A Year of Destiny and History

I started this year with The Egyptian Book of the Dead in my mind finding in it a document of incredible abstraction and a sense of accomplishment. In the middle of January reports that KV64 had been found in the Valley of Kings was met with mild interest even though the 21rst dynasty mummy was intact it did not measure up to the discovery of KV63. Perhaps it was the very nature of the discovery which was apparent at once while KV63 was a slow striptease as the debris was removed?

Around the same time I published, Three Old Kingdom Statuettes in the Brooklyn Museum which funny enough was better received than my "Popular Posts" widget says?I guess I added it late to the widget as the article should be in my top ten January ended at the crocodile museum at Kom Ombo which was inaugurated on the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. The end of February brought this sites biggest runner of the year in, Khufu's Ships Burn".

It is also within February that a British couple attempted to smuggle cheap trinkets and got caught in Luxor Airport, though there was some debate they were actually trying to smuggle the objects? Towards the end of March, we find thieves stealing two Kiswa (embroidered tapestry), from the Khedive Tawfiq mausoleum.

At the end of April readers of Egyptians showed enthusiasm for the review of the 1924 book "Egypt by H.H. Powers". Mr. Powers was quite a character.  The Carter Carnarvon Connection was also one of this year's biggest runners.

In the summer came theological silliness in the 1932 book "Great Pyramid Proof of God", the amusing book screamed failure right from the title though I was reading a 1960, twelfth printing of the book. Later in July the remains of a boat of the first dynasty King Den was discovered at Abu Rawash.

Most exciting from this past summer came the notes of excavator of Valley of Kings tomb KV35, the tomb of Amenhotep II which were found in Milan's Egyptology archives. Victor Loret found the tomb in 1898 and much to the delight of the Egyptology world an unknown photo of the mummy found on a boat in that tomb was discovered which potentially solved this long destroyed mummies identity, The Mummy on the Boat.

In November Dr. Miroslav Barta and the Czech Institute of Egyptology discovered at Abu Sir the tombs of officials of the Old Kingdom and oddly a fifth dynasty princess named Shert Nebty. November ended with the announcement that Valley of kings tomb KV8, the tomb of King Merenptah, was now open to the public and that the largest sarcophagus in the valley has been reconstructed from its pieces found in the tomb.

From the beginning of December the publication of  Animal tombs in the Valley of Kings has been well received and the last runner of the year for this site. The year ends off with the discovery that Pharaoh Ramesses III was probably murdered as a result of a conspiracy in his harem, long known about from surviving judicial documents of the time.

What can I say except thank you all., as the year ends Egyptians is breaking all of its records and having its best year to date!