Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Puzzle over statue find in Egypt

http://tinyurl.com/c52v9 (Monsters and Critics)
"A German archaeological mission stumbled on a mystery with the discovery of three partial Pharaonic statues in Luxor, Egyptian officials announced Monday, because one appears to date to a later period than most previous finds at the site. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced Monday the discovery of two statues of Sakhmet, the goddess of war, as well as the head of a member of the royal family, at the temple of Amunhotep III on the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor, 700 kilometres south of Cairo.
The finds were made by a dig headed by Hourig Sourzian of the Friends of the Memnon Colossi association that is affiliated with the Egypt office of the German Archaeological Institute. The Sakhmet statues, which date to the New Kingdom's 18th dynasty (circa 1533-1292 B.C.), hail from the same period as most of the finds in the area. The head believed to date to the 25th dynasty (circa 760-656 B.C.) that is characterized by its Nubian features seems however out of place. In a statement by the SCA, Sourzian suggested that the head might have ended up at the location having been left there by a 19th century British dig or an illegal excavation by antiquities merchants."
See the above web page for the rest of the story, and photographs of Sakhment of the head concerned.

http://tinyurl.com/7k8pv (Mail and Guardian)
"The head of excavations in western Luxor, Ali al-Asfhar, said he believes the royal head to be the most important discovery among the three items because of the questions raised by the presence of the head at such a location. Statues of Sakhmet are relatively common, having been found at many sites, he added."

Also at:
http://tinyurl.com/d7cyq (Egypt State Information Service)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Naturally I hesitate to contradict perhaps our best expert in statuary indentification,Dr Souruzian,( truely an egyptological hero of mine) but does not the "nubian king" look very much like Tiyi? Very much Amen III - Amarna style not Kushite. But this is only from seeing the one partially trunked photo.
A million thanks for your amazing efforts Andie.