Showing posts with label Egyptian food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egyptian food. Show all posts

Monday, November 18, 2019

Ancient Egypt News 11/18 2019



Cheese from Ancient Egyptian tomb
World's Oldest Cheese: A 3,200 Years Old Cheese Found In An Egyptian Tomb

Scientists from the University of Catania and Cairo University found a solidified whitish mass in a jar, left in an Egyptian tomb. The substance turned out to be a 3,200 year old piece of cheese, among the oldest ever discovered.

A few years ago a team of archaeologists cleaning sand from an ancient Egyptian tomb discovered a group of broken jars, one of them containing a mysterious white substance. The team had guesses as to what the material might be, but a new analysis published in the journal Analytical Chemistry offers an answer: what they found during that excavation was an approximately 3,200 year old piece of cheese, one of the oldest solid specimens discovered

Fragments from PHARAOH APRIES gate
Found: Surprisingly Modern Paint on an Ancient Egyptian Gate

How did a pigment that Vermeer used in the 1600s wind up on Egyptian art from the 6th century BC?

THE PHARAOH APRIES WAS NOT exactly popular. He lost his kingdom to someone who, according to Herodotus, once farted in his face, and in 570 BC was strangled by the Egyptians he once ruled. But he had an excellent palace. Built in the northern part of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, Apries’s palace was a sprawling 524 feet by 354 feet. The Pharaoh would enter the grounds through an enormous gate decorated with seven limestone reliefs, one of which depicted the pharaoh under a star-filled blue sky. Other scenes have been lost to time.


Statue of Ramses II at British Museum
Egyptian sculpture about 2686 BC – AD 396

Travel back through 3,000 years of Egyptian history and come face-to-face with the Rosetta Stone and the Statue of Ramesses II.

The objects in the Egyptian sculpture gallery represent three millennia of pharaonic history. The displays have evolved with the field of Egyptology itself.

Modern Egyptology began with a French scientific expedition accompanying Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798. After the British defeated the French, they took some of their most important finds, including the Rosetta Stone and the sarcophagus of the last Egyptian pharaoh, both displayed here.
Scanning Nefertiti
A German Museum Tried To Hide This Stunning 3D Scan of an Iconic Egyptian Artifact. Today You Can See It for the First Time

After a three-year freedom of information campaign, everyone can finally see the Egyptian Museum of Berlin’s official scan of the Bust of Nefertiti.

For more than a decade, museums around the world have been making high-quality 3D scans of important sculptures and ancient artifacts. Some institutions, such as the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Denmark, have forward-thinking programs that freely share their 3D scans with the public, allowing us to view, copy, adapt, and experiment with the underlying works in ways that have never before been possible. But many institutions keep their scans out of public view.

Egyptian Sarcophagus
Archaeology Breakthrough: Scientists Unravel Major Discovery that Redefines Ancient Life
Image: AFP
SCIENTISTS have used advanced technology to scan the bones of ancient humans in an attempt to understand their daily lives.

The experts utilised modern technology to shine a light on what daily life was like in ancient Egypt in a never before seen study. Using lasers, X-rays and infrared tools, scientists have been able to scrutinise and examine the bones of mummies to better understand our ancestors.

Scene from the Books of the Dead (The Egyptian Museum) showing the ibis-headed God Thoth recording the result of the final judgment
Ancient Egyptians Sacrificed and Mummified Millions of These Sacred Birds—Here's How They Gathered So Many
WASEF ET AL, 2019

The ancient catacombs of Egypt contain millions of mummified birds of the species Threskiornis aethiopicus—better known as the African sacred ibis. Now researchers have cast new light on how the Egyptians obtained so many of these animals—something that has long puzzled experts.

The Egyptians commonly sacrificed and mummified these birds between 665 B.C. and 250 A.D. in honor of the god Toth—who was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis.

a stone shabti
Photos: 3,400-Year-Old Tomb Along Nile River
(Image credit: AcrossBorders project/Julia Budka)

A tomb dating back around 3,400 years has been discovered on Sai Island, on the Nile River in Sudan. The tomb has multiple burial chambers, which contain the remains of more than a dozen, possibly mummified, individuals. The tomb was constructed at a time when there was an Egyptian settlement and gold mine on the island. This picture shows some of the artifacts found in the tomb, including a stone shabti, meant to do the work of the deceased in the afterlife.

Museu Egípcio Canela
Egyptian Museum opens in Rio Grande do Sul

Egyptian artist and businessman Essam Elbattal established in Canela in the Serra Gaúcha a museum with a pharaonic setting of Ancient Egypt. Venue features an internal pyramid with sarcophagus and hieroglyphs. Visitors may dress up in tunics, wigs and turbans.

Canela’s Egyptian Museum comprises a 3,000-square-meter plot and over 1,200 square meters of building area, with sculptures, busts, pieces, and mortuary chambers that refer to the history of the great pharaohs, queens and figures of Ancient Egypt, including Tutankhamun, Ramesses II, Akhenaton, Cleopatra, and Nefertiti.

Tomb of Ankh-Ti
Egypt Discovery: Historian's Stunned Reaction to 'Oldest Tomb of His Career' Revealed
Image: CHANNEL 5

The discovery came after Tony Robinson joined archaeologist Dr Vasko Dobrev who had uncovered more than 60 tombs in his quest to find the missing Pharaoh Userkare, who he believes is buried in an unfinished pyramid below Saqqara. The suspected burial site served as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis and is home to numerous other pyramids including the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Dr Dobrev has spent the last three decades probing the area just 19 miles from the world-famous Giza Plateau and he now thinks he is closer to hitting the jackpot.

Restored tombs at Dra Abul-Naga necropolis
New Discoveries in Egyptology (September-October 2019)
Photo: Ahram

Every two months, the Nile Scribes bring you summaries of the latest research and discoveries in Egyptology, both from the field and the archives. We introduce you to the newest archaeological finds or rediscovered artefacts from museum collections, plus other new theories stirring in the Egyptological Zeitgeist. While few excavations take place in Egypt during the heat of the summer, there has nevertheless been a number of exciting discoveries announced at the outset of the cooler, post-summer months. The world’s attention was recently captured by the discovery of a new cache of Twenty-Second Dynasty mummies at Asasif in Luxor.

 An Egyptian dahabiya, a wooden sailing vessel, circa 1890.
A Nile Journey Into the Past
Credit...Boyer/Roger Viollet, via Getty Image

In the 19th century, women explorers sailed the Nile, sending back vivid accounts of Egypt’s riches. A 21st-century writer travels in their wake.

Huddled on a chaise on the upper deck of the Orient, the dahabiya that I had chosen for a cruise down the Nile, I sipped hibiscus tea to ward off the chill. Late in February, it was just 52 degrees in Aswan, where I had boarded the sailboat, but the scenery slipping past was everything the guidebooks had promised: tall sandbanks, curved palms and the mutable, gray-green river, the spine of Egypt and the throughline in its history.

Reproductions of Tut's tomb
‘Ancient Wonders’ With a Future
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEAN KEEFER

The Museum of Ancient Wonders opens in Cathedral City with replicas of King Tutankhamun artifacts, African masks, and prehistoric fossils.

A modest strip mall at the corner of Highway 111 and Date Palm Drive is an unlikely place for King Tutankhamun’s golden chariot and the skull of a T-Rex, but Alberto Acosta and Joe McCabe are making it work. The Museum of Ancient Wonders, the Coachella Valley’s newest cultural attraction, opened Oct. 26, showing a portion of Acosta’s extensive collection of replicas of Egyptian antiquities and dinosaur fossils, along with artistic recreations of African masks representing 3,500 years of tribal ritual and mysticism.

Skeleton at the ancient cemetery of Ismailia.
Ancient Greek and Roman Cemetery Discovered in Egypt
Credit: ET

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced recently that an ancient Greek and Roman cemetery has been discovered in Ismailia.

According to reports, the cemetery has multiple levels. The upper levels date back to ancient Greek and Roman times, while the lower are from Egypt’s pre-dynastic eras.


Step Pyramid at Saqqara
Egypt Says It’s Unearthed Large Animal Mummy, Likely a Lion

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities says local archeologists have unearthed the mummy of an unusually large animal, most likely a lion or lioness. The ministry said on Monday the mummy was excavated in Saqqara, a town south of Cairo that was a vast necropolis in antiquity and is home to the famed Step Pyramid.

Here's a more comprehensive article from NBC that came with this photo. This mummified lion was found in the tomb on King Tut's wet nurse. The colored scale has been placed next to it for measurement purposes.

P. Chapuis  /  MAFB. Copyright Hypogees

Ahnaten at the Met Trailer

Reviews:

Monday, August 5, 2019

August 5, 2019




Through Gemstones, a Glimpse into Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Photo: Spencer et al. Amara West: Living in Egyptian Nubia , 69

On the second day of fieldwork in Abydos, Egypt, Penn doctoral student Shelby Justl stumbled upon something rare: an inscribed piece of ancient limestone called an ostracon. “You rarely find writing in Egyptian archaeology. Writing is either on papyrus, which decays easily, or on stone that fades over time,” she explains. “I translated the text and determined this was a land-transfer document, a bill of sale of two arouras of land.”



Modern Murals of Ancient Egypt

Murals by Alaa Awad in Luxor near the landing for the water taxis at the tour bus/taxi roundabout. Also, check out his Facebook page.



Tracing the Evolution of Beer in Egypt on International Beer Day
Credit: CBS News

Just over 10 years ago, International Beer Day was inaugurated in Santa Cruz as a day-long celebratory event dedicated to the popular brewed drink. Since, worldwide celebrations have taken place in breweries and pubs across the globe with connoisseurs and thirsty individuals gathering to taste and enjoy their favorite beers on the first Friday of the month of August.

Now we could brush this event aside as simply another one of those countless ‘International Days’ that seem to pop up all the time, were it not for the fun fact that beer has a history that can be traced back to ancient Egypt.

Scientists Hope to Recreate A Slice Of Ancient Egypt by Baking Bread with 5,000-Year-Old Yeast

Specialists are attempting to domesticate 5,000-year-old yeast present in clay pots to make the identical sort of bread that might have been damaged by the Ancient Egyptians.

The weird baking undertaking has been realised thanks to a particular process for extracting ancient yeast from artefacts with out damaging them.

In a related style, researchers additionally assume they might make ancient beer.

Note: Beer and Bread making is a always of interest. Here are a few of the articles I found in the past.





Excellently preserved polychrome limestone statues of the official Nefer were among the surprising finds of 2012 © archive of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Between Prague and Cairo. 100 years of Czech Egyptology
© Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

This year a century will pass since the first lectures in Egyptology, which associate professor František Lexa held at the Charles University in the summer semester of 1919. Czech Egyptology has made giant strides forward since then, and the Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, the only institution of its kind in our country, commemorates the anniversary of this journey by an exhibition organized in cooperation with the Charles University in the exhibition premises of the Karolinum.

The Ba soul existing the tomb on the day of the shadow. Thebes Tomb TT 290. Wikipedia
Birth and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt
The Ba soul existing the tomb on the day of the shadow. Thebes Tomb TT 290. Wikipedia
Birth has always been one the most dangerous periods of human life. In ancient Egypt saving the lives of mother and child during that trial entailed special measures. One was medicine, which was really mostly magic, and the other were religious practices, including prayers to divinities like the Seven Hathors or Isis. But in Egypt, birth was closely paired with death, which was the gateway to rebirth.

Medical papyri, in particular Papyrus Kahun and Papyrus Ebers, or magical ones like Papyrus Berlin 3027, gave a large place to spells and recipes for the protection of mother and child during pregnancy and childbirth. The spells also noted the importance of ensuring human fecundity, one of the pharaoh’s duties towards his people.

Who Were the Mysterious Neolithic People that Enabled the Rise of Ancient Egypt?
Well preserved vs. wind‐eroded remains at Gebel Ramlah. Author provided

To many, ancient Egypt is synonymous with the pharaohs and pyramids of the Dynastic period starting about 3,100BC. Yet long before that, about 9,300-4,000BC, enigmatic Neolithic peoples flourished. Indeed, it was the lifestyles and cultural innovations of these peoples that provided the very foundation for the advanced civilisations to come.

Inside Besix-Orascom's Construction Plan for Grand Egyptian Museum

Located near the internationally famed Giza Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt’s planned Grand Egyptian Museum is set to become one of the largest – if not the biggest – archaeological museum in the world. Devoted entirely to a single civilisation, the museum – currently being built 15km southeast of Cairo – is set to galvanise the global fascination with ancient Egyptian culture.

Tasked with building the project is Belgian construction giant Besix, alongside its 50% owner, Egyptian contracting firm Cairo-based Orascom Construction, which is headed by chief executive officer, Osama Bishai.

Everything We Know About Cairo's New Grand Egyptian Museum
Ramses II at the GEM © Sima Diab

It's been a while since news first broke on Egypt's much anticipated new antiquities museum: the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which will be the largest archeological museum in the world. The opening date has been pushed back over a year, but we have heard (by Presidential decree, no less) that it will definitely happen in early 2020 . If you have visited Cairo’s existing Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, you'll notice a definite leap from the 19th to the 21st century with this opening. Where the old museum has been a storehouse of treasures, the new one is a $1 billion state-of-the-art, glass and concrete display space that leads guests through a journey similar to Howard Carver's when he discovered the Boy King's tomb a century ago. The new location—outside central Cairo, on the Giza plateau on the edge of the Western Desert—looks out at the famous pyramids and adds even more atmosphere.

How the Pyramids Were Built Inspires Engineering Historians
Dog Sleeping on Great Pyramid © Michalea Moore

The Egyptian pyramids, represented most famously by the pyramids at Giza, are perhaps the most enduring and iconic vestige of the ancient Egyptian civilization. How the pyramids were built, however, remains a source of intense speculation among historians, archaeologists and engineers.

The scale and precision of the pyramids demonstrate the Egyptians’ extraordinary skills in mathematics, astronomy, logistics and engineering. Unfortunately, the Egyptians did not devote the same level of effort to documenting their planning and construction processes. Much of what we know about how the pyramids were built, therefore, comes from observations made and artifacts unearthed by archaeologists at Giza and other Egyptian pyramid sites.

Adventurers to Test Ancient Egypt-to-Black Sea Route
Members of the crew assemble the 14-meter long sailing reed boat Abora IV in the town of Beloslav, Bulgaria, on July 25, 2019 (AFP Photo)

Were the ancient Egyptians able to use reed boats to travel as far as the Black Sea thousands of years ago?

A group of adventurers believes so and will try to prove their theory by embarking on a similar journey in reverse.

In mid-August the team of two dozen researchers and volunteers from eight countries will set off from the Bulgarian port of Varna, hoping their Abora IV reed boat will take them the 700 nautical miles through the Bosporus, the Aegean and as far as the island of Crete.

The Slaughter Court in Sety I Temple, Abydos
Abydos Temple © Michalea Moore

On Sunday Mohammed Abu el-Yezid, from the Ministry of Antiquties in Egypt, came to the Essex Egyptology Group to talk about the Slaughter Court in Seti I's temple at Abydos. He is the Egyptologist and site manager for the province of Sohag (which includes Abydos) and he researched the Slaughter Court for his MA from Ain Shams University where he is currently studying for his PhD.

Searching for Smenkhkare

My book, Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt came out in paperback yesterday, and I’m just beginning to think about going back to Egypt looking for ‘missing tombs’ with a fourth group this October. One of the individuals I talk about in Chapter 3 is a little-known pharaoh called Smenkhkare. He (or perhaps she…?) was a pharaoh of the Amarna Period and probably ruled either towards the end of Akhenaten’s reign as a co-regent, or after Akhenaten’s death as his successor (whether immediate or not).





Assassin's Creed Origins - Game vs Real Life Egypt



360° Travel inside the Great Pyramid of Giza - BBC


I took this trek the first time I visited the Great Pyramid. Very few people make it to the burial chamber, because it's a steep climb that you make hunched over for a lot of the climb. Not sure how I did it, but by the time I reached the chamber, I had the greatest respect for the workers who hauled the sarcophagus to the top.

Monday, July 1, 2019

July 1, 2019



Egyptian 4,000-year-old Pyramid Opened to Visitors

Photo taken on June 28, 2019 shows relics unearthed from a tomb dating back to the Middle Kingdom era which is some 500 meters from the pyramid of Senusret II, the Pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty, in Faiyum, Egypt. Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anany inaugurated on Friday the pyramid of Senusret II, the Pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty, marking its opening to visitors for the first time. Known as el-Lahun Pyramid, the royal cemetery dates back to the period between 1897 BC to 1878 BC and is located in Faiyum Governorate, 100 km southwest of the capital Cairo. (Xinhua/Li Yan)

Secrets of Hatshepsut’s Tomb 

An archaeologist reveals evidence hinting at Queen Hatshepsut's alleged affair with a local 3,500 years on in The Nile: Egypt's Great River With Bettany Hughes.

In the Channel 5 documentary, the presenter is taken to a part of the Egyptian pharaoh's temple that's usually off limits.

There, hidden wall carvings offer an intimate insight into the remarkable woman's life and hint at an illicit affair with courtier, Senenmut.

'He seems to be present everywhere,' says Bettany, as she explores the tomb. 'This is Senenmut – not a member of the royal family and yet beautifully depicted all over the Queen of Egypt's temple.'

An Ancient City’s Demise Hints at a Hidden Risk of Sea-Level Rise
ALADIN ABDEL NABY / REUTERS

Sometime in the third century b.c., an earthquake struck the eastern Mediterranean. In Thonis-Heracleion, past its peak but still one of Egypt’s greatest ports, the ground began to shake, and the soil gave way. The city had been built upon low-lying islets, bits of silt and clay left behind from the Nile’s summer floods. Temples would have towered over the city, where each year, priests would form the earthly body of Osiris—the god of the afterlife and rebirth—from gold, barley grain, and river water.

DNA from Mummy's Tomb Reveals Ancient Egyptian Origins of Watermelon
Courtesy of Renner, Perez-Escobar,Silber,Nesbitt,Preick,Hofreiter,Chomicki

Did ancient Egyptian children compete to see who could spit seeds the furthest as they ate watermelons? It seems likely, because thanks to some DNA detective work we now know for sure that the ancient Egyptians ate domesticated watermelons with sweet, red flesh.

Adventures of a Space Archaeologist
A satellite image revealed the houses and streets of Tanis, the capital of ancient Egypt from 1070 to 712 BC.Credit: DigitalGlobe/Maxar via Getty
The ancient city of Tanis was Egypt’s capital for more than 350 years before the centre of power shifted, and the city was eventually lost under centuries of silt. In 1939, archaeologists working there uncovered temples and tombs containing treasures to rival Tutankhamun’s. But Tanis was largely forgotten amid the horrors of the Second World War, until a fictional version featured in Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In one scene, archaeologist Indiana Jones sneaks into a map room in which the entire city is laid out, and discovers that the Nazis seeking the titular ark are digging in the wrong place.

In 2010, space archaeologist Sarah Parcak had her own map-room moment at Tanis.

CBP officers seize ancient Egyptian mummy linen at northern border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Michigan seized five jars of ancient Egyptian mummy linen coming illegally through the northern border last month.

Inspection of a shipment on a Canadian mail truck in Marysville, Michigan on May 25 revealed the illegal antiquities believed to be from between 305 to 30 BCE, CBP said in a news release.

The Best Comics of 2019 So Far

An ancient alligator god. A living building. A doomed architect. The subjects of the best comics released in 2019 so far are an eclectic mix, and these stories highlight the stylistic range of the medium with drastically different visual and narrative perspectives. From poignant graphic memoirs to sensational genre tales, these comic-book series and graphic novels find exciting ways to explore the dynamic between images and text. Whether they are spotlighting forgotten sports stars, pitting assassins against each other, or recounting the pain of adolescent heartbreak, these creators take readers on engrossing journeys with their remarkable craft and passionate artistic visions.

Scroll to near the bottom of the article to read the review of Sobek.

To buy your own copy and see more graphics, click here.
The Real-Life Downton Abbey's Earl Funded The Discovery Of King Tut's Tomb

Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England, is now famous as the shooting location for Downton Abbey, but one of the estate's real-life lords funded the search for Tutankhamen's tomb. George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earrl of Carnarvon, was born on June 26, 1866 and inherited the title and the estate in 1890.

If you found this article intriguing, you might want to check out Highclere's Egyptian Exhibition page.

Egypt Unveils Tomb Still Bursting with Color after 4,300 Years
Photo Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP 

Necropolis filled with ornate paintings discovered south of Cairo thought to have belonged to a Fifth Dynasty nobleman.

In a major archaeological discovery, Egypt on Saturday unveiled the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty official adorned with colorful reliefs and well preserved inscriptions.

The tomb, near Saqqara, a vast necropolis south of Cairo, belongs to a senior official named Khuwy who is believed to have been a nobleman during the Fifth Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt about 4,300 years ago.

How ‘remarkable’ Red Sea find revealed ‘without a doubt’ who built Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built over a period of roughly 20 years, this colossal structure was sanctioned under the ruler of the fourth dynasty – Khufu – who many believe was buried in a tomb inside. Over the years, archaeologists and historians have argued about how a civilisation that existed around 2600BC managed to transport more than two million casing stones needed for the pyramid.

Sisi orders parade for royal mummies transferred to NMEC

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered to stage an international parade for the royal mummies to be transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Fustat, said Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Radi on Sunday.

The Egyptian Museum hosts 150 mummies for acclaimed ancient Egyptian kings like Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, Thutmose II, Ramses I, Ramses II, and Ramses III.

Only 22 mummies (18 for royal kings and 4 for royal queens) and 17 sarcophagi - dating back to dynasties 17, 18,19, and 20 - will be transported to the NMEC, Head of the Egyptian Museum Sabah Abdel-Razeq told media on June 21.

Cool Egyptian Modern Art


Thanks to Jennifer Della Zanna and Symantha Reagor


























Moving a Sphinx (video)


Monday, June 17, 2019

June 17, 2019



Peace in Ancient Egypt

The existence of an ancient treaty is exciting enough. But when that 3,200-year-old treaty was concluded 16 years after the cessation of battle, it demands even greater attention. What did peace mean in that context for the Egyptians? As the result of proper action, it was a value frequently represented in the world of monumental depiction, one that united all beings.

The treaty was concluded by Ramesses II of Egypt and the Hittite king Hattušili III in the 21st year of Ramesses’ reign, which was the 10th year of Hattušili’s reign, corresponding to the mid-thirteenth century BCE. Prior to the settling of the treaty, a major confrontation between Egyptian and Hittite forces had occurred at the infamous battle at Qadesh. There, in the northern Levant, the forces of a young Ramesses II clashed with those of Muwatalli, the brother of Hattušili.

In Vino Veritas: Wine in Ancient Egypt

Wine has always been a drink for gods and people. The noble drink was just like today an important economic good and stimulant and possessed besides a large religious and cultic meaning. Also in the country at the Nile it was already early professionally produced and enjoyed generously. Under the title "In vino veritas. Wein im alten Ägypten", the Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library presents more than 70 fascinating exhibits, up to 3,000 years old, on viticulture and wine enjoyment

Military Buildings at Fortress From Ramses II Reign Discovered

Two more buildings at the site of an ancient Egyptian military fortress dating to the reign of Ramses II have been discovered by archaeologists working in the Beheira Governorate, north west of Cairo.

The two units attached to the fortress and residential building are believed to have been used as storage sheds for food, a statement from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities said. The fortress dates to the 19th Dynasty, between 1279 and 1213 BC.


Digital Giza Project: an online scholar’s gate into Egypt’s ancient history

The Digital Giza project is a portrait of the considerable efforts devoted to Egypt by modern scholars from Harvard and Boston Universities, accessible to archeology explorers and academics who admire Egypt’s ancient history.

In 2000, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston launched the Digital Giza Project when Peter Der Manuelian decided to digitize all the excavations by Egyptologist George Reinser carried out over the course of more than 40 years, the official website of the project read.

Visit Digital Giza.

How do you move a 13-ton Egyptian sphinx?

As the old engineering school saying goes: Every journey of 300 feet begins with months of preparation, acquisition of four air dollies, and use of the right hydraulic gantry.

So it is that the Penn Museum, desiring to move its 13-ton red-granite sphinx from its longtime home in the Lower Egyptian Gallery to a new abode in the museum’s main entrance lobby, turned to Bob Thurlow, special projects manager, to work it all out.

More about this story:

THE BURIED: Life, Death and Revolution in Egypt

October 2011 was a fascinating, if precarious time, for Peter Hessler and his family to set up home in Cairo. Since January of that year, the chaotic events of the Arab Spring had been transforming Egyptian politics and society. Hessler arrived during a lull in proceedings but, before too long, the protests reignited and the rivalries spiralled out of control. The corpses piled up, the shells of burned out BMWs returned, and coups were on the horizon.

Many have written on these dramatic events, but Hessler introduces unexpected prisms of enquiry and the intimate perspective of an endlessly curious observer of Egypt past and present. The tone is set from page one. We are introduced to American archaeologists continuing their work as revolution engulfed the nation: unearthing small bronze statues of Egyptian gods while the crowds grew, not so far away, in Tahrir Square. Before too long, with the archaeologists fled, looters ransacked the dig sights. When the scholars returned, they found cigarette butts and cellophane wrapping strewn around the place.





Amr Bayoumi’s 60-min documentary Where Did Ramses Go? won the best long documentary award at the 21th Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts