Hawass vs Stupid

It should be apparent the meeting between Dr Zahi Hawass and singer Beyonce was not a pleasant day at the pyramids. Dr. Hawass would have done himself a favour if he had gone about his business and left after a half hour instead he waited 2 hours.

Beyonce came across as spoiled, out of touch and perhaps not even interested which caused Dr. Hawass to say “She’s a stupid person and she doesn’t understand a thing and she doesn’t want to understand. She’s coming here to take pictures and that’s it”.

Unfortunately Dr. Hawass has a habit of dishing out such insults to people in Arabic when he thinks the person he's insulting cannot understand him.

At this point Beyonce is the clear winner leaving Dr. Hawass looking stupid!

1. For waiting two hours to get his picture taken with Beyonce!

2. For publicly slandering Beyonce when he should have been ignoring her!

3. For using his native tongue to hide his words!

This has been a trivial unfortunate episode lets hope the doctor gets some rest and comes back less cranky. To Dr. Hawass' credit he did give Beyonce one of his giant books which would make anyone sore and cranky holding it for two hours.

So Long Cambyses

Here a release from Dr. Hawass concerning reports on the finding of Cambyses lost army.

http://drhawass.com/blog/press-release-alleged-finds-western-desert

King Tut's Tomb

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute are set for a five year cleaning of the tomb of Tutankhamen.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ga4G96HXif0cFiMzDdK5PGYqTthgD9BSN4A80

Lost Heracleion

This is a short article on excavations underwater at the site of the sunken city of Heracleion and a stelea bearing an inscription of Ptolemy VIII.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2009/11/secrets-from-a-sunken-egyptian-city.html

The Tomb of Aper-el

This article is a roundup of recent writings of Dr. Hawass on the subject of the vizier and a number of Hebrew biblical personages including Moses and Joseph.

http://www.egiptologia.com/blog/106-blog-de-amigos-de-la-egiptologia/3051-zahi-hawass-y-los-acontecimientos-biblicos-en-egipto.html

Cambyses Lost Army

The Persian king Cambyses was a colourful character with quite a temper but how much is reality and how much is mythology has long been the question. Archaeologists have long searched for his 50 000 strong army which vanished in a sandstorm in 525 bc.

Archaeologists believe they have located the remains of the lost army yielding hundreds of bones and Achaemenid weapons and jewelry.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Excellent video from discovery:

http://news.discovery.com/videos/archaeology-ancient-lost-army-found.html

Thebe's Lost Tombs

This excellent four minute video about the "lost" tombs of Thebes has some interesting images of some of the better preserved tombs.

http://drhawass.com/blog/video-lost-tombs-thebes

Underwater Zahi

Here is a nice video on excavating the Nile unfortunately the obelisks of Amenemhet III, which were lost in the Nile on their journey to the national collection more than 100 years ago have not been found!

http://drhawass.com/blog/video-underwater-archaeology-nile

Never Ending Nefertiti

I recently purchased an old book and found inside a 50 year old postcard from Luxor with a picture of none other than the Berlin Nefertiti and wow here I am writing yet another piece on her.

The controversy level on this bust is through the roof and doubtless there is another more scandalous object in the world. I guess the more comment the merrier and in its new glass home I hope the powers that be will chill out.

Berlin really markets the heck out of the bust and the controversy to the detriment of the rest of its Egyptian collection which remains lost in a whirlwind of Nefertiti.

Berlin's new Egyptian museum is impressive but one wonders what the point is in having the rest of the collection, certainly they make something nice to look at when your on your way too and fro Nefertiti.

Berlin has many wonderful artifacts it could be better marketing which are completely overshadowed by the (stolen bust?), though I have said many times the Egyptian official did not do his job when he gave this bust to Berlin.

Still the bust because of this discrepancy should be in the Egyptian National collection with fair compensation to Berlin. Today is a turning point hopefully for the museum and the collection the new director Frederica Seyfried will start with a fresh attitude and have more to say other than Nefertiti!

http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/11/02/germany-time-for-egypts-nefertiti-bust-to-go-home/

At Seneferu's Pyramid

Here is a very interesting black and white film of the 1929-30 Egyptian excavations by University museum Philadelphia.

Happy Halloween!

http://www.archive.org/details/upenn-f16-4021_1930_Excavation_Seneferu_Pyramid

Seti's Tunnel

I have a feeling this article is a repeat but here it is anyway. It presents some fairly recent exploration in the valley of kings.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/970/he1.htm

Mummified

An interesting video on animal mummification from Dr. Salima Ikram.

http://heritage-key.com/blogs/malcolmj/dr-salima-ikram-talks-animal-mummification-new-heritage-key-video#video

High Priest of the Aten

A tomb found twenty years ago in the 1980's contained the burial of a vizier of Akhenaten named Aper-al who was potentially the high priest of the Aten in Memphis. This is an article by Dr. Hawass on the possible Hebrew vizier.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=7&id=18628

Coffin of Amenemhet I

There are news stories circulating including by the Egypt state service that a piece of the coffin of Amenemhet I is to be returned to Egypt thanks to the Metropolitan museum of art in New york who purchased the piece with the thought of giving it back to Egypt.

The pink granite fragment is in fact a piece of a Naos meant to hold a statue of a god or goddess and not the coffin of a king.

http://drhawass.com/blog/press-release-metropolitan-museum-return-artifact

Looking to Babylon

Austrian archaeologists have discovered a Babylonian seal in Egypt confirming that the Hyksos rulers of Egypt had contacts with the Babylonians.

http://austriantimes.at/news/Panorama/2009-10-29/17649/Austrian_archaeologists_make_Babylonian_find_in_Egypt

Dr. Hawass on Nefertiti

This is an interview with Dr. Zahi Hawass and Spiegel Online and though the interview is brief the question and answers that regard the Berlin bust of Nefertiti are of interest.

Dr. Hawass said: "Around two months ago I petitioned the Berlin museum administration to share with me the exact details of Nefertiti's "emigration" and to send all and any material that relates to the legitimacy of that process. To this day, my request has not been answered".

I am confused why Cairo needs paperwork which should be only duplicate material to that in the records of the Supreme council of antiquities? If worse came to worse the motives or intentions of the German expedition should not be of value to the question of what the representative of the Supreme council of antiquities decision was!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,656046,00.html

A Gift to Egypt

Here Dr. Hawass displays pictures of the naos and the fragment being returned by the Metropolitan museum of art.

http://drhawass.com/blog/press-release-metropolitan-museum-return-artifact

Saving Amenhotep III

Here is a video by Dr. Hourig Sourouzian on the excavation and restoration of the funerary monument of Amenhotep III.

http://heritage-key.com/blogs/malcolmj/archaeovideo-saving-pharaoh-amenhotep-iiis-funerary-temple-thebes#video