Thursday, 29 April 2010
Egyptology Conference at Swansea
Check this out http://www.swansea.ac.uk/egypt/conference010.htm. I got told about this by some guests and it sounds great, some very unusual topics; on 12th May
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Coptic News
Many thanks to Kris of Space Observers for this news item and photo
In St Mary cathedral, the big church opposite Oasis cafe, a new relic has gone on display. it belongs to martyr St. Maurice (chief of the Theban Region)and has been on display since 23rd March. It is on your left hand side as you enter.
PS I welcome items like this, please send them to me
In St Mary cathedral, the big church opposite Oasis cafe, a new relic has gone on display. it belongs to martyr St. Maurice (chief of the Theban Region)and has been on display since 23rd March. It is on your left hand side as you enter.
PS I welcome items like this, please send them to me
Hassan Fathy Village
:: Association of Luxor | portals Luxor | Luxor Now:::
Translation courtsey of Google Translate
"In the context of preserving the cultural heritage of the South Upper Egypt and the architectural heritage of the village of Hassan Fathy famous mainland western Luxor, which is one of the heritage features and architectural distinctive in the world, visited Luxor, a delegation from the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO for the development of perceptions of principle for the restoration and development of the village to preserve it and contribute to the restoration and development.
The delegation included a number of UNESCO experts, headed by Dr. Daniel and me, a student of Ahmed Hamed Hassan Fathi, a number of experts in antiquities and culture.
Dr. Samir Farag, Governor of Luxor development that the village of Hassan Fathy, one of the projects the comprehensive development plan for the development of Luxor and converted into a museum open world where you will develop the entire village and restoration of existing homes in the village, which up to 70 House and the restoration and development of the mosque, the theater and Khan Market and House, who lived by the Engineer Hassan Fathi, during the construction village, where are these buildings the most important features of the village, will also be establishing an international center for handicrafts, UNESCO oversee its implementation to be an integrated complex to preserve the cultural heritage of craft industries and crafts in the Middle East to include specialists from all over the world do the training and rehabilitation of workers in the field of handicrafts.
The Prime Minister has issued a decree to transfer the village of Hassan Fathy to protected heritage."
Translation courtsey of Google Translate
"In the context of preserving the cultural heritage of the South Upper Egypt and the architectural heritage of the village of Hassan Fathy famous mainland western Luxor, which is one of the heritage features and architectural distinctive in the world, visited Luxor, a delegation from the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO for the development of perceptions of principle for the restoration and development of the village to preserve it and contribute to the restoration and development.
The delegation included a number of UNESCO experts, headed by Dr. Daniel and me, a student of Ahmed Hamed Hassan Fathi, a number of experts in antiquities and culture.
Dr. Samir Farag, Governor of Luxor development that the village of Hassan Fathy, one of the projects the comprehensive development plan for the development of Luxor and converted into a museum open world where you will develop the entire village and restoration of existing homes in the village, which up to 70 House and the restoration and development of the mosque, the theater and Khan Market and House, who lived by the Engineer Hassan Fathi, during the construction village, where are these buildings the most important features of the village, will also be establishing an international center for handicrafts, UNESCO oversee its implementation to be an integrated complex to preserve the cultural heritage of craft industries and crafts in the Middle East to include specialists from all over the world do the training and rehabilitation of workers in the field of handicrafts.
The Prime Minister has issued a decree to transfer the village of Hassan Fathy to protected heritage."
Monday, 19 April 2010
Art in Luxor part 3
Some details about the exhibition at the Faculty of Fine Arts. translation courtsey of Gooogle Translate
Mission to Egypt: "Mission to Egypt
February 6 to April 9, 2008
I spent 2 months in Egypt to teach drawing and painting. I taught at the Faculty Fine Arts South Valley University of Luxor. The objective is to establish an exchange program between Superior School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg and the Faculty of Fine Arts in Luxor. In this era of confrontation of cultures, it was a challenge to open an artistic dialogue, to use just the culture and to forge creative links. I found a great thirst for shares and a real need to trade."
Mission to Egypt: "Mission to Egypt
February 6 to April 9, 2008
I spent 2 months in Egypt to teach drawing and painting. I taught at the Faculty Fine Arts South Valley University of Luxor. The objective is to establish an exchange program between Superior School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg and the Faculty of Fine Arts in Luxor. In this era of confrontation of cultures, it was a challenge to open an artistic dialogue, to use just the culture and to forge creative links. I found a great thirst for shares and a real need to trade."
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Kent Weeks new role - Besotted Grandfather
Bumped into Kent whilst shopping and he looked very well. He could not stop talking about his new grand daughter. Parents and child visited him in Egypt and then they all went to Rome for a bit of R & R. He informed me it was her 4 1/2 month birthday and freely admitted she could wrap him round her little finger.
He is due in America shortly and wondering how to get there with the volcano. Might have to go via Singapore but that takes 23 hours
He is due in America shortly and wondering how to get there with the volcano. Might have to go via Singapore but that takes 23 hours
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
BBC News - Maternal deaths 'fall worldwide'
BBC News - Maternal deaths 'fall worldwide': "He said finding out why a country such as Egypt has had 'such enormous success in driving down the number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes could enable us to export that success to countries that have been lagging behind'."
Well done Egypt
Well done Egypt
Monday, 12 April 2010
New Blockyard at Luxor Temple
Readers will remember Ray Johnson speaking about this in his lecture so today I went and visited.
Firstly you have to get an idea of this blockyard, it is huge, big and then big. This is a view taken from the mosque and you can see how much there is there. It is all arranged on mastabas (local name for brick benches).
When you get to the end of the temple exit on the north side and there is a walkway with a chain link fence. Just follow it.
Everything is well labeled and stretches from Middle Kingdom to Islam.
Where neighbouring blocks have been identified they have been assembled in to fragment groups and like the khonsu wall there is connecting drawings so the reliefs make more sense.
There is a small diversion where the walkway goes to a viewing area of the Roman gate together with an excellent diagram of what the temple looked like under the Romans.
You re-enter the temple through the peristyle sun court.
I went there in the morning and although the views were good I was told by a member of Chicago House staff that afternoon or even at night give the best views. She also mentioned they hope they can set up a website giving more details about the blocks but that was still in the wish list/planning stage.
Firstly you have to get an idea of this blockyard, it is huge, big and then big. This is a view taken from the mosque and you can see how much there is there. It is all arranged on mastabas (local name for brick benches).
When you get to the end of the temple exit on the north side and there is a walkway with a chain link fence. Just follow it.
Everything is well labeled and stretches from Middle Kingdom to Islam.
Where neighbouring blocks have been identified they have been assembled in to fragment groups and like the khonsu wall there is connecting drawings so the reliefs make more sense.
There is a small diversion where the walkway goes to a viewing area of the Roman gate together with an excellent diagram of what the temple looked like under the Romans.You re-enter the temple through the peristyle sun court.
I went there in the morning and although the views were good I was told by a member of Chicago House staff that afternoon or even at night give the best views. She also mentioned they hope they can set up a website giving more details about the blocks but that was still in the wish list/planning stage.
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Certificate in Egyptology (KNH Centre for Egyptology - The University of Manchester)
Certificate in Egyptology (KNH Centre for Egyptology - The University of Manchester)
All you budding Egyptologists anywhere in the world, this is the course I am doing, totally recommend it and it is completely online
All you budding Egyptologists anywhere in the world, this is the course I am doing, totally recommend it and it is completely online
Ray Johnsons lecture again
Just got an email from Ray Johnson who had looked at my notes on his lecture. He apologised for throwing so much information at me which is the nicest way of saying you got some stuff wrong I have ever heard, and offered me a corrected version. He is such a gentleman. Any other lecturers who want to do this I would be delighted to accept. So here is Ray's lecture again.
Chicago House 2009-2010 season Ray Johnson
It was nice that the last lecture of the season was Ray as I really admire the work they do in Luxor and how accessible they make their publications. Indeed he opened his lecture by announcing that yet another publication was available for FREE DOWNLOAD.
There are over 100 titles on the Oriental Institute Publications website ‘Egypt’
category that are available for free in low resolution PDF’s, and they are pleased that rather than seeing a drop in hard-copy sales it has actually resulted in an increase. The link is here: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/
and if you look you can see a dollar sign or a downward arrow. The downward arrow gives you the free PDF. They are looking to get everything online and are thankful for the donation from Lewis and Misty Gruber that made scanning possible.
This year they were working at Medinet Habu, TT107, and Khonsu and Luxor temples
Medinet Habu
Chicago House has just published ‘Medinet Habu IX: The 18th Dynasty Temple Part 1, the Inner Sanctuaries,’ the first volume in a series of six for the small Amun temple. At the moment they are working on the drawings for Volume X dedicated to the Ambulatory of the 18th Dynasty Temple. In the 29th dynasty Pharaoh Akoris added four doorways that blocked some of the Tuthmosis III inscriptions of the inner pillar faces. One doorway remains in situ, and luckily the lintel is hollow and accessible. Artist Sue Osgood, who is small and thin, was able to crawl inside to document the Thutmosis III reliefs using aluminum foil rubbings and film tracing. On February 16 the ARCE/SCA field school epigraphers met with artist Margaret De Jong and Ray at the small Amun temple for an on-site seminar on epigraphic documentation methodologies, the third seminar in a series that took place with Ray at the Chicago House library and Brett McClain at Khonsu Temple. There are a lot of different recording methods depending on the differing conditions of the walls being copied, and the Chicago House team uses them all. Chicago House has also completed a new block yard at Medinet Habu and this season moved 1200 blocks into it making a total of 2000; the moving of material from the old block yard to the new one will be finished next season. Against the back wall of the blockyard Chicago House built a covered ‘hospital’ treatment area, and different storage platforms have been designated for different periods of blocks. Conservation is supervised by Lotfi Hassan. Outside of the block yard there is an open display area on the right side where one can see 40 blocks inscribed for Thutmosis III and Ramesses II from an ancient temple to Sobek discovered south of Armant in the 1970s.
These blocks were found reused as a large, late-period stone tank for the breeding of the sacred crocodiles. It was in this tank that the excavators found the large alabaster pair statue of Amenhotep III and Sobek that is the centerpiece of the Luxor Museum.
TT 107
The owner of TT 107 was Nefersekheru, Steward of Amenhotep III’s jubilee palace at Malkata. The concession for this tomb was given to Chicago House after its publication of TT 192, the tomb of Kheruef, the only other tomb Chicago House has documented in Luxor. This first season consisted of a condition study of the tomb with Boyo Ockinga and preliminary photography of the sunk reliefs of the facade by Yrako Kobylecky, the quality of which is as good as Ramose, TT 55. The documentation of the tomb coincides with the surveying, cleaning, and restoration work of the Malkata palace itself by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Emory University. The SCA is building a wall around the entire palace area, quite an undertaking as the site is 5km and requires a 10km wall, but crucial to its survival. Cultivation was encroaching like at Amarna, where two-thirds of that site is now under cultivation.
Khonsu Temple
So far Chicago House has produced three publications of Khonsu Temple: the first court, the hypostyle hall and the rooftop graffiti. The temple was built by Ramses III out of at least 6 dismantled temples, some from the west bank (the mortuary temples of Amenhotep III, Amenhotep Son of Hapu, and Ay/Horemheb among them). During the last two years Chicago House has collaborated with ARCE on a floor restoration project, documenting reused blocks in the flooring before ARCE fills the gaps with new stone. This season’s work has focused on the court, where the flooring includes Seti I blocks. Because of the position of the blocks photography is sometimes impossible, so they have developed new methodologies, including using aluminum foil to get a rubbing and then tracing the foil. Many blocks seem to relate to each other, so they will put some of them back together on paper. Many of the blocks in the flooring throughout the temple refer to Khonsu, suggesting that Ramesses III took down and reused an earlier 18th Dynasty Khonsu Temple on the site. The building history is complex and challenging. One block has Ay, Horemheb, and Ramesses II’s names one on top of the another! This season 144 in situ blocks were recorded and 315 block fragments.
Luxor Temple
There has been a growing interest in Roman Luxor Temple since the ARCE cleaning of the late 3rd Century AD frescos in the ‘Roman sanctuary.’ Under Diocletian the temple was completely surrounded by a Roman fortification wall, or castrum. Medieval Luxor grew out of the Roman community, as Old Cairo grew out of another, more famous Diocletion-period fortress called ‘Babylon’.
ARCE and Chicago House this season collaborated on the cleaning and clearing of a section of the Roman castrum wall on the eastern side of the Ramesses II eastern Pylon and an attached bastion, both of which are in poor condition.
When the cleaning is finished next season, the wall and bastion will be consolidated and partly restored in order to preserve the original remnants.
Adjacent to the wall is a later, 6th century basilica that is among the largest and oldest churches to be documented in the Luxor area. Next season Chicago House will be focusing a new architectural study of this church and the almost 200 beautifully carved blocks and fragments from the sanctuary scattered through the blockyard, with an eye toward partial restoration. Chicago House has also started designing a series of educational panels like those at Karnak temple in English and in Arabic for the main axis of the temple. The orientation panel is already finished and awaiting approval from the SCA. On Monday, March 29, 2010 Chicago House opened to the public the Luxor Temple Blockyard Open-Air Museum, a collection of blocks and joined groups on display from the Middle Kingdom through the present day, most unpublished, representing 4000 years of monument building and decoration in Luxor. Under the supervision of conservator Hiroko Kariya, Chicago House has landscaped the area to the east of the temple where the public is now encouraged to follow stone walkways along the joined groups arranged in chronological sequence.
The blocks are behind a chain link railing to protect them from being touched.
Fragment groups have been assembled with brick and mortar backing, but all the blocks have been wrapped in plastic so no bonding has occurred, and the groups can be easily dismantled for changing displays. Plaster infill between the stone fragments has been painted with simple reconstruction lines that communicate to the viewer what is missing, aiding comprehension of the scenes. This was done to great effect on the Colonnade Hall eastern wall Khonsu barque joined group in 2006. The blocks have been put into chronological groups as well as subject groups. Lighting has also been installed so that the displays can be viewed at night when the temple is lit and open, until 9PM. It is hoped that the block yard will encourage traffic flow away from the narrow door in the apse, a terrible bottleneck during peak visiting hours, as well as being educational. The walkway starts at the barque sanctuary and leads along past Amenhotep III large blocks, then the chronological sequence starting with Senuseret I, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III, Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton, Tutankhamen, Horemheb, Sety I, Ramses II, Ramses III, Egyptian creatures, the 21st Dynasty, 25th Dynasty, 29th Dynasty, 30th Dynasty (including Nectanebo I and Nectanebo II), the Ptolemis (I, II, IV, VI, VIII, and XIII), crytographic animals including female baboons with skirts, Roman, Christian, and Islamic. The displays are designed to be organic amd change occasionally, so things will shift around, and some groups will be replaced by new groups. There is also a viewing area for the great eastern Roman gate and Tetrastyle. The path then leads the visitor back into the Amenhotep III sun court where the last display is to be found on the eastern wall, northern end: 110 fragments restored to the wall itself, supervised by stone mason Frank Helmholz. They preserve a large scene showing Amenhotep III offering a huge pile of offerings to the great barque of Amun, set up on a stand in the middle of the court, followed by another figure of Amenhotep III and the royal ka. The block fragments represent only about 50% of the original wall surface, so the missing bits have been painted on the plaster infill by Chicago House director Ray Johnson for the comprehension of the viewer.
Sadly this is the last lecture, roll on the autumn
Chicago House 2009-2010 season Ray Johnson
It was nice that the last lecture of the season was Ray as I really admire the work they do in Luxor and how accessible they make their publications. Indeed he opened his lecture by announcing that yet another publication was available for FREE DOWNLOAD.
There are over 100 titles on the Oriental Institute Publications website ‘Egypt’
category that are available for free in low resolution PDF’s, and they are pleased that rather than seeing a drop in hard-copy sales it has actually resulted in an increase. The link is here: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/
and if you look you can see a dollar sign or a downward arrow. The downward arrow gives you the free PDF. They are looking to get everything online and are thankful for the donation from Lewis and Misty Gruber that made scanning possible.
This year they were working at Medinet Habu, TT107, and Khonsu and Luxor temples
Medinet Habu
Chicago House has just published ‘Medinet Habu IX: The 18th Dynasty Temple Part 1, the Inner Sanctuaries,’ the first volume in a series of six for the small Amun temple. At the moment they are working on the drawings for Volume X dedicated to the Ambulatory of the 18th Dynasty Temple. In the 29th dynasty Pharaoh Akoris added four doorways that blocked some of the Tuthmosis III inscriptions of the inner pillar faces. One doorway remains in situ, and luckily the lintel is hollow and accessible. Artist Sue Osgood, who is small and thin, was able to crawl inside to document the Thutmosis III reliefs using aluminum foil rubbings and film tracing. On February 16 the ARCE/SCA field school epigraphers met with artist Margaret De Jong and Ray at the small Amun temple for an on-site seminar on epigraphic documentation methodologies, the third seminar in a series that took place with Ray at the Chicago House library and Brett McClain at Khonsu Temple. There are a lot of different recording methods depending on the differing conditions of the walls being copied, and the Chicago House team uses them all. Chicago House has also completed a new block yard at Medinet Habu and this season moved 1200 blocks into it making a total of 2000; the moving of material from the old block yard to the new one will be finished next season. Against the back wall of the blockyard Chicago House built a covered ‘hospital’ treatment area, and different storage platforms have been designated for different periods of blocks. Conservation is supervised by Lotfi Hassan. Outside of the block yard there is an open display area on the right side where one can see 40 blocks inscribed for Thutmosis III and Ramesses II from an ancient temple to Sobek discovered south of Armant in the 1970s.
These blocks were found reused as a large, late-period stone tank for the breeding of the sacred crocodiles. It was in this tank that the excavators found the large alabaster pair statue of Amenhotep III and Sobek that is the centerpiece of the Luxor Museum.
TT 107
The owner of TT 107 was Nefersekheru, Steward of Amenhotep III’s jubilee palace at Malkata. The concession for this tomb was given to Chicago House after its publication of TT 192, the tomb of Kheruef, the only other tomb Chicago House has documented in Luxor. This first season consisted of a condition study of the tomb with Boyo Ockinga and preliminary photography of the sunk reliefs of the facade by Yrako Kobylecky, the quality of which is as good as Ramose, TT 55. The documentation of the tomb coincides with the surveying, cleaning, and restoration work of the Malkata palace itself by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Emory University. The SCA is building a wall around the entire palace area, quite an undertaking as the site is 5km and requires a 10km wall, but crucial to its survival. Cultivation was encroaching like at Amarna, where two-thirds of that site is now under cultivation.
Khonsu Temple
So far Chicago House has produced three publications of Khonsu Temple: the first court, the hypostyle hall and the rooftop graffiti. The temple was built by Ramses III out of at least 6 dismantled temples, some from the west bank (the mortuary temples of Amenhotep III, Amenhotep Son of Hapu, and Ay/Horemheb among them). During the last two years Chicago House has collaborated with ARCE on a floor restoration project, documenting reused blocks in the flooring before ARCE fills the gaps with new stone. This season’s work has focused on the court, where the flooring includes Seti I blocks. Because of the position of the blocks photography is sometimes impossible, so they have developed new methodologies, including using aluminum foil to get a rubbing and then tracing the foil. Many blocks seem to relate to each other, so they will put some of them back together on paper. Many of the blocks in the flooring throughout the temple refer to Khonsu, suggesting that Ramesses III took down and reused an earlier 18th Dynasty Khonsu Temple on the site. The building history is complex and challenging. One block has Ay, Horemheb, and Ramesses II’s names one on top of the another! This season 144 in situ blocks were recorded and 315 block fragments.
Luxor Temple
There has been a growing interest in Roman Luxor Temple since the ARCE cleaning of the late 3rd Century AD frescos in the ‘Roman sanctuary.’ Under Diocletian the temple was completely surrounded by a Roman fortification wall, or castrum. Medieval Luxor grew out of the Roman community, as Old Cairo grew out of another, more famous Diocletion-period fortress called ‘Babylon’.
ARCE and Chicago House this season collaborated on the cleaning and clearing of a section of the Roman castrum wall on the eastern side of the Ramesses II eastern Pylon and an attached bastion, both of which are in poor condition.
When the cleaning is finished next season, the wall and bastion will be consolidated and partly restored in order to preserve the original remnants.
Adjacent to the wall is a later, 6th century basilica that is among the largest and oldest churches to be documented in the Luxor area. Next season Chicago House will be focusing a new architectural study of this church and the almost 200 beautifully carved blocks and fragments from the sanctuary scattered through the blockyard, with an eye toward partial restoration. Chicago House has also started designing a series of educational panels like those at Karnak temple in English and in Arabic for the main axis of the temple. The orientation panel is already finished and awaiting approval from the SCA. On Monday, March 29, 2010 Chicago House opened to the public the Luxor Temple Blockyard Open-Air Museum, a collection of blocks and joined groups on display from the Middle Kingdom through the present day, most unpublished, representing 4000 years of monument building and decoration in Luxor. Under the supervision of conservator Hiroko Kariya, Chicago House has landscaped the area to the east of the temple where the public is now encouraged to follow stone walkways along the joined groups arranged in chronological sequence.
The blocks are behind a chain link railing to protect them from being touched.
Fragment groups have been assembled with brick and mortar backing, but all the blocks have been wrapped in plastic so no bonding has occurred, and the groups can be easily dismantled for changing displays. Plaster infill between the stone fragments has been painted with simple reconstruction lines that communicate to the viewer what is missing, aiding comprehension of the scenes. This was done to great effect on the Colonnade Hall eastern wall Khonsu barque joined group in 2006. The blocks have been put into chronological groups as well as subject groups. Lighting has also been installed so that the displays can be viewed at night when the temple is lit and open, until 9PM. It is hoped that the block yard will encourage traffic flow away from the narrow door in the apse, a terrible bottleneck during peak visiting hours, as well as being educational. The walkway starts at the barque sanctuary and leads along past Amenhotep III large blocks, then the chronological sequence starting with Senuseret I, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III, Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton, Tutankhamen, Horemheb, Sety I, Ramses II, Ramses III, Egyptian creatures, the 21st Dynasty, 25th Dynasty, 29th Dynasty, 30th Dynasty (including Nectanebo I and Nectanebo II), the Ptolemis (I, II, IV, VI, VIII, and XIII), crytographic animals including female baboons with skirts, Roman, Christian, and Islamic. The displays are designed to be organic amd change occasionally, so things will shift around, and some groups will be replaced by new groups. There is also a viewing area for the great eastern Roman gate and Tetrastyle. The path then leads the visitor back into the Amenhotep III sun court where the last display is to be found on the eastern wall, northern end: 110 fragments restored to the wall itself, supervised by stone mason Frank Helmholz. They preserve a large scene showing Amenhotep III offering a huge pile of offerings to the great barque of Amun, set up on a stand in the middle of the court, followed by another figure of Amenhotep III and the royal ka. The block fragments represent only about 50% of the original wall surface, so the missing bits have been painted on the plaster infill by Chicago House director Ray Johnson for the comprehension of the viewer.
Sadly this is the last lecture, roll on the autumn
BBC News - Egypt calls for antiquities unity
BBC News - Egypt calls for antiquities unity
I once had a guest stay at my flats in Luxor, retired now but used to be at Liverpool Conservation Centre http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation/technologies/3drecording/ he told me about the fabulous things they can do in the way of reproductions so I personally see no reason why museums could not have these made and send the originals back. The majority of visitors would be quite happy with this, scholars could visit the originals still and the object in question could serve an educational purpose in two places.
I once had a guest stay at my flats in Luxor, retired now but used to be at Liverpool Conservation Centre http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation/technologies/3drecording/ he told me about the fabulous things they can do in the way of reproductions so I personally see no reason why museums could not have these made and send the originals back. The majority of visitors would be quite happy with this, scholars could visit the originals still and the object in question could serve an educational purpose in two places.
Sunday, 4 April 2010
Art in Luxor part 2
I was told on Friday there will be a exhibition of painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Luxor. Opening on the 7th at 7pm
Art in Luxor Part 1 Lehnert and Landrock
There is a exhibition of old photographs in the Old Winter Palace at the moment. It opened with a small reception and lecture on Friday by the step grandson of one of the original photographers. They were both born in 1878 and toured Northern Africa taking wonderful photogrpahs on glass plates. When the tomb of Tutankamun was discovered this spured them on to visit Egypt on a Dahabeyya, their collection includes many photos during the innundation.
The exhibition closes on April 8th but many of these photographs are available in the Khan el Khalili Mall in the Lehnert and Landrock Bookshop and Art Gallery which is owned by the step grandson Dr Edouard Lambelet
The exhibition closes on April 8th but many of these photographs are available in the Khan el Khalili Mall in the Lehnert and Landrock Bookshop and Art Gallery which is owned by the step grandson Dr Edouard Lambelet
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Al-Ahram Weekly | Front Page | The vizier's door
Luxor's new door, the best photo I have seen on a report on this discovery Al-Ahram Weekly | Front Page | The vizier's door
New tomb in Valley of Queens, Luxor QV43 Seth-her-khopsef Open
They are restoring Amonherkepchef(QV 55) and that tomb is now closed so they have opened QV43 Seth-her-khopsef and I went there today. It is up the hill next door. A large tomb and very smoke damaged. Scenes of Ramses III presenting his son to various Gods, all the normal crowd Ptah, Sekhmet, Isis, Nephytys, Selket, Neith, Anubis, Shu including a full face god who I did not recognise (anyone know) and eventually to Osiris.
I have no idea how long this tomb is going to be open so get there quick.
I have no idea how long this tomb is going to be open so get there quick.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Chicago House 2009-2010 season Ray Johnson
Chicago House 2009-2010 season Ray Johnson
It was nice that the last lecture of the season was Ray as I really admire the work they do in Luxor and how accessible they make their publications. Indeed he opened his lecture by announcing that yet another publication was available FREE DOWNLOAD.
There are over 100 titles on the Oriental Institute website that available free in low resolution PDF’s and they are pleased that rather than seeing a drop of sales it has actually resulted in an increase. The link is here http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/ and if you look you can see a dollar sign or a downward arrow. The downward arrow gives you the free PDF. They are looking to get everything n online and are thankful for donations that have made scanning possible.
This year they were working at Medinet Habu, TT107, and Khonsu and Luxor temples
Medinet Habu
They have just published MH IX The 18 dynasty temple Part 1 the inner Sanctuaries. At Habu they are planning volume X the Ambulatory. In 29th dynasty Akons added doorways that blocked the Tuthmosis III inscriptions. However these were hollow so sue Osgood who is small and thin has crawled inside and managed to document them. There has been an ARCE/SCA field school on recording methodologies; there are a lot of different methods depending on the situation of the inscriptions. They made a new block yard and moved 1200 blocks into it making a total of 2000. There is a ‘hospital’ area and different platforms have different periods. Outside of this block yard there is an open display area with 40 blocks. There are some 40 blocks that have appeared from nowhere and were found south of Armant. There was a Sobek cult place which had a tack made of reused blocks which contained the status of Amenhotep III and Sobek which is in the Luxor Museum.
TT107
The owner was Nefersekheru Steward of Amenhotep III at Malkata Palace. Tombs are not usually their thing but they have held this concession for 40 years. At Malkata the SCA are building a wall around it which is quite an undertaking as the site is 5km and requires a 10km wall. Cultivation was encroaching on the site and at Amarna this has destroyed three quarters of the site as this is now under cultivation. They do not want this to happen at Malkata. It is in poor structural condition and although it uses sunken relief the quality is as good as Ramose.
Khonsu
So far there are three publications the first court, the hypostyle hall and the rooftop graffiti. It was built by Ramses III out of at least 3 previous temples that were at the site. The floor area has Seti I blocks, they used aluminum foil to get a rubbing and then traced the foil. Because of the position of the blocks they cannot photograph so have had to develop a new methodology. They hope that they can put the inscriptions back together on paper. The blocks reference Khonsu so there was an XVIII dynasty temple on the site that Ramses III destroyed. It is a challenge to document Ramses usurpation of Horemheb's original, there were 144 in situ blocks and 315 block fragments
Luxor Temple
There is a new focus on Roman Luxor Temple, under Diocletian it was a Roman fort. Medieval Luxor came out of this. They have been working on the Roam cestrum wall and clearing the bastion, these are in poor condition. There is a 6th centenary church which is the largest and oldest to be documented. They are going to do some educational panels like those at Karnak temple in English and in Arabic. They are have almost finished creating a block yard museum which opened on Monday. Lots of these blocks have been published. They have landscaped the area to the east of the temple where they are allowing the public to view. The blocks will be behind a chain link rope to protect them from being touched. Fragment groups have been assembled, intervening mortar has had connecting loins drawn which whilst not replicating anything gives the public and sense of what is going on. This has already been done to great effect on the Khonsu barque wall. Where blocks have been reassembled this has been done by wrapping the blocks in plastic to protect them from the wet mortar and not bonded. This means they can be unassembled should this be required. The blocks have been put into chronological groups as well as subject groups. Lightening has also been donated so that they can be viewed at night as well when the temple is lit and open. The block yard will also encourage traffic flow away from the narrow door in the apse as well as being educational. The walkway starts at the barque sanctuary and leads along past Amenhotep III, Senuseret I, Tuthmosis IV Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton, Tutankhamen, Horemheb, Ramses II, Seti I, Ramses III, Egyptian creatures Nectanebo, all of the Ptolemy’s, animals incl female baboons with skirts, Roman Christian, /Islamic. It is not set in stone but things can be moved and replaced. There is also a viewing area for the Roman gate. It then leads back to the sun court.
Sadly this is the last lecture, roll on the autumn
It was nice that the last lecture of the season was Ray as I really admire the work they do in Luxor and how accessible they make their publications. Indeed he opened his lecture by announcing that yet another publication was available FREE DOWNLOAD.
There are over 100 titles on the Oriental Institute website that available free in low resolution PDF’s and they are pleased that rather than seeing a drop of sales it has actually resulted in an increase. The link is here http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/ and if you look you can see a dollar sign or a downward arrow. The downward arrow gives you the free PDF. They are looking to get everything n online and are thankful for donations that have made scanning possible.
This year they were working at Medinet Habu, TT107, and Khonsu and Luxor temples
Medinet Habu
They have just published MH IX The 18 dynasty temple Part 1 the inner Sanctuaries. At Habu they are planning volume X the Ambulatory. In 29th dynasty Akons added doorways that blocked the Tuthmosis III inscriptions. However these were hollow so sue Osgood who is small and thin has crawled inside and managed to document them. There has been an ARCE/SCA field school on recording methodologies; there are a lot of different methods depending on the situation of the inscriptions. They made a new block yard and moved 1200 blocks into it making a total of 2000. There is a ‘hospital’ area and different platforms have different periods. Outside of this block yard there is an open display area with 40 blocks. There are some 40 blocks that have appeared from nowhere and were found south of Armant. There was a Sobek cult place which had a tack made of reused blocks which contained the status of Amenhotep III and Sobek which is in the Luxor Museum.
TT107
The owner was Nefersekheru Steward of Amenhotep III at Malkata Palace. Tombs are not usually their thing but they have held this concession for 40 years. At Malkata the SCA are building a wall around it which is quite an undertaking as the site is 5km and requires a 10km wall. Cultivation was encroaching on the site and at Amarna this has destroyed three quarters of the site as this is now under cultivation. They do not want this to happen at Malkata. It is in poor structural condition and although it uses sunken relief the quality is as good as Ramose.
Khonsu
So far there are three publications the first court, the hypostyle hall and the rooftop graffiti. It was built by Ramses III out of at least 3 previous temples that were at the site. The floor area has Seti I blocks, they used aluminum foil to get a rubbing and then traced the foil. Because of the position of the blocks they cannot photograph so have had to develop a new methodology. They hope that they can put the inscriptions back together on paper. The blocks reference Khonsu so there was an XVIII dynasty temple on the site that Ramses III destroyed. It is a challenge to document Ramses usurpation of Horemheb's original, there were 144 in situ blocks and 315 block fragments
Luxor Temple
There is a new focus on Roman Luxor Temple, under Diocletian it was a Roman fort. Medieval Luxor came out of this. They have been working on the Roam cestrum wall and clearing the bastion, these are in poor condition. There is a 6th centenary church which is the largest and oldest to be documented. They are going to do some educational panels like those at Karnak temple in English and in Arabic. They are have almost finished creating a block yard museum which opened on Monday. Lots of these blocks have been published. They have landscaped the area to the east of the temple where they are allowing the public to view. The blocks will be behind a chain link rope to protect them from being touched. Fragment groups have been assembled, intervening mortar has had connecting loins drawn which whilst not replicating anything gives the public and sense of what is going on. This has already been done to great effect on the Khonsu barque wall. Where blocks have been reassembled this has been done by wrapping the blocks in plastic to protect them from the wet mortar and not bonded. This means they can be unassembled should this be required. The blocks have been put into chronological groups as well as subject groups. Lightening has also been donated so that they can be viewed at night as well when the temple is lit and open. The block yard will also encourage traffic flow away from the narrow door in the apse as well as being educational. The walkway starts at the barque sanctuary and leads along past Amenhotep III, Senuseret I, Tuthmosis IV Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton, Tutankhamen, Horemheb, Ramses II, Seti I, Ramses III, Egyptian creatures Nectanebo, all of the Ptolemy’s, animals incl female baboons with skirts, Roman Christian, /Islamic. It is not set in stone but things can be moved and replaced. There is also a viewing area for the Roman gate. It then leads back to the sun court.
Sadly this is the last lecture, roll on the autumn
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