"The world's oldest dam" - press report about a trip to the remains of an ancient Egyptian stone dam (dyn. 3-4) across Wadi Al-Garawi, at Sad Al-Kafara:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/708/he1.htm
"Aussies dig up Egyptian mummies": press report about the Australian excavations near the pyramid of Teti, notably of the tomb of Mereruka:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10765090%5E401,00.html
Press report on some alabaster AE artefacts (among which the alabaster headrest of Tetiankh-Kem, dyn. 6):
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/708/he2.htm
Own your own! "Lenkiewicz collection to be sold"
"A human skeleton and an Egyptian sarcophagus are among items once owned by the late Devon artist Robert Lenkiewicz to go on sale next month. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/3683760.stm
"Egypt's Cats got Pharaoh Treatment": another press report on the mummification of cats and other animals:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040913/catmummy.html
More on the supposed "hidden chamber" in the Kheops pyramid: "Battle [at the ICE] over Khufu's death bed", with the opinion of Nicolas Grimal:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/708/eg9.htm
[Submitted by Michael Tilgner]
The Piankhi / Piye Stela (JE 48862)
-- Drawing of the front side
URL: http://www.kent.net/DisplacedDynasties/piankhistele.gif
-- Hieroglyphic text in: Urk. III, 1-56
URL: http://tinyurl.com/6tc9k
-- English translation in: James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. IV, Chicago, 1906, sections 796-883
URL: http://tinyurl.com/69aa9
URL: http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/texts/piye.htm
Online article by Prof. Kevin Wilson, called "The Campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I in Palestine":
http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Wilson-Campaign_of_Shoshenq_I_1.htm
Kyoko Yamahana, Synchrotron Radiation Analysis on Ancient Egyptian Vitreous Materials, in: Proceedings of the 25th Linear Accelerator Meeting in Japan (July 12-14, 2000, Himeji, Japan)
"A non-destructive SR-XRF experiment at Spring-8 was conducted last winter, aiming to determine the regional trait of elemental composition by examining the pattern and ratio of rare earth elements. As a result, we could observe some distinctive rare earth elements that may indicate regional variation."
URL: http://www.spring8.or.jp/JAPANESE/conference/li-me00/PDF/13C-01.pdf
E. M. Ciampini, S. Di Paolo, La collezione egizia Giamberardini in un museo dell'Aquilano, in: Liber Annuus, vol. 48, pp. 495-512 (1998), 10 pls. [AEB 98.0566]
"The sanctuary of Santa Maria dell'Oriente (Tagliacozzo, Italy) holds a small collection of 36 Egyptian objects. It was created by Father Gabriele Giamberardini during his stay in Egypt, probably through purchases on the antiquarian market. Among the scarabs, four bear XVIIIth Dynasty royal names. Some pieces belong to funerary equipment, such as the lid of a
canopic vessel, a fragmentary cartonnage mask, a beard from a coffin. To the religion in the Late Period belong Osiris figurines. A particular group form the Coptic ostraca." - pdf-file: 75 KB - there is a link to 10 pls.
URL: http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/sbf/Books/LA48/48495EMC.pdf
Colin A. Hope, Egypt and Libya: The excavations at Mut el-Kharab in Egypt's Dakhleh Oasis, in: The Artefact, vol. 24, pp. 29-46 (2001)
"In 2001, the Dakhleh Oasis Project commenced the excavation of the remains of one of Dakhleh Oasis's ancient capitals at Mut el-Kharab. The site was known to have been occupied from the Old Kingdom until the Byzantine Period, and to have been the cult centre of the god Seth, Lord of the Oasis. The excavations have revealed traces of activity also during the Old Kingdom, and unearthed part of the temple of Seth and a variety of objects and
inscriptions that enable its history to be better understood. The excavations are part of a larger project to investigate the interaction between Egypt and the 'Libyan' occupants of the Western Desert." - 20 pp., pdf-file: 1.3 MB
URL: http://tinyurl.com/3vnor
BMCR review of Corinna Rossi's book "Architecture and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. 280. ISBN 0-521-82954-2. $100.00.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2004/2004-09-21.html
[Submitted by Marianne Luban, Philip Rychel, and John Wall]
* Review by Mark Rose of Joann Fletcher's book "The Search for Nefertiti: The True Story of an Amazing Discovery":
http://www.archaeology.org/online/reviews/nefertiti/index.html
[Note: As indicated by this review, Fletcher's book and television work has decidedly NOT been well-received among Egyptologists. Our view is that they are probably right: it's not a particularly compelling theory. Nevertheless, we feel it is probably a bad move on Hawass's part to ban her from working in Egypt. She may or may not have violated agreements with the Egyptian gov't that mandate the SCA making any initial announcements of "discoveries", but advancing an idea is not really a discovery. It is, however, a fine line between legitimate researchers being allowed to conduct destructive analyses (i.e., excavation) -- which Fletcher isn't doing -- and various crackpots who just want to dig stuff up to prove aliens built the pyramids and such. We appreciate Zahi's efforts in this regard, but this may have been a rather ham-handed way of dealing with this.]
[Submitted by Filip Vervloesem (filip.vervloesem@student.kuleuven.ac.be)]
I've been working for some months now on a website devoted to Egyptological applications for Macintosh computers (since there are enough websites covering Windows software, but few of them do include Mac software). For the moment, there are already about 20 applications
(or fonts) listed, but I'm sure there are more and will add them as I find them (I hope other Mac users will let me know if they have any additions). I have written a short summary of the possibilities of each application, and I've also included screenshots.
More importantly, there are Mac OS X ports of S. Rosmorduc's software (HieroTex, TkSesh), which will be a great help for Mac users who want to use his software. It took me a lot of work to get his applications running on a Mac, so of course I'd like to share my experience with as many other Mac users as possible...
URL: http://www.student.kuleuven.ac.be/~m0318884/hierotexmac/index.html
End of EEF section.
Well, duh Noah's Ark Quest Dead in Water -- Was It a Stunt?
In April businessman and Christian activist Daniel McGivern announced with great fanfare a planned summer expedition to Mount Ararat in Turkey. The project, he said, would prove that the fabled Noah's ark was buried there.
Explorers have long searched for the ark on the Turkish mountain. At a news conference in Washington, D.C., McGivern presented satellite images, which he claimed show a human-made object—Noah's ark—nestled in the ice and snow some 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) up the mountain.
"We are not excavating it," McGivern told the audience. "We're going to photograph it and, God willing, you're all going to see it." If successful, he said, the discovery would be "the greatest event since the resurrection of Christ."
Pre-Inca Ruins Emerging From Peru's Cloud Forests
On the eastern slope of the Andes mountains in northern Peru, forests cloak the ruins of a pre-Inca civilization, the size and scope of which explorers and archaeologists are only now beginning to understand.
Known as the Chachapoya, the civilization covered an estimated 25,000 square miles (65,000 square kilometers). The Chachapoya, distinguished by fair skin and great height, lived primarily on ridges and mountaintops in circular stone houses.
"The cohesiveness of the nation is still not scientifically proved, but it was definitely a civilization that covered a large area," said Sean Savoy, vice president of operations for the Reno, Nevada-based Andean Explorers Foundation and Ocean Sailing Club.
Egyptian Animals Were Mummified Same Way as Humans
The ancient Egyptians mummified more than just human corpses. Animals were viewed not only as pets, but as incarnations of gods. As such, the Egyptians buried millions of mummified cats, birds, and other creatures at temples honoring their deities.
Because of the sheer scale of animal mummy production, many archaeologists thought the vast majority were churned out in relatively slipshod fashion. But a new study suggests the mummification techniques ancient Egyptians used on animals were often as elaborate as those they employed on the best-preserved human corpses.
Researchers at the University of Bristol, England, conducted the study, which is described in tomorrow's issue of the science journal Nature.
Links to the new National Museum of the American Indian
New National Indian Museum Is Native by Design
When the designers and architects of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., began consultations with native leaders about their project a decade ago, the message was clear: We want the museum to tell the truth, the elders said.
But how do you take such an abstract idea and translate it into architectural reality?
The answer, the designers found, was to let Native Americans' sensibilities and traditions wind their way into every nook and cranny of the site. (See photos of the museum.)
So the Smithsonian Institution's newest museum, which opened this past Tuesday, looks far different than the classical, European-based designs of its neighbors along the National Mall. From the stone exterior walls that appear carved by wind and rain to the shell inlays in benches inside, the museum has a decidedly native character.
Web site of the National Museum of the American Indian
Okay, that was only two links. We're sure there are more, but one we found was a dead link. Seems to be a neat museum. The architecture is absolutely outstanding.
Update More links from National Geographic:
16 Indian Innovations: From Popcorn to Parkas
Imagine our world without chocolate or chewing gum, syringes, rubber balls, or copper tubing. Native peoples invented precursors to all these and made huge strides in medicine and agriculture.
They developed pain medicines, birth-control drugs, and treatment for scurvy. Their strains of domesticated corn, potatoes, and other foods helped reduce hunger and disease in Europe—though Indians also introduced the cultivation and use of tobacco.
In celebration of the new National Museum of the American Indian (see photos) in Washington, D.C., bone up on Indian innovations in food and candy, outdoor gear, and health and exercise.
Other links from the NGS:
At New American Indian Museum, Artifacts Are "Alive"
Museum of the American Indian: Exhibits
Fast Facts: National Museum of the American Indian
Okay, is this to goofiest piece of sculpture ever seen or what?
