Egyptian Bones Could Help Solve Canine Conundrum

Originally published November 29, 2010 | Spiegel Online International | Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan | Perhaps the secret to the mammalian evolution of canis lupus into the 400 breeds of dogs today, from dachshunds to Great Danes, can be found at Hamunaptra (Well, not per se; rather, the Temple of Anubis at Saqqara...but it's a romantic thought, no?). The article also features an array of beautiful art depicting the domesticated dog in ancient Egypt. On a side note, this gives me an idea for another historical fiction novel. I'll save it for the third in the series I'm currently working on, as I'm already working on an outline for the second.

New Blog - El Blog del Nilo

Accessed May 20, 2010 | El Blog del Nilo | contributions by Marina Escolano Poveda and El Museo Arqueológico de Alicante | This latest addition to the Egyptological blog world is connected to the exhibits "El Enigma de la Momia" and "Objetos Egipcios en Alicante." Both are the newest temporary exhibits to be installed at the Archaeological Museum of Alicante. The following link describes the El enigma de la momia exhibit and features a video that showcases some artifacts and other images relating to it: http://www.elblogdelnilo.com/acerca-de/. Do check it out (and the exhibit, if you're in the area) and leave a comment while you're there.

To Bury a Pharaoh - an Interview with Met Curator Dorothea Arnold

Published May 8, 2010 | Archaeology Magazine Online | by Eti Bonn-Muller | An interview with Met curator Dorothea Arnold who takes a fresh look at the leftover materials from Tutankhamun's mummification, which are the subject of an exhibit entitled Tutankhamun's Funeral at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Features photos and a very detailed conversation.

Excavations in the Valley of the Kings

Originally published March 14, 2010 | Zahi Hawass' Blog | by Dr. Hawass | An excerpt:

One of the most famous sites in Egypt has always been the Valley of the Kings, which has revealed to us such wonders as the tomb of Tutankhamun. However, all of the major discoveries of the past were made by foreign archaeologists. I was determined that Egyptian archaeologists should become part of the process of excavation and discovery, so in November 2007, the first all-Egyptian team to ever work in the Valley began excavating the area behind the tomb of Merenptah.

In the cliffs behind the tomb we discovered channels that the ancient Egyptians dug to redirect the “tears of the gods,” the flood, in order to preserve the tombs. In the course of our excavations, we recorded many new graffiti in the Valley and found many ostraca, which are pieces of limestone or pottery with drawings and inscriptions. The inscriptions found were very interesting, including a picture of an old lady, the cartouche of Ramses II and many descriptions and other things.

Tutankhamun's Funeral Exhibition at the Met will Explore Materials and Rituals

Originally published February 24, 2010 | Art Daily | An excerpt - click on the above link to read more:

In 1908, while excavating in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, American archaeologist Theodore Davis discovered about a dozen large storage jars. Their contents included broken pottery, bags of natron (a mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulphate, and sodium chloride that occurs naturally in Egypt), bags of sawdust, floral collars, and pieces of linen with markings from years 6 and 8 during the reign of a then little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamun. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was given six of the vessels and a good part of their contents in 1909.

In time, Herbert Winlock, curator and field director of the Metropolitan's Egyptian excavations and in the 1930s Director of the Museum, came to realize that the natron and linen were the embalming refuse from the mummification of Tutankhamun. He also suggested that the animal bones, pottery, and collars might have come from a funeral meal. Winlock's analysis was an important clue that led to Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb some 110 meters away.

Opening March 16 at the Metropolitan Museum, the exhibition Tutankhamun's Funeral will explore the materials and rituals associated with the burial of the pharaoh. The presentation will include some 60 objects, primarily from the Metropolitan's own collection.

Imesy's Coffin to Return to Egypt

Originally published February 25, 2010 | Zahi Hawass' Blog | by Dr. Hawass | Here's a portion of the article describing this latest news - click the above link to read the fully story at Dr. Hawass' blog:

Culture Minister, Farouk Hosni, announced that following two years of negotiations and investigations, the 21st Dynasty (1070-945 BC) coffin of a private individual called Imesy is to be returned to Egypt.

[...]

On the basis of their investigation, ICE confiscated the coffin and contacted the SCA who requested that the object be seized. The SCA petitioned to DHS for the artifact’s return to Egypt. In November 2009, the matter went before US courts at which time the SCA presented their case with the help of a pro-bono lawyer from Miami. The importer eventually retracted his claim and withdrew from the case. The SCA agreed that the coffin be forfeited to US authorities with the guarantee that the object be repatriated to Egypt as soon as possible.

Arrangements are currently underway for the coffin to be handed over to the SCA as of March 10th, 2010, in Washington, DC during an official gala ceremony.

Other sources reporting on the same news: Discovery News and The Daily Star

Egyptian Priests Ate Like Gods and Paid by Dying Young

Originally published February 26, 2010 | Times Online | by Russell Jenkins | The following is an excerpt - click the above link to read the story in full:

Egyptologists and scientists at the University of Manchester have disclosed in The Lancet the cost of keeping the gods happy. By combining translations of hieroglyphic inscriptions on temple walls showing details of food offered to the gods with analysis of mummified remains, they have assessed their atherosclerosis, the build-up of fat and calcium in the arteries.

The findings show that cardiovascular disease affected the privileged of Ancient Egypt long before fried food and a sedentary life made heart attacks and strokes a modern killer. Rosalie David, of the university’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, said that it was a telling message: :Live like a god and you will pay with your health.:

Other sources reporting on the same news: Earth Times and Yahoo! News UK

Upcoming Ancient Egypt Programs on the Discovery Channel

Accessed February 18, 2010 | Discovery Channel | Here is a list of upcoming programs on the Discovery Channel about Ancient Egypt, from the Great Sphinx to Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, and Tutankhamun. It's going to be an awesome weekend!

• Date: February 21, 2010
  Program Name: The Sphinx Unmasked
  Time: 1pm ET
  
  
• Date: February 21
  Program Name: When Ancient Egypt Fell
  
  Time: 2pm ET
  
• Date: February 21, 2010
  Program Name: Egypt's Ten Greatest Discoveries
  Time: 3 and 4pm ET
  
  
• Date: February 21, 2010
  Program Name: Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen
  Time: 5 and 6pm ET
  
  
• Date: February 21 and 22, 2010
  Program Name: Cleopatra - Portrait of a Killer
  Time: 7pm (2/21) and 2am (2/22) ET
  
  
• Date: February 21 - 23
  Program Name: King Tut Unwrapped
  Time: 8 and 10pm ET (2/21); 12am, 6pm, 8pm, 10pm ET (2/22); and 12am ET (2/23)

What Plagued the Boy King?

Originally published February 16, 2010 | CNN Health | by Val Willingham | After hundreds (well, dozens is more like it) of years of speculation concerning what plagued the Boy King so greatly that it ended his life so soon. The results are in: the legendary Egyptian "boy king" Tutankhamun, commonly known as King Tut, died of conditions including malaria and complications from a leg fracture, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read this article for the at-long-last information for which we Egyptomaniacs have been pining for quite some time. The following source has a lot a great detail and I'd recommend you reading this one as well: Aol News.

Press Conference to be Held at Egyptian Museum

Originally published February 15, 2010 | Zahi Hawass' Blog | by Dr. Hawass | Two very important events to the Egyptology world will occur on February 17: an 11am conference to announce new discoveries surrounding the family of Tutankhamun and the cause of the young king’s death and the publishing of these findings in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). While you wait for those events, here's a video to keep you in the Tutmania mood:

Three Decades of Discovery - New Insight to Egypt’s Past

Accessed February 14, 2010 | Egypt Today | by May Kaddah | Over the last three decades, technological advancement has allowed archaeologists to answer longstanding questions and refute misconceptions about missing details of Egypt’s history. From the remains of ancient rulers to Napoleon’s flagship, Egypt Today takes you through some of archaeology’s most significant discoveries in the last 30 years, which includes the following topics: tombs of the pyramid builders, the Valley of the Golden Mummies, DNA analysis of Hatshepsut's tooth, the Theban Mapping Project, tomb of Rameses II's sons, underwater archaeology at Alexandria, and more.

Upcoming Exhibit - Seramón, el Enigma de la Momia

Accessed February 6, 2010 | Museo Arqueológico de Alicante

A special thanks goes to Marina Escolano Poveda for passing along some information about a new exhibit coming to the Archaeological Museum in Alicante (I've read it will run from March to October, 2010. I'm sure Marina will correct me if I'm wrong), which will showcase artifacts from the Louvre and Besançon museums, including two mummies (Seramon and Ankhpakhered), their coffins, and funerary equipment. In addition, a part of the exhibit is dedicated to Egyptian objects found at Phoenician, Roman, and other archaeological sites in the Alicante province. Be sure to check out this latter part of the exhibit, as Marina is part of its preparation, writing some of the descriptions of the artifacts for the catalog and advising about other Egyptological aspects of the general exhibit.

The web site is currently only in Spanish, but follow this link to read it in English (translated by Google Translate).

Upcoming Workshops at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

Accessed February 4, 2010 | Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum | The following are a few upcoming and recurring workshops at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum about mummification, jewelry, and hieroglyphs - each are linked to the events page on the Rosicrucion Facebook Page (click the above link to visit the museum's web site):

• Date: February 6, 2010
  Lecture: Ancient Egyptian Mummies (1st Saturday of the Month)
  Time: 12:30pm - 1:00pm
  


• Date: February 7, 2010
  Workshop: Hieroglyph Workshop (every Sunday at 11:30am and every Thursday at 4:00pm)
  Time: 11:30am - 12:00pm
  


• Date: February 7, 2010
  Lecture: Ancient Egyptian Jewelry (1st Sunday of the Month)
  Time: 12:30pm - 1:00pm
  

Lecture - Mummies, Science, and Egyptology II

Originally published February 3, 2010 | The University of Manchester | The University of Manchester and presenter Dr. Rosalie David will be hosting a lecture entitled Mummies, Science and Egyptology II on Saturday, February 6 to discuss the scientific study of Ancient Egyptian mummies, which will include the question, "Was the great Pharaoh Ramesses II a true redhead?" The day school will also reveal how modern scientific investigations and archaeological research are helping to reveal more about the lives of other Ancient Egyptians: Horemkenesi, high priest of Amun at Karnak; Meresamun, a temple singer; and Asetirikhetes, the Ptolemaic mummy from 305 B.C.E. Follow the link to book a spot for yourself.

Egypt to Announce King Tutankhamun's DNA Test Results

Originally published January 31, 2010 | Courant | by Paul Schemm | Finally, after much hinting of this event, Hawass et al will be releasing the DNA results of Tutankhamun on Saturday, February 13. Personally, I feel sorry for Tutankhamun's mummy, having already gone through so much over the years, only to be chipped away at to learn a little more about him, particularly his seemingly mysterious lineage. The article also details some background information on Tutankhamun, similar procedures being performed on other royal and unknown mummies, and past endeavors that have revealed important information to the world of Egyptology.

New Publication - Giza Mastabas

Originally published January 27, 2010 | David Brown Book Company | by Peter Der Manuelian | For those of you who are faced with difficulty in finding an Egyptological book that you don't have, here's a new publication (I will certainly have it on my bookshelf ones of these days. Here's an excerpt:

West of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu laid out scores of mastaba tombs for the elite members of ancient Egyptian society. Specific clusters of tombs seem to form architectural and archaeological units, prompting the modern division of the Giza Necropolis into discrete nucleus cemeteries. This book interprets the complete archaeological record of the mastabas of Cemetery G 2100, one of the six nucleus cemeteries at Giza. As a key to understanding Old Kingdom mortuary development at Giza, it explores the distinguishing features of such a grouping of tombs and tomb owners: relative chronology and individual artistic styles; common administrative titles, possible familial connections to the king; and the relationship of the earlier, major mastabas to the subsequent, minor burials surrounding them.

The web site also features an excerpt from the book itself, a batch of 3D photos featured in the book, notes about the author, and related publications.

Ancient Men Had Strokes

Originally published January 25, 2010 | Zee News | An excerpt:

Ancient Egyptian mummies, some as old as 3,500 years, showed hardening of arteries, suggesting that heart attacks and stroke afflicted the ancients too.

"Atherosclerosis, despite differences in ancient and modern lifestyles, was rather common in ancient Egyptians of high socio-economic status living," says Gregory Thomas, clinical professor of cardiology at the University of California-Irvine (UCI).

"The findings suggest that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease," said Thomas, principal study co-investigator.

Researchers Run Tests on Mummy to Shed light on Ancient Egypt

Originally published January 14, 2010 | Asbury Park Press | by John Christoffersen | An excerpt - click the above link to read in full:

The mummy, known as Pa-Ib and believed to be about 4,000 years old, has been in the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport since the 1890s and was a prized exhibit of the flamboyant showman P.T. Barnum. It will be transported Thursday in a coffin complete with a police escort from the museum to the university's campus in North Haven.

A CT scanner will take images that are eight times the resolution of tests done on the mummy in 2006, and a tiny camera will be inserted inside the mummy.

Researchers are trying to determine if bundles in the abdomen and pelvis cavities
contain a bird mummy or are organs. The earlier tests led to speculation that the
bundles might contain a bird mummy.

My money is on the bundles being her internal organs, but I would like to be proved wrong because I like the idea that we still have yet to reveal all of the secrets of Ancient Egypt.

Founder’s Archaeological Journey to Middle East Featured in Oriental Institute Exhibit

Originally published January 6, 2010 | Oriental Institute | by William Harms |

This article promotes the newest exhibit in the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute Museum called Pioneers of the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919-1920. It also includes background history of the exhibit's inspiration, J. H. Breasted, and the goals of this exhibit.

Attendance is free, with a suggested donation rate for adults ($7) and children ($4) (very minimal, considering admission to most museums).

Here's an excerpt from the article:

A new exhibition at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute Museum chronicles an amazing and sometimes dangerous journey 90 years ago by James Henry Breasted, a famed archaeologist who brought back Egyptian artifacts to Chicago.

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919–1920, opens Tuesday, Jan. 12 and will feature artifacts as well as photos and letters documenting the journey of Breasted, who was the first American to receive a Ph.D. in Egyptology.

Great Egyptological Articles and Musings at Heritage Key

Originally published January 4 and 5, 2010 | Heritage Key |

The following are very interesting articles and musings published within the last 24 hours by some very fantastic writers and scholars at Heritage Key:

• January 5, 2010: Looking Forward to Speaking (and Listening) at 'Current Research in Egyptology' in Leiden by Paula Veiga
• January 5, 2010: Did Unemployed Minoan Artists Land Jobs in Ancient Egypt? by Owen Jarus
• January 5, 2010: What Value Do Replicas Hold? The Many Answers. by Ann Wuyts
• January 4, 2010: Current Research in Egyptology XI Conference at Leiden University by Ann Wuyts
• January 4, 2010: Mummy Recycling: From Ancient Rags to Paper by Ann Wuyts
• Tutankhamun - His Tombs and his Treasures (Hamburg)