Avenue of Sphinxes back to its ancient appearance - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online

Avenue of Sphinxes back to its ancient appearance - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online: "After five years of hard work, the avenue of Sphinxes has been reincarnated into its original form, inviting Luxor’s visitors to walk along the historical avenue as the ancient Egyptians did in the days of the Pharaohs.

To celebrate the restoration, said Mansour Boreik, director of Luxor monuments, the ministry of state for antiquities (MSA) is organizing a special inauguration ceremony on October at the avenue. Sound and Light Company is installing a special lamp to light the avenue and showcase the distinguished artistic beauty of its sphinxes, as well as the monuments that were unearthed during the route’s development project, including Greco-Roman workshops and wine factories.

The 2,700 metre long avenue of sphinxes was built during the reign of Pharaoh Nectanebo I of the 30th dynasty. It replaced one built in the 18th dynasty, by Queen Hatshepsut (1502-1482 BC), as recorded on the walls of her red chapel in Karnak Temple.

Sadly, however, over the span of history the avenue was lost, subjected to destruction and some of its sphinxes destroyed, as sections of the avenue far from both temples were covered with sand and buried under random housing.

Within the framework of the MSA programme to restore ancient Egyptian monuments with a view to developing the entire Luxor governorate into an open-air museum, a project was planned to recover the lost elements of the avenue, restore the sphinxes and return the site to the splendor it enjoyed in ancient Egypt.

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AFP: French Egyptologist who saved Nubian temples dies

Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, has died, what a sadness for Egyptology. The very very first book on Egyptology I read aged 9 was her book on Tutankamun. I am very grateful for her contribution to the world of Egyptology and to my personal interest. AFP: French Egyptologist who saved Nubian temples dies: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Early photos from the blog using Tripwow

Luxor News - Jane Akshar Slideshow: Jane.akshar’s trip to Luxor, Nile River Valley, Egypt was created by TripAdvisor. See another Luxor slideshow. Create your own stunning slideshow with our free photo slideshow maker.

Hidden Luxor - The Movie (well almost)

Want over 5 hours of quality lecturing about Luxor’s sites?

I have done a lecture series of the sites in Luxor, with lots of slides, photos, explanations etc. It compliments my e-book but with additional material, mainly history and background details. 12 modules of over 5 hours of video. You can buy here http://www.egyptologycourses.com/hidden-luxor-video-series/ It is all classroom based but if you want to see more of my work, this is an onsite lecture



available until 30th June as a taster.

Remnants of Islamic, Coptic buildings discovered in Luxor | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

Remnants of Islamic, Coptic buildings discovered in Luxor | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt: "Remnants of Islamic, Coptic buildings discovered in Luxor

An Egyptian expedition team working in Luxor discovered remnants of ancient Islamic and Coptic buildings, the Ministry of Antiquities announced Wednesday.

The remnants include churches, minarets and domes and are located in the Luxor Temple area along the Avenue of the Sphinxes, according to a ministry statement.

The team found remains of an ancient church that dates back to the Ptolemaic era (AD 5), built with stone blocks typical of ancient temples. The church reflects the style of ancient Egyptian architecture in its stone cornices, columns and ceiling vault.

As for the Islamic monuments, the expedition team found the authentic architrave of a mosque called al-Muqashqash, as well as the minaret and dome of another mosque, Abul Hajjaj.

Other findings included a sandstone river gauge, an ancient pot used during Christian rituals and an oil squeezer discovered near the church.

The team also discovered pieces of pottery, some ornamented, and house walls made mainly from bricks, which date back to the late Coptic era and the start of the Islamic period.

The 3-km Avenue of the Sphinxes, which links the Karnak and Luxor temples, was a road used for ceremonies and religious processions during the pharaonic era.

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Found the oldest remains of beer in Luxor, Egypt "Paleorama Network

Beer found in Luxor! An update on TT11 Djehuty in Spanish but use Google translate and you get an understandable English version. Found the oldest remains of beer in Luxor, Egypt "Paleorama Network: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Egyptian Game Mummy

Anceint Egyptian Game. Calling all kids (and grown-ups that like a bit of fun while they learn). This cool game lets you do your own mummification, drag out the brains, cut the body open, remove the organs. Yes all this and more without making a mess in the kitchen!!!!! mummy: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Certificate in Egyptology (KNH Centre for Egyptology - The University of Manchester)

Certificate in Egyptology (KNH Centre for Egyptology - The University of Manchester): "Certificate in Egyptology

Programme Director: Professor Rosalie David, OBE
Course Tutors: Dr Joyce Tyldesley and Dr Glenn Godenho
Hieroglyph

This 3 year programme provides opportunity for serious, academic study of Egyptology at one of the leading Universities in the U.K. It is led by an internationally recognised scholar and draws upon the important Egyptological collections of the University's Museum and Library. This well-established and highly regarded Certificate has been completely revised and restructured for delivery on-line via the Blackboard Virtual e-learning platform. The new format will provide stimulating and attractive learning materials, opportunity for structured study of museum collections, tutor support and contact with other students through online discussion groups and discussion boards.

Course Begins: 01 October 2011
Applications open: 01 April 2011
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2011

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Update of the Griffith Website

via EEF

Alfred Lucas's 'Register of samples 1922-1939' with the results of analyses of ancient Egyptian artefacts (including many from the tomb of Tutankhamun) can now be consulted online. Go to

http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/2.html.

Jaromir Malek
Editor of the Topographical Bibliography and Keeper of the Archive

Bristol University - Department of Archaeology and Anthropology - ecpuk

One of those interesting websites I am sure readers of Luxor News will appreciate. Coffins!!!

Egyptian Coffins in Provincial Collections of the United Kingdom Project

This is a long-term project is intended to document and publish a uniform series of catalogues of coffins and related items (e.g. mummy-masks) housed outside London, building on a catalogue of the material in Edinburgh published in 2010. The first regions to be started are the South-West – including Bristol, Bournemouth, Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay, Truro and Swansea – and the North-West – Bolton, Liverpool and Manchester – with the first entry being posted on this web-site in 2010: the intention is to post draft chapters as they are completed, with a consolidated print volume published in due course.


Bristol University - Department of Archaeology and Anthropology - ecpuk: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Egypt's antiquities minister Zahi Hawascleared in appeal | The Associated Press | News | San Francisco Examiner

Egypt's antiquities minister Zahi Hawas cleared in appeal | The Associated Press | News | San Francisco Examiner: "An appeals court cleared Egypt's antiquities minister on Wednesday of failing to implement a court order, sparing the international face of Egyptian archaeology from a year in prison.

The earlier ruling had ordered Zahi Hawass to stop bidding procedures for space in a gift shop of The Egyptian Museum, which is home to treasures like Tutankhamun's gold funerary mask. He failed to comply and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Besides the legal challenge, Hawass has found himself at the center of other trouble since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Critics accused Hawass of being too close to Mubarak, who elevated the antiquities chief to the position of a Cabinet minister shortly before his ouster in a popular uprising.

Archaeology graduates also held protests accusing Hawass of corruption and seeking publicity for himself.

Most troubling for Egypt's heritage, many antiquities sites have been looted by criminals amid the country's political upheaval.

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Queen Tyti identified

Today I was describing the open tombs in the Valley of Queens and saying Queen Tyti was a queen but we don't know of whom. Ken Griffin, who is visiting, corrected me and said just recently they did identify her. So I wrote to Aidan Dobson and he very kindly sent me the article. It is published in JEA 96. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology Volume 96 2010 pages 242 -247

The article is authored by Mark Collier, Aidan Dodson, and Gottfried Hamernik and is like a detective story on a detective story. The Harris papyrus which talks about the harem conspiracy used to be in a lot better condition than it is now and Anthony Harris made notes on it which are in the Alexandra Museum and have been studied by Hamernik. Harris made copies of certain parts of the papyrus which are now in fragments and these identify Tyti as Ramses III's wife! Isn't that so cool. Obviously there is a lot more to the article than that simplification and I do encourage you to read this article it is totally fascinating and as the authors say it shows you how we need to preserve and study the notebooks of past Egyptologists.

The Archaeology News Network: Investigating microbes in Tutankhamun's tomb

The Archaeology News Network: Investigating microbes in Tutankhamun's tomb: "Despite almost a century of scientific investigation, the precise identity of these spots remains a mystery, but Harvard microbiologist Ralph Mitchell thinks they have a tale to tell.

Nobody knows why Tutankhamun, the famed “boy king” of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, died in his late teens. Various investigations have attributed his early demise to a head injury, an infected broken leg, malaria, sickle cell anemia, or perhaps a combination of several misfortunes.

Whatever the cause of King Tut’s death, Mitchell thinks those brown spots reveal something: that the young pharaoh was buried in an unusual hurry, before the walls of the tomb were even dry.

Like many ancient sites, Tutankhamun’s tomb suffers from peeling paint and cracking walls. In the oppressive heat and humidity, throngs of tourists stream in and out of the cave, admiring it but also potentially threatening it.

Concerned about the tomb’s preservation, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities approached the Getty Conservation Institute for help. The Getty, in turn, had questions for Mitchell.

What are the brown spots? Are visiting tourists making them worse? Most important, do they present a health hazard?

In his investigation, Mitchell, the Gordon McKay Research Professor of Applied Biology at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), combines classical microbiology with cutting-edge genomic techniques. His research team has been culturing living specimens swabbed from the walls of the tomb as well as conducting DNA sequence analyses.

Meanwhile, chemists at the Getty have been analyzing the brown marks, which have seeped into the paint and the plaster, at the molecular level.

So far, the chemists have identified melanins, which are characteristic byproducts of fungal (and sometimes bacterial) metabolism, but no living organisms have yet been matched to the spots.

“Our results indicate that the microbes that caused the spots are dead,” said Archana Vasanthakumar, a postdoctoral fellow in Mitchell’s lab. “Or, to put it in a more conservative way, ‘not active.’”

Further, analysis of photographs taken when the tomb was first opened in 1922 shows that the brown spots have not changed in the past 89 years.

While the identity of the ancient organism remains a mystery, all of this is good news for tourists and Egyptologists alike, because the evidence suggests that not only are the microbes not growing — they’re actually part of the history, offering new clues to the circumstances of the king’s death.

“King Tutankhamun died young, and we think that the tomb was prepared in a hurry,” said Mitchell. “We’re guessing that the painted wall was not dry when the tomb was sealed.”

That moisture, along with the food, the mummy, and the incense in the tomb, would have provided a bountiful environment for microbial growth, he said, until the tomb eventually dried out.

Exotic as the project may sound, investigations like this are typical of Mitchell’s research in applied microbiology.

In past years, his lab has studied the role of bacteria in the deterioration of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the microorganisms living within limestone at Maya archaeological sites in southern Mexico. Nick Konkol, a former postdoctoral research associate, and Alice Dearaujo, a current research assistant, have developed rapid new ways to detect mold growing within the paper of historical manuscripts, paintings, and museum artifacts.

The field is referred to as “cultural heritage microbiology,” and Mitchell literally wrote the textbook on it.

For microbiologists with broad interests, cultural heritage provides an endless supply of surprising, new applications, crossing disciplines and cultures and providing important insights into modern environmental problems.

“This type of research is typical of the interactive activity of SEAS, where modern scientific and engineering techniques are integrated to solve complex problems,” Mitchell said.

Just a few years ago, he was called down to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to investigate the collection of Apollo space suits. In the heat and humidity of the museum’s Maryland storage facility, black mold was chewing through the many-layered polymers, damaging the priceless suits.

The relatively simple solution in that case was the installation of a climate control system. Unfortunately, however, there is a difference between prevention and treatment. Once a historical artifact has begun to deteriorate, the damage is usually irreversible.

Mitchell points to the example of the cathedral in Cologne, Germany. Built over the course of 632 years and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the walls of the magnificent cathedral feature angels and historical figures carved out of stone.

In just the past 100 years, the angels’ faces have been eaten away by air pollution.

“I always use the analogy of cancer,” Mitchell said. “You want to get to it early enough that it isn’t doing major destruction.”

But what to do about the Egyptian tomb’s 3,000-year-old microbial problem?

The damage is already done, so Mitchell predicts that the conservators will leave the spots alone, particularly since they are unique to that site.

“This is part of the whole mystique of the tomb,” he said.

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More photos from Richard Sellicks - Kharga Oasis

Richard says "Fort Qasr Al Dush (if I have got it right) in the Kharga Oasis. First time Don and I went to Kharga we saw this fort on a hill a little off from the road, we went to investigate and to our surprise there was a temple within."

My trusty Baedecker says "In the extreme south of the Kharga Oasis lies the large village of Baris. South West of which by way of El-Maks is Qasr Dush (ancient Cysis) with a large temple of the Roman Imperial period dedicated to Serpis and Isis."





















Fort Qasr Al Dush (if I have got it right) in the Kharga Oasis. First time Don and I when't to Kharga we saw this fort on a hill a little off from the road, we went to investigate and to our surprise there was a temple within.

Press Release - New Discovery in the Tomb of Djehuty (TT11) at Dra Abu El-Naga | drhawass.com - Zahi Hawass

Lots more on the TT11 story that I previously blogged having spotted it on Facebook. Lots of detail and a picture of the ceiling. Press Release - New Discovery in the Tomb of Djehuty (TT11) at Dra Abu El-Naga | drhawass.com - Zahi Hawass: "Press Release - New Discovery in the Tomb of Djehuty (TT11) at Dra Abu El-Naga

A Spanish mission working at Dra Abu El-Naga on the West Bank at Luxor has discovered a second, painted burial chamber in the tomb of Djehuty (TT11). Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced the discovery, adding that the Spanish team, led by Dr. José Galán of the National Research Center, Madrid, has been working at the site since 2002.


At the end of their 2008 season, the mission came across a 3 meter-deep shaft inside the burial chamber of Djehuty, an overseer of the treasury and overseer of works during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (ca. 1479-1458 BC). At the beginning of 2009, they discovered a second burial chamber at the bottom of this shaft. The chamber is decorated on two of its walls, mostly with texts from the Book of the Dead. (photo on the left, larger photo) An image of the goddess Nut adorns the ceiling. (photo)

The discovery is remarkable, as only four other decorated burial chambers dating to this period are known. Although the names of Djehuty, his father, and his mother were intentionally erased in the upper part of the monument, they are intact in the newly discovered lower burial chamber. At the entrance to the lower chamber, the Spanish team found five gold earrings and two gold rings, which date to the early- to mid-18th Dynasty and probably belonged to Djehuty or to a member of his family.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, commented that only a few other objects from the tomb are known, as most of Djehuty’s funerary equipment was destroyed by fire in antiquity. Galán added that the discovery of this decorated chamber adds to our understanding of the religious and funerary beliefs of the mid-15th century BC, and of the elite of Queen Hatshepsut’s court.

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Update from Osirisnet.net

Dear friends,

We present to you today on OsirisNet the mastaba of Nikauisesi in Saqqara, which dates from the beginning of 6th Dynasty. Discovered quite recentlyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
(1979) it is now open to the public. In this monument, a good part of its original decoration is well preserved.
The site of the monument has been defined as belonging to the period of the occupation of the cemetery of Teti, early in the reign. Subsequently, it would had as neighbours Kagemni, the rear of whose gigantic mastaba is opposite Nikauisesi's entry, and Mereruka.
The mastaba includes five chambers, of which four are decorated, the serdab and an interior courtyard which gives access to a staircase which leads to the roof.
http://www.osirisnet.net/mastabas/nikauisesi/e_nikauisesi_01.htm

Enjoy!

Thierry Benderitter & Jon Hirst

Project Vizier Amenhotep Huy Update

Updated website of the Spanish team of Franciso Martin Valentine and Teresa Bedman. In Spanish but google gives a translation. A recent lecture is reported.

"The third speaker of the evening was Dr. Martin Valentine IEAE director and head of the Spanish archaeological mission in Assasif. For more than an hour, following an educational and entertaining style, made a brief summary of what was the campaign of 2009 (the first), describing the way they proceeded with the opening of the tomb after the initial work of clearing and the first surprises that awaited the team, being perhaps the main, the large pillared hall that opened his eyes and the enormous challenge posed dig in its entirety.

After this preamble, shifted to the last campaign, during which the findings and surprises have multiplied: the discovery of many mummies, various religious objects, pottery, reliefs of extraordinary quality and even the face hitherto unpublished Ame-Hotep the vizier Huy, recipient of the tomb, are just some examples of how much he threw up the second season, that is, without doubt, a sneak preview of what is to come.

Excavation work, as noted by Professor Martin Valentine, are carried out by a multidisciplinary team involving archaeologists, Egyptologists, conservators, forensic specialists, architects, photographers ... and, of course, a large group of workers, some of where authentic seasoned experts in multiple excavations."

And there is lots of other information

Project Vizier Amenhotep Huy: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Update from TT11

A Spanish mission working at Dra Abu El-Naga on the West Bank at Luxor has discovered a second, painted burial chamber in the tomb of Djehuty (TT11). At the entrance the Djehuty Proyecto found 5 gold earrings and 2 gold rings, which date to the early- to mid-18th Dynasty and probably belonged to Djehuty or to a member of his family.

From the facebook page Egyptian Museum

Certificate in Egyptology (KNH Centre for Egyptology - The University of Manchester)

This is the course I am on and I can't recommend it enough and it is totally online so you can study it anywhere in the world. Certificate in Egyptology (KNH Centre for Egyptology - The University of Manchester): "Certificate in Egyptology

Programme Director: Professor Rosalie David, OBE
Course Tutors: Dr Joyce Tyldesley and Dr Glenn Godenho
Hieroglyph

This 3 year programme provides opportunity for serious, academic study of Egyptology at one of the leading Universities in the U.K. It is led by an internationally recognised scholar and draws upon the important Egyptological collections of the University's Museum and Library. This well-established and highly regarded Certificate has been completely revised and restructured for delivery on-line via the Blackboard Virtual e-learning platform. The new format will provide stimulating and attractive learning materials, opportunity for structured study of museum collections, tutor support and contact with other students through online discussion groups and discussion boards.

Course Begins: 01 October 2011
Applications open: 01 April 2011
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2011

- Sent using Google Toolbar"