Fossils at Giza

I remember reading a bulletin from earlier in the last century from The Boston museum of fine arts, I believe it was about George Reisner's excavation at Giza and one of the pictures was of a block of limestone from a mastaba which clearly had the fossilized vertebra of some animal.

This new article is about this very subject and quiet interesting but not as interesting as that bulletin and that picture from years ago.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/04/25/pyramids-fossils-egypt.html

Sunken Treasure in Madrid

Here we have the Sunken treasure exhibit in Spain at the Matador center.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/894/heritage.htm

The Great Missing

There is little doubt of three caches of kings from the end of the New Kingdom yet one cache is clearly missing and perhaps today represented only by its absence.

The great cache of 1881 found a prince named Ahmosis though sadly he is not the liberator king he is more likely a son of Amenhotep I by a concubine. This was hard to accept considering this cache contained fourteen members of his family.

The same cache had a king labelled as the second Thutmosis though he may be a better fit as Thutmosis I either way a king was missing. Then came Valley of kings cache 35 in 1898 and a mummy identified as the nineteenth dynasty king Seti II looks clearly like Thutmosis II.

The Amarna kings of Akenaten and Ay inspired little love in their subjects as presented by both of their vandalized tombs and the dictator Horemheb may have suffered similar fate.

The 1881 cache had at some point the mummy of RamesesI however this became lost, myself I am convinced it will turn up on a shelf somewhere in the possession of the antiquities service , probably with the Priest King Pinudgem I.

Twentieth dynasty Kings Ramesses 7, 8 and 10 and 11 are all missing and probably only Ramesses 7 and 8 were buried in the valley of Kings. Ramesses 7 almost certainly and the hope of finding the tomb of Ramesses 8 may be a pipe dream considering the collapse of the state and the ephemeral nature of that King.

Ramesses 8 tomb may have long been robbed and destroyed almost immediately after his burial in the troubled times that followed his death.

Lord Grenfell's Mummy

The Egyptian collection of Lord Grenfell is to go back on display in the National museum of Mdina, Malta.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080423/local/egyptian-mummy-on-display-at-mdina

Buried Together?

There is absolutely nothing to suggest that Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony were buried together further more Cleopatra's burial would have been in the presence of Roman guards which would make the burial even more improbable.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/CultureAndMedia/?id=1.0.2103859346

Ushabti of Seti I

Divers have begun their excavation of objects lost in the Nile with success though I am sure it surprises no one that the riverbed is loaded with objects lost through out history.

While cleaning the tomb of Seti I in the valley of kings workers have come across a number of objects including this ushabti.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/893/he1.htm

Amenhotep III

Colossal statues will soon accompany the colossi of Memnon as well as other statuary recently found at the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080417/lf_afp/egyptculturediscoveryarchaeology

Gold Coins of Emperor Valens

Two gold coins have been found of Valens who was Emperor between 364-378 ad. The coins are the first found in Egypt and will make a nice addition to the numismatics collection in the Greco-Roman museum.

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN355007.html

Dr. Hawass's Chip

I do not usually report articles from this source as they are often a paragraph with no image.

However the tone of the article was of interest. Egypt's top Antiquarian Dr. Zahi Hawass who's campaign to restore all things Egyptian back to Egypt has met with great success over the years.

Unfortunately he also has recently been very forward about Egypt's European backed last two centuries and his resentment of these. Sadly those Egyptian's from the Georgian and Victorian eras were not deemed by the French or English as worthy enough to make important finds.

French egyptologist Victor Loret knew this as well as anyone when his crew of Egyptian's made important discoveries just about every year of Mr. Lorets late Victorian excavations in the Valley of kings.

Dr. Hawass should lighten up and stop comparing himself with people like Belzoni who lived nearly two centuries ago.

The Doctor need not worry Egypt truly belongs to Egypt. and its dictator.

http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000001/0203000000000000000979.htm

Czeck Egyptology

A nice article complete with pictures including the recent find of a rare undisturbed burial from the old kingdom.

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/102813

Ancient Glass at Amarna

Considering how early the Egyptians mastered faience the late development of glass is surprising.

http://www.archaeology.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1592&Itemid=36

Check Up for Shep-en-min

Vassar's mummy has received its turn in the C.T. scan. The mummy as indicated by the name of the God "Min" is from the Akmim area of Egypt. Happily he is the son of another well known mummy that of Pahat.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/NEWS/804090351/-1/NEWS

The Akmim Mummy Consortium:

http://amscresearch.com/

Animal Mummies by Salima Ikram

The always delightful Salima Ikram lectures on one of her pet projects, something dear to her.

http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=53313

Dr. Hawass; When Seth Won

This is another episode of Dr. Hawass's "Dig days".

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/891/he2.htm

Sphynx Not Drowning

The rising ground water in front of the sphynx will not harm the statue.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/891/he3.htm

Cashing in on Vienna

Though King Tut's gold mask was not seen fit to travel the mask of Psuseness I was.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/891/he1.htm

Black Pharaohs

A handful of Kings rose to conquer their overlords and become Kings of Egypt in the middle of the last millennium bce.

This article has some very nice pictures.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/891/tr1.htm

New Website for Barcelona

In 1903 two tombs were found in the Valley of Queens these elaborately decorated tombs were created for the New Kingdoms Queen's, Prince's and Princess's.

However the tombs were full of coffins and mummies from the third intermediate period including a family of gardeners.

How much of the original burials remained is a mystery to me but I would suspect little.

Most of these coffins are now in Italy, six intact examples were retained in Egypt.

http://www.museuegipci.com/index.php?&lang=en

Mummification Museum Lecture

Here we have a lecture by Mr. Mansour Boraik on Karnak temple and a possible tomb in the Valley of Kings.

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=761

Valley of Kings:

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=748

The King's Wife Tiye

Here are pictures of the recently found statue from the mortuary temple of Tiye's husband Amenhotep III.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/photogalleries/Egypt-pictures/index.html