Egyptian Archaeological News - General

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Grisly Egyptian Mummy Mysteries Unraveled

Dan Vergano @dvergano, USA TODAY 2:43 p.m. EDT July 21, 2013

Mummy myths and modern science battle it out in today's studies of the ancient dead of the Kingdom on the Nile.

"Mummies and myths go together, with a touch of ghoulish fascination with ancient tombs for added interest, but modern science is shedding a little light on some of our more musty ideas about ancient Egypt's dead.

Even as modern-day Egypt seethes with political turmoil, scholarship into the mortuary practices of that ancient land is enjoying a renaissance.

"Mummification went on in Egypt for more than 3,000 years, and the practice changed at different times and places," says anthropologist Andrew Wade of Canada's University of Western Ontario. "In the past, we would look at one or two mummies and make conclusions, but now we have a lot more non-destructive technology and medical information we can bring to bear on them."

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Polish Archaeologists in Egypt Uncovered the Remains of a 4.5 Thousand Years Old Settlement

22.07.2013 HISTORY&CULTURE

Remains of a settlements from the period of the builders of the great pyramids (Dynasty III-VI) have been uncovered at Tell el-Murra in the Nile Delta by archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University.

"Polish archaeologists have been working at Tell el-Murra since 2008. The settlement is located in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta, in the vicinity of another site from the same period - Tell el-Farkha, studied by archaeologists from Poznań and Kraków.

Tell el-Murra is a small hill, covering the remains of an ancient settlement, founded more than 5500 years ago. As a result of the settlement ongoing here for over 1,300 years, as a consequence of constructing buildings made of dried bricks on the same site, an elevation (tell) formed, which now reaches a few meters above the level of fields.

Excavations at Tell el-Murra in April and May of this year were conducted mainly in the north-eastern part of the site, occupied by the settlement. The objective was to confirm the hypothesis based on earlier work, relating to the period in which the settlement had been inhabited."

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One of the World's Oldest Breweries Reconstructed

05.08.2013 HISTORY&CULTURE

Over 5.5 thousand years old brewing installation discovered by Polish archaeological mission at Tell el-Farcha in Egypt has been reconstructed in 3D by Karolina Rosińska-Balik, PhD student at the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology.

"The presented reconstruction is a hypothetical assumption based on preserved structures of similar analogous buildings at both Tell el-Farcha and other brewing centres in Upper Egypt" - reserved the archaeologist.

The installation consists of three vat pits and measures about 3.4 by 4 m. The entire structure, with plan reminiscent of a three-leaf clover, was surrounded by a wall with a height of up to 60 cm. Vat pits were also separated from each other with low, narrow walls.

In order to stabilize the vessels used for brewing beer, base was used in the form of a solid clay, which was surrounded by a clay ring with a clear break."

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Ancient Art Fills in Egypt's Ecological History

Mammal populations shrank during three abrupt climate shifts over the past 6,000 years.

Virginia Gewin

08 August 2013

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

"Ancient Egyptian rock inscriptions and carvings on pharaonic tombs chronicle hartebeest and oryx — horned beasts that thrived in the region more than 6,000 years ago. Researchers have now shown that those mammal populations became unstable in concert with significant shifts in Egypt’s climate.

The finding is based on a fresh interpretation of an archaeological and palaeontological record of ancient Egyptian mammals pieced together more than a decade ago by the zoologist Dale Osborn1. Thirty-eight large-bodied mammals existed in Egypt roughly six millennia ago, compared to just eight species today.

“There are interesting stories buried in the data — at the congruence of the artistic and written record,” says Justin Yeakel, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, who presented the research this week at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For example, the philosopher Aristotle said 2,300 years ago that lions were present, though rare, in Greece; shortly thereafter, the beasts appeared in the local art record for the last time, Yeakel says."

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Experts Trace Petrie Museum's Egyptian Tomb Beads to Ancient Outer Space Meteorites

By Culture24 Reporter | 19 August 2013

"Hammered into thin sheets and rolled into tubes, a set of nine Egyptian beads at the Petrie Museum, dating from more than 5,000 years ago and strung into a necklace along with gold, gemstone and exotic materials, were presumed to have been shaped from iron ore.

But surprising new research, compiled by experts at UCL and proving that fourth century metalworkers could mould far harder and more brittle materials than their traditional medium of copper, suggests these tiny beads were made from meteorites – predating iron ore by two millennia.

“The shape of the beads was obtained by smithing and rolling, most likely involving multiple cycles of hammering – not by the traditional stone-working techniques such as carving or drilling which were used for the other beads found in the same tomb,” says Professor Thilo Rehren, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science."

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Looters Shatter Museum of Ancient Egyptian Treasures

Aftermath of the Attack

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Photograph by Roger Anis, El Shorouk/AP

August 23, 2013

A.R. Williams

"Amid the deadly chaos that has erupted in Egypt, the country's cultural heritage took a hit last week when looters ransacked the archaeological museum in the town of Mallawi.

Located about 190 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo, the museum was opened in 1963 to showcase the finds from excavations at nearby sites.

"The museum contained irreplaceable artifacts, many not yet studied," says Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. "The looting leaves enormous gaps in our understanding of ancient Egyptian religious and funerary rites."

Housed in a modest, two-story building, the museum's galleries displayed a wide range of objects—animal mummies, votive statues, religious offerings, brightly painted wooden coffins, necklaces of stone beads, a ritual rattle known as a sistrum, funerary masks, amulets, statues from tombs, stone trays for sacred oils, jars that once held the internal organs of an Egyptian now long dead—all of which had survived in remarkably good condition for more than 2,000 years."

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First Pharaohs Timeline Pinpointed by Archaeologists

Origins of Egypt began a millennium before the pyramids were built, says archeologist

 

AFP Published: 14:18 September 4, 2013

Paris: "Archaeologists drawing on a wide range of tools said on Wednesday they had pinpointed the crucial time in world history when Egypt emerged as a distinct state.

 

Experts have wrangled for decades as to when turbulent upper and lower Egypt were brought together under a stable, single ruler for the first time.

 

Conventional estimates, based on the evolving styles of ceramics found in human burials, vary hugely, from 3400 to 2900BC.

 

A team led by Oxford University’s Michael Dee, reporting in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, widen the methods used for estimating the date."

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4 September 2013 Last updated at 00:51 GMT

New Timeline for Origin of Ancient Egypt

By Rebecca Morelle

Science reporter, BBC World Service

"A new timeline for the origin of ancient Egypt has been established by scientists.

A team from the UK found that the transformation from a land of disparate farmers into a state ruled by a king was more rapid than previously thought.

Using radiocarbon dating and computer models, they believe the civilisation's first ruler - King Aha - came to power in about 3100BC.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Dee, from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: "The formation of Egypt was unique in the ancient world. It was a territorial state; a state from which the moment it formed had established borders over a territory in much the same way we think of nations today."

 

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Life-Size Statue of King Ramses II Found in Sharkiya

Newly unearthed statue of king Ramsess II in Tel-Basta suggests that Nile Delta town was home to great nineteenth dynasty temple

Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 3 Oct 2013

"A German-Egyptian excavation mission in the Nile Delta town of Tel-Basta unearthed today a life-size statue of the nineteenth dynasty king Ramses II carved in red granite.

The statue, at 195cm high and 160cm wide, was found accidently during a routine excavation carried out by the joint mission.  It was discovered in the so-called Great Temple area's eastern side, inside the temple of cat goddess Bastet in Sharkiya's Tel-Basta.

Antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim explained that the newly-discovered statue depicts king Ramses II standing between the goddess Hathor and the god Petah. On its back, Ibrahim continued, a hieroglyphic text and the cartouche of the king are engraved."

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The Queen and the Sculptor

Egyptologist thinks he has found tomb of artist who created famed bust of Nefertiti

October 21, 2013

By Corydon Ireland, Harvard Staff Writer

"For those of us aging fast, it is nice to know that one the most beautiful faces in the world is more than 3,300 years old.

That face is on the bust of Queen Nefertiti, the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, whose reign in Egypt spanned 1353–1336 BCE. This famous artifact, 44 pounds and life-size, has a layer of painted gypsum stucco over a full-featured limestone core. It was discovered a century ago in the ruins of an ancient artist’s studio in Amarna, south of Cairo. First made public in 1924, it fast became an icon of feminine beauty.

A slender, smooth neck gives way to skin the color of golden sand. Then come full, red lips; a dramatic, sloping nose; almond eyes; and arching, dark eyebrows. Above the face is a colorful, back-sweeping, cylindrical crown. It’s a lot for the eye to take in, especially since the work was likely just an artist’s model, and never intended for display."

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Dig Unearths 4,000 Year Old Tomb of Doctor to Pharaohs

5 hours ago

"Archaeologists have unearthed a 4,000 year old tomb outside the Egyptian capital containing what they believe are the remains of a prominent doctor to the pharaohs, officials said on Tuesday.

The tomb, part of a 21 metre (70 foot) by 14 metre (46 foot) plot, with four-metre (13 feet) high walls, was discovered at Abusir, southwest of Cairo, senior antiquities ministry official Ali al-Asfar said."

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King Tutankhamun: Ancient Mystery Finally Solved

Added by Kate Henderson on November 3, 2013.

Saved under Kate Henderson, Science

Tags: king tutankhamun, spot, tutankhamun

"The ancient mystery of what happened to the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun has finally been solved. In a fascinating new report out today, a mystery that has persisted for many thousands of years, is answered at last. The riddle of the tombs has finally been cracked.

Possibly the most famous of all the Pharaohs, Tutankhamun was only 17-years-old when he died and was embalmed back in 1323 BC. There was a spooky twist to the fate of the man who discovered him. British archaeologist Lord Carnarvon was found dead in nearby Cairo, after opening up the tomb in 1922. This led to intense speculation that he had been hit by an ancient and terrible curse. The myth of the “curse of the pharaohs” became a persistent one. It has led to many imaginative stories being told about it, both in print on the screen. Those who dared to disturb a mummy’s tomb would suffer an untimely death."

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Mummy's Colorful Collar Found in Egyptian Tomb

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | November 05, 2013 11:56am ET

"A collar with "almost pristine" colors that would have been worn by a mummy has been discovered in small pieces in an Egyptian tomb in Thebes and put back together again.

People in ancient Egypt wore collars called "wesekhs" made of beads when they were alive. This painted collar is made of a different type of material called cartonnage (a plastered material) and was meant to be worn by a mummy after death. A clay seal found near the collar suggests that it was worn by the mummy of a wealthy undertaker.

Dating back around 2,300 years ago and found in modern-day Luxor, the collar is painted in a vivid array of colors, designs and images that show elements of ancient Egyptian religion. The god Horus is signified by two falcons wearing red sun-disk crowns on the top corners, while at top center is a human-headed bird (called a "Ba" bird) that represents, in essence, the immortal soul of the deceased mummy."

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Pyramid-Age Love Revealed in Vivid Color in Egyptian Tomb

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | November 15, 2013 09:57am ET

"She was a priestess named Meretites, and he was a singer named Kahai, who performed at the pharaoh's palace. They lived about 4,400 years ago in an age when pyramids were being built in Egypt, and their love is reflected in a highly unusual scene in their tomb — an image that has now been published in all its surviving color.

The tomb at Saqqara — which held this couple, their children and possibly their grandchildren — has now been studied and described by researchers at Macquarie University's Australian Center for Egyptology. Among the scenes depicted is a relief painting showing the couple gazing into each other's eyes, with Meretites placing her right hand over Kahai's right shoulder."

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'Meat Mummies' Kept Egyptian Royalty Well-Fed After Death

LiveScience.com By By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer

17 hours ago

"Care for some ribs? The royal mummies of ancient Egypt apparently did, as a new study finds that "meat mummies" left in Egyptian tombs as sustenance for the afterlife were treated with elaborate balms to preserve them.

Mummified cuts of meat are common finds in ancient Egyptian burials, with the oldest dating back to at least 3300 B.C. The tradition extended into the latest periods of mummification in the fourth century A.D. The famous pharaoh King Tutankhamun went to his final resting place accompanied by 48 cases of beef and poultry.

But meat mummies have been mostly unstudied until now. University of Bristol biogeochemist Richard Evershed and his colleagues were curious about how these cuts were prepared. They also wondered if the mummification methods for meat differed from how Egyptians mummified people or pets."

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Ancient Egyptians Used Organic Compounds to Embalm Meat Mummies

Mon, Nov 18, 2013

Meat victuals for the afterlife were prepared using diverse treatments, say researchers.

"A study team consisting of researchers from the University of Bristol, UK, and the American University in Cairo, Egypt, are suggesting that some ancient Egyptian meat mummies were embalmed with organic compounds, including one meat mummy that showed evidence for the use of Pistacia resin, a highly valued luxury item.

 

Meat victual mummies, which are wrapped and embalmed meaty portions or joints of animals such as cattle or poultry, have typically been found within the ancient tombs of royal and high status individuals in Egypt. They are thought to have been meant as food items for consumption by the deceased in the afterlife. Such were discovered, for example, within 48 carved wooden cases in the tomb of King Tutankhamun (died c. 1323 BCE). Unlike other foods found preserved by dehydration within the tombs, however, the victual meats had to be treated in ways similar to that of the humans and animal mummies, "as untreated meat would not last more than a few hours in the Egyptian heat."* But the exact elemental components of the substances used in the process of victual meat mummy treatment has been unclear, until now."

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A Limestone Relief Found Beneath a Residential Area in Al-Qantara East

A limestone relief engraved with Greek text was uncovered under a residential house in Al-Qantara East town in Ismailia governorate

Nevine El-Aref , Monday 2 Dec 2013

"In an unusual turn of events, authorities pursuing a gang of antiquities smugglers along the Suez Canal have accidently stumbled across a Greek limestone relief beneath a residential house in the city of Al-Qantara East.

The Tourism and Antiquities Police (TAP) discovered the relief within the walls of an underground, ancient tomb. It was recovered today in coordination with the Ministry of State Antiquities (MSA), according to minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Section at the MSA, said that the relief is 40 cm tall and 20cm large, and engraved with four lines of Greek text, with a winged sun disk displayed at the top. The relief is now under restoration for future display in the town's storage museum."

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Mummy Mystery: Tombs Still Hidden in Valley of Kings

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | December 04, 2013 09:42am ET

"Multiple tombs lay hidden in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, where royalty were buried more than 3,000 years ago, awaiting discovery, say researchers working on the most extensive exploration of the areain nearly a century.

The hidden treasure may include several small tombs, with the possibility of a big-time tomb holding a royal individual, the archaeologists say.

Egyptian archaeologists excavated the valley, where royalty were buried during the New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.), between 2007 and 2010 and worked with the Glen Dash Foundation for Archaeological Research to conduct ground- penetrating radar studies.

The team has already made a number of discoveries in the valley, including a flood control system that the ancient Egyptians created but, mysteriously, failed to maintain. The system was falling apart by the time of King Tutankhamun, which damaged many tombs but appears to have helped protect the famous boy-king's treasures from robbers by sealing his tomb."

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17 December 2013 Last updated at 13:15 GMT

Newport Man's Theory Turns Pyramid Building on Its Head

By Sarah Dickins

BBC Wales economics correspondent

A Newport engineer says his discovery about how the Egyptian pyramids were built threatens to shake up the world of archaeology. Peter James revealed to Sarah Dickins how he thinks the accepted theories about pyramid building are wrong.

"Cast your mind back to pictures in school books about the building of the ancient pyramids and you probably remember images of hundreds of workers in loincloths heaving massive stones up ramps.

Peter James and his team have been restoring the Egyptian pyramids for 18 years, with his company Cintec working deep inside the iconic structures.

He began to question how they were really built up to 4,000 years ago. He says the traditional view, that hundreds of workers manoeuvred two million stone blocks, laying one every three minutes, is impossible."

 

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Ancient Spider Rock Art Sparks Archaeological Mystery

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | December 20, 2013 11:03am ET

"Archaeologists have discovered a panel containing the only known example of spider rock art in Egypt and, it appears, the entire Old World.

The rock panel, now in two pieces, was found on the west wall of a shallow sandstone wadi, or valley, in the Kharga Oasis, located in Egypt's western desert about 108 miles (175 kilometers) west of Luxor. Facing east, and illuminated by the morning sun, the panel is a "very unusual" find, said Egyptologist Salima Ikram, a professor at the American University in Cairo who co-directs the North Kharga Oasis Survey Project.

The identification of the creatures as spiders is tentative and the date of it uncertain, Ikram told LiveScience in an email. Even so, based on other activity in the area, the rock art may date to about 4000 B.C. or earlier, which would put it well into prehistoric times, before Egypt was unified, noted Ikram, who detailed the finding in the most recent edition of the journal Sahara. [See Photos of the Newfound Spider Rock Art]"

 

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An Unidentified Royal Statue Head Found in Luxor

A black granite head of an unidentified New Kingdom king's statue has been uncovered in Luxor

Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 26 Dec 2013

"The Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission unearthed on Thursday a large granite head of a statue of an unidentified New Kingdom king during routine excavation at King Thutmose III’s funerary temple on Luxor’s west bank.

Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Section at the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), explained that the head is 29.6cm high, 24.3cm wide and 26.9cm deep. The head depicts a round face of a royal figure, not identified yet, wearing a wig, with traces of a broken nose, and two long ears that each reach 8cm. The eyes, he continued, have traces of kohl, with thick eyebrows."

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Tomb of Ancient Egyptian Beer Brewer Unearthed

Japanese archeologists have unearthed the tomb of an ancient beer brewer in the city of Luxor that is more than 3,000 years old.

By The Associated Press | Jan. 3, 2014 | 6:16 PM

"Egypt's minister of antiquities says Japanese archeologists have unearthed the tomb of an ancient beer brewer in the city of Luxor that is more than 3,000 years old."

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American Diggers Identify Tomb of Egypt Pharaoh

CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

January 07, 2014

"A US team in Egypt has identified the tomb of pharaoh Sobekhotep I, believed to be the founder of the 13th dynasty 3,800 years ago, the antiquities minister said Monday.

The team from the University of Pennsylvania had discovered the quartzite sarcophagus of Sobekhotep I, which weighed about 60 tonnes, a year ago, but was unable to identify who it belonged to until last week, the ministry said.

Its identity was established after the team found fragments of a slab inscribed with the pharaoh's name and showed him sitting on a throne, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement."

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Mystery Pharaoh and His Tomb Identified in Egypt

Charlene Gubash

Jan. 15, 2014 at 5:42 PM ET

CAIRO — "A previously unknown pharaoh and his burial place have been unearthed amid the tombs of other Egyptian kings, and archaeologists say the find could lead to still more royal discoveries.

The pharaoh's name, Senebkay, was found inscribed on the wall of a burial chamber that's part of the Abydos archaeological site, near the southern city of Sohag. Fragments of the name appeared on one list of Egyptian kings and queens, but no other trace of Senebkay had been found until now, said Ali Asfar, head of antiquities for the Egyptian government.

"This was the first time in history to discover the king," Asfar told NBC News on Wednesday.

He and other archaeologists say Senebkay lived roughly 3,650 years ago, during the second intermediate period of ancient Egyptian history. That was an era when several rulers vied for power — setting the stage for the rise of Egypt's New Kingdom around 1550 B.C."

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Tasty Life: Leopard Teeth, Calf Bones Found in Ruins Near Pyramids

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | January 21, 2014 08:23am ET

TORONTO — "The remains of a mansion that likely held high-ranking officials some 4,500 years ago have been discovered near Egypt's Giza Pyramids. Bones from young cattle and teeth from leopards suggest its residents ate and dressed like royalty.

Archaeologists excavating a city just 400 meters (1,312 feet) south of the Sphinx uncovered the house and nearby mound containing the hind limbs of young cattle, the seals of high-ranking officials, which were inscribed with titles like "the scribe of the royal box" and "the scribe of the royal school," and leopard teeth (but no leopard).

The house, containing at least 21 rooms, is part of a city that dates mainly to the time when the pyramid of Menkaure (the last of the Giza Pyramids) was being built."

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Ruins of Bustling Port Unearthed at Egypt's Giza Pyramids

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | January 28, 2014 01:05pm ET

TORONTO — "The remains of a bustling port and barracks for sailors or military troops have been discovered near the Giza Pyramids. They were in use while the pyramids were being built about 4,500 years ago.

The archaeologists have been excavating a city near the Giza Pyramids that dates mainly to the reign of the pharaoh Menkaure, who built the last pyramid at Giza. Also near the pyramids they have been excavating a town, located close to a monument dedicated to Queen Khentkawes, possibly a daughter of Menkaure. The barracks are located at the city, while a newly discovered basin, that may be part of a harbor, is located by the Khentkawes town."

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