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The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California will be hosting its annual Egyptian Epagomenal Festival on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the calendar included 360 days plus five additional epagomenal days. These epagomenal days were days “out of time” when the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, and the gods Osiris, Seth and Horus were born. The Egyptians celebrated the birthdays of these gods with a festival each year. Our version of this festival will include a variety of special lectures, tomb tours, workshops and children’s activities held throughout Rosicrucian Park.

The Scribe

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According to Egyptian mythology, Isis was the spiritual mother of every pharaoh, but experts say her influence is still seen in the Christian icons of the faithful wife and loving mother.

She was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky and was born on the first day between the first years of creation. A goddess of the moon and rebirth, she gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun. Together, they created and sustained all life and were said to be the saviours of their people.

Isis in fact played an important role in the development of modern religions. And she remains one of the most familiar images of empowered femininity.

She became the model on which future generations of female deities in other cultures were based including the worship of Artemis in Greece and the mystery religions, such as the Dionysian cult and the Orphic cult.
Isis was worshipped throughout the Greco-Roman world. During the fourth century, when Christianity was making its foothold in the Roman Empire, her worshippers founded the first Madonna cults in order to keep her influence alive.

Some early Christians even called themselves Pastophori, meaning the shepherds or servants of Isis, which may be where the word “pastors” originated.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Musée de la Civilisacion is located in Quebec, Canada.  Their latest exhibit takes you back to ancient Egypt to learn about the process behind mummification, and the significance of the rituals these desert dwellers engaged in to secure a blissful afterlife.

The exhibit website has a variety of features to engage the user in the learning process.  When you enter, you choose between French of English, and immediately are immersed in a world where organs are placed in jars and ancient gods assist the dead on their journey into the afterlife.

There are three stages of learning that one must go through before entering the “Sarcophagi Chamber” to earn your place in the underworld.  If you successfully complete all three stages, you will be awarded a place in the Sarcophagi Chamber, along with a cartouche of your own name in a customizable wallpaper image.

If you have an interest in Egyptian mythology, or even just a few minutes to kill on some fun, easy games, definitely check it out.

Excerpted from an article by Austin Keenan for inventorspot.com

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Ancient Egyptian tombs and mortuary temples usually featured stone stelae, or markers, which were carved to resemble doors or gateways, and these seem to have had a symbolic function as ways of access to the dead. Investigation of the function of such gateways is one part of the exhibition’s remit, but the general idea is much broader than that.

There are some 370 objects on display culled from the major European museums as well as from the Louvre, and these range from sculptures made to a larger than human scale to tiny amulets and various kinds of tomb goods.

The exhibition’s first room, entitled “‘first time’: the creation of the world,” examines ancient Egyptian creation myths, looking in particular at the ways in which the ancient Egyptians seem to have carved up the cosmos into adjoining spaces and how they conceptualised the boundaries between them. The room is painted bright yellow in reference to the role played by the sun in ancient Egyptian thought. From here, the visitor moves to the second room, darkened throughout, which is given over to the world for which the ancient Egyptians are most famous, that of the dead.

The outer coffin of an official named Sepi who lived during the reigns of the Middle Kingdom pharaohs Sesostris II and III (1868- 1843 BCE) is on display, and this includes a detailed map of the afterlife showing the areas through which the dead man could have been expected to move and providing him with the various spells that could be used to charm the guardians of the different regions. This coffin, found at Deir el-Bersheh in the outer chamber of the tomb of another official named Djehoutyhotep, is now in the Louvre.

During the later New Kingdom the provision of texts about the afterlife seems to have grown into quite an industry, with individuals commissioning papyrus copies of different spells in the form of what the ancient Egyptians knew as the “Book for Going Forth by Day” and what has come down to us as their Book of the Dead. Such spells were written out on papyrus according to the needs of the individual client, and the exhibition includes many different versions of such commissions together with further examples that were carved or painted on tomb walls.

The last two rooms of the exhibition are given over to the modes of communication that could take place, mediated by religion, between the living and the dead. Once again the emphasis is on gateways, doors, and the various connecting points identified by the ancient Egyptians between this world and the next.

Excerpted from an article by David Tresilian for Al-Ahram Weekly

Author: Roy Lester Pond
Published by Austin Macauley
372pp

A controversial Egyptologist is hired to avert a clash between two world superpowers thousands of years apart

Mr. Anson Hunter is an Egyptologist not so comfortable with the term. A phenomenologist who specializes in what the author calls fringe Egyptology, Hunter interprets arcane Egyptian belief in a way that still poses a threat to the stability of modern western civilization. For Hunter, Ancient Egypt was the world superpower of its day, much like the U.S. in present times. Like its present counterpart, Ancient Egypt had its own version of weapons of mass destruction in the form of smiting rituals and execration texts with the potency to destroy enemies at long distances. This supranormal “remote killing” power was capable of transcending the boundaries of space and time. Upon this premise the author constructs a thriller that takes us on a journey that includes Egypt’s most visited “pharaonic” attractions, action packed with murder, chase scenes, cliff hangers and love among the ruins, accompanied by US Homeland Security agents, spies, Coptic monks, a young attractive female Egyptologist, government officials, hit men in gallabeyahs and a cold-blooded female assassin in full black hijab.

The author does not disguise his knowledge of mainstream Egyptology as he describes the ancient sites like a seasoned tour guide. But as an alternative Egyptologist, Anson Hunter untangles new mysteries about the ancient Egyptian civilization affirmation of survival after death by the power of symbolism and magic over matter, a virtual afterlife built by a collective unconscious, sustained by religion and tangible in the form of pyramids, temples and tombs. His elucidations are esoteric bombs that undermine the foundations of today’s world major religions.

The plot unfolds like a box office hit in the genre of the Indiana Jones series, Stargate and the new Mummy adventure sequels, none of which I’m really fanatic about. Yet I would enjoy watching the scene where Anson Hunter recites a prayer from one chapter of the Book of the Dead to unravel the engineering secrets of Ancient Egypt and manages to escape from certain death in the entrails of the Devourer.

The book is written in the third person. In my opinion, it would have been more effective in the first, if only because we are much more exposed to the Egypt (both the present and the past) experience from the protagonist point of view than from any of the other characters.

- Ben Morales-Correa

UA Regents’ Professor Richard H. Wilkinson, who has led excavations and other research in Egypt, came up with the idea to launch a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on scholarly work centered on ancient Egypt art, history, religion, technology and culture and the country’s relationship with its neighbors.
The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, an electronic peer-reviewed journal, has been created out of a collaboration with UA faculty and the UA Libraries. It will be hosted on the UA Libraries’ institutional repository site, also known as UAiR.

The journal publishes full-length articles, which have been subjected to the same peer-reviewed, blind screening process used by traditional scholarly print journals. The JAEI will also include short research notes, reviews of published works, announcements and reports of relevant conferences and symposia.

The journal counts Oxford and Harvard universities among its initial subscribers and subscriptions have already been received from a number of countries. Interest has also been high among scholars wanting to contribute to the journal.

The next issue of the JAEI will be available at the UAiR site at the end of March.

UA News

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Egyptian medicine is one of the oldest in history. Herodotus identified this region as a fertile land that produces an abundance of drugs, some are remedies and other poisons, its doctors are the wisest of the world.

The art of healing that was practiced at that time made use of plants and plant compounds that have proved to be medicinal and help alleviate some ailments and diseases.

Certainly, we can not forget the weight that religion and magic had in this civilization. In fact, many diagnostics involve evil spirits and curses of the gods. However, archeological and historical studies have shown that the Egyptians had great medicinal knowledge obtained from objective experience. While the practice of medicine had a religious or divine meaning, it was, overall, true science.

The village doctors were called Sun-Nu, which means “the man for those who suffer or are sick”. At the time of the pharaohs, this group had a lot of freedom to investigate the effects of the plants that grew around the Nile.

Many historians relate this concern for medicine to the building of the pyramids. The construction of these monuments required about twenty thousand workers gathered together for a long time. The danger of epidemics was immensely high. Thus, the pharaoh’s officials included onions in the food supply to their workers. Today we know that onion juice is an effective antibacterial agent against infection, but the question is: how did they know it? Furthermore, the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen was found surrounded by a collar made of plants used to combat allergies, illnesses and diseases. It seems sensible to think that they were there for the pharaoh to have a healthy afterlife.

A known plant used for medical purposes was Cymbopogon Proximus, employed as a remedy against kidney stones and nephritic colic. This compound is currently sold as Proximoly and is an effective medicine for kidney ailments. Corchorus Oliterius was also widely used by Egyptian healers, from which glycosides are extracted and used against heart failure. And these are just two  examples.

Egyptologists have rescued several papyrus with recipes and curative remedies, many of them are spells but medicinal plants are listed as ingredients, A famous document found by George Ebers from 1550 years BC is regarded as one of the earliest treatise on medicine. In its content there are plenty of diagrams on the anatomy and physiology of the heart and vessels. It is a work that demonstrates that ancient Egyptian doctors had knowledge of the movements of the heart, with a description of the 48 vessels which are distributed throughout the body, a dissertation of their function and a reference to almost seven thousand medicinal substances.

The Ebers papyrus is a compilation of various medical disciplines; internal medicine, ophthalmology, dermatology, orthopedics, disorders of the head (tongue, teeth, nose, ears). There are anatomical, pathological and physiological explanations for each disease and therapy, surgical descriptions of diseases such as anthrax, node tuberculosis, fistulae, hemorrhoids, tumors, hernias, varicose veins and hydroceles.

The Edwin Smith papyrus is of a surgical nature and includes descriptions of conditions reported with extraordinary precision and detail: wounds, fractures, dislocations, burns, abscesses, tumors that can occur from head to toe, description of surgical instruments, and so on. This document is regarded as a treatise on Emergency Surgery.

The techniques used for the embalming and mummification of the bodies showed what great connoisseurs of anatomy the ancient Egyptians were. Thus Egyptian culture presents a great paradox – despite having gone down in history as one of the most influenced by religious belief and magic, it was also one of the foremost societies to practice science as a method to improve the lives and health of the people.

Translated from diariosur.es

An Australian teacher who stuffed his luggage with 2,000-year old animal mummies and religious figurines wrapped as gifts was arrested Wednesday, an Egyptian airport security official said. The 61-year teacher was heading to Thailand when a security official became suspicious of the wrapped figurines that were placed amid souvenir ceramic pots in his suitcase.

When security officials opened the case, they found two mummies of a cat and an ibis, a long-beaked bird, both dating back to 300 B.C. The confiscated collection also included 19 figurines of the revered ancient Egyptian gods of Horus and Thoth, wrapped as gifts.

The man was arrested and has been charged with smuggling antiquities, which can carry a penalty of as much as 15 years. An antiquity official at the airport described the bust as rare because of the number of items involved and the age of the items.

Meanwhile, another unlucky traveler in Cairo’s airport was stopped Wednesday with 56 cartridges, 20 pieces of live ammunition and an old bayonet that dates back to World War II. He told the authorities he picked up the ammunition in the Egyptian north coast town El Alamein, the site of one of the most decisive battles in World War II. The Canadian passenger, who was heading to Switzerland and was let free, said he was unaware transporting the ammunition would be illegal.

AP

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
7:00 to 9:00 pm

Friends of Ancient Egypt (FAE) are invited to a lecture by Dr. Robyn Gillam, Professor at York University.

Archaeological and textual evidence points to performance-based activities in ancient Egyptian religious ritual. Dr. Gillam will explore this on-going tradition and the emerging field of “performance archaeology”.

Dr. Robyn Gillam is a professor at York University, where she has been teaching classes in Mass Communication, Classical and Religious Studies since 1989. She has a doctorate from the University of Toronto, majoring in Egyptian language and literature. A re-enactment of an ancient ritual text, the Triumph of Horus, has been performed as a part of one of Robyn’s classes. Her book credits include Hall of Mirrors: Museums and the Canadian Public (2001) and Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt (2005).

Royal Ontario Museum

Friends of Ancient Egypt (FAE)

The cultures of ancient Egypt and Nubia have captured the interest of generations. The FAE brings Members closer to these cultures though the ROM’s collections with special access to curatorial research, newsletters and events. Experience a wide range of public programming, and deepen your appreciation of the beautiful and complex histories of Egypt and Nubia.

Through special fundraising efforts, the FAE supports the ancient Egyptian and Nubian section of the ROM, providing for conservation of existing collections, and the acquisition of ancient Egyptian and Nubian objects for the ROM’s permanent collections. Join the FAE and play a part in preserving and building on the tradition of Egyptology at the ROM.

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?

www.guardian.co.uk