Friday, May 20, 2005

First, news from the EEF

Press report: The Egyptian Gazette, Miscallaneous:
http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/4/
"Ten years ago three stelae were stolen from Akhmim in Upper Egypt whereupon they began a long trip that covered Switzerland, France and the US. Finally, the SCA managed to retrieve the pieces, laying them to rest in the Egyptian Museum." The pages contains some other Egyptological bits as well.

A new resource is available on the AEL web site: an index to textual references appearing in popular grammars; created by Ken Saunders:
http://snipurl.com/f03r
This will be of particular interest to anyone working on the Westcar papyrus or the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. The index follows the sequence of the text, giving references to where the line or phrase is discussed in four major grammars. Databases for the Eloquent Peasant and the Story of Sinuhe may follow in the future.
[source: Mark Wilson]

* The On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/weavedocs.html
has several digitized articles relating to ancient Egypt (and I may have missed some):
-- Roth, H. Ling. "Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms", Banksfield Museum, 1913, 45 pages, 3.6 MB
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/monographs/rhl_anct.pdf
-- Mace, A. C, "Loom Weights in Egypt", Ancient Egypt, 1922, 3 pages, 752 KB PDF
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/articles/mac_wght.pdf
-- Roth, H. Ling and G. M. Crowfoot, "Models of Ancient Looms", Ancient Egypt, 1921, 7 pages. 1 MB PDF
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/articles/rhl_elom.pdf
-- Mace, A. C., "Heddle-Jacks of Middle Kingdom Looms", Ancient Egypt, 1922, 4 pages. 808 KB PDF
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/articles/whe_hedl.pdf
[Eds. GREAT resource for weaving papers. All appear to be non-sub access.]

Bonani, G., et al., "Radiocarbon Dates of Old and Middle Kingdom Monuments in Egypt." in: AMS Radiocarbon Dating Lab, Annual Report 2001 (PDF, 31 kB):
http://www.ipp.phys.ethz.ch/research/experiments/tandem/Annual/2001/06.pdf
(An extended version appeared as an article in: Radiocarbon, 2001. 43(3): pp. 1297-1320.)

[Submitted by Kat Reece (kat@hallofmaat.com)]
Online version of: Colin Reader, "Giza before the Fourth Dynasty", from the Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum 9 (2002), pp. 5-21.
http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=93
The age of the Sphinx has generated a certain amount of controversy. Geologist Colin Reader believes that a dating earlier than the 4th dynasty but still firmly within the dynastic period is the best solution to reconciling the geological and archaeological evidence. The Hall of Maat website presents this JACF article -- which is a follow up to the author's article "A geomorphological study of the Giza necropolis with implications for the development of the site" (Archaeometry 43: 1 (2001) 149-165) -- with a short update
by the author.

Online version of: Jean-Daniel Stanley, The Near-Destruction of Giza, in: American Scientist, vol. 93, no. 2 (2005)
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/40805#40915
"How a 19th-century French engineer saved the Egyptian pyramids from being dismantled"
[Eds. We probably linked to this earlier, but it's well worth linking again.]

Review of three books aimed at those "obsessive, Egypt-factoid-gathering kids":
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/review/15WOLITZE.html
(password and id: eefeef)

End of EEF news.

Ancient gods uncovered

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a Nabataean monument during an excavation at Jordan's ancient city of Petra, the English language newspaper Jordan Times reported on Wednesday.

It quoted Patricia Bikai, who headed the excavation team that made the discovery, as saying that they "initially thought the building was either a shrine or a royal residence".

"However, after further examination we identified the monument as a banquet hall, which was decorated with 22 stone heads of ancient gods," she added.


Fast Food, Cheap Souvenirs And A Good Fight - A Day Out At The Amphitheatre

Football just wouldn't be the same without the obligatory burger vans and stalls selling cheap scarves outside the ground.

But the latest finds by archaeologists, led by Tony Wilmott who is based in Fort Cumberland, Hampshire, working at Chester Amphitheatre suggest things may not have changed that much in the last 2,000 years.

The dig, jointly carried out by English Heritage and Chester City Council, has uncovered a large number of animal bones discarded by fast-food loving spectators in the 8,000 seater stadium.


We've heard this before. . . . Indiana Jones raids next-gen consoles

When he's not teaching students about archaeology or working on his five-o'clock shadow, Indiana Jones is buckling swashes, trotting globes, and all other manner of derring-do. According to a statement from LucasArts, come 2007, he'll be back doing it on the "next generation of gaming consoles."

. . .

This new game looks to be just one aspect in a full-on Indy resurgence, with Harrison Ford reportedly signed on to star in a fourth film in the franchise. The project will be written by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg, and it's tentatively due out sometime next year.


They'd better do it quick or Indy will be wiping out bad guys with his walker. . . . .

Roman conquerors had woolly socks

The sartorial elegance of the Italians has been shattered, with news that woolly socks helped their ancestors' conquest of northern England.

The evidence has emerged among archaeological objects found in the River Tees at Piercebridge, near Darlington in County Durham.

Among the items was an unusual Roman razor handle, made of copper alloy and in the shape of a human leg and foot.


Fight! Fight! Roman soldiers help new fight against windfarm

ANCIENT Roman legions who once marched through South Yorkshire could soon be playing a part in a new battle—this time to halt a green scheme.
Image Campaigners fighting to stop three towering wind turbines springing up on green belt land at Loscar, near Harthill, say the site is surrounded by evidence of Roman settlements dating back to the first century.
Now local historian Paul Rowland has unearthed evidence to show that even the country lane along which heavy equipment for the three 311 feet high turbines will be brought is an old Roman road, once known as Ryknild Street.


Fancy that Archaeologists Find Relics at Ga. Fort

On a narrow peninsula along Georgia's marshy coast, archaeologists have uncovered relics from a forgotten piece of American history — the fort where British and U.S. troops waged the final battle of the War of 1812.

Point Peter, where cannons once pointed from the city of St. Marys toward Cumberland Island, fell to British forces days after Gen. Andrew Jackson's victory in the Battle of New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815.

The fort was burned down by British troops and its remains had been buried until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers required an archaeological survey by developers of Cumberland Harbour, a 1,014-acre waterfront subdivision being built on the site. Only a state historical marker, placed on the site in 1953, pointed out the fort's location.