A new exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Civilization provides a look at daily life and religious faith in ancient Egypt, featuring a recreated burial tomb and over 200 artifacts ranging from jewelry to human and animal mummies. . . .
The exhibition runs from through Aug. 16, 2009.
Daily Mail (Fiona Macrae)From Elizabeth Taylor to Sophia Loren, there have been many faces of Cleopatra. But this might be the most realistic of them all.
Egyptologist Sally Ann Ashton believes the compute regenerated 3D image is the best likeness of the legendary beauty famed for her ability to beguile.
Likeness: The computer-generated 3D image has been pieced together from images on ancient artefacts
Pieced together from images on ancient artefacts, including a ring dating from Cleopatra's reign 2,000 years ago, it is the culmination of more than a year of painstaking research.
The result is a beautiful young woman of mixed ethnicity - very different to the porcelain-skinned Westernised version portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1961 movie Cleopatra.
Ashton developed her image of the monarch - who came to power at the tender age of 18 - by looking at her Greek heritage as well as her Egyptian upbringing.
"She probably wasn't just completely European. You've got to remember that her family had actually lived in Egypt for 300 years by the time she came to power," she said.
The images will be broadcast this week as part of a Five documentary, Secrets of Egypt: Cleopatra. The programme looks at whether the portrayal of Cleopatra as a temptress who ruined two generals of Rome - Julius Caesar and Mark Antony - was the victim of Roman "spin" aimed at blackening her name.
A major exhibition containing 1,500 Egyptian artefacts, including a mummy which inspired a Victorian novel, are being showcased in Liverpool.
The new gallery at the city's World Museum looks at the history of the Pharaohs, with items on display dating back to 1180 BC.
A belt, belonging to the last great Pharaoh, Rameses III, is being shown for the first time since World War II.
Curator Ashley Cooke said it was one of "the finest collections anywhere".
Among the items on display is the mummy, which inspired H Rider Haggard's fantasy adventure, She.
The best-selling Victorian author was a keen collector of Egyptian artefacts.
The exhibitions includes sections on spells which Pharaohs carried in their coffins to prevent bad things happening to them.
An archeological team, under the direction of Egypt's well-known Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, has begun uncovering rubble under which the largest known statue of Pharaoh Ramses II is buried in the southern Egyptian town of Sohag.
The statue, which workers discovered more than 15 years ago, 476 kilometers miles south of Cairo, is finally being uncovered, according to Antiquities Chief Zahi Hawass.
The Egyptian team had been hampered in its excavation work, until now, by the presence of a Muslim cemetery in the region of Akhmim across the Nile River from Sohag. Archeologists were finally able to begin their work when bodies from the modern-era cemetery were moved elsewhere.
Hawass said the statue was the "largest of Ramses II" ever found in Egypt, and his team said the statue was part of a temple complex dedicated to Ramses II. . . .
French Egyptologist Bruno Argemi of the Egyptian Archeological Society of Provence, France, says that Ramses II is one of the most important Pharaohs of Egypt's New Kingdom's 19th dynasty, which is the next to last dynasty of the era. The Amenophis pharaohs begin the New Empire, he says, at the point when the 18th dynasty ends, and it includes the Thutmose pharaohs and Hatchepsout. The 19th dynasty is known for Ramses I, Seti I and Ramses II… So, he concludes that Ramses II is really one of the greatest kings that Egypt has ever known, along with Tuthmose III, Amenophis III and Hatchepsout…
Argemi thinks that the discovery of the new statue is also an important event, not only because of its colossal size, but because few other remnants of his reign have been found, to date, in the Middle Egyptian region of Sohag.
Chers collègues,"Big, gigantic ... no, I'd probably say huge-normous — and old — very, very old."
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These were the words Sidney Wilhite of West Monroe kept repeating over and over again as he sat in my travel agency. His redundant use of the same adjectives — just with different inflections each time they were used — was not only humorous but quite understandable considering the man had just returned home from a 12-day trip of Egypt and the Holy Land.
As a travel agent, I always hold my breath whenever a client calls from the airport or comes by to see you the minute he arrives back in town. Yet, one look at Sidney's face and you could see he wanted to talk about the trip he had just completed with wife Charline and her parents, Don and Ethel Wilkes.
"Everything you have ever read about is just right there! We had no ordinary moments," Sidney said, "because, just when you think you have seen it all, bam! There's another temple, pyramid, or tomb even greater and grander. It makes you just stand back and wonder how in the world could they have piled those rocks so high?"
According to the official MENA News Agency, satellites and remote sensing technology are going to assist Egypt in the discovery and recovery of antiquities.
Abbas Zaghloul is an official with that country's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, as well as with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). He was quoted as saying feasibility studies have already been carried out and the SCA will host a seminar that's also being jointly organized by two, Japanese universities, to discuss this subject next February. Various international experts will be invited to attend. This two day seminar will review remote sensing technology applications, according to Zaghloul.
Archaeology Magazine (review by Mark Rose)At the End of Days, when all the coffee-table books on ancient Egypt rise up to be judged, where will The Eternal Light of Egypt stand? The book, a Thames & Hudson offering, features 126 images by modern-day photographer Sarite Sanders. An introductory essay by Egyptologist Dorothea Arnold of the Metropolitan Museum of Art places Sanders's images in historical context by summarizing the work of photographic pioneers such as Maxime du Camp, Francis Frith, and Félix Teynard, as well as later practitioners, such as Harry Burton, who documented the Tut excavation.
Sanders's images are introduced by quotes from ancient texts and early tourists, from Mark Twain to Florence Nightingale, presumably selected by Sanders. These are nice overall, though neither Arnold, in her introduction, nor Sanders could resist dragging out Shelley's old saw "Ozymandias" in conjunction with a photo of a fallen colossus.
As for the images themselves, all were taken using infrared black-and-white film, which creates unusual effects. Close-ups of reliefs are almost unnaturally sharp, but in larger scenes, monuments seem grainy and skies spectral. At times the effects, combined with Sanders's point of view, go awry.
Art DailyAn exhibition of thirty works from the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Late Antique Egyptian stone sculptures (395–642 A.D.) that includes several examples of reworked or repainted works and some that appear to be modern forgeries, will be on view beginning February 13, 2008.
These ancient sculptures were carved from a soft Egyptian limestone and feature both pagan and Christian scenes and symbols. Some were tomb portraits of the deceased, other carvings decorated the tomb and were used in pagan and Christian cemeteries and in Christian churches and monasteries. The term Coptic, which describes some of the pieces, denotes the main and original branch of Christianity in Egypt.
Late Antique Egyptian sculpture was little known when it began to appear on the market shortly after World War II and into the 1960s and 1970s. At that time a number of pieces were acquired by the Brooklyn Museum. Gradually some scholars began to realize that the examples now in museums in both Europe and the United States included many modern imposters, but a comprehensive study has yet to be undertaken. Many experts believe that some of the forgeries were created upon remnants of ancient pieces and that very few pieces remain as they were originally produced in the period.
For a review of the Brooklyn Museum’s pieces, Curator of Egyptian Art Edna R. Russmann joined a number of outside authorities on Coptic art and on the sources of Egyptian stone. Much of that work is still ongoing. This exhibition focuses on the work done so far, and especially on the stylistic characteristics of the works, both ancient and modern.
The examples of the modern imitations are quite ambitious in scale and complexity and often depict unusual subjects and themes.
A British geologist claims the Egyptian Sphinx could be much older than previously thought and might have originally had a lion's face.
Colin Reader says the rain erosion on the Sphinx's enclosure suggests it was built before the first pyramid was constructed about 4,500 years ago.
Reader believes the monument's style shows that it dates back to the Early Dynastic period, making it several hundred years older than what previously thought.
Experts also found that the body of the Sphinx is disproportionate to its head, showing that the sphinx's original head was something else - a lion for instance - and re-carved later to be modeled on Pharaoh Khufu's face.
The logistical accomplishment of moving the 130-piece, priceless exhibit Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs from London to tour the United States was amplified last month when a robust, one piece contemporary sculpture was destroyed on its way to Miami aboard a Continental Airlines flight and no one knows how.
The fiberglass depiction of a woman on an inner tube raft entitled “Survival of Serena” had previously traveled to Venice and Beijing without incident. But when the art handlers employed by Carole Feuerman arrived at the Miami International Airport warehouse to load the $300,000 item for display at Art Miami, they found it demolished.
The sculpture had been crushed into pieces on its way from Venice, Italy to Miami International Airport.
“It's almost fate,” Feuerman said, noting the irony in her piece's name.
The artwork's imagery was meant to represent the survival of Venice, a city that has been drowning as the soil subsides and floods increase over the past two generations.
Made of oil-painted fiberglass and resin, the 4-foot by 12-foot piece was seen by hundreds of thousands of people in art shows in Italy and China. Feuerman spent three years working on the piece, adding carefully detailed water droplets made of epoxy on the woman's painted skin before completing it in 2006.
The artwork was found at an MIA warehouse Nov. 26 by two employees of David Jones Fine Art Services who had been sent to recover the crate shipped on Continental Airlines.
“I've never seen any [artwork] totally destroyed like that,” said Aaron Giller, one of the Jones employees who told local reporters he has spent eight years in the business.
Now multiply by 3,000 years.
According to American Airlines Cargo president David Brooks, the contract to move the massive, fragile and priceless Tut exhibit from London to Dallas was the largest single shipment AA Cargo had ever handled and its most valuable.
AA Cargo was entrusted with shipping more than 130 artifacts — some weighing as much as 1,750 pounds — for the U.S. encore tour that includes Dallas and two yet-to-be-named cities.
Photoshelter - Predynastic (35 images)Egypt’s boy king takes on China’s first emperor in a contest to see who’ll rule Atlanta’s historical art scene. It may be a mismatch to compare the lavish touring Tutankhamun show, on view at the Atlanta Civic Center until May 25, with the High Museum’s smaller-scale but still impressive The First Emperor (through April 19). Nevertheless, King Tut and Qin Shihuangdi both established opulent tombs so they could live large in the afterlife. Both succeeded to the extent that they’re now rock stars of historical arts. With joint tickets available, the two exhibits will deservedly raise the city’s cultural profile, as long as you can see past the unfortunate term “Tutlanta.”
FULL TITLE OF SHOW
Tut: Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs
Emperor: The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army
LENGTH OF REIGN
Tut: 1333–1324 B.C., although the exhibit includes pieces from pharaohs spanning 2600-600 B.C.
Emperor: 221-210 B.C., but that just includes unified China; he ruled China’s Qin state starting in 247 B.C.
DISCOVERY OF TOMB
Tut: In 1922 by archeologist Howard Carter, who probably never let his colleagues hear the end of it.
Emperor: In 1974 by local farmers, who were probably pretty surprised to discover
an underground chamber full of heavily armed terracotta soldiers.
WHAT IT'S REALLY ABOUT:
Tut gets top billing, and his artifacts and story are the focus of the last eight of the 13 rooms in the show. The first five deal broadly with life at the top in ancient Egypt – how 2,000 years of pharaohs and administrators lived and worshipped. Besides Tut's, the 130-plus objects shown here include those from the reigns of Akhanaten (Tut's father), Ramesses II, Khafre (he built the second-largest of the Great Pyramids and his face is on the Sphinx), Menkaure, Merenpthah, Amenhotep III and others. . . .
Part of “First Emperor” traces the rise of Ying Zheng and his importance in Chinese history, but the story of his actual army easily segues into the creation and fate of his clay legions. Both sections rely on items pulled from the pit.
The tomb of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun lies on the west bank of the Nile River. So do a host of other awe-inspiring remains of ancient Egypt, sights that help draw as many as 2 million visitors a year to the area.
Most tourists, though, stay on the more developed east side, in Luxor, an area also not without historic interest. It's where one finds the magnificent Luxor Temple, with its avenue of sphinxes, and the enormous complex of obelisks and ruins known as Karnak.
But as more of a tourist haven it's also where one finds McDonald's and the legions of taxi drivers, souvenirs hawkers, and street peddlers who inspired one guidebook to declare Luxor the "hassle capital" of Egypt.
That's why visitors seeking a more authentic experience tend to gravitate toward the west bank where one particularly good option for accommodations can be found in the sleepy village of Al Gezira.
Getting there is simple: Take the ferry, which leaves from the center of Luxor, across from the ruins of Luxor Temple. The ride takes three or four minutes and costs one Egyptian pound, or about half a dollar.
The village, which lies on the road to the Valley of the Kings and other sites, is home to Flats in Luxor, where you can stay in a clean three-bedroom apartment overlooking the green fields of the Nile valley, with the massive temple of Queen Hatshepsut visible in the distance.
Not Egyptology, of course, but I hope that this may be of interest to visitors. Archaeology Magazine has published the full text of its "Top 10 Discoveries of 2008" article online.
For some archaeology buffs, 2008 will always be the year of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And we have to admit we were glad to see Indiana back in action again after a 20-year absence (we loved it when he name-checked legendary Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe). But we did have some quibbles with the film; let's just say we're not big fans of the theory that aliens invented agriculture and leave it at that.
We also got more letters on our "Indy Spirit Awards" (May/June 2008), a list of archaeologists who embody the adventurous ethos of Indiana Jones, than we have for any other story in years. Most of them took us to task for failing to mention one or another larger-than-life archaeologist. We got enough background from these letters for a decade of profiles.
But as much as crystal skulls were the year's most prominent "artifacts," we're more likely to remember 2008 as the Year of the Earliest North American Coprolites (ancient human feces), or perhaps the Year of the Imperial Roman Marble Heads (two were unearthed in central Turkey). Both stories made our list of the most important discoveries of 2008.
Here you will find the other discoveries that really excited us, along with our first annual list of endangered archaeological sites—ranging from the great Indus city of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan to the rock art of Utah's Nine Mile Canyon.
Sadly, reports of site destruction seem to be just as frequent as announcements of important finds. That's why we were heartened to learn that the world's earliest oil paintings had been identified in caves in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, where the Taliban dynamited two colossal Buddha statues in 2001. Even with the world's heritage disappearing at an alarming rate, there are still amazing discoveries to be made.
Since the late 1990s there has been a strong push towards provenance research of collections and museums, and restitution of items that were looted or taken by the Nazis during their period of power in Europe from 1933 to 1945. This process has been ongoing for ten years, and the items in question have often been claimed by people distanced by two or more generations from their original owners.
I have, perhaps, an idiosyncratic, non-politically-correct view that many people will disagree with, but I believe history is history and that you can’t turn the clock back, or make things good again through art.
History has always looked after works of art in strange ways. Ever since the beginning of recorded history, because of its value, art has been looted and as a result arbitrarily distributed and disseminated throughout the world.
A Brown University archaeologist and team of engineers have been awarded $2.6 million from the National Science Foundation to use computer vision and pattern recognition in an archaeological excavation. The team is setting out to change the way archaeologists conduct fieldwork by developing innovative techniques for excavation, reconstruction, and interpretation during the next four years.
The work will focus on the site of Apollonia-Arsuf, located on the Mediterranean coast in Israel. The site has been under archaeological excavation and conservation since the 1950s and was formally recognized in 2004 as one of the 100 most endangered world monuments by the World Monuments Fund.
The team's main goal is to develop a visual archaeological database (VAD), which will transform the current slow and tedious documentation process of an excavation. Video cameras and digital scanning stations will be installed around the site to maintain a continuous visual recording of excavation activity. Excavators will also be able to immediately process artifacts by inputting text, video, still images, dense-data 3-D laser scans, and spatial position coordinate information into the database. The VAD will allow for immediate and efficient access, search, and image and 3-D scene reconstruction of the collected data.
Archaeologist Katharina Galor, one of the principal investigators, says her field's current protocol — relying on written field notes — is an outdated system. "We use written words to describe our findings when we should be using images and video to make the documentation process more efficient, accurate, and accessible to others," she said. "The more precisely we can physically reproduce what is left, and the more accurately we can piece together broken and dispersed pieces, the greater our chances of reconstructing and understanding the past truthfully."
The Times Online (Anthony Sattin)
For the past 10 years, if you wanted to see the treasures along the Nile and you didn’t want to go by boat, you had to travel in an armed convoy. Not any more.
In the wake of the 1997 attack at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, the Egyptian government obliged all foreigners travelling overland between the country’s main tourist centres to join armed convoys. This visible security was intended to dissuade attacks and reassure visitors, but it has long outlived its usefulness.
Ironically, in the absence of any attacks, the convoys have become the biggest danger: in high season, as many as 100 coaches and minivans have raced across the desert from the Red Sea resorts every day.
The effect of this rally on the antiquities, particularly in Luxor, has been disastrous. In spite of new parking facilities, neither the Valley of the Kings nor Karnak Temple is able to cope with the simultaneous arrival of thousands of visitors: when I visited the Valley of the Kings just ahead of the convoy a couple of weeks ago, there was only one guard on the gate to check tickets.
Things should be very different now. Even if you are only visiting Luxor, the end of the convoys should mean a (slightly) calmer visit to the main sights. Coaches will still arrive from the Red Sea, though, one hopes, not all at the same time.
http://www.egypt-sudan-graffiti.be/Il 28 ottobre 2008 con la firma del nuovo contratto fra l'Università di Pisa – Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche del Mondo Antico ed il Progetto ISSEMM, è ufficialmente iniziata l'ultima fase di questo importante Progetto di Cooperazione Tecnica fra l'Italia e l'Egitto interamente sovvenzionato dal nostro Ministero per gli Affari Esteri – Direzione Generale per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo.
Il titolo completo del progetto suona: Egyptian-Italian Environmental-Cooperation Program (EIECP) Phase II: Institutional Support to Supreme Council of Antiquities for Environmental Monitoring and Management of Cultural Heritage Sites: Applications to Fayoum Oasis and North Saqqara Necropolis (ISSEMM)
Il progetto è diretto da Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), e da Edda Bresciani, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, per l'Università di Pisa.
I due direttori scientifici sono assistiti da una Direzione Tecnica composta da 2 esperti egiziani e da 2 italiani.
Il progetto prevede attività nel Fayum, a Medinet Madi e nella necropoli di Saqqara Nord.
L'obiettivo principale di questa fase è quello di inserire Medinet Madi nell'area protetta di Wadi El Rayan aprendo al pubblico l'Area Sacra dell'antica città situata nella propaggine Ovest dell'oasi del Fayum.
Loot - The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
By Sharon Waxman
The title, stamped in gold capital letters on the dust jacket, gives away the author's agenda: This is a muckraking book about art objects from ancient cultures that have found their way into major museums of Europe and the United States. Sharon Waxman has a nose for scandal and spends much of the book following up on reports of thefts by grave robbers, smuggling by dealers and sexual hanky-panky between museum personnel.
The result is an odd volume, part scandal mongering and part travelogue, wrapped around a philosophical question that could have been discussed in a book a tenth of its size . . . .
Waxman, a former correspondent for the New York Times, recounts tales of arrogance, greed and lust in museum personnel who, however well educated, are all too human in their daily affairs.
The reporter's search for the telling detail can make Waxman long-winded: Do we really need to know that a curator wears light blue eye shadow or that the president of a museum has a disco ring tone on his cell phone?
But the questions Waxman raises are real, and her proposals to remedy the situation are the start of a much-needed discussion.
We are pleased to send you the link to a brochure for the above event which outlines the programme as it presently stands: http://www.tourism-culture.com/64/C-MENA/C-MENA%20brochure%20&%20registration%20form_final.pdf
We hope that you will agree that we have put together a fascinating conference which, as well as providing an important forum for research, also allows you to network with a truly international group of academics and professionals involved with tourism, culture and heritage. The conference will also allow delegates to see at first hand some of the issues being discussed in Jordan.
We would recommend that you register for the conference as soon as possible to avail yourself of the ‘early bird’ registration rate. The registration form can be downloaded at
http://www.tourism-culture.com/64/C-MENA/CMENA%20registration%20form(3).pdf
Please check on the conference web pages for updates – www.tourism-culture.com
For any enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us via email at ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk
With best wishes
Daniela Carl
Conference Manager
December 19, 2008–May 31, 2009
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Herstory Gallery, 4th Floor
Who is she? A goddess, a ritual object, a votive offering, a vehicle for working magic or fulfilling wishes, a talisman for protection, a teaching or initiation device, or simply an ancient woman's embodiment of herself? The oldest sculpture in the Brooklyn Museum represents a woman; it was made by people living in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), Syria, or Turkey in the late sixth or fifth millennium B.C.E. She and other ancient female figurines with exaggerated or highly stylized female forms are small in scale but great in their ineffable power to capture the imagination of those who confront them.
For the UCLA students, exploring the sprawling agricultural settlement that was Karanis and uncovering plant remains and animal bones from the fourth through sixth centuries is turning into the trip of a lifetime.
Just two weeks into the dig, the field school has made some new discoveries.
"Based on dates in Greek papyri previously found at Karanis, the city was thought to have been abandoned in the fourth century … but the section we are working on dates from the fourth to the sixth centuries, which expands the occupation of Karanis by approximately two centuries," Wendrich said. "It certainly was rural, but it was also a large town, in which the inhabitants, mostly small landowners, created a comfortable life for themselves."
There are more mysteries to uncover, she added.
Coptic Museum
There was a programme on UK terrestrial television (Channel 5, 8pm) last night entitled Sphinx, in the Secrets of Egypt series. I haven't seen the first two episodes in the series and I didn't take notes last night whilst I was cooking, but it may be worth keeping an eye open for a repeat if you are UK based and you missed it. I've done a very rough summary below but the Daily Mail Online has a rather more comprehensive overview.
Thanks very much to John Wyatt for both cheering me up and giving me all sorts of information today when we chatted by phone.6 – 10 July
FAUNA OF ANCIENT EGYPT: REMAINS AND REPRESENTATIONS
Mr John WyattJohn Wyatt's guest lectures for recent BSS courses have been so well received that we have invited him back to direct his own course. As you will see from his biography, he is the perfect person to teach such a course. By examining the art, artefacts, mummies, bone remains, hieroglyphs and other evidence from Ancient Egypt, from prehistoric times through to the end of the Roman period, this course will determine what species of mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, amphibians and insects were present, and whether climate changes (not only desertification) led to the appearance or disappearance of any of these, and if so, when. Religious significances, use and abuse, and what the Ancient Egyptians believed about particular species will also be covered. Lectures will combine with visits to the Petrie, Grant and British Museums to provide a full and varied learning experience taught by a knowledgeable and charismatic expert in his field.
As the blog is being maintained very efficiently by Ben this is not so much of a "blog update" as an Andie update! Hopefully I will be able to stop imposing so much on Ben in the next few weeks and start posting again so that he can use his valuable time on his own projects rather than trying to rescue mine :-)Suite101's intrepid Contributing Writer Frances Spiegel reported on December 10, 2008 that the exhibition Ancient Egyptian Medicine at London's Royal Society of Medicine is "a grave disappointment." On view from December 1, 2008 to February 28, 2009, the show is secluded in the institution's research library, away from the public's view.
Spiegel said the installation consists of a mere four vitrines. A nearby monitor displays x-rays of the mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (r. 1332-1222 B.C.), images easily retrieved from the Internet. Pamphlets interpret the hieroglyphs of medical prescriptions.
Nowadays, powdered mummy may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for many years it was just what the doctor ordered. That's one of the takeaway messages of Richard Sugg's study Good Physic but Bad Food: Early Modern Attitudes to Medicinal Cannibalism and its Suppliers.
Sugg is a research fellow in literature and medicine at Durham University. He begins his monograph with an observation: "The subject of medicinal cannibalism in mainstream western medicine has received surprisingly little historical attention."
Sugg tells us that mummy, generally in powdered form, "having originally been a natural mixture of pitch and asphalt, came in the 12th century to be associated with preserved Egyptian corpses". It then "emerged as a mainstream western medicine" and remained a standard-issue drug until "opinion began to turn against it in the 18th century".
Physicians prescribed powdered mummy for diverse ailments. An English pharmacopeia published in 1721 specifies two ounces of mummy as the proper amount to make a "plaster against ruptures". Ambroise Paré, royal surgeon to 16th-century French kings, proclaimed mummy to be "the very first and last medicine of almost all our practitioners" against bruising.
One of 18 stone pillars on the grade I-listed Temple Works in Holbeck collapsed in the early hours of Monday.
Marshall Street was cordoned off at either end of the building, which is being assessed by structural engineers. Part of the road has been reopened.
The cause of the collapse is being investigated. Temple Works was built in 1840 and modelled on the Egyptian Temple of Edfu.
The building was originally a flax mill and its flat roof was covered in grass.
"Egypt Unveiled: The Mission of Napoleon's Savants," an exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of a seminal publication of Egyptian history, will be on view from Dec. 21 through May 10 in the main gallery of Firestone Library.
During Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798 military campaign in Egypt, a group of 151 scientists, engineers and artists was recruited to document every aspect of the country. The resulting publication of "Description de l'Égypte" between 1809 and 1822 -- comprising 23 volumes and 837 engraved plates -- is considered an extraordinary scholarly achievement and a foundational work of modern Egyptology.
The scholars examined a range of subjects including the great temples and tombs of ancient Egypt, contemporary customs and trades, animals, plants, minerals and local topography. The exhibition shares the highlights of this project and the stories and accomplishments of Napoleon's scholars.
Exhibition hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For holiday hours, call (609) 258-3184 or visit the library's website.
A fragmentary statue of an Amarna princess from ancient Egypt is expected to garner between $400,000 and $600,000 (US) at an upcoming Sotheby's auction in New York.
The sculpture (ca. 1347-1345 B.C.) measures 34.3 cm (13 1/2 in.) in height. It was carved from nummulitic limestone, a hard material composed largely of fossils dating from the Eocene Epoch (57.8 to 36.6 million years ago) and found abundantly in the Sahara Desert. The work most definitely comes from Akhetaten (modern-day Tell el-Amarna). It probably represents either Meretaten or Meketaten, one of six daughters sired by Akhenaten and Nefertiti, the pharaoh's beguilingly beautiful queen. What remains of the princess' right arm is tucked under her breasts. A hand resting on her right shoulder suggests that the statue was once part of a larger composition, the princess' sister presumably having once stood directly to her left. The sculptor's emphasis on the girl's pronounced pubic mound, most likely an overt reference to fertility and creation, is consonant with similar works from the same period.
The damaged yet recognizable Nummulitic Figure of an Amarna Princess was listed in the collection of Dr. Leo Mildenberg, Zurich and the inventory of Spink & Son, Ltd., London in 1960. Denys Miller Sutton (1917-1991), editor of the respected British arts magazine Apollo for nearly a quarter-century beginning in 1962, acquired the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070 B.C.) statue sometime thereafter. Acutely attuned to issues of art conservation and preservation (many addressed in his publication), the author and art collector ironically served as secretary of the international commission charged with the restitution of cultural property after World War II.
With the exception of the brief stylistic break dictated for religious reasons by the pharaoh Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 B.C.), ancient Egyptian sculptors adhered to a centuries-old canon of strict formalism. Their images were intended to perpetuate one's spirit in case of the body's corruption after death.
Beginning in the early years of the Old Kingdom age of the pyramids (ca. 2649-2150 B.C.), a hieratic scale dictated that men were depicted larger than women. Children were rendered smaller than their parents and appeared as miniature adults despite their actual ages, making many of their representations at best symbolic rather than realistic in terms of accurate portraiture.
The artistic strictures of previous ancient Egyptian eras were relaxed for some 17 years during Akhenaten's reign. While the visionary "heretic" pharaoh professed what appears to have been a revolutionary monotheistic creed dedicated to Aten or the solar disk, he encouraged an iconoclastic sense of naturalism in art, albeit extreme at points. In the absence of mummified remains, the exaggerated and sometimes androgynous physical features of statuary representing Akhenaten and his royal family continue to confound Egyptologists, art historians and pathologists to the present day.
The Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is the latest to be affected by the financial crisis.
Museum director Richard Hodges announced in a memo last Friday that the museum would discontinue 18 "research specialist" positions that have been part of the curatorial departments and the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, in addition to disbanding the MASCA division as a whole.
"We're facing the same challenging financial issues as anyone else, and as a museum, our endowment and, in particular, donations are key parts of our financial strategy," Hodges said.
The terminations will take effect on May 31 next year which will give the employees - many of whom have worked at the museum for many years - a chance to reposition themselves or find other work at the University, according to Hodges.
The decision is a result of the Museum's ongoing "restructuring" process, which focuses on strengthening its "core mission and values, while maintaining fiscal stability," according to the memo.
Museum researchers speak out against firings
The forthcoming discontinuation of 18 research specialist positions at the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, which was announced last Friday, may stem from reasons other than the financial crisis.
According to several researchers who declined to use their names due to the sensitive nature of the situation, the economy's downturn is simply the trigger for the changes. Rather, they say the changes are due to both poor financial planning and long-standing University and museum priorities that do not emphasize scientific and historical research.
Penn President Amy Gutmann said the discontinuations result from a "strategic planning exercise" that is unrelated to the recent economic downfall.
But museum Director Richard Hodges still maintains that the cuts were made for budgeting reasons.
Dear Andie,
Thank you for letting us know about this. You are right that it is illegal, and I would be grateful if you could remove the link. We will investigate this matter.
Best regards,
Nick Wright,
Publisher
Shire Publications Ltd.
It really is sunny here today, and looks very beautiful shining over the Welsh foothills where there is a thick coating of snow on the moors near our house.Now open, the new Ancient Egypt gallery is packed with over 1,300 objects on display, including animal mummies, ancient musical instruments and a tomb reconstruction based on a 4,000-year-old burial place.
There are five complete human mummies on display and you can even 'unwrap' a mummy without touching it, using a fascinating computer interactive. A must-see of object is the vividly-coloured belt of the last great Pharaoh, Ramses III, on permanent display for the first time since before the Second World War.
See photos of the gallery opening on Flickr...
Technology and archaeology are at odds again. The Meroe High Dam, otherwise known as the Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is well underway -- and the archaeological remains of the ancient African kingdom of Meroe which developed along the upper reaches of the Nile is destined to oblivion.
The purpose of the dam being constructed close to the Fourth Cataract, about 200 kilometres north of Khartoum, is to generate electricity. It is the largest hydropower project currently under construction in Africa. With a length of some nine kilometres, and a crest height of up to 67 kilometres it is reminiscent of the High Dam at Aswan constructed in the 1960s. It too is designed with a concrete-faced rock-fill barrage on each river bank, the left river channel with a clay core, and the right with a live water section. Once completed, its 200-kilometre long reservoir, with a capacity to produce 1,250 megawatts of power, will displace 50,000 people and inundate countless archaeological sites including Meroe in the African kingdom of Kush, sub-Saharan Africa's earliest urban civilisation.
Meroe, which is situated at a strategic location in the region known as Butana, enjoyed stability when Kushites moved the centre of their government there from the old capital of Napata (Nuri) -- which gradually declined but nevertheless retained its sacred status. The new capital grew and flourished contemporaneously with the Persian rule of Egypt, the later Egyptian dynasties, and the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, which is to say for nine centuries. The Meroitic Kingdom controlled trade routes -- east to the Red Sea, west to Kordofan and Darfur, north to Egypt, and south to central Africa -- and its sphere of influence spread even as far north as the island of Philae within sight of Aswan. Traders found markets for their ivory, gold, ebony and live animals, and the names of its kings have been documented by historians, even down to the approximate lengths of their reigns.
Originally published by Smithsonian.com in January 1, 2007, I found this article posted two days ago on the Brief and to the Point blog. The interview by Cate Lineberry is really interesting and I want to pass on the information regarding the practice in Ancient Egypt, as explained by Joann Fletcher, research fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York in Britain.
What is the earliest evidence of tattoos?
In terms of tattoos on actual bodies, the earliest known examples were for a long time Egyptian and were present on several female mummies dated to c. 2000 B.C. But following the more recent discovery of the Iceman from the area of the Italian-Austrian border in 1991 and his tattoo patterns, this date has been pushed back a further thousand years when he was carbon-dated at around 5,200 years old.
What is the evidence that ancient Egyptians had tattoos?
There's certainly evidence that women had tattoos on their bodies and limbs from figurines c. 4000-3500 B.C. to occasional female figures represented in tomb scenes c. 1200 B.C. and in figurine form c. 1300 B.C., all with tattoos on their thighs. Also small bronze implements identified as tattooing tools were discovered at the town site of Gurob in northern Egypt and dated to c. 1450 B.C. And then, of course, there are the mummies with tattoos, from the three women already mentioned and dated to c. 2000 B.C. to several later examples of female mummies with these forms of permanent marks found in Greco-Roman burials at Akhmim.
What function did these tattoos serve? Who got them and why?
Because this seemed to be an exclusively female practice in ancient Egypt, mummies found with tattoos were usually dismissed by the (male) excavators who seemed to assume the women were of "dubious status," described in some cases as "dancing girls." The female mummies had nevertheless been buried at Deir el-Bahari (opposite modern Luxor) in an area associated with royal and elite burials, and we know that at least one of the women described as "probably a royal concubine" was actually a high-status priestess named Amunet, as revealed by her funerary inscriptions.
And although it has long been assumed that such tattoos were the mark of prostitutes or were meant to protect the women against sexually transmitted diseases, I personally believe that the tattooing of ancient Egyptian women had a therapeutic role and functioned as a permanent form of amulet during the very difficult time of pregnancy and birth. This is supported by the pattern of distribution, largely around the abdomen, on top of the thighs and the breasts, and would also explain the specific types of designs, in particular the net-like distribution of dots applied over the abdomen. During pregnancy, this specific pattern would expand in a protective fashion in the same way bead nets were placed over wrapped mummies to protect them and "keep everything in." The placing of small figures of the household deity Bes at the tops of their thighs would again suggest the use of tattoos as a means of safeguarding the actual birth, since Bes was the protector of women in labor, and his position at the tops of the thighs a suitable location. This would ultimately explain tattoos as a purely female custom.
Who made the tattoos?
Although we have no explicit written evidence in the case of ancient Egypt, it may well be that the older women of a community would create the tattoos for the younger women, as happened in 19th-century Egypt and happens in some parts of the world today.
What instruments did they use?
It is possible that an implement best described as a sharp point set in a wooden handle, dated to c. 3000 B.C. and discovered by archaeologist W.M.F. Petrie at the site of Abydos may have been used to create tattoos. Petrie also found the aforementioned set of small bronze instruments c. 1450 B.C.—resembling wide, flattened needles—at the ancient town site of Gurob. If tied together in a bunch, they would provide repeated patterns of multiple dots.
What did these tattoos look like?
Most examples on mummies are largely dotted patterns of lines and diamond patterns, while figurines sometimes feature more naturalistic images. The tattoos occasionally found in tomb scenes and on small female figurines which form part of cosmetic items also have small figures of the dwarf god Bes on the thigh area.
What were they made of? How many colors were used?
Usually a dark or black pigment such as soot was introduced into the pricked skin. It seems that brighter colors were largely used in other ancient cultures, such as the Inuit who are believed to have used a yellow color along with the more usual darker pigments.
What has surprised you the most about ancient Egyptian tattooing?
That it appears to have been restricted to women during the purely dynastic period, i.e. pre-332 B.C. Also the way in which some of the designs can be seen to be very well placed, once it is accepted they were used as a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth.
Dear Andie,
Thank you for letting us know about this. You are right that it is illegal, and I would be grateful if you could remove the link. We will investigate this matter.
Best regards,
Nick Wright,
Publisher
Shire Publications Ltd.
Ancient Egypt is the latest treasure trove to open in the ever-expanding World Museum Liverpool.
As revealed in the ECHO last month one of its priceless exhibits is the vividly coloured girdle of the last great pharaoh, Rameses the Third, now to be on public display for the first time since before World War ll.
Dating from 1180BC, the girdle was worn by Rameses as he rode his chariot into battle. It is a unique artefact from the ancient world. There is nothing like it, even in the exhibits from Tutankhamen’s tomb.
Among other items going on permanent display from this Friday is the mummy which inspired the Victorian novelist H Rider Haggard’s novel She, about a queen who waits 2,000 years for her lost love.
The collection follows the development of the Egyptian kingdom from the time of the first king, Menes, (3000BC) through to the time of the legendary Queen Cleopatra, who died in 30BC, and the Greek and Roman periods.
Dozens of ancient artifacts stolen by a former U.S. Army officer were returned Wednesday to the Egyptian government.Officials said the items, such as small urns, came from the Ma'adi archaeological site outside Cairo and date to 3600 B.C. or earlier.
Army helicopter pilot Edward George Johnson, a chief warrant officer from Fayetteville, N.C., was arrested in February in Alabama on charges of transporting stolen property and wire fraud. He pleaded guilty in July to possessing and selling stolen antiquities and was sentenced to 19 months of probation.
This major exhibition will focus on ancient Egyptian medicine. It will deal with health and disease, how the ancient Egyptians treated and cured it. You will meet Imhotep, the Egyptian god of medicine, and find out about mummification.
The displays will also include some stunning casts of medical artefacts and scans of other objects from other institutions.
From 1 December 2008 - 28 February 2009
In July 2009, the Department of Classical Studies and the Graduate Library at the University of Michigan will host a Papyrological Institute for advanced graduate students and junior faculty in Ancient History, Classics, Egyptology, Byzantine Studies and related disciplines. The institute will include a combination of lectures and advanced coursework with first-hand experience working with ancient sources. Students are expected to participate actively in all of the institute’s programs and activities; a full-time commitment is required while the Institute is in session.
Admission to the summer Papyrological Institute is by application only; approximately twelve scholars will be selected to participate. Any qualified academic may participate; no previous experience with papyrology is required. For work with Greek and Coptic papyri, a high degree of competence in Ancient Greek and/or Coptic is essential. Instruction in elementary Coptic will be provided as part of the course. Participation in the institute is free of charge. Applicants are expected to seek financial support from their home institutions to facilitate their participation, but grants may be available for candidates who lack other means of support. Participants who complete the Institute will receive a certificate from the American Society of Papyrologists, but no credit will be given for the course and no grades or transcripts will be issued.
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology has worked with four ‘English for Speakers of Other Languages’ (ESOL) tutors to write resources for self-directed visits to the museum aimed at Entry 3 and Level One ESOL learners and their tutors. The information packs are designed for use in the museum, as well as include tutors’ notes, and worksheets with material divided into sections to be used before, during, and after the visit respectively. There are currently packs on three topics available for downloading from their web site: ‘Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt’, ‘Cultural Diversity’ and ‘Islamic Art and Culture’. The ESOL packs are a new addition to the Museum’s existing set of resources for school and university teaching.
The Petrie Museum is a world-class collection of over 80,000 objects from prehistoric to Islamic Egypt and Sudan, making it one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world. Among the unique elements of the collection are items used by ancient Egyptians in four millennia of daily life, such as tools, calendars, toys made from the mud of the Nile, rat traps, clothing, jewellery, hairpins, kohl pots, and rush sandals. Much of it comes from documented excavations, and the extensive typological series of objects provide an excellent insight into how people have lived and died in the Nile Valley. The collection also includes a number of significant costumes, and outstanding works of art from Akhenaten’s city at Amarna, and from many other important Egyptian and Nubian settlements and burial sites. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of Roman period mummy portraits (first to second centuries AD).
