Dier el Banat Yields Ptolemaic Mummies

A cemetery in Egypt long thought to have been completely looted has recently turned up a number of mummies including one lady who is completely intact with her mask and cartonnages.

This is the only intact mummy to have ever been found at this ancient destroyed cemetery

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080130-egypt-mummies.html

These photos are a must see:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/photogalleries/fayoum-pictures/index.html

Bathhouse Found

New discovery at Karnak of a Ptolemaic bathhouse.

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=704

Looking for KV 64

Dr. Zahi Hawass is finally taking the Amarna Royal Tombs Project seriously and has started an investigation into an anomaly found years ago in the Valley of the Kings.

The anomaly was actually discovered in 2000 but due to false allegations that the project director was smuggling antiquities it was never investigated and in 2005 the director was cleared of the allegations but the project was not allowed to resume their work.

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=700

http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/reeves.html

Amarna from a Balloon

A fine article about the heretic king's capital with 2 fine videos to watch.

I have thought for many years that living in his time would have been brutal on the people with only the courtiers and the royal family living the good life.

The king's touchy-feely propaganda may be the exact opposite of the truth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7209472.stm

Bury it Yourself

I have kept this story bookmarked since last October no not because it was about the Altes Museum and the German government dealing with the Nefertiti bust displayed at their museum and the Egyptian government's desire to get their hands on it for the opening of the Amarna Museum.

Rather it was the generosity of the Germans who offered to return 90 pharaonic mummies back to Egypt. Egypt's top antiquity Dr. Hawass's response was that these mummies were of no importance took me back even though I could see that the gift was a red herring.

Perhaps the German officials should have also offered to send the cash to rebury the 90 people who are clearly unwanted. This episode made both sides look bad and the fine doctor should have spoken with more grace in regards to the plight of the ancestors who can't get no respect. Good Grief!

Unfortunately, the link no longer works.

Copyright This

So now the government of Egypt wants to copyright its monuments though it remains a mystery how they can possibly do this, the last time I checked the Giza pyramids were a world heritage site protected by UNESCO.

The citizens of the western world only help and solidify such a state and instead of leaving money to the police state the people of the world should use their money to support their public institutions at home and not Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080115-egypt-copyright.html

4500 years later

This is the only thing going on of note in Egyptology these days and how interesting and rare the find.

The officials name was Neferinpu and though not royal the find is of note.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080118-egypt-tomb.html

Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt

This is the story of Egypt's remarkable reign of Nubian kings who ruled Egypt as its 25th Dynasty.

The traditional role for most of Egyptian history was the Nubian's were subjects of the Egyptian pharaoh to the north but for about 50 years when between 716-656 bc the kings of Nubia also bore the titles of the lord of the two lands and became kings of Egypt.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-02/black-pharaohs/draper-text.html

Intact 4500 year old Burial

It is a site not seen in 50 years for an intact tomb of an Old Kingdom official have usually been seen by the robbers first.

Another coup for Czeck archaeologists.

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/99324

http://www.radio.cz/pictures/c/archeologie/egypt_barta.jpg

Meet Ramses VIII

One would think that even though the king's reign was extremely short with no time to create a tomb for this king in the Valley of the Kings an eighteenth dynasty cutting would be converted to a tomb for him.

So perhaps we are looking for a shaft tomb with one room off the bottom if this is so than the chamber should still be painted with scenes of Ramses in the presence of the gods. There was, of course, enough time to do this while the king's mummification was occurring.

A stone sarcophagus may also have been appropriated but this seems unlikely and a wood sarcophagus seems more reasonable in the time allotted. Also with only months to create funerary cases for the king one would expect less rather than more, perhaps only 1 or 2 hastily improvised cases of wood with a thin layer of foil.

Again one would expect a mask of perhaps cartonnage or thin foil, the kings reign not long enough for him to have acquired any substantial wealth in the depressed period of the late Ramessides. Further more the king's canopic equipment would not be original to this king and have come from the royal storeroom.

Likewise, funerary figures and ornaments may have been made for the prince/king in thinly gilded wood.

Still worst of all the king's burial at the beginning of the end of empire and having been buried in recent years his burial would have been fresh in the minds of those who may employ his burials dis-assembly.

Stripped of his ornaments the king's tomb may have contained only firewood in a valley without trees.

Head of the Mummy from the Pyramid of Merenre I

The Old Kingdom King Merenre I ruled between 2287-2278 BCE. The body found in his pyramids burial chamber is believed by some not correspond with the style of mummification present which is more inline with the New Kingdom rather than the Old Kingdom.

However in the light of more recent discoveries the mummy may well be that of the king, making it the oldest royal mummy in the Egyptian national collection.

This mummy though off display for many years is currently covered by a sheet in the Imhotep museum at Saqqara.

Notes:

http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html

A Visit with the Mummy from the Tomb of Seti II

Visitors to the tombs of the kings at Thebes rarely suspect they will be seeing Egypt's pharaonic dead. However, there are a number of mummies remaining in the Biban al Molouk including the young prince in the tomb of Thutmose IV possibly the prince Amenemhet.

When found the prince was standing up apparently to the amusement of the ancient robbers who entered the tomb before the priests came to remove the mummy of the king. These priests left the prince in his side room and sealed the tomb, The tomb was never entered again until finding by Howard Carter.

There are of course the two ladies in tomb KV21 but they are not on view and the tomb is inaccessible. Yes, King Tut is accessible but only to 400 viewers a day and KV 35 has a boy and a mummy of great controversy. But few are expecting a mummy in the tomb of the nineteenth dynasty King Seti II. Nothing is known as to whom he is but be for certain he was of importance in life perhaps a Vizier or a Son of Kush.