Recent Egyptian finds

[Story]

All togethor now: Im ho tep.... Im ho tep.... Im ho tep...


Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt
Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:36AM EST

CAIRO (Reuters) - A rare double wooden statue of an ancient Egyptian scribe and his wife has been found in their tomb south of Cairo, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Monday.

The double statue, dating from around 2300 BC, was among a total of five wooden statues found at the tomb in Sakkara, the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, said Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The official was Ka-Hay, who kept divine records, and his wife, Spri-Ankh. They lived late in the 5th dynasty or early in the 6th and were buried in the part of the necropolis associated with the pharaoh Teti, he said in a statement.

"It is a unique statue... In general double seated statues are made of limestone and are rarely carved in wood," he said.

The find was uncovered by an Egyptian-Australian team.

The tomb itself is a mud-brick structure of the classic platform style and contains a fine false door in wood and two tables for offerings, he added. False doors are a regular feature of the tombs of the period.

The archaeological team, now led by Naguib Kanawati of Macquarie University in Sydney, has been working at Sakkara since the early 1970s.


Three ancient Egyptian sarcophagi unearthed

Cairo, Feb. 10 (AP): Archaeologists have uncovered three wooden Pharaonic sarcophagi, dating back to the 20th century B.C., Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement on Saturday.

``The three sarcophagi were found in a very well preserved condition inside three burial shafts,'' the statement said.

The find took place early this week at a site south of the Saqqara pyramids, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Cairo.

According to the Council's chief, Zahi Hawass, the first sarcophagi dates back to Egypt's 1500 B.C.-1000 B.C. New Kingdom and is a black anthropoid. It carries paintings portraying the four sons of the falcon-headed god Horus and its inscription says it to belongs to a person called ``Waya-ly.''

Anthropoid, or person-shaped, coffins were particularly important to Ancient Egyptians, who believed them to act as a substitute body for use after death.

The second and the third sarcophagi date back to the Middle Kingdom, 4,000 years ago, and are decorated with black pieces of glass.

The Japanese archaeological mission has been working in Saqqara since early 1990s looking for Middle Kingdom tombs.

 

[Paisley]

Did you know that Helicobacter pylori bacteria have been found in mummies? The bacteria create additional acid in the stomach. They may have enabled people in ancient times to digest ill-preserved or rough food. However, H. pylori has been discovered to be a major cause of ulcers and stomach cancer.

 

[Story]

[Ed McMahon voice] I did not know that. [/Ed McMahon voice]

Meanwhile, the Revisionists are at work. Some legends shouldn't be messed with -
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070215-cleopatra.html

February 15, 2007—She was the legendary queen of Egypt who seduced two of the most powerful men in the ancient world.

But a silver coin that went on display at a British university yesterday suggests Cleopatra's beauty may be Hollywood fiction.

On one side the coin shows the Egyptian ruler with a shallow forehead, long nose, narrow lips, and a sharply pointed chin (at left above). On the other, her longtime lover, the powerful Roman general and politician Mark Antony, is depicted with a large hooked nose and thick neck (right).

The unflattering images suggest that fictional accounts—from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra to the HBO TV series Rome—overplay the attractiveness of the doomed couple.

"The image on the coin is far from being that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton," said Lindsay Allason-Jones, director of archaeological museums at Newcastle University, in a statement.

"Roman writers tell us that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic, and that she had a seductive voice but, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty. The image of Cleopatra as a beautiful seductress is a more recent image."

 

[Paisley]

First line of Gone with the Wind: "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful."

People tend to assume that if someone is charming and seductive, they must be beautiful.

 

[Mojito]

There's been a lot of fascinating work done recently in Saqqara by joint Egyptian-Australian teams, particularly on the later Greco-Egyptian era. Funny you mention Imhotep, Story - every time I see a headline about a new Egyptian discovery in Saqqara, I have a heart-leap where I hope it's the discovery of Imhotep's tomb (or, at least, the temple consecrated to him that we know existed right up to the Greco-Egyptian period). Not the Imhotep of 20-21st Century Silver-Screen fame, of course, but the first great architect and Leonardo da Vinci of his era. The only discovery that would make me clap my hands in greater glee would be anything shedding light on the Amarna era succession (and particularly the fate of Meritaten).

The Cleopatra coin - and the media reporting of it - have irritated me exceedingly. Not only is the coin hardly 'new', but it is very far from a revelation to suggest that Cleo wasn't the bombshell of popular legend. I'm sympathetic to the Museum's need to generate interest in the coin through this particular angle, but there's hardly anyone with a passing interest in Egyptology who still believes Cleopatra looked remotely like Elizabeth Taylor. And why should she be? She was intelligent, charming and charismatic. She didn't need conventional good looks.

 

[Haversack]

Mojito wrote: "... but there's hardly anyone with a passing interest in Egyptology who still believes Cleopatra looked remotely like Elizabeth Taylor."

Of course not. She looked like Claudette Colbert.

Haversack.

 

[Mr. Pinstripe Suit]

Likewise...

The Cleopatra coin - and the media reporting of it - have irritated me exceedingly. Not only is the coin hardly 'new', but it is very far from a revelation to suggest that Cleo wasn't the bombshell of popular legend. (SNIPPED) She was intelligent, charming and charismatic. She didn't need conventional good looks.

A quote about her attributed to Plutarch so fully struck me long ago that I had it done calligraphically and framed it:

"As far as they say, her beauty was not in and for itself incomparable, nor such to strike the person who was just looking at her; but her conversation had an irresistible charm; and from the one side her appearance, together with the seduction of her speech, from the other her character, which pervaded her actions in an inexplicable way when meeting people, was utterly spellbinding."

:eusa_clap

-Kevin