Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Egyptology News 25th - 30th April 2013

Copied from @egyptologynews. Sorry that this is a bit late - I've been away from home.


Palm trees at Abu Simbel



Fieldwork

Gebel el Silsila Survey Project. The first 2 weeks of the new season.

In Spanish. Czech team find valuable sculptures of Amun and Mut in Sudan, 2000 years old. With photos. Radio Praga

A submerged 1200 year old Egyptian city beneath the Mediterranean is starting to reveal its story. The Telegraph

Heracleion Photos: Lost Egyptian city revealed after 1200 years under the sea.Huffington Post  

Discovery of 200 AD industrial artisan complex that produced tableware, bronzes, housed workers, in Sinai. ANSAmed


Research

Via . Baking and bakeries at Old Kingdom Giza - feeding the pyramid workers. AERAweb

Scans of Perth’s “cat mummy” have revealed what appears to be a 90-year-old scam. thewest

3D map raises Heracleion from the deep: Scientists recreate trading town submerged for 1200 years. Daily Mail

Joyce Filer's "Notes on Health Problems in Ancient Egypt and Nubia: part 2" on her blog


On Monday archaeols held a protest in Dahshur re illegal encroachment of local cemetery on heritage. Daily News Egypt

Archaeologists fear for pyramid sites as illegal cemetery building gathers pace in wake of Arab spring. The Guardian

More Egyptian archaeology harmed. Abu Sir Al Malaq on the border between Fayoum and Bani Sawif. Egyptian Chronicles

Unauthorised amateur archaeologists cause cracks in six buildings in Alexandria; one suspect arrested. Ahram Online


An article looking at the rumoured deterioration of the Bent Pyramid and plans for restoration. Ahram Online

After two years of neglect, the world famous Giza Plateau is spruced up and cleared of garbage. Ahram Online

Qatar offers $135 million for restoration of historic sites in Sudan. Sudan Tribune

Fight to preserve Egypt’s ancient Jewish sites. The Art Newspaper

Who Rules the Street in Cairo? The Residents Who Build It. Insights into Cairo Illegal building projects. NY Times


Books
 

The Old Kingdom Town at Buhen - an appeal for funding. EES

New book: Céramique et occupation égyptienne en Canaan au 13e siècle av. J.C. By Katia Charbit Nataf. BAR


Conferences

The Coptic Orthodox Church in action. Sixth International Symposium of Christianity and Monasticism. Al Ahram Weekly


Museums and exhibitions

Mummy hnty-k to go on display at McManus Museum in Dundee, Scotland.

What is museum learning? Museums + Heritage Via

British Museum director to advise on Burrell Collection (Scotland) revamp. BBC
Exhibition: Nesperennub is still on his travels and is now opening in Singapore. ST

British Museum's £135m extension is on time and on budget, say curators. . Via  


An Egyptian legend in Prague. Facsimiles of all the treasures of King Tutankhamun's tomb are on display.


Smuggling


Cairo airport authorities thwart attempt to smuggle 145 coins dating from Graeco-Roman and Ottoman eras. Ahram Online


Free online

In Spanish. Interview with Egyptologist and excavator Francisco Martín Valentín. Ushebtis

Videos of Sai Island, Sudan. Medieval Sai Project

On BBC iPlayer for 7days for those with access: The Man Who Discovered Egypt. About archaeo William Flinders Petrie.

Free online: CENiM – Les Cahiers Égypte Nilotique et Méditérranéenne. ENiM 6, 2013 (4 articles in French)

Who were the Mamluks? History Today  

Download the PDF for Armenian Egyptology Centre Newsletter 27 (27th April 2012).academia.edu/3413672/AEC_Eg

 

Journals and Magazine  


Nouveau numéro d'Égypte Afrique & Orient (N°69), consacré aux femmes égyptologues au XIXe siècle. Centre d'égyptol.​


Travel and Tourism


Jane Akshar explains the new rules for the operation of hot air balloons in Luxor on her Luxor News Blog


Obituary

Chicago House Director Ray Johnson's obituary of Helen Jacquet-Gordon. Oriental Institute


Miscellaneous 


Questions that might be asked on your academic job interview






Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Egyptology News 22nd - 24th April 2013

Copied from @egyptologynews  


Abu Simbel



Fieldwork

A New discovery in North Sinai including imported amphorae from Rhodes Island. Luxor Times

The South Tombs Cemetery excavations at Amarna, 2013: the final season! The latest from Barry Kemp + Anna Stevens

Barbara O'Neill's interview with Dr Maria Nilsson (Gebel Silsila Epigraphic Survey Project) is now on Egyptological:

Interview in Spanish with Alejandro Jiménez, Director of investigations into tombs at Qubbet el-Hawa, Aswan. Ushebtis


Research

Old Kingdom leather fragments found in Cairo Museum reveal how ancient Egyptians built their chariots. Ahram Online
[For those interested in this topic there was a really good article in Nature by Jo Marchant (November 2011) about New Kingdom leather pieces and what they revealed about chariots, again from pieces found in the Cairo Museum. Summary at http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-egyptian-chariot-trappings-rediscovered-1.9388]

Giza Secret Revealed: How 10,000 Pyramid Builders Got Fed. Live Science http://bit.ly/11ARDtS

Greek, Greek / Demotic and Demotic Mummy Labels: A Survey Version 1.0 March 2013. K.A. Worp. What's New in Papyrology


Conferences

Summary of Egyptian origins portion of “Dialogue of Civilizations” conference held in Guatemala. National Geographic

Museums and exhibitions

Free PDF press kit about the Egypt and Sudan galleries at the Ashmolean Museum website with lots of info and photos.

Archaeology: Greek-Roman museum to reopen in Alexandria. ANSAmed

New website address for the Friends of the Petrie Museum:

La momia del Museu Darder vuelve a Banyoles 10 años después. Exposición itinerante 'Proyecto Monthemhat' Vanguardia


Egyptomania

More re the recently re-opened 1920s Egypt-influenced Louxor cinema in Paris: "Luxor-on Seine." The Economist.

Review of Cathie Bryan's @PetrieMuseEgypt tour of Egyptianized + Masonic tombs at Kensal Green Cemetery. Petrie Mus.



New websites and apps

New archaeology apps may make you an armchair Indiana Jones. Fox News




Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The South Tombs Cemetery excavations at Amarna, 2013: the final season!



The latest email news update from Anna Stevens and Barry Kemp


From the South Tombs Cemetery photo album on
 the Amarna Project's Facebook page
(see link below)



The final season of excavations at the South Tombs Cemetery is now underway at Amarna, and with just a couple of weeks left on site we are working hard to try to reach our project target of 400 skeletons. 21 to go!

We are continuing work at the Upper Site, under the direction of Dr Mary Shepperson, where the odd trend for multiple burials noted in previous seasons continues. Do these graves simply represent family tombs, or was this part of the cemetery in use at a time when the population was exposed to a particularly harsh outbreak of disease that killed many and resulted in Œ"mass graves"? The physical anthropology team, who will recommence their study of the human remains in May, will no doubt be interested to examine these new burials with these issues in mind.

We've also opened a new part of the site, around half way along the wadi in which the cemetery lies, which is densely packed with very regularly spaced graves, most occupied by single skeletons. Yet, as always, the site offers something unexpected: the burial of an adult not in the extended position as is standard, but in the contracted (fetal) position. This is only the second burial of this kind in eight seasons of excavations, and we are wondering if this individual was perhaps a foreigner living at Amarna.

Back at the dig house, the conservation team led by Julie Dawson is recommencing their crucial project to consolidate the pieces of decorated wooden coffin recovered from the cemetery over recent years, which are so important for the study of funerary religion in Akhenaten¹s reign.

And the excavations continue to produce other finds that convey something of the character of the people of Amarna, including two pairs of bronze tweezers in the grave of an adult female, and an entire necklace formed of blue faience fish-shaped pendants and hundreds of little ring beads.
These pieces can be viewed in the online photo album at the link below, which is updated regularly and includes images of the excavations:


And yesterday we were joined by the BBC, who are working on a new program entitled "Treasures of Ancient Egypt", so some footage of the cemetery excavations might also make it to the television screen soon!

The excavations this year are funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant, and by the Amarna Trust, and the conservation of the coffins is paid for by grants from the Thriplow and Aurelius Trusts.

For anyone interested in learning more about the cemetery excavations, you might also like to read our recently published research article in the journal Antiquity (subscription required):


Thanks again for your interest in and support of our work.

19 April 2013

Anna Stevens/Barry Kemp

Monday, April 22, 2013

Egyptology News 19th-22nd April 2013

Copied from @egyptologynews.  Today's photo of the fresco from the Ashmolean Museum, which shows two Amarna princesses, is posted to accompany Campbell Price's news that a small fragment of the wall from which the princess scene is just a part, has been found in Manchester Museum's stores.  It's not a great photo (click on it to see a larger version or go to the Ashmolean Museum website to see a much better photo http://bit.ly/XQMgYj) but when looking at the original fresco you can make out that the princesses are sitting at the foot of a much larger figure.  See the link to Campbell Price's post below, which included a photograph of the fragment.







Museums and exhibitions

A piece of famous Amarna Princess painting (Ashmolean Mus) found by Manchester Museum curator in their stores

More re "Echoes of Egypt": Abiding influence of ancient Egypt on world’s cultures explored at the Yale Peabody Museum.

Review of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, southwest England. Seshat's Journal

Fieldwork

Nevine el-Aref does her usual good work summarizing what's known about Khufu's 4th Dynasty Red Sea port. Ahram Weekly  

Photographs (no new details) to accompany the story on Khufu's Red Sea port. Daily Mail

Research

 Early descriptions of the so-called Cathedral of Sai. Medieval Sai Project  

This story keeps resurfacing. From Egyptian Blue to Infrared. Archaeology magazine


Books 

Via New book: Pierre Tallet. 12 Reines d’Egypte qui ont changé l’Histoire. Mai 2013. Editions Pygmalion Groupe Flammarion


 

Obituary: Carmen Weinstein, driving force behind the restoration of monuments of Egyptian Jewish history. NY Times

Cairo's Mosque of Ibn Tulun has lost much of its splendour with wastewater and garbage lining its walls. Ahram Online


Free online 

Via Open Access: Armenian Egyptology Centre Newsletter. Download issues 1 to 24 in PDF format from

A number of PDFs on the subject of Egyptian rock art by Fred Hardtke are available for download on Academia. edu:

Travel

Respite in the desert. Bahareya Oasis is more than what first meets the eye. Ahram Weekly

Alexandria, Egypt's 'Pearl of the Mediterranean.' Huffington Post

Friday, April 19, 2013

Edition 8 of Egyptological

Egyptology News 17th-18th April 2013

Copied from Twitter @egyptologynews. Have a good weekend everyone!


Amun in the form of a Ram, Kawa, Nubia.
c.680BC.  1931.553. Ashmolean Museum



Fieldwork

The British Museum website has new pages re the BM and Sudan Archaeological Research Society excavations at Kawa  

Free online

RT Free online: Revisiting the harem conspiracy and death of Ramesses III. British Medical Journal


Books 

Audio: Peter Lacovara talking about his book "Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile" (AUC 2012). 3 mins. Emory

Book review: T. M. Hickey, Wine, Wealth, and the State in Late Antique Egypt. University of Michigan Press 2012. BMCR

Conferences

American Research Centre in Egypt Annual Conference 2013, 19th-21st April. Em Hotep

Museums and exhibitions

Curating Ancient Egypt at the Manchester Museum. Ancient Egypt in Vancouver  

Exhibition. El Louvre organiza la primera muestra mundial sobre el dibujo en el antiguo Egipto 19/04-22/07. Ushebtis  

Via Gwyn Ashworth-Pratt. Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photos of the Middle East at the Queen's Gallery. Culture24  

‘Echoes of Egypt’ reveals ancient culture’s impact across the millennia. Yale News

 

Egypt's Jewish community to refuse Israeli financial help for renovation of Egypt's ancient Jewish synagogues. Ahram

Research

More re scan of Amunet. "Egyptian Mummy from OHS Collection Undergoes CT Scan." Wall Street Journal

Egyptomania 

Egyptianized 1920s cinema reopens in Paris (with pics) IHT . Also a great video (in Spanish) at


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Egyptology News 15th and 16th April

Copied from Twitter @egyptologynews.   

I've tried a new layout to make navigating the stream of links more manageable. 



Painted ceiling, Coptic Monastery of St Simeon, Aswan
(7th Century AD)

Fieldwork


Ian Shaw's email re the postponement of the 2013 season of the Gurob Harem Palace Project posted on Egyptology News blog at

Vast Kushite royal palace (5000 sq m) found on Nile betwn 3rd & 4th cataracts in Sonijat, Tergis, Sudan. Archaiologia

Looting and the black market

Young Egyptians start “Stop the heritage drain” campaign to prevent loss of Egypt's heritage. Daily News Egypt

Egyptian authorities seized 5 AE coffins, 63 statues and c.5000 coins in Beni Suef governorate. Xinhuanet via MENA  

Museums

Hixenbaugh Ancient Art Presents Recently Acquired Royal Ushabti of the Viceroy of Kush, Hori. With photo. SFGate

Egypt's Minister of Antiquities, Mohamed Ibrahim, inaugurated Assiut's first national museum. allafrica .com

HMNS Ancient Egypt Hall has partnered with multiple museums to create "permanently changing" display. culturemap  

Will a museum studies degree help you get a job in a museum? UCL Museums and Collections  

Research

Mummy of an AE woman, believed to be at least 2,500 years old, has been scanned in Ohio. Columbus Dispatch  

More re Nature article: Mummy genetics study may enable widespread genome mapping of Ancient Egyptians. Huff Post

What links the evolution of language to the collection of baboon figurines at the Petrie Museum of Egyptology? UCL  

The digital Gurob Ship-Cart Model, an open access digital supplement to Shelley Wachsmann's book. vizin .org  

Biblical Blame Shift - Is the Egyptologist Jan Assmann Fueling Anti-Semitism? Chronicle of Higher Education

Essay on Margaret Benson, first woman to gain right to excavate in Egypt, in 1895:

Tourism

Egypt lifts ban on Luxor ballooning, although company that owned crashed balloon still grounded. IOL News  

Strike in front of the Karnak temple in Luxor has ended after officers heard the strikers' demands. Daily News Egypt