Idle Expectations

Largest Egyptian Sarcophagus Identified

The largest ancient Egyptian sarcophagus has been identified in a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, say archaeologists who are re-assembling the giant box that was reduced to fragments more than 3,000 years ago.

Made of red granite, the royal sarcophagus was built for Merneptah, an Egyptian pharaoh who lived more than 3,200 years ago. A warrior king, he defeated the Libyans and a group called the “Sea Peoples” in a great battle.

He also waged a campaign in the Levant attacking, among others, a group he called “Israel” (the first mention of the people). When he died, his mummy was enclosed in a series of four stone sarcophagi, one nestled within the other.

Archaeologists are re-assembling the outermost of these nested sarcophagi, its size dwarfing the researchers working on it. It is more than 13 feet (4 meters) long, 7 feet (2.3 m) wide and towers more than 8 feet (2.5 m) above the ground. It was originally quite colorful and has a lid that is still intact. Read more.

Reblogged 5 months ago from archaeologicalnews

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egyptian, merneptah, sarcophagus, valley of the kings, archaeology,

ancientpeoples:

Game of Hounds and Jackals

Period:Middle Kingdom

Dynasty:Dynasty 12

Reign:Reign of Amenemhat IV

Date:ca. 1814–1805 B.C.

Geography:Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, el-Asasif, Tomb of Reniseneb (CC 25), at bottom of shaft, Carnarvon/Carter 1910

Medium:Ebony, ivory
Dimensions:Board: h. 6.3 cm (2 1/2 in); w. 15.2 cm (6 in)

The board rests on four bulls’ legs; one is completely restored and another only partially. There is a drawer with a bolt to store the playing pieces: five pins with hounds’ heads and five with jackals’ heads. The board is shaped like an axe-blade, and there are 58 holes in the upper surface with an incised palmtree topped by a shen sign in the center. Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon reconstructed the game as follows in their publication of the find (Five Years of Explorations at Thebes, A Record of Work done 1907-1911, London, Oxford, New York, 1912, p. 58): “Presuming the ‘Shen’ sign … to be the goal, we find on either side twenty-nine holes, or including the goal, thirty aside. Among these holes, on either side, two are marked ..nefer, ‘good;’ and four others are linked together by curved lines.. Assuming that the holes marked ‘good’ incur a gain, it would appear that the others, connected by lines, incur a loss.. Now the moves themselves could easily have been denoted by the chance cast of knuckle-bones or dice….and if so we have before us a simple, but exciting, game of chance.”
Egyptians likened the intricate voyage through the underworld to a game. This made gaming boards and gaming pieces appropriate objects to deposit in tombs.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum

Reblogged 5 months ago from ancientpeoples

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ancient, history, ancient egypt, egypt, egyptian, games, gaming, archaeology, jackels and hounds,

Egyptian Deity Pendant, Herodian Structure Fragment Found in Jerusalem Dig

archaeologicalnews:

While deep within excavations of an ancient Byzantine tower structure in the Ophel area of Jerusalem, a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers recently unearthed two important finds representing ancient times that were centuries apart.

The first, only about one inch in length, was a small white necklace pendant made from faience. Originally green, the pendant was a figurine depicting the ancient Egyptian god Bes, a deity worshipped as a fertility god and protector of families and households, and in particular, of mothers, children and childbirth. The find is rare in that it is the first and only artifact of its kind, that of Bes, ever found in Jerusalem. Other Bes finds have been found throughout Egypt. Read more.

Reblogged 6 months ago from archaeologicalnews

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archaeology, jerusalem, deity pendant, Bes, egyptian,

ancientpeoples:

Faience Figure of a Seated Monkey

Reportedly from Amarna, Egypt

New Kingdom, c.1352-1336 BC

c.5.4 cm x c.2.8 cm x c.4 cm

In antiquity, the figure would have had a metal earring. This suggests tat it may represent a household pet. The possession of monkeys, indicated the owner’s wealth and status.

Source: Brooklyn Museum

Reblogged 7 months ago from ancientpeoples

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History, ancient, monkey, pet, egypt, egyptian, statue, art, figure, new kingdom,

Egyptian toe tests show they’re likely to be the world’s oldest prosthetics

archaeologicalnews:

The results of scientific tests using replicas of two ancient Egyptian artificial toes, including one that was found on the foot of a mummy, suggest that they’re likely to be the world’s first prosthetic body parts.

The University of Manchester researcher Dr Jacky Finch wanted to find out if a three part wood and leather toe dating from between 950 to 710 BC found on a female mummy buried near Luxor in Egypt, and the Greville Chester artificial toe from before 600 BC and made of cartonnage (a sort of papier maché mixture made using linen, glue and plaster), could be used as practical tools to help their owners to walk. Both display significant signs of wear and their design features also suggest they may have been more than cosmetic additions.

Dr Finch says: “Several experts have examined these objects and had suggested that they were the earliest prosthetic devices in existence. There are many instances of the ancient Egyptians creating false body parts for burial but the wear plus their design both suggest they were used by people to help them to walk. Read more.

Reblogged 7 months ago from archaeologicalnews

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prosthetics, archaeology, egyptian, artificial toes,

aboutegypt:

20120822_Edfu_30 (by swellingup)

Reblogged 8 months ago from aboutegypt

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ancient egypt, ancient, egypt, egyptians, history, ancient_egypt, egyptian, ancient-egypt,

ancientpeoples:

Limestone Relief

Deir el Bahri, Egypt

c. 1473-1458 BC

Reign of Hatshepsut

Showing an image of Ahmose Nefertari, Hatshepsut’s mother, holding a flower.

Reblogged 8 months ago from ancientpeoples

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ancient, history, egypt, carving, relief, sculpture, art, royalty, egyptian, woman, culture, temple, decoration, archaeology, ancient history,

ancientpeoples:

Necklace with the head of the Egyptian God Bes

6th-4th Century BC

Achaemenid Period

In the 5th century B.C. a homogeneous style of Persian court art and architecture was created that derived from the practices of the peoples that the Achaemenid kings ruled over: Ionian Greeks, Lydians, Mesopotamians and Egyptians.

Rich in figural imagery, this necklace is made up of Achaemenid elements, with a head of Bes, an Egyptian god; plaques of a male figure with a horse; and lotus terminals. Depictions of a double-winged Ahura Mazda are rendered in cloisonné on a circular gold earring. Parallels for this jewelry come from the sites of Susa and Pasargadae in southern Iran.

Reblogged 10 months ago from ancientpeoples

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Bes, Egyptian, God, Jewelery, Persian, ancient history, anthropology, archaeology, history, jewellery, necklace, jewelery, pagan,

ancientpeoples:

Roman period mummy mask made from cartonnage.

Early 3rd Century

In the Roman Period mummy masks and decorated pieces placed on the mummies were being produced from thicker fibrous material supporting a thicker layer of plaster. This made them less fragile.

Reblogged 10 months ago from ancientpeoples

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History, ancient egypt, ancient history, anthropology, archaeology, cartonnage, death and burial, egypt, egyptian, mummy, roman period,

sekhemkare:

irr s ir.t=f n rx=f irw -st -rf

“A man does what he does, without knowing that it is done against him.”

(P. Ramesseum II, Recto iv, 3)

[Hieroglyphs written using Jsesh.]

Reblogged 11 months ago from sekhemkare

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egyptianisms, egyptian, ancient egyptian, hieroglyphs, middle egyptian, ramesseum,

aboutegypt:

Egypt (2009) (by Tickspics)

Reblogged 11 months ago from aboutegypt

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ancient egypt, egypt, ancient, history, egyptian, egyptians, ancient-egypt, ancient_egypt,

Archaeological News: Seventy Egyptian artefacts found in illegal possession are authenticated

archaeologicalnews:

The archaeological committee of the central administration for confiscated antiquities, led by Youssef Khalifa, verified the authenticity of a collection of ancient Egyptian objects that were found in the possession of three people in Giza.

The Tourism and Antiquities Police (TAP) was…

Reblogged 11 months ago from archaeologicalnews

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giza, archaeology, egyptian, artifacts,

thatlittleegyptologist:

So I’m on the verge of frazzled with stress in anticipation of this presentation. If I do it wrong I get downgraded to an MPhil and therefore am going to get bollocked by several members of my family including the deceased ones.

In the meantime, I’ll make an Egypt post so you can once again bear witness to the epicness of my trip and read my overwhelmingly needless commentary.

Today’s post comes from Dendera. I mentioned photo sniping in my post on Abydos so I thought I’d revisit it and the wonderful site that is Dendera.

First off, we were the only ones at this site bar a lovely French couple who shared in our excitement. It’s a pretty long walk from the visitors centre to the temple and when it’s hot that can be a pretty hard slog. We made it though and if I’m honest, the temple is absolutely stunning.

The carvings on the outside walls are just so intricate and beautiful that I took so many photos of them just to prove that to people. I hope it comes across in the pictures above. The sheer scale of the temple is impressive too. I’ve included a photo above of one of our group walking along the base of one of the walls. That should give you some idea of the scale of it. It’s carved all the way up to the top too with the same intricate designs. It’s just amazing.

Inside the temple merely reinforces everything I’ve said above and then some. A lot of the paint work is still visible in the temple so there are rich blues, yellows and reds just canvassing the walls and ceiling. They were also halfway through cleaning the inside when we went so you could see one half was blackened through pollution over time and the other was just so colourful.

After that we just had the free run of the temple: queue running about like nutters searching for every nook and cranny of the temple to explore. 10 minutes into this a shrill shriek could be heard echoing through the temple (I swear it probably hasn’t heard a noise like that in a millennia) and then the sound of several pairs of running feet to it’s origin. Turns out Kate had discovered the original winding staircase that took you to the roof of the temple. We then proceeded to run up it giggling. I wish I’d taken photos of it now as it was just the coolest thing.

Once we were up there (which is an immense feeling I might add. Just stood on an ancient temple roof? Fuck yeah!) the photo sniping began. Not only could we hide behind walls and columns up there but there were perfect shots of the rooms beneath so we could sniper the people still downstairs while confusing them as to how we even managed to get onto the roof.

After that Kim and myself wandered back down into the temple to find other parts of the temple we hadn’t been in yet. We managed to wander into what was called the Holy of Holies which had an epic ceiling painting of the goddess Nut swallowing the sun. While we were down here there was a giggle from one of the upper levels and we became aware we were being photo sniped by Kristine. Revenge was taken and if you look closely at the last photo you’ll be able to make her out through the grating.

Dendera: Beautiful carving, perfect Egyptological playground.