Archaeologists find shrines to 2,000 year old Egyptian family | Daily Mail Online

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3394498/The-mystery-round-faced-big-eared-power-couple-Archaeologists-shrines-2-000-year-old-Egyptian-family-say-Brangelina-time.html

The mystery of the 'round faced, big eared power couple': Archaeologists find shrines to 2,000 year old Egyptian family they say could have been the Brangelina of their time

• Neferkhewe oversaw the Medjay some 3,500 years ago
• 32 false tombs, or memorials were found while excavating along Nile River 
• Memorials were meant for offerings, rituals or grieve and sign of respect 
• The new statues are the most preserved found at the site

By Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:59 EST, 11 January 2016 | Updated: 17:35 EST, 11 January 2016

Before Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were 'Brangelina', there was Neferkhewe and Ruiuresti.

Shrines containing statues of the overseer of north Sudan and his wife were unearthed near the Nile River.

The round faced, big eared individuals were a power couple during their time, as the shrines holding the statues were only built for elite families. 

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Shrines containing statues of the oversee of north Sudan and his wife, along with another family, were found near the Nile River. The round faced, big eared individuals were a power couple during their time, as the shrines holding the statues were only built for elite families

Gebel el Silsila Survey Project found carved alcoves, which were constructed as memorials for elite families, buried in the silt of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. 

History says, Neferkhewe oversaw the Medjay, which is now northern Sudan, some 3,500 years ago when Pharaoh Thutmose III was ruler.

The statues, and carved alcoves, have been exposed to the natural elements for at least 1,500 years.

But regardless, the they are incredible condition according John Ward, the assistant director of the Gebel el Silsila Survey Project that uncovered the statues. 

'To be there when their faces look back at you after 2,000 years of being covered with silt is an experience that can't be put into words,' Ward told Live Science 'It's just a pure honor.'

The statues are located inside two false tombs, or cenotaphs.

There are about 32 cenotaphs along the Nile River at the excavation site, which is also an area where many of the sandstone blocks used in building Egypt's temples were taken from.

There were no human remains inside or in the surrounding area, but researchers believe it was a place for family members and others to leave offerings, perform rituals or even grieve.

'We don't know why these 32 families chose Silsila to place their cenotaphs here,' Ward said.

The two new cenotaphs are the most well-preserved statues found at the site.

In one, the owner and his wife sit side by side on a chair.

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Gebel el Silsila Survey Project found carved alcoves, which were constructed as memorials for elite families, buried in the silt of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. History says, Neferkhewe oversaw the Medjay, which is now northern Sudan, some 3,500 years ago when Pharaoh Thutmose III was ruler

The man is wearing a shoulder-length wig and his arms are crossed over his chest and his wife has one arm around his back and the other on her stomach.

The other are the carvings of Neferkhewe, Ruiuresti and two children, but the couple must have had more kids, Ward said, because other children are depicted in carvings bringing offerings to their parents.

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The statues are located inside two false tombs, or cenotaphs. There are about 32 cenotaphs along the Nile River at the excavation site, which is also the area where many of the sandstone blocks used in building Egypt's temples were taken

For Neferkhewe and his family, the re-discovery of their names would have been an event of great religious significance.

'To preserve one's name, it's pivotal to the religion,' Ward said. 

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The statues are located inside two false tombs, or cenotaphs. The other are the carvings of Neferkhewe, Ruiuresti and two children, but the couple must have had more kids, Ward said, because other children are depicted in carvings bringing offerings to their parents

'Without a name you wouldn't have an identity in the afterlife, so you wouldn't exist.'

Speaking Neferkhewe's name out loud for the first time in at least 2,000 years 'gives him the immortality that he dreamed of,' Ward said.

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There were no human remains inside or in the surrounding area, but researchers believe it was a place for family members and others to leave offerings, perform rituals or even grieve. The man is wearing a shoulder-length wig and his arms are crossed over his chest and his wife has one arm around his back

'We bring them to life again,' said Maria Nilsson, the survey project's mission director.

These statues give researchers an idea of what the family may have looked like, with their round-cheeked faces and large ears.

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While excavating mummies and pyramids is 'very exciting,' Ward said, day-to-day life is closer to the surface at Silsila. Ward and his team plan to continue cleaning and translating the reliefs carved into the two new discoveries, according to Live Science

'It's like a window into their life,' he said.

Ward hopes he and his team will be able to find the actual tombs of the family or their relatives in Luxor or Thebes.

Ritual was important at Gebel el Silsila, which also boasts a stunning rock-cut temple called a 'speos,' constructed with solar and lunar alignment in mind, Ward said.

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The other are the carvings of Neferkhewe, Ruiuresti and two children, but the couple must have had more kids, Ward said, because other children are depicted in carvings bringing offerings to their parents. For Neferkhewe and his family, the re-discovery of their names would have been an event of great religious significance

Every year, the people of the area had an annual Nile festival that took place where the excavation site was and it involved thrusting the book of the Nile god Hapi into the river to bring the nutrient-rich floodwaters to Egypt.

While excavating mummies and pyramids is 'very exciting,' Ward said, day-to-day life is closer to the surface at Silsila.

Ward and his team plan to continue cleaning and translating the reliefs carved into the two new discoveries, according to Live Science.

WERE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS VEGETARIANS?  

From the building of vast pyramids to religious life and burial practices, life in ancient Egypt was very different to our own.

But modern vegetarians may have more in common than they thought with the ancient Egyptians, because it is thought that they also ate a diet composed largely of vegetables, fruit, wheat and barley.

Archaeologists have thought for a while that most settled ancient populations survived on a vegetarian diet and now carbon isotope analysis has given experts a better idea than ever before of what the ancient Egyptians ate.

A team of researchers from the University of Lyon studied carbon atoms in 45 mummies of people that lived in Egypt between 3,500BC and 600AD.

They found that they ate a lot of barley and wheat over the long period. The finding also echoes many paintings in Egyptian tombs that show people working the land and harvesting wheat to make loaves of bread, which are often offered to god of the afterlife, Osiris.