October 9, 2009
From State Information Service – Link to full article
A statue of Alexander the Great has been discovered in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, Governor Adel Labib said on Wednesday 7/10/2009.
Archeologists have suggested the statue was of Alexander the Great and it was uncovered during excavations at el-Shalalat Park in the city, he said.
The discovery was made by a Greek mission working in the city.
September 17, 2008
From Al Ahram Weekly – Original Article
Will Egypt build the first offshore underwater museum? Nevine El-Aref investigates
Setting up an offshore, submarine archaeological site anywhere is not an easy task, let alone in a city with the water pollution problems of Alexandria. Yet the remarkable discoveries made by underwater archaeologists over the last decade justify further serious efforts for what would be Egypt’s first ever offshore underwater museum.
The site and form gives cause for conjecture. Should it be in Alexandria’s Eastern Harbour, the Sisila area, or Abu Qir Bay? What will it look like? Should it resemble the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney or the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology at the spectacular Uluburun Wreck in Turkey, or the Musée de Marine in Paris? All these display a collection of sunken ship wrecks, flora and fauna.
These questions and more were raised at an international workshop held last week in Alexandria to discuss the feasibility of constructing such a museum. On the table were a projected ground plan, an architectural design and a programme to study the environmental conditions of Alexandria’s Mediterranean Sea and its state of marine pollution, the socio- economic problems related to the success of the underwater archaeological museum project and urban impacts. The workshop was held under the umbrella of UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture at the Alexandria Art Creativity Centre, where a multidisciplinary team of 28 international and Egyptian experts were gathered.
On the eve of the workshop participants were taken on a field visit to Alexandria’s underwater archaeological sites, and listened to a presentation by Egyptian authorities on the current situation and recent activities carried out in the Eastern Harbour and around the Qait Bey Fort. This is also one of the suggested locations for the submarine museum.
The workshop was very well organised by the Cultural Development Fund (CDF). The opening session began with a short documentary relating Alexandria’s ancient history from its inception by Alexander the Great up to modern times. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni’s speech, delivered by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), revealed that the aim of the workshop was not only to study the possibility of building the world’s first ever underwater archaeological museum in Alexandria, but is also to set up international principles as a model or a pilot project for any country which wanted its own submarine museum. Singapore, China and Greece are on top of the list.
For his part, Hawass described the initiative as a “beautiful dream” for Alexandria. He told the assembled experts that he had decided four years before to stop removing all ancient objects from the seabed with the exception of coins, jewellery and small artefacts that were vulnerable to looting.
“Hence, it is about time to think about an underwater museum to make such magnificent monuments accessible and visible to all,” he said.
If it happens, it’d be a incredible show, but I dread to think of the cost, let alone the conservation and engineering headaches a project like this would entail. Also, it opens up some interesting ideas. It states in the article that the larger artefacts wouldn’t be moved form their current location. Since museums function as conservation, archive and study centres for artefacts, this would seem to be taking the traditional idea of a “safehouse” of historical artefacts for future generations in a whole new direction. It raises some interesting questions. I’ll be watching this with quite some interest. Either way, less sewage in the bays of Alex is good news all round, for archaeology, for marine life and city residents alike.
August 20, 2008
From SIS – Link to original article
Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said 15/8/2008 that four statues for sphinx have been recovered in the ancient city of Luxor.
The four giant statues are made of the sand stones and were found in Luxor’s Eastern Bank.
Dr Zahi Hawwas, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the statues were found without the upper parts.
“They were fixed upon sand-stone bases, which were brought from Aswan by the Pharaohs,” he added.
He said the bases are inscribed with the name of the founder of the 30th royal dynasty King Nekhipto.
Hawwas said he will allocate LE 100,000 to restore the discovered statues in cooperation with the Luxor’s Supreme Council chaired by Samir Farag.
The SCA is gradually clearing the entire length of the ceremonial avenue that ran between Luxor and Karnak temples, so this find isn’t surprising, as the entire length was lined with statuary. However it’s always heartening to see more late period sculpture gain attention, and that these ones will be restored.
Interestingly, a Middle East News article, carried by M&C, adds:
The team also excavated Ptolemic and Roman buildings along with a sandstone block that carries a cartouche (a royal title) of famed Queen Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt.
The SIS press release, however, doesn’t mention this.
May 28, 2008
Thanks to A K Eyma and Michael Tilgner for giving the EEF Email list a heads up on this:
At the University of Halle, a papyrus (from the Julius Kurth
Collection) has been discovered, which on one side has
a Book of the Dead text, and on the other side a lexicon.
This lexicon in three columns assigns precious metals, minerals,
trees and animals to certain godheads (e.g., gold and lapis lazuli
to Re, the cedar to Osiris, the ibis to Thoth, etc).
The main news article is in German, but from what I have been able to gather, the papyrus in question is around 2,300 years old, putting it at the end of the Late Period or beginnings of the Ptolemaic Period. Although we know of other lexicons compiled in Ancient Egypt, this is the oldest so far. The dictionary style list of associations between the gods, and things such as animals, woods and minerals bears no apparent relation to the “Book of the Dead” text on the other side. The associations given as examples are ones that were already known to us, so I assume that there is no new information concerning religious associations in the text, but it does push back the date at which this sort of listing of associations in a plain, simple, dictionary style form first appear on papyrus.
The text was discovered during the process of digitizing the papyrus collection of University Halle, and the digital database entry for the papyrus (P.Hal.Kurth Inv. 33) can be found here, with 72dpi images.
Link to article in Der Standard (German language)
