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

Two Granada Artists at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Originally published January 29, 2010 | Amigos de los Egiptología | An excerpt in its original Spanish (click on the above link to access this article, translated to English; click here to read the article in Spanish):

Dos granadinos serán los primeros pintores contemporáneos en exponer su obra en el Museo Egipcio de El Cairo, y lo harán gracias al trabajo de investigación y reproducción de las treinta y una figuras de los sacerdotes portainsignias de la escalera Oeste del templo Horus en Edfú (Egipto). Asunción Jódar y Ricardo Marín han realizado más de 400 dibujos, la mayoría de ellos a gran escala, de esos sacerdotes, que serán expuestos en el Museo Egipcio de El Cairo a partir del 8 de febrero y, en Granada, a partir del 27 de abril.

Impresiones del templo de Edfú es una muestra de dibujos monumentales que Jódar y Marín llevaban realizando desde el año 2005. La idea de reproducir en pintura los dibujos de los relieves de los sacerdotes surgió, según explicó Asunción Jódar, cuando la pareja de artistas visitaba el templo de Edfú. "Vimos entonces la escalera oeste del templo y me pareció muy especial, sobre todo las 31 figuras que la decoraban. Aquellos sacerdotes me llamaron la atención y pensamos en la posibilidad de dibujar sus imágenes".

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Egyptians

Originally published January 21, 2010 | Heritage Key | by Paula Veiga | An article examining the backgrounds and lifestyles of rich Egyptians (including priests and kings). These leisurely activities and ammenities included eating and drinking parties and banquets, personal hygiene rituals, quality of dress, love and marriage, and more, linking these topics to examples of their modern day counterparts.

High-Tech Scanner Reveals Mummy's 2,500-Year-Old Past

Originally published August 21, 2009 | San Francisco Chronicle | by David Perlman

Tutankhamun and Meresamun were a few of the first mummies to be CT scanned. Add to the list a Late Period priest named Iret-net Hor-irw. His technological undergoing is a direct result of a new exhibit that will be opening in October at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco called Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine, which will examine ancient medical care and death in Egypt.

The next few paragraphs of this article discuss the CT scanning process, reactions of those involved, and the results.

The following are links chronicling the same story, each a different rendering, but revealing the same facts:

• Newsday.com - Stanford Scientists Scan 2,500-Year-Old Mummy, by Brooke Donald (Associated Press)
• Fox News - High-Tech Scanner Could Reveal Mummy's 2,500-Year-Old Past
• The Associated Press/Google - Stanford Scientists Scan 2,500-Year-Old Mummy

Book Review - The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies

Accessed July 20, 2009 | Bryn Mawr Classical Review | by Rolf Strootman

The book under review is the result of a workshop held in 2004 in Newcastle, where seven scholars met to discuss and compare seven royal courts in different cultures and periods: the Achaemenid, Argead Macedonian, and Sassanid, early and late imperial Roman, Han Chinese and New Kingdom Egyptian.

The volume ends with a chapter by Kate Spence, who considers the court in pharaonic Egypt in the late Second Millennium BCE -- a difficult task since official royal texts rarely mention individuals other than the pharaoh: "building temples, fighting wars and performing ritual were recorded as historical events but were usually presented as if kings acted in isolation" (p. 267). Spence therefore focuses on the relatively well-documented court of the reformer Akhenaten at el-Amarna. As in most other ancient monarchies, courtiers in pharaonic Egypt doubled as administrators. Since priests played a crucial role in pharaonic administration, Spence interprets Akhenaten's abolition of the powerful priesthood of Amun -- normally considered as a religious measure -- as an effort by the king to shift the balance between himself and his officials, an active reform of the administration encountered more often in Egyptian history.