Two Egyptians rewarded for turning in antiquities
Two Egyptian citizens were rewarded for turning in two pieces of antiquities they found while each was redecorating his house in the northern Menoufiya governorate.
“The Egyptian Ministry of Culture decided to give each citizen five thousand Egyptian pounds (970 US dollars),” said Zahi Hawass , Head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).
The two pieces belong to pharaoh Ahmose of the 26th dynasty. Both objects are made of pink granite and bear the name of the king in hieroglyphs. After asserting their authenticity, the SCA took them to start their restoration process.
Few years ago, Egypt’s SCA had announced that anyone who will turn in a piece of antiquities will be rewarded, in a move to reduce theft and smuggling of archeological findings.
Film-maker Youssef Chahine dies
Youssef Chahine, the Arab world’s greatest film-maker and recipient of the 50th annual lifetime achievement award at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, died in his home in Cairo yesterday at the age of 82.
Born in 1926 in Alexandria into a Christian family, Chahine attended prestigious Victoria College, the alma mater of many Arab and Egyptian intellectuals who made major contributions to 20th century Arab culture. After spending one year at the University of Alexandria, he went to the US to study drama at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
Back in Egypt, he turned his talents to directing and made a series of films which established his reputation as a serious figure in the country’s 20-year-old film industry. During his long career, he made more than 40 films. The last, This is Chaos, was premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2007. He was credited with discovering Omar Sharif, who starred in The Blazing Sun, released in 1954, and became the first Arab actor to rise to stardom in Hollywood.
Chahine did not confine himself to the cinema. When in 1992 he was asked to produce a play for the Comedie-Francaise, he made a highly successful adaptation of Albert Camus’s Caligula.
Some of Chahine’s best films:
Nile Boy (1951)
Raging Sky (1953)
The Blazing Sun (1954)
Cairo Station
Saladin (1963)
The Sparrow (1973)
Alexandria … Why? (1978)
The Emigrant (1994)
Adieu Bonaparte (1985)
This is Chaos (2007)
44 thousand tourists attended sound and light shows in Abu Simbel
Egypt State Information service has announced that the number of tourists who attended the sound and light shows at the temple of Ramses II and Nefertari in Abu Simbel city during the past six months reached 44 thousands of different nationalities.
Director of the Sound and Light area in Abu Simbel, Ali Mahmoud said that the shows are presented through using the most up-to-date sound technology in 9 universal languages. He noted that shows in Spanish and French occupied the first rank with regards to the number of tourists.
Mummies cover-up reversed
Manchester Museum has reversed its decision to cover up its Egyptian mummies in response to public opinion.
The museum covered up three unwrapped mummies on display, sparking accusations of political correctness, two months ago. The cover-up was part of a consultation on how the mummies will be displayed when the museum’s ancient Egypt gallery is redeveloped.
Nick Merriman, museum director, has said one of the mummies will now be left partially unwrapped in its original display state, while another will be partially covered, leaving its head, hands and feet exposed.
Feedback is encouraged on the museum’s blog.
“Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs” at Zion Canyon Giant Screen Theater
The 40 minute film is projected on the largest screen in Utah and one of the largest in the world - measuring 60 feet high and 82 feet across. Sound is delivered through an eight track digital Surround Sound system capable of 22,000 watts. The projection system was designed by iWERKS Entertainment, a world leader in large format film systems and simulated experience adventures. It delivers a screen image of unsurpassed clarity and impact.
“Mummies” includes an educational look at a topic many people have been fascinated with for years: the mystery surrounding the embalming of these ancient royals and the answers those well-preserved bodies may hold for modern science.
While focusing on one of the most powerful pharaohs in Egypt’s history - Ramses the Great - the film’s narrative history explores why mummification was so important to ancient Egypt and the techniques used that are only recently being pieced together by scientists. The historical references are interwoven with information regarding the modern-day study of mummies with scholars like Egyptologists Bob Brier and Zahi Hawass as well as DNA scientist Angelique Corthals as they share the strides that have been made during the last several years to uncover this mysterious past.
The movie is narrated by actor Christopher Lee (”The Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars” and the 1959 film “The Mummy”) and poses various answers to the question, “Why are people so fascinated with mummies?”
“Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs” is shown on even hours every day, alternating with Zion Canyon’s “Treasure of the Gods.” It is the first digital film to be shown in the theater. The film is scheduled to run through the end of October.
Tomb reveals ancient trade network
The tomb of a woman who died around 2,600 years ago on the eastern Italian coast is helping archaeologists piece together the vast trade network that once linked this area with the Middle East, North Africa and Greece.
Experts working on a tomb near the port of Ancona say the site contains over 650 artefacts from the 7th century BC, including numerous items made in other parts of the world. The tomb contains artefacts manufactured in sites as far away as Egypt, Rhodes, mainland Greece, the Palestinian Territories and Anatolia. Of particular value are five glazed pottery pendants, which were made in Egypt. Probably used as amulets, they are each six centimetres in length and are shaped like seashells.
Sweeping Aside the Living at Luxor to Resurrect the Dead
Luxor is in the process of creating an open-air museum on the city’s west bank, where a third of the world’s archeological sites are located, including such renowned monuments as Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple and the Valley of the Kings.
The project is part of an overall endeavor to make Luxor a modern tourist site, where they will be alone with the ancient structures. It will cost the Egyptian government 1.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($200 million) for all renovations, including restructuring the famed temples of Karnak and Luxor in the east bank as well as creating a new bazaar for shopping opportunities.
Not everyone is pleased with the makeover, though. Thousands of people will be forced out of their homes for the open-air museum project. The idea of recreating the ancient past in a manner identical to the Pharaoh’s is inspiring, even bold. But residents of the Luxor area hope that in the process the government will remember that contemporary Egyptians are also important.
Predynastic Human Presence in the Northern Nile Delta Coast
A small but significant find made during a geological survey provides evidence of the oldest human presence yet discovered along the northernmost margin of Egypt’s Nile delta.
A rock fragment carried by humans to the site was discovered in a sediment core section north of Burullus lagoon near the Mediterranean coast. This long, thin object, formed of dolomite, had not been deposited by the Nile or the sea, but was collected and transported from an outcrop exposure positioned at least 160 kilometers south of the core site. The fragile object lay buried at a depth of 7.5 meters in dark mud deposited in a brackish lagoon setting close to a marsh.
Radiocarbon analysis of plant-rich matter in the mud surrounding the object provides a date of 3350 to 3020 B.C., the late Predynastic period.
Stanford’s papyri collection being analyzed
About 70 texts in Stanford’s collection of several hundred papyri kept in storage since the 1920s were brought to the university’s conservation lab in April. They were soaked in water to wash away the remains of an adhesive material applied to them for use as cartonnage—material molded into masks and panels to cover the mummified bodies of humans and animals. The texts were then mounted in thin glass frames, allowing for easy handling and close inspection. The ink, essentially a waterproof mixture of soot and resin, is faded but mostly legible.
The specimens from the Ptolemaic Era are far from complete documents. Peeled from mummies by archaeologists and grave robbers, the once well-kept records now come with gaping holes. Many are fragments of larger pieces and offer a few hints about a transaction or contract. But there’s not always enough to tell a complete story.
John Sutherland, a Stanford graduate, is one of 18 students from 15 universities around the world working this month at Stanford to interpret some of the university’s papyri and publish their findings. The group makes up the participants in this year’s Papyrological Institute, an annual summer gathering of students and experts sponsored by the American Society of Papyrologists.
Working with modern technology to make sense of the ancient texts, the students use laptops to tap into databases of papyrological information maintained by Duke and Columbia universities. After the students enter individual words or phrases gleaned from the texts in front of them, the databases help determine whether the pieces in Stanford’s collection are related to any previously published texts.
The matching system also can help put the Stanford pieces in context, revealing whether a text is a marriage certificate, land record or some other common document.
Plans to develop Rashid (Rosetta) into Egypt’s new tourist spot
Although it lies a mere 65 km east of Alexandria, few tourists venture out to its neighboring city of Rosetta, known in Egypt as Rashid.
Home to the Rosetta Stone, which French scholar Jean-Francoise Champollion used to decipher ancient hieroglyphics, Rashid was the scene of the first encounter between East and West in modern times. Napoleon Bonaparte made Rashid one of his main fortifications when he invaded Egypt in 1798.
The historic city is making a slow transition from a mostly agricultural society to a tourist destination. The plan would have the city’s infrastructure rebuilt and its Islamic monuments restored between 2007-11, all as part of a nationwide scheme to revamp 222 Egyptian cities by 2027.
Besides the creation of a sea-front promenade on the southern part of the city, the Rashid Fort in the north and several traditional houses have also undergone massive restoration. The city is home to 22 old Arabic houses, 12 mosques and a traditional Turkish bath, and according to archaeologists, it houses the second largest number of Islamic antiquities in Egypt after Cairo.
Daily News Egypt: Read more about this tourism development project and its pros and cons.
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By N2H
