Thursday, September 21, 2006

And now. . . .the news from the EEF

Press report: "Rare Egyptian antiquities now on-line"
http://snipurl.com/widi
[http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000001/
0203000000000000000665.htm]
"Egypt will be posting a collection of antiquities, on display at
the Egyptian Museum in Turin, on the Eternal Egypt website
(http://www.eternalegypt.org)."
-- Another, much longer, press report about this:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/813/hr1.htm

Press report: "Greek language engravings discovered in Alexandria"
http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=5558&lang=US
"The engravings, which were discovered close to the Amoud al-Sawari
[Pompey's Pillar] monument, are said to date back to the times of Roman
Emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-180 AD.)"

A press report that features the Turin Kings List:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/813/hr2.htm

Press report: "Solving 3,000-year-old mysteries"
http://www.edmondsun.com/local/local_story_261230832.html
Interview with Bob Brier.

Digitized books from "Google Book Search"
-- Samuel Sharpe, Rudiments of a Vocabulary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, 1837.
xi, 151 pp., 16 pls. - pdf-file: 4.8 MB
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC05824955&id=2F-ra9_aWTcC

"Online Journals of the Royal Society"
http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/index.cfm?page=1373
"Nearly three and a half centuries of scientific study and achievement is
now available online in the Royal Society Journals Digital Archive following
its official launch this week. This is the longest-running and arguably most
influential journal archive in Science, including all the back articles of
both Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings.
For the first time the Archive provides online access to all journal
content, from Volume One, Issue One in March 1665 until the latest
modern research published today ahead of print. And until December
the archive is freely available to anyone on the internet to explore."
There are several articles related to AE; a selection:

-- I. E. S. Edwards, Absolute Datings from Egyptian Records and
Comparison with Carbon-14 Datings, in: The Impact of the Natural
Sciences on Archaeology. A Joint Symposium of the Royal Society
and the British Academy organized by a Committee under the
Chairmanship of T. E. Allibone, London, The Oxford University
Press, 1970 (= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
London A 269 [1970]), 11-18 (3 tables) - pdf-file: 920 KB
http://snipurl.com/ws8v
[http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/openurl.asp?genre=article&
issn=0080-4614&volume=269&issue=1193&spage=11]
"Following a brief description of Egyptian chronology and
the methods by which it is established, the author compares
the results with those obtained through radiocarbon dating.
The latter, though less reliable, are on the whole confirmed
by the historical dates ascertained from the Egyptian
monuments." (quote from the AEB)

-- R. Berger, Ancient Egyptian Radiocarbon Chronology, in:
The Impact of the Natural Sciences on Archaeology. A Joint
Symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy
organized by a Committee under the Chairmanship of T. E.
Allibone, London, The Oxford University Press, 1970
(= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London
A 269 [1970]), 23-36 - pdf-file: 1.9 MB
http://snipurl.com/ws8w
[http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/openurl.asp?genre=article&
issn=0080-4614&volume=269&issue=1193&spage=23]
"Description of a research into ancient Egyptian materials, mostly
reed and linen, in order to check the radiocarbon chronology. There
appears to be a discrepancy for the dates before Sesostris III
between the dates suggested by Egyptologists and those resulting
from the C-14 measurements, but by calibration against the
bristlecone pine correlation these measurements can be
converted to dates close to fitting the accepted historical chronology."
(AEB)

-- R. A. Parker, Ancient Egyptian Astronomy, in: The Place of
Astronomy in the Ancient World. A Joint Symposium of The
Royal Society and the British Academy organized by D. G. Kendall,
S. Piggott, D. G. King-Hele and I. E. S. Edwards. Edited by F. R.
Hodson, London, Published for the British Academy by Oxford
University Press, 1974 (= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society London A vol. 276, No. 1257), 51-65 (3 fig., 2 tables,
4 pl.) - pdf-file: 12 MB
http://snipurl.com/ws8x
[http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/openurl.asp?genre=article&
issn=0080-4614&volume=276&issue=1257&spage=51]
"In the introduction to this survey of Egyptian astronomy the
author stresses its relatively small importance for the Egyptian
civilization until the Ptolemaic Period. He further discusses the
major subjects of Egyptian astronomy: early calendars; the
diagonal star clocks (depicted on Middle Kingdom coffin lids)
and their mechanism; the decanal hours; the so-called cosmology
of Sethi I and Ramses IV; the later star clocks preserved in the
ceiling adornment of some Ramesside royal tombs; the astronomical
ceiling in the tomb of Senmut; the planets, the northern constellation
(including the Big Dipper) and the zodiacs (a Babylonian import),
etc. The last section is devoted to late Demotic astronomical
papyri." (AEB)