Akhenaten Found?

An article from Dr. Hawass on the possible identification of the KV 55 mummy as being the heretic king Akhenaten. A recent CT scan apparently shows the age of the skeleton at death may be as high as 60. Dr. Hawass also makes the Ramesses VIII prediction while announcing his Valley of the Kings expedition, the first all Egyptian dig.

Good picture of the newly renovated Amarna room at the Egyptian Museum as well as the KV 55 mummy. Most interesting is the picture of the only two surviving planks from Queen Tiye's Shrine found in tomb 55.

http://guardians.net/hawass/articles/Mystery%20of%20the%20Mummy%20from%20KV55.htm

Oldest Christian Manuscript

A Christian codex written in 411 a.d. has had its missing last page found in a monasteries ancient olive oil storeroom. In the 11th century, a monk worried that the last page of the codex would become lost so he recorded the inscription on the last page into the middle of the document. The codex was collected in 1839 for the British Museum minus its last page.

Recent reconstruction work on the tower which contained the storeroom has revealed hundreds of fragments of documents and when a number of pieces were flattened out the missing last page of the 411 codex was found and restored.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/found-at-last-the-worlds-oldest-missing-page-783378.html

Who's out

With the advent of tomography, CT scans and DNA very little is left private. The naked bodies of ancient king's lay for the most part in the lands where they lived but some journey after their dead. Leaving Egypt 140 years ago to house in a Niagara sideshow the mummy was first thought to be none other than Nefertiti herself. Museum staff pulled down the covers from her mummy and discovered Nefertiti had a penis.

The high quality mummification and remarkable preservation of the body, usually these things are broken. The body smell of aromatics is distinctly royal. A carbon test suggested that the mummy might belong to the New Kingdom. With its crossed arms exposed Egyptologist's began going down the list of missing New Kingdom king's and came up with 3 consecutive king's from the end of the 18th dynasty to the first King of the 19th dynasty.

These were Aye, Horemheb and Ramesses I. King Ramesses I was the father of King Seti I and grandfather to King Ramesses II both of who's mummies faces are beautifully preserved and resemble that of the hung Nefertiti mummy, and so it was decided that no this is not the old girl but rather it is King Ramesses I.

Since then calibrations of carbon 14 readings have now shown the mummy is hundreds of years younger than that of King Ramesses I. In a previous story I suggested it may actually be the mummy of the High Priest of Amen, Smendes III.


Michael C. Carlos Museum:

http://carlos.emory.edu/RAMESSES/

Brooklyn's Mummies

The 5 human mummies including the mummy of Demetrios from the Brooklyn Museums collection are receiving a full exam before the museums traveling exhibition begins.

Here is the Brooklyn museum's website, the dig diary is excellent. Check it out:

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

Egypt Torturing HIV Sufferers

A BBC story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7231082.stm

Excavating the Faiyum

Dr. Hawass's latest report with a beautiful picture of an arrow head.

http://guardians.net/hawass/discoveries/New_Dicovery_In_Faiyum_2_08.htm

View of the Tomb of Senenmut TT71

The large and grand hill top tomb is explored here by Jane Akshar with excellent photo's.

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=712

Mummies and Churches

Very interesting article with good picture.


http://www.eturbonews.com/1130/fayoums-mummies-and-churches

A Tale of Two Museums

Walking around the dusty cabinets of Cairo's Egyptian Museum is a good deal different from the crisp spectacle of Sakkara's Imhotep Museum.

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=709