Saturday, March 19, 2005

TV update Don't forget that What the Ancients Knew is on The Science Channel Monday evening. This week is Egypt, we believe.

On the web site there, the Mummy Maker Game does not, sadly, work. The catapult game does, but this one is way better.

And now. . .the weekly EEF news.

Press report: "12 million Egyptian pounds grant for renovation of the last Pharaonic temple in Sinai"
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o140325z2.htm
Aim is to get Serabit el Khadim on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

[Submitted by Albert Prince (albert.prince1@btinternet.com)]
M. P. Colombini, G. Giachib, F. Modugnoa and E. Ribechinia, "Characterisation of organic residues in pottery vessels of the Roman age from Antinoe (Egypt)", in: Microchemical Journal vol 79, issue 1-2, Jan. 2005, pp 83-90. In HTML or PDF.
http://snipurl.com/dg45
"Chemical analysis was performed in order to characterise the organic components of the original content still present in the three ceramic vessels found during the excavation of the North Necropolis at Antinoe, Egypt, and dating back to the 5th-7th century A.D. "

[Next four items submitted by Michael Tilgner]

Online version of: Joanathan Shaw, Who Built the Pyramids?, in: Harvard Magazine, vol. 105, no. 6 (2003), pp. 42-49, 99 "Not slaves. Archaeologist Mark Lehner, digging deeper, discovers a city of
privileged workers."
pdf-file (1.8 MB): http://www.harvardmag.com/lib/03ja/pdf/0703-42.pdf
HTML version: http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/070391.html

Online version of: John Brock, Who Were the First Surveyors? Four Surveyors of the Gods: In the XVIII Dynasty of Egypt - New Kingdom c. 1400 B.C., paper to be presented at the Workshop on History of Surveying to be held during the FIG Working Week / GSDI-8 Conference in Cairo, Egypt, April 16, 2005
" ... tells about the first surveyors known by name in the Ancient Egypt." pdf-file (270 KB):
http://www.fig.net/pub/monthly_articles/march_2005/brock_march_2005.pdf
HTML version:
http://www.fig.net/pub/monthly_articles/march_2005/brock_march_2005.htm
Program of the conference (230 KB):
http://www.fig.net/cairo/programme_06_03_2005.pdf
There is a section about AE in Workshop 3 "History of Surveying".

"History of Medicine Days"
" ... hosted every year by the Faculty of Medicine [University of Calgary, Alberta] and co-sponsored by the Alberta Medical Foundation and Associated Medical Services, gathers medical students from across Canada to present
papers on topics of their choice in history of medicine." Articles about AE in:
a) W. A. Whitelaw (ed.), The Proceedings of the 10th Annual History of Medicine Days, Faculty of Medecine, The University of Calgary, March 23rd and 24th, 2001, Health Sciences Centre Calgary, AB - xi, 329 pp., pdf-file: 1.9 MB
http://www.hom.ucalgary.ca/Dayspapers2001.pdf
-- Gregg S. Nelson, Ancient Egyptian Obstetrics & Gynecology, pp. 1-4
"The approach to womens' health, however, in the ancient world, particularly Egypt, was somewhat different. Surgical intervention was never recommended and the main treatment modalities provided by the 'swnw' (pronounced sounou, physicians) that did exist would be deemed bizarre by today's standards."
-- Michael D. Parkins, Pharmacologocal Practices of Ancient Egypt, pp. 5-11 "Egyptian drug therapy can be regarded as having evolved from a system rooted in magic to one of empiric observation applied within a central
ideology of health and disease ... This discussion will focus on providing a brief introduction to the pharmacological practices of ancient Egypt, with an emphasis on a few of the more intriguing treatments."
b) W. A. Whitelaw (ed.), The Proceedings of the 12th Annual History of Medicine Days, Faculty of Medecine, The University of Calgary, March 21st and 22nd, 2003, Health Sciences Centre Calgary, AB - xi, 360 pp., pdf-file:
3.4 MB
http://www.hom.ucalgary.ca/Dayspapers2003.pdf
-- Jeremy M. Wojtowicz, The Curse of the Nile: Tuberculosis from Ancient
Egypt to Modern Russia, pp. 1-8
"Archaeological evidence in the form of mummies and funerary portraits, and anatomical evidence obtained from bones and lung tissues support the theory that tuberculosis emerged in ancient Egypt. This theory has been further
strengthened by molecular evidence collected from ancient tissues."
c) W. A. Whitelaw (ed.), The Proceedings of the 13th Annual History of Medicine Days, Faculty of Medecine, The University of Calgary, March 19th and 20th, 2004, Health Sciences Centre Calgary, AB - xi, 395 pp., pdf-file:
2.3 MB
http://www.hom.ucalgary.ca/Proceedings-2004.pdf
-- Michelle Ciach, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt, pp. 1-7
"Medicine, magic, and religion were considered equal components of the healing process. Due to this synergism between magic, religion, and medicine, an integrated system of healing developed on the Nile."
-- Oriana Yu, Szeling Wong, Secrets of Medicine from Ancient Egypt, pp. 8-16
"Egyptian medicine has provided much knowledge of how medicine was practiced in the past and has provided many advances to modern medicine."

Online version of: Christina Riggs, Facing the Dead: Recent Research on the Funerary Art of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, in: AJA, vol. 106, pp. 85-101 (2002) - pdf-file (complete issue: 6.5 MB)
"This article examines recent research on the subject [mummy portraits] and broadens the field of inquiry by addressing other forms of funerary art in use during the periods in question."
http://www.ajaonline.org/archive/106.1/pdfs/1061.pdf#riggs

[Submitted by Michael Tilgner]
* "Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham"
"Along Egypt's Mediterranean coast and down the western edge of Nile Delta lie the little known, fragmentary remains of what is believed to be a chain of fortified settlements dating to the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II
(c.1278-1212BC). It is thought that these were primarily intended to be a first line of defence against Egypt's western neighbours, several semi-nomadic groups generally known as 'Libyans'. This website will let you
explore these fortresses and the ancient world of which they were part, as well as keeping you up to date with the ongoing archaeological excavation at one of them ..."
URL: http://www.geocities.com/zurdig/HomeFrame.htm
See additional article: Steven Snape, Interesting Times for Neb Re, in:
Ancient Egypt Magazine, vol. 2, no. 2 (2001)
"Since 1994 the excavations of the Liverpool team have revealed in several parts of the site a number of monuments naming Neb-Re, who is titled 'Overseer of Foreign Lands' and 'Overseer of Troops'; in effect, Commandant
of the Fort [Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham]."
URL: http://www.ancientegyptmagazine.com/neb-re08.htm

End of EEF news

Well, yay for Sweden The Sand Dune Forgotten by Time

Archaeologists working in the extreme desert terrain of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have moved a step closer to unraveling the mystery of a 40-century-old civilization.

They unearthed 163 tombs containing mummies during their ongoing and long excavation at the mysterious Xiaohe tomb complex.

And it's all thanks to the translation of a diary kept by a Swedish explorer more than 70 years ago.