Mereja

Author: Andie

  • Egypt at the Manchester Museum

    Egypt at the Manchester Museum

    There have been a number of updates by Campbell Price in the last couple of weeks. Have a look at the above page to find out more about the following topics:

    • Curator’s Diary 10/7/12: Pagans, Christians and Muslims – Egypt in the First Millennium AD
    • Photographing Fragrances
    • Texts in translation #7: The shabti spell of Horudja
    • Curator’s Diary 30/6/12: CT scanning Asru … and a crocodile mummy!
    • Texts in translation #6: A stela of Peniwemiteru (Acc. No. R4571 1937)
    • Curator’s Diary 15/6/12: More than Musty Mummies…? ACCES seminar in Swansea
    • Curator’s Diary 13/6/12: Egyptian Collections and Collectors in Brussels
    • Object biography #6: The crown from a colossal statue of Ramesses II (Acc. No. 1783)
    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • St. Catherine’s monastery seeks permanence through technology

    Egypt Independent (James Purtill)

    St. Catherine’s Monastery is going digital. The monastery that claims to be the oldest in the world ­— not destroyed, not abandoned in 17 centuries — has begun digitizing its ancient manuscripts for the use of scholars. A new library to facilitate the process is about five years away.

    The librarian, Father Justin, says the monastery’s library will grow an internet database of first-millennium manuscripts, which up until now have been kept under lock and key. Should a scholar want a manuscript, they need only email Father Justin.

    “And if I don’t have book but see a reference, I can email a friend in Oxford. They can scan and send it the next day,” he says.

    Still, as natural and inevitable as it sounds, that’s quite the sea change. Just 10 years ago, bad phone lines made it hard to connect a call with the monastery. One hundred years ago, it took 10 days to travel from Suez with a caravan of camels. 

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Taba’s Salaheddin Citadel set to open doors in July

    Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

    After a year of extensive restoration Salaheddin Citadel on Pharaoh Island, 250 metres from Taba Beach in Sinai, opens to the public in July.

    What’s new?
    The restorations include repairing all eroded and corroded surfaces, restoring the fence that surrounded the citadel and replacing fallen or missing blocks with new ones that match the others.

    A new lighting system makes the citadel appear like a crystal gem in the middle of the Red Sea. They’ve also installed lighting along the visitor paths.

    Documentary films and photo exhibition relate the history of the citadel in the visitor centre.

    To make visiting the site easier for tourists, during his latest inspection visit, Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim suggested constructing a closed tunnel to connect the citadel to the Taba beach, which boasts beautiful coral reefs.

    He also calls on the Tourism and Antiquities Police to tighten security measures in the Sinai, considering some of the recent instability in the area.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • A detailed document of inscriptions in Islamic Cairo

    Ahram Online (Nevine el-Aref)

    After 14 years of hard work, Bernard O’Kane, professor of Islamic art and architecture at the American University in Cairo (AUC), has managed to compile a detailed report of Islamic inscriptions in the historic zone of Cairo as part of the project to preserve and document inscriptions and epigraphs on Islamic monuments in the city up until the 1800s.

    According to a press release distributed by the AUC press office, what drove O’Kane to undertake the project was that many of the Islamic monuments in Cairo were deteriorating and in danger of disappearing; there was no documentation of the inscriptions. “I felt I needed to do something to help with the preservation of information,” he said.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Exhibition: Communication in Ancient Egypt

    University of Birmingham 

    Since the very beginning of human evolution, communication has played a crucial role in social development. In our modern world, when messages are conveyed through countless routes, it is very appropriate to look back and understand how interaction influenced past societies.

    ‘Connections’ aims to explore the ways in which the ancient Egyptians communicated between each other and those in a wider international environment. The methods they used are not far removed from our own, using various verbal and non-verbal techniques. Contributions to this study include investigations of written communication, along with interaction through material culture, gestures and much more. ‘Connections’ hopes to provide a unique insight into the ways that the Egyptians communed with the deceased, the illiterate, the divine and sacred worlds, foreign countries and different social groups.

    An online catalogue accompanies a physical exhibition taken from objects loaned to the University of Birmingham from the Eton College Joseph William Myers Collection of Egyptian antiquities. These objects are among the finest items of Egyptian art to have been collected during the late nineteenth century. Many of them are small masterpieces in their own right – but those less aesthetic objects also communicated messages, and have not been neglected in this project.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Exhibition: Djehuty Project out in the daylight

    Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

    With 2 photos.

    A NUMBER of artefacts discovered at a tomb in Draa Abul-Naga necropolis on Luxor’s west bank is to go on show for the first time in the Luxor National Museum, Nevine El-Aref reports.

    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.

    Djehuty’s tomb was discovered in 2003 by a Spanish-Egyptian archaeological mission. Their excavations revealed many new details about an unusual time in Egypt’s ancient history.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • The tomb of Amenemope (TT148) on Osirisnet

    Osirisnet (Thierry Benderitter)

    We present to you today the tomb of Amenemope, TT148, which dates from the 20th Dynasty.
    Amenemope was Third Prophet of Amon, descended from a powerful family of which many representatives are mentioned in the chapel. The monument is on the north hillside of Dra Abu el-Naga, an area of which the prestige and the direct view of the pylons of Karnak, compensated for the poor quality of the local rock, which along with the prolonged occupation, caused serious damage to the decoration. What has survived is of a great artistic quality and allows the previous splendour of this tomb-temple to be realised.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Upcoming publication: Buhen Old Kingdom Town

    The EES Publishing Blog (Patricia Spencer) 

    On 30 December 1961 an EES expedition led by Professor Bryan Emery returned to Buhen in the Sudan, as part of the UK contribution to the UNESCO campaign to save the monuments of Nubia. In two short seasons in the winters of 1961/2 and 1963/4, the team excavated the Old Kingdom town at this site better known for its impressive  Middle Kingdom brick fortress. Emery only published only two very short descriptions of the work – one, which was not illustrated, in the editorial foreword to JEA 48 (1962) and another, with some photographs  and a plan, in Kush XI (1963).  He also included information about the town in his book Egypt in Nubia (1965). After completing the work at Buhen, Emery moved back to Saqqara and on his death in 1971 the excavations at Buhen remained unpublished.  Professor Harry Smith, with colleagues, published the fortress in two EES volumes in 1976 and 1979, and he had, in 1972, invited David O’Connor, who had been one of the Field Supervisors, to publish the Old Kingdom Town. 

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • New Book: The Tombs of Beni Hassan in Minya

    Ahram Online

    Egypt’s Ministry of State for Antiquities just issued a new book, ‘The Tombs of Beni Hassan in Minya: The Picture and the Significance,’ the first in a series in an ongoing project aimed at documenting Egypt’s monuments and archaeological heritage.

    The project, which began in 2004, aims to register all monuments throughout the country.

    According to Minister of State for Antiquities Ahmed Ibrahim, the project will utilise the latest recording and documenting technologies.

    The 377-page book includes 268 high-resolution photos of the tombs, along with 62 diagrams.

    Magdy El-Ghandour, head of the Egyptian Centre for Recording Monuments, says the project’s next step is to publish the scientific studies and make them available to future scholars.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • New blockyard at Luxor Temple

    Luxor News Blog (Jane Akshar)

    With lots of photos.

    Readers will remember Ray Johnson speaking about this in his lecture so today I went and visited.

    Firstly you have to get an idea of this blockyard, it is huge, big and then big. This is a view taken from the mosque and you can see how much there is there. It is all arranged on mastabas (local name for brick benches).

    When you get to the end of the temple exit on the north side and there is a walkway with a chain link fence. Just follow it.

    Everything is well labeled and stretches from Middle Kingdom to Islam.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Sen-en-Mut y la cámara secreta

    Tendencias21

    This is too long to translate. Google Translate somewhat mangles it but may give the gist.

    En Deir el-Bahari, a los pies del Dyeser-Dyeseru (el templo funerario o templo de millones de años mandado construir por la reina Hatshepsut), se encuentra la capilla subterránea que excavó el arquitecto Sen-en-Mut, valido y amante de la soberana. El mayordomo de Amón pertenecía a una familia media egipcia. Formó parte de las tropas de Tutmosis I que lucharon contra Nubia. Luego fue nombrado gobernador de la Casa de la hija del faraón, es decir, se convirtió en el maestro y preceptor de la princesa. Él tenía 35 años y ella 14. Llegó a poseer cerca de un centenar de títulos. No tuvo ni esposa ni hijos. Fue en todo fiel a Hatshepsut. Murió probablemente antes que ella. A partir de ese momento, la reina comenzó a perder todo su poder en favor de Tutmosis III, su sobrino. La reina gobernó Egipto durante 21 años (desde 1478 hasta 1458 antes de Cristo). La labor destructora de su memoria por parte del sucesor fue terrible. Incluso la hizo desaparecer de la lista de los faraones. ¿Asesinada? Probablemente no, pero sí apartada, relegada.
    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Science Museum stages Egyptian makeup workshop

    Art Daily

    With photograph

    LONDON – The Science Museum will stage an Egyptian style makeup workshop at its next Lates evening on Wednesday 28 April. The workshop is one of the highlights of the programme, which celebrates the science of beauty through a series of fun and interactive workshops, talks and other activities.

    Visitors will also have an opportunity to view rare and beautiful items from the Wellcome collection of personal care – showing how beauty accessories and techniques have changed throughout history.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Exhibition: Hearst Museum offers media preview

    UC Berkeley News

    A media preview of “The Conservator’s Art: Preserving Egypt’s Past,” a new exhibit opening Thursday, April 29, at the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

    The exhibit features exceptional artifacts from the Hearst Museum’s vast Egyptian collection – including crocodile mummies, mummy portraits, statuary, amulets and unusual “reserve heads” used in Egyptian burial practices.

    The exhibit examines how technology and the humanities work together to enhance the conservation and understanding of ancient objects. It also aims to demystify the work of archaeologists and conservators, and to promote a dialogue with the public about their work and how museums help preserve cultural heritage.

    Hearst Museum

    The Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley will display rare artifacts from its vast Egyptian collection in a fascinating exhibition that will explore the conservation of our cultural past. We are pleased to announce this highly anticipated look into how museums blend technology and the humanities to conserve and understand ancient objects. Included are crocodile mummies that recently underwent CT scans at Stanford Medical School as well as statuary, mummy portraits, amulets, and one of only 30 known “reserve heads” used in Egyptian burial practices. Of the 3.8 million objects in the Hearst’s collection, the Egyptian artifacts represent some of the most important.
    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Foundation deposits found in the Valley of the Kings

    USA Today

    Thanks to Kat for highlighting that in the middle of this article about Hawass complaining that he still wants the repatriation of certain artefacts at the opening of the NY Tutankhamun exhibition there is a line about a possible new discovery in the Valley of the Kings. I don’t think that I’ve seen mention of this elsewhere but apologies if it is old news:

    Hawass also announced that a set of four foundation deposits — similar to time capsules — and a limestone fragment with a text indicating a tomb was hidden nearby were recently discovered in the Valley of the Kings.

    He said this discovery gave him hope he would soon find the tombs of Ankhesamun, Tut’s wife, and that of Nefertiti, his stepmother.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Conference: The Signs of Which Times?

    Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences

    I’ll see you there if you are attending.

    International conference: The Signs of Which Times? Chronological and Palaeoenvironmental Issues in the Rock Art of Northern Africa

    3-4-5 June 2010

    Palais des Académies / Paleis der Academiën
    Espace Baudouin
    Hertogsstraat / Rue Ducale,1
    1000 Brussels

    Programme

    Text of introduction

    Registration form

    Abstract book

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Interview with Zahi Hawass

    ArtInfo (Interview by Anthony Haden-Guest)

    According to Hawass, who worked with National Geographic to engineer both displays, the twin Tuts have already pulled in a hundred million dollars — much of which is destined for the construction of a new Tut museum in Cairo. I met with Hawass in the darkened Times Square venue to talk about the exhibition, the scientific discoveries since the Met appearance, and his spectacle-seeking brand of Egyptology.
    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Book Review: A Companion to Ancient History

    Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Sara Saba)

    Andrew Erskine (ed.), A Companion to Ancient History. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Chichester/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
    Andrew Erskine is not new to the task of editing a Companion,1 but the aims of the volume under review are somewhat different from those of his earlier achievement. In this preface, he states that this work “aims to provide a series of accessible introductions to key topics in the study of Ancient History …”, which it certainly accomplishes, while its second purpose, namely to “reflect the vitality and the excitement of scholarship at the front line” is only partially fulfilled.

    The volume is arranged into eight thematic sections to which 49 authors contributed. These are for the most part well-known scholars who can write comfortably about both the Greek and Roman aspects of specific themes, which is indeed no easy task. Examples are E. Meyer with her introductory but rock solid chapter on law or Lisa Nevett on housing, although her pages read as if they had been too often revised. Other specialists in more technical fields, in particular Walter Scheidel on demography, contribute by sharing their unmatched expertise.

    Forewords by five international scholars precede these sections and among them figures that of the late Peter Derow, one of the dedicatees of the volume, together with George Forrest. The editor asked them to offer their personal perspectives on ancient history, in other words to answer the question that we have all been asked at some point: why it matters.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Last days of work at Minufiyeh

    Egypt Exploration Society (Jo Rowland)

    As usual the last few days are of course the busiest – hence our silence on Tumblr! This week saw the confirmation that there is further material to investigate in T3 in one of the next seasons. We photographed our small and special finds from the season this week and completed our recording forms too. It has been a week of final ‘post-excavation’ plans and the seasonal act of covering the archaeological remains and ‘back-filling’ the trenches with sand – this is both to ensure that anything standing is not damaged by the environment, and also to ensure that future archaeologists know that someone has been excavating in certain areas in the 2000s!

    A quite remarkable discovery occurred earlier this week in the surface layers of T5 and this will be further investigated during the summer and published soon as well.
    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Low stone walls were animal traps

    Discovery News (Larry O’Hanlon)

    With photograph and slideshow.

    British RAF pilots in the early 20th century were the first to spot the strange kite-like lines on the deserts of Israel, Jordan and Egypt from the air and wonder about their origins. The lines are low, stone walls, usually found as angled pairs, that begin far apart and converge at circular pits. In some places in Jordan the lines formed chains up to 40 miles long.

    Were they made by some weird kind of fault? Ancient astronauts?

    A new study of 16 of what are called desert kites in the eastern Sinai Desert confirms what many researchers have long suspected: The walls form large funnels to direct gazelle and other large game animals into killing pits. What’s more, the kites are between 2,300 and 2,400-years-old, were abandoned about 2,200 years ago and are just the right size to have worked on local gazelles and other hooved game.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Did frail feet fell the Tutankhamun?

    Em Hotep (Keith Payne)

    This analysis references the JAMA and other reports, and looks particularly at the claims for Freiburg Kohler disease found in the Pharaoh’s foot and the implications of this on his reign.

    Was King Tut a warrior king or “one sick kid”? Even as the Family of Tutankhamun Project was publishing its findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the Boy King was a frail young man who needed a cane to walk, Egyptologist W. Raymond Johnson was publishing his evidence that Tut was an active young man who rode chariots into battle.

    So which is the true Tut? What if both versions are accurate? Could this perfect storm of physical challenges and adventurous behavior have led Tutankhamun to a heroic but early grave?

    There’s an update in a post two weeks later:

    Two weeks ago I posted my article about the JAMA* report’s analysis of King Tut’s foot problems and how they might have potentially led to his downfall (no pun intended). One of the elements of my argument was that Tutankhamun was missing a toe bone in his right foot. But he wasn’t (and probably still isn’t).

    I had based my contention on a typo in one of the tables in the JAMA report, a typo that is contradicted in numerous places throughout the rest of the article, a series of dots which I somehow failed to connect. As a result, Gentle Reader Monica gently but concisely took me to task for my mistake in the Comments section of the article.

    Now a writer for a much more high-profile (at least for now) outfit than Em Hotep has made the same mistake. So shamey-shamey on us. But how did the same mistake make it past the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association?

    It seemed like a pretty good thesis at the time: the combination of a painful foot condition in Tutankhamun’s left foot, a right foot weakened by a missing toe bone, and a brash young prince given to occasional risky behavior led to a traumatic fall and an untimely death.

    It’s still a pretty good thesis, for the most part. . . . .

    In another post on Em Hotep there is a round up of all the main responses to the JAMA article.

    So much for the evil god Set keeping his mouth shut—people just seem to insist on questioning authority. The JAMA article is jammed with answers, but queries continue. Assembled here for your pleasure and edification are the best examples of critical questioning culled from the Egyptological blogosphere.

    Tangled roots, the passed-over prince, aging them bones, lack of control, and Kate Phizackerley’s Quest for Accuracy.

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes