narrow street below, crammed with goods for sale – huge bales of cotton, clothes and carpets – and people walking to and fro between the market and the old city gates.
The idea of being immersed in the past is something that tempts millions of tourists to Egypt each year. The country's ancient heritage, is, of course, the big draw, but the problem with this is that the rest of its history can get overlooked.
See the above page for the rest of the three-page story.
Travel: Reflections in the Nile
Reflections in the Nile blog
Su Bayfield has been updating her blog recently with items from journals she has kept of her many visits to Egypt, creating an eclectic mix of photographs, insights and anecdotes. Very enjoyable. Here's a sample from her most recent post, Aswan in the Blink of an Eye (Journal: 21 April 2002):
Today was our group excursion around Aswan, in which we would see all of Aswan’s tourist attractions in five hours (!!?). I shudder to think that this is the usual amount time allotted to most people who visit the town as part of a cruise. But that’s just the way it has to be and at least it gives a flavour of the place, albeit a rushed one. We were on the coach and on our way to the High Dam by 8.00am.
Aswan High Dam
We drove onto the eastern end of the long dam past the Egyptian-Russian friendship monument, a modern concrete architectural sculpture called the ‘Lotus Tower’ that didn’t seem to bear any resemblance to a lotus to me. Our coach stopped in the middle of the dam and we were given the statistical facts and figures by a specialist guide. The Egyptians are very proud of this gigantic feat of engineering, the construction material used on the dam is said to equal that of 17 Great Pyramids. Aswan High Dam is a huge wall of rocks which captures the world’s longest river, the Nile, in the one of the world’s largest reservoirs, Lake Nasser. The first dam, in an endeavour to curb the annual Nile flood that had enabled agricultural fertilization for thousands of years, was built just to the north of here in 1889 and was subsequently raised several times as it could not cope with the volume of water coming down through Sudan from the Ethiopian highlands. In 1970 a new High Dam, called Saad el-Aali in Arabic, was completed after ten years work mostly with Russian funding and engineering expertise. The benefits to Egypt in controlling the annual floods are said to have raised agricultural productivity by providing constant and much-needed water for irrigation as well as preventing damage to the flood plain, but the downside of this is in the ever-increasing use of chemical fertilizers by the farmers, which in turn causes a great deal of pollution.
Many of you will be familiar with Su's excellent online resource for visitors to Egypt: Egyptian Monuments. If you haven't yet visited it I can recommend it.
Tourism: American Tourism Society Annual Fall Conference
TravelDailyNews
The American Tourism Society (ATS) Annual Fall Conference will take place in Cairo, Egypt, October 27-30, 2008, under the auspices of H.E. Zoheir Garranah, Egyptian Minister of Tourism. Mr. Amr El-Ezaby, Chairman, Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) will join H.E. Zoheir Garranah to officially open the conference on Tuesday, October 28th at the five-star Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah Hotel. . . .
A US Tour operator panel, moderated by Bob Whitley, President USTOA, will target the Egyptian delegates, focusing on “Trends in North American Tourism.” The first keynote speaker for the Wednesday Sessions will be Bruce Beckham, President, Tourism Cares, who will present “Tourism Cares – Restoring the Past, Preserving the Future.” The second keynote address for that day will be given by El Hamy El Zayat, Chairman, EMECO Travel, who will provide the American delegates with an overview “Trends in Egyptian Tourism.” The Egyptian Tourism Federation will present a panel on “Egypt: Realities vs. Perception,” moderated by Mohamed Salmawy, President, Egyptian Writers Union followed by an update “Tourism 4 Peace” presented by Mr. Rafi Baeri, Dan Hotels, Israel.
Conference: Living in the Past
“Living in the Past: Living Conditions through Time and Space”
GAO Annual Conference 2009
University of Oxford 28 – 29 March 2009 (t.b.c.)
GAO Annual Conference 2009
University of Oxford 28 – 29 March 2009 (t.b.c.)
Key words: habitation, landscape occupation, trade, exchange, production and consumption, scientific methodology, environmental archaeology, artefacts.
Conference Abstract –
Archaeology can illuminate the past in ways in which other disciplines cannot. From a varying range of archaeological information (artefacts, biological remains, environmental evidence, artistic representation, human bones and building/site evidence) we can build a picture of how our ancestors lived and the economic and social conditions that shaped their lives. This conference seeks to present papers from across the various fields of archaeology in order to bring together the following themes:
Inner space versus outer space;
Diet, provisions and consumption;
Trade and hinterland;
Life in town and country;
Consumer goods and production;
‘Fine’ art in the ancient world – improving living conditions;
Communal living and working;
The accident of preservation;
How archaeology illuminates living conditions in the past;
How space was used in the past;
How changing environmental conditions affect human movement.
We are looking for papers from all walks of archaeology, and want to encourage discussion between archaeological science, anthropology, archaeology and classics.
Abstracts to be received by Monday, 1 December 2008.
Delegates will be notified of acceptance of papers by 15 January, 2008.
Limited conference bursaries for attendance will be available – to assist us with their allocation, if a bursary is required, please include with your abstract a short statement on why the conference is necessary to your research.
Selected papers will be published in a volume, as part of the GAO monograph series.
For further information, or to submit an abstract, please contact:
gaolivingconditions@googlemail.com
or see our webpage:
http://www.graduatearchaeologyoxford.co.uk/conferences.html
[non-functional at the time of posting, but I daresay they'll fix it]
NASA MODIS Image of the Day: River Nile
SpaceRefClick on the small image, right, to go to the page where the full sized photograph can be seen.
Most views of Egypt show the famous Nile River Delta, so it is interesting to see this view of the southern part of Egypt.
At the top left of the image is a reservoir that was created when the Aswan Dam was built over the Nile between 1958-1970.
The majority of the lake lies in Egypt and is called Lake Nasser. Because the border between Egypt and Sudan runs through southern part of this lake, a small tip of it belongs to Sudan and is known as Lake Nubia. A great deal of Sudan is visible in this image, from the dry northern Nubian desert to the southern part of the country which contains green swamps and rain forest. The Red Sea is the body of water on the right, with Saudi Arabia located to the east. This image was captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite on September 27, 2008.
Tourist residential development in Luxor
Fly2Let
Building is now well under way on what is claimed to be ‘The First Tourist Residential Development in Luxor’.
This development of apartments, being marketed in the UK by Egyptian Experience, is located on the East bank of River Nile at one of its widest points offering views towards the West Bank, and the Valley of the Kings and Queens.
The first phase of the development is due for completion in May next year and building is on schedule.
Luxor, once known as ‘Thebes’, has been a popular tourist destination for over a century.
Daily Photo - Inscribed limestone block
UC14338
Limestone block, with hieroglyphs in low relief in two columns.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Found at - Hawara
Measurements - height 37 cms width 26 cms
Limestone block, with hieroglyphs in low relief in two columns.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Found at - Hawara
Measurements - height 37 cms width 26 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
OsirisNet updated - TT56 and Qasr Al Aguz
More good news from Thierry Benderitter and the OsirisNet team, in English and French. As usual a comprehensive description is accompanied by illustrations, translations, diagrams and photographs.
First, the tomb of Userhat in Luxor, TT56, is now online (written by Thierry Benderitter with the help of George Engel and translated into English by John J Hirst - photo credits can be found on the final page, acknowledgements on first page).
http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/ous56/e_ouserhat56_01.htmThe French version of this section is at:
http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/ous56/ouserhat56_01.htm
Second, thanks to Jon, you have now an entirely new and enhanced version of the pages on Qasr el Aguz, this small, almost unknown, Ptolemaic temple, which nevertheless is only 50 metres from Medinet Habu (written by Thierry Benderitter, translated into English by John J Hirst - photo credits can be found on final page, acknowledgements on first page).
http://www.osirisnet.net/monument/kasr_agouz/e_kasr_agouz.htmThe French pages can be found at:
http://www.osirisnet.net/monument/kasr_agouz/kasr_agouz.htm
News update from Manchester Museum
Egypt at the Manchester Museum blog
Here's a short extract from the Curator's Diary for Monday 20th October:
Here's a short extract from the Curator's Diary for Monday 20th October:
I am teaching an Introduction to Ancient Egypt for the MSc students in Forensic and Biomedical Egyptology at the KNH-centre, and this week we will be touring the Museum, looking at the collections and the kind of material that we have, as well as explaining how to access the material for research. The Egypt collections are heavily used by researchers from around the world, who usually first get in touch with me to discuss possible options, and then fill in a sampling request form available from the Museum website
(http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/reportspolicies/).
This week we also have a Content Team meeting for the redevelopment of the Egypt and Archaeology galleries, where we will be discussing the community consultations for archaeology and the Sudanese material, as well as plans to host a Black Egypt day next year, which will explore the Afrocentric approach to ancient Egypt. Egypt fascinates many people and the Museum would like to reflect diverse interpretations about the past that exist today.
Starting second phase of developing Pyramids area project
Egypt State Information Service
Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni toured on Sunday 19/10/2008 the second phase of the Pyramids plateau development project.
He was accompanied by Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas.
The second stage of the Ministry of Culture's project involves lighting works, road and sidewalk paving, the development of the Sphinx area and the construction of offices for employees.
Hosni called for the need to set a specific date for the conclusion of the project's second stage which is to be followed by the third and final stage.
The surrounding slum area will also be developed in cooperation with the Giza Governorate.
The project's first stage was opened in August this year. The first stage of the LE 300 million project included building electronic gates, an 18.5km-long security wall fitted with cameras to monitor the tourist area.
The works also involved sophisticated explosive detectors and magnetic tickets machines. According to Hawwas, electric transport vehicles will move tourists and visitors from the parking lots to the archeological sites of the area.
Photographs: los monumentos y zonas arqueológicas de Egipto
viajespor.com
Thanks to M. Teresa Soria Trastoy for her email to the Amanuense list giving details of a website which is a potentially useful reference point for anyone wanting to view photographs of Egyptian sites. There are over 1000 photographs on the website:
Más de 1000 fotografías de Egipto
Ahora puedes conocer todas las zonas arqueológicas y todos los rincones de Egipto con visitar sólo nuestra Galería de Imágenes. Más de 1000 fotografías para empezar, divididas por zonas geográficas para hacer más sencilla la búsqueda. Fotografías inéditas, otras no tan conocidas y algunas clásicas. Una sección en constante actualización.
Todas las fotos están hechas en nuestros viajes por Egipto. Recuerda respetar el copyright.
Pincha en el enlace:
Fotos de Egipto de AVIMUNDO
Conference: People Behind Practice
People Behind Practice: Theoretical Archaeologies of the Near East
March 31st – April 2nd 2009 Ghent University, Belgium
**2nd Call for Papers – deadline 1st December 2008**
Keynote Speaker: Prof. Susan Pollock, Binghampton University
Introduction
In recent decades, Near Eastern archaeology has witnessed a tremendous increase in more theoretically informed publications and workshops. Theorizing the remote past has substantially enhanced our knowledge of why particular phenomena and practices might have been adopted or rejected in certain places at certain times. It has brought us new insight into the pasts that we study and has forced us to look more closely at ourselves as practitioners of academic research and therefore re-creators of these pasts.
The present conference wishes to push current trends in theoretical archaeology forward by turning its attention to the people, both past and present, that exist behind the excavation, the sherd, the soil-trace or the article. It approaches these 'people behind practice' through two main conference themes, which deal respectively with the role of 'non-archaeological' factors in the creation of archaeological knowledge, and with the question of how to approach overlooked or over-studied parts of the archaeological record or study those facets of the past that ostensibly don't leave visible traces.
Geography and chronology
The geographical scope of the conference ranges from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran and from the Black Sea to the North to the Arabian Peninsula to the South.
The chronological scope ranges from the Neolithic through to the advent of Islam.
Conference Themes
A. The Taphonomy of Knowledge
Much like the material remains which lie at its heart, archaeological knowledge itself is created and recreated by human hand and mind. It is born in ideological spaces, it may be maintained for decades or pushed into academic oblivion, it can be altered through reinterpretation or salvaged after periods of neglect. Under this first conference-theme the organisers aim to group papers dealing with the internal and external factors that influence how archaeological knowledge is created, passed down to subsequent generations of researchers or pushed out of view. This broad theme has been divided into two sub-topics:
- Excavating archaeology: here we focus on case-studies in which old sites, material collections or individual excavations have recently been the subject of re-interpretation.
Papers should deal with questions such as how zeitgeists, politics, religious ideology etc. influenced the original excavation and interpretation and how new socio-cultural or academic frameworks might alter our understanding of this material and influence our view of the past.
- Academic taphonomy: as academics, archaeologists move through a world of material archives, excavation notes and secondary literature.
How we perceive of ourselves and of the past, and how we conduct research, is directly influenced by our access to this world.
Papers presented under this sub-topic should explore the impact of academic factors such as: archival classification; publication and citation strategies; barriers of nationality and language; terminologies, copying and repetition; accessibility of material and literature; and a-priori qualitative assessment of material, text or theory. The theme also presents itself as a call for good practice:
since we cannot but fall back on or interact with the wealth of material produced by predecessor and contemporary, it is important to assess how we can best approach this material.
B. The Archaeology of the Invisible
Theoretical archaeology has created a broad range of new ways of perceiving the remote past. However, it has also at times created an even greater distance between us archaeologists and the people we study, by the advocation of a 'thoughts first, things next' approach.
Without going back to obsolete typo-chronologies, papers collected under this second theme focus on how as archaeologists we might visualize the past in a more down-to-earth, direct way – that is, by focussing first on evidence that may or may not be at hand, and then assessing this in the light of established or recently challenged theories. We encourage papers that either deal with material that has largely been neglected in the theoretical discourse – and thus became invisible – or papers that deal with material that has too often been (ab)used 'to make a point' in the (recent) past, blinding us from other potential understandings of the past.
We also argue for an archaeology of 'daily practice', bringing more neglected segments and members of communities and societies alive by reconstructing past ways of life and life stadia through either 'peculiar' or on the contrary overtly 'common' material. Issues related to expressions and alterations in identity construction, visible in the material record on the individual and on the communal level, are particularly welcomed, as are papers that deal with identification of gender, age, power, elitism, commensalism etc. We call for papers that by addressing these issues bring the 'people behind practice' to life.
Abstract deadline
Please e-mail your abstract of max. 200 words to either Aurelie Daems or Bart Ooghe (Aurelie.Daems@Ugent.be, Bart.Ooghe@Ugent.be), with your name, affiliation, contact address and the main theme under which you wish to present the paper. Papers should not exceed 20-25 minutes, as each speaker will be allotted 30 minutes for presentation and questions. A more lengthy plenary discussion may be possible at the end of each session.
Deadline: December 1st, 2008.
Location and Registration
The conference will take place in the historical buildings of 'Het Pand' at Ghent University
(Belgium), from March 31st to April 2nd 2009. Further registration information to follow.
March 31st – April 2nd 2009 Ghent University, Belgium
**2nd Call for Papers – deadline 1st December 2008**
Keynote Speaker: Prof. Susan Pollock, Binghampton University
Introduction
In recent decades, Near Eastern archaeology has witnessed a tremendous increase in more theoretically informed publications and workshops. Theorizing the remote past has substantially enhanced our knowledge of why particular phenomena and practices might have been adopted or rejected in certain places at certain times. It has brought us new insight into the pasts that we study and has forced us to look more closely at ourselves as practitioners of academic research and therefore re-creators of these pasts.
The present conference wishes to push current trends in theoretical archaeology forward by turning its attention to the people, both past and present, that exist behind the excavation, the sherd, the soil-trace or the article. It approaches these 'people behind practice' through two main conference themes, which deal respectively with the role of 'non-archaeological' factors in the creation of archaeological knowledge, and with the question of how to approach overlooked or over-studied parts of the archaeological record or study those facets of the past that ostensibly don't leave visible traces.
Geography and chronology
The geographical scope of the conference ranges from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran and from the Black Sea to the North to the Arabian Peninsula to the South.
The chronological scope ranges from the Neolithic through to the advent of Islam.
Conference Themes
A. The Taphonomy of Knowledge
Much like the material remains which lie at its heart, archaeological knowledge itself is created and recreated by human hand and mind. It is born in ideological spaces, it may be maintained for decades or pushed into academic oblivion, it can be altered through reinterpretation or salvaged after periods of neglect. Under this first conference-theme the organisers aim to group papers dealing with the internal and external factors that influence how archaeological knowledge is created, passed down to subsequent generations of researchers or pushed out of view. This broad theme has been divided into two sub-topics:
- Excavating archaeology: here we focus on case-studies in which old sites, material collections or individual excavations have recently been the subject of re-interpretation.
Papers should deal with questions such as how zeitgeists, politics, religious ideology etc. influenced the original excavation and interpretation and how new socio-cultural or academic frameworks might alter our understanding of this material and influence our view of the past.
- Academic taphonomy: as academics, archaeologists move through a world of material archives, excavation notes and secondary literature.
How we perceive of ourselves and of the past, and how we conduct research, is directly influenced by our access to this world.
Papers presented under this sub-topic should explore the impact of academic factors such as: archival classification; publication and citation strategies; barriers of nationality and language; terminologies, copying and repetition; accessibility of material and literature; and a-priori qualitative assessment of material, text or theory. The theme also presents itself as a call for good practice:
since we cannot but fall back on or interact with the wealth of material produced by predecessor and contemporary, it is important to assess how we can best approach this material.
B. The Archaeology of the Invisible
Theoretical archaeology has created a broad range of new ways of perceiving the remote past. However, it has also at times created an even greater distance between us archaeologists and the people we study, by the advocation of a 'thoughts first, things next' approach.
Without going back to obsolete typo-chronologies, papers collected under this second theme focus on how as archaeologists we might visualize the past in a more down-to-earth, direct way – that is, by focussing first on evidence that may or may not be at hand, and then assessing this in the light of established or recently challenged theories. We encourage papers that either deal with material that has largely been neglected in the theoretical discourse – and thus became invisible – or papers that deal with material that has too often been (ab)used 'to make a point' in the (recent) past, blinding us from other potential understandings of the past.
We also argue for an archaeology of 'daily practice', bringing more neglected segments and members of communities and societies alive by reconstructing past ways of life and life stadia through either 'peculiar' or on the contrary overtly 'common' material. Issues related to expressions and alterations in identity construction, visible in the material record on the individual and on the communal level, are particularly welcomed, as are papers that deal with identification of gender, age, power, elitism, commensalism etc. We call for papers that by addressing these issues bring the 'people behind practice' to life.
Abstract deadline
Please e-mail your abstract of max. 200 words to either Aurelie Daems or Bart Ooghe (Aurelie.Daems@Ugent.be, Bart.Ooghe@Ugent.be), with your name, affiliation, contact address and the main theme under which you wish to present the paper. Papers should not exceed 20-25 minutes, as each speaker will be allotted 30 minutes for presentation and questions. A more lengthy plenary discussion may be possible at the end of each session.
Deadline: December 1st, 2008.
Location and Registration
The conference will take place in the historical buildings of 'Het Pand' at Ghent University
(Belgium), from March 31st to April 2nd 2009. Further registration information to follow.
Daily Photo - Bronze sistrum with cat
Bronze sistrum with turned handle and four sounding bars bent over the ends. On curved top is seated cat with head turned to left. For a child?.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Measurements - height 14.35 cms length 7 cms width cms diameter cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Monday, October 20, 2008
Travel: Egypt's hidden treasures
MNSBC
See the above page for more.
Americans may consider Egypt a once-in-a-lifetime destination, but for Russian, Mediterranean and Arab tourists, it’s just another cheap and easy package tour stop—with the crowds to prove it. Fortunately, luxury tour operators and reputable independent guides can lift you out of the cattle-call shuffle. Private viewings, special openings and entrée to exclusive venues are possible, often for a nominal fee.
“In Egypt, anything is possible, with a little bit of money,” says John Fareed, a partner in U.S.-based marketing firm Fareed & Zapala. Fareed summered in Egypt as a child and still travels there frequently for work. During his last trip to Cairo, he took a private tour with an independent guide who checked out well with his hotel concierge. After visiting a few of the major attractions, the guide brought him to a working archaeological dig, and for an extra fee of approximately $40, got him access inside and permission to shoot flash photography.
See the above page for more.
Travel: Exploring Egypt isn't for the faint of heart
Denver Post (Thom Wise)
See the above page for more.
Hello, Cairo.
And goodbye.
I came. I tried. I failed.
To put it another way: Trying to travel Egypt on your own, not so fun.
I made the pilgrimage to Egypt because it's the cradle of civilization and culture, to say nothing of being the home of Omar Sharif, right? It has 5,000 years of history to explore, along with one of the largest cities in the world, Cairo, home to some 20 million inhabitants. How bad could it be?
Pretty bad.
I went solo because that's the way I've always done it. I've been fortunate to have ventured to more than 50 countries, most of them done with just a backpack, a guidebook and my wits. Taking the locals' advice has always led to some of my fondest memories, such as when a grizzled old Greek man pointed us up the back way to the hills above Crete, giving us the best sunset imaginable — just the kind of thing only a local knows.
Yet Cairo . . . she got the better of me.
I could see beyond the mountains of trash, and I could overlook the accompanying stench. I realize that sidewalks are hard to maintain, and who really needs elevators that work? The constant, ear-splitting noise can be helped by earplugs, one would suppose. And beggars in the street can be heartbreaking, but a good traveler knows that one person can't solve all the world's woes.
No, the problem with Cairo — and Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, and Giza, areas I also visited — lies in the fact that it has the unfortunate claim of having been a tourist mecca for centuries, which has given the population here plenty of time to hone tourist-scamming skills.
See the above page for more.
Secret Chamber Discovered in the Great Pyramid
Talking Pyramids (Vincent Brown)
See Vincent's site for details.
If anyone is planning to attend this lecture and takes notes it would be great if you could let Vincent and/or I have copies for the blogs - fully credited, of course.
Breaking in the news this morning was the announcement of a new discovery:Egyptologist Bob Brier has discovered a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid!
Apparently the discovery was made while investigating the merits of Jean Pierre Houdin’s theory that an internal spiral ramp was used to raise the stones used in the construction of the pyramid. The new chamber was discovered high up on the north-east corner of the pyramid and could be evidence of one of the corner cavities formed by the internal ramp.
Dr Brier will be giving a special lecture to announce the findings and present evidence including photographs of the newly discovered room.
See Vincent's site for details.
If anyone is planning to attend this lecture and takes notes it would be great if you could let Vincent and/or I have copies for the blogs - fully credited, of course.
Conference: International Symposium on Ancient Egypt and Nubia
Art Daily
See the above for more.
From October 31 to November 2, 2008 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) hosts the 34th Annual Symposium of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities (SSEA) entitled Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Golden Kingdoms of the Nile. On Saturday, November 1, 2008, join an international panel of scholars as they follow the tangled threads of competition and dominance that made up the complex relationship between the two great kingdoms of Nubia and Egypt, which grew and flourished side by side along the banks of the Nile. For over 5,000 years, these magnificent civilizations contended for supremacy in north-east Africa and produced some of the most stunning art and architecture in history. Cost for Saturday’s symposium: Public $90; ROM Member $80; Student $40; SSEA Members $80.
Two additional days of presentations, the Scholars Colloquium on Friday October 31 and Sunday November 2, are free to the public. International Egyptologists and ROM curatorial staff will explore the life, culture and religion of ancient Egypt through their most recent work.
See the above for more.
Walters shows how jewelry themes invented centuries ago have transcended the ages
Trading Markets
When Bedazzled, the exhibit of jewelry from the Walters Art Museum collection, opens today, it will be more than just an interesting look at gorgeous pieces from 5,000 years ago to the early 20th century. You'll also see the antecedents of contemporary bracelets, rings, earrings and necklaces that might be worn on the red carpet at the Oscars, at the next President's Inaugural Ball or at a neighbor's cocktail party.
Modern jewelry makers still use many of the same techniques, materials and motifs you'll find on display at the Walters to create precious pieces that have a timeless appeal.
Daily Photo - Game board
Limestone 'serpent-game' board with pierced handle attachment, three coils and incised criss-cross decoration on head and tail
Period - Early Dynastic Period ? (2750BCE-3100BCE)
Found at - Naqada
Measurements - diameter 28.8 cms height 3.4 cms
Period - Early Dynastic Period ? (2750BCE-3100BCE)
Found at - Naqada
Measurements - diameter 28.8 cms height 3.4 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Sunday, October 19, 2008
What does medicine owe to Africa?
BBC News Health (Jane Elliott)
See the above page for the full story.
The contribution of European culture to medicine has long been recognised.
The Greeks are thought by many to be forerunners of modern medicine - they studied the progression of disease, they knew something of the inner workings of the body, and their language gave medicine many of its terms.
But the Greeks probably learnt much from the Ancient Egyptians who understood the workings of the body from practising mummification.
Imhotep, architect of the famous step pyramids, has even been dubbed the first "father of medicine" for his influence.
Egyptologist Stephen Quirke said that, although the information from the time is sketchy, Imhotep did have an important role to play.
He is credited with diagnosing and treating over 200 diseases and even performing surgery and dentistry. Some say his work even influenced Hippocrates.
See the above page for the full story.
Revenue from Tutankhamun in the 1970s
ArtNet (Thomas Hoving)
See the above page for the full story.
Thomas Hoving is author of Master Pieces: The Curator’s Game (2005) and is former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The same stories circulate each time the Golden Age exhibition moves to a new venue, but I thought it might be of interest to some who may have missed some of the previous comments about the income derived from the original Tutankhamun, particularly as it comes straight from the horse's mouth.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco recently announced that the blockbuster, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," would open at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park for nine months, June 27, 2009-Mar. 28, 2010. The exhibition comes 30 years after the 1979 blockbuster King Tut show there.
About 50 of the 150 pieces come from Tut’s tomb, including 12 that were seen in the 1979 show. Highlights include a gold crown found on the head of his mummified form, a lavish bejeweled pectoral inscribed with the hieroglyphic for infinity, and a pair of diminutive coffins that contained the fetuses of what may have been the king’s children. Tut’s famous gold mask, a centerpiece of the ’79 show, is not included this time around. When the original show was in Berlin, one object was slightly damaged and the Egyptian parliament banned future peregrinations for the mask.
As usual with this Tut exhibition, admission charges will be high, as much as $32 for adults.
The 1979 Tut show was free. The reason for the high charges for this one was spelled out by the President of Egypt’s Organization of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass. In a press conference at the opening he said that Egypt had received no revenues from the 1976 exhibition.
Not so.
The revenues from the catalogue, posters, reproductions, scarves, stationery, and so forth in the museum shops at the six locations in the U.S., plus substantial profits from mail-order, was $7 million dollars, today worth maybe five times that amount.
Dr. Hawass has to know all this, since he must have been on the job in 1979 when Daniel Herrick, who was the chief financial officer of the Metropolitan Museum, delivered a fat check to the Egyptian authorities.
See the above page for the full story.
British woman returns ancient statues to Egypt
Earth Times
See the above for details.
A British citizen has handed in several small statues believed to be antiquities to Egyptian cultural authorities in London, expressing a wish that they be returned to their homeland, a news report said on Thursday. "I received an email from a British woman called Rebecca Robinson saying she had several ancient Egyptian statues that she wanted to return to Egypt," Maysa Nasr Farid, the Egyptian cultural attache in London told Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA).
See the above for details.
More re out of Africa via wet Sahara
Science Now (Michael Balter)
See the above page for more, which includes a map.
Modern humans arose in sub-Saharan Africa as early as 200,000 years ago, but our species did not venture beyond Africa until at least 80,000 years later. Just why they took so long to travel north is not clear, but many researchers have suggested that the bone-dry Sahara Desert was a major barrier to migrations from the south. Yet a new study indicates that the Sahara was crossed by wide rivers during a wet period that began about 120,000 years ago, providing a hospitable corridor for humans on the move.
The first sightings of Homo sapiens out of Africa, fossil skeletons from caves in modern-day Israel, are dated to between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago. Human evolution experts had long focused their attention on the most obvious corridor: The Nile River, whose previously disconnected segments between central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean Sea joined up beginning about 120,000 years ago. Recent research in North Africa, however, has uncovered stone tools and human fossils all along the Mediterranean coast and even in the Sahara. Some of these sites are dated to at least 90,000 years ago and possibly somewhat earlier, demonstrating that humans were able to survive in the area at about that time. In addition, a flurry of new climate studies suggests that the eastern Sahara received heavy rainfalls from Indian Ocean monsoons during this same period. Satellite radar imaging has revealed a system of more than 800 kilometers of channels, some more than 5 kilometers wide, now buried under the sands.
See the above page for more, which includes a map.
Travel: The al-Faiyum Oasis
Discount Travelogue
Al-Faiyum. If you want to see the working water wheels in Medinet al-Faiyum, the best point of view is from the cafeteria al-Medina, but I suggest you try to not consume anything. We ordered two cokes. We got two bottles of 'mineral' tap water, our cokes and two plates with slices of frozen (!) cake. Total bill E£7.50 ! My friend didn't feel like complaining and decided to pay. He gave a tenner and got E£.50 change. In other words, this is a place to avoid ! Just walk in, take your photos, say that you'll order in a minute, but instead leave in a minute.
We stayed in the nearby (well-situated) Palace Hotel. A clean double room was E£40, including breakfast. You have private toilets/showers, but they're not in the room itself. The restaurant here has a good selection of meals. They're tasty, but not too cheap. Everybody of the staff is seemingly very friendly and helpful but it's all about money. Do not agree with the receptionist to show you around the Faiyum sights. We surely didn't. He will send the porter with you, and this man is a real parasite. He initially wants E£2 for carrying your bags to your room. Remember the story about the guy that wanted parking money in the first chapter ? That was him !
Hawara Pyramid On the way to the Hawara Pyramid, we first visited the el-Hadika Prep. School. We picked up the school manager, Mr. Alfy, along the way. He was so grateful that he invited us over for tea. We met all the teachers and many pupils. It was a great and interesting experience. We spent most of the day there.
The principal then accompanied us to the nearby Deir el-Azab, a monastery for nuns. It's almost never visited by tourists. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful place. You can get there by taking the main road from Medinet el-Faiyum in the direction of Hawara. Past el-Hadika, a sign shows the way over the small stream on the right. The main church - we were told - dates back to the Romans. From these times there are relics of female saints. A nearby chapel is dedicated to St. Abraham. The body of this saint lies here, in a new coffin now, the old one is still on display. There are also some other antiquities.
See the above page for the entire post. The post is one of ten posts, all of which describe a trip to different areas of Egypt. There are 10 posts in all and they can be found at the above blog by clicking here (the first post is at the end of the page).
Exhibition: To Live Forever opens at Ringling Museum
My Sun Coast
See the above page for more.
Priceless treasures, Some more than 5,000 years old are now on display at Ringling Museum. And Saturday there will be special activities for children to let them learn about life in ancient Egypt, and have a great time doing it.
Each room at the Ringling Museum is centered around a mummy. There are even a couple of dog mummys.
One room focuses on items found inside coffins...things the person planned to take with them to the next world.
See the above page for more.
Trivia: Make your own Hallowe'en mummy outfit
Seattle Times
Looking for a Halloween costume that's cheap and easy?
There's no need to shell out big bucks when you can work wonders with a white sheet or some hangers.
Doing it yourself isn't just trendy, it's economical and eco-friendly. The Craft and Hobby Association estimates that more than half of U.S. households now engage in some kind of crafting.
This costume from ThreadBanger.com, a network for people who make their own fashion, uses items you may already have around the house.
Before starting the project, see the how-to video.
Daily Photo - Inscribed limestone stela
UC10712
Limestone stela inscription filled with blue and lines with red.
The 28th year of Amenemhat, son of the sun, living for ever, the department or the general Tekhu Mentuhotep. 32 cubits.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Found at - ?
Measurements - length 7 1/8 cms width 3 15/16 cms height 11/8 cms
Limestone stela inscription filled with blue and lines with red.
The 28th year of Amenemhat, son of the sun, living for ever, the department or the general Tekhu Mentuhotep. 32 cubits.
Period - Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE)
Found at - ?
Measurements - length 7 1/8 cms width 3 15/16 cms height 11/8 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Hawass as a role model?
Ghana News
A short piece suggesting that the Hawass approach to artefact repatriation might benefit other African countries:
We may not all agree with Zahi Hawass (http://www.guardians.net/hawass/) in his style and manner of approach to the issue of restitution of stolen or looted artefacts but there is no denying that the famous Egyptologist, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, has been extremely effective in his tasks and knows his job. This is no mean feat in a period where some of those having the fate of millions in their hands do not seem to have mastered their jobs.
Antiquities reveal surprising strength at lower end of market
International Herald Tribune (Souren Melikian)
See the two page story on the above link for full details.
Certain sales stand out as landmarks by unexpectedly shedding new light on the forces that truly drive the art market. A daylong auction of antiquities at Bonhams this week was one of those enlightening events.
What made it remarkable was the unremarkable character of the goods on offer. This is not meant as a snide comment about Bonhams, the modest but energetic third runner on the international auction arena, far behind Sotheby's and Christie's. Au contraire. Bonhams is working hard to hold its ground in the middle and lower levels of the market by making itself as attractive as possible.
In its revamped New Bond street premises, its displays can be as elegant as those at the big two and strolling in, you are rarely met with that touch of supercilious stiffness occasionally noticeable in the larger auction houses. On Wednesday, James Knight, the auctioneer who conducted most of the sale, brilliantly practiced the delicate art of trying to get good prices for the vendor without giving the impression of pressing bidders artificially, and in the process, probably brought his own contribution to the outcome of the auction.
But, ultimately, it is the buyer's willingness to pay for art that makes or breaks an auction. On a day when bleak forecasts were made afresh about the economic prospects of Britain, the public mood was not exactly rosy and the goods on offer had little about them that was likely to cheer up those possessed with the art collector's urge.
The sculpture, vessels, and jewelry consigned to the morning session made up a mix of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek and Roman art at the lowest level. Many pieces were poorly preserved, and few were redeemed by some rare feature.
See the two page story on the above link for full details.
Ancient Egyptian Astronomy
Innovations Report (Jiro Kondo)
See the above for more.
The constellations we are currently familiar with originate from “Ptolemy’s 48 constellations” compiled from ancient Greek constellations by Claudius Ptolemaeus (from 90 A.D. to about 168 A.D.). He was a Greek astronomer flourishing in Alexandria, Egypt in the second century A. D. Though it is believed these constellations originate from Mesopotamia or ancient Greece, there are still various views on the origin of constellations. Ancient Egypt had its own constellations.
1. Constellations specific to ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptians called the northern stars around the circumpolar star “Ikhemw-sek” (imperishable stars) and the southern stars “Ikhemw-wredj” (unwearying stars). This naming (tireless stars) is probably because the southern stars especially on and about the celestial equator travel a very long distance after they rise above the East horizon before they sink below the West horizon, while the northern stars move counterclockwise around the celestial north pole.
See the above for more.
New Book: Loot
Sharon Waxman
There's a recent review of the book on portfolio.com.
Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World by Sharon Waxman
Why are the Elgin Marbles in London, and not on the Acropolis? Why do there seem to be as many mummies in French museums as there are in Egypt? Why are so many Etruscan masterworks in America?
For the past two centuries, the most powerful nations of the West have been plundering the treasures of the ancient world to fill their great museums, without consequence. But in recent years, the governments of plundered nations have begun to push back, taking museums to court, prosecuting curators and threatening to shut down cultural exchange in order to force the return of these priceless objects.
Where do these treasures belong? Sharon Waxman, a former culture reporter of The New York Times and longtime foreign correspondent, takes us inside this high-stakes conflict over who owns the treasures of antiquity, examining the implications for the preservation of the objects themselves and for how we understand our shared cultural heritage. Her journey takes readers to the countries where ancient civilizations originated, and to the great museums of the West to understand their response to this unprecedented challenge. This adventure story investigates four ongoing confrontations -- in Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Italy -- as they face down the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. A cast of determined and implacable characters engage in the battles that may strip these museums of some of their most cherished treasures.
For readers who are fascinated by antiquity, who love to frequent museums, and who believe in the value of cultural exchange, Loot opens a window on an unpredictable battleground.
There's a recent review of the book on portfolio.com.
The Cat in Ancient Egypt
Felines in Egypt blog
Thanks to Kat Newkirk for forwarding the link to this summary of the role of cats in ancient Egypt. It is written by blog owner Jessica J. Bogg, is accompanied by photographs and contains a list of references at the end.
See the above page for the full account.
Thanks to Kat Newkirk for forwarding the link to this summary of the role of cats in ancient Egypt. It is written by blog owner Jessica J. Bogg, is accompanied by photographs and contains a list of references at the end.
The cat in ancient Egypt was called the "miw"; they were called this simply because the "meow" is the sound a cat makes when interacting with humans, as well as this being the sound kittens make to their mother. Unlike many other animals in ancient Egypt, cats were hardly ever given names, and seem to have just been referred to as "miw" (cat). This is unusual, considering that people were often named after animals themselves, including the cat; for example, one name that became popular for people to be named was "Pa-Miu" (the tomcat). These cats were depicted with plain coats, tabby stripes, or with spots . Scenes of cats in the Middle Kingdom are usually represented in bird hunting depictions that take place in a papyrus skiff or thicket. Cats in these types of settings appear to have taken over Old Kingdom versions; whereby an Egyptian mongoose or genet had been depicted out on a hunt in earlier times instead of the cat. When cats began to replace them in these scenes they are shown usually balancing precariously on one or two papyrus stalks or umbels with a prized bird in its jaws or in its claws. It is unknown, with any certainty, if these cats at this time were domesticated, tamed, or still wild, by looking at the scenes alone, but it is often assumed that, because they are helpful in bird hunting, in that they disturb the birds from the papyrus marshes making it easier for the hunter to hit the bird with his throwstick, they were likely at least tamed animals, if not fully domesticated.
See the above page for the full account.
Travel: Less is more in the Sinai Desert
The Times Online (Rachel Campbell Johnston)
Last week I visited Egypt for the first time. Even running a finger-tip over the silvery visa stamp was exciting. This was the land that had glimmered in my imagination since the boy king, Tutankhamun, brought pharaohs and falcons and scarabs and sphinxes, spooky bandaged corpses and brain-extracting hooks, into my plodding school history lessons.
This was the land of the biblical plagues, of Tintin and his mummy's curse, of Shelley's vast hubristic idol. Its lone and level sands stretched far away into a lost childhood world.
So did I hop on a camel and head straight for the pyramids? No. I didn't even see them. And no, I wasn't disappointed. This wasn't the right moment. This time my thoughts were adrift in another desert. I was in the holy empire of Byzantium.
I had come to Egypt to visit St Catherine's on the Sinai peninsula, which has kept its sacred traditions unbroken since the early 6th century, when the great builder Justinian constructed it from huge hunks of granite around a chapel marking the spot where Moses had seen the burning bush.
Here, in preparation for the magnificent Byzantium exhibition, which opens at the Royal Academy next week, I passed two days like a lizard in a rocky desert fissure. I gazed at the earliest surviving icon image of Christ's face, pored over manuscripts in the world's oldest Christian library, and attended dawn service in the Greek Orthodox basilica.
As the first grey light of morning leaked into the arid Sinai Valley, it spread its shimmer of divine glory across gilded mosaics. “Gather me into the artifice of eternity,” wrote Yeats. How could one not feel the truth of his yearning?
See the above page for the entire account.
The past is a foreign country
New Statesman (Harry Mount)
A nice piece looking at the impact of foreign cultures on British architecture. As well as India and China it features a section on Egyptian influences:
See the above page for the full story.
A nice piece looking at the impact of foreign cultures on British architecture. As well as India and China it features a section on Egyptian influences:
The peculiarly British openness to new fashions meshed happily with the colonial hunger for new possessions. Thus, Egyptian motifs became popular after Nelson won the Battle of the Nile against Napoleon's navy in 1798.
More than ten years later, in Maria Edgeworth's novel The Absentee (1812), Egyptian themes were still all the rage. An early professional interior decorator, Mr Soho, advises Lady Clonbrony, who is married to a dreary Irish peer, to deck out her ballroom in the prevailing fashion. "If your la'ship prefers it, you can have the Egyptian hieroglyphic paper," he says, "with the ibis border to match! The only objection is, one sees it everywhere - quite antediluvian - gone to the hotels even."
The Egyptian style lasted long into the 19th century, accounting for one of Britain's strangest terraces. On Richmond Avenue in Islington, north London, the handsome villas are guarded by a quirky set of sphinxes and obelisks. The sphinxes stare across the road at Tony Blair's old home in Richmond Crescent - the one that Cherie Blair is so cross at having sold for £615,000 in 1997. (Even after the recent fall in house prices, it is still worth £1.8m.) So great was Nelson's fame that these lovely little sphinxes and obelisks were inscribed with the word "Nile" in 1841, 43 years after the battle, by Joseph Kay, surveyor for Islington's Thornhill Estate.
See the above page for the full story.
Daily Photo - Serekh bracelet
UC25976
Blue glazed faience serekh bracelet composed of two end pieces with fastening holes and thirteen hawks on serekhs, also twenty-four spacer beads
Period - Dynasty 1 (2890BCE-3100BCE)
Found at - Gizeh
Measurements - length 20.0 cms width 2.2 cms
Blue glazed faience serekh bracelet composed of two end pieces with fastening holes and thirteen hawks on serekhs, also twenty-four spacer beads
Period - Dynasty 1 (2890BCE-3100BCE)
Found at - Gizeh
Measurements - length 20.0 cms width 2.2 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Friday, October 17, 2008
New evidence shows that human sacrifice helped populate the royal city of the dead
National Geographic (John Galvin)
National Geographic (Photo)
See the above page for the full storyKing Aha, "The Fighter," was not killed while unifying the Nile's two warring kingdoms, nor while building the capital of Memphis. No, one legend has it that the first ruler of a united Egypt was killed in a hunting accident after a reign of 62 years, unceremoniously trampled to death by a rampaging hippopotamus. News of his demise brought a separate, special terror to his staff. For many, the honor of serving the king in life would lead to the more dubious distinction of serving the king in death.
On the day of Aha's burial a solemn procession made its way through the sacred precincts of Abydos, royal necropolis of Egypt's first kings. Led by priests in flowing white gowns, the funeral retinue included the royal family, vizier, treasurer, administrators, trade and tax officers, and Aha's successor, Djer. Just beyond the town's gates the procession stopped at a monumental structure with imposing brick walls surrounding an open plaza. Inside the walls the priests waded through a cloud of incense to a small chapel, where they performed cryptic rites to seal Aha's immortality.
Outside, situated around the enclosure's walls, were six open graves. In a final act of devotion, or coercion, six people were poisoned and buried along with wine and food to take into the afterlife. One was a child of just four or five, perhaps the king's beloved son or daughter, who was expensively furnished with ivory bracelets and tiny lapis beads.
The procession then walked westward into the setting sun, crossing sand dunes and moving up a dry riverbed to a remote cemetery at the base of a high desert plateau.
National Geographic (Photo)
In the beginning every Egyptian ruler prepared a two-part funerary complex: an enclosure close to the Nile's floodplain for the celebration of rituals and a tomb deeper in the Western Desert—the land of the dead. Recent excavations at Abydos have revealed this 5,000-year-old mud-brick enclosure of Aha, the first king of the 1st dynasty. Six people, probably poisoned in connection with the royal funeral, were buried just outside the enclosure wall. "The king has the power of life and death over his subjects," says Matthew Adams, associate director of the dig. "He has the power to take with him those whom he chooses—or needs—to be at his disposal in the next world."
Ancient Egypt had powerful Sudan rival, British Museum dig shows
The Telegraph, UK (Stephen Adams)
Bloomberg
See the above pages for more.
The Second Kushite Kingdom controlled the whole Nile valley from Khartoum to the Mediterranean from 720BC to 660BC.
Now archaeologists have discovered that a region of northern Sudan once considered a forgotten backwater once actually "a real power-base".
They discovered a ruined pyramid containing fine gold jewellery dating from about 700BC on a remote un-navigable 100-mile stretch of the Nile known as the Fourth Cataract, plus pottery from as far away as Turkey.
Other finds included numerous examples of ancient rock art and 'musical' rocks that were tapped to create a melodic sound.
They only made the discoveries after being invited by the Sudanese authorities to help excavate part of the Merowe region, which is soon to be flooded by a large hydro-electric dam. More than 10,000 sites were found.
Historians had written off the area as being of little archaeological interest.
Dr Derek Welsby, of the British Museum, said: "We had no idea how rich the area was."
Remarkably well-preserved bodies, naturally mummified in the desert air, and a cow buried complete with eye ointment were also unearthed.
Dr Welsby said the finds revolutionised the history and geography of the Kushite kingdoms.
Bloomberg
The British Museum has been given 20 blocks of an ancient pyramid following an archaeological project that it said has transformed knowledge of ancient Sudan.
The London-based museum said Sudan let it keep the stones, which were among 390 granite pieces the dig located near the Nile's Fourth Cataract, which is now being flooded to provide hydroelectricity. The blocks made up an early Kushite structure dating between the 8th and 5th century B.C., the museum said in an e-mailed news release today.
Two rock gongs, which would have been played by striking them with quartzite pebbles, also have been given to the museum by Sudan. The pyramid blocks include examples of early art featuring camels, sheep and cows.
See the above pages for more.
Indianapolis Museum of Art Gets Grant for New Conservation Lab
Suite101 (Stan Parchin)
See the above page for more.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art announced on October 15, 2008 plans for the establishment of a state-of-the-art conservation science laboratory. Intended for the purpose of conducting in-depth art-historical research through technical means, Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded the museum a $2,613,450 grant for the facility.
Once constructed, the new laboratory will enable conservators, scientists and curators to conduct thorough investigations into the IMA's 54,000 objects, including African and Egyptian statuary, Asian ceramics, modern art glass, works on paper and those composed of more recent materials.
See the above page for more.
Damaged Egyptian "Mecca" To Be Restored
National Geographic (Andrew Bossone)
See the above page for the full story.
A development boom near Egypt's Abydos archaeological site is damaging one of the most sacred gathering places for ancient pilgrims, experts say.
Millions of Egyptians crossed the desert surrounding Abydos from 664 B.C. to A.D. 395 to pay homage to the god of the dead, Osiris. Many of Egypt's earliest pharaohs were buried at the site.
Modern pressures in the form of new farms and buildings have taken their toll on the 3.1-mile (5-kilometer) wide area, sometimes called the Mecca of ancient Egypt.
The temples and tombs are also home to the earliest known Egyptian hieroglyphics.
But now, an international team of archaeologists are rallying to protect Abydos from future harm.
This month, a government-run project to renovate Abydos will begin, according to archaeologists and architects involved in the effort.
"It is the site where we learn the most about the origins of [pharaohs in] Egyptian culture," said Günter Dreyer, director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. "Imagine a road running though this."
The Abydos site has been nicknamed Omm El Qaab, or Mother of Pots in Arabic, because pilgrims left millions of pieces of pottery in the desert around several cemeteries and temples built by Seti I, Ramses I, Ramses II, and Ramses IV.
Ancient pharaohs built in the desert partly to avoid damage from the annual floods and farming practices in the Nile Valley.
See the above page for the full story.
Tutankhamun the son of Akhenaten?
There are three new articles on Zahi Hawass's website, guardians.net:
King Tutankhamun is the son of Akhenaten
Hallucinations
Lesson from the Damiattans
King Tutankhamun is the son of Akhenaten
In El Ashmunein, during the last century, a limestone block that was broken into two pieces was found. The first piece of the block has an inscription that reads: the king’s son of his body Tutankhaton. On the other piece of the block the inscription reads: the daughter of the king, of his body, his great desire of the king of Two Lands, Ankhesenpaaton. Scholars suggest that this inscription is not only one of the few pieces of evidence showing Tut is from Tell El Amarna but also showing Akhenaton is the father of Tut because Tut is mentioned as the son along with the well-known daughter of Akhenaton, Ankhesenpaaton. Ankhesenpaaton was the third daughter of Akhenaton and Nefertiti and she was the wife of Tut.
When I began to study the family of king Tut and investigate the identity of his biological father and mother, I knew that it was important to find this block. The block is not registered in the registry book for the magazine in El Ashmunein. Therefore, I started to ask scholars who had discussed this block in their work about the location of the block – and no one knew where it was! I called Adel Hassan, the director of Minya, and asked him to search for the block. After a few days, he informed me that they had found it. I went to El Ashmunein and entered the storeroom and learned that they only had the side of the block that mentioned Tut’s name but not his wife, Ankhesenpaaton. We immediately started to search, among the numerous stones from the Aton Temple that were reused by Ramesses II in a temple at El Ashmunein in hopes of finding the other half of the block. And we were happily surprised when we located it. Brando Quilici, who is shooting a documentary about the family of Tut and accompanied me to the storeroom, was surprised and thrilled that we rediscovered this important piece of evidence.
Hallucinations
These days it would seem that most my time is spent denying rumors about the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Egypt’s Pharaonic, Coptic, and Islamic monuments. I do not know why some people create this misinformation and give it to newspaper reporters to publish without them even trying to find out the veracity of the statement. Most of what is published in a few newspapers is not true at all. It is quite amazing in my mind how they make up these stories. I once gave a talk at the Smithsonian Institute about the Sphinx. There was a reporter there from the Washington Post listening to the lecture. After the lecture, he came to me saying that he was very interested in what I had said about the Sphinx but that he would first like to read all the written information about the Sphinx and then he could come and talk to me. I respected this man very much. This is how news reporters should do their jobs.
Lesson from the Damiattans
What happened in Damaitta can be a lesson that all of us (governors, government officials – all Egyptians) can learn from. As we all know, a Canadian company – Agrium - was pursuing construction of a fertilizer factory on the island of Ras El Bar and because of the recent controversy parliament appointed a committee to study the case and they decided to move this factory away from Ras El Bar. First I would like to say that I am from Damaitta and I have always been proud of my origin. When the National Geographic made a film about my life story and work, I took them to Ras El Bar, the seashore where I spent my childhood. I took them to a unique place where the red water (from the fertile land) of the Nile used to join the Mediterranean Sea, the beautiful setting called El Lessan (tongue).
Karnak to undergo restoration
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)
See the above page for the full story.
The Karnak development project will soon be officially inaugurated by President Hosni Mubarak, Nevine El-Aref reports
Even in ruins, Karnak Temples remain a spectacular sight. Within the temples enclosure is a cluster of enormous pylons, splendid sanctuaries, awe-inspiring chapels and soaring obelisks, forming a vast open-air exhibition of history set in stone. It reflects not only the extravagant life of ancient Egyptians but their distinguished civilisation.
Recent visitors to the Karnak complex, however, will be faced with a slightly different scene. The temple forefront, which was, for decades, a stage for encroachment, chaos and grime and a parking lot for cars, buses, carriages, carts and peddlers, has been transformed into one of the most beautiful areas of the Upper Egyptian town of Luxor.
Serenity and divinity is overwhelming present, and a visitor can not only admire Egypt's Pharaonic history but can go even further to watch feluccas sailing on the Nile and can cross the river to see Hatshepsut's Deir Al-Bahari Temple and the Valleys of the Kings and Queens on the west bank.
The LE85-million Karnak development project has been implemented in collaboration with the Luxor City Council (LCC) and is now almost in place. "Now, Karnak is back to its ancient glory and respect," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly. Following 18 months of studies and field work, all infringements on the archaeological site have been removed, clearing a plot for further excavation to uncover more of the temples' archaeological story, especially the ancient harbour and canal that once connected the temples to the Nile. According to an old map, ancient Egyptians used this canal to gain access to the west bank at a position corresponding to the Hatshepsut Temple, which was built on the same axis.
See the above page for the full story.
Archaeologists Discover an Ancient Egyptian Temple near Pomorie
news.bg (Diana Stoykova)
Remains of a temple complex dedicated to the cult of Isis and Osiris were discovered in the Paleokastro region in Pomorie.
The temple dates back from the second century A.C., announced Burgasinfo
The building was built on the grounds of an ancient Thracian pagan temple, claim the archaeologists.
"There are many temples in Bulgaria, connected to Isis and Osiris, but this is the first temple complex, discovered through the means of archaeology", explains Sergey Torbanov, leader of the diggings.
During this season the main street in Anhialo was also discovered. The site of the diggings is put under security.
The artifacts, found during the working process, will be exhibited in Pomorie State Museum.
JSesh v.2.7
http://jsesh.qenherkhopeshef.org/
Thanks to Serge Rosmorduc for the information that version 2.7a of JSesh, his free hieroglyphic editor, is now available.
This version fixes a problem with cut and paste which occurred at least in the latest updates of Word for Mac 2004: the hieroglyphs ended up way too large.
Besides, there is again a number of new families from S. Thomas: The "D" and "I" families are complete now. (Hence JSesh has now an almost complete coverage for the families : A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L).
This version fixes a problem with cut and paste which occurred at least in the latest updates of Word for Mac 2004: the hieroglyphs ended up way too large.
Besides, there is again a number of new families from S. Thomas: The "D" and "I" families are complete now. (Hence JSesh has now an almost complete coverage for the families : A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L).
Conference: Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt
http://www.byblos.org.hu/index.php
"Third International Congress for Young Egyptologists: Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt" to be held on 25 27 September, 2009 in Budapest, Hungary.
The aim of the congress series initiated in 2003 is to provide an opportunity for young Egyptologists coming from many countries throughout the world to become acquainted, and to exchange ideas about their work and their research. It is also an excellent occasion for reports and presentations about excavation projects pursued in Egypt.
The theme of the congress is “Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt”. Papers are invited on any aspect of the topic (archaeology, history, religion, language, literature, economic theory, etc.). The proceedings of the congress will be published.
The Academic and Advisory Committee of the congress will include welcome Prof. Manfred Bietak (University of Vienna), Prof. Ulrich Luft (Eötvös Loránd University Budapest), Prof. László Török (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Dr. Edward Bleiberg (Brooklyn Museum), Dr. Ian Shaw (University of Liverpool), and Dr. David Alan Warburton (University Lumière Lyon 2 – CNRS).
For more details on the congress please visit theirwebsite at:
www.byblos.org.hu/index.php
Should you have any questions, remarks, enquiries please don’t hesitate to contact
the organisers:
András Hudecz (M.A.) Máté Petrik (M.A)
Byblos Foundation
ICYE2009@gmail.com
"Third International Congress for Young Egyptologists: Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt" to be held on 25 27 September, 2009 in Budapest, Hungary.
The aim of the congress series initiated in 2003 is to provide an opportunity for young Egyptologists coming from many countries throughout the world to become acquainted, and to exchange ideas about their work and their research. It is also an excellent occasion for reports and presentations about excavation projects pursued in Egypt.
The theme of the congress is “Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt”. Papers are invited on any aspect of the topic (archaeology, history, religion, language, literature, economic theory, etc.). The proceedings of the congress will be published.
The Academic and Advisory Committee of the congress will include welcome Prof. Manfred Bietak (University of Vienna), Prof. Ulrich Luft (Eötvös Loránd University Budapest), Prof. László Török (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Dr. Edward Bleiberg (Brooklyn Museum), Dr. Ian Shaw (University of Liverpool), and Dr. David Alan Warburton (University Lumière Lyon 2 – CNRS).
For more details on the congress please visit theirwebsite at:
www.byblos.org.hu/index.php
Should you have any questions, remarks, enquiries please don’t hesitate to contact
the organisers:
András Hudecz (M.A.) Máté Petrik (M.A)
Byblos Foundation
ICYE2009@gmail.com
Out of Africa - a new route?
Science Daily
See the above page for the full story.
The widely held belief that the Nile valley was the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans 120,000 year ago is challenged in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A team led by the University of Bristol shows that wetter conditions reached a lot further north than previously thought, providing a wet 'corridor' through Libya for early human migrations. The results also help explain inconsistencies between archaeological finds.
While it is widely accepted that modern humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa 150-200 thousand years ago, their route of dispersal across the hyper-arid Sahara remains controversial. The Sahara covers most of North Africa and to cross it on foot would be a serious undertaking, even today with the most advanced equipment.
Well-documented evidence shows there was increased rainfall across the southern part of the Sahara during the last interglacial period (130-170 thousand years ago). The Bristol University team, with collaborators from the universities of Southampton, Oxford, Hull and Tripoli (Libya), investigated whether these wetter conditions had reached a lot further north than previously thought.
Anne Osborne, lead author on the paper said: "Space-born radar images showed fossil river channels crossing the Sahara in Libya, flowing north from the central Saharan watershed all the way to the Mediterranean. Using geochemical analyses, we demonstrate that these channels were active during the last interglacial period. This provides an important water course across this otherwise arid region." The critical 'central Saharan watershed' is a range of volcanic mountains formerly considered to be the limit of this wetter region.
See the above page for the full story.
Book Review: Museums and Difference
Journal of Folklore Research
See the above page for the full story.
Museums and Difference. Edited by Daniel J. Sherman. 2008. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Reviewed by Lee Haring, Brooklyn College (Emeritus)
The essays in this two-part book explore the central force of “difference” in the organization and conception of museums. The project, says the editor, is to understand the mutual constitution of museums and of categories of difference “as a complex historical process, but also as an active phenomenological challenge to those who work in and on museums” (3-4). Part 1 is titled “Representing Difference.” Andrew McClellan’s “Art Museums and Commonality, a History of High Ideals” (25-59) admirably shows the art-museum concept of itself to have been obliged to take in cultural artifacts of people around the world. Comprehensive history of trends and influences--for instance an incisive critique of Edward Steichen’s photographic exhibition “The Family of Man”--and the opening of museums to contemporary social forces give this essay pride of place.
See the above page for the full story.
Exhibition: Bonaparte and Egypt... Fire and Light
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine el-Aref)
See the above page for the full story.
The 1798 Egyptian campaign led by Napoleon Bonaparte was undoubtedly a military failure, but the battalion of 160 scientists -- and certain brilliant officers -- added up to a force that generated a celebrated episode in history.
Focussing on the French expedition, the theme of Paris's new exhibition "Bonaparte and Egypt... Fire and Light" covers a century of relations between Egypt and France. The symbolic outline of this period is measured by two dates: the birth in 1769 of Bonaparte and Mohamed Ali Pasha -- Egypt's first modern sovereign, who advanced the country to a new era -- and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
With the naissance of Egyptology, the unique style, the publication of La Description de L'Égypte, and the expansion of Orientalism: the influence of Egypt in France was preponderant in this period even though the role of France was determined to give Egypt access to modernity.
To set up the exhibition, the Arab World Institute (IMA) assigned a Franco-Egyptian scientific committee that explored the largest museums in Egypt, America and Europe and carefully selected some 400 artefacts that bore witness to the époque for display and could be loaned for the next six months.
The exhibition suggests a new view of the rapport between France and Egypt in the 19th century, especially in the era that followed Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt between 1798 and 1801. This point of historic departure will provide the opportunity for cross observation of the artistic exchanges between both countries.
The chronological limits were fixed between 1770 and 1870 until the end of the 19th century through representations of the Egyptian campaign by French artists. The confrontation of Bonaparte's troops with the Egyptian civilisation, more antique than modern, were a real cultural shock. Chronological events also confounded the French and Egyptian vision of a strong moment in the history of the two countries, one that envisaged rich cultural, political and economic mutual growth.
In fact it was the paucity of Egyptian iconographic representations that permitted the creation of that iconic French collection of illustrations that became La Description de L'Égypte, which will now serve as a parallel guide through the IMA exhibition while the Egyptian texts will constitute the main current.
See the above page for the full story.
Exhibition: 'Agatha Christie's Egypt: Life on the Nile in the 1930s
Thanks to Maria Belilovskaya for the following news:
San Francisco, CA. - San Francisco State University's Museum Studies Program is proud to present the new exhibition "Agatha Christie's Egypt: Life on the Nile in the 1930s." Egypt held a special meaning for the career of the beloved mystery writer: After traveling there and taking the trip up the Nile on a tourist steamer, Agatha Christie wrote one of her most successful books, Death on the Nile, which features the one and only Hercule Poirot solving the mystery murder in a group of British and American travelers.
The exhibition shows Egypt the way it would have looked to the eyes of Agatha Christie and other Western tourists of 1930s. Magnificent black and white photographs show archaeological excavations and the great Egyptian monuments - Sphinx of Giza and the temples of Karnak and Luxor. The photographers of the 1930s caught the last view of the island of Philae, which went under water after the Aswan Dam was opened. Next to these iconic images are pictures of the daily life of Egyptians: people making mats, molding bricks, and discussing everyday affairs.
The magazines and newspapers of 1930s provide an authentic atmosphere for the "period room," modeled after a luxury hotel lobby. Here, visitors get a chance to relax, leave their names in a guest book and try out the stereoscope and stereographs of Egypt. Those three-dimensional images were the first 'high definition' photographs, popular in 1930s.
A visit to Egypt could not be complete without going to the museum of antiquities to see mummies, statues of gods, and contents of tombs. The core of this part of the exhibition consists of the objects from the famous Sutro Egyptian Collection, purchased by former San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro in 1884. The treasures of the collection on display include the 3000-year-old mummy called Nes-Per-N-Nub with a rare triple-nesting sarcophagus set (one of the only 3 triple-nesting sarcophagi in the US!); other mummified remains; the stunning Amarna princess limestone statuette; jewelry and amulets that accompanied Egyptians to the afterlife.
For visitors of all ages, the exhibition provides a unique hands-on INTERACTIVE MUMMY. If you always wanted to learn more about the art of mummification, you can practice with our custom-made interactive mummy, which is equipped with lungs, liver, kidneys, and brains to be removed. Wrapping the mummy is the final stage of this adventure!
The exhibition is located at San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132-4030, in Humanities Building, 5th Floor, Room 510. It would be open to the public 11:00 to 4:00, Monday through Friday, November 3rd - December 12th, with a hiatus for the week of Thanksgiving. Admission is free.
Conference: Food and Drink in Archaeology 2009
University of Nottingham
Archaeology has a long tradition of food and drink studies. Originally concerned with nutrition and later with economics, archaeologists now recognise that research into the production, distribution and consumption of foodstuffs has the potential to reveal much about the ideology and structure of past societies. Food and drink are relevant to all areas of archaeology, regardless of geography, temporality or sub-discipline. Our conference series seeks, therefore, to unite researchers from different fields through a common interest in foodways. The proceedings of each conference are published in a peer-reviewed volume, published by Prospect Books.
The third annual Food and Drink conference will be held at the University of Nottingham on the 17 and 18 April 2009.
For the 2009 conference we are inviting established and early-career academics, as well as postgraduate students, to submit proposals for sessions, papers and posters on any topic or theme. We are particularly keen to attract speakers who have adopted multi/inter-disciplinary approaches.
If you are interested in proposing a session, paper or poster, please contact Naomi Sykes or Claire Newton for further details (email addresses on above page).
Alternatively download and return the following forms:
Details of Session Proposal, Paper Proposal, Poster Proposal are available on the above page. Deadline for poster/paper/session proposals 1st December 2008
Previous Conferences:
Review of the 2007 Conference
Review of the 2008 Conference
More than one Rosetta Stone?
Egypt Daily Star News (Ahmed Maged)
See the above page for the full story.
An Egyptology researcher has called for the display of another original version of the Rosetta Stone at the entrance of the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, dismissing the official request by Egypt to repatriate the stone from the UK as mere propaganda.
Researcher Bassam El Shammaa, who also works as a tour guide, told Daily News Egypt that there are different versions of the stone, which was discovered in Rashid in 1799. The two similar stelae discovered in Kom El Hesn in the Western Delta are currently exhibited in the Greco-Roman section of the museum.
“They have never been promoted as exact copies of the Rosetta Stone despite the fact that, besides being in better condition than their counterpart, on exhibit at the British Museum since 1802, they display the same royal text,” El Shammaa said.
The diorite bulky dubbed the Rosetta Stone derives its importance from the fact that it helped Thomas Young and Francois Champollion, pioneers of the modern science of Egyptology, to decipher the ancient Egyptian language by comparing the hieroglyphic text to its counterparts in classical Greek and Demotic, another ancient Egyptian script also inscribed on the stone.
See the above page for the full story.
Meeting: Ancient Mysteries in Dubai Pyramid
i Report
See the above page for more.
Eight of the world's foremost experts in the fields of History, Archaeology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Anthropology and Geology are gathering in Dubai on November 29th and & 30th to reveal significant discoveries about the life and history of the World. For the first time in the Middle East, the International Conference for Ancient Studies will be taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and will revolve around the topic of The Mysteries of Ancient Civilisations. . . .
The speakers are all prominent international authorities in their respective subjects and are involved in several continuous research projects happening at the moment. Two major discoveries, one in Egypt and one in South America, will be announced and described to the World for the first time during the conference.
See the above page for more.
Daily Photo - Bull's head offering tray from Rifeh
Fragment of Nile silt pottery offering tray with bull's head and conical loaf.
Bull has white dots for eyes.
Buff coloured fabric with red slip layer.
Period - Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-2024BCE)
Found at - Rifeh
Measurements - height 3.7 cms length 13.8 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sarcophagii and Statues Discovered at Saqqara
Pyramid of Man
Translated from the French website Le journal du CNRS:
See the above page for the full story.
Source: CNRS
Translated from the French website Le journal du CNRS:
At thirty kilometers southwest of Cairo, the site of Saqqara has delivered new wonders. The archaeological mission led by Egyptologist Christiane Ziegler revealed in broad daylight inviolate tombs dated from the first millennium BC Within a funerary complete and very well preserved was found (sarcophagi, statues, etc.).. Back on spectacular discoveries.
See the above page for the full story.
Source: CNRS
Ancient objects whisper the desire to live forever
Herald Tribune (Kevin Costello)
See the above for more.
Against vistas of sun-baked dunes and cold, star-filled desert nights, the ancient Egyptians created an art and culture centered on death and the afterlife.
"To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures From The Brooklyn Museum," a traveling exhibit of more than 100 objects explores this relationship to the afterlife and the gods and goddesses who inhabited this universe. The exhibit includes a mummy and portrait of Demetrios, a wealthy citizen of Hawara (95-100 A.D.), two mummies of dogs (664 B.C.-395 A.D.), a painted coffin of a mayor of Thebes (about 1075-945 B.C), stone sculptures and statues, protective jewelry, amulets and ritual vessels. Here an ancient civilization that has fascinated generations with its wealth of materials, such as faience and gold, and dark imaginings is vividly brought to life. Since the early 19th century a fascination with things Egyptian called Egyptomania has influenced many aspects of western visual culture, most recently Halloween costumes of "The Mummy" and horror films.
The exhibit illustrates the longevity of Egyptian culture, beginning with a knife from the Pre-Dynastic Period (4400-3000 B.C.) to the dog mummies of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (30 B.C.-642 A.D.).
See the above for more.
Exhibition: To live forever
Herald Tribune
A large collection of artifacts from Egyptian tombs may strike some as macabre, but to Virginia Brilliant, they signify the Egyptians' love of life.
Brilliant is assistant curator of European Art and organizing curator of "To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum" at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. The show's official opening is Saturday, although the galleries in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing are now open.
"The thing that I think you really get is the Egyptians really loved life, they loved their life on earth, they had a very joyous life," said Brilliant, who has overseen the installation of more than 100 objects of ancient Egyptian art.
Se the above page for the full story, which is accompanied by four photographs and details of special lectures and programs.
International Symposium on Ancient Egypt and Nubia
Art Daily
From October 31 to November 2, 2008 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) hosts the 34th Annual Symposium of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities (SSEA) entitled Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Golden Kingdoms of the Nile. On Saturday, November 1, 2008, join an international panel of scholars as they follow the tangled threads of competition and dominance that made up the complex relationship between the two great kingdoms of Nubia and Egypt, which grew and flourished side by side along the banks of the Nile. For over 5,000 years, these magnificent civilizations contended for supremacy in north-east Africa and produced some of the most stunning art and architecture in history. Cost for Saturday’s symposium: Public $90; ROM Member $80; Student $40; SSEA Members $80.
Two additional days of presentations, the Scholars Colloquium on Friday October 31 and Sunday November 2, are free to the public. International Egyptologists and ROM curatorial staff will explore the life, culture and religion of ancient Egypt through their most recent work.
Daily Photo - Limestone stand from Lahun
Limestone stand consisting of two men standing back to back supporting platform on which is deep vase with winged depression in top, ? lamp or 'stand for bread offering'.
Found in five pieces after 1939-45 war, with base and feet of one figure
Period - late Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-2024BCE)
Found at - Lahun
Measurements - height 30 + cms
Found in five pieces after 1939-45 war, with base and feet of one figure
Period - late Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-2024BCE)
Found at - Lahun
Measurements - height 30 + cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Mameluke makeover
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)
See the above page for the full story.
As Muslims were celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and Minister of Endowments Hamdi Zaqzouq attended the official reopening of three restored Islamic buildings in Al-Saliba Street in Sayeda Zeinab. The historic mosque and khanqah (hostel for itinerant Sufis) of Prince Shaykhu and the sabil-kuttab (water fountain and Quranic school) of Prince Abdullah Kathuda, which reflect the brilliance of the mediaeval Mameluke period when Islamic architecture flourished in Cairo, have been restored and are again open to the public.
All three monuments were suffering from the same classic problems: leakage of subterranean water, misuse by the area's residents, structural deterioration and serious environmental damage from air pollution, humidity and decaying foundations, and not least the effects of the 1992 earthquake which caused cracking to all three monuments and the collapse of some archaeological elements. Some parts of their original floors had completely vanished, as well as parts of their mashrabiya (wooden lattice work) façades.
See the above page for the full story.
Anthropologist Receives Top Award
Emory Wheel
George Armelagos, professor and chair of anthropology at Emory, won the 2008 Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology, the highest honor given by the American Anthropological Association (AAA). . .
Armelagos has been involved with the AAA for more than 50 years and has worked at Emory since 1993.
Armelagos specializes in physical anthropology, skeletal biology, demography and the evolution of disease in the Mediterranean and African regions.
Friend and colleague, anthropology professor Peter Brown, said that Armelagos has spent his career demonstrating that race is not a good biological concept, noting that racism is an important social fact that can have negative social impacts.
Brown said that one of the most notable contributions to the discipline of anthropology by Armelagos was to help develop AAA’s statement on race.
Armelagos also studies diet and disease, specifically their effects on the course of human development.
Armelagos said he has spent years of study focusing on the area of Sudanese Nubia, where he analyzed the evolution of diet and disease in prehistory. It was in this area that Armelagos discovered 1,500-year-old evidence of the use of tetracycline, an antibiotic.
Egyptology department looks to hire new prof
The Brown Daily Herald
See the above page for more.
The Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies is looking to hire a tenure-track professor to teach Mesopotamian language and cultures.
The new professor is expected to teach Akkadian and Mesopotamian history and culture, said Professor of Egyptology James Allen, chair of the department. The position, currently filled by a visiting professor, would allow the department to expand permanently into the field of Western Asian studies.
Plans for expansion also include creating an undergraduate concentration and doctoral program in ancient Western Asian studies. Allen is currently working on proposals for these programs to the College Curriculum Council and the Graduate Council. The new professor is expected to help with this project.
The department, one of the smallest at the University, has expanded since 2005 to include ancient Western Asian studies as part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, The Herald reported in November 2005. It currently consists of five permanent, and one visiting, professors. There are eight student concentrators in the department - up from between two and five in any given year.
See the above page for more.
Berlin museum treasures at Legion of Honor
SFGate (Steven Winn)
See the above for more.
When Tim Simon was growing up in Elyria, Ohio, in the 1950s, his stepfather kept a copy of the famous bust of Nefertiti on a coffee table in the living room. Simon didn't think much about the thing at the time. Nor did the exotic Egyptian queen, wife of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaton, occupy his thoughts for decades to come.
But Nefertiti was destined to play an unlikely role in the life of the San Francisco electronics entrepreneur - and that of his adoptive city as well. With the opening of "The State Museums of Berlin and the Legacy of James Simon" at the Legion of Honor this week, an original likeness of the celebrated Egyptian beauty will enjoy pride of place along with about 150 other objects in a wide-ranging show that wouldn't have happened without Simon's drive, determination and avidly pursued family connections.
In addition to an abundant selection of Egyptian and Babylonian antiquities, the show includes a sublimely becalmed "The Virgin With the Sleeping Child" by the 15th century Italian master Andrea Mantegna; a pair of Andrea della Robbia terra cottas; paintings by Courbet, Renoir and Caspar David Friedrich; Japanese woodblock prints; and European folk art in various media.
The State Museums of Berlin and the Legacy of James Simon: Sat.-Jan. 18. $16-$20. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tues.-Sun. Legion of Honor, 34th Avenue and Clement Street, San Francisco. (415) 750-3600, www.famsf.org/legion.
See the above for more.
Le delta et la vallée du Nil. Le sens de ouadj our (w3d wr)
Editions Safranpar Claude Vandersleyen, 2008, 352 pages, carte et photos couleurs (collection Connaissance de l'Égypte ancienne, 10)
La vallée du Nil a, de tout temps, été célèbre pour sa fécondité due à son inondation régulière. Celle-ci, en la personne du dieu Osiris, féconde la terre noire qui est Isis ; sur cette terre pousse alors une intense végétation : c’est « la grande verdure » ; en égyptien cela se dit “ouadj our”, et tous les grands dieux de l’Égypte sont responsables de cette prospérité ; ils en sont propriétaires, surtout Horus, le fils de la crue, puisqu’il est le fils d’Osiris et d’Isis. Le terme ouadj our concerne tous les aspects du sol et on y marche, on y navigue, on y cultive, on s’y bat, on s’y perd.
La partie principale de ouadj our, le delta, la plus grande surface du pays, échappait pour une part à l’autorité des pharaons. Dans les inextricables fourrés de roseaux et de papyrus, dans le morcellement infini du sol par les voies d’eau grandes et petites, des populations « rebelles » menaient une existence autonome, indépendante des rois qui tout au long de l’histoire de l’Égypte seront sur la défensive vis-à-vis des Haou-nebout et autres Rekhyt et des îles qui sont au milieu de ouadj our.
Pendant longtemps les Égyptiens ont vécu en vase clos à l’intérieur des limites naturelles du pays, c’est-à-dire la surface que l’inondation du Nil pouvait atteindre. Quand les scribes de Ptolémée III ont dû parler de l’île de Chypre, leur embarras fut grand : ils ne connaissaient “en hiéroglyphes” d’autre île que celles qu’avaient formées les alluvions du Nil.
Comme ouadj our est présent à toutes les époques et dans toutes les parties de la vallée du Nil, on ne s’étonnera pas des multiples aspects qu’il a fallu aborder lors de l’examen des quelque 360 attestations du terme. C’est qu’il s’agit du sol de l’Égypte et de l’inondation du Nil, qui régulièrement le fait verdir. C’est l’inondation qui entretient ce que les Égyptiens appelaient d’un terme descriptif : « la grande verdure », ouadj our.
The day of the foetuses
Al Ahram Weekly (Zahi Hawass)
Even today, Tutankhamun remains a mystery. When I mention his name, excitement fills the air because the press is fascinated by him. I, myself, have been quite happy to undertake various projects regarding the Golden Boy. I will never forget when I arrived at the Valley of the Kings in order to move Tut's mummy from the sarcophagus to a display case for restoration. Reporters from around the world were waiting to see the Boy King. For the latest project, I went to the University of Cairo and met with my friend Ahmed Samen, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. Faculty members cooperated with the SCA to carry out a CT-scan and to examine, for the first time, the foetuses buried with King Tut. Many stories have surrounded these foetuses over the years. Fawzi Gaballa, who has been taking good care of them, considers them to be the king's babies. Before I met Samen, I investigated the story of their discovery.
Exhibition: Hatshepsut in Toronto
Serwis Nauka w Polsce
More information can be found on the Royal Ontario Museum website.
The results of the latest researches made by Polish specialists of the Egyptologial-conservational mission in Hatshepsut's temple in Deir el-Bahari, Egypt, were presented on the October 2nd by Dr Zbigniew Szafrański, the deputy chief of the Mediterranean Archaeology Centre at the University of Warsaw. The lecture took place in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Polish archaeologists have been running archaeological research in Deir el-Bahari since 1961. Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski led them for the first two decades, and he is known as the founder of the Polish school of Mediterranean Archaeology.
During excavation work, they found a previously unknown temple of Totmes the Third, which is placed next to Hatshepsut's temple. Amongst the ruins they found a perfectly preserved monument of the Pharaoh. It can be seen in the Museum of Luxor. Besides regular excavating digs, restoration and conservation work has been undertaken. What is interesting is that many decorative blocks from these temples are in the Royal Ontario Museum.
Many archaeologists worked here before the Poles, but they mainly focused on documenting and excavating rather than preserving. Researchers such as Jean-Francis Champollion copied all the hieroglyphs that were in the main sanctuary of Amun-Ra. True excavating works were started by August Mariette - the founder the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, then Edouard Naville of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and Herbert E. Winlock from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Looking at the list above you could think that after a few dozen years of excavating nothing interesting could be found. But surprisingly in 2005 under the floor of Hatshepsut's temple Polish archaeologists discovered the grave of Padiamone, a Vizier from the XXV dynasty. Szafrański spoke about other discoveries in Toronto.
More information can be found on the Royal Ontario Museum website.
Exhibition: The Gates of Heaven
Suite101 (Stan Parchin)
See the above page for the full story.
The Musée du Louvre will host The Gates of Heaven: Visions of the World in Ancient Egypt from March 6 to June 29, 2009.
"The Gates of Heaven" is an ancient Egyptian expression that refers to the doors of a sanctuary that contained the statue of a divinity.
See the above page for the full story.
Atlanta museum showcases masterpieces from Louvre
Mercury News
See the above page for the full story.
Titled "The Louvre and the Masterpiece," the last leg of the three-year partnership challenges viewers to define what constitutes a masterpiece and explores how that definition has evolved over the years
"We are attempting to explore this fundamental question in the field of art, a question that has no definite answer, 'What is a masterpiece?'" said Louvre director Henri Loyrette at a preview earlier this week of the exhibit. . . .
The Find the Forgery gallery allows visitors to play museum curator. After examining two heads, one made of black stone and the other of blue glass, they can use one of four interactive screens to go through the process that Louvre curators used to determine in 2002 that one of the two pieces, both from the department of Egyptian antiquities, was a forgery.
See the above page for the full story.
Egypt confirms its keenness on boosting UNESCO rol
Egypt State Information Service
Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Hani Helal during his speech to the UNESCO Executive Council in Paris, delivered on his behalf by Dr. Shadia Qenawi the Head of Egypt's delegation to the UNESCO, confirms on 10/10/2008 Egypt's keenness on boosting the UNESCO role and improving it as it is the United Nation's pioneering organization in the field of education, science and culture.
In his speech, he referred to the importance of adopting reform policies which match with the UNESCO's goals and distinguished nature, in addition to the importance of concentrating on the UNESCO's dealing with its various activities according to its principles of implementing the desired goals.
He said that Egypt confirms the importance of activating the inter-south cooperation initiative and boosting its fund which Egypt contribute in it by a sum of $ 20,000 for implementing the millennium goals and the desired successes for the education initiative.
Moreover, he calls the UNESCO to activate the IT and communications technologies in the field of education as one of the basic axis for open education which is available on distance for widening the range of training teachers in the southern countries in general and in Africa in particular.
Besides, he called the UNESCO to increase the subsidy offered to the educational institutions in the regions of crisis and armed disputes as well as in Palestine and Iraq.
Conference: Climate and Ancient Societies
http://climate.ku.dk/cas/ (the link is currently broken but it's the only one I have and I expect that they will fix it, so if you're interested give it a whirl in a few days time)
Climate and Ancient Societies - Causes and human responses
The Stine Rossel Memorial Conference
21- 23 October 2009
Department of Cross Cultural & Regional Studies
Faculty of Humanities
University of Copenhagen
Climate and Ancient Societies - Causes and human responses
The Stine Rossel Memorial Conference
21- 23 October 2009
Department of Cross Cultural & Regional Studies
Faculty of Humanities
University of Copenhagen
Climate, and human responses to it, plays an integral part in the formation of society. Thus when climate change occurs, the result of either natural or human causes, societies should react and adapt – but do they? If so, what is the nature of that change, and are the responses positive or negative for the long term survival of society and its peoples? Archaeology, steeped in interdisciplinary studies and dealing with a longue durée view of society, offers detailed and verifiable insights into climate changes in the past: causes, responses and consequences. This conference, held under the umbrella of the University of Copenhagen’s Climate and Sustainability initiative (http://climate.ku.dk/), is held in memory of Stine Rossel, archaeozoologist and member of the Department of Cross Cultural & Regional Studies, who had a keen research interest in climate and past societies.
The conference has four major themes as outlined below, each dealing with understanding past climates, human impact, and sustainability. Fields range from general to specific Near East. Interested participants may submit paper titles and abstracts (no more than 200 words) for consideration to the e-mail address climateANE@hum.ku.dk until January 31 2009, the selection of papers will be made through blind review by members of the conference’s Scientific Committee.
Accepted speakers will exchange their papers before the conference.
The conference fee will be 350 DKK for salaried participants and 250 DKK for students. Fees can be paid when the reviewing process has been finished.
Conference sessions
1. Holocene Climate Reconstruction
Keynote speaker and organiser: Neil Roberts, University of Plymouth
This session adopts a holistic and global approach to reconstructing Holocene climates. Ways of measuring and assessing climatic variation are considered thematically and methodologically, drawing on material from a variety of sources such as ice core pollen, deep sea sediment cores, lacustrine sediments, and faunal and floral studies. Methods and approaches to Holocene climate reconstruction will range from general, world-wide perspectives to more focussed studies on the
Mediterranean area and the Near East. Papers that deal with new approaches in method and analysis as well as recent results of innovative field projects are especially encouraged.
2. Responses of Complex Societies to Climatic Variation
Keynote speaker and organiser: Jason Ur, Harvard University
The complex and continuing changing relationship between complex societies and the environment in which they exist is the focus of this session. With an emphasis on human response to climatic change, special attention will be paid to exploring social change, resilience and collapse in the face of climate change in the past. It is expected that this session will range from case studies to regional analyses with an unambiguous Mediterranean and Middle Eastern focus.
3. Archaeological Evidence for Pollution and its Ecological Implications
Keynote speaker and organiser: Richard Meadow, Harvard University
The subject of the direct or indirect impact of human behaviour on plant and animal communities is central to contemporary archaeological research. This session will explore this topic, notably the adverse effect of human activity on the environment, for example the depletion of game animals seen in shifts in the abundance of certain species. Special focus will be paid to investigating the severe and sometimes destructive pollution of the environment through human behaviour. It is expected that this session will have a clear Mediterranean and Middle Eastern focus.
4. Stable Isotope Analysis in the Middle East
Keynote speaker and organiser: Nanna Noe-Nygaard, University of Copenhagen
This session takes as its core subject new perspectives and possible problems in stable isotope analysis in the field of environmental studies. Papers will explore the potential of stable isotope analysis in archaeological research and the many new avenues of approach it offers, without disregarding the prospective problems associated with the application of the still emergent fields of ancient DNA and stable isotope analysis to archaeology.
Scientific committee:
Mette Marie Hald, Pernille Bangsgaard Jensen, Susanne Kerner, Alan Walmsley (CNA, ToRS,
University of Copenhagen) and the keynote speakers.
Daily Photo - ivory tag
UC16182
Ivory (hippopotamus) incised with BEKH and serekh with name of King Djer (cp. 16172)
(broken at hole)
Period - Dynasty 1 (2890BCE-3100BCE)
Found at - Abydos
Measurements - height 3.6 + cms width 3.1 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
University College London
With my thanks
Friday, October 10, 2008
Egypt's Frontier Oasis
Archaeology Magazine (Salima Ikram)
The third- to fourth-century A.D. Roman fort at Umm el-Dabadib is likely built over an earlier pharaonic one. The oasis's Roman forts are found at the north, south, east, and west limits of the oasis, often near water supplies. Unlike others in the Roman world, they are made of mud brick, not stone. A walkway on top allowed soldiers to survey the surrounding area. The primary function of the forts was probably not defense as their walls are, for the most part, only one brick thick. However, especially from a distance, their massive appearance conjures up the might of the Roman Empire, so the facades must have deterred nomadic attackers while the forts performed their real function--administration of the empire's southern limits. (Ken Garrett)
Deep in the Libyan Desert, 125 miles west of Luxor, lies Kharga, Egypt's largest oasis. The North Kharga Oasis Survey (NKOS), of which I am co-director, has established that this remote area--more than 100 miles long and from 12 to 60 miles wide--was continuously occupied throughout Egyptian history. We now know that it is home to an extraordinary variety of sites, including prehistoric rock art, Neolithic encampments, pharaonic monuments and burials, Roman settlements and water-supply systems, and the stars of the oasis--five unique Roman forts that guarded this part of the empire's southernmost frontier. Newly discovered ancient graffiti has even provided the name of a previously unknown ruler, King Aa, in power around 3000 B.C., who sent an expedition to this remote area. The NKOS's results are also changing our understanding of ancient Egypt's connections with its neighbors. We can now show that Kharga played an important role in trade between Egypt and other parts of Africa, from the Old Kingdom up through the modern period.
Digital Karnak
Digital Karnak
The new Digital Karnak website is up and running at the above address. Here's the text from the introductory page:
The colossal site of Karnak is one of the largest temple complexes in the world, with an incredibly rich architectural, ritual, religious, economic, social and political history. The Amun-Ra precinct, which includes an astonishing number of individual temples, shrines and processional ways, stands as a micro-cosmos of ancient Egypt.
We invite you to experience Karnak – to learn about an ancient site that still resonates today because of its monumental pylons, towering columns, stunning reliefs and architectural marvels. Enter the temple precinct and discover its rich religious, political and architectural history.
The Digital Karnak Project was designed and built at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) under the direction of Dr. Diane Favro (director of the ETC) and Dr. Willeke Wendrich (editor-in-chief of the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology).
To start, choose one of the options above or go directly to the Temple complex overview. Click here to learn more about the Digital Karnak project.
Recent work in Minufiyeh
Egypt Exploration SocietyThe Minufiyeh Archaeological Survey, directed by Dr Joanne Rowland, is part of the Society’s Delta Survey (http://www.ees.ac.uk/deltasurvey/dsintro.html), and has recently completed its fourth season of work in the central Delta province of Minufiyeh.
The 2008 season lasted from 26 March to 17 May and involved 1) a ground survey in the area of Khattatbah, aimed at identifying prehistoric remains on the desert edges, 2) the continuation of the province-wide ground survey, which was begun in 2005, 3) the re-opening of a test excavation trench in a cemetery on the Quesna gezira, 4) drill coring in the low ground around Quesna and, 5) a resistance tomography survey in the village of Kom al Ahmar, Minuf.
The Austrian West Delta Expedition led by Hermann Junker visited Khattatbah in 1927-8. The landscape has altered much since that time, but despite extensive land reclamation in the area, stone tools were visible on the surface in some areas, and in one spot a cluster of New Kingdom ceramic sherds was also in evidence.
See the above page for the full story. The above photograph shows Jo Rowland at work.
Egypt's tourism minister leaves for Rome to attend OECD tourism committee talks
Egypt State Information Service
Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana, left Cairo Wednesday8/10/2008 for Rome to represent Egypt in the tourism committee meetings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to open on Thursday and run for three days.Egypt is going to have an observer seat at the meetings for the first time in appreciation of its standing on the world tourism map and its ambitious plans for sustainable tourism, which are also designed to attract large numbers of tourists and higher earnings, said Garana in pre-departure statements.Egypt's interest in sustainable tourism comes within the framework of protecting the environment, which has attracted OECD member states to invite it to attend the meetings making it the first state to receive that honor from the Middle East and North Africa region, he said. Garana will address the meetings' inaugural session on facilities and investments offered by Egypt to encourage its investment industry.OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world to support sustainable economic growth, boost employment, raise living standards, maintain financial stability, assist other countries' economic development and contribute to growth in world trade.The 30-member OECD also shares expertise and exchanges views with more than 100 other countries and economies, from Brazil, China, and Russia to the least developed countries in Africa.OECD uses its wealth of information on a broad range of topics to help governments' foster prosperity and fight poverty through economic growth and financial stability. We help ensure the environmental implications of economic and social development are taken into account.The 30 member countries of OECD are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Pyramids makeover
Egypt Today (Hossam Zaater)
The site of the 5,000-year-old Giza Pyramids is now up to speed with the twenty-first century, complete with cameras, lasers and control rooms. Last month, part of a multi-phase plan to renovate the site of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World was completed, a modern makeover cooked up by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) to make the Giza Plateau more tourist-friendly.
The first phase, costing roughly LE 60 million, includes an 18-kilometer-long steel fence equipped with 199 closed circuit TV cameras, infrared motion sensors and elaborate control rooms placed alongside the fence. In addition to the reinforced boundaries, the plan dedicated one of three entrances, the one near the Mena House Oberoi Resort, as the primary security entrance, kitted out with x-ray machines and metal detectors.
While the modernizing of the most ancient site in the world — one that was previously an uncontrolled sandbox of pandemonium — has tourists and international media impressed, it has left local peddlers and bazaar sellers locked out and worried about their livelihood.
According to Sabri Abd El Eziz, assistant to SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass, the plan was put in motion about seven years ago. After finishing site management for all the areas in Upper Egypt — including Abu Simbel, Luxor, Philae and Kom Ombo — the SCA’s plan for 2008-2009 was to focus on the pyramids. “There are roughly 6,000 to 10,000 visitors daily at the Pyramids and though we accommodate them easily, there was a need for a [facelift],” says Abd El Eziz.
A principal reason for the developments was that the SCA, although part of the Ministry of Culture, needs to find ways to be self-sufficient. “The SCA doesn’t take money from the government; we depend on entrance fees and exhibitions both locally and abroad, as well as royalties,” says Abd El Eziz. With the previously lax control over the Pyramids area, income from entrance fees was approximately LE 300,000 daily. “After the fence and the setting-up of a proper entrance, income is now around LE 800,000 [] and that’s money that we use for maintaining museums and restoring antiquities.”
Team gets $800k for papyrus texts
The Duke Chronicle
A faculty-led team has received an $814,000 grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to launch a new online system for editing ancient Greek and Latin texts preserved on papyrus.
The team is headed by Joshua Sosin, associate professor of classical studies, and Deborah Jakubs, University librarian and vice provost for library affairs. Over the next year, Sosin, Jakubs and a team of approximately 12 researchers hope to design a program that will integrate ancient text databases from universities across the globe, Sosin said.
The Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, which contains more than 50,000 published texts, is currently the University's primary collection of ancient documents preserved on different media, according to a University release. This vast compilation, however, can only be edited by Sosin and the few other scholars to whom he grants permission, he said.
Cemetery G2100 Virtual Exhibit
harvard.edu
The exhibit recreates 10 mastaba-tombs from Cemetery G 2100 of Giza Necropolis in both Second Life and Google Earth virtual worlds. The majority of the archaeological diagrams and photographs used to create the models were made by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition to Egypt (1902-1942), under the direction of archaeologist George Reisner. The modern color photographs and panoramas were created and collected by the Giza Archives Project. The project, headed by Peter Der Manuelian, is a repository for Reisner's findings, as well as all archaeological publications pertaining to the Giza Necropolis.
To experience this exhibit, first download the Second Life and Google Earth software clients. After your Second Life account is created, follow this link to the exhibit on iCommons island.
Safe journey... or your mummy back
The Northern Echo
See the above page for the full story.
TWO Egyptian mummies were yesterday transported into storage in a less than royal fashion – in a box van.
Even though the transport was not the most salubrious on offer, they were treated with the utmost care and deference.
Segedunum Roman Fort , in Wallsend, North Tyneside, bade farewell to its most popular guests, as they made their way to Beamish Museum, in Stanley, County Durham, before their final journey to the Great North Museum – due to open in Newcastle in April next year.
Irt-Irw, a 2,500-year-old mummy found in an ornate coffin in Thebes, Egypt, when Napoleon invaded in 1798, and Bakt-Hor-Nekht, who is still inside her coffin, left their temporary home yesterday.
The mummies and their coffins were placed in specially designed crates to ensure a safe journey, and conservation officer Rachel Metcalfe was on hand to ensure that everything went smoothly.
See the above page for the full story.
Travel: Secret of the Nile (Nubia)
The National
See the above page for the full story.
“The road is tough,” Aiyman, my 30-year-old driver, said with a grin, as we hammered over another bump on a dirt track on the southern edge of the Saharan desert. I’m not sure what he was grinning at, except possibly the ridiculousness of our situation – off-road in a tiny Hyundai that was designed for the minuscule parking spaces and smooth roads of Seoul, we were in Sudan and miles from anywhere. My guide had convinced me he could easily get me to my destinations. The plastic eagle’s head stuck proudly on the bonnet should have served as a warning: this was obviously a man who overestimated his car.
My journey that week had started a couple of hundred kilometres south in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. For the past few years I’ve been fascinated by the country’s history. If it wasn’t for political problems, Sudan, like its northern neighbour, would probably be one of the world’s tourist magnets. Sudan’s stretch of the Nile is teeming with monuments from ancient Egypt; in fact, it has more pyramids than its northern neighbour. For much of its history, Sudan was controlled by the pharaohs to ensure that a steady supply of slaves and elephants flowed up the Nile. Later, the local “black pharaohs” dominated their former masters. After being thrown out by invaders, they retreated south and continued to build distinctive pyramids for several more centuries.
The sights, when you do find them, are some of Africa’s hidden gems – untouched by the throngs of tourists and unrelenting salesmen that can make Egypt’s famous remains such hard work. The greatest of these sights was the reason for my trip: Meroe, a pyramid city that covers a remote mountainside on the banks of the Nile. Dozens of steeply walled pyramids gather in clusters across the rocky desert. Given its vastness, we have a sketchy knowledge of Meroe’s history because its script hasn’t been fully deciphered, but its scars bear testament to its violent past. In 1834, the pyramids were the victim of an Italian treasure hunter who systematically blew their tops off in search of riches, leaving the decapitated remains in the Saharan sands.
Luckily, the Pharaonic ruins are all located in the north of this massive country, within a couple of days’ journey from the capital. The country’s two-and-a-half million square kilometres provide Khartoum and the north with enough insulation from ravaged Darfur in the west and the unstable south. A rare incursion occurred this year, when rebels reached Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, on the opposite side of the Nile. The rebels were quickly dispersed by the army.
See the above page for the full story.
Egypt jails three culture officials for bribery
Reuters Africa
Three Egyptian civil servants were convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail on Wednesday for taking bribes to facilitate contracts to restore museums and cultural sites, court sources said.
The sources said a Cairo court also gave the civil servants, high-ranking Culture Ministry officials, fines ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,000 to $91,000), and ordered them to hand over bribe money of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The employees had taken bribes in exchange for help getting contracts to restore sites including two state-owned theatres, Coptic and Roman museums in the northern city of Alexandria, and to build a wall near the Pyramids.
One also took several air conditioning units, rugs and household decorations from the contractors, the sources said.
A Scottish Effendi
Egypt Today (Jason Thompson)
See the above page for the full story.
A VOYAGE TO EGYPT, perhaps intended to be just a matter of weeks or months, often turns into much more, and it can change a person’s life in many unexpected ways. Few, however, have experienced as great a transformation in their lifestyles as did Osman Effendi.
Osman was originally Donald Thomson, a boy from Perth in the north of Scotland, where he was born in the early 1790s. His father, a tradesman, died when Thomson was a child, and he passed into the care of relatives in Inverness. When he was 15, Thomson became involved in a dispute over the affections of a lass and stabbed his rival in a fit of jealous passion. Mistakenly thinking he had killed the lad, he ran away and joined the army, where he became an apothecary’s assistant in a Scottish regiment.
Thus it was that young Donald Thomson came to Egypt in 1807, when General Alexander Mackenzie Fraser’s expedition was dispatched to displace the regime that Mohammed Ali Pasha had recently established, while also securing Egypt’s grain supply for England and protecting the overland route to India. That expedition turned into a fiasco. Resistance was much greater than expected; the advance guard was cut off and soundly defeated at Rashid; and many were killed and many more taken prisoner. Thomson was among the captives. He and his fellow prisoners were forced to march in a procession in Cairo, carrying the severed heads of their slain comrades on platters. Wisely, the British decided to cut their losses and withdraw.
Most of the British prisoners were eventually repatriated, but not Thomson, because he had become the slave of a powerful Mamluk, a member of the military elite that was a formidable force within the land even in the early days of Mohammed Ali Pasha’s rule. Thomson tried to escape, but was easily recaptured. The attempt so enraged his master that he gave Thomson a simple choice: Embrace Islam or die.
See the above page for the full story.
Daily Photo - Cylinder Seal
UC11174
Cylinder seal faience green on white designed of linked scrolls and lotus leaves.
Period - Late Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-1850BCE)
Found at - Lahun
Measurements - length 2.2 cms width .5 cms
Cylinder seal faience green on white designed of linked scrolls and lotus leaves.
Period - Late Middle Kingdom (1700BCE-1850BCE)
Found at - Lahun
Measurements - length 2.2 cms width .5 cms
Copyright: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology,
University College London
With my thanks
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Tutankhamun to visit San Francisco
Suite101 (Stan Parchin)
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, presently at the Dallas Museum of Art (October 3, 2008-May 17, 2009) will make its next United States stop at the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, California (June 27, 2009-March 28, 2010). The exhibition will visit another American venue as yet unannounced.
Threats to Luxor Corniche?
This message was sent to me today.
It has come to our attention that a new development program is about to be launched in Luxor by the Government of Egypt that focuses on the east bank Corniche Boulevard. The goal is to double the width of the Corniche to alleviate traffic congestion, create a pedestrian walkway along the Nile, and establish a four-kilometer touristic zone along the riverfront between Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple. If the current plan is implemented this zone will be at the expense of most of the buildings presently along the Corniche boulevard, most of which will be demolished or cut back to accommodate the widened street. Exceptions are the Luxor Museum, which will only lose its front parking area, and the University of Chicago's headquarters in Luxor, Chicago House, which will remain where it is, but will lose its entire front garden area to the new street.
It is hoped that the Luxor City authorities will reject this unecessarily extreme plan for a less radical approach that is also being discussed.
Building the riverbank outward would allow room for a widened Corniche but still preserve the buildings and gardens presently along the Nile that give Luxor so much of its charm and character.
Slated for removal are several older gardens: one part of a military club, one in front of a mosque, and another in the front of a Coptic Catholic rest house. The historic Chicago House garden in particular would be a terrible loss. Over 75 years old, its 24-meter palm trees and dozens of trees and flowering bushes were donated as cuttings from the botanical gardens of Cairo and Aswan in the 1930s, and are unique in Luxor. Two rows of royal palms along the front walk imitate the 14 open papyrus columns of the great Colonnade Hall of Luxor Temple, and symbolize the archaeological preservation work this institution has accomplished in partnership with Egypt for over 84 years.
It may not be too late. Comments in support of a less radical plan for the Luxor Corniche can be sent to the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif:
questions@cabinet.gov.eg
Harry Brunton photographs to visit M.H. de Young Museum
Suite101 (Stan Parchin)
On view at the de Young Museum at the same time as Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs will be Opening Tutankhamun's Tomb: The Harry Burton Photographs. The 38 prints illustrate archaeologist Howard Carter's excavation of the pharaoh's burial place in the Valley of the Kings.
ABZU anniversary
Ancient World Bloggers Group (Charles Ellwood Jones)
It is great to see that ABZU has been online for 15 years. Here's what Chuck Jones has to say:
Many congratulations to everyone involved in the project - it has been so very useful!
It is great to see that ABZU has been online for 15 years. Here's what Chuck Jones has to say:
Abzu just began its fifteenth year online. I should have baked it a cake over the weekend, but I didn't. For the past few years it has been hosted by ETANA at Vanderbilt University. Before that it was hosted at the Oriental Institute. A variety of older versions of it are visible in the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, and the earliest one there Dec 10, 1997, is more or less what it looked like at the beginning. Lovely, eh?
Long Range Desert Group
Egypt Daily Star News (Peter A. Carrigan)
More slightly off-topic themes - this time it's the Pharaohs' Rally, but the author has made mention of the Long Range Desert Group who are certainly an important and intriguing part of Egypt's modern war time history. Here's an extract:
Nice to see the Gilf Kebir back in the news for a more positive reason.
More slightly off-topic themes - this time it's the Pharaohs' Rally, but the author has made mention of the Long Range Desert Group who are certainly an important and intriguing part of Egypt's modern war time history. Here's an extract:
The Egyptians of course invented many things including religion, cosmetics and the hand shake, but I bet you didn’t know they invented desert four wheel-driving.
That is to say, desert four wheel-driving was invented in Egypt, more or less that is, during the 1940s by the Long Range Desert Group; a British and Commonwealth army unit fighting the Italians and Germans.
The Long Range Desert Group pioneered the use of wide flat tires in soft sand, spare fuel, improved suspension, plenty of spare tires and sand mats to enable bogged vehicles to gain traction and get going.
The Long Range Desert Group also had mounted machine guns on their Chevrolet trucks, which may again become standard equipment given the recent hostage crisis on the Sudanese border.
One of the Long Range Desert Groups first missions took them 4,000 km into Chad and back to Cairo via Gilf Kebir, though that was back in the days when the ‘good’ guys had the guns and tourism was a train journey to hear yodelling in the Swiss Alps.
Nice to see the Gilf Kebir back in the news for a more positive reason.
Off-topic - Conference: Weather, Climate Change, and British Farming in Historical Perspective
Okay, this one really is slightly bizarre for this blog. But if you're interested in the subject of climate change (which if you're interested in the prehistory of Egypt you probably will be) and you're located in the UK then this might be something that could help to generate some ideas.
Weather, Climate Change, and British Farming in Historical Perspective
Saturday 6 December 2008
Weather, Climate Change, and British Farming in Historical Perspective
Saturday 6 December 2008
This year's British Agricultural History Society winter conference is on 'Weather, Climate Change, and British Farming'. It runs from 10.30-4.30 and includes four papers: Steve Rippon on 'Agriculture in the late Roman and early medieval landscape: environmental or social change?' Bruce Campbell on 'Harvest failure and harvest success: three centuries of English grain yields, 1211-1491' Mary Young, Karen Cullen and Chris Whatley on ' "Depauperat, dead or fled": the social and psychological impact on Scottish rural communities of the turbulent weather suffered in the later seventeenth century.' And John Martin on 'The bleak midwinter of 1947: causes and consequences'.
Venue: Wolfson and Pollard Rooms, Institute of Historical Research, Malet St, London.
Contact: Dr Jane Whittle j.c.whittle@ex.ac.uk
Website: http://www.bahs.org.uk/
Daily Photo - Model bed from Hawara
UC16139. Model wooden bed, wooden supports of head board broken and one half missing.
Dynasty 12 (1795BCE-1985BCE). Found at Hawara. Length 49 cms width 23.7 cms
Sunday, October 05, 2008
St Louis Art Museum and Cultural Property from Egypt
Looting Matters (David Gill)
See the above page for more.
I have commented on the Egyptian mask that somehow has moved from the store at Saqqara to the St Louis Art Museum (SLAM). My attention has been drawn to the significant study: Laura Elizabeth Young, "A Framework for Resolution of Claims for Cultural Property", MSc in Arts Management, University of Oregon, December 2007 [pdf]. Chapter 3 includes a case study on the SLAM mask. There appears to be little doubt that the mask was excavated at Saqqara in early 1952 by Mohammed Zakaria Goneim (d. 1959), then chief inspector of antiquities [image].
SLAM's view of the mask's subsequent history appears to be based on a narrative supplied by the seller, Phoenix Ancient Art, S.A. But is there any secure documentation for the mask before it came into the possession of the dealer in 1997?
See the above page for more.
Four New Objects Added to Tutankhamun Exhibition
Suite 101 (Stan Parchin)
A pectoral, bracelet and nested fetus coffins have joined "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" for the exhibition's encore tour of the United States.All four artifacts, found in the Treasury of the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (r. 1332-1322 B.C.), will be on view at the Dallas Museum of Art (October 3, 2008-May 17, 2009) and two additional American venues as yet unannounced. Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs has already visited three European and four United States cities.
See the above page for the full story.
Book Review: Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt
Star Tribune (Allen Barra)
See the above page for the full story.
Cleopatra VII has always inspired a considerable amount of interest. It is nice to see that Joyce Tyldesley's book has been so well received by so many reviewers. Here's another positive review.
Cleopatra has generated more fame -- in the form of poems, paintings, books, plays and films -- per known fact than any woman in history. As Joyce Tyldesley phrases it in her fascinating and irresistible biography, "Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt," "it is clearly never going to be possible to write a conventional biography of Cleopatra." So Tyldesley has gone ahead and written one.
An archaeologist, author ("Daughters of Isis"), and popular consultant for TV shows on ancient history, Tyldesley has chosen to re-create her subject by putting together the puzzle pieces of history that surround Cleopatra's life and legend. Neither an Egyptian by blood nor an actual Greek -- she could trace her ancestry on her father's side to the original Ptolemy, a general of Alexander the Great -- she was a fabulous hybrid of those cultures and several others which were native to the Egypt of the first century B.C.
What she was not, Tyldesley argues, was the villainous vamp portrayed in the movies.
See the above page for the full story.
A Palace in Heaven
Egypt Daily Star News (David Stanford)
The children playing football in a side street near the Ibn Toloun Mosque last Sunday evening were well aware that somebody important was visiting their neighborhood.
The main road was being sluiced down by street cleaners and holes filled with rubble. A dozen or so serious-looking men with walkie-talkies were prowling the area in search of security risks. And throughout the evening a steady flow of journalists and professionals in suits could be seen entering a newly-renovated mosque on Sabil Street, which runs between the Ibn Toloun Mosque and the Citadel.
The local children had been hoping to see Suzanne Mubarak that evening. In the end, they had to settle for Minister of Religiou