Oxford University professor who lost legs to sepsis shines in a photoshoot for fashion brand Kintsugi
AN EGYPTOLOGIST, who almost lost her life to a blood infection in 2015, is now the star in latest campaign from disability-conscious clothing company Kintsugi.
Oxford University professor Elizabeth Frood posed for the striking photographs at St Cross College, where she holds her fellowship, four years after she suffered multiple organ failure as a result of the infection, lost hearing in one ear, much of the functionality of her hands and had to have her nose entirely reconstructed .
She now wears prosthetic legs and is an ambulatory wheelchair user.
Ms Frood remembers that at the time she thought she had just a stomach bug.
But against the odds, the professor pulled through although she describes coming to terms with her injuries, her 'new normal', as an ongoing grieving process.
Speaking about her collaboration with Kitsungi, Ms Frood commented: "I used to love clothes, but after my illness they became nothing but a struggle and another area of grudging compromise.
"Discovering a company which is designing lovely clothes with bodies like mine in mind makes me so happy."
Kintsugi's founder, 32-year-old Emma McClelland from Manchester praised Ms Frood for her 'honesty, poise, sense of humour and unique style' and added that that is what made her such a good fit for the brand.
She commented: "The photoshoot in Oxford has been one of the biggest highlights of running the business so far.
"Elizabeth was a natural.
"I have had comments from people asking which agency she came from – which she will find funny, but it is true."
Wadi el-Hudi is an area of Egypt's Easter Desert southeast of Aswan that was, in ancient times, a center for mining because of its unique geology. It contains dozens of archaeological sites dating from the Paleolithic Period (about 200,000 years ago) to the Islamic Period (about 1,000 years ago) that stand like time capsules in the desert. Ancient Egyptian monuments are the most prevalent, consisting of walled settlements, amethyst mines, and rock inscriptions dating to the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1700 BCE) and the Roman Period (c. 1st to 4th centuries BCE-CE). The archaeology is preserved to an astonishing degree; walls stand to their original heights of two meters, ancient pottery covers the surface, and many inscriptions are carved into boulders surrounding the settlements and mines.
Have there been other expeditions to Wadi el-Hudi?
Prior to our expedition, geologists and archaeologists had inspected Wadi el-Hudi only intermittently since 1917 when Geologist Labib Nassim discovered the ancient archaeological sites. In the 1940s, the Egyptologist Ahmed Fakhry conducted a survey of the area, where he identified 14 archaeological sites and recorded over 100 inscriptions. Fakhry published his drawings and photographs of Middle Kingdom inscriptions in 1952, which brought the importance of Wadi el-Hudi to the attention of Egyptologists. Later in 1980, Ashraf Sadek completed the publication of Fakhry's initial work. Ten years later, archaeologists began to work at Wadi el-Hudi when the sites were briefly visited by Ian Shaw, Robert Jameson, Rosemarie Klemm, and Dietrich Klemm in the 1990s, as parts of larger studies of Ancient Egyptian mining operations. But on the whole, when the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition began working in 2014, there was still much to be discovered.
The Wadi el-Hudi Expedition builds on the work of earlier scholars and is the first project to holistically examine the site through analysis of textual evidence, architecture, material culture, and scientific analysis.
Why did the expedition begin?
The Wadi el-Hudi Expedition was launched in 2014 to record and conserve the monuments at Wadi el-Hudi. Fakhry's earlier work brought to light half of the surviving inscriptions and briefly mentioned the architecture and archaeology. His and Ian Shaw's preliminary work at Wadi el-Hudi showed that there was great potential for the inscriptions and archaeology to address central questions regarding mining and the history and organization of the ancient Egyptian state. Indeed, far beyond its importance for the study of mining expeditions, Wadi el-Hudi has the potential to change much of what we know about the political and social history of Ancient Egypt.
Our Expedition seeks to answer a variety of questions about the history and chronology of the Middle Kingdom, the organization and supply of state-sponsored mining expeditions, the mechanics of semiprecious stone mining, interactions between Nubians and Egyptians, provisioning of material support in state-sponsored projects, literacy among Ancient Egyptian administrative and military classes, ancient slavery and prison laborers, and much more.
Since 2014 we have conducted five seasons of archaeological research. (See below to learn about what we have discovered.) And we eagerly await the opportunity to do more significant research in the next season. We are proud to work with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the Aswan Inspectorate to discover, study, and conserve monuments in the Eastern Desert for the preservation of Egyptian cultural heritage. Dr. Kate Liszka, California State University San Bernardino, directs the expedition and is supported by Co-Directors Bryan Kraemer, Chief Surveyor and Epigrapher, as well as Dr. Meredith Brand, Chief Ceramicist.
What has been discovered at Wadi el-Hudi?
Since 2014, the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition has been mapping, documenting, and excavating 41 archaeological sites so far discovered. We have fully mapped 11 archaeological sites, identified 25 new archaeological sites, discovered over 100 new inscriptions, and brought thousands of artifacts to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities' storage magazine for future study and conservation. We have also conducted 11 test excavations at four archaeological sites to get a sense of how people lived in the Eastern Desert and how the central administration oversaw these ancient mining operations. We discovered 14 new and historically significant stelae (or inscribed monuments) as well as 45 Demotic and Greek inscriptions on ancient ostraca (bits of broken pottery or stone that were used much as we use note paper today) that will help rewrite the political and social history of mining in Ancient Egypt. The initial seasons mark the beginning of a long-term effort to investigate these archaeological treasures in the desert.
See here for a more in-depth look at the largest mines and settlements in Wadi el-Hudi where much of our excavations and mapping efforts have been focused.
What will be lost without more research at Wadi el-Hudi?
Wadi el-Hudi is an important part of Egypt's cultural heritage with unique inscriptions and archaeology that are crucial for understanding Egypt's history. The high degree of preservation at Wadi el-Hudi sites enables us to reconstruct details of life and work at these sites in great detail. This high degree of preservation can provide information that can answer questions about all of Ancient Egyptian culture, society, and history, not just about mining expeditions. In order to glean the most amount of data from the sites, we must work methodically and take our time to excavate and record the over 41 sites in Wadi el-Hudi. After five seasons, there are 20 promising archaeological sites that still need to be mapped, photographed, and excavated to learn about how people lived and how the Egyptian state managed them in the desert. These excavations will continue to lead to highly important historical findings, such as more inscriptions related to the Egyptians and Nubians in these mining expeditions.
Excavations and surveys are only part of the story. With every survey and excavated square, we uncover thousands of artifacts that need to be analyzed and carefully studied. This work includes studying plant remains, animal bones, mining debris, stone tools, charcoal, and pottery that will allow us to understand how people at Wadi el-Hudi lived, what they ate, where they got their food and other material goods from, the ancient environment, the process and technologies of mining, the dates the sites were occupied, and so much more.
As an archaeological zone in the desert with significant importance for cultural heritage, it is a major goal of the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition to conserve and protect the monuments and inscriptions. We also need to conserve and restore the hundreds of fragments of stones belonging to 11 stone stelae with important inscriptions. We hope to put these stelae back together again for future study and display in Egyptian museums.
Modern development in the area of Wadi el-Hudi, however, threatens the archaeological record. Without funding for future archaeological work and conservation, all of this information about how people lived, worked, and died on mining expeditions will be lost forever and the sites will not be preserved for future generations.
Is Wadi el-Hudi under threat?
YES! Wadi el-Hudi is under imminent threat of destruction due to modern illegal mining and pillaging in the Eastern Desert as well as the reopening of legal mining operations near the ancient mines. These activities threaten to destroy the architectural remains of the ancient mining settlements, their artifacts, and their inscriptions. The Wadi el-Hudi Expedition is working against the clock to record as many of these monuments as quickly as possible. Despite the fact that the monuments have survived for thousands of years, the region will be forever changed within a few years' time by modern development. We must study these monuments now because information irreplaceable for its quantity and quality will disappear soon. Now is our only chance.
Study finds technical link to the Renaissance painters.
In 15th century Europe, artists began adding lead to their paints to help them dry. Now scientists have discovered that the Egyptians were likely doing something similar with their inks at least as early as 100 to 200 CE.
Detail of a medical treatise from the Tebtunis temple library. Credit: Papyrus Carlsberg Collection, University of Copenhagen
The finding, published in the journal PNAS, not only throws new light on how writing practices developed in Egypt and around the Mediterranean, it could help with the conservation of many famous manuscripts.
In this study, the focus was on a dozen papyrus fragments from the only large-scale institutional library known to have survived from ancient Egypt: the Tebtunis temple library.
And the team of chemists, physicists and Egyptologists called in the big guns, using the advanced X-ray microscopy equipment at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble to examine them.
The work was led by the ESRF and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
They combined several synchrotron techniques to probe the chemical composition from the millimetre to the sub-micrometre scale to provide information not only on the elemental, but also on the molecular and structural composition of the inks.
They concluded that the lead was used as a dryer because they did not find any other type of lead, such as lead white or minium, which should be present if lead was used as a pigment.
This also suggests that the ink had quite a complex recipe and "could not be made by just anyone", says Egyptologist Thomas Christiansen from the University of Copenhagen, co-corresponding author of a paper in.
"Judging from the amount of raw materials needed to supply a temple library as the one in Tebtunis, we propose that the priests must have acquired them or overseen their production at specialised workshops much like the Master Painters from the Renaissance," he says.
The ancient Egyptians have been using inks for writing since at least 3200 BCE, with black used for the primary body of text and red to highlight headings and keywords.
The researchers discovered that red pigment is present as coarse particles, while the lead compounds are diffused into papyrus cells, at the micrometre scale, wrapping the cell walls, and creating, at the letter scale, a coffee-ring effect around the iron particles, as if the letters were outlined.
"We think that lead must have been present in a finely ground and maybe in a soluble state and that when applied, big particles stayed in place, whilst the smaller ones diffused around them", says co-corresponding author Marine Cotte, from the ESRF.
Ruins of the city Tebtunis, discovered in the 1930s. Credit: Kim Ryholt, University of Copenhagen.
CAIRO – 27 October 2020: The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat received a variety of important archaeological collections that were recently discovered during the excavations carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the city of Memphis and its cemeteries in Saqqara, as part of the preparation for the imminent opening of the museum.
The artifacts include a number of statues, among them a 79 cm high granite statue of one of the Egyptian deities wearing a long robe and a wavy wig topped with a crown, holding in her right hand the symbol of life: the ankh, in addition to a number of frescoes, including a painting with an inscription showing the goddess Hathor in the form of a lady with cow horns with the sun in between, which symbolizes motherhood, love, beauty, patroness of childhood and music in ancient Egypt.
The museum also received a group of other holdings, which is a large alabaster vessel with an ornament known as the decoration of the coiled rope, it was found inside the pyramid of King Djoser (Step Pyramid) in Saqqara, spanning back to approximately 4,650 years ago.
That is in addition to receiving a statue of a senior employee in the Fourth Dynasty, a funerary stela with a hierarchical top by a writer from the Amarna era, a distinctively crafted red clay pot with four nozzles and ten handles and a necklace made of semi-precious red agate stones.
Ahmed Ghoneim, chairman of the Executive Authority of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, explained that the central exhibition hall, which covers an area of about 2,300 square meters, will display about 1500 archaeological and heritage masterpieces representing the emergence and development of Egyptian civilization through the ages.
Ghoneim further stated that the Royal Mummies Hall will also be opened, to which 22 mummies of the great kings and queens of Egypt from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties will soon be transferred in a huge ceremonial procession that befits the Egyptian civilization.
According to Ghoneim, these halls will be equipped with the latest means and methods of screening and modern explanations of documentary films, interactive screens, illustrations, cards and technological applications.
Egyptian Discovery: Many women these days view their hair as a kind of accessory with which to play, changing its look, colour and even length depending on the season, their outfit, and whether they are feeling casual or sombre, or they're just in the mood for a different look.
Hairstyles are part of fashion, every bit as important to a woman's look as the shoes she wears or the purse she carries.
Nowadays, even women with short hair aren't prevented from wearing a long, curly look – they simply add extensions and give their appearance a whole new vibe.
Most women today imagine that extensions (and other changes they can make) are recent innovations, a far cry from their grandmother's day, when the only option was a bottle of peroxide, and that was only if they wanted to look like a bombshell movie star. Choices in those days, say 75 years ago, were truly limited, at least when it came to colour.
An Egyptian woman's hairstyle. Credit: Jolanda Bos and Lonneke Beukenholdt
But as the saying goes, nothing on this earth is really new. And the ancient Egyptians, a truly advanced and sophisticated group, proved that repeatedly with everything from burial techniques that preserved bodies to hairstyles, colours and curls.
What we do now in expensive salons, techniques stylists imagine are cutting edge, are in fact as much as 3,300 years old, thanks to the Egyptians. Even extensions, which celebrities like Kim Kardashian tout as modern and fun, were worn by many women in ancient Egypt, and they were even buried wearing them, too.
Take the cemetery at the city of El-Amarna, for example. The cherished archaeological site, which has been undergoing exploration and excavation since 1977, revealed in 2014 examples of women who, thousands of years ago, wore intricate updos, extensions and even skull caps.
One skull was found six years ago with about 70 hair extensions still attached, and experts worked to recreate exactly what the Egyptian mummified body would have looked like when alive – hairdo intact.
Credit: Jolanda Bos and Lonneke Beukenholdt
The ongoing project is done by the Institute of Archaeological Research of Cambridge University in England, with the support and permission of the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt.
The hairdos found indicate that women of ancient Egypt favoured complicated styles, ones that featured a variety of layers and lengths.
Several Egyptian skulls are so well preserved that archaeologists can get a clear, comprehensive picture of what trends and colours were fashionable back then. One skull shows that henna was likely used to cover grey hair on one woman, thereby giving her a more auburn shade, and probably a more youthful appearance.
These skulls and remains may be more than 3,000 years old, but the motivations behind the women's choices were, it's fair to say, timeless and still prevalent.
Credit: Jolanda Bos and Lonneke Beukenholdt
The Amarna Project continues to pull back the curtain on this ancient city, which citizens abandoned after the death of the pharaoh who built it.
The site consists of several zones, one of which is called Central City, where administration buildings, temples and palaces were built when the city was first constructed.
The pharaoh, Akhenaten, ruled from approximately 1353 until 1335 B.C. Historians say his greatest impact on his people was a change to their religion, moving it more fully to worshipping the sun.
Building Amarna was in keeping with those beliefs, but once the pharaoh passed away, citizens felt less compelled to stay in this city in the desert.
The Amarna Project continues to reveal much about ancient Egypt, its practices, religious beliefs and societal norms.
The women with these remarkable hairstyles are just one more piece of the puzzle, the puzzle that teaches so much about Egypt's past, but also about its present and, perhaps, about its future.
Dear EEO/SC participant, Dr. Lorelei Corcoran has given us a new way to continue lectures. Attached is the first in what I hope will be a series. Dr. Lorelei recorded her speaker on YOU TUBE and you can listen to the talk by hitting the connection below.
In about 2 weeks we will have Dr. Ray Johnson from Chicago House on YOU TUBE. He is going to be Dr. Corcoran's guest for the Dr. Bill Murnane lecture series this year.
Let me know what you think of the idea to continue this way.
This lecture will remain on YouTube after its premiere so that you may enjoy it at your leisure.
Kevin Johnson, PhD, Chair of the History, Global & Political Studies Department and Associate Professor of History at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, received both his PhD from the Department of History and his MA in Art History, Egyptian Art and Archaeology concentration, from the University of Memphis. Hewill update us on his research on the limestone sarcophagus of Menna, a mayor of the ancient city of Herakleopolis Magna during the New Kingdom. Stone sarcophagi, while the norm for royalty, are rare for officials, especially those who held office in provincial Egypt. The sarcophagus was found in the 1920s by Guy Brunton, but tomb robbers cut it up shortly after its discovery and sold the pieces on the antiquities market. Over the years, these pieces have found their way into public and private collections in the U.S. (including Memphis!) and in England. During the last few decades, a majority of the decorated and inscribed panel pieces have been located, and although their disparate locations do not allow for a physical reassembly, a virtual reassembly of the coffin can be undertaken. With this reconstruction, a proper iconographical and textual study can be presented, and a few important details can be revealed, not only specifically about the coffin's owner, but also about non-royal stone sarcophagi of this period in general.
Dr. Johnson's research centers on the late 19th and early 20th dynasties, a pivotal point in Egyptian history. Within the context of this period, he has addressed the global issues of legitimacy, the political machinations of figures behind the throne, and problems of succession and transition of power. Dr. Johnson teaches a study abroad class in Egypt each January and has participated in an archaeological season for the University of Arizona at the mortuary temple of one of Egypt's few female rulers, Tausret.
IMAGE: Artefacts like these will be used as part of a new exhibit on "Egypt and its Neighbours ", which will highlight cultural diversity and racism in the Ancient World view more
Credit: Egypt Centre, Swansea University
An expert in ancient history and Swansea's Egypt Centre have been jointly awarded £1100 to develop a new display on Egypt and its neighbours, which will be used for the Centre's education programme on issues such as identity, racism and xenophobia in the ancient world.
The award was one of two announced by the Institute of Classical Studies, with the aim of supporting public engagement work relating to the ancient world.
The successful entry was submitted by Dr Ersin Hussein of the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology, in partnership with the Egypt Centre's Collection Access Manager Dr Ken Griffin.
The funding will help to develop a new display in the Egypt Centre museum, entitled Egypt and Its Neighbours, which will feature objects from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, and Nubia.
The Institute for Classical Studies recently hosted an online awards event, where Dr Hussein and Dr Griffin shared more detail about their projects.
Dr Ersin Hussein of Swansea University, an expert in Roman Cyprus in particular, said:
"The Egypt and its Neighbours display will be a catalyst for student and public engagement with a number of topics at the heart of today's world, such as racism, cultural diversity, self-presentation, and identity formation. The ancient world is rich with material to encourage meaningful discussion around these issues.
Several lecturers across the department of Classics, Ancient History, and Egyptology already offer modules discussing these themes in the ancient world.
Swansea University is one of the few places in the UK offering specialist modules on Egypt, Greece, Rome, Cyprus, Nubia, and the ancient Near East. We really wanted the display to bring together the research that we do in the museum setting not just for our students, but for our visitors, from schoolchildren to the general public."
Dr Ken Griffin of the Egypt Centre added:
"Our educational programme is at the heart of the Centre's work. The award will allow us to develop the programme to include topics such as identity, diversity, racism, and xenophobia in the ancient world. In doing so, it will hopefully open up discussion on current issues.
In line with the museum's core aim of widening participation, various groups and individuals have been consulted throughout the planning process, thus making this a co-creation project."
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Notes to Editors
Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university offering a first-class student experience and has one of the best employability rates of graduates in the UK. The University has the highest possible rating for teaching - the Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2018 and was commended for its high proportions of students achieving consistently outstanding outcomes.
Swansea climbed 14 places to 31st in the Guardian University Guide 2019, making us Wales' top ranked university, with one of the best success rates of graduates gaining employment in the UK and the same overall satisfaction level as the Number 1 ranked university.
The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 results saw Swansea make the 'biggest leap among research-intensive institutions' in the UK (Times Higher Education, December 2014) and achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research University, soaring up the league table to 26th in the UK.
The University is in the top 300 best universities in the world, ranked in the 251-300 group in The Times Higher Education World University rankings 2018. Swansea University now has 23 main partners, awarding joint degrees and post-graduate qualifications.
The University was established in 1920 and was the first campus university in the UK. It currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses to circa 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The University has ambitious expansion plans as it moves towards its centenary in 2020 and aims to continue to extend its global reach and realise its domestic and international potential.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Smuggling Attempt Foiled at Egypt's Port of Alexandria
Monday, October 26, 2020
(Egypt's Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities)
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that officers from the Alexandria Port Customs Office seized three artifacts under Antiquities Protection Law 117 of 1983, which claims for the Egyptian state all movable and immovable objects produced from prehistory through the nineteenth century A.D. and found within Egypt's borders. The confiscated objects, including a nineteenth-century porcelain lantern, a nineteenth-century pear-shaped porcelain vessel with a round mouth, and a decorated glass vessel dated to the early Islamic era, had been hidden in a container being prepared for export. The items have been handed over to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. To read about an ancient port city that predated the rise of Alexandria, go to "Egypt's Temple Town."
Egyptian government converts antique building into hotel
This photo taken on July 26, 2020 shows the derelict dome of the Mamluk Sultan Abu Said al-Zahir Qansuh al-Ashrafi (AD 1498-1500) amidst ongoing roadworks at the historic City of the Dead necropolis of Egypt's capital Cairo. (AFP)
Wakala Al-Sultan Qaytbay is one of the most beautiful examples of Islamic buildings that characterized architecture in the Mamluk era
CAIRO: The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is converting Wakala Al-Sultan Qaytbay in Cairo into a private hotel.
This project is the first of its kind in Egypt. The Islamic archaeological site will be redesigned as a hotel, at a cost of around EGP100 million ($6.3 million).
The history of the urban caravanserai and apartment complex dates back to the Mamluk era in the late-fifteenth century. It was built by Sultan Al-Malik Al-Ashraf Abu Al-Nasr Qaytbay, one of the rulers of the state of the Circassian Mamluks, who later ruled Egypt. He loved architecture and the arts, reflected by the timeless monuments that he left.
Wakala Al-Sultan Qaytbay is one of the most beautiful examples of Islamic buildings that characterized architecture in the Mamluk era. It consists of three floors and overlooks a spacious inner courtyard. The ground floor was used for trade, with the two upper floors for housing.
Archaeologist Mahmoud Abdel-Baset, director general of the Historic Cairo Development Project, said that it was scheduled to be completed within 2021.
He said the project will create a unique hotel while preserving ancient archaeological heritage.
Abdel-Baset added that the hotel will be provided with a suitable furnish for the history and location of the building.
He said that the shops at the complex's front will be preserved and that they will continue as commercial outlets for tourists and visitors.
The Historic Cairo Development Project told Arab News that the economic return from the hotel will contribute to the continuity of maintenance work, creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the complex and the surrounding community.
The project is being headed by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities with funding from the Ministry of Housing, Fatimid Cairo Authority. Hania Mamdouh, the supervisor of the Engineering Unit in Historic Cairo, confirmed that the Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites and the requirements of the tourism ministry for heritage hotels were taken into account.
The team has used different bricks from those found in the original construction to guarantee that visitors can easily distinguish between the two eras of development.
Mamdouh said that red hollow bricks were used because they are lighter and do not affect the structural integrity of the original elements of the facility. She added that the bricks were previously used in a restoration effort from the 1940s.
Hajj Samir, the owner of one of the shops in the area, said that the project is special to the local community. Previously it was a filthy place neglected by government officials.
"In the past, the cleaners did not work...Now things are completely different, and the region will become global in the full sense of the word," he added.
At least 14 civilians killed by booby traps in Egypt's Sinai
More than a dozen civilians were killed in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula over the past two weeks from explosive devices laid down in their homes by militants. (File/Getty Images)
Daesh militants in July attacked several villages in the town of Bir Al-Abd, forcing people to flee their homes
The militants had laid booby traps in several houses that killed at least 14 people after they returned to their homes
EL-ARISH: More than a dozen civilians, including women and children, were killed in Egypt's restive northern Sinai Peninsula over the past two weeks from explosive devices laid down in their homes by militants, security and medical officials said Sunday. Daesh militants in July attacked several villages in the town of Bir Al-Abd, forcing people to flee their homes. The military then secured the villages in August and allowed residents to return to their homes a few weeks later, the officials said. The militants, however, had laid booby traps in several houses that killed at least 14 people, including six from the same family late on Saturday, officials said. The causalities included women and children. At least ten others have been wounded since Oct. 12 and were taken to the town's hospital for treatment, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Bir Al-Abd was the site of a horrific extremist attack on a mosque in 2017 that killed over 300 worshippers, some of them fathers praying with their young sons. The tribes of North Sinai have been heavily targeted by militants who view their veneration of Muslim saints and shrines as heretical, forcing a mass exodus of residents from the impoverished area that has long been underdeveloped by the government. Violence and instability there intensified after the military overthrew the country's president in 2013 amid nationwide protests against the Muslim Brotherhood group's divisive rule. Extremist militants have since carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting security forces and minority Christians. The conflict has largely taken place out of public view, with journalists and outside observers barred from the area. The conflict has so far not expanded into the southern end of the peninsula where popular Red Sea tourist resorts are located. In February 2018, the military launched a massive operation in Sinai that also encompassed parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country's western border with Libya. Since then, the pace of Daesh attacks in Sinai's north has diminished.
Egypt- Tomb of ancient Royal Treasury Supervisor uncovered in Minya Governorate
10/24/2020 3:23:15 PM
(MENAFN - Daily News Egypt) The Egyptian archaeological mission working in the antiquities area of Al-Ghuraifah, in Minya Governorate's Tuna Al-Jabal, has uncovered the tomb of Badi Est, a Supervisor of the Royal Treasury.
The Ancient Egyptian tomb was found with stone statues inside, which are in a good state of preservation.
Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Head of the Mission, said that the cemetery consists of a 10 metre deep burial well that leads to a large room with niches carved into the rock.
The well is enclosed by regular shaped stone slabs, and contained two limestone statues, one of which is in the shape of the Apis calf, and the other is in the shape of a woman.
This came in addition to alabaster canopic jars in the form of the four sons of Horus, and engraved with the titles and names of the deceased.
Waziri said that the mission also found 400 blue and green Ushabti statues bearing the name of the deceased, alongside the burials of six of his family members. These contained nearly 1,000 statues made of faience, as well as canopic jars made of alabaster, limestone. The burials included some amulets, scarabs, and a set of utensils, as well as pottery from the Sawy era that ruled Ancient Egypt from the 26th to the 30th Dynasties.
Four intact stone sarcophagi were found, with work ongoing to uncover more secrets and treasures of the Al-Ghuraifah area.
The Golden Age of Egyptology Was Also a Time of Plunder
It was the bust of Nefertiti, Toby Wilkinson writes, that "came to represent for Egyptian nationalists the exploitation and appropriation of their history by foreigners — a perennial insult that had gone on for more than a century."Credit...Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
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By Rosemary Mahoney
A WORLD BENEATH THE SANDS The Golden Age of Egyptology By Toby Wilkinson
No civilization has visited itself upon the Western imagination as powerfully as that of ancient Egypt. With its fathomless mystery, its architectural majesty, its artistic inspiration, civic order and sheer volume of wealth, ancient Egypt has captivated us and compelled us not just to understand it but to possess it — to literally grab our shovels, dig up its stuff and haul it home with us.
Who's "us"? By all accounts just about everybody in history who found himself in Egypt while the digging was easy, and even long after Egyptian law made it difficult. The idea was that possession of a nice piece of ancient Egyptian art would lend a stamp of legitimacy — a greater greatness, let's say — to any empire or, indeed, any private back garden in Dorset. The Greeks pondered it, the Romans started it and various Europeans got awfully good at it. But, as the Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson demonstrates in his excellent new book, "A World Beneath the Sands," nobody in history succumbed more feverishly to the compulsion to take hold of ancient Egypt nor succeeded at it more thoroughly than the British and the French.
Wilkinson's ambitious focus is the hundred years of Egyptology between Jean-Francois Champollion's groundbreaking deciphering of the Rosetta stone in 1822 and Howard Carter's sensational discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. During that century of exploration and excavation the science of Egyptology was shaped as much by benevolent curiosity and genuine scholarly interest as by the cutthroat imperialist rivalry between Britain and France.
Both nations had a burning desire to best the other in the struggle to gain control of Egypt politically and archaeologically, and both used the Egyptian collections in their national museums — the Louvre and the British Museum — as the measure and symbol of their success. Whoever seized the biggest statues and tallest obelisks, whoever got the best and the most of Egyptian antiquity and lugged it home and filled their museum with it would be the de facto winner. Winner of what exactly isn't Wilkinson's present concern, but his evidence suggests it meant more than just colonial expansion or the crucial access to India that Egypt offered. The bitter contest was, it seems, as much pathological as it was practical.
Though the 19th century produced the most wondrous discoveries and greatest scholarly achievements in Egyptology, it was also an era of great hubris and pillage and greed, during which countless antiquities were lost, stolen or destroyed by reckless excavation, rapacious haste and the general indifference of the Egyptian leadership.
The quiet yet salient revelation of Wilkinson's study — and what makes the story of 19th-century Egyptology relevant now — is how the Anglo-French obsession with Egypt's past and their frantic bid for control of its future gradually spurred the downtrodden modern Egyptians toward a newfound self-awareness and a galled desire for independence after nearly 2,000 years of foreign occupation and oppression. "As the West rediscovered Egypt," Wilkinson writes, "so Egypt discovered itself."
All the fascinating giants of Egyptology appear here. Some were brilliant scholars genuinely eager to advance the science of Egyptology and forge a deeper understanding of ancient Egypt, some were self-serving fortune-seekers who cared mainly about their own advancement, and some were both at once.
There's Champollion, who, on unlocking the Rosetta stone and revealing the secret of hieroglyphics after years of scholarly struggle, was so overcome with emotion and fatigue he collapsed to the floor in a faint. And Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the Italian strongman and one-time circus performer who in 1817, under the aegis of the British consul, managed to drag, float and sail the 2.7-meter-high, 7¼-ton bust of Ramses II all the way from Luxor to the British Museum. And the British Army officer Richard William Howard Vyse, who, with no previous training in archaeology, used gunpowder and dynamite to blast away at the Pyramids in search of an entrance, then bored a hole 27 feet deep into the back of the Sphinx hoping (in vain) to find a chamber within.
We learn too of the shrewd and influential French archaeologist Auguste Mariette, who in 1851 unearthed the fabulous Serapeum at Saqqara. Never mind that his excavations were illegal, that he produced fakes to placate antiquities inspectors, nor that he used grain sacks to smuggle hundreds of objects he found at the site and surreptitiously shipped them off to France. Though widely accused by his British competitors of theft and destruction in his excavations, in 1858 Mariette was appointed director of the newly founded Egyptian Antiquities Service, which he conceived, with the directive from Said Pasha to "ensure the safety of the monuments.
As for Ernest Alred Thompson Wallis Budge, when sent to acquire antiquities for the British Museum, he too bribed the police, bought stolen artifacts from illicit dealers, stole, smuggled and justified his actions in the same way countless archaeologists and amateur scavengers have justified theirs: "The objects would have been smuggled out of Egypt all the same; the only difference would have been that instead of being in the British Museum they would be in some museum or private collection on the continent or in America." In other words, they would have ended up someplace quite like his own, and how, pray, could anybody want that? It's an amusing characteristic of all the players in these hundred years of excavation that every one of them claimed ample reason for removing antiquities from Egypt, legally or illegally, yet howled with outrage when anyone else did the same.
Where were the Egyptians when all this plunder of their heritage was taking place? They were there under the heels of their visitors, providing cheap or, when the labor was enforced, as it often was, free labor for the crushing work of archaeological excavation. In exchange they were characterized as ignorant, lazy, abject and shiftless. If they sought to make a few pence by pilfering a piece from an excavation site, they were severely punished.
The European stronghold on Egyptian archaeology was so firm that not until 1909 were Egyptian citizens of means allowed to sponsor formal excavations in their own country. As for the Egyptian leadership, from Muhammad Ali to King Fuad, few Egyptian leaders held the nation's antiquities in much regard; they blithely quarried ancient monuments for the stone to build modern factories and casually tossed precious objects to the British and the French in exchange for loans and political favors.
In 1912, a growing ripple of Egyptian nationalism became an outraged wave when the exquisite painted limestone bust of Nefertiti ("fresh as the day it had been made 35 centuries before") was discovered at Amarna by a German excavation team and promptly removed to Berlin. "More than the Rosetta stone," Wilkinson writes, "or the Dendera Zodiac, the Luxor obelisk or Cleopatra's Needles … the bust of Nefertiti came to represent for Egyptian nationalists the exploitation and appropriation of their history by foreigners — a perennial insult that had gone on for more than a century."
We hear a lot now about "cultural appropriation," a term lately fired with reflexive ease at even the slightest cultural crossover. This, however, was a frenzied, long-term, all-out cultural heist, complete with government-funded pistols and getaway car — one of many in the greater schemes of world history.
This is a riveting, sometimes appalling story. I think it's important to say that Wilkinson's prose style is so smooth and straight and unadorned as to be nearly nonexistent. In fact, as I closed the book I wondered fleetingly in exactly whose company I had just spent hundreds of pages, for as a writer, Wilkinson draws little attention to himself and only now and then opines. With another sort of story this could be considered a flaw. Here, it's a strength. Wilkinson is a consummate historian. As such, he needs no histrionics or mood music to hold the reader's attention or spin his tale along. He has mastered the facts with painstaking research and allowed them to speak for themselves. Rarely do facts speak this clearly.
Rosemary Mahoney is the author of six books, including "Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff." She is at work on a memoir.
A WORLD BENEATH THE SANDS The Golden Age of Egyptology By Toby Wilkinson Illustrated. 510 pp. W.W. Norton & Company. $30.
