Egyptian Archaeological News - General

[Resource Manager]

The Sarcophagus of god Amun's Singer Unearthed

 

The sarcophagus of god Amun’s singer unearthed in a tomb at Assassif area on Luxor’s west bank

 

Nevine El-Aref , Monday 8 Dec 2014

 

"During restoration work at Amenhotep Huy tomb, at Qurnet Marei at Assassif area on Luxor’s west bank, a Spanish Egyptian archaeological mission stumbled upon what is believed to be the sarcophagus of god Amun’s singer.
 

Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told Ahram Online that the sarcophagus is well preserved condition and houses the mummy of the deceased. He continued that until now the name of the sarcophagus owner has not been revealed yet but the sarcophagus is dated to the Third Intermediate Period (100-900 BC)."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Danish Bronze Age Glass Beads Traced to Egypt

 

December 8, 2014 - 06:23

 

"Analyses of glass beads found in Denmark give us new knowledge of Bronze Age trade routes.

An international collaboration between Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, and Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux (IRAMAT) at Orléans, France, has resulted in a sensational discovery about the trade routes between Denmark and the ancient civilisations in Egypt and Mesopotamia in the Bronze Age 3,400 years ago. The discovery also gives us new knowledge about the sun cult in the Nordic Bronze Age."

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Pharaoh’s Statue Restored 3,200 Years After Collapse in Earthquake

 

12.9-metre statue of Amenhotep III stands again at northern gate of king’s funerary temple in Luxor

 

December 14, 2014

 

"Archaeologists have unveiled a restored statue of Amenhotep III that was toppled in an earthquake more than 3,000 years ago at Egypt’s temple city of Luxor.

 

The statue was re-erected at the northern gate of the king’s funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile. The temple is already famous for its 3,400-year-old Memnon colossi – twin statues of Amenhotep III, whose reign archaeologists say marked the political and cultural zenith of ancient Egyptian civilisation."

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Egypt Unveils Renovated Tutankhamun Gallery

 

15 Dec 2014

 

"The Cairo government unveiled on Monday four newly renovated halls of the famed Tutankhamun gallery in the Egyptian Museum as the facility undergoes a complete overhaul.

 

The gallery houses treasures that were found intact in 1922 along with the mummy of the 19-year-old boy king in the temple city of Luxor, and is a world famous tourist attraction.

 

Its renovation is part of a seven-year project to refurbish the entire Egyptian Museum overlooking Tahrir Square, and in turn revive downtown Cairo."

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The Controversial Afterlife of King Tut

 

A frenzy of conflicting scientific analyses have made the famous pharaoh more mysterious than ever

By Matthew Shaer

 

Smithsonian Magazine

 

December 2014

 

"The Valley of the Kings lies on a bend in the Nile River, a short ferry ride from Luxor. The valley proper is rocky and wildly steep, but a little farther north, the landscape gives way to gently rolling hills, and even the occasional copse of markh trees. It was here, in a humble mud-brick house, that the British Egyptologist Howard Carter was living in 1922, the year he unearthed the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, forever enshrining both the boy king and himself in the annals of history."   

 

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[Resource Manager]

4 JANUARY, 2015 - 22:22

 

APRIL HOLLOWAY

 

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb of Previously Unknown Queen in Egypt

 

"A team of Czech archaeologists has discovered a tomb in an ancient Egyptian necropolis that belongs to a Pharaonic Queen, who ruled around 4,500 years ago and who was previously unknown to historians, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Sunday.  The tomb was found in  Abu Sir, often called the ‘site of the forgotten kings of the 5th Dynasty’.
 

Abu Sir is an Old Kingdom necropolis in the vicinity of the modern capital Cairo, which served as one of the main elite cemeteries for the ancient Egyptian capital city of Memphis. As an elite cemetery, neighboring Giza had "filled up" with the massive pyramids and other monuments of the 4th Dynasty, leading the 5th Dynasty pharaohs to seek sites elsewhere for their own funerary monuments. Abu Sir, thus became the site for several pyramids and numerous tombs dedicated to pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty."

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[Resource Manager]

Tomb of Osiris Discovered at Luxor: The Legend of Ancient Egypt's god of the Dead
 

Mary-Ann Russon By Mary-Ann Russon

January 5, 2015 18:24 BST

   

"Over the weekend, the news broke that a 3,200-year-old reproduction of the mythical tomb of Osiris had been found in Sheikh Abd el-Gourna, a necropolis on the West Bank of Thebes.

 

The tomb, known as Kampp -327-, is shrouded in mystery as it is not known who it was made for (there are no inscriptions in the tomb at all) and was never documented by explorers during the 20th century, according to Luxor Times."

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Pharaonic Rock Carving of Obelisks Found in Gebel el Silsila Quarry

 

Jan. 06, 2015 12:45

 

CAIRO: "A rock inscription portraying the rare transfer of two obelisks from a quarry has been unearthed at Gebel el Silsila, Egypt’s largest sandstone quarries located to the north of Aswan, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty announced Monday.

 

The discovery is the result of the Gebel el Silsila Survey Project, an epigraphic survey mission of Lund University, Sweden that has been active in the site since early 2014, according to the statement.

 

Scenes depicting the phases and the technique of detaching blocks, loading them in sailing boats before sending them to their destinations through the River Nile, have been also discovered in the site.

 

“The work technique shows a notable cooperation among the workers and the workshops at the quarry. The scenes of the rocks, which were precisely cut, confirm the advanced skills of ancient Egyptian labor,” Director General of Aswan Antiquities Department Nasr Salama said."
 

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[Resource Manager]

Ancient Egyptian Fortress Unearthed in Sinai

 

Jan. 10, 2015 12:00

 

By Rany Mostafa
 

CAIRO: "The 3,000 year-old ruins and foundations of the largest known fortress in Egypt were unearthed at the ancient fortified city of Tell Habua near the Suez Canal, said Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al- Damaty Saturday.

 

The fort, also known as the Wall of the Prince, was part of a defensive line in the form of a series of fortresses and military cities. The fortress is one of other fortifications that have been discovered earlier in the site of Tell Habua, the old Tharu, as mentioned in the inscriptions of Pharaoh Seti I at Karnak temple, describing the Horus Military Route, said Damaty."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Archaeologists and Experts Say Two Mummies in the Vatican Museum are Fakes

 

The two mini mummies were long believed to be of a child, animal or possibly a falcon but can now be revealed as forgeries

 

By Andrea Vogt, Bologna7:58PM GMT 21 Jan 2015

 

"Researchers studying mummies housed in the Vatican Museums have said they have discovered that two of them are fakes.

 

“These mummies are important evidence of the phenomenon of falsification that managed to regularly fool collectors and sometimes scholars,” said Alessia Amenta, Egyptologist and curator of the Vatican Museum’s department for the antiquities of Egypt and the Near East.

 

Scientists at the Vatican Museum’s diagnostic laboratory for conservation and restoration have been analysing the two mummy forgeries for the last year, and say they can finally reveal the techniques charlatans used to pass them off as real. They present their research on Thursday in Rome, finally unmasking the myth of these two mini mummies, which were long believed to be of a child, animal or possibly a falcon."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Archaeologist Begins Dig in the Sudan, Nile River Valley Area

 

Jan 30, 2015 by Amy Patterson Neubert

 

"A Purdue University archaeologist is excavating in Tombos, Sudan, to answer questions about the Egyptian and Nubian cultures from thousands of years ago.

 

Michele Buzon, an associate professor of anthropology, is excavating Nubian burial sites dated 1500-1050 BCE in the Nile River Valley to better understand the relationship between the Nubians and Egypt's New Kingdom Empire. She is focusing on a time, starting about 1500 BCE, when Egyptians colonized the area to gain access to trade routes on the Nile River.

 

"What is known about this time often comes from Egyptian history, and we think they integrated more than Egyptian texts convey," said Buzon, a bioarchaeologist. "By excavating the burial tombs we'll investigate if there was intermarriage and how they interacted in general as well as if Egyptians absorbed Nubian culture. Artifacts, burial structure and even burial positions will provide some clues."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Newfound 'Gospel of the Lots of Mary' Discovered in Ancient Text
 

by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   February 03, 2015 08:58am ET

"A 1,500-year-old book that contains a previously unknown gospel has been deciphered. The ancient manuscript may have been used to provide guidance or encouragement to people seeking help for their problems, according to a researcher who has studied the text.

 

Written in Coptic, an Egyptian language, the opening reads (in translation):

 

"The Gospel of the lots of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, she to whom Gabriel the Archangel brought the good news. He who will go forward with his whole heart will obtain what he seeks. Only do not be of two minds."

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[Resource Manager]

Poles Reconstructed Houses of the First Egyptians

 

04.02.2015

 

"Virtual 3D model of more than 5 thousand years old Egyptian homes, discovered during the excavations at Tell el-Farcha in the Nile Delta, prepared by Jacek Karmowski, PhD student of the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

 

"We associate the architecture of ancient Egypt primarily with stone construction - due to the most recognizable structures left by this civilization: the pyramids and monumental stone temples" - Jacek Karmowski told PAP. "In fact, the contemporary villages and towns were dominated by houses made of mud bricks" - he added.

 

Structures built with such bricks are not particularly durable, unlike to those made with stones. Durability of the building material ensured their present, in some cases very good state of preservation. "It must be remembered that the stone architecture is a special, cult type of Egyptian construction, associated with religion and belief in the afterlife" - explained Karmowski."

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[Resource Manager]

Rosetta Stone-Style Stele Unearthed in the Mediterranean Coast

 

Feb. 12, 2015 16:49

CAIRO: "A 2,200 year-old “upright stone slab bearing a commemorative inscription” was unearthed on the Mediterranean coast, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty announced Thursday.

 

The stele, which was discovered at Taposiris Magna archaeological site on Lake Mariout, southwest of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria,  “dates to the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (204B.C-180B.C) of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (332 B.C.-30 B.C) that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.,” said Damaty in a statement on the ministry’s Facebook page.

 

The stele, measuring 1.05 x 0.65 x 0.18 meters, was discovered by an archaeology mission of the Catholic University of Santo Domingo in collaboration with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), he added."

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[Resource Manager]

Paid Sick Days and Physicians at Work: Ancient Egyptians had State-Supported Health Care

 

Feb 16, 2015 by Anne Austin, The Conversation

 

"We might think of state supported health care as an innovation of the 20th century, but it's a much older tradition than that. In fact, texts from a village dating back to Egypt's New Kingdom period, about 3,100-3,600 years ago, suggest that in ancient Egypt there was a state-supported health care network designed to ensure that workers making the king's tomb were productive.

 

Health care boosted productivity on the royal tombs

 

The village of Deir el-Medina was built for the workmen who made the royal tombs during the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE). During this period, kings were buried in the Valley of the Kings in a series of rock-cut tombs, not the enormous pyramids of the past. The village was purposely built close enough to the royal tomb to ensure that workers could hike there on a weekly basis."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Details on Lost Ancient Egyptian Queen’s Tomb Emerge

 

Daily News Egypt  /   February 18, 2015  /   0 Comments

 

Czech archaeological team and AUC professor discover tomb of an Ancient Egyptian queen at the Abusir necropolis, southwest of Cairo

 

"New insights have come to light into the history of a lost ancient queen discovered earlier this year at the Abusir necropolis, southwest of Cairo.

 

The insights come as part of work done by Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology and head of the Egyptology unit at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and a Czech archaeological team.

 

The site of the queen’s tomb, which the Czechs have been excavating for the past 55 years, now offers insight into understanding the royal family’s history during the Old Kingdom."

 

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[Resource Manager]

American Egyptologists Prove Pharaoh was Brutally Killed in a Battle Away from Home

 

February 24, 2015

 

"Elementary studies on the skeleton of SenebKay that was discovered in Abydos last year by the Mission of University of Pennsylvania directed by Dr. Josef Wegner (More details of the discovery HERE) showed 18 injuries on the King's bones as well as vertical cuts in feet, ankles and the lower back beside many injuries on the skull which indicated that the King died in a battle at age between 35 to 49 years old."

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[Resource Manager]

Busts of the Lioness Goddess Unearthed in Luxor

 

Two black granite busts of the ancient Egyptian lioness goddess Sekhmet un-earthed in Luxor
 

Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 24 Feb 2015

 

"The European-Egyptian archaeological mission headed by famed Egyptologist Horig Sourouzian unearthed two busts of the lioness goddess Sekhmet at the north-eastern side of the pillar halls of King Amenhotep III's temple at Kom El-Hitan on Luxor's west bank.

 

Sourouzian told Ahram Online that the temple's pillars hall is now a void area filled with dust and sand. He said that the mission is currently working there to see if there is anything to discover amidst the ruins."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Tomb of Amun Gate's Guard Uncovered in Luxor

 

A painted tomb of the guard of god Amun’s gate uncovered in Luxor

 

Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 3 Mar 2015

"An 18th dynasty tomb belonging to the guard of the ancient god Amun’s gate, Amenhotep, has been discovered in Gorna on Luxor’s west bank.
 

The tomb was uncovered by an archaeological mission of the American Research Centre in Cairo during excavation work carried out in the Gorna necropolis.

 

Minister of Antiquities Mamdoud Eldamaty told Ahram Online on Tuesday that the tomb is a T-shaped tomb with two large halls and an unfinished small niche at its end. An entrance leading to a side room with a shaft at its middle is found at the tomb’s southern side. “Such a shaft could lead to the burial chamber,” Eldamaty pointed out."

 

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[Resource Manager]

Paris, 2 March 2015
 
Karnak : Excavation Yields 38 Artifacts
 
"The Centre franco-égyptien d'étude des temples de Karnak (CNRS/Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities) has just completed the excavation of a favissa, a pit discovered in early December 2014 near the temple of the god Ptah. The dig has unearthed 38 statues, statuettes and precious objects, making this an exceptional find, both for the quantity and quality of the religious artifacts brought to light. Furthermore, a completely new recording method was used during the dig that makes it possible to virtually reconstruct each step of the discovery with millimeter accuracy."
  
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http://youtu.be/9OhmodqNwdg 
 
 

[Resource Manager]

Polish Archaeologists in the Forgotten Capital of Ancient Egypt

 

11.03.2015

 

HISTORY & CULTURE

 

"The second season of fieldwork of the Polish archaeological project in Gebelein in southern Egypt has begun. The place was a very important centre in the history of ancient Egypt, but researchers still know little about it.

During last year's work, many monuments were discovered that allow scientists to fill blank spots in the history of the pharaohs. These include inscriptions, tombs of dignitaries and places of worship carved in the rocks.

 

A characteristic feature of the landscape in Gebelein are two limestone rocks that tower over the Nile and the surrounding desert.

 

"At the dawn of the history of ancient Egypt this was an administrative centre, very well positioned strategically and in terms of natural resources. There are signs that we are studying the capital of one of the proto-states, of which the Egyptian state emerged at the turn of the fourth and third millennia BC"- told PAP the project leader, Wojciech Ejsmond from the University of Warsaw."

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[Resource Manager]

ARCE Team is on Fire. Second 18th Dynasty Tomb to be Discovered in a Week

 

March 11, 2015

 

"Minister of Antiquities announced the new discovery of a new tomb by ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt) in Qurna on the west bank of Luxor. 

 

ARCE team has successfully unearthed today the second tomb in a week to the East of TT110 where ARCE team was originally working on restoration and conservation of TT110 funded by USAID.

The newly discovered tomb dated to New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty and it belongs to a person called “Satmut” and his wife who is called “Ta-kh-at”.
 

The tomb walls has many daily life scenes in a good condition except the deliberate erasing of inscriptions and texts which is probably happened in ancient times.   

This new discovery alongside the tomb discovered last week, will open the door to new discoveries in the near future which require more work to unveil new scientific and archaeological facts."

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[Resource Manager]

Ancient Receipt Proves Egyptian Taxes Were Worse Than Yours

 

by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   March 14, 2015 09:58am ET

 

"Tax day is nearing in the United States, and people are scrambling to file their returns before the April 15 deadline. While this is never fun, people can take solace in a new finding: A recently translated ancient Egyptian tax receipt shows a bill that is (literally) heavier than any American taxpayer will pay this year — more than 220 lbs. (100 kilograms) of coins. 

 

Written in Greek on a piece of pottery, the receipt states that a person (the name is unreadable) and his friends paid a land-transfer tax that came to 75 "talents" (a unit of currency), with a 15-talent charge added on. The tax was paid in coins and was delivered to a public bank in a city called Diospolis Magna (also known as Luxor or Thebes).

 

But just how much was 90 talents worth in ancient Egypt?"

 

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[Resource Manager]

Oldest Evidence of Breast Cancer Found in Egyptian Skeleton

 

CAIRO Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:24pm EDT

 

(Reuters) - "A team from a Spanish university has discovered what Egyptian authorities are calling the world's oldest evidence of breast cancer in the 4,200-year-old skeleton of an adult woman.

 

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said the bones of the woman, who lived at the end of the 6th Pharaonic Dynasty, showed "an extraordinary deterioration".

 

"The study of her remains shows the typical destructive damage provoked by the extension of a breast cancer as a metastasis," he said in a statement on Tuesday."

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[Resource Manager]

Shocking Discovery: Egypt's 'Mona Lisa' May Be a Fake

 

by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   March 31, 2015 12:12am ET

 

"An ancient Egyptian masterpiece, hailed by some scholars as the "Mona Lisa" of Egyptian painting, is in fact a fake created in the 19th century, a researcher says. But the painting may conceal an authentic Pyramid Age piece underneath.

 

The "Meidum Geese," as modern-day Egyptologists and art historians call it, was supposedly found in 1871 in a tomb located near the Meidum Pyramid, which was built by the pharaoh Snefru (reign 2610-2590 B.C). The tomb belonged to the pharaoh's son, Nefermaat, and the painting itself was supposedly found in a chapel dedicated to Nefermaat's wife Atet (also spelled Itet). A man named Luigi Vassalli discovered and removed the painting, which is now located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo."

 

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