Tag: Abusir

Missing statue of Pharaoh Akhenaten returned to Cairo Museum

State of statue of Akhenaten after its return to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photo by Ahmed Amin Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Affairs, Dr Zahi Hawass, announced today that the missing limestone statue of King Akhenaten, the likely father of Tutankhamun, has been returned to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

To date, four objects from the preliminary list of missing artefacts have been found; the Heart Scarab of Yuya, a shabti of Yuya, the statue of the goddess Menkaret carrying Tutankhamun, and now the statue of Akhenaten as an offering bearer.

Statue of Akhenaten returned

The statue of pharaoh Akhenaten is one of the unique statues from the Amarna Period on display at the Egyptian Museum. It is seven forty-three centimeters high and depicts the king standing, wearing a blue crown, and holding an offering table in his hands.

The statue is composed of limestone, with the exception of the calcite, or Egyptian Alabaster, base.

In a statement to the press, Dr. Hawass says that a sixteen-year-old male, one of the protestors at Tahrir Square, found the statue of Akhenaten beside a rubbish bin.

He brought the statue to his home and when his mother saw it she called her brother, Dr. Sabry Abdel Rahman, a professor at AUC. Dr. Rahman, in turn, called the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs to hand the statue over.

Last night, at the Antiquities and Tourism Police station at Cairo Opera House, an archaeological committee headed by Dr. Youssef Khalifa, head of a committee appointed by the Minister, accepted the returned statue of Akhenaten. The committee approved the authenticity of the statue and confirmed that it is in fact the statue of Akhenaten that was missing. The statue was returned to Dr. Khalifa intact, except for the offering table that was found separately inside the Egyptian Museum (photo showing the statue before the break-in).

Dr. Tarek El-Awady, Director General of the Egyptian Museum, said that both pieces of the statue are now in the conservation lab and would be subject to restoration before being returned to its permanent case in the Amarna Gallery.

Restorator working on the statue of Tutankhamun standing on a panther. Photo by Stephanie Sakoutis

Treasures missing from the Cairo Museum

From the preliminary list of missing objects released; four objects this includes the limestone statue of ‘heretic pharaoh’ Akhenaten as an offering bearer have been.

The missing Heart Scarab of Yuya was recovered on the west side of the Egyptian Museum’s gardens, as well as some wooden fragments belonging to the damaged New Kingdom coffin.

One of the eleven missing shabtis of Yuyawas found inside the museum, underneath a showcase, and fragments belonging to the statue of Tutankhamun being carried by the goddess Menkaret have been found as well. All the located fragments belong to the figure of Menkaret. The small figure of the boy king is still missing.

Other objects not yet retrieved are the torso and upper limbs of a gilded wood statue depicting King Tut harpooning, a statue of Nefertiti making offerings, a sandstone head of an Amarna princess, a stone statuette of an Amarna scribe and ten wooden shabtis from Yuya.

In the mean while, restoration works on the items damaged at the Cairo Museum break-inthe statue of King Tut standing on a panther, and the gilded cartonnage mummy bands of Thuya, amongst othersare ongoing.

Further break-ins and looting at Saqqara and Abusir

In a second statement to the press, Dr Hawass announced that several sites have been vandalized. Today, Dr. Sabry Abdel Aziz, head of the Pharaonic Sector of the Ministry of Statefor Antiquities Affairs, reported to the Minister that the tomb of Hetep-Ka, in Saqqara, was brokeninto, and the false door was stolen along with objects stored in the tomb.

In Abusir, a portion of the false door was stolen from the tomb of Re-Hotep. In addition, many magazines also suffered break-ins: magazines in Saqqara, including the one near the pyramid of Teti, and the magazine of Cairo University all had their seals broken.

The Egyptian Military caught, and dismissed, thieves attempting to loot the sites of Tell el Basta; the military also caught criminals trying to loot a tomb in Lischt. There have also been many reports of attacks on archaeological lands through the building of houses and illegal digging.

Egypt tourist sites set to reopen

Despite these troubles, in a bid to see tourists return to Egypt, it was announcedthat all of thePharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and modern sites would reopen to the public on Sunday, 20 February2011.

Dr Zahi Hawass Appointed to Egypt President Mubarak’s New Cabinet as Minister for Antiquities

Dr Zahi Hawass has been appointed the new Minister for Antiquities. Image Copyright - Sandro Vannini.

Dr Zahi Hawass, has been promoted in the shake up of Egyptian President’s Hosni Mubarak’s new cabinet according to a report from AP. Formerly the Vice Minister for Culture, and the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Dr Hawass will now take the role as Minister of a newly created department – the State Ministry for Antiquities. Literary critic Dr Gaber Asfour has been named the new Minister of Culture, replacing the long-serving Farouk Hosni.

The cabinet shake up comes in the wake of political turmoil across Egypt, which saw a lack of police protection for key sites such as Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. Looting at the museum saw damage caused to several artefacts including those discovered in the famous Tomb of King Tutankhamun, as well as reports of severe looting at sites including Saqqara, Memphis Museum and Abusir. Former director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Wafaa el-Saddik, also revealed that museums in Egypt do not have insurance.

Last year, Dr Hawass was installed by President Mubarak as the Vice Minister for Culture in a move to allow him to postpone his pending mandatory retirement as the Secretary General of the SCA, as Egyptian ministers do not have a set age for retirement.

With several museums and heritage sites across Egypt in a state of disarray, Dr Hawass’ first priority will be to account for the missing artefacts, begin the restoration of damaged historical treasure and reopen museums and popular tourist spots such as the Great Pyramids of Giza as soon as possible.

New Statue Discovered at Taposiris Magna Possibly Ptolemy IV

Kathleen Martinez and Dr Zahi Hawass at the Taposiris Magna digArchaeologists excavating at Taposiris Magna, 45 km west of Alexandria, have discovered a huge headless granite statue of an as yet unidentified Ptolemaic king, and the original gate to the temple one of fourteen temples said to contain a piece of the god Osiriss body.

The monumental sculpture, which is a traditional image of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh wearing collar and kilt, could represent Ptolemy IV, the pharaoh who constructed the Taposiris Magna temple. In a statement issued by the SCA, Dr Zahi Hawass says that the statue is very well preserved and might be one of the most beautiful statues carved in the ancient Egyptian style.

The joint Egyptian-Dominican team working at Taposiris Magna discovered the temple’s original gate, located on its western side. In pharaonic Egypt the temple was named Per-Usir, meaning ‘A place of Osiris’. When the god Seth killed Osiris, he cut him into fourteen pieces and threw them all over Egypt. This temple (there are 13 more, spread over Upper and Lower Egypt) contained one piece of the god’s body.

Click the images for a larger version.

The team also found limestone foundation stones, which would once have lined the entrance to the temple. One of the foundations, explained Hawass, bears traces indicating that the entrance was lined with a series of Sphinx statues similar to those of the pharaonic era.

The team, led by Kathleen Martinez, began excavations in Taposiris Magna five years ago in an attempt to locate the tomb of the well-known lovers, Queen Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. There is some evidence that suggests that Egypt’s last Queen might not be buried inside the tomb built beside her royal palace, which is now under the eastern harbour of Alexandria.

Click To Watch Video
Zahi Hawass – The Search for Antony and Cleopatra
Join Zahi Hawass at the temple of Taposiris Magna near Alexandria, where he and Dominican scholar Kathleen Martinez are searching for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony!

Dr Hawass has already hailed the dig as a success, whatever the outcome: If we discover the tomb… it will be the most important discovery of the 21st century. If we do not discover the tomb… we made major discoveries here, inside the temple and outside the temple.”

Dr Hawass pointed out that in the past five years the mission has discovered a collection of headless royal statues, which may have been subjected to destruction during the Byzantine and Christian eras. A collection of heads featuring Queen Cleopatra was also uncovered along with 24 metal coins bearing Cleopatras face.

Behind the temple, a necropolis was discovered, containing many Greco-Roman style mummies. Early investigations, said Dr Hawass, show that the mummies were buried with their faces turned towards the temple, which means it is likely the temple contained the burial of a significant royal personality, possibly Cleopatra VII.

Cornell University Library Archives on Flickr

Karnak. Festival HallToday was yet another glorious day, as I stumbled over quite a few small museums, universities and organisations that put their ‘heritage’ photographs online – on Flickr to be more precise – for the world to enjoy. Amongst today’s discoveries are the Manchester Museum (also check out their very museum 2.0 project ‘Manchester Hermit’), the Salisbury Museum (how to move an ancient Roman sarcophagus) and Wessex Archaeology. And then of course there are all those awesome ancient world photographs in ‘The Commons’.

But you do not even need to be an institution specialising in archaeology to hold an interesting archive. The Cornell University Library proves this by making their ‘A.D. White Architectural Photos‘ available to the public under a – very generous – Creative Commons Attribution license. The collection holds photographs taken as early as beginning 19th century from Egypt, Italy, Syria and many other interesting places (like Belgium! ;)).

I can’t help but shout: ‘Hail the Digital Era!’ as slowly (some faster than others) but certain (well, almost certain) libraries open up their archives, scan, tag, share, compare and access is no longer restricted to 9 to 5, on the campus itself. It must rock to be a librarian in this age, finally being truelly able to share your precious collection with the entire world?

My 5 favourites from the Cornell University Library’s collection on Flickr:

Egyptian Temple Complex, Egypt

Egyptian Temple Complex

An aerial photograph dating from 1914 by Kofler of the ruins of what I think is the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. (Feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken, but the geolocation does say ‘Asyut’.) the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. Not satisfied yet?Great!Kofler took another awesome shot, which gives you an entire different look on the temple.

Apamea, Syria

 Apamea

Taken in the late 19th century in Syria, this photograph of a majestic tomb at Apameia is astonishing. Although I did my best, I could not find a ‘current’ image of the tomb. ;(

Pyramid of Khafre and the Sphinx, Egypt

Giza. Pyramid of Khafre and Sphinx

Of course, the Great Sphinx and the Giza pyramids are always impressive, but ‘ancient’ (in photography terms) images of it seem to stress the monument’s ‘ancientness’ (in world culture terms) even more. That and it wasn’t as excavated as much as it is nowadays, which definitely adds to this photographs charm.

(I really wish I’ve found this photograph before staring on my pyramidiot theories.)

The Arena at Verona, Italy

Verona, Piazza Br, Exterior of Arena

This photograph of the Verona Arena and Piazza Br snapped by Fratelli Alinari shows that already in the early 19th century one could do sensible city planning and keep the cars – or horses – far enough from the monuments. Take that, Rome! 😉

Model of King Sahure’s Pyramid at Abusir

Metropolitan Museum Collection. Model of King Sahure's Pyramid at Abusir

Nostalgia! One can find them still in musea, the white physical scale replicas of ancient monuments we’re all so familiar with – such as this one of King Sahure’s Pyramid constructed by the Stegemann Brothers – but soon, these will be considered just as outdated ancient as the monuments they represent?

All images courtesy
the Cornell University Library.
(Since April 2009 also on Flickr! Welcome! ;))