Valley of the Kings News on other blogs

Update from Mansour Boraik

Jane Akshar — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Got my regular phone call from Mansour with lots of updates for the forthcoming season in Luxor.

As you all know the Temple of Isis at Shenhur.has recently undergone restoration and this is preparation for it being opened to the public. They are going to do some site management and it will probably open summer 2013. This is the only Roman building to Isis in Luxor and very significant.

The temple of Mut at Karnak is also going to open but this will be a bit sooner, autumn 2012, again they need to do some site management but less here as there is already a car park, toilets etc. But they do need to do something with the lake.

So something new in Luxor to look forward to on your next visit.

Theban Tombs Satellite Mapping Project

Jane Akshar — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:53:00 +0000

A useful website for information about the Valley of Nobles, West Bank, Luxor.

Theban Tombs Satellite Mapping Project: - Sent using Google Toolbar

More bad news about looting in Egypt

Andie — Sun, 20 May 2012 11:07:00 +0000

The Seattle Times (Hamza Hendawi)

Taking advantage of Egypt's political upheaval, thieves have gone on a treasure hunt with a spree of illegal digging, preying on the country's ancient Pharaonic heritage.

Illegal digs near ancient temples and in isolated desert sites have swelled a staggering 100-fold over the past 16 months since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak's 29-year regime and security fell apart in many areas as police simply stopped doing their jobs.

The pillaging comes on top of a wave of break-ins last year at archaeological storehouses — and even at Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum, the country's biggest repository of Pharaonic artifacts.

Horrified archaeologists and antiquities authorities are scrambling to prevent smuggling, keeping a watch on European and American auction houses in case stolen artifacts show up there.

"Criminals became so bold they are digging in landmark areas." including near the Great Pyramids in Giza, other nearby pyramids and the grand temples of the southern city of Luxor, said Maj.-Gen. Abdel-Rahim Hassan, commander of the Tourism and Antiquities Police Department.

Conserving the Amarna coffins

Andie — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:27:00 +0000

Amarna Project on Facebook

With photographs

Since 2006, the Amarna Project has been investigating a cemetery for the non-elite of Akhenaten's city. One remarkable discovery has been a group of six decorated coffins. Most are anthropoid-style, bearing on their walls scenes of figures bearing offerings and columns of hieroglyphic text, executed in a creamish or yellow paint on a dark background, with details added in red and blue. Despite their unprepossessing appearance, it is perhaps impossible to overestimate the significance of these objects. The only decorated non-royal coffins found in over 100 years of excavation at Amarna, they form a remarkable new source for the study of the funerary beliefs of Akhenaten’s citizens.

Mummy's secrets revealed by 3D holography imaging

Andie — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:21:00 +0000

The Archaeology News Network

Egyptian Mummies shrouded for over 2000 years could be set to give up their inner secrets like never before. Thanks to a 3D hologram imaging process developed by Edinburgh-based Holoxica, the Rhind Mummy has been revealed in true 3D.

Originally excavated from a tomb in Thebes (Luxor) almost 155 years ago, the Rhind Mummy – so named after the renowned Scottish Archaeologist and Egyptologist Alexander Rhind who brought the mummy to Scotland in the middle of the 19th Century – is completely intact in its original black-tarred linen wrapping. The mummy has been in the National Museum of Scotland’s collection ever since.

New Details of Theft Claim in St. Louis Art Museum Ka Nefer Nefer Mask Forfeiture

Andie — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:08:00 +0000

Cultural Heritage Lawyer (Rick St. Hilaire)

Prosecutors in the case of United States v. Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer today filed a Reply in Support of Its Motion to Reconsider. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri hopes to reverse a judge's April dismissal of the case. The government ultimately seeks to forfeit the allegedly stolen Ka Nefer Nefer mummy mask located at the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) and return it to Egypt. SLAM denies that the mask is stolen and asserts ownership over the artifact.

The museum filed an objection earlier this week to the government's motion requesting the judge to reconsider the dismissal of the case. Today's pleading by the government responds to the museum's objection.

Howard Carter: "Miraculous," Misunderstood Man

Andie — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:04:00 +0000

National Geographic (Ker Than)

With a lovely Harry Burton photograph of Carter inspecting the coffins. This was posted to coincide with Carter's birthday the week before last.

The King Tut find brought Carter overnight—and lasting—fame, but it was anything but a stroke of luck, experts say.

When talking about the tomb discovery, "everyone likes to use the phrase 'stumble upon,' and that always ticks me off a little bit," said Yale University Egyptologist John Darnell.

Carter spent decades as an archaeological excavator exploring burial sites in ancient Thebes (now Luxor) before finding the roughly 3,000-year-old resting place of Tutankhamen, Darnell pointed out. (Take an interactive tour of Tut's tomb.)

"Carter found [the tomb] in a methodical way ... He did all the necessary background work," he added. "He didn't simply look for the door of a tomb, but rather he went at it in a way that we would probably characterize today as a form of landscape archaeology.

"Carter really worked himself into the lives of ancient Egyptian necropolis workmen. He knew the hills, he knew the paths, he knew what happened when rainstorms hit the area"—allowing him to identify the most likely sites for finding long-buried tombs.

Al-Ahram Weekly | Heritage | Much needed makeover for three goddesses

Jane Akshar — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Al-Ahram Weekly | Heritage | Much needed makeover for three goddesses: Meanwhile on Luxor's west bank restorers and workmen are hard at work at the temple of the goddess of rebirth and femininity, Isis, at Deir Al-Shelwit, four kilometres south of Medinet Habu. A development project similar to that at the Mut Temple is now being conducted by the MSA in collaboration with ARCE at the Isis Temple so that it too can be opened to the public next year.

Today the Isis Temple can be seen in ruins. It includes a small main building, the ruins of a decorated propylon and a well enclosed by a brick wall. The outer wall of the temple is plain, while the inner surface is decorated. The temple's shrine has a surrounding corridor with a chapel, an area for cleansing called a wabet and stairs leading to the roof.

According to inscriptions found on the propylon the temple was constructed in the first century AD, but there is a theory that the construction of the temple started in the reign of Pharaoh Nectanebo II (360 Òê" 342 BC) and finished during the Graeco-Roman period.

Mansour Borak, the supervisor of the Luxor antiquities, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Isis Temple at Deir Al-Shelwit was of great importance because religious buildings dating from the Graeco-Roman period were rare in this area, where this was the only temple associated only with Isis and not with the gods of the Theban Triad (Amun-Re, Isis and Horus).

Borak went on to say that the reliefs of the temple were similar to those in Dendara Temple and on Philae Island. Cartouches of the Roman emperors Galba, Otho, Vespasian, Julius Caesar, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius were engraved on the temple and the propylon. The outer wall includes reused blocks from other ancient Egyptian structures bearing the New Kingdom reliefs.

- Sent using Google Toolbar

2012 report from the University of Basel team that discovered KV64 in the Valley of Kings, Luxor

Jane Akshar — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:41:00 +0000

Ägyptologisches Seminar: Report 2012: University of Basel Kings' Valley Project

Preliminary Report on the Work Performed During the Season 2012

In the undecorated tombs KV 26, KV 29, KV 30, KV 31, KV 32, KV 33, KV 37, KV 40, KV 59, KV 61, and KV 64 in the Valley of the Kings

- Sent using Google Toolbar

Egypology Courses at Liverpool and Manchester

Jane Akshar — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Liverpool Ancient Worlds Summer School 2012 (30th July 2012 to 15th August 2012) Archaeology, Classics & Egyptology at the University of Liverpool is pleased to announce the programme for the Ancient Worlds Summer School 2012. This year we will be offering both language and non-language pathways over two and a half weeks, covering many aspects of the ancient world; further details of the courses can be found on the website

All courses are taught by our department's staff and researchers.

Courses offered this year are:

'From Amarna to Deir el-Medina: Current New Kingdom Research at Liverpool'

'Ancient History and Archaeology: The Ancient Body'

Beginner & Intermediate Hieroglyphs

Beginner Coptic, Akkadian and Sanskrit

Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Latin Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Greek For further information, please visit the website at http://sace.liv.ac.uk/ancientworlds/summer-school/

And feel free to contact the organiser, Dr Glenn Godenho at ggodenho@liv.ac.uk

(Tel: 0151 794 2475)

Online courses in Egyptology with the University of Manchester The University of Manchester offers several courses in Egyptology-related topics, delivered entirely online. Courses include:

Certificate in Egyptology programme: A three year online course which provides an opportunity for the serious, academic study of Egyptology.
Diploma in Egyptology programme: A two year extension programme to the Certificate in Egyptology which provides for more in-depth, serious, academic study of Egyptology.
Short Courses in Egyptology: Six week, non-credit bearing courses in Egyptology-related topics, such as:

Queens of Ancient Egypt
Warfare and Weapons of Ancient Egypt
Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
Tutankhamen

Course Tutors: Dr Joyce Tyldesley & Dr Glenn Godenho For further details please visit our website:

http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/furtherstudy/

The Carter Carnarvon Connection

tim — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:32:00 +0000

At the heart of the Golden age of Egyptology stands archaeologist Howard Carter a talented artist with a keen eye for beautiful objects and the good fortune to excavate the tombs of a number of kings in the Valley of Kings including the semi-intact tomb of Tutankhamun with it's beautifully preserved objects.

The former head of Egypt's Supreme council of Antiquities has praised Howard Carter for his work on the tomb though a series of great men took part in the excavation including the Metropolitan Museum of art expedition photographer Harry Burton who's photo's of the excavation are now famous.

The problems really started in the early 1920's during a dispute between Howard Carter and the head of the Egyptian antiquities service Pierre Lacau who suspected that Carter and his financier Lord Carnarvon were smuggling out objects from Tutankhamun's tomb believing that the contents of the tomb belonged to them and not Egypt's antiquities service.

During the dispute an Egyptian inventory commission was sent to the valley of kings to inspect the site and found in the excavations dining hall, there in a wine box the commission discovered a small wooden head of the boy king emerging from a blue lotus seaming to confirm the suspicion of the Egyptian authorities that all was not on the up with the excavation and the head was taken immediately to the Cairo museum.

The 1978 bestseller "Tutankhamun The Untold Story" by the late director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas Hoving brought forward the knowledge that within the Metropolitan museum as well as the Brooklyn museum were objects from that tomb including gold and silver coffin nails and rosettes from the pall from over the second shrine which was destroyed during the excavation.

The matter of "pocket objects" being smuggled from the tomb is likely though both Carter and Carnarvon may have felt the objects belonged to them. When one looks around at the artifacts pointed out by Mr. Hoving one sees well preserved works of art belonging in quality to the royal workshops and being listed as in the Carnarvon collection before 1923 not a huge detraction to the obvious question including a small ivory gazelle and an ivory whip stock shaped as a running horse.

In Brooklyn we find still more wonderful objects but for me it is the excellent preserved writing palette of princess Meketaten in the Met which is complete with it's brushes and perhaps most exemplifies the issue of objects that potentially have had their provenances washed away for personal ownership?

Curious is the idea that Howard Carter found a similar ivory palette but made for princess Merytaten in Tutankhamun's tomb interesting that Meketaten's palette is listed as in the Canarvon collection prior 1923 and Howard Carter found Merytaten's palette in Tut's tomb. What are the odds that two well preserved palettes for two of Tutankhamun's sisters would come in contact with the Carter/Carnarvon connection at approximately the same time as the excavation of the tomb is taking place?

So if Carter/Carnarvon were pocketing objects from Tutankhamun's tomb(KV62) then what is to say the aforementioned ivory gazelle is not actually from the rubble of Amenhotep III's (WV22) tomb which Howard Carter also excavated or KV 20 the tomb of Hatshepsut or KV43 tomb of Thutmosis IV which he also cleared? If he practiced the activity of pocket collecting in Tutankhamun's tomb than it seems a given that this was probably already a practice he used in past excavations?

Curious to know if the missing parts of the ivory gazelle are in any of these tombs rubbish material whether left at the scene or collected, perhaps the gazelle was a cherished childhood possession of Hatshepsut?

Howard Carter was a man of great fortune who played a large part in the early days of modern Egyptology. His excavations of the early twentieth century would be the envy of any Egyptologist today however his corpus of objects found and excavation reports of any of his excavations need re-examining in the future to winnow out any lost provenances that can potentially be recovered from Carter's records and his associates records including Lord Carnarvon and his associates.

An examination on the career of Howard Carter may yet reveal an ugly and well known practice by him which will more than likely have altered a number of his discoveries for worse.

Notes
Photo: Dalbera
Thomas Hoving, Tutankhamun The Untold Story, ISBN 0-671-24305-5
I.E.S. Edwards, The Treasures of Tutankhamun, catalogue #19, Penguin Books, 1977, ISBN 0 14 00.4287 3
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Brooklyn Museum

Update from Osirisnet

Jane Akshar — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:15:00 +0000

Dear friends,

We are keeping busy on OsirisNet !

Tomb N°5 of el-Kab was created by the nomarch Paheri for his maternal grandfather, Ahmose, son of Abana. It includes a famous historic autobiography of this great soldier and sailor, which has been the object of numerous studies. This is because it is one of the only documents relating the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and the military campaigns of the first sovereigns of the XVIIIth Dynasty.
But the rest of the monument has never been the object of publication to this day.

This is why it seemed interesting to us to present on OsirisNet the entire chapel.

<http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/el_kab/ahmes/e_ahmes_01.htm>

Best

Thierry Benderitter

What is…

Jane Akshar — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:34:00 +0000

What is Egypt like in 2012 after the revolution, well to be honest not much different here in Luxor. The temples and tombs are still here, the tourists still come although numbers are down. The sun still shines. The redevelopment of Luxor centre has almost come to a close as most things are finished and those that haven’t money is needed in other areas. The new cornice is a pleasant place and as it matures it will get more character.

The plaza in front of Luxor temple has successfully held a number of events like Egypt Moving Forward and the Conference Centre had a great celebration of the anniversary of the revolution. The changes as a result of the revolution are minimal, people do seem to have to the courage to demonstrate but the many of the changes they demand are beyond the gift of the government, council and employers because of the state of the economy. As tourism recovers these will be achievable but Egypt’s revolution will not happen overnight. It will take time but the signs are promising.

Here on the West Bank a new dewatering project has started protecting the temples for the rising ground water. There are many new discoveries two new tombs in the Valley of kings, KV63 and KV64 have changed people’s perception of the alley. Everyone, not just knowledgeable Egyptologists, now believes there are lots more to be discovered there. Other sites dismissed in the past have revealed riches beyond the wildest dreams. So much statuary discovered at the Colossus of Memnon and hopes to reveal the entire temple layout in the future.

We had a great conference about that site and its king. Another conference is planned for October on the South Assasif; this is another area where new finds and knowledge is being revealed all the time. The tombs of Harwa, Pabasa, Karakhamun, and Petamenophis are showing us the richness of this period 25th and 26th dynasty. Expect great things out of that conference. Lectures have been sporadic at the Mummification museum but all have been fascinating.

On a personal front I will complete my Certificate in Egyptology with Manchester University this summer and attend graduation in the UK. If you want to study Egyptology online, anywhere in the world I can’t recommend this course too highly. I hope to go to do the Diploma. Our business has survived....just. Thanks to loads of rebookings and digging people. New business being put of by media hype, the reality is tourism has continued to be enjoyable for everyone that has come to Flats in Luxor as our Trip Advisor reviews show. So if you want a cheap Egyptian holiday now is the time to come.

Egypt by H.H.Powers

tim — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:46:00 +0000

The University Travel Series
The Macmillan Company
1924

Right from the start of this pocket sized book by Harry Powers the author appears to be a bit of a pessimist as his journey takes him to Egypt for of Madeira the author says " the thoughtful traveller will view Madeira with mingled feelings. The shadows in the picture are due less to depravity (largely imported) than to sheer backwardness." Our guide goes on to say of Monte Carlo "It used to hide its depravity under a certain tone and elegance."

Having at last arrived in Egypt our friend Harry begins describing the things to see including Pompey's pillar of which he says "a huge and meaningless shaft of uncertain origin concerning which little is known except that it had nothing to do with Pompey."

After a "monotonous" but interesting journey to Cairo our friend tours various mosques and provides some very interesting descriptions of a few of the most important but also points out the shoddy construction and dilapidated conditions of the buildings.

The author is clearly a learned man with great insight on the subject of the arts of the individual periods taking the reader to less viewed displays in the Cairo museum and though the authors chronology is off he is not off by that much by the middle kingdom. As our guide makes his way around Egypt in chronological order he describes which sites to see and those that hold little interest.

In the pyramid fields Powers describes the pyramids and tombs from the poorly constructed step pyramid of king Djoser to the "false Pyramid of Meidum" but being suitably impressed by the pyramid of Khufu the author goes on to give Herodotus' account of it's building. The book has many nice but small images including one unfortunately labelled "Sarcophagus of King Khufu, Cairo museum".

The mastabas of Ti and Ptah-hotep at Sakkara very much impressed and are a recommended visit for their beautiful reliefs of everyday life of the ancient Egyptians also at Sakkara the author visits the Serapeum remarking on the poor engraving on the massive sarcophagus' and a review of that cult.

Our friend Powers recommends the middle kingdom tombs at Beni Hassan not for their colorful but inferior images but for their architecture including the introduction of the Doric column and the development of the Egyptian column there after. Assiout's badly damaged middle kingdom tombs stand as great square caves with little left of interest except of course the magnificent view of the Nile valley from them.

We find ourselves at Thebes because the author wishes us to walk the temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir el Bahri talking about the architectural concept of the building. The author than goes on to Luxor and the period of the empire with an excellent over view of the decline of the second intermediate period with the rise of the eighteenth dynasty kings.

Our guide Powers gives an out of date explanation of the order of the Thutmoside rulers with the order given going: Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III,-Hatshepsut,-Thutmosis III,-Thutmosis II, not all that uncommon interpretation for the early 1920's. The black and white picture of Hatshepsut's obelisk is a gem.

The author goes on with the evolution of Karnak from the missing middle kingdom temple to the ever grander elements added by the Thutmoside and Ramaside kings. Powers in the end sees the overview of the chaotic construction of the temple lacking in overall vision for the complex.

With some excellent old photographs our friend makes his way through the Valley of Kings and recommends the viewer see a hand full of tombs including those of Thutmosis III, Amenhotep II, Seti I and Rameses VI.

We find Powers stopping in front of the well in the tomb of Amenhotep II pondering the human skeletons found at the bottom of it and wondering "Were these the builders of the tomb murdered that its secret might die with them? Or were they grave robbers who fell in here and were unable to escape?"

Our guide ends this journey in the valley with a visit to the tomb of Merenptah descending to its burial chamber to view the figure on the lid of the sarcophagus left there. Interesting though the author acknowledges the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun he says nothing else about.

As we make our way upstream the author breaks from his chronology to talk about the remarkable Ptolemaic temples of Kom Ombo, Edfu, Esna and Dendera. At Esna we find the beautifully preserved temple still buried deep in the mud and hidden from view surrounded by houses. While on his return journey the author can see the temple of Dendera from his boat, with our friend Powers disembarking the boat to cross fields of beautiful opium poppies to reach the temple.

Our guide takes us past the partly flooded island of Philae and on to Abu Simbel past the cataracts and the back down the Nile finishing off at Abydos and the reliefs on the temple of Seti I. The author from here discusses the history of art from the early reliefs at Sakkara to the reliefs found in this temple.

I can say after having read this book that it was well worth my time though one must be warned the author has a habit on looking down on those less than English types. Egypt by Harry Powers is an interesting place to see with the authors old fashion views forgivable to his knowledge of the history of Egyptian art.

3400 Year Old Book of the Dead

tim — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:39:00 +0000

The British Museum's curator Dr John Taylor has located pieces of a New Kingdom book of the dead that once belonged to a high priest of Amun in around 1420 bc. The fragments are kept in the Queensland Museum but there are other pieces in various collections around the world.

The ancient Egyptian book of the dead is a continuation of the even older pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom as well as the coffin texts of Egypt's Middle Kingdom. Each book of the dead is different in the spells from the Theban recession they contain to help the dead through the underworld.

When new the book would have been very costly and placed either in the tomb or frequently within the coffin or even wrapped in with the mummy. When found King Tutankhamun was not in possession of a book of the dead

The book came to light in the nineteenth century and apparently taken apart at that time. The museum staff are delighted to have the significant document in their collection and that now the document can be published in it's entirety.

Photo Courtesy: 612 ABC Brisbane