Inside the field of 'corpse medicine'

Daily Mail (Leon Watson)

Doctors have long known that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

But in 'corpse medicine' - the idea of treating ills by swallowing body parts and fluids - a little sweetener wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.

First up is Mummy Powder, which was purported to be the ground up remains of the ancient kings of Egypt.

This was a popular medicine used from the 12th to the 17th century to cure everything from headaches to stomach ulcers, according to Compiled by 109.com, which compiled the list.

Luxor exhibits Project Djehuty discoveries

El Mundo (Rosa M. Tristán)

Thanks to Amigos de la Egiptologia for this link.

Rough Translation: When the warrior Iquer was buried 4,000 years ago, those who interred him could not have imagined that he would be exhibited at the Luxor Museum. But this is what has happened, thanks to the work of the Spanish Project Djehuty, at Dra Abu el-Naga, the Theban necropolis where Jose Manuel Galan's research team has worked more than a decade.  The discovery of Dynasty XI coffin (dating to about 2000 BC) was made during the 2008 campaign. Painted red with beautiful polychrome drawings of glyphs, it has since undergone extensive restoration by experts from the Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).  Galan says that the only comparable coffin known is one in the Boston Museum, and that it is very well preserved in spite of the presence of large amounts of water in the past. 

Cuando el guerrero Iquer fue enterrado, hace 4.000 años, sus sepultureros no podían imaginarse que acabara expuesto en el Museo de Luxor. Pero así ha ocurrido, gracias al trabajo de la misión arqueológica española del Proyecto Djehuty, en Dra Abu el-Naga, la necrópolis tebana en la que el equipo de investigación de José Manuel Galán lleva trabajando más de una década.

El hallazgo del ataúd del arquero de la dinastía XI (unos 2000 a.C.) tuvo lugar durante la campaña de 2008. Pintado de rojo y con hermosos dibujos de jeroglíficos polícromos, desde entonces se ha sometido a una exhaustiva restauración por parte de los expertos del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)-

"Sólo se conoce uno similar, que está en el Museo de Boston, pero el nuestro está muy bien conservado pese a que corrió abundante agua por fuera y por dentro", explica Galán, que la semana pasada se trasladó a Luxor para asistir al acto de entrega en el Museo como responsable del yacimiento.

And then of course, I found it in English.  Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

After almost 10 years in storage at the Luxor antiquities inspectorate, the very distinguished ancient Egyptian objects will take their place in the permanent collection of the Luxor Museum. They were found in the tomb of Djehuty, the overseer of works at Thebes during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut.

The artefacts include the very well-preserved sarcophagus of a Middle Kingdom warrior named Iker, which means "the excellent one". The sarcophagus was found in the courtyard of Djehuty's tomb in 2007, along with five arrows made of reeds, three of them still feathered. These will also be included in the new exhibited collection.

Some clay vases and bouquets of dried flowers that were thrown inside the Djehuty tomb at his funeral are to be exhibited along with a faience necklaces, gilded earrings and bracelets.

Two clusters of ceramic vases, mostly bottles, with shapes typical of those fabricated during the reign of Tuthmosis III, will also be exhibited.

"These artefacts were carefully selected from the collection unearthed at Djehuty's tomb," said Mohamed Ibrahim, minister of state for antiquities.

Berlin organizing a centenary show dedicated to the discovery of the Nefertiti bust

La Informacion  

This should put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Rough Translation:  Next December the Neues Museum in Berlin will host a major exhibition to mark the centenary of the discovery of the famous bust of Nefertiti.  The exhibition, which will be held between 7th December 2012 and 13th April 2013, will present about 600 objects to provide a historical and cultural context that will provide an approximation to the Amarna period.  Many of the objects on display with the bust (which was discovered on December 6th 1912 by archeologist Ludwig Borchardt at Amarna) n Luxor have never been publicly displayed before.

El Museo Nuevo de Berlín acogerá en diciembre próximo una gran exposición para recordar el centenario del descubrimiento del famoso busto de la reina egipcia Nefertiti, según un comunicado difundido hoy por los Museos Estatales de la capital alemana.

La muestra, que podrá verse entre el 7 de diciembre de 2012 y el 13 de abril de 2013, presentará alrededor de 600 objetos en su "debido contexto histórico-cultural", que permitirá una aproximación a la era de la reina Nefertiti y de su esposo, el gran faraón Akenatón.

Junto al busto, descubierto el 6 de diciembre de 1912 por el arqueólogo Ludwig Borchardt en el valle de Amarna, entre Luxor y El Cairo, los visitantes podrán ver muchos otros objetos hallados también entonces y nunca antes exhibidos públicamente, que serán debidamente restaurados.

Gold mining in ancient Egypt

Mining Weekly (Jade Davenport)

Via the Petrie Museum Unofficial Facebook page.

 The history of gold is as old as that of man. There is no doubt that it was one of the first metals known to primitive man, as it exists in nature in an elemental state. Its association with primitive cultures is evidenced by the fact that crude ornaments of gold have been found among the remains of all prehistoric peoples.

However, the first people to use gold on a considerable scale were the ancient Egyptians. Archaeological evidence reveals that the yellow metal came into fairly extensive use during the predynastic period, that is, before 3100 BCE.

Although the origins of gold mining in predynastic Egypt are shrouded in mystery, it is likely that, during that period, the metal was extracted from alluvial deposits.

It was only with the advent of the early dynastic period, from 3100 BCE onwards, that gold began to be extracted by systematic mining. Some of the earliest mining operations were conducted in the granite mountains east of Coptos and further south, in Nubia, between the Nile and the Red Sea, during the early dynastic age.

Multimedia resources at the Louvre

Louvre Museum Press Release (PDF)

Via the Collecting Egypt blog, with thanks.

Press Release.

Enjoy an innovative museum experience at the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities! State-of-the-art, fun-touse multimedia resources, developed for the ‘Louvre – DNP Museum Lab’ project, are available to help you understand the conventions of Egyptian art and decipher a funerary stela: the Stela of Sakherty.

Outreach and multimedia
In Rooms 21 and 23 (on the 1st floor of the Sully wing), ingenious multimedia devices, purpose-designed for the department, offer an insight into the collection of Egyptian Antiquities, helping you make sense of the exhibits and discover their connection with ancient Egyptian beliefs.

Using comics to bring ancient Egypt to life

matthewfinch.me  

One of the most exciting comic book education projects I’ve discovered takes place in the Petrie Museum, where University College London holds its collection of archaeological findings from ancient Egypt.

It can be a tall order attracting children and young people to an academic museum, especially with a capital city’s attractions on your doorstep. Since 2010, artist and educator Kel Winser has run workshops at the Petrie, using ancient Egyptian culture as an inspiration for children and young people to create their own superhero characters.

Kel and the Petrie Museum’s education officer Debbie Challis joined me to discuss their innovative use of comics as an education tool.

Online: Nubian identity in the Bronze Age

Bioarchaeology of the Near East

With thanks to Geoffrey Tassie for the link.

Michele R. Buzon
Nubian identity in the Bronze Age. Patterns of cultural and biological variation
Bioarchaeology of the Near East. Volume 5, 2011, pp. 19-40.

In the Nile Valley, the examination of ancient peoples has generally focused on the similarities and differences between Egyptians and Nubians, both culturally and biologically, as well as on changes over time (e.g., Berry & Berry 1972; Buzon 2006a; Carlson & Van Gerven 1979; Edwards 2004; Geus 1991; Godde 2009; Irish 2005; Smith 2003; Williams 1991). Fewer studies have focused on the biological and cultural affi nities between contemporaneous groups in the region. During the Bronze Age (~3100−1100 BC) several different populations lived in Nubia. In this article, the archaeological evidence (such as burial ritual and pottery styles) used to defi ne the cultures known as C-Group in Lower Nubia (northern region) and Kerma in Upper Nubia (southern region, Figure 1) is surveyed in conjunction with cranial measurements to examine the complex relationship between two groups who lived during this period in ancient Nubia. While both were situated in ancient Nubia during the Bronze Age, how closely were they related? The goal of this study is to investigate the cultural and biological variability in these two Bronze Age Nubian groups, to assess the evidence for group distinction, and to explore the relationship between cultural and biological variables in their ethnic group composition.

Online: Treasures of Dakhleh Oasis

Leiden University Open Access    

An exhibition on the occasion of the Fifth International Conference of the Dakhleh Oasis Project

Informative 40-page PDF with some lovely photographs.

Foreword

Dakhleh, the “inner” of the oases to the West of Luxor is one of the most important Oases of the Western Desert. It has the main important archaeological sites including a town of the Old Kingdom and its associated necropolis, near the modern village of Balat, which show that the Egyptians’ control extended more than 350 km west of the Nile Valley into the Western Desert from a very early period through the Pharaonic to the Greek and Roman periods. It also has a number of important Coptic and Islamic sites. Therefore you can smell the history of Egypt in this wonderful Oasis.

Since 1978 Antony J. Mills works on the Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP). The small exhibition Treasures of the Dakhleh Oasis at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, is held on the occasion of the Fifth International Conference of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, held 3‐6 June in Cairo. This exhibition importantly reflects the work of Olaf Kaper (Leiden University), Fred Leemhuis (Groningen University) and is supported by the Netherlands‐Flemish Institute in Cairo. We would like to extend our gratitude to them for this very informative exhibition and its beautifully illustrated catalogue.

Dr Wafaa el Saddik
Director of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Online: The Art of Medicine by Andrew Robinson

andrewrobinson.org 

Two page article from The Lancet.

The art of medicine. Jean-François Champollion and ancient Egyptian embalming
By Andrew Robinson

200 years ago this year, the future founder of Egyptology, French linguist and archaeologist Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832)—the fi rst person since classical antiquity to be able to read the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs—conducted a primitive experiment. It turned out to be one of the initial scientifi c steps on the long road to unravelling the mysteries of mummifi cation, fi rst described in the fi fth century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus.

In 1812, Champollion was an impecunious 21-year-old assistant professor of history at the University of Grenoble and an assistant at the city’s municipal library. A teenage prodigy in Oriental languages, he had become obsessed by understanding ancient Egypt, as a result of his schoolboy exposure to fascinating antiquities brought back from Egypt by the scientist and prefect of Grenoble, Joseph Fourier, who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte’s army on its expedition in 1798–1801.

Online: Year 12 of Akhenaten in the Context of the Near Eastern Political and Military History

History of the Ancient World  

Year 12 of Akhenaten in the Context of the Near Eastern Political and Military History
By Ivan A. Ladynin and Alexander A. Nemirovski
Cultural Heritage of Egypt and Christian Orient No. 5 (2010)

Introduction: When proposing a theme for the Egyptological conference in Helwan, the Arab Republic of Egypt, in May 2005, one of the authors of this article chose at first to talk about the general evolution of Egyptology, with special regard at the gradual decrease of historical studies in it during the 20th century. The thesis he intended to postulate was that this decrease is a great danger to our discipline. When the Egyptologists of the ‘heroic age’ were writing their respective histories of Ancient Egypt1, they were willing to present in them its comprehensive picture reflecting facts as they were known, social conditions and culture of the Egyptian civilization. Now the prevailing trend of Egyptology is the highly specialized studies of language and texts, or religion, or archaeological and artistic artifacts; but these studies, however useful for developing the methods of research, cannot be a value of themselves. They badly want a framework, which would turn each specific achievement of an individual researcher into a piece of an integrate mosaic.

Photo for Today - Travertine bowl, Hierakonpolis

Hierakonpolis Main Deposit (Predynastic)

Ashmolean Museum

Attempt to steal Pharaonic artifact in Aswan foiled

Ahram Online  

Archaeologists and guards at Gabal Al-Silsila archaeological site, 20 kilometres north of Kom Ombo city in Aswan, succeeded in catching a group of thieves who in full view had tried to remove King Meneptah’s stelae from its original position on the wall of his chapel.

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said the theft attempt was discovered late last night when permanent archaeologists at the site realised that four people were in front of King Meneptah’s stelae trying to hack it off the wall with an axe and digging tools. With the help of guards, archaeologists surrounded the criminals and caught them red handed. The Tourism and Antiquities Police came and took the criminals into custody. 

Egypt Independent

Security guards foiled an attempt to steal an antique panel depicting King Merenptah, the fourth ruler of the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, in the Selsela mountain quarries 20 kilometers north of Kom Ombo, Aswan.

Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Ali announced on Wednesday that four people were seen attempting to steal the piece, and were immediately detained by security guards in the area.

The tools they used in their excavations were seized, a report of the incident was filed and the four suspects were referred to the prosecution.

The tourism and antiquities police were notified of the incident.

The minister added that security was tightened in the area and the guards were rewarded for arresting the suspects.

New tomb at Deir Al-Barsha casts new light on the Middle Kingdom

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

The discovery of a Middle Kingdom burial of a member of the family of the Deir Al-Barsha governor has given Egyptologists some unique information on the scenario in which the ancient Egyptians conducted their funerary rituals.

Belgian archaeologists cleaning the newly discovered shaft inside Ahanakht I's tomb (top); a collection of copper vases and plates used in funerary rituals

Everything began as normal at this spring's archaeological season at the Deir Al-Barsha necropolis in Minya, which lasted from March to May. As usual, teams of workmen, archaeologists and restorers were busy on all parts of the site, digging and clearing the tombs of the village nomarchs (provincial governors) and searching for artefacts or monumental remains that could tell them more about the history of this particular period of ancient Egypt.

The site of the Deir Al-Barsha necropolis in the sandy gravel desert is famous for its rock-hewn tombs dating from the Middle Kingdom.

John Hopkins at the Temple of Mut dig diary is back!

Hopkins in Egypt Today

This is an educational web site that aims to provide the viewer with the elements of archaeological work, including the progress of excavation. The daily results are crucial to an understanding of how field investigation takes place, since decisions must be made on the basis of ongoing work. The people involved in the work are also an essential feature and contribute profoundly to the final outcomes. The focus of our diary is thus often on the people and their activities.

In May 2012 Dr. Betsy Bryan returned to the Temple of Mut precinct in Luxor, Egypt with ten Johns Hopkins students: five undergraduate and five graduate. This year Dr. Bryan and her team will be working in the area behind (south of) the lake where between 2002 and 2006 industrial areas for baking, brewing, faience and ceramic production, were discovered.

Stories from Dakhleh oasis

Greek and Roman Studies  (Aislin Lowry)

Aislin Lowry is back at Dakhleh with some great tales from the archaeological team there.

Another week, another set of adventures for me here in the Oasis. Daily life remains very much the same as we go about our respective duties and lessons in and around the dighouse and, subsequently, every day has been as wonderful, exciting, and educational as the last. Still without our permit, each and every team member has been slowly chipping away at the backlog of information and field reports, drawing and cataloging pottery and small finds, creating a new online database for the project, learning how to digitize and map images from the site, and compiling a new catalog for our ceramicists. In a departure from my usual lesson in the morning ceramics in the afternoon routine, I was invited by Ellen to accompany our newly-arriving geologist, herself, and one other student (Mat, he’s an amazing 32 year old senior at Columbia in New York, planning to attend law school in the fall to practice antiquities law) on a pseudo-geological-and-cultural-material survey in the land around Amheida, a carefully delineated area surrounding our dig site, a great portion of which Ellen had surveyed during last year’s excavation. Of course, I was thrilled and honored to join them on their trip into the desert, and I eagerly packed my backpack the next morning for a day of discovery.  

Egypt’s historic palaces falling apart

gulfnews.com (Ramadan Al Sherbini)

Almost 16 months after a popular revolt deposed long-standing Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, presidential palaces have been infested with insects, bats and crows due to closure and a lack of attention.

Some of Egypt’s eight palaces were built in the 19th century, according to archaeologists, who call for turning them into tourist sites.

Most state institutions have stopped looking after the presidential palaces since Mubarak’s ouster in February last year for fear of being accused by opponents of the former leader as being loyal to him, officials said.

“These sites have around 100 rare species of trees, most of them are facing a serious decline due to negligence over the past months,” said an official, who requested anonymity.

Petrie Museum one of the most unusual in London

The Telegraph (John O' Ceallaigh)

It's not hyperbole to say that London is home to many of the world's best museums. Venues such as the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum and Design Museum can justly lay claim to being the best in their field (and most of them are free too). But with so many world-famous museums dominating the itineraries of tourists and being a first port of call for locals with visitors in tow, it can be easy to overlook London's cornucopia of lesser-known and smaller-scale museums. With that in mind I've rounded up 50 of the best unusual London museums for people looking for alternatives to the big hitters. I've termed them 'unusual' not because their subject matter is quirky or weird - although, sometimes, that's definitely the case - but because they're not typically the usual choice for newer visitors to the city. 

Petrie Museum, Euston
Found within UCL, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology may be small but its collection of some 80,000 objects makes it one of the greatest museums of its type anywhere.

Students from the University of Warsaw will follow in the footsteps of the first Egyptologists

Science and Scholarship in Poland 

In September, members of the Scientific Society of Ancient Egypt "KeMeT" at the University of Warsaw Łukasz Przewłocki and Ewa Biskupek will begin a scientific project aimed at finding and documenting selected archaeological sites depicted in the nineteenth century drawings and described in the reports of the first archaeologists. Comparing them with the current state can provide new information on pioneering research conducted more than 150 years ago.

At the moment, work is underway on searching, cataloguing and specifying, which monuments, primarily buildings, will be selected for detailed study.

"Figures we are taking into account originate from the first half of the nineteenth century, and their authors are the first European Egyptologists, including Jean-Francois Champollion, Karl Richard Lepsius, Ippolito Rosellini, and about 200 scientists and 160 illustrators, who participated in Napoleon’s Egypt expedition" - explained Łukasz Przewłocki. Bonaparte's expedition was the cause of the immense work Description de l'Egypte.

Dorothea Arnold to become Curator Emeritus

Art Daily  

Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced that distinguished curator, scholar, and archaeologist Dorothea Arnold will retire on June 30, following 21 years as head of the Department of Egyptian Art, including seven years most recently as its Lila Acheson Wallace Chairman. Her career at the Museum began in 1985. She will become Curator Emeritus as of July 1. 

“For the past 27 years, Dorothea Arnold has served as a highly respected member of our curatorial staff. Her contributions to her field have been enormous—as a long-time archaeologist, noted scholar and author, curator of important exhibitions, and leader of an impressive team of experts in the Department of Egyptian Art,” said Mr. Campbell in making the announcement. “She has also overseen the reinstallation of many of her department’s galleries, where almost all of the Museum’s vast Egyptian art holdings, numbering around 30,000 works of art, are on display. These galleries are among the Met’s most studied and most visited by our millions of visitors from around the world each year.” 

Mr. Campbell announced further that the Metropolitan Museum will conduct an international search to appoint Dorothea Arnold’s successor. Diana Craig Patch, currently an Associate Curator in the department, will become Acting Associate Curator in Charge on July 1.

Abu Simbel farmers release tourists held over water shortage

Egypt Independent 

Dozens of farmers in the Abu Simbel area have ended a sit-in and released 204 tourists they had held hostage inside their buses to demand the provision of irrigation water for their farms, Abu Simbel Mayor Assad Abdel Majid told ONA news agency Sunday.

The farmers captured the tourists after they had visited the Ramses II and Nefertari temples, blocking the road in front of the Abu Simbel Temple.

More than 2,500 acres had been planted since the beginning of the growing season and will be damaged due to a lack of irrigation water, the farmers had told Al-Masry Al-Youm.