AKHENATEN/TUTANKHAMUN

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It is important to note most Egyptians we see outside of Egypt today are Arabs whose ancestors invaded Egypt and other north African states from the seventh and eighth centuries, A.D. onward. One of the recent reconstructions of King Tut, done in France, is said to have assigned him a very light skin tone, “based on an average shade of modern Egyptians.” Assuming that anyone has an accurate measure of the “average” skin tone in modern Egypt, the question is, what does this have to do with the skin color of the people living in Egypt 3000 years ago?

In other words, the debate over King Tut’s identity is part of a larger debate over the “racial identity” of the ancient Egyptians. (Here, I will not go into the question of the scientific validity of the concept of “race”). Before the 20th century, various scholars, European as well as African, considered Egyptians to be “an African race.” Herodotus, whom we were taught is the “Father of History,” depicted the Egyptians as Blacks with woolly hair, based on his studies of Egyptian history, and his visits to the African continent in the Fifth Century B.C. Nearer to our own period, we see that prominent French, English and German Egyptologists of the 18th and 19th centuries did not find it necessary to deny Egypt her African biological ancestry or her African cultural roots.

In the decades following the discovery of King Tut, the question of race loomed as central to most discussions of ancient Egyptian history. The claims made about that history couldn’t be divorced from their political contexts. On the one hand, is the fact that most Europeans and their descendants, including Euro-Americans, have staked a claim to Egypt as the foundation of “Western Civilization,” which they see as “their” civilization. Most of these scholars and laymen cannot consider, much less concede, that ancestors of the Africans whom they have enslaved and exploited over the past 500 years, and whom they consider racially inferior, could possibly have been the founders and developers of “Western Civilization.”

On the other hand, Africans and their descendants point to the rise and fall of cultures and civilizations over the entire history of humankind. They insist that Europeans and their supporters should allow the evidence from ancient Egypt to speak for itself, rather than be manipulated to fit into a Eurocentric view of history. Why de-construct and re-construct the noses of ancient Egyptian statues and painted images so that they will appear to be thinner, and more European in shape? Why speculate that the nose of the Sphinx was destroyed from erosion? Or specifically, that it was worn down by erosion and fell off because it protruded out so far? Why not confront the evidence and likelihood that cannon fire or other weaponry purposefully destroyed it? How ironic that the destruction of the nose of the Sphinx makes its African profile appear even more prominent.

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Some scholars thought, perhaps naively, that the debate over the identity of ancient Egyptians had been settled at the UNESCO Conference on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt, held in Cairo in 1974. After all, there Professor Cheikh Anta Diop, the great Egyptologist from Senegal, and his protégé and colleague, Dr. Theophile Obenga, from the Republic of Congo (and now a Professor at San Francisco State University), marshaled all the archeological and linguistic evidence to show that Egypt was peopled by indigenous African populations from the area then known as Ethiopia. They also argued conclusively that the key symbols in ancient Egyptian political and spiritual realms, as well as other cultural attributes, were unmistakably African.

From this short discussion, it should be clear that the debate over King Tut’s image and identity involve much more than the question of his color. At its core, the debate centers on his Africanity, which refers to his biological ancestry, his cultural origins, the origins of the populations in Egypt during the period in which he lived, and, a matter not discussed here, the source of the objects found in his tomb. In that regard, it should be noted that objects similar to some of those buried with King Tut have been found in early archeological sites in the modern day Sudan and Ethiopia.

Even though the political climate surrounding the scholarship on ancient Egypt is changing, the controversy continues. Scholars with Eurocentric perspectives on history seem determined to create for themselves “caucasoid” ancestors in ancient Egypt. African scholars are even more adamant that Egypt must be accorded her rightful place as the African state, which gave rise to what is now called “Western Civilization.” Stay tuned for more “out of Africa”!





Dr. Niara Sudarkasa is a former Professor of Anthropology and Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she also served as an Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. In 1987, she became the first woman to serve as President of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

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                                  Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief






AFP ^ |
September 25, 2007

Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour.

"Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters.

"Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.

Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory.

Protestors also claimed images of King Tut were altered to show him with lighter skin at the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit which leaves Philadelphia for London on September 30.

The exhibition sparked an uproar when it kicked off in Los Angeles in June 2005 when black activists demanded that a bust of the boy king be removed because the statue portrays him as white.

The face of the legendary pharaoh, who died around 3,300 years ago at the age of just 19, was reconstructed in 2005 through images collected through CAT scans of his mummy.

The boy king's intact tomb caused an international sensation when it was discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt.



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                                World's First Triangular Coins to Mark the Return of Tutankhamun 






Friday,
19 October 2007

World's first triangular coin has been presented on December 6, 2007, to commemorate the return
of treasures of Tutankhamun to the capital of UK.


 

The coins, having the shape of a pyramid, represent a part of a series depicting artifacts that were uncovered
in the tomb of the young pharaoh. The place, were the tomb was unearthed in 1922 by Howard Carter, an
English archaeologist, is called Valley of the Kings.

 


The coin includes the image of the coffinette, containing Tutankhamun's mummified internal organs.


 

The government of the Isle of Man issued the triangular coins on the same date as the beginning of Tutankhamun touring exhibition, which took place at the O2 Arena. It is worth mentioning that the exhibition has returned to London after 30 years.


 

The Isle of Man has 2 links with ancient Egypt. The first one is the Triskelion symbol and the second connection
is the nephew of Mr. Carter – Maurice, who currently lives there.


 

There are three interlocked spirals that the Celtic symbol is made of. These represent the sun, afterlife and reincarnation.


 

An interesting fact is that the Egyptians believed that the sun came down into the netherworld after it set and then traveled throughout the night before rising again. Egyptians also believed that when a person dies his death mirrored the night journey. Egyptians mummified the deceased in order to protect them from going into afterlife.


 

The issue of the coins took place at manufacturers' base Pobjoy Mint, located in Kingswood, Surrey.



http://www.dig4coins.com/news/latest/worlds-first-triangular-coins-to-mark-the-return-of-tutankhamun.html

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                          Known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the Eighteenth Dynasty.







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The Eighteenth, Nineteen and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under

the group title, New Kingdom.

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The Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the most famous of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt.

It included Tutankhamen, whose relatively undisturbed tomb was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries; Akhenaten, widely held to have promoted the first expression of monotheism; as well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs.

Although modern students of Egyptology consider the monotheism of Akhenaten the most important event of this period, for centuries this period was best known as when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt.




Related Topics:


Ancient Egypt -

Tutankhamen -

Akhenaten -

Monotheism -

Pharaoh -

Egyptology -

Hebrews



http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/eighteenth-dynasty-of-egypt/

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                                                            Eighteenth Dynasty







Ahmose I

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1550 BC – 1525 BC

Related Topics:
1550 BC - 1525 BC

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Amenhotep I

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1525 BC – 1504 BC

Related Topics:
1525 BC - 1504 BC

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Thutmose I

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1504 BC – 1492 BC

Related Topics:
1504 BC - 1492 BC

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Thutmose II

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1492 BC – 1479 BC

Related Topics:
1492 BC - 1479 BC

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Thutmose III

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1479 BC – 1425 BC

Related Topics:
1479 BC - 1425 BC

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Hatshepsut

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1479 BC – 1457 BC

Related Topics:
1479 BC - 1457 BC

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Amenhotep II

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1425 BC – 1399 BC

Related Topics:
1425 BC - 1399 BC

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Thutmose IV

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1399 BC – 1389 BC

Related Topics:
1399 BC - 1389 BC

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Amenhotep III

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1389 BC – 1351 BC

Related Topics:
1389 BC - 1351 BC

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Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)

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1351 BC – 1334 BC

Related Topics:
1351 BC - 1334 BC

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Smenkhkare

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1336 BC – 1334 BC

Related Topics:
1336 BC - 1334 BC

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Tutankhamun

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1334 BC – 1325 BC

Related Topics:
1334 BC - 1325 BC

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Kheperkheprure Ay

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1325 BC – 1321 BC

Related Topics:
1325 BC - 1321 BC

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Horemheb

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1321 BC – 1292 BC

Related Topics:
1321 BC - 1292 BC

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It was founded by Ahmose, the brother of Kamose, the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty.
Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the hated Hyksos rulers. With this dynasty, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt ended, and the New Kingdom of Egypt or the Egyptian Empire began.

Related Topics:
Ahmose - Kamose - Seventeenth Dynasty - Hyksos - Second Intermediate Period of Egypt - New Kingdom of Egypt

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Highlights of this dynasty include: Queen Hatshepsut, who effectively ruled during the minority of
her stepson, but was later considered a usurper; the first formal relations with foreign countries
under Amenhotep III, of which some records were included in the el Amarna letters; Akhenaten,
whose religion offended many in power, and who later suffered damnatio memoriae.

Scholars believed that Akhenaten caused a great deal of antipathy by his devotion to his God Aten, which contributed to the end of this dynasty.

Related Topics:
Hatshepsut - Amenhotep III - Amarna letters - Damnatio memoriae - Aten

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Its final years were clearly shaky: the unidentified widow of King Nibhururiya (identified with either Akhenaten or Tutankhamun) wrote to Suppiluliumas I, king of the Hittites, asking him to send one
of his sons to be her husband and rule Egypt.

Suppiluliumas sent an ambassador to investigate, who reported that the situation was accurately described; however the destined Hittite prince Zannanza was murdered enroute on the borders between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, and the last two members of this dynasty – Ay and Horemheb – came from officials of the royal court.

Suppiluliumas I reacted with rage at the news of his son's death by going to war against Egypt's
vassal states in Syria and Northern Canaan and captured the city of Amki. Unfortunately, Egyptian prisoners of war from Amki carried a plague which would eventually ravage the Hittite Empire and kill both Suppiluliumas I and his direct successor.

Related Topics:
Akhenaten - Tutankhamun - Suppiluliumas I - Hittites

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                                           Visiting Tut’s tomb is a rich experience






CAIRO, Egypt — He was a kid from a disgraced family, possibly assassinated and buried just off the beaten path in a tomb that, in Pharaonic terms, is a broom closet.

But Tut’s is among the most-visited holes in the ground of the Valley of the Kings, where the humidity down below makes the 105-degree September morning seem cool and refreshing when I re-emerge into the present.

The tomb is empty except for the boy king himself, tucked back into his sarcophagus in the wake of his most recent trip topside, for CT scans last January. Gazing in at the most famous teenager in world history, and the gods painted on the surrounding walls to guide him (and his two also-mummified children) to the netherworld, my mind reels at the tiny size of the burial chamber. How could all those coffins, shrines and relics possibly have been squeezed in here?

That staggering horde is what makes this poor little rich kid so famous. All his fat-cat neighbors were robbed blind over the centuries, leaving their huge crypts pretty much as we see them today, empty mausoleums.

Beyond and to the right I can see the opening into what was Tut’s Treasury, full of the most valuable riches when Howard Carter discovered this place in 1922. Another 2,000 artifacts were piled haphazardly around in the antechamber, where I’m now stooped, including a chariot. I saw most, marveled at many and touched some a few days earlier at the sprawling Cairo Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

The most amazing are the four gilded nesting shrines in Cairo’s Tut display. The largest is the size of a small bedroom, with a sun canopy and three other shrines in descending size lined up along Tut’s main concourse.

Attia Shaban, our Egyptologist guide, explains that they were built inside the tomb itself, one over the top of the other, coffins within coffins, each with its own gilding, richly etched with drawings.

David Silverman, another Egyptologist with the Tut exhibit now in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., further adds that the limestone and shale cave must have been hewn out larger to allow worker access, and at least one stone wall built back up against the shrines to confound any discoverers.

It apparently worked. Although the outer chamber showed signs of grave robbers, the tomb and treasury caused a reassessment of ancient Egyptian wealth.

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Meanwhile, in the fresh air above, Egyptologists and other would-be experts are waving the tourist crowds away from Tutankhamen’s tomb, describing it as an extra-cost disappointment.

Many of us make the trip anyway for bragging rights — and it’s the only tomb with a body in it. Sam Guy, an experienced traveler among our group, says that back home near Atlanta, neighbors will be more interested in his tale of Tut’s tomb than the huge and more renowned Seti I caverns we just climbed through. We make a final visual scan, and huff our way back up to the surface, where humidity is only 15 percent and the sweat dries off our bodies and clothes in minutes.

It’s midmorning and the daily tour-bus crowds, including ourselves, are reaching peak population. Guides like our Attia — he chafes at the label, being an accredited Egyptologist — deliver full-blown historical treatises to their impatient groups before pointing them toward the most interesting crypts. The group leaders are no longer allowed to lecture in the tombs — it created traffic jams down below, and the collective breaths turned the chambers into steam baths, and caused the paint to be stripped off the drawings and hieroglyphs (whose protective "varnish" is an egg-based coating).

There were a few things missing from Tut’s Cairo stash. Small typewritten cards scattered among the displays said certain pieces were on loan here and there — mostly on the tour presently at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art. Among them is a 16-inch gold coffinette, normally inside the calcite canopic chest that contained all of Tut’s vital organs.

The three pyramids, built around 2600 B.C., are a stunning introduction to ancient Egypt. Photos and movies don’t quite prepare you for the massive scale and quiet dignity. The oldest and largest is Cheops, more than 450 feet tall, whose blocks are each man-sized. Alongside it is a new building housing the Solar Barque, the oldest boat known to man that once ferried the pharaoh’s mummy to its final resting place, suspended in mid-air.

The middle pyramid, built by his son Chephren, still has a remnant of the outer, smooth limestone facade at the top. The smallest is the tomb of Chephren’s son, Menkaure.

The three main pyramids are surrounded by smaller tombs of queens and other royalty. At the base of the hill is the Sphinx, equally impressive, who today stares across a short field at Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Cairo, a jumbled and still-expanding metropolitan area of nearly 20 million, has begun to crowd inside the monuments’ shadows.

But just a few miles upriver, near the ancient capital of Memphis, the very first pyramid of Djoser stands out above small villages and crop fields. Djoser’s Step Pyramid is surrounded by the remnants of a wall, and other monuments, and is an engrossing afternoon jaunt.

Luxor is where all the main attractions lie. We spend several days there visiting the Valley of Queens as well as the Kings, passing the Colossi of Memnon, tall and regal amid crop fields on the wide west bank.

On the east bank, just up the banks from central Luxor, is the fabled Temple of Karnak. Attia’s lecture in the huge Hypostyle Hall is even longer than usual, and his pointer more active. Every cartouche full of hieroglyphs has an interesting meaning. He describes how obelisks were cut from rock above Aswan and brought downriver, details the progression of pharaohs and queens, and finally turns us loose to explore what amounts to a religious city, an ancient Vatican of the god Amun.

A long boulevard flanked by statues of lions once connected Karnak with the smaller Temple of Luxor on the southern edge of town, where we are able to visit a well-preserved holy of holies, the innermost temple of the gods.



http://touregypt.net/teblog/aswannews/?p=12

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This picture of the west bank of the River Nile at Luxor was taken on the morning of the 15th September 2000 at around 7:30am - a time when the temperature was just right. 

In the hills that can be seen is the Valley of the Kings (where Tutankhamun's tomb is located) and also the Valley of the Queens. 

This photo was taken from the deck of of a cruise ship that was shortly to sail downstream to Qena and
the nearby temple of Dendera.

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