After more than 40 years, archaeologists have finally reached the end of the tunnel discovered in the tomb of Seti I. Hopes the tunnel would lead to the pharaoh’s secret burial site have been crushed, after the seemingly unfinished tunnel suddenly stopped after a back-breaking 174m. Pharaoh Seti I’s tomb, which is located in the Valley of the Kings, was first discovered in 1817 by strongman-turned-archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni (watch a video about Britain’s explorers). But clearing of the tunnel, cut into the bedrock near the end of the beautifully decorated tomb, was not started until the 1960s, under the direction…
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The skull of an ancient Egyptian mummy in Colchester is packed with ‘strange bones’, a CT-scan has revealed. The scan on 2,500-year-old Lady Ta-Hathor yesterday also revealed an odd bundle between her thighs, thought to be the remains of her organs. Full results from the scan, made ahead of Ta-Hathor’s display at Ipswich Museum’s new Egyptian Gallery, are expected only after an assessment by a team in Manchester. Yet it immediately showed she was healthy with no bone defects, and had died of natural causes aged in her mid-twenties – not far off the era’s life expectancy of 30. Ta-Hathor’s…
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King Tut died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria, say experts. German researchers at Hamburg’s Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) have rejected a theory put forward by Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, claiming sickle-cell disease (SCD) caused King Tut‘s early demise. A team led by Dr Hawass had said a combination of Khler disease and malaria was the primary cause of Tutankhamun’s death. Yet the German team are calling for more tests on the boy-king’s DNA, which they say will easily confirm or deny their claim. The BNI team have cast doubt on Hawass’ conclusions, after studying DNA tests…
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Egypt’s Cultural Minister Farouk Hosni announced today that the Austrian mission at Tell el-Daba has located the southern suburban quarters of the ancient city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period (1664-1569 BC). The excavation team found this area using a combination of magnetometry and resistivity surveys. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the computer-generated images of the city, which is still buried under the ground, show a very detailed layout of ancient Avaris. Several architectural features including houses, temples, streets, cemeteries and palaces can be seen.…
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An underground city discovered in the Nile Delta is the Hyksos capital city of Avaris, says Egypt’s Minister of Culture. Farouk Hosni made the claim to Chinese news agency Xinhua in the wake of the discovery at Tell El-Dab’a, in the Delta’s north eastern limits, by an Austrian archaeological team. SCA Chief Zahi Hawass says radar imaging at the site shows the outlines of streets, temples and houses of the long-lost city, which became the capital of Egypt between 1664 and 1569 BC. (explore the image) Austrian team leader Irene Mueller says a Nile river tributary which passed through the…
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Scholars across the globe have spent more than a century trying to document the reigns of the various rulers of Egypt’s Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. Now, researchers say they nailed down a more accurate chronology for dynastic Egypt. The new chronology, based on a radiocarbon analysis of short-lived plant remains, is a long and accurate chronology of ancient Egyptian dynasties that agrees with most previous estimates but also imposes some historic revisions. Although previous chronologies (based on both historical and archaeological records) have been precise in relative ways (the sequence of rulers), assigning absolute dates to specific events in…
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It was a lovely sunny day throughout the UK and everyone at the exquisite Pollok Country Park was making the most of the sunshine. I walked passed the sunbathers to where The Burrell Collection is housed, to attend a Study Day about the work and life of Flinders Petrie, organized by Egyptology Scotland. Magi Sloan, chairperson of Egyptology Scotland, did an excellent job of putting together three specialists on Petrie collections from different parts of the country: Professor Stephen Quirke from the Petrie Museum in London, Simon Eccles, senior curator of Ancient Civilizations at the Burrell Collection and responsible for…
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While the golden kings exhibition has left Canada for southern climes, those in Vancouver will have an opportunity to learn more about him and more specifically how his artefacts reinforced his position as pharaoh. Professor Katja Goebs research looks at Egyptian pharaohs and the artefacts that cement their hold on power. Her most recent book Crowns in early Egyptian Funerary Literature: Royalty, Rebirth, and Destruction, examines the white and red crowns ofUpper and Lower Egypt. They possess a wide-ranging symbolism that transcends the terrestrial sphere to encompass the divine and the cosmos, death and rebirth, she wrote in the book…
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Angelina Jolie will play Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, in a film adapted from Stacy Schiff’s upcoming book ‘Cleopatra: A Life’. It’s hardly likely to subdue those arguing Cleopatra was little more than ‘Egypt’s sex kitten’ (opposed by myself, Nele and Rosemary Joyce in her blog and book ‘Ancient Bodies’, I must say), but it’s exciting news nonetheless. The book won’t be published until autumn 2010, but producer Scott Rudin has already purchased film rights, saying the movie ‘is being developed for and with Jolie’. Author Schiff has even hinted at Brad Pitt playing Roman general Mark Antony, reminding…
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Nearly 4,600 years ago a third dynasty pharaoh named Snefru launched one of the greatest construction projects in human history. He decided, for reasons that are unknown to us, to build four pyramids scattered at different places across Egypt. He constructed two of them at Dashur (the Red and Bent pyramids), one at Meidum and another at a place called Seila. Together they used up more material than Khufus pyramid at Giza. Casing stones were used to give them a smooth appearance in other words make them into true pyramids.” This was the first time in Egyptian history that this…