MODERN EGYPT
Bianca:
2008 - A FRUITFUL ARCHAEOLOGICAL YEAR
Nevine El-Aref sums up this year's most interesting archaeological events and highlights the 2009 agenda
This year saw several important discoveries, the restoration of ancient Egyptian, Coptic and Islamic monuments, and the return of artefacts smuggled illegally out of Egypt.
Almost every day, excavators carrying out routine excavation or cleaning stumbled on a new discovery. It might be potsherds or decorative fragments, but it could be a major discovery leading to further understanding of Egypt's history and culture.
Bianca:
Clockwise from top left:
the Egyptian Museum's restoration lab;
Giza Plateau;
Ibn Tulun Mosque minaret;
underwater archaeologists before a stele;
the hypostal hall of Seti I Temple;
restoring Haremohab tomb and a fresco at the Coptic Museum
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Bianca:
One of the most important discoveries of 2008 was made at the forefront of Karnak Temple in Luxor. According to archaeologists it has changed the landscape and the history of this great religious complex. Supreme Council of Antiquities' (SCA) archaeologists found a Ptolemaic ceremonial bath, a private ramp for the 25th-Dynasty Pharaoh Taharqa, a large number of bronze coins, an ancient dock and the remains of a wall that once protected the temple zone from the rising Nile flood.
SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass says further excavation will lead to the ancient harbour and canal that once connected the temple to the Nile. According to an old map, this canal was used to gain access to the west bank of the river in a position corresponding to Hatshepsut's Deir Al-Bahari Temple, which was built on the same axis.
The first evidence that the Nile once ran alongside the temple is found in the so-called Madrasa area, 50 metres southwest of the first pylon. It includes remains of what was a massive, sandstone embankment wall built some 3,000 years ago to reinforce the bank of the river, which has since moved.
The discovery of the embankment has changed the thinking about the temple's ancient façade. Previous theories, based on depictions found in several 18th-Dynasty private tombs such as that of a government official named Neferhotep, were based on the view that Karnak Temple was linked to the Nile by a canal through a rectangular pool dug in front of the temple. Boraik says this theory was supported by the uncovering in the 1970s of a small part of this embankment, which was assumed to be the back wall of the pool.
Archaeologists now believe that the pool depicted in ancient drawings was backfilled in antiquity and that the temple was expanded on top of it, built out to the edge of where the Nile flowed 3,000 years ago.
One of the most important discoveries in the area was the remains of a great circular Ptolemaic bath with an intricate mosaic tiled floor and seating for 16 people, with some seats flanked by dolphin statuettes.
Bianca:
The latest technology has helped, more or less, solve the enigma of the mummy of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I, the father of Queen Hatshepsut. Up to now the mummy of Tuthmosis I was assumed to be known until this year, when a CT scan of the supposed mummy the Pharaoh indicated that it belonged to a young man who was not even placed in the royal pose and had an arrow embedded in his chest, while Tuthmosis I is known to have died of natural causes.
Not only were the pose and the cause of death wrong, but the dates did not fit. The mummy was that of a man 30 years of age, making it impossible for him to be Hatshepsut's father since she died at the age of 50.
To solve the riddle, CT-scans and DNA tests were being conducted on three unidentified mummies, Pharaoh Seti II and two other mummies of unknown females and were discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in tomb number 21 in 1817, but were later deliberately damaged.
CT-scans and DNA analysis were carried out on two foetuses found in Tutankhamun's tomb, one four months old and the other two months, in order to identify their genders and the identity of their mother and grandmother. It was long thought that Ankhesenamun was Tutankhamun's wife and step-sister and their grandmother was Queen Nefertiti, wife of the monotheistic King Akhenaten.
Bianca:
At the Valley of the Kings on the west bank at Luxor, Egyptian excavators cleaning the corridor of Pharaoh Seti I's tomb unearthed a quartzite ushabti (human representation) figure and the cartouche of Pharaoh Seti I, the second ruler of the 19th Dynasty, while a number of clay vessels were also unearthed along with fragments from the tomb wall paintings that may have become dislodged and fallen off after its discovery.
The length of the corridor was remeasured and found to be 136 metres long, not the 100 metres recorded in the original report by Belzoni, the tomb's discoverer. Geological studies revealed the corridor was not carved inside the tomb as one single piece but was formed of separate parts, each with its own architectural features as if it were a gate leading towards the afterlife. Utensils used by the famous 19th-century tomb robber Abdel-Rassoul and his family were found in the dust, among them a tea caddy, cigarette packets and a fly whisk.
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