If you are curious about how the Great Pyramid was built, and want to have the best theory to come along explained by one of its earliest advocates, then you are in luck.
Dr. Bob Brier, co-author with Jean-Pierre Houdin of “The Secret of the Great Pyramid”, will be delivering a free lecture, open to the public, at Poughkeepsie, NY, on January 27, 2010.
News is beginning to pop up about a new tomb discovered in the Saqqara area of the Memphis Necropolis, and it’s a big one! Actually, two tombs have been discovered, and while they seem to have already been looted, archaeologists have found artifacts, including human remains.
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Tags: Saqqara, Tombs, Zahi Hawass
Tim Reid, proprietor of The Egyptians, one of the most excellent Egyptology blogs on the internet, has posted his Top 10 stories of 2009. I couldn’t possibly improve on his coverage, and why reinvent the wheel? So if you haven’t checked it out yet, here is Tim Reid’s 2009 in Review!
Berlin has given its official response to the Nefertiti Summit and Zahi Hawass’ plans to formally demand the return of the bust of Nefertiti to Egypt—ain’t gonna happen.
German officials claim that the artifact’s constitution has already been evaluated and she is too fragile for travel, and that the Nefertiti Summit was never about the merits of Egypt’s case to begin with.
Meanwhile, Zahi Hawass intends to assemble a repatriation alliance based on his own model. “Our strategy became a good case for everyone…. China announced they will do same as we do” (Source: M&C: “Egypt to aid return of Asian, African stolen artifacts”).
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Tags: Artifact Alliance, Bust of Nefertiti, Friederike Seyfried, Nefertiti Summit, Repatriation, Zahi Hawass
The Nefertiti Summit has passed by, leaving little more in its wake than a flurry of media reports which all say basically the same thing, summarized here for your convenience.
The short version: Egypt offered no new evidence, but Germany was kind enough to offer some old evidence that seems to favor Egypt, who now feels justified in officially demanding the return of the bust of Nefertiti.
For the long version…
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Tags: Bust of Nefertiti, Friederike Seyfried, Ludwig Borchardt, Nefertiti Summit, Repatriation, Zahi Hawass
Dr. Otto Schaden has posted an update to his webpage stating that the excavation of KV63, the tomb/mummy cache he discovered back in 2005, has been completed. This milestone was passed this fall when the remaining sealed jars discovered in KV63 were opened and their contents examined. In addition to seven empty (except for smashed jars and mummification tools) coffins, Dr. Schaden’s team discovered 28 large storage jars in one of the chambers of KV63, most of them sealed.
But with all the jars now opened, work on KV63 is far from over and the most exciting discoveries are certainly yet to come.
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Tags: Eighteenth Dynasty, kv63, Otto Schaden, Valley of the Kings
Vincent Brown’s website, Talking Pyramids, has changed addresses, so please update your links! The new address is: http://www.talkingpyramids.com/
If you have read any of the reference articles on Em Hotep!, particularly anything having to do with pyramids, then you have most likely come across Talking Pyramids in my Further Reading section at the end of the articles. Vincent’s network of websites is always one of the online resources I check when writing a reference piece.
Did I say network of websites?
Talking Pyramids is just one of several online resources Vincent offers. Check out Ancient Egyptian Pyramids Network for Pyramid Texts Online, YouTube videos you will want to see, the Pyramid of Man website, and resources for hieroglyphs and learning ancient Egyptian.
Vincent offers up-to-date news, book reviews, and thoughtful and informed commentary on Talking Pyramids, so if you haven’t been there yet, you should drop in!
The Swiss Mummy Project has been reviewing all of the studies performed on mummies in the last three decades and has compiled a wealth of data about how the ancient Egyptians lived and died. They discovered that in addition to bad dental health, the ancients suffered from a wide range of maladies which we normally associate with modern life.
So, what did the mummies have to say about living well?
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Tags: Bob Brier, Forensic Mummy Studies, Frank Ruhli, Gino Fornaciari, Mummies, Mummification, Natron, Ramesses II, Ronald Wade, Swiss Mummy Project, Tao II
The Nefertiti Summit has been moved back from December 8 to December 20, according to a recent article appearing on Qatar’s The Peninsula: “Egypt to hold talks over bust of Queen Nefertiti.”
In a previous article that appeared on France 24, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated that the director of the Egyptian antiquities department would be coming to Cairo on December 8, 2009, to present his evidence that the famous bust of Nefertiti had been removed from Egypt via “proper channels” (Source).
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Tags: Altes Museum, Bust of Nefertiti, Dietrich Wildung, Ludwig Borchardt, Nefertiti Summit, Neues Museum, Repatriation, Zahi Hawass
King Tut is known as the Boy King for two reasons. The first is the young age at which he assumed the throne—around eight or nine. The second is that he died at around nineteen, so he never really reached adulthood. Why he died so young is a question that has been with us since his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
In 2005 a team of top radiologists conducted a series of CT scans on Tutankhamun’s mummy, and when the results were announced the following year at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the results were not 100% conclusive. Most of the team felt they had settled the question of what had caused Tut’s early death, but there were some holdouts.
So when Zahi Hawass announced last August that he was on the verge of announcing the exact cause of Tut’s death, Em Hotep! took notice. So does a new article and video on Dr. Hawass’ website finally put the question to rest?
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Tags: Akhenaten, Amarna, Ashraf Selim, Ay II, Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Howard Carter, Mummification, Richard Covington, Tutankhamun, Zahi Hawass
Edfu is most often associated with the Temple of Horus built there during the Ptolemaic Period, but the Tell Edfu Project, directed by the Oriental Institute’s Dr. Nadine Moeller, is literally uncovering a much older story. Ancient Edfu was a persistent city that took a two-fisted approach to adversity and not only survived the first two Intermediate Periods, but flourished.
In Edfu Part One: Ancient Djeba we will look at the history of this ancient mid-sized town that shattered the myth of Egypt being a “civilization without cities.”
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Tags: Djeba, Djedkare, Edfu, Fifth Dynasty, First Intermediate Period, Harsomtus, Hathor, Henri Henne, Horus, Isi of Edfu, Middle Kingdom, Nadine Moeller, Old Kingdom, Oriental Institute, Osiris Chapel at Edfu, Psamtik I, Ptolemaic Dynasty, Second Intermediate Period, Seventeenth Dynasty, Sixth Dynasty, Tell Edfu, Tell Edfu Project, Temple of Horus at Edfu, Teti, Thebes, Thirteenth Dynasty, Twelfth Dynasty, Unas, Wetjeset-Hor
Zahi Hawass has never been terribly shy about sharing his opinion, and by now everyone with even a peripheral interest in either Egyptology or R&B music has heard about the Beyonce incident. But while most coverage has ranged from treating Dr. Hawass like an irascible uncle to bemoaning his lack of diplomacy, there is a larger story broiling beneath what otherwise appears to be a clash between a frustrated host and a spoiled Western Diva.
With timing that could be considered an example of instant karma, the November 16, 2009, issue of The New Yorker hit newsstands with a ten-page article by Ian Parker that asks “Is Zahi Hawass bad for Egyptology?”
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Tags: American University of Cairo, Duncan Lee, Giza Pyramids, Ian Parker, Joann Fletcher, Salima Ikram, Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass
The Great Pyramid of Khufu has baffled professional Egyptologists and everyday people for millennia, but architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has proposed what many feel is the most likely, and certainly the most sensible, theory about the construction of Khufu’s Pyramid to date. This week France-5 of France Télévision aired a new documentary on Jean-Pierre Houdin’s work called Khéops Révélé.
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Tags: Bob Brier, Dassault Systemes, Infrared Thermography, Internal Ramp, Jean-Pierre Houdin, Khufu's Pyramid, Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass
A série ”De Hemienu a Houdin”, de Em Hotep!, que explora a obra e as teorias do arquiteto francês Jean-Pierre Houdin sobre como a Grande Pirâmide de Khufu foi construída, estará agora disponível em Português.
Isso foi possível através de uma parceria exclusiva com o escritor brasileiro José de Anchieta, que estará publicando os artigos em seu Web site O Antigo Egito para Leigos. Para sua facilidade, foram traduzidos os seguintes artigos:
Verifique regularmente em O Antigo Egito para Leigos e em Em Hotep! o próximo capítulo dessa saga histórica!
For my english readers, this is an announcement that the Hemienu to Houdin series is available in Portugues via special arangement with José de Anchieta of O Antigo Egito para Leigos.
Tags: Hemienu, Jean-Pierre Houdin, Khufu, Khufu's Pyramid
Tutankhamun’s tomb lasted undisturbed for thousands of years, but after mere decades of constant visitors the most famous burial site in the world is on the endangered list.
It would seem we have found the infamous Curse of King Tut, and it is us…
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Tags: Getty Conservation Institute, KV62, Tomb Art, Tomb Preservation, Tutankhamun, Zahi Hawass
How was the Great Pyramid of Khufu built?
Hemienu to Houdin Part Two
Edfu Pt. 2: Temple of Horus
