The Archaeological Review

Worlds of Forgeries

2017-11-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

The painting of the lady above was once believed to be by Goya but when studied further it was found to be not by the artist but rather an 18th-century portrait of a woman that was painted over with materials not available till after Goya's death. Restorers of the painting decided the painting should be left in its current state with both portraits showing.

Many factors play a part in the art and antiquities marketplace including fakes and forgeries. In articles I have published on occasion I have referred to a museums piece as a forgery or fake it is never a personal thing but an inevitability of collecting, seeing whats not there and what should not be.

As a collector of art myself every once in a while I, unfortunately, add a fake to my collections and hopefully discover which are which before too much embarrassment. Inevitably the object which looked so hopeful in the store/gallery comes home and is placed in a place of pride to be admired by myself and my guests but what happens on occasion is that it is not until I walk by it a number of times that my original thrill begins to wear and those things which are not right begin to stand out and gnaw at me and my original judgment of the piece.

No museum/gallery or personal collector can escape this fact of the life in an open collection.

In recent years the Bolton Museum in the U.K. bought a forged statuette of an Egyptian Amarna princess for more than L400 000, while the J. Paul Getty Museum spent millions on a fake kouros. Where there is money to be made there will always be someone there to make it though even more insidious are those scholars who create fakes to make others look bad including Piltdown man.

The late Thomas Hoving on forgeries.

True when one finds out there piece is a forgery you better believe it's dead, and how fast can I get rid of it. This is one thing in a work of art but much harder to ferreted out when it is a document posing as historical.

In the Salamander letter Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism has a seer stone in which he sees the golden bible but when he goes to dig it up a Salamander appears and will not let Joseph take the bible until he shows up with his brother Alvin, who unfortunately is dead and buried. There is a rumor that Joseph Smith and his family dug up Alvin to use his remains in a ceremony.

The letter along with many other anti-Mormon documents was created by a forger in an attempt to discredit Joseph Smith and the Church of Latter Day Saints, and he earned big money on a number of his many creations of which some may still be out there perverting history.

Excellent show from the Detroit Institute of Arts on fakes and forgeries I recommend all six episodes:

I have also come across the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology on forgeries in their Egyptian collection. I also found this site on fake Egyptian antiquities. Of note must be the auction prices for the real work and the fake pieces.

Here is a fine list of antiquities auctions from recent years including prices realized. This site has an excellent overview of forgeries.

Salvator Mundi

2017-11-16T17:22:00.001-08:00

Here we find the long-lost painting "Salvator Mundi" (Savior of the World), by the Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci. The painting has recently been sold for $450 million and was at one time in the collection of the French King Charles I. The painting is believed to be Da Vinci's last work. Painted around c.1500 A.D. it is the only Da Vinci in private hands today, well at least yesterday.

I find myself feeling uncomfortable by the piece and must criticize the work as I can clearly see that at least two artists have worked on this painting which is evident to me by the differences between the lower right and the bottom left corner.

Note the quality of the right hand and the blue robe to the gold straps crossing the chest of Christ on that side. While the fabric on the left side sweeps down from that shoulder and is not nearly as visually convincing as the right side. In the center on the bottom, the area in between the gold straps is unconvincing as is the small triangle to the left which both does not catch the light even though the direction of the light from the forward right should illuminate that area albeit in shade instead, it appears as a hole.

I am most disturbed, however, by the presence of a crystal ball, a pagan object, in Christ's left hand though there are pagan objects in other Da Vinci paintings. I instead would expect to see an orb or the earth as the painting is called Savior of the World. This crystal ball also should reflect the light yet it is not convincing. Clearly visible is the lighted crease of fabric behind the crystal ball but the reflection of the light off the ball is flat and appears two dimensional.

The left-hand bear's none of the delicacies of the right and appears to be in a slightly awkward position. Having said all this the face is pure Da Vinci if not a little ghostly compared to the right hand. Christ also bear's a strong resemblance to the Mona Lisa despite the cleft in the chin.

This assessment can be answered by a number of ways including that like many if not most of Da Vinci's paintings it was left unfinished or finished by one of the master's student apprentices, or completed at a later date by an unknown artist.

I would be inclined to believe that it was completed by a student of Da Vinci who may also have been responsible for the black background. I from this photograph would think the face, right hand, and garment on the right and upper center are by the master with everything else by a lesser artist. One more thing bothers me in that Christ's chest appears quite busty and feminine.

The parts of the painting I attribute to a master artist does not necessarily mean it was painted by Da Vinci. The painting having been lost for centuries only reemerges in the late 1950's and may have been inspired by the Mona Lisa. The fact that when it went to auction in 1958 it brought in only around L50 which is hardly inspirational for a forger. I would love to see an X-ray of it especially the bottom left corner to see what is underneath the paint.

In conclusion, I would speculate that the aforementioned master artist is, in fact, likely Leonardo Da Vinci. I would also believe that with the death of Da Vinci the lower left and possibly the background were left unfinished. I say after death as I would have expected the master to correct his student on the weaker lower left corner.

If the painting was complete when it left his studio after the master's death is speculative though as I pointed out before Leonardo left a number of unfinished works some of which received a degree of enhancement by another hand, and to me, this is what happened to the Savior of the World.

Notes:

Photo Courtesy of Christie's
Salvator Mundi

Louis Daguerre Turns 229

2016-11-17T21:22:00.000-08:00

Louis Daguerre was born in 1787 in Cormeilles France, he was a painter and physicist who is credited with one of the earliest photographic mediums, thus here we have an image of London in 1839, the street appears to be uninhabited.

Louis Daguerre`s technique required ten to twenty minutes exposure thus the people on this street have vanished because they were moving. Most of Daguerre`s early images were destroyed in a fire in his Paris studio in 1839.

This image is of Paris in 1838 one must notice the man getting his shoe polished and is considered the earliest known image of a person photographed. Daguerre`s name is one of 72 prestigious French names engraved on the sides of the Eiffel Tower, the list contains no women.

This is an image of Louis Daguerre in 1844 who became known as the inventor of the diorama and because of his love of diorama, he thought the photographic process fit right in with this invention. The Daguerreotype, unfortunately, could only be made as a one-off image while competing techniques produced a plate that could yield many copies of the image and Daguerre`s technology became inferior and unwanted.

Louis Daguerre died of a heart attack in July of 1851 leaving a legacy in the early development in the science of photography which in the last century and a half has changed the world in the same light as the automobile and the computer.

Note:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thank You to Our Veterans

2016-11-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

Canada's most prestigious and poignant event is the ceremonies that take place at Canada's many cenotaphs on November 11 to remember those men and women, many just boys and girls who served our country valiantly. Our veterans have voluntarily served through two world wars and have served around the world in a number of wars and conflicts to bring better lives to those caught within these war zones.

THANK YOU!

Notes:

Photo of poppy field - John Beniston (Palmiped)

Crown of Empress Xiao

2016-11-07T10:58:00.001-08:00

Here we have the oldest best-preserved crown ever found in China. The crown was created for an empress named Xiao who belonging to the short-lived Sui Dynasty (581- 618 AD). After the restoration, the crown appears in all its original splendor. Empress Xiao's husband was Emperor Yang of Sui the last ruler of the dynasty which was followed by the Tang Dynasty, considered China's Golden Age.

The crown was discovered in the tomb inside a rotted wooden box near the Empress's coffin

Notes:

Photographs: [Credit: CNS/Tian Jin]

First Canadian

2016-11-06T19:42:00.003-08:00

I have been working to put together a new blog called "First Canadian". If you like what you see please hit the G+ button at the top of the page. The blog is devoted to everything Canadian particularly cultural events in the arts. First Canadian

The Four Corners Tragedy Ends - Five years Later

2016-06-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Perhaps 52 year old Utah antiques dealer Ted Gardiner felt the end justified the means and hey a couple hundred thousand dollars in Ted's pocket all sounded sweet so Ted and his F.B.I. buddies began their two year sting. The sting was meant to stop the destruction of archaeological sites and the illegal trade in native American artifacts particularly in the four corners area of the western United states.

So Ted sets up the video and recording devices and the marks rolled in, over a period of 2 years the F.B.I watched as Ted participated in criminal acts including robberies of Native American graves earning his $7500 a month plus expenses that the Feds were paying him. In 2009 the jig was up with the F.B.I rounding up 26 people charging them with felony indictments and removing truck loads of suspected artifacts from their properties.

People who knew Ted were aware of his love of archaeology and native American culture though one wonders if they noticed the extra money on him? The day after the indictments went down it all began to fall apart when defendant physician James Redd killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning with defendant Steven Shrader killing himself shortly after that.

When one looks at the list of those indicted we see not only people as old as to be in their sixties or even seventies but also that they are mostly locals. Locals whose families complained of heavy handedness by the police, and Ted became a traitor and an outcast among his associates.

The suicides left Ted with guilt over his actions for the part he played, and the next suicide would be Ted himself leaving the prosecution without their star witness. The F.B.I.'s case was weakened but with the recordings was strong enough to convict the defendants/survivors.

Now all the court cases have been settled with the roughly 10 000 artifacts to be returned to native tribes in the area. A case which started with heavy handed police followed by the tragic suicides and none of the surviving defendants will face jail time all received probation.

Notes:

Photo: (BLM)

Skeletons and Gold Coins at Pompeii

2016-06-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

Archaeologist from France and Italy excavating at Pompeii have found a number of skeletons, gold coins and jewelry in the ruins of an ancient shop on the outskirts of the city. Among the gold coins found at least one of them is from the reign of Vespasian who ruled the Roman world when the eruption of Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD.

The archaeologists found that the shop had been pillaged by diggers looking for valuables some time after the eruption. The archaeologists also found the tomb of a adult, possibly a male, from the 4th century BC that included black painted funerary vases near the body.

Notes:

Photo: [Pompeii Archaeological Site Press Office via AP]

The Archaeology News Network

The Mansoor Amarna Collection

2016-06-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Above we have a famous and charming Amarna royal couple from the collection of Berlin's Neues Museum. A second look reveals all the charm belongs to the man as she appears to be experiencing rigor mortis. I myself believe the piece to be a clumsy fake .

Here we have the website of the hotly disputed collection of Amarna period sculptures collected by antiques dealer M. A. Mansoor. Today some scholars consider the collection to be fakes others however are comfortable as feeling the sculptures are genuine.

The video is interesting but it is the museum gallery of images that is for me disturbing as I find all of the trial pieces to be too similar and fresh looking yet without soul and lacking any depth of detail. Not to mention the lack of subjects within these vacant heads and how alike they are to pieces both in Cairo's and Berlin's Egyptian museums.

These heads found in the house of sculptor Thutmosis at Tell el Amarna except with faces reminiscent of the hideous colossal figures of Akhenaten from the Gem Pa Aten at Karnak. That would make most of these pieces from an early period of the kings reign while presumably the works found in the Thutmosis house possess great spirit and are from the later part of Akhenaten's reign?

Picture #1 of a sculpture of Akhenaten has the same face as #24 and #26. Then there are the busts of the Amarna princess' with the faces being crudely worked and details left unfinished on all pieces. This could be explained by the works being found in a lesser sculptors studio at Tell el Amarna. The nemes headdress on sculpture #1 also appears to be just the wrong shape for my tastes.

In the collection shown only one nose is missing with two more slightly damaged this is unusual for a collection of sculptures from ancient Egypt. Images #37-38 seem to be copied directly from a painted scene of the royal couple pictured above. While #39, the two seated princess' come directly from the famous mural found by Flinders Petrie at Amarna inside the remains of a palace where they would not have been seen until after Mr.Petrie's discovery in modern times.

Though I am not a believer in the authenticity of the art pieces in the M.A. Mansoor Amarna collection. I do feel that Mr. M.A. Mansoor was a well respected antiques dealer who may have held them back because he knew they were fakes?

On the home page is an article about the Amarna princess which the family gave to the Louvre. The museum a number of years ago removed the statuette from display when after a scientific review it was agreed the princess was a fake. This does not please the family and it has been requested to be returned to them, unfortunately even if it is a fake the Louvre is not obliged to display or return the statuette.

This is not new but worth another look at so you can be the judge!

Notes:

http://www.mansooramarnacollection.com/
Photo from Neues Museum
The Irrelevant King

Agamemnon's Throne

2016-06-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

Archaeologist Christofilis Maggidis believes he has found a fragment of the throne of Agamemnon. Mr.Maggidis heads an excavation in southern Greece at Mycenae where the fragment of limestone was discovered in a riverbed beneath the ruins of a citadel. The block is not the most impressive of objects and may actually belong to a fortification wall.

In the past two years another study done has ruled the chunk to belong to a water basin with the result that Greece's cultural ministry is less than impressed at Mr. Maggidis's theory. The map which displays the path the throne took in an earthquake from the citadel to the river below presents what looks like an odd path and that a more straight line from the top to the bottom may be more reasonable.

Anyway Mr. Maggidis has absolutely no evidence that I can see that says its a throne. His theory needs an amazing discovery before the chunk of worked limestone becomes anything other than what it is, much less Agamemnon's throne.

Notes:

Photo of the throne of Minos at Knossos-Jebulon

The Miracle of the Sun, 1917

2016-05-23T18:05:00.001-07:00

It has been nearly 5 years since I last posted this beautiful miracle. On October 13, 2017 at noon (Fatima, Portugal time), will be the 100th anniversary of the Miracle of the sun.

Return to the Amphipolis Tomb

2016-05-22T14:25:00.002-07:00

This statue of a lion was found in 1912 in pieces near the eventually discovered tomb at Amphipolis, Greece. The colossal lion without its pedestal measures over 5 meters (16 feet), in height and was originally on top of the tomb on the Kashta hill but for whatever reason was moved a few kilometers away in antiquity. In ancient times lions were usually placed at sites as a memorial of a battle or of a great general.

When the teams excavations began in 2012 it was obvious that someone of importance would likely be buried within the tumulus. To the fortune of the archaeological team it was found that the tomb had been sealed and undisturbed since ancient times. The tomb is surrounded by a large circular wall made up of substantial limestone and marble blocks covered by earthen works.

The creation of the whole monument is dated to the time of Alexander the Great, and being created for someone likely within Alexander's immediate circle. The multi chamber stone tomb had been filled in with soil in ancient times thereby protecting the burial and its contents. Many beautiful sculptural ornaments have been found embedded within the architecture of the tomb which include a pair of headless sphinxes above the tombs entrance.

When opened it was found that the tomb had been heavily looted and vandalized in antiquity though among the debris were found bones in a burial pit. A number of very interesting inscriptions have also come to light during the excavation that may have identified the owner.

The website is very well put together, simple to navigate, easy to understand and welcoming to ages 10 to 110 years old. The site would make a wonderful history project for children interested in archaeology.

Notes:

The Great Tomb of Amphipolis

Photo: Lion after reconstruction in 1937

The First Wonder

2016-04-27T11:27:00.002-07:00

First occurrence of Sed jubilee

Year 2 second month of the first season, day 3

This wonder which happened to his majesty : that the beasts of the highlands came down to him; there came a gazelle great with young, going with the face of the people before her, while her eyes looked backward; she did not turn back until she arrived at this august mountain, at this block, it still being in place, for this lid of this sarcophagus. She dropped her young upon it while the army of the king was looking. Then they cut off her neck before it and brought fire. It descended in safety.

Now, it was the majesty of this august god, lord of the highlands, who gave the offering to his son, Nibtowere, Mentuhotep IV, living forever, in order that his heart might be joyful, that he might live upon his throne forever and ever, that he might celebrate millions of Sed Jubilees.

The hereditary prince, count, governor of the city and vizier, chief of all nobles of judicial office, supervisor of everything in this whole land, the vizier Amenemhet.

Notes:

Ancient Records of Egypt: James Breasted

The Second Wonder

2016-04-26T18:16:00.002-07:00

Eight days after the First Wonder occurred a Second Wonder was added to the king's stela recorded on the rocks of the Hammamat quarry.

450. King of Upper and Lower Egypt Nibtowere, (Mentuhotep IV) who liveth forever, born of the king's mother, Imi, second month of the first season, day 23.

451. One set to work on this day on the block of the sarcophagus. The wonder was repeated, rain was made, the forms of this god appeared, his fame was shown to men and the highland was made a lake, the water went to the margin of the stone. A well was found in the midst of the valley being 10 cubits by 10 cubits on its every side filled with fresh water to its edge, undefiled, kept pure and cleansed from gazelles, concealed from the troglodyte barbarians. Soldiers of old and kings who had lived in the aforetime went out and returned by its side, no eye had seen it, the face of man had not fallen upon it but to his majesty himself it was revealed............... Those who were in Egypt heard it, the people who were in Egypt, South to the Northland (Delta), they bowed their heads to the ground, they praised the goodness of his majesty forever and ever.

Completion of the work

452. On the twenty-eighth of the month work was completed, and the following appendix was added to the king's stela:

453. Day 28. The lid of this sarcophagus descended, being a block of 4 cubits, by 8 cubits, by 2 cubits, on coming forth from the work. Cattle were slaughtered, goats were slain, incense put on the fire. Behold, an army of 3,000 sailors of the nomes of the Northland (Delta) followed it in safety to Egypt.

Notes:

Ancient Records of Egypt: James Breasted

Pages 242-243

The Cheerful Skeleton

2016-04-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

I really like this rare 3rd century BCE mosaic of a skeleton with an inscription "Be Cheerful, enjoy life". The mosaic was found in the Syrian border province of Hatay.

The Archaeology News Network

Ghosts of Everest

2016-04-19T12:38:00.003-07:00

William E. Northdurft
The Mountaineers Books
USA
1999
ISBN 0-89886-669-5

         "It would look rather grim to see others, without me, engaged in conquering the summit."

                              George Mallory

The book opens with the telling of the last attempt to summit by the 1924 British expedition, which included both George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, among others. In early June, the expedition had made two high camps, Camp V at 25,300 feet and Camp VI at 27,000 feet. They had already made two failed attempts to reach the 29,029-foot summit, but now time was running out, supplies were low, and a number of the members of the expedition had already left for home. The chapter contains many original photographs from the British expeditions of the early 1920's, including the last photograph of Andrew Irvine and George Mallory departing from the North Col on June 6, 1924.

     "there was a sudden clearing of the atmosphere, and the entire summit ridge and final peak of Everest were unveiled. My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted on a small narrow snow-crest beneath a rock-step in the ridge; the black spot moved. Another black spot became apparent and moved up the snow to join the other on the crest. The first then approached the great rock-step and shortly emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole fascinating vision vanished,"
1924 Team Member Noel Odell

This was the last time the two English climbers were seen alive, attempting to be the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Mallory and Irvine had disappeared into legend.

The author puts forward the story of the formation of a new expedition scheduled for the 1999 climbing season called The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition. Team members included expedition leader Eric Simonson, researcher and climbing support Jochen Hemmleb, climber Conrad Anker, Cameraman Dave Hahn, climbers Tap Richards and Andy Politz, and team Doctor Lee Meyers. Expedition organizer Larry Johnson is a geologist as well as a geophysicist. Two camera crews also accompanied the expedition, as well as too many support members to list as well as eleven sherpas. Extensive research was done before, and there was talk of the BBC joining the expedition to make a program for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the two men's disappearance.

The unsuccessful British 1933 expedition found Andrew Irvine's ice ax at 27,600 feet, and it has been assumed by some to be the site of Irvine's fall. A member of the Chinese expedition of 1975 reported to a Japanese climber years later that he had found an "English dead" at 26,575 feet and that the clothes on the body were very old and disintegrated to the touch.

The task of organizing the Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition was itself as much a herculean task as the actual climb up the North Face of Everest. This required thousands of pounds of supplies, including food, tents, fuel, and a large supply of oxygen. Before all these supplies could be mustered together, first the money to pay for them had to be raised. Experienced climbers were rounded up from a number of Mountaineering agencies. Finally, the expedition came together in Kathmandu and began making their long journey to base camp at Mount Everest.

"Higher in the sky than imagination had ventured to dream, the top of Everest itself appeared.

                                                                                              George Mallory

The ascent begins at The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition, which begins setting up the various campsites that are going to be needed to acclimatize the expedition to the thinning air as the team moves higher up the side of Everest. Along the way, the men find an old campsite which at first appears to be old English in materials, but instead, they find it is likely the 1960 Chinese expedition, which used English-manufactured supplies.

The book is graced throughout with pictures of the expedition of 1999 and of the tragic 1924 attempt at the summit, including photographs of artifacts that head each chapter. One cannot help but think that you would never catch me climbing Everest or any other mountain, especially as the higher the climbers venture, the harder it becomes. Having said that, the book draws the reader in as heroic tales often do. Here, the author has avoided the downfall of books of adventure, that is, the urge for the writer to water down the adventure with too much technical depth.

Finally, after months of work putting the research project together and enduring the incredible climb up the mountain carrying supplies just to establish the six camps needed for The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition, just to begin its job, and here they were in the Death Zone near the suspected 1975 Chinese expedition's camp at 27000 feet. The men fanned out across a thirty-degree slope of loose rocks, and within a half hour, the men of the expedition found themselves in a graveyard of frozen, mutilated bodies, the victims of many treacherous falls off the North Face of the mountain.

The men set out across the grim landscape, getting only as close to the victims as needed to identify whether the broken body in question could be eliminated by brightly colored modern clothing not available in 1924. Down at base camp, Jochem Hemlebb was identifying the bodies based on the clothing descriptions being radioed back to him from the men in the search party. One of the team searched the scree low on the lower ledge of the terrace they were on when he caught sight of a white patch against the gray rocks.

While these searches are going on for material from the 1924 expedition, two of the team, Conrad Anker and Dave Hahn, are making their own attempt to summit Everest and to see if they can find evidence whether Mallory and Irvine had themselves reached the summit of the mountain before disappearing. The two expeditions from 1924 and 1999 became intertwined, with results that the heroism of the venture was merely less of an accomplishment in 1999 than it was for George Mallory and Andrew Irvine seventy-five years earlier.

The book closes with two appendices, one on the stats of The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition, and another on the two Chinese expeditions of 1960 and 1975, in which climber Wang Hongbao had reported the sighting of an "English dead." In the end, the book was an easy read for ages 14 to 114, this being due to its layout being filled with colored pictures and useful diagrams of Mount Everest. To the author's credit the Ghosts of Everest was very difficult to put down and something I will likely return to in the future.

   "If one should ask me what "use" there was in climbing, or attempting to climb the world's highest peak, I would be compelled to answer "none." There is no scientific end to be served; simply the gratification of the impulse of achievement, the indomitable desire to see what lies beyond that ever beats within the heart of man."
                                                                                                     George Mallory

Notes:

Here we have a short video produced by The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition

BBC Lost on Everest

Man and His World International Fine Arts Exhibition Expo 67

2016-03-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Pierre Dupuy
The National Gallery Of Canada
Montreal, Canada
1967
ASIN: B000GWISM4

This is the guide to the exhibition 'Man and His World', which ran at the Worlds Fair, Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada from April 28th to the 27th of October 1967. The collection is made up of masterpieces on loan from many of the worlds finest museums and private collections. Most of the works in this guide are represented on the right-hand page with the left side devoted to the description of the piece presented on the right. The descriptions are presented in both French in a column on the outer left page while the English are on the inner side of the pages resulting that the English can be difficult to read as it vanishes into the crease.

Man

The guide opens with a selection of statues from around the world including a headless secondary level statue of Gudea, Prince of Lagash, from the Louvre's large collection of Gudea's statues. This is followed by a much more important black granite statue of the Egyptian nobleman Amenhotep, son of Hapu, from Cairo's Egyptian Museum. Amenhotep was from the middle of the 14th century B.C. and remembered in Late Period Egypt as a sainted man.

In this, we have a stunning Hinoki wood portrait statue of a man named Taira-no Kiyomori from the 13th century Rokuharamitsu-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan. His flowing garments give almost a naturalistic appearance as if the great man is rising from the earth or from a waterlily. The head of the man, in contrast, is the portrait of one who not only displays great knowledge but also is a creator of new knowledge. Soon we come to a painting by Jan van Eyck inscribed as being his wife Margaret and painted in c.1439. Presented here in black and white but can also be found opposite the title page in color. She is rather a plain lady dressed in fine fur-trimmed garments who stares the viewer right in the eye as a formidable force. She is also sadly one of only a couple dozen works of Jan van Eyck to come down to the present.

What a pleasure it is to find among the exhibition Rembrandt van Rijn's last self-portrait painted only months before his death.

"Although the dark robe is relieved only by the white neckcloth, there is an indomitable swagger in the shapes and folds of the shinning cap. The simple mass of his body is but a support for the massive, leonine head with its dominating brow contracted in thought. Life and soul seem to triumph in the large luminous eyes and the hint of a smile around the mouth, a smile not of self-pity, but of compassion and resignation. As in all Rembrandt's paintings it is the light which overcomes the darkness which threatens to engulf man; and it is the light which pulsates with life."
Dr. Peter Brieger

Man and Work

As the guide continues the reader is presented with an Old Kingdom Egyptian limestone statuette of a servant woman grinding grain from ancient Egypt's Fifth Dynasty, c.2560-2420 B.C. It is a lovely example of its type with the youthful smiling lady as a healthy vigorous worker who expresses no sign of exhaustion. She was never meant to be admired as a piece of art rather she would have been placed in a tomb never to be seen by anyone except the master she served in the afterlife

African Bronzes from the Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria, bear such a distinct style that they are immediately recognizable as in the figure from the British Museum of a hunter carrying an antelope. The 17th-century figure is crisply modeled and part of a tradition that began in the 15th century through on to the industries decline in the 19th century. Jean-Francois Millet's 'The Gleaners', was exhibited in the Salon of 1857 recalling the traditional subject matter of people at labor. Millet's work became very inspirational to a number of the Impressionists including Van Gogh.

This painting is by Isaac Israilevitch Brodsky and painted in 1930 in the years after Lenin's death when his personality cult was growing as the father of the Soviet state. Here the leader is just under life-size sitting at work in the Smolny Institute in the early days after the revolution in 1917. Back then the institute served as the home of the Soviet Central Committee. The size of the work draws the viewer into the experience of a personal moment in the presence of the great revolutionary.

Man at Play

The 12th-13th-century silk painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art titled 'One Hundred Children at Play', is a complex composition with the children in various games.and sports. The small charming painting, unfortunately, loses much of its power, like many of the works presented in the black and white photographs within in the guide.

Among the more interesting works in the exhibition are the five very large 16th-century playing cards from South Germany or the Tyrol. The hand-painted cards represent the King of Pomegranates, the Queen of Figs, the Knave of Pears, the Eight of Apples and the Two of Pears. The upper personalities on the cards are represented by monkeys. The cards also have on the back the coat of arms of the Archduke Ferdinand II.

In the short life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the artist produced works of great motion imbued with the excited atmosphere of his subjects at play. Here in the 'Circus Fernando', we find the stars of the show engaged in their roles of professional play for the amusement of the audience. The haughty Ringmaster cracks his whip as the architect of the performance while the horse and its rider do not miss a beat remaining tightly synchronized within their roles in the game.

Man and Love

There are few places in art history where the subject of love is colder and more detached than in the statuary of Ancient Egypt. The four thousand five hundred-year-old statue of Neferhotep and his wife Tjentety is just over four feet in height with the couple staring straight ahead transfixed into the beyond. The only sign of affection is Tjentety's left arm placed around her husband with her hand on Neferhotep's left shoulder, while her right arm crosses her body in front to hold his right arm. More telling is the fact that Tjentety is shown as on par with her husband in height wherein such a genre of statuary the wife is often seen much smaller than her mate often being only as tall as her husbands lower leg. It is perhaps this fact of equality that is the most revealing aspect of their love and respect for each other in this severe formal portrayal.

'Mr. and Mrs. Andrews', by Thomas Gainsborough is one of the artists most famous early works painted between 1749-50. The piece was done shortly after the Andrews wedding and may have been regarded as a "Wedding Portrait". Today it is considered as one of Gainsborough's masterpieces. The artist's crisp style occupies blocks of color in a setting that draws the viewer across the unfettered landscape. It is, however, the sitter's clothes that highlight the environment of the young handsome couple who like the previous Egyptian piece do not look to each other rather each holds their own to the approaching viewer.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art lent to the exhibition Constantine Brancusi's 1908 sculpture 'The Kiss', from its Arensberg Collection. At 23 inches in height, this rectangular limestone block encompasses the union between man and woman in the moment of the kiss. The two busts embrace each other looking straight into each other's eyes. The details are engraved upon the block in low relief with the subtle curve to indicate the woman's breasts, the couple's hair, and their arms. A fine enough sculpture though it is a little lumpy and lacks the refinement of form so prevalent in Brancusi's best pieces.

Here we have Egon Schiele's 'The Family', on loan from the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria for the exhibition, though in the guide it is pictured in black and white. This large canvas is a portrait of the artist with his wife Edith and their baby painted in 1917. The painting presents a young couple starting a family though sadly both Egon and Edith died in the influenza epidemic in the late fall of 1918 and the baby was never born.

Man and Nature

The theme in art history of man's environment has long been the subject of reflection as in the 2nd Century mosaic loaned by Tunisia's National Museum. The art of mosaics was well practiced in ancient Roman buildings in North Africa, including this mosaic of wild asses being attacked by a tiger. The tiger lunges at one of the beasts getting hold while the second beast in a moment of panic leaps free looking back at the tiger. Captured in this moment is the place where the strong survive and the weak perish.

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa loaned 'The Two Watermills', painted by Meindert Hobbema in 1688. The artist is considered one of the great Dutch landscape painters of his age with this subject being one which the artist painted many times. The dark foreground gently leads back through the trees and small mills to light wispy clouds encircling a blue sky. The painting was given to the people of Canada by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands as thanks for the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of her country at the end of the Second World War, as well as the hospitality Canadians showed to her family during that war.

"Strike down to the root of the forest entire!
Destroy all the forest of evil
Whose seeds were once sowed within thee by the breathings of death!
Destroy in thee all love of the self!
Destroy and tear out all evil, as in the autumn we cut with the hand the flower of the lotus."
Paul Gauguin, Noa Noa
Urban Man

The slightly morbid work by Edvard Munch 'Spring Evening in Karl Johan Street, Oslo', challenges the viewer with a crowd of people dressed in dark clothes that are right upon the observer on the sidewalk. The viewer must decide to go along with the crowd or get out of the way. The faces in the crowd are mask-like heading to a destination not entirely certain, and within them, we find there is no joy present rather there looms uncertainty as night closes in.

Below we have 'The Street', from 1913 by German Expressionist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. In this piece from a series of paintings that are considered among Kirchner's finest work, the artist paints prostitutes among a group of potential clients on a Berlin street. The painting used to belong to the National Gallery in Berlin where it hung until 1937 when it was removed forcefully by Nazi's and labeled as "degenerate art". The painting was only one of six hundred and thirty-nine pieces of Kirchner's work removed from public institutions in Germany leading up to the Second World War. Sick and suffering from depression the artist committed suicide the following year.

Like the Kirchner piece presented Jean Dubuffet's 1961 oil painting 'Business Prospers', was on loan from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. The work is part of a series that Dubuffet called "Paris Circus". Here the artist presents a city with its various characters, sordid or otherwise. These people are engaged in activities within their own separate cells (worlds), being brought together by city streets which are the arteries that link the inhabitants of the city into the whole of society.

The artworks chosen for this exhibition are an extremely impressive lot from some of the most important artists to have left their benefit to mankind. Criticism must, however, be in the black and white pictures as well the descriptions provided which are in most cases far too long and impractical to have been of much use to the guests who toured the exhibition. These long explanations burden the reader with too much information that is often made irrelevant by the black and white photographs presented.

Man and His Conflicts

Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam's 1943 work 'The Jungle',

"Although we can recognize in this work a formal link with the surrealist paintings of Picasso, this strange and terrifying nightmare of half-moon shaped heads and of angular forms belongs entirely to Wilfredo Lam's personal mythology and this theme of metamorphosis constantly appears in his works. Yet, this Jungle has a more universal meaning if one considers that, at the time it was painted in 1943, the world was in the midst of a conflict in which thousands of human beings were daily submitted to violent and fantastic experiences."
Pierre Theberge

Francis Bacon said of his work that it was not meant to be precise but to "make a certain type of feeling visual." This feeling is without a doubt in his 1954 painting 'Figure with Meat (Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef)'. The work is one of the artists many paraphrases of the 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X', by Spanish artist Velazquez. The authoritative lone figure sits surrounded by sides of beef on either side leaving the suggestion of death, decay, and isolation.

In Roberto Sebastian Antonio Matta's 1960 oil painting 'The Torture of Djamila', the artist depicts the torture of an Algerian girl by French parachutists in the Algerian revolution. The painting is a protest against the unjust and inhuman horrors of war. The victim is a robot, naked being tortured by men wearing helmets who like the victim, Djamila, are robots acting with cruel mechanical efficiency upon their young captive.

Man and His Ideals

The Detroit Institute of Art loaned this red granite head of a king dated to ancient Egypt's New Kingdom c.1580 - 1085 B.C. The fine carving and use of a hard stone like granite suggest that the piece came from an important place within the architecture of an unknown temple of the Thutmoside period of Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty. Today photographs have revealed that the head is a forgery created around 1925 by the master forger Oxan Asianian, who was known as the "Master of Berlin", and who died the year following this exhibition.

From The British Museum came the bronze one and a half life-size head of a goddess, or god, with the suggestion that it is Aphrodite. The head was found with a left hand in Armenia and reflects the monumental presence and the far-reaching influence of the Hellenistic Greek world in the years after Alexander the Great's death. The head was a star of The British Museum in the 19th century, though by the late 1960's had lost much of its importance within the museum.

Georges Braque's 1956 painting 'Bird and its Nest', was included by the artist to the Brussels Exhibition of 1958, and later presented to the French state in 1965 by Braque's widow. The subject of the bird was introduced into the artist work in the early 1950's and became an important symbol of the penetration of space in his later works. The artist included the bird in his painting on the ceiling of the Etruscan gallery in the Louvre.

Man the Visionary

This Mochica culture gold death mask dates between the 3rd -8th centuries and was found in Peru's "Pyramid of the Moon". The ground of the adobe pyramid must have been a sacred area reserved for the burial of high ranking nobles and priests of the Mochica. Holes on the outer edge suggest that the mask was likely attached to the face of a mummy bundle and once adorned with elaborate earplugs. The face with its inlaid shell eyes may be a stylized representation of the deceased and not an actual portrait.

A fabulous 19th-century iron macehead from Persia has horns and an almost human-like face inlaid with silver and gold. The tradition of such maces in Persian iconography may go back to the ancient supernatural bulls of Assyrian art. The legendary King Faridun used a bulls-head mace in a battle to honor a sacred cow that had suckled the king. The macehead follows a long tradition in Islamic art being filled with innumerable demons and spirits that are familiar to the Persian peoples even today.

The hardest hit victims of the black and white pictures must surely belong to the abstract works by artists like Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, and Pierre Soulages, whose work 'Painting, 1964', becomes a meaningless smear in which a color photograph could have replaced much of the four paragraphs allotted to its description.

Man and the Infinite

A very beautifully preserved 12th-13th century polychrome over the wood statue of Kuan-yin Bodhisattva over six feet tall from the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum in Kansas City is of such superb carving, and of such restrained use of color as to reinforce the goddesses heavenly presence to the honored viewer. From the Museo Nacional de Antropologia Mexico was loaned a basalt statue of the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl.

"In his aspect of "Xolotl," the dog headed deity, Quetzalcoatl went down to "Mictian," the Aztec underworld, from which he brought back to earth the bones of men long dead. He resurrected these bones by sprinkling over them the blood of his own body."
Joan Vastokas

The exhibition ends off with a number of ecclesiastical objects including crucifix's, icons, paintings, and 16th century illuminated pages of the Koran. The exhibition was, without doubt, one of the great collections of art put together in the 20th century. The guide with its many authors was a bit drawn out and a chore to finish, however, the individual works chosen for the exhibition were among the great accomplishments in the last 5000 years of 'Man and His world'.

Notes:

1. Statue of Taira-no Kiyomori
2. Lenin in the Smolny Institute: The State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow
3. In the Circus Fernando: The Ringmaster, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Joseph Winterbotham Collection
4. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough: The National Gallery, London
5. The Family by Egon Schiele: Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
6. The Harvest, 1888: Van Gogh Museum
7. 'Matamoe" Landscape with Peacocks by Paul Gauguin: The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
8. "The Street, !913" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: The Brooklyn Rail; Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, "Street, Berlin", 1913. Oil on canvas. 47.5"×35 7/8" The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson. Â©Ingeborg and Dr. Wolfgang Henze-Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern
9. 'The Jungle', Guache on paper painting by Wilfredo Lam, 1943, Museum of Modern Art
10. Head of a King: The Detroit Institute of Art
11. Death Mask from Moon Pyramid: The Linden Museum
12. The Fiery Ascent of the Prophet Elijah: State Historical Museum, Moscow

Canadian Pictures: Drawn with Pen and Pencil

2016-03-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Marquis of Lorne, K.T.
The Religious Tract Society
London
1890

Canadian pictures is one of a series of travel books which include titles such as "The land of the Pharaohs" and "Indian pictures". The Marquis of Lorne, 1845-1914,was also the ninth Duke of Argyll and Canada's fourth Governor General 1878-1883.

This beautiful book opens with a wonderful full page etching from one of the Marquis' sketches of a "Road near New Westminster, British Columbia", The road is surrounded by massive cedar trees while a two horse carriage passes through. At the head of the contents page another of the Marquis' sketches of "The Rocky mountains from our camp on the Elbow river" is magnificent clearly the Marquis was a talent with pen and pencil.

A large fold out colored map of Canada issued by the Minister of Railways and Canals (1882) is present as well as impressive. The map contains within it a small insert map of the routes to and from the British Isle's and North America.

Chapter one is titled "The Dominion of Canada", here the viewer is confronted by two more high quality images one of New Westminster, British Columbia but the more interesting image is the full page sketch of "Shad Fishing", The fisherman stand above a choppy shore on crudely made docks while holding long sticks with nets on the end.

The chapter is on the statistics of the Dominion beginning with Newfoundland and heading west including the make up of it's area, the habitable area, as well as resources, export and import revenues and governing bodies. The populations are broken down by religious denomination, this being either Protestant or Roman Catholic with it being notable that at the time of writing the chapter in 1884 Ontario has some Jews.

The images are enchanting views of yesteryear including the "Indian hunting equipment" from the authors collection, so too is the etching of the oxen pulling a cart across the great bluff of the Thompson River. The next chapter "Relations between Canada and England" contains an image of a snowplow train, a most remarkable relic of ingenuity!

Of relations between Australia, Canada and the British Isles the author says "How foolish therefor, will our successors in England deem us to have been, if we do not meet to the fullest degree possible the wishes of these growing states!", "They will retain a brothers feeling for us, if we are friendly to them in the critical time of their coming manhood.". The author continues "Days may arrive when we shall implore their assistance, and when the alliance of those powers, grown into maturity and strength, and under very possible circumstances the strong arbiters of our own destinies, shall be ours through the wisdom we may show to-day, or may be lost to us, and become the property of our enemies, by the coldness of our conduct at this hour."

Chapter three is on "The climate of Canada" and opens with a sweet picture of children tobogganing as well as an image of dog sled harnessed but at rest. The author lays down the costs of emigration to Canada from the British Isles and encourages women to go as far west as they can afford, as there is a shortage in the western provinces. The images of an Indian camp on the plains and British Columbia's Homathco river are wonderful and alluring views.

The Maritime Provinces are the subject of chapter four with an excellent picture of the town of Halifax. While collecting relics at Louisburg the Marquis finds the ruins of the old French fort built on behalf of Louis XIII. Of this fort the author says "There was, the remnant of an old sword, although green with age; there was even the breech piece of a small canon, and the barrel of a musket. Had these lain buried ever since the day that saw the arrival of General Wolfe".

The beautiful pictures keep coming as the Marquis ventures on to Canada's most populated province Ontario with the opening image being that of Niagara falls and another remarkable picture of "A beaver village". The provinces accommodations , industry, religion and environments are delved into including girls schools recommended highly by the author.

With chapter six we are introduced to Canada's largest French province, Quebec, with a nice image of Montmorenci falls which the author tells us that the falls freezes in winter creating a slide for the amusement of locals, the author tells us "Quebecois are heard with a sigh of regret to recall the days when the presence of a garrison of British regulars supplied numbers of young men who could devote their days to such amusements, and very gay were the parties whose members flew down the white slopes until evening came, and time was found for a dance and supper".

The author goes on to record the fate of a pair of French soldiers captured by the Iroquois in years gone by and after a night of beatings the two soldiers were expected to be burned at the stake the following morning but of which fortune spared, the author also mentions some talk about the custom of taking scalps . An old engraving of Champlain attacking an Iroquois fort is amazing!

Having said all that I have to admit the book is very statistically orientated with matters that would have concerned an emigrant of a hundred and twenty years ago but so many mentions on crop yields, that being bushels per acre, and I imagine many readers would not be going further or might confine themselves to the areas of their interest.

In chapter VII we are on a tour of Lake Huron to Winnipeg with an image of the town of Winnipeg surrounded by fields and Indian Teepee's and a covered wagon. The author discusses the enormous mineral potential including copper mines around Lake Superior. The author also discusses the mining of silver by an American consortium "It came up in moss like branches running through a white stone; it was found in blocks of grey ore, and in thick sheets of solid silver,".

With chapter VIII we find "The Indians of the North-west" and a wonderful sketch of "Blackfeet Indians crossing a river". The author presents an argument for the licensing act of 1883 which controlled the licensing of alcohol and says "If an argument derived from the effects of over-indulgence in stimulants can be derived from the conduct of white men under their influence, a far stronger proof of their bad consequence may be drawn from the ruin they work on the Red man." We are presented with a sketch titled "Ugly Customers" which portray four natives, three of whom are leaning on a counter in a general store and the author now tells about the Cree tribe and horse stealing.

Of complete fascination the author than goes on to tell us about Sitting Bull and General Custer with Sitting Bull saying "he sent a letter to me, telling me that if I did not go to an agency he would fight me; and I sent word back to him by his messenger that I did not want to fight, but only to be left alone.". After more messages of intimidation from Custer to Sitting Bull, Sitting bull relinquishes " 'All right; get your men mounted, and I will get all my men mounted; we will have a fight; the Great Spirit will look on, and the side that is in the wrong will be defeated. ".

Sitting Bull recounts "I believe Custer was killed in the first attack, as we found his body, or what all the Indians thought was Custer's body, about the place where the first attack was made. I do not think there is any truth in the report that he shot himself.". We are next told about Sitting Bull and his tribe taking refuge in Canada and the desire to deport the chief and his people back to United States as a prisoner of war.

A most horrible description of young warriors being deliberately tortured in order to prove their mettle is presented and a very difficult description to read let alone willingly participate.

The author talks about the early explorers and their meetings with the natives, Champlain described the treatment given one French captive, "They bade the poor man sing if he had the courage to do so, and the victim did manage to sing, but naturally enough, "it was a song which was sad to hear." He tells us "our friends lit a fire, and when it was well aflame, each took a brand and burnt the miserable creature by slow degrees, so as to make him suffer more torment." After many hours more torture by fire and scalping the party pours hot resin over the victims head and pierces his arms near his fists to draw forth his nerves, it is thankfully at this point that Champlain is able to convince the Indians to let him kill the half dead man.

The author goes on to tell us of less gruesome activities of the Indians. As the chapter closes we are presented with an image of "An Indian Burial on the Plains", the body wrapped and placed upon a platform of sticks high above the ground.

With chapter IX we are presented "The New Territories" and an etching of the Marquis' collection of native artifacts. Here the author deals with the western provinces including Saskatchewan, Athabasca and Alberta recalling about many of the first settlers and the productive value of these lands for farming as well as mineral exploration and the gold rush.

We are presented with a land of great opportunity for emigrants who the author lays out the costs to settle and build a farm as well as the expected bushels per acre. The image of "Fort Edmonton" is terrific.

The last chapter is on British Columbia and opens with a beautiful quaint sketch by the Marquis of a "View From Esquimault. ", though it must be said that the images of this chapter are some of the best including a view of an Indian suspension bridge and views of the Fraser River and an Indian salmon cache. The view of Indian graves with carved statues in front is also magnificent.

But of the China man the author says "There is no doubt that the presence of the Chinese in any number is only a temporary phenomenon. They remain strangers to the country they reside in." From hear we are informed of the beautiful properties of the land, the customs of its native populations.

The author talks about a 300 foot tall tree and its surroundings "All around this giant at Burrard Inlet were others nearly as large." We are told about the various explorers who investigated this shore and its value to the Dominion as the countries Pacific shore.

We are again presented with the assets of the land for pioneers including the husbandry of its animals. Finally we are told that at the time about 40 000 to 50 000 people emigrate to Canada each year. An appendix follows discussing the states of Government in development in the Dominion as well as the United States.

Canadian Pictures was thoroughly interesting in its images which almost if not all took me to another time and place though the authors descriptions were often more information than a casual reader needs but would have been incredibly useful to those considering emigration to Canada in the later part of the Victorian era.

Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada

2016-02-26T22:28:00.000-08:00

James W. Tyrrell, C.E., D.L.S.
William Briggs
Toronto
Third Revised Edition
1908
ISBN-10: 1298590264
ISBN-13: 978-1298590268

In the years 1885, 1893 and 1900 J.B Tyrrell working on behalf of the Canadian Geological Survey, and his brother, (the author) James W. Tyrrell conducted three expeditions of the Canadian sub-arctics lying north of the 59th parallel, including surveying as well as documenting the "savage" Eskimos of the region.

The expedition begins "One beautiful May morning" as the author and his brother make final preparations from Toronto to meet up with their team of rustic canoe-men and portages. Among the team is a recommended man named John Flett who is well experienced and an Eskimo linguist.

Three more members of the team are brothers who are Iroquois experts from Caughnawaga these being Pierre, Louis, and Michel French. While at Fort McMurray two more strong fellows would join the expedition they were James Corrigal and Francois Maurice.

The author J.W. Tyrrell refers to three of the above men as "half-breeds", the author then goes on to give an explanation for why he has not hired Indians from Lake Athabasca because he considers them to be lazy indisposition. Boarding the train in Toronto begins the five-day ride to Edmonton.

"We arrived early on the morning of the 22nd at the busy town of Calgary, pleasantly situated in the beautiful valley of the south branch of the Saskatchewan River, and just within view of the snow-clad peaks of the Rocky mountains." "On the evening of the same day, in the teeming rain, we reached Edmonton".

As the journey continues J.W. says " we reached the height of land between the two great valleys of the Saskatchewan and Athabasca rivers. Here, upon a grassy spot, we made our first camp." The author continues "our slumbers were somewhat broken by the fiendish yells of prairie wolves from the surrounding scrub, and the scarcely less diabolical screams of loons sporting on a pond close by. An effort was made to have the later removed, but anyone who has ever tried to shoot loons at night will better understand". Soon the author and his brother come across a moose which they shoot multiple times before killing the poor creature.

I really like the sketches and photographs of the journey and the authors writing style is better than his shot but through only the first few chapters in the author's perception of his fellow man is clearly that of an education of the later Victorian era in which the author classifies people as either gentleman, half-breeds or savages.

Among the indigenous people, a man by the Christian name of Moberly agrees to help the expedition find the way but unfortunately, the guide is unreasonable and lags sulking behind the members of the expedition. After canoeing to Moberly's village they finally arrive where Moberly pulls a screaming fit and threatens to not lead the men unless they hand over to him a portion of their supplies, with this the men head on without their guide.

The early part of the expedition heads through thick sheets of rain, uphill portages climbing through dense forest and jagged rocks carrying thousands of pounds of supplies and over small lakes as the expedition turns into a fantastic journey and civilization slowly disappears. One of the last stops before heading into the wild of the sub-arctic is at Fort McMurray, a settlement containing five small log buildings and then a number of Indian villages containing Cree tepee's pass by.

As the people disappear the men are joined by huge swarms of mosquitoes and black flies, and unfortunately James Corrigal receives a gash to his knee but is thankfully still useful. The hardship and sheer brute struggle of the journey show the men of the expedition to be worthy of the truly heroic challenge facing them.

Pierre turns out to be the strongest canoe man in the bunch with the ability to guide his canoe through the most rugged rapids. The nineteenth-century photographs of the people and the journey are truly amazing, thankfully on just about every page, they are found.

Soon the trees start to thin out and become more isolated and gnarled, the air becomes colder, the mosquitoes go away and glaciers appear. The men now look across a barren rocky landscape covered in mosses and to their good fortune find miles of herds of caribou of which the men kill a couple dozen and spend the next three days cutting up and drying for the long journey they have before them.

Near the outlet of Markham lake the men make a discovery as J.W. explains "It is worthy of note that at this point some very old moss grown "tepee" poles and fragments of birch bark were found, indicating that in days gone by the spot had been visited by Indians". The author goes on to say "There was more than sentiment to us in the fact, for from the old rotten poles, few and small though they were, we built a fire that gave us not a little comfort and cheer."

After a number of days on the lower Dubawnt river navigating ice flows and open water and down pouring rain the cold wet explorers come across at the second rapids signs of people as J.W. tells us "the first unmistakable signs of the recent habitations of Eskimos were discovered, They consist of rings of camp stones, an old bow, several broken arrows, a whip-stock and numerous broken or partly formed willow ribs of a "kyack," or canoe."

The following day down a little stream called the Chamberlain river on the edge of Grant lake the men of the expedition spot their first Eskimo as the author explains "Towards evening we sighted, upon the right bank" "the solitary lodge of an Eskimo. In front of the doorway stood a man gazing towards us, and behind and around him excited women and children were gathered. These were all placed inside the "topick" or lodge, and the door laced up securely. But the man remained outside."

The meeting was cordial with the Eskimos and upon leaving the authors steersman Louis commented that "They are not savage, but real decent people." On the evening of the 26th of August, the expedition reached a magnificent body of water known as Aberdeen lake, the author says "a feeling of awe crept over us. We were undoubtedly the first white men who had ever viewed it, and in the knowledge of this fact there was inspiration."

On the page opposite is a photo of one of the men standing next to an Eskimo cairn. From here J.W. goes on to describe the daily life of the Eskimos including types of tools they use and type of animals they hunt, also the author goes into their winter and summer homes and the amusements of the people.

The author tells of a ball game where the ball is made up of the bladder of a walrus, J.W. tells us that the game is without rules and says "Here a woman, carrying a child on her back, may be seen running at full speed after the ball, and the next moment lying at full length with her naked child floundering in the snow a few feet beyond her. A minute later the child is in its place, and the mother, nearly choking with laughter, is seen elbowing her way after the ball again."

J.W. describes Eskimo marriages and the women which is basically the two parties agree they are a couple and go build their own igloo. Of the brides, J.W. says " Eskimo brides are usually very young, and often very bonnie creatures. They lose much of their beauty, however, in early life, and at about forty mature into ugly old dames."

As the journey continues much of the men's time is spent hunting for food, as winter begins to approach the canoes become bogged down in the ice and the decision is made to abandon most of their supplies including the rock collection which had been gathered.

With the load lightened and the weather worsening the men make the last dash in their now lighter vessels down the west shore of the Hudson bay till the canoes could go no further on the ice. Now it was over the frozen shore.

The men of the expedition are hungry and weary while Michel French's feet have suffered frostbite, Pierre too is physically weak, this is true of the author and his brother while John Flett and Jim Corrigal are in the best condition and agree to go on without the others the remaining fifty or so miles to Fort Churchill to get help for the rest.

The return of John and Jim is only a couple days wait and with the provisions and help gets the expedition party to Fort Churchill where they can rest and recover for a couple weeks while Michel's feet are attended by the doctor there. At Fort Churchill, the men gather supplies for the final leg of the journey but due to crippling leg problems both the author and his brother are left to ride bundled on sleds while Michel is left behind to recover.

As the expedition comes to its end Pierre and Louis are both crippled from the snowshoes and must be dispatched by horse and sleigh the rest of the journey. The men of the expedition have traveled by canoe and hiking thirty-two hundred miles in eight months to accomplish their goal.

The book ends with the author giving a rap up of the assets of Hudson Bay including animals, vegetables, and minerals. In the end, J.W. Tyrrell expresses a great respect for his fellow man but especially for the Eskimo people, his earlier classification of savages and half-breeds have been words and not backed by any dislike for his fellow man.To me the books last jewel is its second appendix, Eskimo vocabulary of words and phrases.

"Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada" is a wonderful early Canadian adventure on a truly heroic journey well taken in the age of exploration. It documents the lost romance of Canada's northern wilderness at the entry into the twentieth century by men of great courage whose explorations, often treacherous, laid the path for the industry in Canada's north.

The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad

2016-02-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

Edited by Milbry Polk and Angela M. H. Schuster
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers
2005
ISBN 0-8109-5872-4

The book opens with a very nice four page timeline from 60,000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. presenting archaeological images along the historical periods in accordance to the correct place on the timeline. In the late 1980's and 1990's Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein played a dangerous game with the United Nations in the regard of whether Hussein had acquired weapons of mass destruction. United Nations placed sanctions on Iraq which hurt not only Iraq's dictator but the Iraqi people as well, including a ban on chemicals that the museums restorers were in need of in the preservation of the artifacts.

The first Gulf War in 1991 brought about gangs of looters who attacked the countries archaeological sites and regional museums. The situation worsened in April of 2003 with the second Gulf War when looters entered the National Museum destroying anything that they could not steal, taking away some fifteen thousand artifacts ruining one of the worlds most important museums.

The book is filled with lots of small to postage stamp size pictures which are in many cases difficult to make out what is being pictured. The tiny pictures are accompanied by faint tiny descriptions of their contents which I had difficulty reading and will pose problems for anyone with moderate eye sight issues. The layout of the main text is quite simple to read which causes the book to go by quite quickly.

The individual chapters are written by a number of scholars in the field of archaeology and Mesopotamian history. The book begins with the founding of the National Museum by English noblewoman Gertrude Bell. As the number of excavations grew the museum was expanded in the 1960's to house the growing collection of excavated material. Archaeologist Ralph Solecki puts forward his excavating in the massive Shindar cave in northern Iraq

The cave contains material of continuous occupation for the last sixty thousand years including neanderthal burials containing offerings especially in the burials of children. The authors each develop the stages of the evolution of articles associated with settled farming communities. It must be said that entering into chapter IV the book is moving by quickly even if the content is a bit boring so far.

The finds of small neolithic figurines found both in the graves as well as the homes of the ancient people are presented in one chapter and are then unfortunately analyzed in too much depth in the next including the re-use of some of the tiny pictures. Two of the museums objects have half page pictures accompanied by a page and half of description of the objects which include the famous Warka Vase. Thankfully a survivor of the museums now stolen and destroyed collection.

In the next chapter the writer puts forward a much more interesting presentation on the rise of city states controlled by dynasties of kings. The rise of king's like Sargon the Great produces some of the worlds great and earliest masterpieces produced to demonstrate the power of the ruling elite.The advent of writing was brought about likely through the need to keep records and measurements of production beginning from about the second half to the last quarter of the fourth millenium B.C.

In a chapter Robert D. Biggs presents an illustration of interest showing examples of the evolution of script from 3000 B.C. to 700 B.C. After the minute pictures the one or two objects presented at the end of the chapters are a relief to the eyes. Much of the book is on the objects that turned up in excavations in the twentieth century though rarely is information provided as to what has happened to the artifact since the sacking of the museum.

With the conquests of Alexander the Great in Mesopotamia the great cities and there cultures took on Greek influences in both the arts and religion. The cities of Seleucia, Ctesiphon as well as the city of the sun god Hatra,where there are magnificent ruins, became Hellenized with the import of Greek settlers and fashion.

I cannot help but feel though the telling of the history of Mesopotamia is interesting the book has gone way off its original focus as a book on the destruction of the Iraq Museum. The book does contain many beautiful pictures of art and architectural ruins when their not postage stamp size. The book now turns to the arrival of Islam and its mosques, palaces, universities and tombs. Dynasties of Caliphates successively established new cities and grew rich with agriculture and trade along the silk road.

"The Shi'ite sect of Islam has always been interested in the personalities of the Imams, descended from the family of the Prophet Mohammed. The tombs of the Imams were first built up in the tenth century, at the time of the first Shi'ite dynasties, but developed over the centuries with finance from Shi'ite communities in other areas of the Islamic world, notably Iran and India."

Alistair E. Northedge

The book now turns to the foundation of the city of Baghdad in A.D. 762 by the Caliph al-Mansur at the site of a thousand year old village. Little remains of the original city as it has been swallowed up by the its growth with original monuments being buried or replaced over centuries of development.

In the end the book was more about Iraq's historical record and not so much about the actual museum, which I had hoped that the book would have focused on the museum and its treasures whether broken or missing, instead it drifted off to a history of Mesopotamia. The many authors who were responsible for the various chapters did have some highlights but for the most part the book was dull and I would likely, had I not been doing the review, have put it back on the shelf and never finished it. Any flow the writing may have had was butchered by the tiny pictures with their little faint descriptions. I believe it is only the second time in a couple of hundred book reviews that I required a magnifying glass to follow along with "The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad".

Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls

2016-02-12T15:34:00.002-08:00

Hershel Shanks
Random House
New York
1992
ISBN 0-679-41448-7

   "On the west side of the Dead Sea, but out of range of the exhalations of the coast, is the solitary tribe of the Essenes, which is remarkable beyond all the other tribes in the whole world, as it has no women and has renounced all sexual desire, has no money, and has only palm-trees for company. Day by day the throng of refugees is recruited to an equal number by numerous accessions of persons tired of life and driven thither by the way of fortune to adopt their manners. Thus through thousands of ages (incredible to relate) a race into which no one is born lives on forever, so prolific for their advantage is other men's weariness of life!*

                Pliny the Elder

In the opening of the book, the editor gives a quick rundown of the contents of his book starting with the discovery of the scrolls in a series of eleven caves near the deserted Dead Sea community of Qumran. The scrolls represent the earliest known documents of their type and are important to the development of the early history of Rabbinical Judaism and Christianity. Since the discovery, the scrolls, which are mainly fragmentary, have become coveted by the scholars who possessed shares of the find. This has had the effect that the scrolls, for the most part, suffered from handling and incorrect preservation causing some of the material to be destroyed. It has also resulted in slowing down the publication and distribution to other scholars of the documents.

In chapter one by Harry Thomas Frank the discovery of the scrolls unfolds. The discovery of the first scrolls was by Bedouins climbing a hill to retrieve a goat when a cave was found. The Bedouin through a rock into the cave and heard the sound of pottery breaking. Once in the cave, the Bedouin found tall clay jars with lids and inside the jars some seven scrolls in sound condition including a mostly intact Book of Isaiah, and the slightly less well preserved Manual of Discipline.

In the second chapter Frank Moore Cross places the scrolls in the environment of the people who hid them, dating the documents paleography and historically. In the formative years of the last couple centuries of the Hellenistic world to the first century of the Roman empire differing sects of Judaism including the Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducee lived in a time of the second temple in Jerusalem.

The lives of some of these sects involved the idea that they were living in the end times in the period leading up to and beyond 70 A.D. and the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. Clearly, this book is not for the young with the reader being a complex composition suitably fascinating for anyone who loves archaeology and ancient texts. It must be noted that not all the scrolls are of religious nature, though every book of the Bible is represented except Esther.

Part of what makes the book so fascinating is in the presentation with various scholars putting forward their arguments in dating the scrolls as well to the contents and the identification of the personalities who are identified in the texts with historical and biblical personages. Scholar Raphael Levy presents the earlier finds of documents related to the later find of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a storeroom known as a genizah in a Cairo synagogue.

The genizah was a place to put old unwanted sacred texts and books until they could be buried in consecrated ground. In the Cairo Genizah, this had not been done in centuries leaving thousand-year-old texts to be discovered and taken to Cambridge University in the late 1890's. One of the most important documents found in the genizah is known today as the Damascus Document, the titles name referring to a flight to Damascus. Fifty years later when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found at Qumran a number of copies of the Damascus Document was found among them though a thousand years older.

The late great archaeologist Yigael Yadin, excavator of the fortress at Masada and the important site of Hazor, writes about the Temple Scroll and his acquisition of it. At the time of Israel's victories in the Six-Day War of 1967, Mr. Yadin was working as a military adviser to the Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.

In the war, the Israeli military captured Jerusalem's Old City and Bethlehem allowing Mr. Yadin to visit the seller of the scroll and acquired the document for a little over $100 000. The chapter contains a number of nice black and white photos of the scroll including a view looking out of Cave 11 where the Temple Scroll was found. The Temple Scroll is the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls with much of it concerning the temple's layout.

     "You shall make a dry moat around the temple,... which will separate the holy temple from the city so that they may not come suddenly into my temple and desecrate it. They shall consecrate my temple and fear my people, for I dwell among them"
                                                                                        Temple Scroll, (Column XLVI)

The staggering size of the temple would have been almost as large as Jerusalem's old city. The temple being surrounded by three courtyards and an outer moat one hundred and sixty-five feet wide ensuring the sanctity of the temple precincts. When Herod rebuilt the temple it was completed in just under a year and a half but it took some eighty years to complete the temple's precincts, at which time eighteen thousand workers were laid off.

The reader is presented with the various elements of Rabbinical books that have come to form the Hebrew Bible. These books have also acquired scribal errors through translation into different languages as well as shortening of some books and the removal of other texts that individual sects found undesirable. Scholar Frank Moore Cross also points out the many ancient documents found at a number of different sites south of the eleven caves that make up the find spot for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In the books fifth section, the scrolls are evaluated for the connections they make to Christianity. These connections include the identification of the characters found in the scrolls with early Christian leaders. A fragment of text found in Qumran cave 4 and known as 4Q246 has a parallel in the Gospel of Luke, with the fragment using the term "Son of God". This being the only time outside the bible that the phrase has been found.

     "[X] shall be great upon the earth. [O king, all (people) shall] make [peace], and all shall serve [him. He shall be called the son of] the [G]reat [God], and by his name shall he be hailed (as) the Son of God, and they shall call him Son of the Most High."
                                                                                                                       4Q246

Scholar Otto Betz puts forward the idea that John the Baptist was an Essene prophet who at one time lived among the Qumran community. At some point, the Baptist left the monastic life at Qumran to preach the salvation to the people including baptizing Jesus and denouncing Antipas' marriage to Herodias. There are a number of similarities between John and the Teacher of Righteousness found in the Dead Sea Scrolls which some may conclude that they are one and the same.

Among the scrolls found in cave 3 was one completely different from all the others in content, linguistics, and even the material, the scroll is written on a sheet of copper. Unlike the other books, the Copper Scroll contains a list of 64 locations where masses of treasure had been hidden. The masses of gold and silver are hidden in these locations if put together, would weigh in at between 58 and 174 tons. Many of the items included in the deposits belong to temple services and as a result of the treasure likely belonged to the Second Temple. The treasure being deposited in the run-up of the Roman invasion and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D.

Scroll scholar Hartmut Stegemann addresses the issue of the reconstruction of the scrolls from the tens of thousands of fragments into readable documents. To reconstruct the fragments a number of observations can be used from the handwriting of the individual scribes as well as the material the scroll was created from, and the varying thickness and shades of that particular medium. Even the type of damage can help identifying which pieces belong together whether insect, rodent or decomposition.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have stirred up much controversy mostly due to the slow rate of publication and the fact that the material was possessed by a few scholars who coveted their portions. More controversy was raised by others who believed that the Catholic church was suppressing the publication of some of the scrolls that may run contrary to Christian teachings.

Certainly, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was one of the most important archaeological events of the Twentieth Century, with the job of publication of the hundreds of scrolls found among the Qumran library a daunting task that took many years of some of the finest scholars work to put together and interpret. Hershel Shanks has here put together a volume that can only touch the surface of the knowledge to be gleaned but in this, the reader will find an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to gain the knowledge of "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls."

   "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

                                                                                                                   John 8:12

Notes:

* James Vanderkam

Further Information on the Scrolls:
The Dorot Foundation Dead Sea Scrolls Information and Study Center

The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library

The Tomb of Nefertiti

2015-12-28T21:26:00.002-08:00

Well all is set for Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves to investigate Tutankhamun's tomb hoping to find a doorway behind one of two walls or both. Mr. Reeves believes that Nefertiti's burial chamber may be behind one of them. This theory coming from such a respected man has caused great excitement not only in archaeological circles but in the mass-media as well.

In fact there are a number of candidates who could be behind the walls of Valley of the Kings tomb number sixty two. First a couple of people we are unlikely to find including Tutankhamun's mother who has through DNA been found in the famous Valley of the Kings royal cache in the tomb of Amenhotep II in 1898.

Giovanni Belzoni discovered in the valley tomb KV 21 in 1816 two well preserved female mummies, these mummies have since been destroyed. The headless remains of one of them known as KV21 A, is also through DNA likely to be Tutankhamun's Queen Ankhesenamun, as at least one of the fetuses found in his tomb is the child of KV21 A.

In the Valley of the Kings most controversial tomb were found the remains believed by some, including myself, to be that of the heretic King Akhenaton. Again the DNA suggests that the mummy is Tutankhamun's father. So with mom, dad and wife already discovered, who are the missing.

King Smenkhkare's burial equipment occupies some of the most prestigious of objects from Tutankhamun's burial, artifacts found not only in the tomb but intermingled fragments of objects found in the fill of KV62's steps. If King Smenkhkare is behind one of those walls it might be suggested that his/her burial might be modest, that or completely ruined.

Who can say if Nefertiti in homage to the great ancestor Hatschepsut, had herself declared pharaoh ruling as Smenkhkare along-side Ankhenaton in his last years. This might have been rectified by King Aye who is painted administering the "Opening of the mouth" ceremony onTutankhamun's mummy. Aye may well have returned Nefertiti's burial to the status of queen.

Having said that it must be remembered that the KV55 mummy did not appear to have been unwrapped when found, only its mask was removed, and perhaps restyled for king Tut. I suspect that if Nefertiti is behind one of the two walls that her burial will be modest in valuables, but providing that her mummy was not robbed in the transfer of royal burials from Tell el Amarna, I suspect that she will be intact though there will be little gold outside the mummy, and major missing pieces from her burial.

In the royal tomb at Akhenaton's capital are to be found carved reliefs showing the funeral of Akhenaton and Nefertiti's daughter Meketaton. Should Nefertiti be found I would suspect so will be found the mummy of this royal child reburied with her mother. The same rules apply to the transfer to Thebes of the royal dead except the little princess's burial is more likely to be a complete ensemble.

The lost Amarna mummies include the oldest daughter of Nefertiti, Meritaton who was a powerful queen in her own right and among those presumed addressed in the Amarna letters. Princesses Neferneferure, Setepenre, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, and Ankhesepaaten-Ta-Sherit, the daughters of Nefertiti remain to be identified, though there is a chance that one of them may be represented by the remains known as KV21 B, found with the presumed remains of Ankhesenamun.

I would go even further that KV21 B would perhaps be most appropriate if the mummy was not a princess but a queen making KV21 the tomb of two queens including Ankhesenamun's oldest sister, and only other queen of the daughters of Akhenaton and Nefertiti, Meritaton. This would be backed up by the position the arms of both mummies were in when found.

How many ladies may be found might be foreseen by the contents of Valley of the Kings tomb KV63, an Armana period cache of embalming refuse. Mr. Reeves may be onto the burial of Nefertiti but also the mummies of her lost daughters.

Notes:

Tutankhamen's tomb; Hajor, Dec.2002. Released under cc.by.sa and/or GFDL.
Statue of Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun; Ad Merskens
Akhenaton, Nefertiti and daughters; Gerbil
National Geographic September 2010

Egyptian Highlites 2014

2014-12-02T12:00:00.002-08:00

Though progress seems often bound by unmovable forces, and change passes by our hopes, with perseverance, we find the answer to success lye's within ourselves and our abilities to inspire others to help and push aside the once thought unmovable force.

At Abydos in January a couple of kingly burials were found including one of an unknown king of the Second Intermediate period . The appearance of a huge quartzite boulder sarcophagus alerted the mission to the presence of royal burials in the area.

As wonderful as these finds were the month ended on a tragic note when a bomb killed 4 people and destroyed the facade of the National Library and the Islamic Museum, damaging or destroying many of the contents of the Islamic museum and some fragile ancient papyrus's in the National Library.

February brought discoveries of late period mummies and shabti at Dakahliya. The month also brought at Luxor the discovery of a rare XVII Dynasty Rishi coffin found by the Spanish mission at Dra Abu El Naga in the courtyard to the tomb of Djehuty.

From the middle of March the release of "The Discovery of the Mummy of Ramses I" was well received, reviewing the finding of the royal mummy of King Ramses I, in a Niagara Falls sideshow. The month ended off with the re-erection of two colossal statues of Amenhotep III which had lain on the ground for thousands of years in his funerary temple at Luxor.

April brought an ending to the saga of six antiquities brought to sale at Christie's auction house last year, where one was recognized as being stolen from the storerooms at this same mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. The perpetrator of the fraud back in England was co operative with authorities and as a result received a slap on the wrist.

The month also contained discoveries from illicit excavations, and more results from a number of ongoing excavations accompanied by the Ministry of Antiquities, including coins in a Coptic alter at Thebes and XXVI Dynasty tombs at Al Bahnasa.

Basel Universities excavation of Valley of the Kings tomb KV40 revealed dozens of mummies who may have come from the royal households of two XVIII Dynasty King's Thutmosis IV and his son Amenhotep III. The tombs destroyed and fragmented contents included mention of around a dozen royal children as well as foreign women and including a number of infants and a priestly clan from the 9th century BC.

This was the discovery of the year which grew out of proportions quickly and many of the so called royal mummies may well belong to the priests who took over the tomb four hundred years after the XVIII Dynasty. In May a number of important objects stolen during the January 2011 revolution including a badly damaged gilded statuette of Tutankhamun were recovered and put on display in the Cairo Museum, though the seated gilded figure of Tutankhamun held above the head of the Goddess Menkheret remains missing.

June brought the release of the article Was King Hatschepsut the Original Owner of Theban Tomb 358? The article was an instant success overshadowing all other articles from 2014. The month also brought a handful of discoveries as well as the return home of a number of artifacts including worthless faience beads and chips of pottery, clearly among these returns are objects of burden to the resources of Egypt's antiquities ministry.

July opened with a gotcha moment, to put it lightly, when illegal excavations were taking place inside a house at Abydos, unfortunately for the entrepreneurs the street out front of the house collapsed revealing the clandestine operation within. Inside the excavation was found the carved walls of a Mahat chapel erected by the XI Dynasty unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt King Mentuhotep II, with a rusting 20th century sewage tank above damaging the shrine.

As the summer came to an end The Great Pharaoh Ramses and his time exhibition guide was as well one of the top five for the year. For the St. Louis Art Museum the mask of Khanefernefer in a court ruling this year will likely remain in that city even with a documented process of the mask emerging from the ground in a recorded excavation by the Egyptian antiquities authority, this because a filing deadline was missed.

An Old Kingdom statue of an official from Egypt's Dynasty V, given to an English institution went on to the auction block this past summer and brought in an amazing L16 million along with some controversy over selling museum acquisitions. What appeared to be an unusually large number of people were caught smuggling coins this year which though some were ancient many were 19th and 20th century modern coins including one individual who smuggled four modern gold coins into Egypt to sell, while someone was caught smuggling common coins from the late 1930's, national treasures indeed!

The fall's big surprise was Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt which has been particularly popular among this years book reviews. It must also be of note that The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt review was very popular as well. The end of October brought 7 more arrests as men digging under a house in Giza found the ruins of a large temple from the reign of Thutmosis III.

As the year closes off a Middle Kingdom mummy was discovered under the temple of Thutmosis III at Luxor's west bank. A collapse in the tomb in ancient times meant the mummy of the lady was still bedecked in her jewelry, a very rare find.

I want to thank my readers for your support over the past year and I look forward to the coming year with the hope that it will bring prosperity and happiness to all of you and your loved ones.
God Bless and Happy Holidays!

Sincerely

Timothy Reid

Photos:
Ipuy and wife recieving offerings from their children: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Interior of Islamic Museum: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Re-erected statues of Amenhotep III: AFP Photo/ Khaled Desouki
Tomb KV40: Matjaz Kacicnik, University of Basel/Egyptology
Photograph by Harry Burton, 1929. Archives of the Egyptian Expedition, Department of Egyptian Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Middle Kingdom Jewelry: Ahram Online

Three Old Kingdom Statuettes in the Brooklyn Museum

2014-11-13T17:47:00.001-08:00

This article from January 2012 is one of the Egyptians sites top ten articles of all time on two pretty statues and a dud that are all within the collection of the Brooklyn Museum that are questionable and without provenance.

Three Old Kingdom Statuettes in the Brooklyn Museum

Notes:

Statuette of Ankhnes-Meryre
Medium: Egyptian alabaster
Possible Place Collected: Upper Egypt, Egypt
Dates: ca. 2288-2224 or 2194 B.C.E.
Dynasty: VI Dynasty
Period: Old Kingdom
Dimensions: 15 7/16 x 9 13/16in. (39.2 x 24.9cm)
Collections: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, Old Kingdom to 18th Dynasty, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
Accession Number: 39.119

Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY-NC
Caption: Statuette of Queen Ankhnes-meryre II and her Son, Pepy II, ca. 2288-2224 or 2194 B.C.E. Egyptian alabaster, 15 7/16 x 9 13/16in. (39.2 x 24.9cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 39.119. Creative Commons-BY-NC
Image: front, 39.119_front_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Record Completeness: Best (92%)

Was King Hatschepsut the Original Owner of Theban tomb 358?

2014-10-16T18:29:00.002-07:00

This is an article on ancient Egypt's greatest female King Hatschepsut, fifth king of pharaonic Egypt's great XVIII Dynasty, who reigned from approximately ca. 1472-1458 BC.

Note:

Picture: Photograph by Harry Burton, 1929. Archives of the Egyptian Expedition, Department of Egyptian Art.