Egyptology News News about ancient Egypt from the Predynastic to Late Period.
Please feel free to email Andie (a.byrnes@ucl.ac.uk) with any comments, or any news items you would like me to post.
Blog on hold Due to other committments I will not be updating the blog for the forseeable future. Apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause, and thanks very much to all who have visited and emailed since the blog was started on the Tour Egypt site. Kind regards Andie Posted by Andie : - 4:49 am - February 9th, 2008
Faiyum whales to become part of nature reserve
Egypt State Information Service Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak inaugurates Sunday 10/2/2008 the International Whales Nature reserve of Al Fayoum in celebrations to be organized by the Environment Ministry on the occasion of the UNESCOS choosing this nature reserve to join the list of the world nature heritage which comprises 259 such locations worldwide. Environment Minister Maged George said the location of the whales nature reserve was developed to become a unique open museum as it includes 400 whales skeletons dated back to more than 40 million years ago. Posted by Andie : - 12:27 pm -
February 9th, 2008 Neferetitis Eyes Archaeology Magazine - Nefertitis Eyes (Earl R. Ertmman) Archaeology has a feature in the March/April 2008 issue entitled Nefertitis Eyes, which you can see online at the above address. Did the queens distinctive feature become a symbol of Egyptian royalty? All eyes were on the Valley of the Kings the morning of February 5, 2006, when our expedition first looked into the chamber now known as KV63, the first tomb found in Egypts Valley of the Kings since that of Tutankhamun (KV62) in 1922. Press speculation was rampant over what the tomb might hold. Would our expedition find the mummies of royal women from the late 18th Dynasty, such as Queen Nefertiti, thought by some to be Tuts mother? Or the six princesses she bore to the pharaoh Akhenaten, including Tuts queen, Ankhesenamun? The mummies of these women have either not been found or identified. Perhaps they were removed from Akhenatens capital at Amarna when a later king, presumably Tut, returned to the traditional capital of Thebes on the Nile opposite the Valley of the Kings. Did Tut rebury them in the Valley? After taking out several stones blocking the doorway from the tomb shaft into the chamber, we peered through the narrow opening. Inside, we could see many large ceramic jars and several wooden coffins, some with yellow-painted faces. The press speculation was incorrect on all counts. We found no mummies in any of the tombs seven coffins and no inscriptions to tell us for whom these coffins were initially intended. But while studying the coffins, I discoveredin the eyes of faces painted on three of theman intriguing link to Nefertiti, the queen whose name means, simply, the beautiful one has come. While none of the coffins held Nefertitis remains, the eyes may tell us something unexpected about her celebrated beauty. Was it in part the result of a genetic syndrome? See the above page for the full story. Posted by Andie : - 12:26 pm - February 9th, 2008
Ancient Egypt magazine Feb/March 2008
Ancient Egypt The February/March 2008 issue of Ancient Egypt magazine (published in the U.K.) is now available. This issue is also available as an electronic version which can be found at the web site at the above address. This may be useful for anyone with a broadband connection who may have difficulty in getting hold of a paper copy of the magazine, or who might want to see a copy before subscribing. Contents of this issue include;
Book Reviews:
Plus other Regular Features that include: Egyptology Society details for the UK and many overseas and full listing of forthcoming lectures and events in the UK from February to April 2008. Posted by Andie : - 12:26 pm - February 9th, 2008
Students to test theory on how Egyptians built the pyramids
Pasadena Star Silk kites and beer will be the tools of choice for Cal Poly Pomona students as they try to build a pyramid. Architecture students in the cement and masonry structure class will construct a 106-ton pyramid without modern tools. Instead, they will use a technique that could have been used by ancient Egyptians. Maureen Clemmons, president of the management consulting practice Transformations, explained the theory during an introduction to the course Thursday. Cal Poly Pomona will be one of several colleges helping Clemmons research the theory. The class of 100 will use her seven years of scaled testing to figure out if building at a large scale would be feasible. How can you turn the opportunity away? said Gary McGavin, associate professor of architecture at Cal Poly Pomona and instructor of the cement and masonry class. Clemmons proposed the idea that a smaller work force and innovative use of available resources made making the massive Egyptian monuments easier than once believed. In her research, Clemmons claimed that hieroglyphics show ancient Egyptians using their sailing knowledge to harness and use wind in their favor. Posted by Andie : - 12:24 pm - February 9th, 2008
Sad news: Christine el-Mahdy
Luxor News Blog (Jane Akshar) Jane has posted the sad news that author and lecturer Professor Christine el-Mahdy has died. Professor el-Mahdy was head of the Egyptian Society (Taunton). Apparently she had been unwell for some time. Sympathies to her family and friends. There is a short biography of her, in German, on Wikipedia. Posted by Andie : - 12:23 pm - February 9th, 2008
Exhibition: Nile letters
McGill Library and Collections Nile Letters: From Montrealers and Others is centered on the letters Peter Redpath sent to a friend in London while he was travelling up the Nile in Egypt in the winter of 1873. Peter Redpath was not the only notable McGill benefactor and supporter whose interest in ancient Egypt led to their embarking on journeys up the Nile in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. On display are some of the books and photographs, which were bequeathed or donated to the collections by several benefactors who made the journey. Where the names of the donors are known, they are indicated in the display. Tourism on the Nile started quite early in the nineteenth century, but grew significantly from the 1850s onward, and even more dramatically after 1870 when the British travel firm Thomas Cook first offered a Cooks tour by steamer up the Nile. Peter Redpath, however, like the other travellers whose accounts are used to describe the journey, travelled from Lower Egypt into Nubia in the traditional manner by sail boat, known as the dahabiyah. See the above page for the full story. Posted by Andie : - 12:22 pm - February 9th, 2008
Travel: 7 days in Egypt
newindpress I always assumed that a seven-day trip to Egypt would be like a prolonged history lesson a multitude of complicated names, a mess of dates and gory tales of warriors and beautiful women. I wasnt wrong about the technical jargon, but being in a land so soaked with ancient splendour, you cant but feel terrible about all those classes at school you slept through. Our first stop predictably was the house of the Pyramids, Giza (20 km from Cairo). Hoping to find warmth in a flimsy pashmina, I quite readily agree to go for the late-night Sound and Light show an initiative by the Egyptian government, where you can experience the pyramids by moonlight with some fantastic laser lights and a bit of history. At $30 a ticket, the show would have been worth every cent in summer. However, at 2 degrees, even the fabulous talking sphinx fell at deaf ears. Daylight brought in some warmth and a camel ride to the plateau. The pyramids of Khufu, Kafre and Menkaure are as large and intimidating as they look in glossy catalogues. Paying no heed to my good-natured guide, I paid 100 Egyptian pounds (around Rs 800) for a glimpse inside the pyramid, and after a back-breaking one-hour walk, down narrow, dimly-lit passages, (where you need to bend, as they are not much higher than three feet), I was greeted by a large, dark, empty room. See the above page for the full story. Posted by Andie : - 12:22 pm - February 9th, 2008
Travel: Top ten monuments in ancient Egypt
Journal3 This site recommends the top 10 sites you should see if you are going to visit Egypt. Most of them you could guess, but some that might suprise are New Kalabsha, the Temple of Tod and the Temples of Montu (the last of which I cannot actually place off the top of my head). Sites that you might have expected to see are Abu Simbel and the Temple of Luxor, but these are missing. Posted by Andie : - 12:20 pm - February 8th, 2008
Video: Smuggled antiquities in Egypt
National Geographic Egyptian homeowners who find ancient artifacts buried on their land sometimes sell them to smugglers. Lisa Ling goes undercover to show how its done. Posted by Andie : - 5:17 am - |
About Andie Byrnes I trained as an archaeologist in Scotland many years ago, but lack of funds and lack of sun drove me into telecomms, where I have been working for the last 15 years. However, once archaeology is in your blood, it never goes away, and I have recently returned to University to carry out post-graduate studies in Egyptian Archaeology (prehistory) at UCL, London.
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Last Updated: August 28th, 2011