Egypt recovers two stolen artifacts
A 26th-dynasty limestone relief that was chopped off the tomb wall of the 26th-Dynasty nobleman Mutirdis was successfully stopped by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) from going on auction in Bonham’s auction hall in London.
The second object is a 19th-Dynasty ushabti figure of a woman named Hener, stolen from a Saqqara storehouse and now at the Leiden Museum in Amsterdam.
“An archaeologist’s dream and biggest challenge”
A comprehensive article by Will Hobson about the significance of having the rightful place to preserve and exhibit Egypt’s vast archaeological legacy. I especially like the following paragraphs for his views on ancient Egyptian’s obsession with life (not death as many suppose) and three good reasons why Egypt has so much archaeological wealth.
The Ancient Egyptians were obsessed by life rather than death. They were determined in every way they knew how to prolong the sheer sweetness and sensuousness and physicality of being alive – alive as perhaps you could only be when living on the plentiful banks of Nile in the midst of what, originally at least, you thought to be unending desert. They wished their dead “bread, beer, and prosperity”; hard to think of anything further removed from the Judaeo-Christian tradition of an immortal self shedding its corporeal form, its “prison”, at death. The body was a crucial part of their individual existence, hence the necessity of mummification, and their entire theology was designed not to justify death – for instance as God’s revenge on us for our original sin – but to defeat it with the help of any one of their thousands of gods.
At first only the Pharaoh was thought to be able to enjoy the pleasures of this world in paradise, but as time passed, huge swathes of society became eligible. Everything, depending of course on whether it was war or peacetime, became more elaborate and manifold: mummification techniques, spells, rituals, blithely contradictory myths, offerings, temples, pyramids, jewellery, literature. And because they were such good craftsmen and the desert is so good at preserving things and their civilisation lasted so long, Egypt is both an archaeologist’s dream and biggest challenge. Some simply give up. Around two million mummified ibis are thought to be stored in the catacombs of Saqqara, but no one is prepared to spend any more time working out exactly how many. But, even more pressing, once you do find something, what on earth are you supposed to do with it?
Another threat to the Sphinx: this time is the birds
Crowds of pigeons, doves and sparrows have been landing on the Sphinx, eating out the sandy rock and leaving acidic droppings.
Senior tour guide Bassam El Shammaa sees this as an indication that underground water is seeping through the monument like water in a sponge, causing serious damage to the legendary structure.
El Shammaa launched an on-line campaign last year called “Save the Sphinx”, but that website is no longer active.
DNA test for 3,500-year-old mummy
A DNA test on a 3,500-year-old Egyptian royal mummy may determine if it is Thutmose I, the third pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th dynasty. His reign is generally dated from 1506 to 1493 B.C. He is the first king confirmed to have ordered his tomb built in what is now known as the Valley of the Kings. Thutmose I was the father of Hatshepsut.
Zahi Hawass says a mummy on display as Thutmose I in the Egyptian Museum is not actually the ancient ruler’s remains.
Mummy DNA tests have been conducted on a shroud of secrecy and results have often not been made public. The mummy to be examined has remained in its tomb in the Valley of Kings since its discovery.
Monasticism with a modern touch
St. Anthony’s Monastery in Egypt is considered by many to be the world’s oldest active Christian monastery. For over 1500 years, the monks have been living in this isolated area in the Sinai peninsula since the days St. Anthony abandoned society to settle in the desert seeking a total spiritual connection with God.
Now that connection involves God’s children, mostly European tourists and pilgrims who flock to this place to witness the early Christian way of life. The monks, at least some, actually use mobile phones, send e-mails and maintain a website.
“There is nothing wrong with microwaves or mobile phones — they save time,” Egyptian monk Ruwais el-Anthony, who has lived at the monastery for more than 30 years, said through a bushy white beard. “But God will ask you what you have done with the time that was saved.”
Ancient Egyptian army headquarters unearthed in Sinai
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered the largest military complex in Egypt, dating back to the reign of Thutmose II (1516-1504 B.C.). The site is located in the Sinai peninsula, along the Road of Horus, an ancient commercial and military road linking Ancient Egypt to Asia. According to Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief archaeologist, the fortified city served as military headquarters for the Egyptian army from the time of the New Kingdom until the Ptolemaic era. The mud brick fort measures 550-by-275-yards with several 13-foot-high towers.
Among the findings are reliefs, one of Pharaoh Thutmose II and others belonging to Seti I (1314-1304 B.C.) and Ramses II (1304-1237 B.C.).
Sources:
Kmt Magazine Summer 2008
KMT A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt (Volumen 19 Number 2 Summer 2008) features:
Seats of Power: The Thrones of Tutankhamen - M. Eaton-Krauss
The Animal Mummies of Abu Rawash - Salima Ikram and Alain Charron
“Lost Kingdom of the Nile” Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta - Peter Lacovara
Spaces Between: The Role of Streets in Ancient Egypt - Robert E. Hughes
Finger Rings in Ancient Egypt: Their Function and Absence in Artistic Representation - Earl L. Ertman
Death in the Nile: The Birth of Egypt’s Last God - Heather Plaza - Dylan Bickerstaffe
In “For the Record”, David Moyer reviews “Egypt’s Ten Greatest Discoveries”, recently aired by the Discovery Chanel as a new two-hour documentary (that) might be called a Zahi Hawass driven show, since he was prominently featured in each of the so-called “greatest discoveries”. In fact the tenth and last discovery is the “Valley of the Mummies” at the Bahariya Oasis, one of Hawass most prominent finds.
Missing from the list is the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. This amazing slip leaves us wondering how much we would be able to appreciate “Egypt’s Ten Greatest Discoveries” if someone had not deciphered the ancient Egyptian language. Ironically, the only occasion the Rosetta Stone was mentioned during the two hour show was in the commercials for the language learning software of the same name.
More discoveries beneath the Nile in Aswan
Archaeologists have discovered a portico, or covered entryway that once led to the temple of the ram-headed fertility god Khnum, beneath the surface of the Nile River.
A team of Egyptian archaeologist-divers found the portico in Aswan while conducting the first-ever underwater surveys of the Nile, which began earlier this year.
The temple of Khnum was first erected in the 12th dynasty (1985-1773 B.C.) or 13th dynasty (1773-1650 B.C.) and was later rebuilt and expanded under subsequent regimes, including by the “female pharaoh” Hatshepsut (1473-1458 B.C.).
Two large columns and more stones of the temple will be removed from the river when excavations resume later this year.
New findings near Alexandria
Archaeologists from Egypt and the Dominican Republic have unearthed a bronze statue of Aphrodite during excavations at an ancient temple on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. Also among the finds were an alabaster head of a Queen Cleopatra statue, a mask believed to belong to Mark Anthony and a headless statue from the Ptolemaic era.
Indiana Jones and Real Archaeology
Excerpts from an article by Neil Asher Silberman, former director of the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation in Belgium, author of “Digging for God and Country” and co-author of “The Bible Unearthed.”
Even worse, the picture of the vine-swinging, revolver-toting archaeological treasure hunter is all wrong. Gone are the days when all that mattered was museum-quality treasure, and the “natives” didn’t matter at all. Certainly in the age of the great colonial empires, archaeologists were often solitary adventurers who could count on the prestige and power of their nations to claim the ruins and relics of ancient empires for themselves. Even without a fedora and a bullwhip, Lord Elgin shipped the famous Parthenon marbles home to England, Heinrich Schliemann smuggled away Troy’s golden treasures, and Howard Carter managed to spirit away precious artifacts from King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt.
…That’s why I cringe when I see how the fedora, leather jacket and bullwhip have become recognizable international promotional symbols of archaeology. Many archaeologists have enthusiastically embraced the Hollywood fantasy, borrowing a bit of Indiana Jones’s mystique for themselves. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and archaeological czar of the relics and tombs of ancient Egypt, recently raised funds for charity on a U.S. tour by selling autographed copies of his trademark Indiana Jones hat. The National Science Foundation has just put up an Indiana Jones-themed home page, complete with bullwhip and fedora, and the Archaeological Institute of America, a venerable academic organization of classical archaeologists and art historians, has elected Harrison Ford to its board of directors, in tribute to his “significant role in stimulating the public’s interest in archaeological exploration.” And professor Cornelius Holtorf of the University of Kalmar in Sweden has offered the opinion that “Indiana Jones is no bad thing for science,” suggesting that the film series has attracted many students and supporters to real-life archaeological work.
-
-
Translator
By N2H
