Seti I Before Hathor (B7)

This week, from the birthplace of Egyptology, the zenith of Pharaonic art…

 

Lintel of Ahmose I From Armant – British Museum Cat. EA 1708

First video in the aforementioned series, focusing on the lintel of Ahmose I from the temple of Montu at Armant, Upper Egypt. Now in the British Museum, displayed in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery. Cat.  No.: EA 1708

PS: For more light-hearted amongst you, look carefully at the pyramid in the intro logo

 

Dig Days – Hallucinations

From El Ahram Weekly -Link to complete article

By Zahi Hawass

These days it would seem that most of my time is spent denying rumours about the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and Egypt’s Pharaonic, Coptic, and Islamic monuments. I do not know why some people create this misinformation and give it to newspaper reporters to publish without them even trying to find out the veracity of the statement. Most of the things published in a small number of newspapers are not true at all. It is quite amazing to my mind how they make up these stories. I once gave a talk at the Smithsonian Institute about the Sphinx. There was a reporter there from The Washington Post listening to the lecture. After the lecture, he came to me saying that he was very interested in what I had said about the Sphinx but that he would first like to read all the written information about the monument and then he could come and talk to me. I respected this man very much. This is how news reporters should do their jobs.

A few weeks ago, we decided to move the pillar of Merenptah, the son of Ramses II, who ruled Egypt during his father’s old age. He was a very important king because we found a stela in his mortuary temple on the West Bank, reused in the Temple of Amenhotep III, of which only the Colossi of Memnon remains standing today. The stela of Merenptah has an inscription about the people of Israel. Many scholars tried to describe and translate this inscription. We must stress the fact that a poet wrote this inscription concerning the reign of Merenptah, his king. The most important passage of this inscription emphasises the greatness of the Pharaoh making peace with the Hittites, and states that the people of Israel were no longer in Egypt. Some translations even go as far as to say that they were destroyed. Since its discovery, the stela has been stored in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The pillar of Merenptah at Heliopolis was part of a temple built by this Pharaoh dedicated to the local sun god. While performing an inspection at Heliopolis, I saw this pillar between some houses. It was surrounded by water and garbage was everywhere. The inscription written on the pillar only tells us the nsw-bity (Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt) name of the Pharaoh…

For clarification the stela article is referring tois the Poetical Stela of Merenptah (a.k.a. the “Isreal Stela”). The Stela is carved on both sides, the reverse originally being used by Amunhotep III (18th Dyn) and was installed in his mortuary temple. It was later re-used by Merenptah (19th Dyn) when it was carved on the opposite side with a poem celebrating his victories over various peoples in Libya and Asia. The people of Israel are mentioned towards the end of the inscription, the last part of which is given below:

“…The princes are prostrate saying: ‘Shalom!’
Not one of the Nine Bows lifts his head:
Tjehenu is vanquished, Khatti at peace,
Canaan is captive with all woe.
Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized,
Yanoam made nonexistent;
Israel is wasted, bare of seed,
Khor is become a widow for Egypt.
All who roamed have been subdued
By the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Banera-Meramun
Son of Ra, Merenptah, Content-with-ma’at
Given life, like Ra, every day.”

Excerpt from Cairo Museum 34025. Translation from Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol II, M. Lichtheim, University of California press.

 

Travelogue : Ramesseum

Febuary 2008, Luxor

Today was a chance to revisit one of my favourite of all sites in Egypt, the Ramesseum. It is the perfect site for first time independent travellers to Egypt, since it is an easy site to navigate, and being built all at one point by a single ruler, easy to comprehend, and doable in a single visit, as well as being reasonably easy to get to.

The Ramesseum is an oasis of calm. More than any other place on the West Bank, it gives the impression of being a true mortuary temple, a memorial. The minute you turn off the road and pass the tiny ticket collection booth you forget about the world outside. It’s location at the edge of the fertile strip is both a blessing and a curse. A few trees grow here, providing colour, shade and life.

The House of Millions of Years of User-Ma’at-Ra Setep-En-Ra That Unites with Thebes in the Domain of Amun (or, “The Ramesseum” as it’s, thankfully, also known) has, by Egyptian standards, a relatively simple history. Built by Ramesses II in the 19th Dynasty (New Kingdom) as his mortuary temple and monument, the remains of today give only a hint of the splendour of the original. The temple was begun in the 2nd year of his reign, and took two decades to complete. The architects were Penra of Coptos (modern Qift, Egyptian Gebtu) and Amunemone of Abydos (Egyptian, Abdju). It was a splendid monument that matched it’s splendid name. Hard though it is to imagine, this quiet, secluded “backwater” temple would have been one of the grandest on the West bank. Only Medinet Habu (not yet built at this point) and Amunhotep III’s now sadly destroyed temple would rival it.

However, just like Amunhotep III’s temple, the Ramesseum’s life as a working temple would be sadly brief. By the Third Intermediate Period the temple cult, it seems, was no longer maintained, and the magazines were being used as a necropolis, and several burials of the priesthood have, and continue to be, discovered here.

During the Ptolemaic Period, stone and columns were plundered from the temple to build additions to the Small Temple at Medinet Habu, and in the 1st century CE the heart of the temple itself was converted into a Christian church. The Christians attacked many of the surviving wall carvings, hacking out some details, and adding carved graffiti, an act which would be repeated on numerous occasions by later explorers, whose names are now visible, particularly on the rear surviving wall of the Hypostyle hall. During the Roman/Byzantine period, an earthquake struck the Theban area, causing further destruction when, amongst other catastrophes, the colossal statues of Ramesses fell, destroying the second pylon as it did so, and breaking into the “shattered visage” beloved of Shelley. The temple’s subsequent history, following it’s final abandonment is summed up well by Richard Wilkinson.

“For centuries thereafter the Ramesseum remain a cluttered, broken and puzzling – if romantic – ruin, as impressive for the incredible destruction wrought upon it as for it’s surviving monuments”

Today, only limited reconstruction has been undertaken at the site, and it retains it’s broken and puzzling, if romantic air, especially given that relatively few visitors come or linger here, hurried past it’s tranquil ruins by tour guides to the spectacular setting of Dier El Bahri and elsewhere.

The damaged nature of the site, and the poorly designed modern approach from the North Eastern corner of the complex does nothing to dent it’s wonderful atmosphere . The solitude the site offers, the beauty of it’s surroundings and the temple itself all contribute to one of the most pleasant experiences one can have in Egypt.

Many people, not least Shelley himself, who wrote of this very place, find Egyptian temples overwhelming. Vast edifices, designed, in their eyes, to instil awe, fear and terror of the living gods who built them, into the hearts of lesser beings, the “sneer of cold command” reaching out from every statue. Shelley, however, never visited the Ramesseum. Indeed, he never visited Egypt at all. Had he done so, perhaps he would have found a place rather more like the one I have, a world away from the trunkless legs of stone that he imagined.

I have always found, from my childhood to the present day, Egyptian temples to some of the most welcoming structures. Entering the Ramsseum leaves one with a feeling of being welcomed home by a loving relative after a long trip. A place not of ecstatic joy, but of a reassuring warmth, welcome, tranquility and relaxation. It is everything one could ask for and want in any religious building.

And what of that famous colossus? It still lies where it fell so many centuries ago, the face, larger than my person, beautifully carved in granite, with serene, confident, gently smiling features. With the notable exception of the Middle Kingdom rulers, the Pharaoh’s of Egypt are invariably portrayed with that supreme confidence in their own quasi-divinity and gentle smile, even when smiting a horde of Nubians/Libyans/Sea People/Asiatics/Bedouin.

Modern visitors to the Ramesseum enter the site from it’s North Eastern corner, past a small wooden ticket collection and security kiosk, and down a sloping path past the ongoing excavations of Amunhotep II’s mortuary temple (no standing remains, no access permitted), entering into the temple proper at the ruined first courtyard. Like so many temples, this is a less than ideal approach, for the full impact of approaching up to, and then through the pylon is lost.

The pylon itself is missed by most of the relatively few visitors the temple does receive, for it lies across uneven, salty ground with small yet very spiky grasses. However a visit is recommended, both to appreciate some of the battle scenes (Kadesh, naturally) depicted on it’s western (inner) face and also it’s precarious position. As even a brief glance at the ground will quickly reveal, salt corrosion and the water table are both serious enemies which the temple faces. Large holes and pits can be seen at the foot of the pylon, damp and sometimes even part filled with water, further rotting it’s already damaged foundations. The pylon itself is visibly leaning and skewed (having already survived the major earthquake that shattered the colossi) and the doorway has now been (rather crudely) blocked up, assumeably to prevent it’s collapse.

Across the courtyard are the ground level remains of the southern wall and a part of the palace that once adjoined the temple, and was fronted by a columned portico of which only the bases now remain. On the northern side, beside the entrance path are some stored carved blocks, with some amusing and well executed details of processions and the like. The lack of any surviving paving in the courtyard, and the lonely nature of the pylon leave one with the feeling of the area having always been open, though it was originally enclosed by the Pylon on the east, porticos on the north and south, and a second pylon, fronted by the colossus, in the west.

The western side of the courtyard is the instant draw for most visitors, dominated by the fallen colossus that now straddles the mostly destroyed second pylon. In the scrub and grass around the fallen statue lie feet, hands and various parts and inscriptions, which allow you to get a close up view of the incredible finish of the work. The scale of this project really begins to hit home, and one cannot help but be humbled by the skill of the craftsmen who worked on it, giving such fine finish to a piece so large, and the engineers and overseers who had it transported so far, an installed.

The statue “Ramesses, Sun of Foreign Sovereigns” was made from a single piece of Aswan limestone was almost 70 feet high and weighed over one thousand tons. Like all Egyptian statues, it would have moved to and from a barge via sledges hauled by men. That they all pulled together in the same direction, both figuratively and literally, was quite important.

Originally a twin statue was intended for the north side of the court, though there is no evidence to suggest it was ever installed. Perhaps, for once, the ambitions of the architects exceeded their abilities, and the logistics involved in quarrying and transporting the first one all the way from Aswan were so prohibitive as to make giving it the proposed twin unviable. Time is unlikely to have been the issue, as the complex was finished less than half way into Ramesses’ reign. The colossi it seems, may have shown the Egyptians just how far they could push the bounds of bronze age logistics, even with the most superb organisation and skill. Although never receiving it’s twin, it was flanked to the other side by a statue of Ramesses’ mother, Tuya, and a subsidiary temple existed in the complex dedicated to her and his wife, Nefertari.

A flight of wooden steps leads past the fallen statue (giving a good view as they do so) and through the ruined second pylon into the second court. This feels much more like a surviving temple court, and it’s quite possible to imagine it as the enclosed courtyard it once was. In the North Eastern corner a substantial part of the colonnade remains, with a wonderful scene of the Battle of Kadesh, fairly well preserved and, with an appropriate explanation, quite easy to understand. The colonnade is fronted by Osiride statues, whose vast proportions are disguised by being proportionate to the structure as a whole.

There are two objects of particular beauty in this courtyard. The first, and perhaps one of the most photographed features of the Ramesseum, even more so than the colossos, is the beautifully head of a statue of Ramesses II, displayed where it fell, on a small plinth. The second is a reconstructed basalt feature which has a lovely traditional carving of the Pharaoh. Both depict him with the Nemes headdress, and both are subtly and finely carved in hard, beautifully finished stone, with attention to quality that it is often said is lacking in works ordered by Ramesses II. The Ramesseum, though perhaps in keeping with it’s creators taste for large scale monuments, does, however, tantalise in it’s remains, for it is clear that this was fully intended to be the crowning glory in Ramesses’ architectural legacy, and here quality appears to have been considered every bit as important as quantity.

The Western side of the second court has another surviving colonnade (again with Osiride statues), leading through into a hypostyle hall that gives the impression of a miniature Karnak. Like it’s more famous big brother, most of the roofing blocks have gone, leaving a procession of massive columns, mostly open to the sky, though here the Northern and Southern walls are also missing, giving the impression of a broad corridor rather than the hall it originally was. The Eastern wall features another battle scene, this one with a high degree of realism. Rather than the usual effortless smiting of the vile Asiatics, here we can see a real battle, with Egyptian soldiers shown fighting, and fighting hard, defending themselves against enemy onslaughts with their shields, and even taking casualties, whilst Ramesses charges the enemy in his chariot.

The Western wall features a procession of Ramesses’ sons, with their side-locks of youth. Sadly this scene is quite damaged, unlike the battle scene, though both lack the beautiful colours which are retained to a surprising degree on the columns. Despite the bird droppings and their exposure to the sun, many shades of reds, greens and blues can be seen, particularly around the capitals. It really is a most pleasant and unexpected surprise.

Beyond the Hypostyle hall is a smaller room with an intact roof which contains a 12 month calendar. It is believed to be something of a first, though, frustratingly, I have been unable to find any details concerning it, so am unable to provide any information as to exactly what makes it a first, or how to interpret it. Taking time to try and interpret it oneself is also difficult due to it’s height, and it’s position on the roof. Short of lying on the floor with a pair of opera binoculars, it is not the easiest carving to study in detail! Maybe next year I shall do just that, for I am determined to write about such a significant scene in my most beloved temple.

Beyond this bring you to the Western side of the last standing wall of the temple proper, the back of which (now open, originally a further chamber) contains scenes of a pilgrimage to Abydos and Ramesses before various deities, including Ra-Horakhty, to whom Ramesses dedicated several temples in Nubia. Although little colour remains in these scenes, the quality of the carving is good, and in the late afternoon in particular, as the sun allows shadows to return, the scenes are vivid and clear. Indeed, the late afternoon is perhaps the most beautiful time of all at this temple, and it is a lovely place to watch colour return after the bleaching sunshine of midday. In winter, it’s a lovely place to catch a sunset too, though sadly the temple closes too early to be able to spend a long, warm summer evening here.

This completes the most accessible of the standing remains of the temple. Beyond, to the North West lies the extensive and uniquely well preserved remains of the mud brick magazines, which with the barrel vaulted construction do a lot to dismiss the myth the common misconception that the arch was a Roman invention, and it’s use in Egypt goes back at least to the 3rd Dynasty.

The temple has one of the most pleasing, tranquil and reassuring atmospheres of any Egyptian site. Although it’s remains are often noted for the degree of destruction wrought upon them, it is still easy to loose oneself in the quiet shade of remains of the hypostyle hall, take in the beauty of the surroundings from the second peristyle court and relive the Battle of Kadesh upon it’s walls. As such it deserves far more time than the half or single hour devoted to it by the groups that make it this far, especially given the delightful Ramesseum Resthouse that lies next door, with it’s lush gardens and polite, quiet staff. Indeed, for those who dedicate a quiet day or half day to the site, it’s often possible, if you speak kindly to the site guards, to leave the temple to visit the resthouse, and then return on the same ticket. The owner of the resthouse is the grandson of one of the workers in Howard Carter’s team that excavated the tomb of Tutankhamun, and has a good number of photos of the personalities involved in the excavation, and some of the finds.

Overall, the Ramesseum is one of my favourite sites in all Egypt, for it’s beauty, tranquillity, welcoming, calm atmosphere. And, perhaps most of all, because it so defies the unfair and unkind words levied against it and it’s creator by a certain British poet.

Ramesseum Practicalities:
Access: Easily accessible from Luxor via the National Ferry (LE1). From here walk to the main road out of town and hail a bus (25pt flat fare) heading to the SCA Ticket Office, where you can purchase tickets. From here either walk (approx. 15 to 20 min, fine in winter, but not summer as there is no shade or shelter on the road) or take another bus, again 25pt., heading toward Gurna Ta’rif. The Ramesseum is on the right hand side of the road, along with the Ramesseum Resthouse, opposite the surviving core of Old Gurna. Note that you MUST go to the ticket office first, as no tickets are sold at the site entrance. A taxi from the ferry should cost no more than LE10, and can be arranged for a one way trip, as there are many taxis plying the road outside the temple, so getting stranded is extremely unlikely. Prices given are for March 2008.

Tickets: From the SCA ticket office, LE25 for foreign non-student adults. If you wish to go tot he resthouse, speak to the staff at the ticket barrier, as it’s usually possible ot arrange with them to be allowed re-entry. Bring pens, small notes, or something similar.

Opening Hours: 7:00am – 5:00pm (6:00pm in summer)

Facilities: None at all on site. Next door Ramesseum Resthouse has full range of drinks and a selection of (mostly light) meals for reasonable prices. As such, it’s only really necessary to bring water.

Photography: No restrictions on private photography.

 

Bodies found in the tomb of ‘boy king’ Tutankhamun’s tomb are twin daughters

From The Times (London) – Full article

By Aditi Khanna

Two foetuses found buried with Tutankhamun may have been his twin daughters, an expert has claimed.

Professor Robert Connolly, an anatomist who is working with Egyptian authorities to analyse the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh, says that preliminary tests on the mummified remains of the two still-born babies indicate that Tutankhamun may have fathered them both. He will present the new findings at the Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt Conference at the University of Manchester today.

Professor Connolly, who first studied the remains of Tutankhamun in the Sixties, said: “The two foetuses in the tomb of Tutankhamun could be twins, despite their very different size and thus fit better as a single pregnancy for his young wife [Ankhesenamun]. This increases the likelihood of them being Tutankhamun’s children.”

“I studied one of the mummies, the larger one, back in 1979, determined the blood group data from this baby mummy and compared it with my 1969 blood grouping of Tutankhamun. The results confirmed that this larger foetus could indeed be the daughter of Tutankhamun.

“Now we believe that they are twins and they were both his children.”

Professor Connolly, a physical anthropologist at the University of Liverpool, said: “It is a very exciting finding which will not only paint a more detailed picture of this famous young king’s life and death, it will also tell us more about his lineage.”

The  complete results of the  tests are expected in December.  Otherwise I don’t feel there is much to add here besides what I have already written on this subject. I do not feel that these tests are ethically sound. They trouble me greatly.

 

Rest in Peace, Seti

From Al-Ahram weekly, by Nevine El Aref, concerning the temple of Seti I at Abydos:

…Over the decades, however, spontaneous urban and agricultural development around Abydos has affected the monuments. The city’s inhabitants have encroached on the area in the vicinity of Seti I’s temple. Some have cultivated the triangle in front of temple, leading to the leakage of drainage water into the temple, while others have constructed residential mud-brick and concrete houses around the temple walls and along the road leading to Ramses II’s temple, which in its turn affects the scenery of the whole site.

The Cairo-Aswan highway was another threat to the archaeological site. The highway, a the mega-project for the government, was meant to strengthen domestic transport routes as a way of promoting tourism and boosting trade between the governorates; it was the ground of a major debate between three ministries: housing, agriculture and culture. The controversy was sparked when construction began on the section of the road linking Assiut to Aswan. Archaeologists from the SCA argued that the road would cause irrevocable damage to the major archaeological sites at Abydos, the primary pilgrimage destination for ancient Egyptians, through which it runs. According to Sabri Abdel-Aziz, who heads the SCA’s Ancient Egypt Department, the Temple of Osiris, the royal cemetery of the first and second dynasties, the ramp of Senusert III’s chapel and his funerary complex, as well as the ramp of Ahmos’s Pyramid, and the famous Seti I Temple with its list of Egypt’s ancient kings and queens, would all be in danger of destruction.

As a result, two committees — comprising representatives from the ministries of culture, housing and agriculture, as well as Sohag governorate and transport authorities — inspected the section of the road in question in an attempt to revise the route and reach a compromise.

Four suggestions were made. The first proposed detouring the route towards the agricultural land east of the archaeological site, thereby destroying 65 feddans of Sohag’s most fertile land. The second would link the road via the desert behind the Abydos mountains at an additional cost of LE150 million.

The remaining two suggestions involved paving the area parallel to the Qasr canal, resulting in a 25-kilometre longer route that could end up necessitating the demolition of a number of rural houses, and, finally, an alternate route through an agricultural area, as well as an archaeological zone which must first be excavated prior to construction.

During the debate, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said his ministry would not stand in the way of development projects meant to benefit the general public. However, he also said, the ministry was very serious about preventing the destruction of monuments. He said no new construction would be taking place until the newly-organised ministerial committee made its final decision. For his part, SCA Secretary- General Zahi Hawass suggested that the SCA was perfectly willing to help construct the proposed detours if that meant preserving Egypt’s heritage.

After several meetings and inspection tours, the controversial parties agreed on the rerouting of the road and that the LE15 million which would be used for recompensing the residents would be provided by the three ministries concerned — each would pay LE5 million. So far the SCA has paid three million, and when the construction of the new houses starts it will pay the rest.

The problem of water in Abydos is becoming serious. Abdel-Aziz told Al-Ahram Weekly that he counted three direct causes; namely the cultivation around the temple zone, the lack of a proper drainage system in the shanty housing areas near both temples, and the heightened level of the Nile in July and August, which in its turn augmented the level of water inside the Osirian.

Now, he continued, in collaboration with the Subterranean Water Research Centre and the Tarek Wali engineering bureau, the SCA was carrying out a comprehensive project to reduce the rate of subterranean water inside the Osirian. The triangle cultivated in front of the Seti I Temple had also been removed in an attempt to return it to its original feature.

“Abydos is archaeologically rich, and even more important historically than Giza and Luxor,” Hawass said. “It was also a sacred pilgrimage site for Osiris, and almost every king in Ancient Egypt built a cenotaph or a chapel dedicated to the god of the afterlife.” He said an LE20 million development project was now under implementation in order to end the problems Abydos is suffering from and to develop the whole site in a way that matches its archaeological and historical importance. According to the project, which will be implemented over the next six years, Abydos will regain its original scenic position.

In an attempt to protect the archaeological site of Abydos from any further encroachment, a wall will surround it and the 92 houses located along the road between both temples will be demolished. Residents will be moved to other houses now under construction by the Ministry of Housing in a nearby area after it has been archaeologically investigated. A high-tech visitor centre will be set up un front of the temple of Seti I, replacing the cultivated triangle, along with a cafeteria and a bookshop. “A sound and light show for the archaeological sites of Abydos is now under study as another tourist attraction,” Hawass says.

That the original route for the highway was even considered is quite incredible. Abydos is perhaps the single most important religious site in Pharaonic culture. While it may lank the monumental splendour of Karnak or Giza, it’s religious prominence dates back to the very foundations of Egyptian culture. The Pharaohs of the very earliest dynasties were buried here. Djoser’s pyramid is the world’s first monumental all-stone structure, but Khasekhemwy was showing the way, with a truly monumental mastaba with it’s stone burial chamber, in Abydos.

One and half millenia later Abydos was the site of the last royal cenotaph to use the pyramid as an architectural form, for the founder of the New Kingdom, and re-unifier of Egypt, Ahmose I. In the 19th dynasty the city would be graced with the finest artwork that Pharaonic civilization would produce in a history spanning 3,000 years.

The archaeology of this site is hard to over-estimate. Whole swathes of Egyptian history have been made available to us by finds there. Without Abydos, it’s not an exaggeration to say that our knowledge of Egyptian history, especially of the Early Dynastic period, would be in tatters. Perhaps nothing sums up the place better than the king list to which it gave it’s name.

So it is with a sigh of absolute relief that I discover the Ministry of Culture (of which the SCA forms a part), and the ministries of housing, agriculture, and the transport authorities have finally reached an agreement not to build a massive highway right through it all.

The future plans for the site are very exciting, now that the “sword of Damocles” no longer hangs over it. The chance to clear some of the houses that crowd the area provide a great opportunity for further study, as well as safeguarding the site from water and sewerage. As at so many sites, water is a key issue at Abydos, as the sad state of the Osirion dramatically shows. The conversion of the “triangle” from agricultural to touristic use will no doubt also be of benefit here. The wall, meanwhile should hopefully “lock in” these benefits and help prevent any future encroachment back onto the site by housing and agriculture. Hopefully this will keep the site safe and secure from human and environmental harm, so that we can continue to learn from it’s rich archaeological record, and preserve it’s splendour.

The plans for touristic development here intrigue me, though. At present Abydos is hardly a visitor friendly place. The only way for a visitor to access the site is via a once daily convoy from Luxor which gives them – at most – 90 minutes at the temple, or by taking a train journey followed by a taxi from the station in a “private convoy”, accompanied by police. As such, for the proposed S&L show and visitors centre to really take off, a major security / transport rethink will be needed. Is the Sohag governate finally considering opening it’s doors to mainstream tourism?

Whilst another S&L show is not something I’d like to see inflicted upon the graceful walls of the Abydos temples, an easing of restrictions upon visitors, combined with a good site management programme, would be a welcome development that would allow more people(appropriately managed within the site) to appreciate a very important and beautiful site.

Interesting, exciting, disturbing, times in Abydos…

 

More DNA Testamania…

From Daily News Egypt – Original article in full

Egypt to DNA-test 2 fetuses from King Tut’s tomb

CAIRO: Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities says the country’s scientists will start DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine their link to the young pharaoh.

The fetuses were found in 1922 in the tomb in Luxor and have since been stored at Cairo University. They are widely believed to be King Tut’s stillborn children.

The tests will be carried out in collaboration with Cairo University’s Faculty of Medicine under the leadership of Dr Ashraf Selim, head of Cairo Scan.

Selim together with Dr Yehia Zakaria of the National Research Center have carried out CT scans of the two fetuses and took samples to make the DNA tests.

The council quotes in a statement Egypt’s Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass as saying the test will also try to determine the fetuses’ mother as well as Tutankhamun’s family lineage, a mystery that has baffled Egyptologists for years.

And what, precisely, do we hope to gain from this? A snippet from further into the article rasies some eyebrows for me…

Hawass said the tests will also help in identifying the mummy of Queen Nefertiti.

Which the last batch of DNA tests and CAT scans were supposed to have already established. I am not personally convinced that the ethical issues involved, and the time and cost spent on DNA testing of the royal mummies is consistently repaid in concrete advances in our knowledge. I am willing and ready to concede that some breakthroughs have been made, particularly in regards to the royal line of the early 18th Dynasty. But, at some point a line needs to be drawn between “testamania”, and ethically and practically justifable research, which we can reasonably expect to deliver a significant advance to our understanding.

In addition, most archaeology involves conservation and preservation of material. DNA testing is unusual in archaeology in that it is the opposite. DNA testing is damaging to, and invasive of, the human remains which are subjected to it.

 

Six Stolen Shabtis Recovered

From State Information Service – Link to original article

Egypt restored six stolen ancient statues

Egypt restored six stolen Pharaonic statues that were unearthed in 1985 by an English-Dutch archaeological mission in Saqqara, 30 km south of Cairo,” Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary General Zahi Hawwas said Monday 4/8/2008.

Among the statues was the ancient funerary “Ushabti”, carved in green faience, which was stolen from Sekhemkhet storehouse in the vast ancient burial ground of Saqqara, Hawwas said.

The statue is 8.5 cm tall, 2.9 cm wide and 2 cm thick with hieroglyphic inscriptions at its front and back, he said.

A Dutch businessman purchased the statue, which represents a woman from the 19th Dynasty, from an auction in Brussels, but when he sought to check its historic value at the Leyden Museum, he was told that it had been stolen from Egypt.

The man reported the theft to the Dutch security authorities and to the Dutch courts who ruled that the relic had to be returned to Egypt. He regained the money he paid at the auction.

Note - The Daily News Egypt / Daily Star also published an article on this recovery, but report that only a single figure has been recovered. Link

 

Yet more discoveries in Saqqara

A little confusion here. According to a Yahoo News article there have been several significant discoveries in Saqqara of 19th Dynasty and Late Period coffins.

The Yahoo article goes on to mention that Ahmed Said, of Cairo University, reported that statues of the deceased were also found, suggesting some fairly substantial burials, though the State Information Service makes no mention of  the statues, though does report the discovery of “colored vessels for intestines” and a box. The SIS also mentions that the discoveries took place near Unas’ causeway.

Link to Yahoo article

Link to State Information Service article

 

Seshat and Hapy…. Happier together

I did promise images of the gods… And finally I have found a beautiful one of both Seshat and Hapy in the quietest backwaters of my hard drive. Beautiful (the temple that is, not my picture. I merely record what the ancients created)

Sunk relief carving of Seshat (left) and Hapy (right), Seated colossi of Ramesses II, Peristyle Courtyard, Luxor Temple. Taken in Febuary 2008 by the author, using Canon D30 DSLR with available light.