Egyptian Archaeological News - General

[Resource Manager]

Egyptian Artifacts Salvaged from Robbed Tomb in Israel

 

by Megan Gannon, News Editor   |   April 01, 2015 09:47am ET

 

"In an underground cave in Israel, archaeologists have unearthed 3,000-year-old Egyptian artifacts that had been spared by tomb robbers.

 

Inspectors with the Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery say they found pickaxes and other signs of looting in a cave near Kibbutz Lahav in southern Israel.

 

Upon further investigation, the excavators discovered a hoard of ancient artifacts. IAA officials say they don't yet know how the cave was used or why these objects were placed there, but they found several intact ceramic pots; jewelry made of bronze, shells and faience; oil lamps; small amulets; alabaster jars; cosmetic vessels; and Egyptian scarab seals that date back to the 15th and 14th centuries B.C."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

French Archaeologists Unearth Two Old Kingdom Tombs

 

April 03, 2015

 

"Minister of Antiquities announced today the discovery of two 6th Dynasty (Old Kingdom) tombs at the site of Tabit El-Geish, south of Sakkara.

 

The two tombs belong to priests who were contemporary to the reign of Pepi II (2240-2150 B.C). The tombs were discovered by the mission of the IFAO (Institut Français d’archéologie Orientale) directed by Dr. Vassil Dobrev.

 

The first tomb of a priest called "Ankhti" where the burial chambers was found in a shaft 12 meters deep and the second tomb belongs to a priest called "Sabi" where the burial chamber was found in a shaft 6 meters deep. In both tombs there are offering scenes."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Issue No.1241, 9 April, 2015      

 

07-04-2015 08:52PM ET

 

Controversy Over the Meidum Geese

 

Egyptian archaeologists have rejected allegations that a celebrated ancient Egyptian painting may be a 19th-century fake, reports Nevine El-Aref
 

"Egyptian archaeologists have reacted with anger to claims that the “Meidum Geese” painting, on display in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, is a fake. According to a recent study, the scene was in fact created in the 19th century and painted over a real Pyramid Age painting.

 

Francesco Tiradritti of Kore University, director of an Italian archaeological mission to Egypt, published his findings in Live Science magazine and suggested that the painting may be a forgery."

Continued
 

The painting was discovered in 1871 by the Italian curator Luigi Vassalli in a chapel dedicated to Princess Atet, the wife of the vizier Nefermaat, the son of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Senefru, inside his mastaba tomb near the Meidum Pyramid in Fayoum.

[Resource Manager]

Ancient Egyptian Shrine, Bust Unearthed Under Modern Cairo

 

Apr. 15, 2015 13:00

 

CAIRO: "A 2,400 year-old basalt shrine was unearthed from beneath Cairo’s modern districts of Ain Shams and Mataria, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty announced Tuesday.

 

“The finds were discovered during the ongoing excavation work carried out by an Egyptian-German archaeology mission. The shrine belonged to the 30th Dynasty Pharaoh Nectanebo I (379 B.C.-360 B.C.,)” said Damaty."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Russian Archeologists Unearth 'White Walls' of Ancient Memphis

 

10:34 19.04.2015 (updated 15:42 19.04.2015) 

"The Head of the Russian archeological expedition Galina Belova expressed hope that "other archeological witnesses of this early period of Ancient Egypt’s history dated back to nearly 3200 B.C." will be discovered.

A team of Russian archeologists working in Saqqara near Egypt’s Cairo discovered the remains of the so-called "The White Wall" of the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis. Its Ancient Egyptian name was Inbu-Hedj which is translated as "The White Walls."

 

According to Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damati, the finding of the great historic site was made near the town of Mit Rahina, 20 kilometers south of Cairo and near Saqqara which was the necropolis of Memphis."

 

Continued

[Resource Manager]

4,600 Year-Old Tomb of Pharaoh Unearthed in Delta

 

Apr. 22, 2015 08:00

 

CAIRO: "A 4,600 year-old tomb belonging to the little-known 3rd Dynasty Pharaoh Khaa Ba, has been unearthed in Egypt’s central Delta town of Quesna, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty announced Monday.

 

“The significance of the new discovery stems from the fact that the Memphis necropolis [located to the south of Giza Pyramids], but not Quesna, has been always known to be the burial city of 3rd Dynasty Pharaohs,” Damaty said."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Ancient Hangover Cure Discovered in Greek Texts

 

by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   April 21, 2015 07:48am ET

 

"Hiding a hangover in ancient Egypt would've taken some work. Rather than popping an ibuprofen for a pounding drunken headache, people in Egypt may have worn a leafy necklace.

 

That's according to a newly translated and published papyrus written in Greek with the recipe for a "drunken headache" cure. The alcohol victim would have strung together leaves from a shrub called Alexandrian chamaedaphne (Ruscus racemosus L.), possibly wearing the strand around the neck, the text revealed."

 

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Rare Old Kingdom Statue was Discovered in Aswan

 

April 28, 2015

 

"Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty, Minister of Antiquities, announced the discovery of lower part of a royal statue showing the name of King “Sahure”, second King of the 5th Dynasty in the Old Kingdom.

 

The statue bloc was unearthed during the excavations of the Belgian mission at El-Kab (15km north of Edfu) in Aswan governorate. The mission is directed by Dr. Dirk Huyge (Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels)."

 

Continued

[Resource Manager]

New Discoveries at Tharo Military Fortress, North Sinai

 

The Tharo military fortress, dating from the New Kingdom period, was once used by military forces to safeguard Egypt's eastern borders

 

Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 5 May 2015

 

"An Egyptian excavation mission uncovered two lintels on the eastern gate of the Tharo military fortress in North Sinai, Egypt's minister of antiquities announced on Tuesday.

 

Mamdouh Eldamaty revealed that the lintels are made up of three limestone blocks and are engraved with scenes depicting King Ramses II from the New Kingdom period. Each block is three metres tall and one meter in width, indicating that the fortress' gate was very large."

 

Continued

[Resource Manager]

ANCIENT EGYPT

 

Mummies' Height Reveals Incest

 

MAY 11, 2015 02:18 PM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI

 

"The height of the pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt supports historical records that they might have married their sisters and cousins, says new research into 259 mummies.

 

It's known from historical sources that incestuous marriages were common among the ancient Egyptian royalty. The pharaohs believed they descended from the gods so inbreeding was seen as a way to retain the sacred bloodline.

 

But it is hard to prove incest in royal marriages through genetic testings because of ethical consideration when destroying mummies' tissues."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

ARCHAEOLOGY

 

Ancient Egyptian Animal Mummy Scandal Revealed

 

MAY 12, 2015 07:06 AM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI

 

"The animal mummification industry that thrived in ancient Egypt held a secret which was not revealed for almost 3,000 years: around a third of the carefully wrapped religious offerings are boneless — and, for the most part, empty.

 

Researchers from at Manchester Museum and the University of Manchester reached this conclusion following a study that looked at more than 800 animal mummies.

 

The project to scan every mummy of animal shapes, from cats and birds to crocodiles, is the largest of its kind. It will culminate with an exhibition opening at Manchester Museum on Thursday Oct. 8, 2015."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

New Discovery: Gabal Al-Selsila Quarries Were a Sacred Area in Ancient Egypt

 

The remains of an ancient Egyptian temple have been unearthed near Aswan in what Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh El-Damaty describes as a “very important” discovery

 

Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 17 May 2015

 

"A Swedish archaeological mission from Lund University uncovered this week remains of an ancient Egyptian temple in the area of Gabal Al-Silsela quarries located 65 kilometres north of Aswan."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Colorful Fragment Hacked Out From Ancient Egyptian Tomb, Excavators Say

 

May. 26, 2015 16:45

 

CAIRO: "A wall relief fragment was hacked out from the 3,850 year-old tomb of Djehutyhotep, according to a Tuesday Facebook statement by the Catholic Leuven University archaeology mission.

 

The fragment in question measures 30 by 50 centimeters (12 by 20 inches.) The archaeology mission, currently carrying out excavations where the tomb is located, has posted photos of the wall and the fragment before and after the looting."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

6 ‘Unique’ Tombs Discovered West of Aswan: Antiquities Minister

 

Jun. 07, 2015 15:56

 

CAIRO: "Six ancient Egyptian tombs dating back to the Late Period (664B.C.-332 B.C.) have been discovered in the ancient cemetery west of Aswan, Minster of Antiquates Mamdouh el-Damaty announced in a statements Sunday.

 

The tomb revealed a group of mummies found inside stone and wooden sarcophagi, fiancé statues representing the four sons of God Horus along with a number of amulets and small wooden statues of Horus, said the statement."

 

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Ancient Papyrus Texts Found in Basel University Library

 

Published: 10 Jun 2015 09:57 GMT+02:00

 

A valuable collection of ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscripts has been discovered in the University of Basel’s library after being forgotten for more than a century.

 

"The 2,000-year-old texts, written in Greek, Latin, Coptic Egyptian and hieratic, were acquired by the university 115 years ago but were subsequently overlooked."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

8 Million Dog Mummies Found in 'God of Death' Mass Grave

 

by Laura Geggel, Staff Writer   |   June 18, 2015 08:07am ET

 

"In ancient Egypt, so many people worshiped Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death, that the catacombs next to his sacred temple once held nearly 8 million mummified puppies and grown dogs, a new study finds.

 

The catacomb ceiling also contains the fossil of an ancient sea monster, a marine vertebrate that's more than 48 million years old, but it's unclear whether the Egyptians noticed the existence of the fossil when they built the tomb for the canine mummies, the researchers said."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Summer 2015, Cover Stories, Daily News

 

From the Sands of Egypt

 

Tue, Jun 30, 2015

 

"The discovery of the world's largest trove of ancient writings opened an unparalleled window on a vanished world."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Foreign Archaeological Missions Resume Excavating Upper Egypt After 13-Year Ban

 

Jul. 04, 2015 16:00

 

CAIRO:  "Egypt has lifted a 13-year-old ban on excavation permits issued to foreign archeology missions working in Upper Egypt, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mostafa Amin was quoted by Youm7 Friday.

 

For 13 years, the excavation permissions were limited only to Egyptian missions to explore treasures in Upper Egypt but due to the “successive requests from foreign Universities and researchers, the council agreed to give the licenses after 13 years of suspension,” Amin told Youm7 without going into further details on number of the foreign missions applied for the permits."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Poles Discovered a Unique 6.5 Thousand Years Old Burial in Egypt

 

06.07.2015 HISTORY&CULTURE, RECOMMENDED

 

"Traces of intentional injury in the form of cuts on the femur have been discovered on the remains of one of the dead found during this year's excavations carried out in the Western Desert in Egypt. It is the first known case of such treatment from the Neolithic period in this part of Africa.

 

Discovery has been made by the expedition led by Prof. Jacek Kabaciński from the Poznań branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology PAS. Polish research area in the desert, called Gebel Ramlah, is located near the southern border of Egypt with Sudan, about 140 km west of Abu Simbel. Poles have been working there since 2009 and making important discoveries from the beginning, including an unusual cemetery of newborns."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Naqada Tombs Uncovered in Egypt's Daqahliyah

 

Four pre-dynasty tombs have been uncovered at Tel Al-Farkha in the Nile Delta

 

Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 7 Jul 2015

 

"A Polish mission at Tel Al-Farkha in Daqahliyah has discovered four pre-dynastic tombs, Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty announced on Tuesday.

 

Eldamaty said three of the tombs are in a very poor condition and include child burials. Meanwhile the fourth tomb is in very good conservation condition and can be dated to the Naqada IIIC2 era.

The minister told Ahram Online that the tomb is a small mastaba with two chambers. The southern one was filled with 42 clay vessels, mainly beer jars, bowls as well as a collection of 26 stone vessels of different shapes and sizes. Some of them are cylinder and globular. A collection of 180 small carnelian beads is also among the deceased funerary collection. The corpse of the deceased was also unearthed in the northern chamber."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

“Window on a Lost World”: Rediscovered Papyri at UBC Shed Light on Ancient Egypt

 

Media Release | July 6, 2015

 

"A reminder for a dinner invitation and a touching letter from a young man to his mother offer a rare glimpse of daily life in ancient Egypt, thanks to a recent rediscovery at UBC Library.

 

It’s believed that the small papyrus scraps, which fit in the palm of an adult hand, are the first of their kind in Western Canada. Both were excavated in Egypt, and made their way to UBC in the 1930s via the University of Michigan."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Parchment Manuscripts Discovered at Oxyrhynchus

 

7/12/2015 

 

"In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rubbish dumps of Oxyrhynchus yielded thousands upon thousands of papyrus manuscript fragments that have provided—and continue to provide—a tremendous source of knowledge about the ancient world. But what some people may not realize is the fact that several parchment fragments were also among the finds at Oxyrhynchus. Since parchment was considerably more expensive than papyrus, we can understand why there is almost no extant evidence at Oxyrhynchus of parchment being used for everyday kinds of documents (there are only a few exceptions, such as P.Iand. 2.12 and SB 3.7269). So, the parchment fragments we do find at Oxyrhynchus are primarily literary or sub-literary in genre. And most of these fragments date from the fourth century and later, since parchment, as far as we can tell, did not come to be used with much regularity until the fourth century. In any case, here is a small sample of some interesting parchment fragments discovered at Oxyrhynchus."

 

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Rare Find of Polish Scientists in Egypt

 

13.07.2015 HISTORY&CULTURE

 

"The gift of the father of the legendary Cleopatra VII for an Egyptian temple, in the form of a linen cloth, has been discovered by Polish archaeologists during excavations in Western Thebes (modern Luxor) in Egypt.

The discovery was made during the excavation of a several meters deep shaft of a tomb of a dignitary from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000 BC) in the necropolis Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. In the sixth century, the location was adapted by hermits - Christian monks - for housing purposes.

 

"Probably the monks living in the hermitage, who were bringing everything they could use from the surrounding area, found the canvas in the ruins of a nearby temple and took it with a practical use in mind. We were lucky to discover this unique object" - explained Andrzej Ćwiek, Deputy Head of Mission, an employee of Adam Mickiewicz University and the Archaeological Museum in Poznań. The excavations were conducted under the concessions obtained by the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw."

Continued

[Resource Manager]

4,000-Year-Old Stelai Unearthed South of Aswan

 

Jul. 28, 2015 17:46

 

CAIRO: "Three ancient Egyptian stelai (upright stone slab bearing a commemorative inscription) were unearthed in Wadi-al-Hudi, 35km southeast of Aswan, Antiquities Ministry said in a statement Monday.

 

The new finds were discovered during excavation work carried out by a team of Egyptian and American archaeologists led by Dr. Kate Liszka and Bryan Kraemer, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said, adding that the stelai date back to ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom Period (2040B.C-1750B.C.)"

Continued

[Resource Manager]

Egyptian Archaeologists Discover Human Remains and Pottery

 

02 August 2015

 

"Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty, Minister of Antiquities, announced today a new discovery at Edfu temple. 

 

The discovery has taken place while the team of Edfu inspectors were doing experimental excavations in the front part of the temple in order to implement the second phase of lowering the ground water project funded by USAID."

 

Continued