Tutankhamun & Amarna Period Books
The ceaseless fascination with ancient Egyptian art and civilization during the revolutionary age of the “heretic” pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 B.C.) and Tutankhamun (r. 1332-1322 B.C.) continues to inspire extensive research and the publication of quality color-illustrated studies. Suitable for students, scholars and enthusiasts, many are exhibition catalogues authored by world-renowned museum curators and art historians. Most are available in bookstores and through Internet retailers.
History
* Shaw, Ian (ed.). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University, 2000, 218-313.
General
* Hawass, Zahi. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2008.
The Amarna Period: An Introduction
* Freed, Rita E., Yvonne E. Markowitz and Sue D’Auria (eds.), et. al. Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen (exh. cat.). Boston, New York and London: Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company, 1999.
* Kozloff, Arielle P., Betsy M. Bryan, et al. Egypt’s Dazzling Sun (exh. cat.). Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992.
* Silverman, David. P., Joseph W. Wegner and Jennifer Houser Wegner. Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: Revolution and Restoration. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Life and Art During the Reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti
* Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten, King of Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 1988.
* Arnold, Dorothea, et al. The Royal Women of Amarna (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.
* Redford, Donald B. Akhenaten, the Heretic King. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
* Reeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
* Smith, Ray Winfield and Donald B. Redford. The Akhenaten Temple Project. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1976.
* Ziegler, Christiane (ed.). The Pharaohs (exh. cat.). New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2002, 466-469.
Amarna’s Archaeology
* Trope, Betsy Teasley, Stephen Quirke and Peter Lacovara, et al. Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London (exh. cat.). Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2005, 67-78.
Tutankhamun
* Amenta, Alessia. The Treasures of Tutankhamun and the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Vercelli: VMB Publishers, 2007.
* Desroches-Noblecourt, Christiane. Tutankhamun: Life and Death of a Pharaoh. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1963.
* Edwards, I.E.S. The Treasures of Tutankhamun (exh. cat.). London, Thames & Hudson, 1971.
* James, T.G.H. Tutankhamun. New York: Metro Books, 2002.
* Reeves, Nicholas. The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1995.
Excavating Tutankhamun’s Tomb: Archival Photographs from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Allen, Susan J. Tutankhamun’s Tomb: The Thrill of Discovery (Photographs by Harry Burton) (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.
* Wonderful Things: The Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976.
Bibliography prepared by Stan Parchin
EGYPT: Court rules that police should leave Cairo University campus
Image via Wikipedia
Egypt’s supreme administrative court ruled this week that security forces from the Ministry of Interior should evacuate the Cairo University campus, saying the independence of universities must be respected. The court ruled that the constitution guarantees the full independence of universities and research centers that “contribute to refining knowledge and offering sciences that support the society and pave the way for a better future for the country.”
Students and others, however, remain skeptical. It remains to be seen whether the court’s decision can overturn all interventions by the Interior Ministry in university and student affairs. On Wednesday, a day after the verdict was handed down, 13 students were reportedly injured at Cairo University in clashes with riot police during a protest of the siege of Gaza.
The music of Islam
Image via Wikipedia
“God is great. I testify there is no god but God. . . . Make haste toward prayers.”
The prayer caller’s chant is heard five times a day; from birth to death it is the music of Islam, lingering in the air, reminding the faithful to prostrate themselves before God.
Morsi Abdel Fattah has sung these words for 20 years in a poor neighborhood of Cairo. He is easily spotted among other men; white beard and gray eyes, a pressed tunic, and a prayer cap as snowy as a swan. When he’s not at the mosque, he’s two doors down selling rice and macaroni from tin pots at the shop he and his brother run.
His is the voice the young here have grown up with, like a coaxing uncle in a large family, a voice that soothes the devout and reminds those who have fallen that they need to return.
“I am seeking divine reward,” he said. “Since I was young, I’ve heard the prophetic saying that the muezzin [prayer caller] would have his head above the others on Judgment Day.”
Nubia: Hidden beauty
Image by ShortShot via Flickr
Throughout history, Nubians have managed to keep their traditions and lifestyles relatively uninflected by outside influences. Although many Nubian villages had to be resettled elsewhere, some fortunate settlements have stayed put in their original locations. Such is the case in the area west of Sihail.
Due to its privileged location, for many years investors tried unsuccessfully to purchase these lands, in a bid to build hotels. Still the Nubians refused to sell.
Traditionally cautious of foreigners, Nubians now begin to more warmly welcome tourists on their lands. They arrive by boat to the northern shores of the Nubian villages, where parties of camels await in order to provide visitors the chance to form a caravan that takes them through village alleys. Tourists are welcomed into local homes in order to savor a cup of tea, and led to the huts that form the bazaar, where they can buy handmade items such as carved or inlaid walking sticks adorned in a variety of motifs, wooden or leather masks, daggers, stone and beaded jewelry, or traditional pottery.
Investors that once tried to buy the land out have reached an agreement with the villagers that has enabled them to create a common project. The investors have the right to use the land and to construct hotels, but the land remains in possession of its original owners.
Both the Nubian Palace and the Ana Kato (meaning “my house” in one of the Nubian languages) are beautiful small hotels, with around five rooms each. The idea behind the hotels is that they are designed to allow guests to get an even better taste of the Nubian lifestyle. The architecture, decoration and room distribution is that of traditional Nubian houses, with all their local charm, slightly adapted to provide the guests with the basic commodities of so-called modern life. The rooms are intimate and cozy.
You can also bathe in the Nile waters. The Nubian Palace has its own private little beach or you can take a ride along the Nile in a felucca. You will also have the chance to taste Nubian culinary delicacies.
Excerpted from an article by Giovanna Montalbetti for Al-Ahram Weekly
Conference: Ancient Egypt not isolated from Mediterranean cultures
Archaeologists working around the Mediterranean met two weeks ago in Cairo to discuss intercultural relations between the countries of the region. The conference focused on theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of intercultural contacts in archaeology on the one hand, and on actual case studies of intercultural contact on the other.
Papers presented at the meeting dealt with a wide variety of topics, including the methods and theory of the study of contacts in archaeology, immigration patterns in different countries including Egypt, trade and exchange, the import and local imitation of foreign objects, the adoption of foreign religious ideas, influences in artistic and architectural styles and seafaring.
Although ancient Egypt is often seen by the wider public as a unique, united and rather isolated culture, the presentations made clear that Egypt had many and far- reaching contacts all over the Mediterranean. Not only did Egyptian objects and ideas reach the furthest corners of the region, but Mediterranean people, ideas and objects were also welcomed in Egypt itself.
Owing to archaeological discoveries and research, it is now seen that ancient Egyptians were in contact with their neighbours from prehistoric times and not, as is often believed, only since the Open Door policy opened up trade with the European Union. To illustrate these connections, on the fringe of the conference the Netherlands- Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) has mounted a panel exhibition on intercultural contact between ancient Egypt and other countries of the Mediterranean. The exhibition, entitled “Ancient Egypt in the Mediterranean” and held in the garden of the Egyptian Museum, was opened by Zahi Hawass, secretary- general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and will last until the end of December. It highlights the friendly relationship between ancient Egypt and its neighbouring countries around the Mediterranean Sea, as well as telling the story of foreign groups who lived in Egypt in ancient times. The exhibition displays the far-reaching influences Egypt had on its neighbours and its involvement with regard to the trade routes of the ancient Mediterranean, together with how ancient Egyptians adopted foreign technologies and ideas.
Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Al-Ahram Weekly
Book: The Smiting Texts now officially launched in the UK
Author: Roy Lester Pond
“A modern archaeological thriller.”
“An ancient, esoteric time bomb.”
The murder of an Egyptologist rings alarm bells with the US Department of Homeland Security. Before he knows it they co-opt his son, controversial British historian Anson Hunter, into an investigation that has stunning implications for US security. The search catapults Anson, Kalila, a Coptic Egyptian girl, and an intelligence team into a race through the length of Egypt, yet soon their search attracts the attention of radical Islamists as well as the Egyptian authorities. Dark suspicions surface, suspicions that Anson’s father found evidence of a secret that will shake the foundations of every major world religion. Soon, whichever way they turn, Anson and his team find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of intrigue and menace that becomes too hideously real. Anson Hunter’s special knowledge as an alternative Egyptologist, theorist and phenomenologist could be the key to stopping a catastrophe.
US funding boost for web-based archaeology journal
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded 250,000 US dollars to help York University make academic research material available online. The project will allow researchers to link their work to databases, video, audio and other information as well as stimulating academic debate.
The latest research will build on work completed as part of an earlier award-winning project, Linking Electronic Archives and Publications, or Leap, which won Best Archaeological Innovation and was highly commended in the Best ICT Project category at the 2008 British Archaeological Awards.
The project will run until March 31, 2011.
Internet Archaeology, hosted by York University, was established in 1996. It has over 70,000 hits per day to its pages from more than 120 countries.
Related articles by Zemanta
Dispute over a precious ancient Egyptian burial gold mask
A stunning funerary gold mask of an ancient Egyptian noblewoman from the court of Pharaoh Ramses II is at the center of a controversy between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the St. Louis Museum of Art, who presently has the artifact in its collection. The dispute has even escalated to the personal, as Zahi Hawass is calling Brent Benjamin, director of the museum a “wanted man” in Egypt for the crime of antiquities theft.
The precious mask was discovered at Saqqara by Egyptian archaeologist Mohammed Zakaria Ghoneim in 1952. Despite having carefully documented the finding and keeping the 3,200-year-old relic in a warehouse at Saqqara for seven years, as records shown, the burial mask of Ka Nefer Nefer somehow left Egypt and resurfaced in 1968 when the St. Louis Art Museum acquired it for half a million dollars from Phoenix Ancient Art gallery in Geneva, Switzerland. The gallery is owned by Lebanese brothers Hicham and Ali Aboutaam, two of the world’s most powerful antiquities dealers.
In 2004, an Egyptian court sentenced Ali Aboutaam in absentia to 15 years in prison after he was accused of smuggling artifacts from Egypt to Switzerland. The charges against him were later dropped by the Egyptian court for lack of evidence.
Ghoneim died in 1959.
Exhibition: Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C
Image via Wikipedia
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has assembled another spectacular examination of Middle Eastern history, this one filled with some 350 objects made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli and other precious materials, including a haul of 3,400-year-old luxury goods found in the wreck of the oldest seagoing vessel ever discovered on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The museum has even recreated the vessel’s hull around the gallery holding the find. Museum design rarely goes farther to set the scene.
“Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.” is more than just a treasure show, and the boat is more a symbol than a stage set. The theme of this show is the long historical record of internationalism in the region.
Among its 17 tons of cargo were ten tons of copper ingots, and one of tin (tin and copper melted together give you bronze, and this was, after all, the middle Bronze Age), both represented here by examples. There were also glass ingots for industrial use, and ivory and ostrich eggs from Egypt, ebony from Nubia, and Canaanite jars filled with resin for cosmetics. Altogether there were products from 12 separate cultures stretching from Sicily to the Baltic to Central Asia, not to mention the polyglot passengers, who included (judging from their weapons and jewelry) Canaanite merchants, two noble Mycenean envoys on their way back to Greece and an elite mercenary to oversee the cargo.
Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, through March 15.
The design of the Underwater Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Alexandria
According to the design proposed by French architect Jacques Rougerie and agreed by UNESCO, the museum will consist of a three-story building. One story will be onshore, another offshore and the third under the waves along with a large open-air terrace to act as a window so that visitors to the museum will be able to view Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor. This will be decorated with four tall glass structures resembling the sails of a boat, which, according to Rougerie, will recall the lighthouse of Alexandria that illuminated the library and the world.
The onshore story will house objects raised from the seabed at several sites on the Alexandria coast, not only in the Eastern Harbor itself. There will be space for further items that are yet to be discovered and cannot be left in situ.
Fiberglass tunnels will help viewers to pass from the onshore area to the underwater section. To solve the problem of the bay’s murky waters that might make the monuments difficult to see, builders will probably have to replace the water with an artificial lagoon.
The second story would contain important items from the sea that might be installed in their original environment and exhibited in aquariums. The third level would be an underwater plexiglass tunnel providing a unique window on the sunken capital of the Ptolemies.
In the case that the feasibility study determines that the underwater museum can be constructed safely, then it will be built over three years. There is yet no data regarding cost of the construction. There are no serious concerns over the water pressure on the walls, since the harbor is only five to six meters deep.
