Swiss architect researches Egyptian project

Youm7

Swiss architect Sasha Rossler will head to Cairo in a short visit on December 7 for ten days. He will complete his research about his art project, focusing on Egyptian architect Hassan Fathi’s work.

According to Swiss cultural organization, Rossler is find out two things, the problem with Fathi’s project of establishing a new village and why people refuse to move to the new village.

Photo for Today - Temple of Amenhotep III, El Kab

Amin supports re-establishment of the Ministry for Antiquities

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

In a statement issued by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), of which Ahram Online has received a copy, SCA’s secretary general Mostafa Amin denies any statements being spread on Facebook and Twitter that he is against the re-establishment of the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), and describes the claims as unfounded.

“These are rumours spread by my opponents or by those who want to disturb the water between me and the new minister,” Amin told Ahram Online. He added that he is very happy that the cabinet has finally met the archaeologists’ demand to have a ministry of their own. He is also happy to nominate Mohamed Ibrahim Ali, Professor of Archaeology at the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, to hold Egypt’s antiquities portfolio.

Update from the Epigraphic Survey

The Oriental Institute blog (Charles Jones)

Report from Ray Johnson

I am pleased to report that Luxor has been peaceful throughout the last few weeks, and the Chicago House team is busy and well. Our work at Medinet Habu, TT 107, and Luxor Temple has proceeded normally, and continued through the disturbances in Cairo with no interruption. The elections so far - here, in Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere - have been noteworthy for their orderliness, peaceful nature, enthusiasm, and unprecedented turnout. It's an encouraging beginning! And history in the making.

Yesterday artist Sue Osgood returned to Luxor to continue working in TT 107, the tomb of Nefersekheru, steward of Amenhotep III's Malkata palace, where Margaret has been drawing for the last month. Tomorrow conservator Hiroko Kariya arrives to resume conservation work in the Luxor Temple blockyards. On Sunday we are all heading south to see the current excavation work of faculty member Nadine Moeller, husband Gregory, and her team (including Hratch Papazian) at Tell Edfu.

German scholarships to Supreme Council of Antiquities

Youm 7 (Dina Abdel Aleem)

German Institute for Antiquities in Cairo dedicated 40 training scholarships for workers at the Supreme Council of Antiquities in different archaeological specialties.

The scholarships aim to train workers and specialists in the council on the latest methods in the field of archeological work, in order to learn new artistic skills.

SCA General Secretariat Mostafa Amin said these scholarships are a prelude to cooperation between the council and the German Institute for Antiquities. He said the scholarships will benefit the field of maintaining Egyptian antiquities, either by documentation, restoration or archaeological findings which add historical facts to the ancient Egyptian civilization.

Egyptological - our December edition is out now

Egyptological - Journal and Magazine editions

We are very pleased to announce that the latest edition of Egyptological is now out and is available at the above address, free of charge. There is an eclectic mix of articles in both the Journal and Magazine sections, spanning the prehistoric to Coptic periods via the 12th and 18th Dynasties, with articles, reviews, note and the latest Photo Album.

All our authors welcome discussion and feedback, so do feel free to comment on any of the pieces on Egyptological.

Older articles are also available on the site and can be found in our archives. If a particular subject is of interest our search facility will help you to find all relevant items.

Journal, Edition 2

• Comparison of the stelae of wsrimn (Fisher Collection, Detroit) and of ddwsbk (Louvre C240 and BM566) of Dynasty XII. By Etienne Vander Walle (translated by Diana Gainer)

• Who Is King Scorpion? By Francis Lankester

• The contributions of A.J. Arkell to eastern Saharan prehistory. By Andrea Byrnes
  

Magazine, Edition 3

Articles

• Hatshepsut, King of Egypt (1479–1458 BC). By Barbara O'Neill

• Ancient Egyptian Religion, Part 3 – Temples, Festivals and Personal Piety. By Brian Alm

• An Introduction to The Coptic Period in Egypt. The Early Christian era 1st Century AD – 7th Century AD. By Howard Middleton-Jones
  

Reviews

• AWT Conference 2011 Review: Glass Faience and Pottery Making at Amarna (Paul Nicholson). By Kate Phizackerley

• AWT Conference 2011 Review: Curse of the Pharaoh’s DNA (Jo Marchant). By Kate Phizackerley

• Book Review: Gifts of the Nile – Ancient Egyptian Faience (edited by Florence Dunn). By Andrea Byrnes
  

In Brief

• Notes on the goddess Pakhet. By Andrea byrnes
  

Photo Album

• Fatimid Rock Crystal in the V&A Museum, London. By Sarah Preece
  

The Tell Edfu team wrap up for the season

Tell Edfu blog

As the days are getting colder (this morning it is 50 degrees Fahrenheit / 10 degrees Celsius here, the same temperature as in Chicago!) we are getting near the end of our 2011 season. Our last day on the tell will be on Thursday, December 8th. During the next few days we will be busy in packing up everything on site and do the last drawings and recordings. Natasha, Janelle and Lindsey are taking care of the large amount of pottery sherds which will be packed according to their respective archaeological contexts in plastic bags and cardboard boxes before getting put into the pylon of the temple which is their temporary storage location until we come back next year.

Museum of Turin Egyptology collections go online

Museo Egizio, Torino

The Museo Egizio di Torino (now governed by a Foundation) is striving to modernise itself. The works in progress include:

1. researching, documenting and conserving the collections;
2. improving information and services for the public;
3. updating the tired displays; and
4. refurbishing the palace.

In a digital age, all museums must face the often all-too-meagre state of their documentation and decide whether to delay or to make everything accessible and constantly to update the entries on line. We have chosen to go on line and to continue upgrading the information, especially bibliographic references and dating/chronology. We hope our collections prove a useful contribution to Egyptology and to your individual research. The Museum is grateful for all user input (info@museoegizio.it), but cannot be expected to respond to individual comments.

In order to confer progressively the collections to the Foundation, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte e del Museo Antichità Egizie has produced index card information of the objects in the magazines, along with photographs. This project, financed by MiBAC for € 185.000, has also included various institutions promoting formative internships (project page).

Protest at Abydos Temple suspended

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

Following almost two days of blocking the entrance gate of Abydos Temple in El-Balyana village near the upper Egyptian town of Sohag, protestors suspended their demonstration, left the site and allowed visitors to enter the temple.

The suspension came after Sohag Governorate’s secretary general met the protestors and promised them to meet all their demands.

Exhibition: 19th Century Photographs of Egypt, Florida

Art Daily

With a magnificent sepia photograph of the Sphinx, Great Pyramid and an unlikely group of visitors to the area on camel-back - check out the beard of the chap on the left. Oh to be in Florida right now!

Egypt was an exotic land to nineteenth-century European artists. Painters, writers, and photographers traveled to Egypt to explore, document, and interpret this great country, its civilization, and its newly discovered antiquities. Technical advances in the young medium of photography encouraged direct observation and the advancement of knowledge.

The more than 40 images in Forever in a Moment capture this wonderful sense of discovery. The exhibition is the third in a series unveiling the magnanimous gifts of photography from Ludmila and Bruce Dandrew and Chitranee and Dr. Robert L. Drapkin. Additional works have been lent by The Drapkin Collection, Timothy Welsh, and another private collector.

Forever in a Moment beautifully complements Ancient Egypt—Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva, Switzerland, an American premiere opening at the Museum of Fine Arts December 17.

The majority of the photographs in Forever in a Moment are European. They capture some of the world’s most imposing archeological sites. Many are now on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

New Book: Photography and Archaeology

Reaktion Books

Not exactly Egyptology, but potentially of some interest to some readers.

Photography and Archaeology
Frederick N. Bohrer

Through photographs we preserve the past, and looking for the past is the very job of the archaeologist. But what are we looking at in an archaeological photograph? Archaeological photography is often largely deserted, to be scanned with a forensic gaze, towards finding evidence of what once took place. At the same time, photographs of excavated sites and artefacts have revealed stunning ancient works, shot as works of art. In Photography and Archaeology, Frederick Bohrer examines some of history’s most famous archaeological excavations, as well as lesser-known and previously unpublished finds, from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and the ways these sites have been represented in photographs. Bohrer shows how the development of photography in the nineteenth century made archaeology available to a much wider audience, and he discusses how these images revealed the material traces of the past, as well as their meaning and use today.

Frederick N. Bohrer is Professor of Art at Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, and author of Orientalism and Visual Culture: Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-century Europe (2003)

Photo for Today - Amenhotep III temple at El Kab

Protestors block tourist access to Temple of Abydos

Youm7

Tourism movement stopped in Abydos Temple in Sohag. Two tourist groups cancelled their visit to the temple due to insecure developments that may arise as a result of protests there.

Resident of the village of Oraba Abydos organized a protest before the entrance of the temple, angry at the shortage of gas canisters in their village.

The story began when Abdoul Aziz al-Nahas received information about 300 people gathering in front of Abydos tourist Temple protesting against the shortage of gas canisters in their village.

Princess Samiha's former palace undergoes restoration

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Overlooking Zamalek's Nile Corniche stands the three-storey building that once hosted Khedive Ismail’s granddaughter, princess Samiha Kamel, with a distinguished architectural style that combines the Mamluk, Ottoman, European, Andalusian and Moroccan styles. The awe-inspiring edifice has four facades crowned by a tower similar to those found atop Mamluk fortresses. Its front is decorated with foliage elements and its gates and widows lined with geometrical ornamentation. . . .

Two years after her death, the palace was declared state property. In 1990, it was converted into the Great Cairo Library. . . .

Routine monitoring carried out by the SCA has revealed that the palace was improperly restored, its granite columns and front having been covered with fake painting. The SCA has carried out a restoration project to rescue the landmark building and restore its original look, said Mohsen Sayed Ali, head of the SCA’s Islamic and Coptic antiquities department.

Penn Museum Launches Online Collections Database

Penn Museum (Gabrielle Niu)

Just this week, the Penn Museum launched its Online Collections Database. This brand new resource currently encompasses over 314,000 object records and is illustrated with 46,000 images, stats that are expected to increase as the project moves forward. A keyword as well as an advanced search allow users to casually browse or specifically search for objects.

Experpted from About page:

Images may not be used for print publication or commercial purposes without written approval from the Penn Museum. To request licensing of an image for print publication or commercial use, or to request publication-quality photography of an object, please email photos@pennmuseum.org.

All information (data, images, and text) on the Penn Museum's website are made available for limited non-commercial, educational, and personal use only, or for fair use as defined in the United States copyright laws:

teaching
scholarship
research
critique
commentary
personal communication
news reporting

Website users may link to, embed, or download these files for use motivated by private interest only. You are free to copy and adapt the images as long as you credit the Museum: "Object [insert object number(s)]. Courtesy of the Penn Museum." and in no way suggest an endorsement of you or your use of the image or content.

Unwrapping the ancient Egyptian animal mummy industry

BBC News (Jane O'Brien)

With video.

The ancient Egyptian animal mummification industry was so large it put some species in danger of extinction. But as a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC shows, the Egyptians believed they were doing the animals a great honour.

Egypt in the 7th Century BC was not a healthy place to be if you were a cat or a dog.

Puppy farms and other animal breeding programmes were a huge industry - not to produce pets, but to provide a stock of animals to be killed and mummified.

The Egyptians believed that animals held a unique position in the afterlife. They could keep the dead company, they represented the gods, and they were well received as offerings by the gods, Egyptologists say.

A recurring theme in museum shows

examiner.com (Joan Altabe)

With some kind of magnetic pull, ancient Egypt is a constant draw in museum shows worldwide. This year alone, a Cleopatra exhibit came to the Milwaukee Public Museum, A Pharoah exhibit came to the British Museum, and Egyptian art came to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Even Egyptian fakes showed up at the Brooklyn Museum.Now an Egyptian double feature comes to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg: “Forever in a Moment: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt,” through April 10, 2012 and “Ancient Egypt—Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art/Geneva,” opening December 17 through April 29.

This isn’t even the first time that the Old Nile got featured at MFA. “The Lure of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs Revisited'' was mounted back in 1998.

Our fascination with Egypt is as old as its pyramids and was already far along in the time that Moses saw it.

Exhibition: Grave Secrets - Tales of the Ancient Nubians

Culture 24

Exhibition: Grave Secrets: Tales of the Ancient Nubians, The Manchester Museum, Manchester, until March 4 2012

If you crave a real warrior in your life, the man known simply as 15A in the Manchester Museum’s mummy-heavy display of early 20th century archaeological discoveries just south of Egypt is a superhuman specimen.

Examinations have revealed that he survived multiple wounds from both blunt and sharp objects, including one to his forehead which simultaneously damaged his skull and brain, but his wounds healed and he survived them all.

More re prostate cancer in an Egyptian mummy

The Portugal News

An Egyptian mummy, more than 2,000 years-old, belonging to the National Archaeology Museum (MNA), is a unique specimen after having been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to researcher Carlos Prates.

Following three dimensional tomography exams throughout the entire body, the mummy, which is around 2,300 years old, was diagnosed with a tumour in the prostate with bone extensions.

“It is a unique case, probably the second oldest known. There is a find with a similar hypothesis in some very degraded bones found in Sibeira, analysis results which presume the cause of death was prostate cancer, but there is no radiography, nor images, and it is dated to 2,700 years; whereas the Lisbon mummy is 2,300 years old,” Mr Prates, radiologist and leader of the clinical team that made the discovery told Lusa News Agency.

Travel : Siwa Oasis

Al Ahram Weekly (Ameera Fouad)

Once upon a time, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus said he knew a fountain of the sun that ran coldest in the noontide heat. Once upon a time, Queen Cleopatra made herself a bath and a spring in which to bathe in the middle of the Western Desert. Once upon a time, a temple was built in Siwa to honour the ram-headed god Amon-Ra, housing an oracle whose fame had spread by about 700 BCE. Once upon a time, the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who lived between 522 and 443 BCE, wrote a poem about the oracle at Siwa and carved it on a stone stele.

Once upon a time, Egyptian egyptologist Zahi Hawass, former secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, made headlines when he announced that archaeologists had discovered the world's oldest human footprint while exploring a prehistoric site in Siwa. Once upon a timeÒê¦ many figures could be cited at this juncture in connection with Egypt's Siwa Oasis, though it is the "fountain of the sun" at Siwa that is perhaps the most celebrated.

Siwa is like no other oasis in Egypt.