Ancient Egypt News 01/27/2020

GEM Receives 356 Artifacts from Tut,Ramses II, Thutmose III, Ptah Treasures

The general supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum Atef Moftah announced that the museum has received a collection of 356 artifacts from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, among which 57 artifacts from the treasures of the Golden King Tutankhamun and 11 pieces will be displayed on the grand staircase.

Director General of the Grand Egyptian Museum for Antiquities affairs Dr. Al-Tayeb Abbas, said that the one of the most important of these artifacts is a statue of god Ptah, whose weights range between 5 and 6 tons, which will be displayed on the grand staircase within another distinguished group of royal statues.

Shocking Truth behind Takabuti’s Death Revealed

Takabuti, the famous ancient Egyptian mummy on display at the Ulster Museum, suffered a violent death from a knife attack, a team of experts from National Museums NI, University of Manchester, Queen’s University Belfast and Kingsbridge Private Hospital have revealed.

The team, whose findings are made public on the 185 year anniversary of Takabuti’s unwrapping in 1835, also show that her DNA is more genetically similar to Europeans rather than modern Egyptian populations.

The team show Takabuti had an extra tooth - 33 instead of 32 - something which only occurs in 0.02% of the population and an extra vertebrae, which only occurs 2% of the population.

Cave Covered in Ancient Egyptian Paintings of Donkeys and People Discovered by Accident
MINISTRY OF TOURISM AND ANTIQUITIES

A chance encounter has led to the discovery of a small sandstone cave in the middle of the Sinai in Egypt. The cave is colorfully decorated with paintings of people and donkeys, some of which date back to 10,000 BCE.

Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities say they have now finished documenting all the the inscriptions, announcing the news via Facebook. According to the ministry, the cave was discovered by chance approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) north from the city St. Catherine and 60 kilometers southeast from the Hathor temple Sarabit el-Khadem following the advice of a "desert adventurer."

The Mummy Speaks! Hear Sounds From the Voice of an Ancient Egyptian Priest
Credit...Leeds Museums and Galleries

In life, Nesyamun was an Egyptian priest who sang and chanted words of worship at the Karnak temple in Thebes. In death, he was ritually mummified and sealed in a coffin with the inscription “Nesyamun, true of voice.” Now, some 3,000 years into the afterlife and with the aid of a 3-D-printed vocal tract, Nesyamun can once again be heard.

“He had this wish that his voice would somehow continue into perpetuity,” said David Howard, a speech scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London.

And you would be remiss not to read the counterpoint to this "discovery." Attempts to Reconstruct a Mummy’s Voice Are Cursed, which makes the argument after a group of British researchers claimed to synthesize the voice of Egyptian priest Nesyamun’s 3,000-year-old remains, it leads to questions about the ethics of Egyptology.

Egyptologists Open Newly-Discovered Pyramid

Ancient Egypt News: Astronomy 01/13/2020

Rain, Rain, Go Away: Dealing with Wastewater and Rain in Ancient Egypt
Photo: H. Köpp-Junk

An efficient drainage system for rain and wastewater is important for every complex society. Even today, water discharge is a central issue in Egypt, especially in the global metropolis Cairo. While irrigation is frequently discussed in Egyptology, dewatering systems are only rarely investigated.

No known depictions or textual sources mention dewatering systems, but there are a variety of archeological finds that elucidate the range, innovation, and high quality of ancient Egyptian engineering skills long before the arrival of Roman water management techniques.

Egyptian methods for dewatering in temples, tombs, and houses are well attested from the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE onward. For example, dewatering systems are used for rain as well as wastewater from bathrooms and kitchens, and there is evidence for these systems in houses, temples, and tombs. Moreover, used water also had to be removed from industrial sites such as those used for dyeing, washhouses, and mummification workshops, since considerable amounts of water were necessary during the embalming process.

Experts Fear Damage to Ancient Egyptian Artifacts en Route to Tahrir Square
Photo ©Michalea Moore 2017

Egypt's recent decision to transport ancient Pharaonic artifacts to a traffic circle in the congested heart of Cairo has fueled fresh controversy over the government's handling of its archaeological heritage.

Cairo has some of the worst air pollution in the world, according to recent studies. Archaeologists and heritage experts fear vehicle exhaust will damage the four ram-headed sphinxes and an obelisk, currently en route to their new home in Tahrir Square.

This Week’s Hubble Image Illustrates an Ancient Egyptian Myth
NASA / ESA / Hubble / I. Karachentsev et al.

This week’s Hubble image shows an elegant spiral galaxy named NGC 4455, located in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair).

This unusually named constellation took its title from an Egyptian queen who ruled from around 250 BC. The Hubble astronomers explained the myth for which the constellation is named: “The story of Queen Berenice II is an interesting one,” the astronomers said. “A ruling queen of the ancient Greek city of Cyrene in modern-day Libya, and later a queen of Ptolemaic Egypt through her marriage to her cousin Ptolemy III Euergetes, Berenice became known for sacrificing locks of her hair as an offering to ensure her husband’s safe return from battle. Her husband did indeed return safely and her hair, which she had left in a Zephyrium temple, had disappeared — it had apparently been stolen and placed among the stars

Tourists Flock to Egypt’s Hatshepsut Temple to Catch Glimpse of Rare Astronomical Phenomenon
Photo ©Michalea Moore 2017

Tourists in Egypt flocked to Queen Hatshepsut Temple on Monday to witness the sun fall perpendicular on the holy shrines of the ancient monument, a unique astronomical phenomenon marking the ancient Egyptian festival of the Goddess Hathor.

A group of Japanese tourists visited the temple, which is located west of Egypt’s Luxor, in order to witness the phenomenon, with dozens of visitors from countries around the world taking photos inside the complex.

Ancient Egypt News: The GEM is Coming 01/06/2020

90 Percent of GEM work is Finished
File - Grand Egyptian Museum

Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that about more than 90 percent of the Grand Egyptian Museum work was finalized. GEM is expected to be inaugurated in the last quarter of 2020.

The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum is one of the main events that Egypt and the whole world is waiting for in 2020.

About 49,603 artifacts were moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum so far.

Salvaging Khufu’s Second Solar Boat
© Khufu Second Boat Project

In the scorching heat of the Giza plateau, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and a team from Waseda University in Japan are engaged in the daunting task of lifting a 4,700-year-old wooden ship from a pit in the ground, just a few meters south of Khufu’s great pyramid.

This is no ordinary excavation; the wooden pieces from the 42-meter-long boat are so delicate that the archaeologists cannot simply remove them from the ground without extensive onsite conservation.

Here's a picture in 2017 I took of the first solar boat at the Solar Boat Museum. If you go to Egypt, plan to visit the museum, which is right outside the Great Pyramid.

© Michalea Moore

Grand Egyptian Museum to Open End of 2020, Ticket Prices Initially Announced
AP Photo/Amr Nabil

The site of the Grand Egyptian Museum. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Egypt’s anticipated national project, the Grand Egyptian Museum, is set to open at the end of 2020, revealed Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El Enany.

Moreover, the museum’s initial ticket pricing for foreigners has been set to 400 EGP ($US 25), 200 EGP for students ($US 12.5) according El Watan and Daily News Egypt.

How Cleopatra Became a Canvas for Society's Anxieties
Wikimedia Commons

Two-thousand years after her death, Cleopatra continues to enthrall us. Earlier this year, the British tabloid The Daily Star reported that a new movie about this last Pharaoh of Egypt was in the works. According to an anonymous source, the movie will be "a dirty, bloody, political thriller told from a feminist perspective," as opposed to the movie Cleopatra of 1963 starring Elizabeth Taylor, which had been a historical epic.

An Afterlife So Perilous, You Needed a Guidebook
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images

Archaeologists unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old “Book of Two Ways” — a guide to the Egyptian underworld, and the earliest copy of the first illustrated book.

When it comes to difficult travel, no journey outside New York City’s subway system rivals the ones described in “The Book of Two Ways,” a mystical road map to the ancient Egyptian afterlife.

This users’ guide, a precursor to the corpus of Egyptian funerary texts known as “The Book of the Dead,” depicted two zigzagging paths by which, scholars long ago concluded, the soul, having left the body of the departed, could navigate the spiritual obstacle course of the Underworld and reach Rostau — the realm of Osiris, the god of death, who was himself dead. If you were lucky enough to get the go-ahead from Osiris’ divine tribunal, you would become an immortal god.

Egypt Amazes the World with 2019 Archaeological Discoveries 

Over the last two years, a large number of new discoveries in Egypt have grabbed the world’s attention. Egypt Today Magazine will provide its readers with a capsule of all the discoveries that occurred in 2019.





Bees!

This is from The Tears of Re, Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt by Gene Kritsky.

New Year's Eve 2019

Ancient Egypt News 12/24/2019

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Egypt's History of Humanity' Monuments Face Climate Change Threat
Ceiling at Karnak  © Michalea Moore 2017

It’s a steamy November day in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, and the tourists tramping through the ancient temples of Luxor and Karnak are sweating. But the city’s famed 7,000-year-old antiquities are feeling the heat too.

Increasingly high temperatures linked to climate change, as well as wilder weather, particularly heavy rains and flooding, are taking a growing toll on the ancient stonework, said Abdelhakim Elbadry, a restoration expert who works at Karnak temple.

Old Kingdom Tomb
Courtesy Mohamed Megahed

During investigation of the funerary complex of the 5th Dynasty pharaoh Djedkare Isesi (r. ca. 2381–2353 B.C.), a team from the Czech Institute of Egyptology discovered the painted tomb of a high-ranking Old Kingdom Egyptian dignitary. After descending a narrow subterranean tunnel that opened up into a series of rooms, members of the team, led by archaeologist Mohamed Megahed, found hieroglyphs on the walls announcing that a man named Khuwy was entombed within the chamber. The writing also enumerates Khuwy’s many titles, including “Secretary of the King,” “Companion of the Royal House,” and “Overseer of the Tenants of the Great House.”

A Granodiorite Colossus of Horus Unearthed in Egypt's Luxor

During excavations carried out at the Funerary Temple of king Amenhotep III, an Egyptian-German archaeological mission led by Horig Sourouzian unearthed a large part of a granodiorite colossus of a standing falcon-headed god Horus.

Sourouzian said the statue is missing the legs, and the arms are broken, but the head and torso are very well preserved.

The 1.85-metres-tall statue depicts the ancient Egyptian deity Horus wearing the divine pleated kilt held around the waist with a horizontally pleated belt.

Hunting for Hieroglyphs at Philae
Photo: Nile Scribes

In October, the Nile Scribes led their first tour to Egypt, stopping in Aswan, Luxor, and Cairo. Agilika Island, located in the river at Aswan, is now the home of Philae Temple. It was moved there in the 1960s, piece by piece, from neighbouring Philae Island, now underwater. The island is a regular spot for visitors to southern Egypt thanks to its gorgeous setting in the Nile, but we were anxious to visit the temple complex for another reason: hieroglyph hunting. Philae contains the last known instances of inscriptions that were written using both the hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts. This week we are introducing our readers to both inscriptions, and showing you how you can see them for yourself on your next visit to Philae.

Anubis Was Ancient Egypt's Jackal-headed Guard Dog of the Dead
DRE/FLICKR (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Death isn't exactly a comfortable topic of conversation in our modern culture. But in countless societies around the world and throughout time, death has been openly discussed, revered and even celebrated. Ancient Egypt is no exception — case in point, the deity Anubis, otherwise known as Inpu or Anpu, aka the god of death.

"Anubis is the Egyptian god of mummification, and one of the many deities related with the afterlife," says M. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro, Ph.D. candidate in Egyptology at Brown University. "He is usually depicted as either some sort of canid, or as a cynocephalus god."

The Story of That Famous Female Physician From Ancient Egypt Is Actually Wrong
Stzeman/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

NOTE: Don't despair. Read the end of the article. Peseshet  is a genuine hero of the modern feminist struggle.

Merit Ptah. In recent decades, the name of this ancient Egyptian doctor, said to have lived nearly 5,000 years ago, has become a figurehead of women in science, technology, maths, and engineering (STEM).

She is credited as being the "first woman known by name in the history of science". But there's a bit of a problem - Merit Ptah probably didn't exist. Not as described, at any rate.

‘Egypt is not Just Pyramids and Mummies’

Egyptologist Lara Weiss is curator at The National Museum of Antiquities and has been leading the VIDI research project ‘Walking Dead’ since 2017. The exhibition ‘Sakkara: Living in a necropolis’h will be on display at the museum starting March 9 next year.

Why Nikola Tesla was Obsessed with the Egyptian Pyramids
Mstyslav Chernov/Wikimedia

Nikola Tesla died somewhat unappreciated but his fame and the myth around him has continued to grow tremendously into our times. He is now perceived as the ultimate mad scientist, the one who essentially invented our times, credited with key ideas leading to smartphones, wi-fi, AC electrical supply system, and more.

Besides ideas that Tesla implemented and patented, he also had many other interests in different fields of research, some quite esoteric. One of the most unusual was his preoccupation with Egyptian pyramids, one of humanity's most mysterious and magnificent constructions.

Ancient Egypt News 12/16/2019

Sun to Illuminate Egypt’s Ancient Karnak Temple Dec. 21

Crowds of tourists and Egyptians are expected to flock to Luxor on December 21 to witness the magnificent phenomenon of the sun aligning on the Temple of Amun inside the 4,000-year-old Karnak Temple.

The annual two-hour event, starts at 6 a.m., will mark the first day of winter, as per the outstanding progressive knowledge of the ancient Egyptian.

Every year, attendees come to watch the sunlight as it falls perfectly perpendicular on the sanctuary of Amun Ra’a at the center of the temple; the sunrays then move towards the temple’s gates to reach Hatshepsut's ancient temple.

Royal Sphinx Statue Discovered in Egypt's Minya
Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities/Handout via Xinhua

An Egyptian archaeological mission uncovered on Saturday a small royal statue of a Sphinx during excavation in Minya province, south of the capital Cairo, the country's Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement.

"The statue is made of limestone with 35 cm in height and 55 cm in length," said Gamal el-Samastawy, director general of the Antiquities of Middle Egypt, a department of the ministry.

"The clear and beautiful features and details of the statue mirrored the skillfulness of the ancient Egyptian sculptor," he added.

Scientists Have Determined A Woman's Profession In Ancient Egypt Through Examining Her Mummified Remains

By analysing the dentistry of a woman who lived in Ancient Egypt, archaeologists have made a surprising discovery: her unusual profession. A video provides all the details...

With this incredible discovery, archaeologists have gone from surprise to surprise. A short time ago, a team of scientists from the University of Alberta, in Canada, analysed the teeth of a woman who lived 4000 years ago, in Ancient Egypt. From this study, they learnt a lot more than they expected.

More Astonishing Artifacts Transferred to GEM

On Dec. 9, the Grand Egyptian Museum received 309 artifacts dating back to different eras. Among them were 64 heavy artifacts transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

The artifacts were transferred amid the tight security measures of the Tourism and Antiquities Police and the Security Forces. General Supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum Atef Moftah stated that some of the transferred artifacts will be placed on the Great Staircase, while other artifacts will be exhibited in different halls of the museum according to their era.

Visitors Marvel as Sun Alignment Illuminates the Temple of Hatshepsut

Archaeologists and astronomers visited on Monday the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor’s Qurna mountain to witness a sun alignment on the temple’s inner sanctum, lighting up an image of the sun god Amun-Ra inscribed in the form of a winged sun disk.

The sun alignment phenomenon takes place every year on occasion of the ancient Egyptians celebrations of the feast of the god Horus, an example of their greatness in the field of astronomy.

Ancient Artifacts Found at Cairo's Heliopolis Temple
Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities

Ahram Online reports that a mudbrick wall dating to the New Kingdom period, blocks from colossal royal statues dating to the Middle Kingdom period, and Old Kingdom moulds for the manufacture of faience amulets and capital fragments of palm columns have been uncovered at the Heliopolis Temple site, which is located in the Matariya area of northern Cairo. “It came as a surprise that these layers directly overlay a stratum of the prehistoric settlement of Heliopolis,” said Aymen Ashmawi of the Egyptian Antiquities Department.

These Mysterious Egyptian Head Cones Actually Existed, Grave Find Reveals
AMARNA PROJECT

Look closely at paintings of ancient Egyptians and you might spot something strange: cones the size of a coffee cup sitting atop some of their heads. The objects have long baffled archaeologists, many of whom have wondered whether they were merely a symbol. Now, a new study finds these “head cones” were indeed real: Researchers have recovered two of the curious accoutrements in burials dating back 3300 years.

Archaeologists made the discoveries at Akhetaten, one of ancient Egypt’s most unusual cities. The site was occupied for no more than about 15 years during the 14th century B.C.E. while Egypt was under the rule of the pharaoh who gave the location its name, Akhenaten. He developed a short-lived (and, in the eyes of later pharaohs, heretical) religious system focused on the worship of a single god, represented by the Sun. He may also have been Tutankhamun’s father.

• Head Cones in Ancient Egyptian Graves Cap Archaeological Debate
• The First Evidence of 'Head Cones' Found in 3300-Year-Old Egyptian Tom

Egypt Unearths Rare Ka Statue of King Ramesses II

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Wednesday, 11 December 2019, that it has discovered a rare statue of King Ramesses II during excavations near Giza Pyramids west of Cairo.


In a statement, the ministry said that the statue was unearthed during excavation works the ministry’s teams started last week inside a piece of land owned by a citizen near the great temple of Ptah in at Mit Rahina (Memphis).

• Rare pink statue of Ancient Egyptian king unearthed near pyramids of Giza
• Rare Pink Statue of Ancient Egypt's King Ramses II With 'Ka' Symbol Unearthed

Akhnaten Lego Opera

Ancient Egypt News 12/09/2019

New Discoveries in Egyptology (September-October 2019)
Photo: Ministry of Antiquities

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.

Ancient Tattoos Depicting ‘Magical’ Animals and Gods Found on Female Egyptian Mummies
Credit: ANNE AUSTIN / UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

TATTOOS depicting animals, gods and floral patterns have been found "hidden" on 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummies.

The ancient body art, found on seven female mummies, may help shed light on why the Egyptians got inked.

Prior to the new discovery, tattoos had only been found on six mummies over more than a century of research at ancient sites in Egypt.

"When I first saw [the tattoos], I felt both the thrill of discovery and the magic of this new technology," archaeologist Dr Anne Austin told Fox News.

Site Of Ancient Egypt's Sun Cult Reveals Royal Statues, Mud Wall And Block Of King Ramses II
EGYPT'S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of royal statues and a block depicting King Ramses II, as well as a section of a wall made of mud bricks at the Heliopolis temple in Cairo, Egypt—the site of ancient Egypt's mysterious sun cult.

The Ministry of Antiquities announced the discoveries made during the thirteenth season of a joint mission by German and Egyptian archaeologists—the Heliopolis Project—on the department's Facebook page.

Discovery Channel to Produce Promo Films on Grand Egyptian Museum

Discovery Channel will produce three promotional films about the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which is scheduled to open in 2020, the Ministry of Tourism said on Sunday.

These films are part of the partnership established by the Tourism Ministry with Discovery announced in September, the ministry said in a statement.