'Everything we found shattered our expectations': Archaeologists discover 1st astronomical observatory from ancient Egypt | Live Science

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/everything-we-found-shattered-our-expectations-archaeologists-discover-1st-ancient-astronomical-observatory-from-ancient-egypt

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https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/oeai/media/news-archive/news-detail/poverty-in-ancient-egypt

Poverty in Ancient Egypt

Precious gold treasures and impressive burial chambers make up the popular image of Ancient Egypt. However, according to Egyptologist Margaret Maitland, who will give a keynote lecture on poverty in pharaonic Egypt at an conference at the OEAI, »the glamour and the gold was supported by exploitation and extreme inequality.«

Poverty in Ancient Egypt

Precious gold treasures and impressive burial chambers make up the popular image of Ancient Egypt. However, according to Egyptologist Margaret Maitland, who will give a keynote lecture on poverty in pharaonic Egypt at an conference at the OEAI, »the glamour and the gold was supported by exploitation and extreme inequality.«

(© Shutterstock)

What did poverty mean in antiquity? This question will be addressed at an international conference co-organized by Delphine Driaux, FWF Elise-Richter Fellow at the University of Vienna, and Bettina Bader with the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the OeAW. This conference is part of a wider research project entitled »Representations and Reality of Poverty in Ancient Egypt«, directed by Delphine Driaux. She is working on the poor, who constituted a large part of Egyptian society and yet remained in the shadow of the elite and their prestigious and beautiful objects and monuments. The aim of this conference is to shed light on these people, who have been ignored by researchers for too long. It will be an opportunity to discuss the problems of defining poverty in Antiquity and the methods used to study this phenomenon, but also to try to better understand who these people were, how they lived and how they were regarded by their contemporaries. The keynote lecture will be given by Margaret Maitland, Principal Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland, who gives an insight into poverty in Ancient Egypt from the view point of Egyptian social elite. She gives a brief overview of her research in the following interview.

What are some of the questions you are planning to discuss in your keynote lecture? 

Maitland: It is obviously a huge topic to tackle and one that is difficult to define because poverty is always relative. So different individuals will have different definitions on how they view poverty. I really want to look at the various ways in which people's lives could be impoverished beyond just economic factors to really see how the impacts of stigmatisation and the different sort of ways in which elite attitudes towards labourers and how they treated them will have curtailed the opportunities that would have been available to a large part of ancient Egyptian society, contributing to creating a highly unequal society. 

The ruler as divine source of power

How important was class in ancient Egypt? 

Maitland: There was the king, the ruler of Egypt, who was the ultimate source of power and control, who was presented as having a divine source of power. He acts through his elite officials and they themselves have subordinates who support them, down to the scribes who are responsible for writing and documenting, which was a really important means of control. It's a very agricultural based society, so you have many different occupations involved in farming, but also other forms of food and craft production. The elite themselves function as observers, as authority figures, so they're able to separate themselves from these positions of physical labour. Stigmatisation was used to portray social differences in a negative manner, and these were used in processes of shaming, for example through public presentations of physical punishment. The Egyptian elite saw them as educational opportunities that were wholly justified and were used to maintain social order. 

Elite visual and textual culture can give us insights into the social constructs and stigmatisation that made poverty seem inevitable.

Do we have any direct evidence of those who were considered poor?  

Maitland: That's where archaeology can fill in some of the gaps. Our colleagues have been excavating settlement sites where you can see the spaces in which the non-elite would have lived, as well as the graves of non-elite people. At the site of Amarna there's huge evidence of the physical toll that a life of hard labour and limited nutrition would have had on the bodies of the people. Also, economic texts can help and inform our understanding of wages, costs, and how people would have lived. I think it's important to consider not just who was poor, but how that poverty was created. Elite visual and textual culture can give us insights into the social constructs and stigmatization that made poverty seem inevitable, glimpses into the suffering that people at the lowest economic levels of society would have endured, and how they may have resisted. 

Shame and Stigmatisation

How can we understand inequality in ancient Egypt and how can we also make sure that we are not projecting our modern understanding of equality or inequality on those past societies? 

Maitland: There are some people who might say that even conceiving of inequality in ancient Egypt is ahistorical. But we also have to remember that the only clear views that we have represented are elite views. So I think it's also misleading to represent those as the only views that were present in ancient Egypt. We can't directly access the thoughts and feelings of the majority of ancient Egyptian society, but it's still very clear that many people would have been subjected to stigmatisation and shaming.

Can you give an example?

Maitland: There's a poem called "The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant" which subverts some of those ideas in showing a peasant who is actually wise beyond his position. But even then, his willingness to stand up for himself against injustice is portrayed as potentially problematic and threatening to the social order. Literary texts would have been probably performed orally, but also read by the very few people who were literate as well. These would have been mainly directed towards elite audiences, but they give us glimpses as to how they justified and legitimised inequality.

 

Conference »Who was poor in pharaonic Egypt and in its Near Eastern neighbourhood. Social Stratification and Visibility according to texts, pictures and archaeology«
4–6 September 2024 | Otto-Wagner Postsparkasse
Supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna
 

Margaret Maitland is Principal Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland. She received her Hon. B.A in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto and her M.Phil. and D.Phil. in Egyptology from the University of Oxford. She will deliver a keynote lecture titled »Poverty, Stigma, and Inequality: Evidence from Middle Kingdom Egyptian Visual and Textual Culture« at the conference.

Delphine Driaux is an Egyptologist and archaeologist, who works with several international excavation missions in Egypt and in the Sudan. She received her Ph.D in Egyptology from the Sorbonne University and was awarded a Fernand Braudel-IFER Post-Doctoral fellowship to work at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (University of Cambridge), where she focused on social differentiation in ancient Egyptian settlements. Driaux is currently leading the research project (V 883-G, funded by the FWF) »Representations and Reality of Poverty in Ancient Egypt. The Poor, their Identities and their Practices«, at the Institute of Egyptology, University of Vienna. She is the main organiser of the conference, and will deliver at this occasion a paper titled »Writing the History of the Poor: An Introduction to a Complex Field of Study«.

Co-organiser Bettina Bader, Egyptologist and Archaeologist with the Austrian Archaeological Institute, head of the Research Group Archaeology in Egypt and Sudan, specialises on material culture and researches i.a. the archaeological remains of ancient Egyptian settlements, where social stratification is an important research question as well. This is a neglected topic not least because the finds in settlements are usually less spectacular and harder to interpret than in tomb contents. She will give a lecture on »Assessing Social Stratification in Egyptian Settlements: An Attempt to Visualize Non-élite people in Archaeology«.

(© Shutterstock)

What did poverty mean in antiquity? This question will be addressed at an international conference co-organized by Delphine Driaux, FWF Elise-Richter Fellow at the University of Vienna, and Bettina Bader with the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the OeAW. This conference is part of a wider research project entitled »Representations and Reality of Poverty in Ancient Egypt«, directed by Delphine Driaux. She is working on the poor, who constituted a large part of Egyptian society and yet remained in the shadow of the elite and their prestigious and beautiful objects and monuments. The aim of this conference is to shed light on these people, who have been ignored by researchers for too long. It will be an opportunity to discuss the problems of defining poverty in Antiquity and the methods used to study this phenomenon, but also to try to better understand who these people were, how they lived and how they were regarded by their contemporaries. The keynote lecture will be given by Margaret Maitland, Principal Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland, who gives an insight into poverty in Ancient Egypt from the view point of Egyptian social elite. She gives a brief overview of her research in the following interview.

What are some of the questions you are planning to discuss in your keynote lecture? 

Maitland: It is obviously a huge topic to tackle and one that is difficult to define because poverty is always relative. So different individuals will have different definitions on how they view poverty. I really want to look at the various ways in which people's lives could be impoverished beyond just economic factors to really see how the impacts of stigmatisation and the different sort of ways in which elite attitudes towards labourers and how they treated them will have curtailed the opportunities that would have been available to a large part of ancient Egyptian society, contributing to creating a highly unequal society. 

The ruler as divine source of power

How important was class in ancient Egypt? 

Maitland: There was the king, the ruler of Egypt, who was the ultimate source of power and control, who was presented as having a divine source of power. He acts through his elite officials and they themselves have subordinates who support them, down to the scribes who are responsible for writing and documenting, which was a really important means of control. It's a very agricultural based society, so you have many different occupations involved in farming, but also other forms of food and craft production. The elite themselves function as observers, as authority figures, so they're able to separate themselves from these positions of physical labour. Stigmatisation was used to portray social differences in a negative manner, and these were used in processes of shaming, for example through public presentations of physical punishment. The Egyptian elite saw them as educational opportunities that were wholly justified and were used to maintain social order. 

Elite visual and textual culture can give us insights into the social constructs and stigmatisation that made poverty seem inevitable.

Do we have any direct evidence of those who were considered poor?  

Maitland: That's where archaeology can fill in some of the gaps. Our colleagues have been excavating settlement sites where you can see the spaces in which the non-elite would have lived, as well as the graves of non-elite people. At the site of Amarna there's huge evidence of the physical toll that a life of hard labour and limited nutrition would have had on the bodies of the people. Also, economic texts can help and inform our understanding of wages, costs, and how people would have lived. I think it's important to consider not just who was poor, but how that poverty was created. Elite visual and textual culture can give us insights into the social constructs and stigmatization that made poverty seem inevitable, glimpses into the suffering that people at the lowest economic levels of society would have endured, and how they may have resisted. 

Shame and Stigmatisation

How can we understand inequality in ancient Egypt and how can we also make sure that we are not projecting our modern understanding of equality or inequality on those past societies? 

Maitland: There are some people who might say that even conceiving of inequality in ancient Egypt is ahistorical. But we also have to remember that the only clear views that we have represented are elite views. So I think it's also misleading to represent those as the only views that were present in ancient Egypt. We can't directly access the thoughts and feelings of the majority of ancient Egyptian society, but it's still very clear that many people would have been subjected to stigmatisation and shaming.

Can you give an example?

Maitland: There's a poem called "The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant" which subverts some of those ideas in showing a peasant who is actually wise beyond his position. But even then, his willingness to stand up for himself against injustice is portrayed as potentially problematic and threatening to the social order. Literary texts would have been probably performed orally, but also read by the very few people who were literate as well. These would have been mainly directed towards elite audiences, but they give us glimpses as to how they justified and legitimised inequality.

 

Conference »Who was poor in pharaonic Egypt and in its Near Eastern neighbourhood. Social Stratification and Visibility according to texts, pictures and archaeology«
4–6 September 2024 | Otto-Wagner Postsparkasse
Supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna
 

Margaret Maitland is Principal Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland. She received her Hon. B.A in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto and her M.Phil. and D.Phil. in Egyptology from the University of Oxford. She will deliver a keynote lecture titled »Poverty, Stigma, and Inequality: Evidence from Middle Kingdom Egyptian Visual and Textual Culture« at the conference.

Delphine Driaux is an Egyptologist and archaeologist, who works with several international excavation missions in Egypt and in the Sudan. She received her Ph.D in Egyptology from the Sorbonne University and was awarded a Fernand Braudel-IFER Post-Doctoral fellowship to work at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (University of Cambridge), where she focused on social differentiation in ancient Egyptian settlements. Driaux is currently leading the research project (V 883-G, funded by the FWF) »Representations and Reality of Poverty in Ancient Egypt. The Poor, their Identities and their Practices«, at the Institute of Egyptology, University of Vienna. She is the main organiser of the conference, and will deliver at this occasion a paper titled »Writing the History of the Poor: An Introduction to a Complex Field of Study«.

Co-organiser Bettina Bader, Egyptologist and Archaeologist with the Austrian Archaeological Institute, head of the Research Group Archaeology in Egypt and Sudan, specialises on material culture and researches i.a. the archaeological remains of ancient Egyptian settlements, where social stratification is an important research question as well. This is a neglected topic not least because the finds in settlements are usually less spectacular and harder to interpret than in tomb contents. She will give a lecture on »Assessing Social Stratification in Egyptian Settlements: An Attempt to Visualize Non-élite people in Archaeology«.

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A response to Ghoneim et al - Heritage - Al-Ahram Weekly - Ahram Online

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/530833.aspx

A response to Ghoneim et al

Zahi Hawass , Tuesday 27 Aug 2024

Was the ancient Egyptian pyramid chain really built along the abandoned Ahramat Branch of the Nile, asks Zahi Hawass

Pyramid power

I have been asked to read and respond to an article published by Eman Ghoneim and other scholars in the journal Communications Earth & Environment in May this year claiming that "the Egyptian pyramid chain was built along the now abandoned Ahramat Nile Branch."

In doing so, I talked with my colleague Egyptologist Mark Lehner and am now responding to the many requests I have received for our opinion.

The article got a lot of publicity. The authors said that they had found evidence that would reveal the "secrets of the Pyramids" and even said that this would reveal how the Pyramids were built. People began to talk about a great discovery, but if you read the article there is really no discovery at all.

Any junior Egyptologist can give you an explanation of why the ancient Egyptian pyramids are concentrated along the Western Desert edge of the Nile Valley between the entrance to the Fayoum to the apex of the Delta. During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, in other words the Pyramid Age, this narrowest neck of the Nile Valley was Egypt's capital zone with its centre at Memphis, the capital that tied together the Two Lands of Upper Egypt (the Valley) and Lower Egypt (the Delta).

In ancient Egypt, the west was traditionally associated with the dead, and pyramids were built south and north of Memphis as prominent markers of cemeteries or cities of the dead. It is simply not true, as the authors claim, that "no convincing explanation as to why these Pyramids are concentrated in this specific locality has been given so far."

The ancient Egyptians built the Pyramids where they did because they needed sites having access to limestone. The rock core of the Pyramids came from such sites, but the casing stones came from the Turah quarries. 

There is nothing new in the article, as any student specialising in the Old and Middle Kingdoms will know that Egyptologists have suggested for more than a century that a western Nile branch or canal gave access to the Pyramids. Indeed, 53 years ago French Egyptologist George Goyon developed the idea of a western Nile branch or canal connecting the Pyramids and their valley temples, and he identified this branch with the Bahr Al-Libeini Canal. 

As far back as 1737, the Englishman Richard Pococke wrote that the Khalij Al-Haram (Pyramids Canal) corresponded to the western channel of the Libeini Canal. Earlier Arab authors also suggested that the western trough was a fossil Nile branch. Jeffreys in 2010 assembled and reviewed historical references to the idea that Ghoneim et al now propose as a new discovery.

They write that "many of the pyramids, dating to the Old and Middle Kingdoms, have causeways that lead to the Branch and terminate with valley temples which may have acted as river harbours along it in the past."

For more than a century, Egyptologists have investigated the hypothesis that during the Old Kingdom the ancient Egyptians excavated harbours at the end of pyramid causeways, in front of valley temples, in natural bays such as at Abusir, and in valley mouths, such as at the Khentkawes Basin in the mouth of the central valley at Giza, or even farther west, like the basin in the southern valley at Dahshour. 

At Giza, we have identified walls and dikes that served as the boundaries of the harbours of the Pyramids of Khufu and Khafre and of the Khentkawes monument. We have been able to discover the harbour of king Khufu and found that houses nearby were built on walls made of basalt. In excavating the area, we found evidence that this was originally the site of the harbour of Khufu and it would have been connected with canals. 

Excavations in front of the Sphinx Temple produced evidence of the existence of the harbour of Khafre, and in front of the valley temple of Khafre we found two ramps in front of the two entrances. These slope down to connect with the nearby harbour. An account of these excavations was published in a book dedicated to the great French Egyptologist Jean Leclant. 

The harbour and canal were used to bring stone to the site. This could have included granite from Nubia, alabaster from Hatnub in Middle Egypt north of Amarna, fine limestone from Turah, and basalt from Fayoum. The ancient Egyptians also brought copper and turquoise from Sinai, and even during the construction of the pyramids the workmen working on them would have used the canal and the harbour.

For more than a century Egyptologists have discussed the idea that the basins at the sites could have received Nile water, at least during inundations. The authors are either ignorant of this discussion and the research on this topic, or they are ignoring the extent to which their proposals has already been dealt with in scholarly works so that they can present their findings as a new discovery. Nearly all commentators agree, and it is an old idea, that the Libeini Canal is a relic of an older western Nile channel.

The authors write that "we suggest that the Ahramat Branch played a role in the monuments' construction and that it was simultaneously active and used as a transportation waterway for workmen and building materials to the pyramid sites."

The authors present this as though it is a new idea. But there is nothing new in it. Most recently, discussion on this exact point came into focus with the discovery in 2013 of the Wadi Al-Jarf papyri that include, among other documents, the journal of a man named Merer who led a team making deliveries of limestone by boat from the eastern quarries at Turah to Giza in order to build Khufu's Pyramid. The journal refers to two routes to Giza from Turah.

Egyptologist Pierre Tallet pointed to the Libeini Canal as marking a western branch of the Nile and the southern route that Merer and his men took to Giza. The authors seem unaware of this stimulating new information.

The discovery of the Wadi Al-Jarf papyri is a major find and can confirm the existence of the canals and the harbours. Merer took 40 workmen and went to Turah to cut the fine white limestone needed for the pyramid's casing stones. In his account, he also mentioned his supervisor Dedi, and I myself found the tomb of Dedi in my excavations at the western side of the Khufu Pyramid near the famous tomb of the dwarf Pr-ny ankhw. 

Merer was sent to Sinai after visiting Turah, and in his account he tells us about the area that he lived in at Giza known as "Ankh Khufu", which means "Khufu lives". He also tells us that he worked in the year 27 of the reign of king Khufu and that the person in charge was called Ankh Khaf. He says that when they came back to the Pyramids site, they arrived at a place called R-s, which means "mouth of the lake". The location of this has not been identified by scholars.

Ghoneim at al used Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery and "high resolution elevation data for the Nile floodplain and its desert margins, to bring the western channel along the Libeini into greater relief." They used Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electromagnetic Tomography (EMT) along a 1.2 km long profile to reveal "a hidden river channel lying 1-1.5 m below the cultivated Nile floodplain. The position and shape of this river channel is an excellent match with those derived from radar satellite imagery for the Ahramat Branch," that is, the Libeini branch, they say.

Their 3D illustration of the western Nile channel in mid-flood is remarkably like the image published by National Geographic magazine in 1995 from our work on this same subject showing the pyramid harbours and their connection to a western Nile branch. We digitised 1977 Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction maps with contours at one-metre intervals showing the desert and flood plain from the north to the south of Cairo. 

National Geographic enhanced the relief by exaggerating the vertical and projecting a 3D reconstruction, very much like Ghoneim et al's Figure 7, as well as a scale model of the deep trough marking a relic of the western Nile channel. In other words, the major finding of Ghoneim et al was already illustrated in 1995.

Any Egyptology student could explain why the Egyptian pyramids are concentrated along the Western Desert edge of the Nile Valley west of Memphis. Any Egyptology graduate student would be aware of the many publications that discuss a western Nile channel along the course of the Libeini. The Ghoneim article might thus have been more temperate if the editors had passed it first to Egyptologists for review.

---

* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

Short link:

 

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Egypt reclaims 3 stolen artefacts from Netherlands - Dailynewsegypt

https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2024/08/27/egypt-reclaims-3-stolen-artefacts-from-netherlands/

Egypt reclaims 3 stolen artefacts from Netherlands

Last updated: August 27, 2024 2:34 pm

Daily News Egypt

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The Egyptian Embassy in The Hague has received three artefacts that were illegally smuggled out of Egypt. The items include an ushabti figurine, a fragment of a painted sarcophagus, and a mummy head dating back to the Late Period.

The recovered artefacts include a ceramic ushabti figurine of a deceased named "Abihtames" from the Late Period (26th to 30th Dynasty, 664-332 BC), parts of a wooden sarcophagus with inscriptions depicting the goddess Isis (believed to be from the 26th or 27th Dynasty, 663-504 BC), and an unidentified mummy head believed to be from the Hellenistic period (170-45 BC).

The ushabti and sarcophagus fragments were confiscated by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Inspectorate and the Dutch police following investigations that revealed a lack of documentation and suspicions surrounding their illegal export from Egypt.

The mummy head was returned by a Dutch citizen who inherited it from his family. Recognizing the significance of cultural heritage, he decided to return the artefact to its rightful country. This act was praised by the Egyptian Embassy and Dutch authorities.

The repatriation of these artefacts highlights the Egyptian government's commitment to recovering smuggled artefacts and preserving its cultural heritage. The Egyptian Ministries of Tourism and Antiquities, Foreign Affairs, and the Public Prosecutor's Office played a crucial role in this recovery effort, facilitated by strong bilateral cooperation between Egypt and the Netherlands.

Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, noted that the artefacts were initially discovered at an antique shop in the Netherlands.

"This event is a testament to the unprecedented success of Egyptian-Dutch bilateral relations in combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property and the smuggling of artefacts," Khaled said, emphasising that cultural heritage belongs to the entire world.

Shaaban Abd El Gawad, Director of the Repatriation of Antiquities Department, provided further details about the recovered pieces.

He described the ushabti as a blue ceramic figurine with inscriptions of the deceased's titles, the sarcophagus fragment as a piece of decorated wood depicting the protective goddess Isis, and the mummy head as well-preserved with visible teeth and hair.

Since 2014, Egypt has successfully recovered over 30,000 artefacts.

 

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https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/08/the-discovery-of-an-ancient-game-board-from-bronze-age-challenges-its-egyptian-origin/

The Discovery of an Ancient Game Board from Bronze Age Challenges Its Egyptian Origin

by Guillermo CarvajalAugust 27, 2024

The fifty-eight holes board from Çapmalı. Credit: W. Crist et al.

A recent archaeological study has revealed that an ancient board of a game, known as the fifty-eight-hole game, and found in 2018 on the Absheron peninsula, located in present-day Azerbaijan, is the oldest one known. This discovery challenges previous theories about the origin and spread of this enigmatic pastime, which was played in various parts of Asia and Egypt over three thousand years ago.

The Game of Fifty-Eight Holes, also known as "Dogs and Jackals" due to the figures carved on the early game pieces found, has been identified at several archaeological sites in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Anatolia. However, the appearance of this game on the Absheron Peninsula is an unprecedented finding that suggests the existence of cultural and commercial interaction routes connecting this region of the Caucasus with societies further south.

The game, which dates back to the third millennium B.C., was played on a board with fifty-eight holes arranged in two parallel rows of ten holes each, surrounded by an arc of thirty-eight holes. The game pieces, whose shapes varied depending on the region, moved along this pattern, and some specific holes were marked or connected by lines, suggesting complex game rules.

Map of Middle Bronze Age sites where fifty-eight holes game boards were recovered. Credit: W. Crist et al.

The oldest discovery of such a board was made in Egypt, in the tomb of el-Asasif, dated between 2064 and 1952 B.C. This finding, along with other boards found in Anatolia, the Levant, and Mesopotamia, had led archaeologists to consider that the game might have originated in Egypt or southwestern Asia. However, recent discoveries on the Absheron Peninsula challenge this hypothesis and raise new questions about the exact origin of the game.

On the Absheron Peninsula, archaeologists have identified six similar game patterns at different sites, suggesting that the practice of this game was widespread in the region during the third and second millennium B.C. The sites of Çapmalı, Yeni Türkan, Dübəndi, and Ağdasdüzü have revealed stone-carved boards that correspond to the distinctive geometry of the Game of Fifty-Eight Holes.

The best-documented board was found at the site of Çapmalı, within the Gobustan National Reserve, southwest of Baku, near the Caspian Sea coast. This site houses a rocky shelter covered with petroglyphs from the Bronze Age and later periods, indicating continuous occupation over millennia. Inside this shelter, archaeologists found a game board carved into a rock, alongside pottery fragments and other artifacts dating from the second millennium B.C.

View of Çapmalı, showing stone 111 in the centre, where the fifty-eight holes game was found. Credit: W. Crist et al.

The arrangement of the boards at sites like Çapmalı indicates that the game might have been an integral part of daily life, possibly used during the winter months when shepherds settled in shelters like Gobustan.

The analysis of the pottery found at these sites supports this hypothesis, as it suggests seasonal occupation by pastoral communities. The objects found include ceramic fragments from the Khojaly-Gadabay culture, dating from the 13th to the 7th century B.C., along with older pieces from the Middle and Late Bronze Age. This mixture of materials indicates that the Çapmalı site and others nearby were repeatedly occupied over the centuries, possibly by the same communities sharing a common cultural tradition.

These findings suggest that, far from being an isolated region, the Absheron Peninsula was part of a broader cultural network that connected the peoples of the Caucasus with the civilizations to the south, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Game of fifty-eight holes board from Tomb 312 at el-Asasif, Egypt. Eleventh Dynasty. Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 26.3.154

While some researchers have proposed that the game originated in Egypt due to the age of the boards found there, the appearance of boards in peripheral regions like Absheron suggests that the game may have developed in multiple locations simultaneously or was quickly transmitted through these cultural networks.

---

SOURCES

Crist W, Abdullayev R. Herding with the Hounds: The Game of Fifty-eight Holes in the Abşeron Peninsula. European Journal of Archaeology. Published online 2024:1-20. doi:10.1017/eaa.2024.24

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5,000-Year-Old Copper Pollution Found near the Pyramids - Eos

https://eos.org/articles/5000-year-old-copper-pollution-found-near-the-pyramids

5,000-Year-Old Copper Pollution Found near the Pyramids

New geoarchaeological research shows that metalworking in ancient Egypt led to significant contamination in a nearby port.

by Evan Howell 23 August 2024

The Ancient Egyptian pyramids of (from left) Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure sit atop the Giza Plateau, once a busy harbor on a branch of the Nile. New research indicates that metalworking industries affiliated with the harbor may have contributed to the world's first major instance of human-induced metal contamination. Credit: Robster1983/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

On a warm spring day in 2019, researchers bored into the earth beneath Cairo's urban streets. Just over a kilometer away, the Great Pyramid of Giza shimmered on the horizon. Some 4,600 years earlier, as laborers constructed the Great Pyramid, the contemporary dig spot lay on the sandy floor of Khufu Harbor.

In this ancient harbor—the world's oldest known port—researchers said they've identified the first major instance of human-induced metal contamination. Though the Giza necropolis is famous for its pyramids and shriveled mummies, a new study published in Geology offers unprecedented evidence of a largely unheralded aspect of ancient Egyptian civilization: persistent, centuries-long metalworking.

"The sediments are as important as monuments."

The discovery sheds light on life beyond the pharaonic and princely elites of ancient Egypt, researchers said. "We'd like to know more about 95% of the people rather than the elite," said Alain Véron, a geochemist from France's Aix-Marseille Université. His sentiments echo the thoughts of Christophe Morhange, a geoarchaeologist from the same institution, who underscored the importance of the sedimentary record in reconstructing historical narratives.

"The sediments are as important as monuments," Morhange said, highlighting the often-overlooked significance of the ground beneath our feet.

A Surprising History of Contamination

The researchers used geochemical tracers to investigate metalworking activities around ancient Khufu Harbor. Located along a now defunct branch of the Nile near the Giza Plateau, the harbor was essential for transporting materials and was the site of a major copper toolmaking industry. These tools, some of which workers alloyed with arsenic for added durability, included blades, chisels, and drills to work materials like limestone, wood, and textiles. Researchers used inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to measure levels of copper and arsenic, as well as of aluminum, iron, and titanium, with six carbon-14 dates to establish a chronological framework.

The study traced the onset of metal contamination to around 3265 BCE, earlier than researchers anticipated. Contamination during this Predynastic period suggests that human occupation and metalworking at Giza began more than 200 years earlier than previously documented.

"You only find what you are looking for."

Although researchers have found direct evidence of Predynastic civilization in only 13 graves north of Giza, Morhange believes the geoarchaeological record yields more clues. With so much focus on the pyramids and other tombs, he explained, previous researchers might have overlooked evidence of the site's earlier occupation.

"You only find what you are looking for," he said.

Researchers found that metal contamination peaked during late pyramid construction around 2500 BCE and persisted until about 1000 BCE. "We found the oldest regional metal contamination ever recorded in the world," Véron said. Levels of copper during this period were "5 to 6 times higher than the natural background," he continued, indicating significant local industrial activity.

Andrew Shortland, an archaeological scientist from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom who was not involved in the study, expressed concerns about the proposed timeline. "I don't think six dates is enough," he said, referring to the number of carbon-14 dates used.

Nevertheless, Shortland acknowledged the study's broader conclusions about human-induced metal contamination at Giza.

Adapting to Environmental Hardship

The study provided further insight into how ancient Egyptians adapted to environmental challenges. As the Nile River receded and Khufu Harbor shrank, metalworking continued. As the Nile reached its lowest level, around 2200 BCE—a period marred by civil unrest and grim rumors of cannibalism—metal contamination remained high, suggesting a resilient infrastructure and workforce.

Researchers drill a sediment core in Giza, once the Khufu Harbor. Credit: Nick Marriner

Véron explained that the receding Nile initially presented opportunities for local communities. Previous palynological research—the study of pollen grains—has shown that agricultural activity surged as the waning Nile exposed fertile floodplains. Even as pyramid construction at Giza ceased, metalworking likely persisted to support burgeoning pastoral activities.

Dominik Weiss, a geochemist from Imperial College London, found the study "extremely well done and carefully conducted." Noting the allure of high-visibility sites like the Giza necropolis, he celebrated the new link between geochemistry and history and the possibility of shedding light on the lives of everyday ancient Egyptians.

"The chemical imprint of human activity remains, and that cannot be erased," Véron said.

—Evan Howell, Science Writer

Citation: Howell, E. (2024) 5,000-year-old copper pollution found near the pyramids, Eos, 105, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EO240382. Published on 23 August 2024.

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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In Photos: The largest ancient astronomical observatory in Kafr El-Sheikh unveiled - Ancient Egypt - Antiquities - Ahram Online

https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/9/530607/Antiquities/In-Photos-The-largest-ancient-astronomical-observa.aspx

In Photos: The largest ancient astronomical observatory in Kafr El-Sheikh unveiled

Nevine El-Aref , Friday 23 Aug 2024

An Egyptian archaeological mission unveiled the first and biggest astronomical observatory from the 6th century BCE in the Buto Temple at Tell El-Faraeen archaeological site located in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate.

The observatory, constructed from mudbrick, was important for tracking solar and stellar movements.

"It highlights the advanced astronomical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, including their ability to determine the solar calendar and significant religious and agricultural dates," said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

The structure also gives an insight into the sophisticated techniques employed by the ancient Egyptians using simple tools, he added.

Among the key discoveries are a rare slanted stone sundial and remnants of a large mudbrick building, believed to be the largest of its kind from that era.

The observatory is an expansive structure with an L-shaped central hall, a large mudbrick wall resembling the iconic pylon entrances of ancient Egyptian temples, and several storage rooms.

Ayman Ashmawy, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities sector, said that the mission also uncovered several artefacts, including a statue from the 26th Dynasty, a merkhet measuring tool, and various religious items and pottery related to daily life and rituals.

The discovery provides deeper insights into the ancient Egyptians' scientific and religious practices, underscoring the significance of Egyptian archaeological efforts in exploring new aspects of the country's rich history.

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Northern Cal. ARCE-NC Lecture by Emily Smith-Sangster: In the Shadow of Egypt’s Last Pyramid

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Emily Smith-Sangster, Princeton University: In the Shadow of Egypt's Last Pyramid: Uncovering the Ahmose Cemetery and Its Historical Implications Sunday September 15, 2024, 3 PM Pacific Time Venue at UC Berkeley to be announced in the next flyer. This in-person lecture will be recorded for later publication on YouTube. Environs of the Abydos South Project About the Lecture: In early 2023, the Abydos South Project (ASP) began its inaugural season working on a plot of land to the local north of the Ahmose Pyramid. The goal of the season was to explore this area of the concession in the hopes of better understanding its use history. This area, previously unexcavated save for shallow test trenching in 1966 by the EAO, and surface collection in 1993 by the Ahmose and Tetisheri Project, had been identified as the possible location of the Ahmose Pyramid Town. ASP's excavations, however, discovered that this area was, in fact, a large elite necropolis used for an exceedingly brief period of time. While analysis is still in progress, it is clear that this discovery offers significant data that will help us develop our understanding of expressions of elite agency and identity in the cemeteries of Abydos, while also allowing us to further contextualize elite activity at this site within the wider history of the early New Kingdom. This lecture will discuss these excavations and resulting discoveries, while also highlighting the impact this discovery will have on our understanding of the Ahmose period at Abydos and beyond. About the Speaker: Emily Smith-Sangster is a Ph.D. Candidate in Egyptian Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and Associate Director of the Abydos South Project. Her dissertation investigates the construction and expression of post-mortem identity during the early New Kingdom at Abydos, with a particular focus on the Ahmose Cemetery. Her work interacts with themes of landscape, sensorialism, gender, and embodiment. Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ . About ARCE-NC: For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE/, https://twitter.com/ARCENCPostings, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/join-arce/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.