Another of the archaeologists whom we have interviewed for the exhibit is Sarah Parcak. She has been doing some really cool work on finding sites using satellite imagery, and she’s been called the first person to use this imagery to find new sites in Egypt.

Dr. Parcak works at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. It’s a little odd to think of an archaeologist doing a lot of “field work” at a computer station, but that’s exactly what she’s doing. One of the tricky things about archaeology is that the people who practice it are often looking for things that are hidden, buried underground for long periods of time (have you ever seen the drawings Napoleon’s team did of the Sphinx buried up to its neck in sand?). Archaeologists used to (and sometimes still do) rely on logic, perseverance, and luck when looking for new sites. They would dig in places where they had deduced that a site should be based upon the available evidence (like the team that discovered the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders), or they would jump on chance discoveries made by the local human or even animal population (like the donkey who accidentally stepped into the graves now known as The Valley of the Golden Mummies). But because of the satellite imaging that is now being done by Dr. Parcak and others, archaeologists are better able to determine exactly where to dig before ever even setting foot there.

Her tools range from old still images from spy satellites to cutting-edge digital scanning filters that can detect differences in the water content of soil. She even uses Google Earth to search known sites from above and look for previously unknown features. To date, Dr. Parcak has discovered more than 150 previously unknown sites, with the promise of many, many more; she estimates that only about 0.01 percent of ancient Egypt has been uncovered!

Try it yourself! In Google Earth, visit Amarna, a vast ancient site and the capitol of Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten (27°39’24”N, 30°54’22”E). See if you can tell the difference between the modern town and what’s buried just to the south of it!

Here’s a link to Dr. Parcak talking about her work.

We just heard some fascinating new news out of Egypt. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, recently announced that the remains of a previously unknown pyramid have been found in Saqqara (the site of Djoser’s Step Pyramid, among other sites). This is a story that has all the trappings of Egyptian archaeology.

First, when I said “previously unknown,” that isn’t entirely true. The foundations of the pyramid were first described in modern history by a German archaeologist named Karl Richard Lepsius in 1842. Unfortunately, though, the site became buried under sand and was considered lost until this announcement of its rediscovery. This is common in Egypt. Sometimes sand and debris from one dig is unknowingly moved on top of another site, through no fault on the part of the archaeologists—there’s just no way of knowing there’s something underneath of you. Other times the desert simply swallows the site, even if it has been uncovered in modern times. Let’s face it—there’s a lot of sand that can cover things up in a desert!

Second, the really, really old stuff once again has a way of superseding the stuff that’s just really old. The team who disclosed the pyramid discovery also announced the discovery of part of a ceremonial procession road used by ancient Egyptian priests over 2200 years ago. 2200 years ago! That’s before the time of the Roman Empire, the Islamic Golden Age, Mesoamerican empires such as the Mayans and Aztecs, and many other ancient cultures. Problem is, this road is predated by the pyramid by another 2200 years. That’s right—at the time this newly discovered road was built, our “newly discovered” headless pyramid was already more than 2000 years old. It has been really interesting hearing some of our project advisers discuss how the Late Period of Egyptian history is often found uninteresting simply because it feels “too new,” which is a shame because the Late Period has some fascinating history connected to it.

Finally, we have a little controversy. The “newly discovered” (sorry, can’t help but keep up the quotes on that) pyramid has not yet yielded any cartouches (i.e. names of pharaohs) at the site. Because we can’t carbon date stone, this means that archaeologists have to compare the pyramid’s features to the features of other pyramids in order to figure out how old it is and for whom it was built. While most scholars seem to agree that it was built for Menkauhor, a Fifth Dynasty pharaoh, others are arguing that it could belong to a Tenth or Twelfth Dynasty pharaoh, a discrepancy of more than 600 years. For me, this is where some of the excitement of archaeology comes across. We can never know with absolute certainty that our conclusions about the past are correct, mostly because, well, it’s the past (I usually can’t recall what happened last week with absolute clarity, and I was there). The best archaeologists can do is come up with stronger evidence to prove their point. The strongest evidence comes out on top, at least until someone comes up with stronger contrary evidence. As with most things in life, the more you know, the better equipped you are to prove your point. Not a bad lesson for a 4400 year old incomplete pyramid.

Check out the story on MSNBC!

Look for Edfu to the south of Luxor on the map – in southern or “Upper” Egypt. It was considered Upper Egypt even though it was to the south because the Nile flows north, so Lower Egypt is the region where we find Cairo and the Delta today.

The Earth Times reports the following:

CAIRO - A US archaeological team uncovered an ancient Egyptian administrative building and silos dating back to the 17th dynasty (ca. 1665-1569 BC) along with an older columned hall in the southern Egyptian town of Edfu, Egypt’s antiquities department announced Tuesday. With sixteen wooden columns, the layout of the mud-brick hall shows that it might have been part of a governor’s palace, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said.

The hall, which predates the silos, had been used by scribes for accounting, opening and receiving letters, Hawass explained.

Pottery and seals that date back to the 13th dynasty (c. 1786-1665 BC) were discovered in the hall.

“Scarab seals found inside the hall are decorated with spiral patterns and hieroglyphic symbols including the ankh sign, also known as the key of life,” said head of the American mission, Nadine Moeller.

The discovery reflects the Egyptian political situation at the time when the small kingdom of Thebes controlled Upper Egypt, Moeller said.

This is a photo we took when we were in Egypt at the Tomb of Ipuy (TT217) in Deir El-Medineh, the Valley of the Workers. It shows the ankh symbol, which represented “life” to the ancient Egyptians. The symbol is mentioned above as being found on the scarab seals in Edfu.

According to a press release, H.E. Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, announced that the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), in collaboration with a Japanese-American mission, is carrying out a laser scanning survey of the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, in an attempt to create a virtual three-dimensional model of Egypt’s oldest pyramid.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, stated that this survey is being conducted in collaboration with a Japanese mission headed by Dr. Kosuke Sato of Osaka University and an American mission led by Dr. Mark Lehner, Director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA). This project intends on archaeologically documenting the Step Pyramid in order to greater understand its various stages of construction by using a variety of laser scanners including the Zoser Scanner, which was custom designed to scan the pyramid by Develo Solutions of Osaka, Japan.

Read more about this project on Dr. Hawass’ website - http://www.guardians.net/hawass/Press%20Releases/laser_survey_step_pyramid.htm

When we were in Egypt, we visited Djoser’s pyramid at Saqqara, as well as getting the chance to meet and interview Dr. Mark Lehner for the Lost Egypt project.

Author: Kate Storm

We’re working on my favorite exhibit components for Lost Egypt – a life-sized camel! Our project partners on the exhibition, The Science Museum of Minnesota, found an amazing company, Blue Rhino Studios - http://www.rhinocentral.com/profile.html - to design and build a camel for us.

We’ve been looking at materials, size, scale, and all the other issues that go into designing a large one-humped camel, aka “Camelus dromedarius,” if you like to know the Latin genus and species. One-humped camels are called dromedaries, and are found in North Africa and the Near East. Two-humped camels are called bactrians or “Camelus bactrianus,” and are typically found in central Asia. We only saw the dromedaries in Egypt, probably because it’s in North Africa.

While camels aren’t really used much for transportation in Egypt today, you can still see them at the Giza Plateau and at Saqqara. We saw the camel below, which gave rides to tourists. I loved the colorful halter, although the picture really can’t capture the smell of a camel in the hot sun, which is definitely something…memorable. See the long eyelashes? They’re great for protecting the camel’s eyes from the desert sand.

In Saqqara, the guards rode camels, so the gear was less gaudy and more utilitarian. We needed to get photo references for Blue Rhino while we were in Egypt, since it’s challenging to figure out exactly what a camel looks like lying down. Their legs fold in on themselves like origami – very strange! So we asked the guards if we could take pictures of their guard camel. They laughed when they noticed us taking this photo of the back end.

Blue Rhino has produced lots of other animals as well – check out the detail on the moose, bobcat, and other animals on their website. The artists at their studio have designed a small clay model, called a maquette, which you can see below.

A maquette is a small scale model which is useful to test your concepts, without the expense of producing a full-sized version. This prototype is studied by the whole design team, and changes are made to it. We’ve already made several changes to our camel based on the maquette, including the way the head is turned and the angle of the neck. The human being in the model is scaled to represent someone 6’ tall, just to give an idea of the camel’s size. I can’t wait to see this when it’s done!