WASHINGTON — Seeking to repair relations
with a longtime ally at a time of spreading war in the Middle
East, President
Obama on Tuesday lifted an arms freeze against Egypt
that he had first imposed after the military overthrow of the
country’s democratically elected government nearly two years ago.
Mr. Obama cleared
the way for the delivery of F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles and
M1A1 Abrams tanks, weapons prized by Egyptian leaders, who have
smoldered at the suspension. In a telephone call, Mr. Obama
assured President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt that he would
support the full $1.3 billion in annual military assistance the
Cairo government traditionally receives, even as others seek to
cut it, the White House said.
The decision signaled a trade-off for a
president who has spoken in support of democracy and human rights
but finds himself in need of friends at a volatile time in a
bloody part of the world. The White House made no effort to assert
that Egypt had made the “credible progress” toward democracy that
Mr. Obama demanded when he halted
the arms deliveries in October 2013. Instead, the decision
was justified as being “in the interest of U.S. national
security,” as the White House put it in a statement.
Administration officials, speaking on the
condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said
the timing of the move was not directly related to the swirling
crosscurrents now roiling the Middle East, including the widening
conflict in Yemen, the rise of extremism in Libya, the battle with
the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq or the possible nuclear deal
with Iran.
But they said the
broader perils of the region, particularly militant attacks in the
Sinai Peninsula, had played an indirect role. “Given that higher
level of threat, we felt it particularly important to make sure
Egypt had all of the equipment it could possibly need to defend
itself from these threats,” one of the officials said.
Beyond Sinai, Egypt
faces multiple security issues. In February, it
conducted an airstrike against Islamic militants in Libya in
retaliation for the beheadings of a group of Egyptian Christians.
Egypt has also said it will send
ground troops into Yemen if necessary to support the
Saudi-led operation against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And
Egyptian leaders agreed in concept to create a combined military
force with other Arab states.
Mr. Obama’s move will release 12 F-16
fighter jets, 20 Harpoon missiles, and the shells and parts
necessary to assemble up to 125 M1A1 Abrams tanks that Egypt had
previously paid for but that have been held up since 2013. The
F-16s are especially important to Egyptian leaders, who have
bitterly raised the issue with their American counterparts at
nearly every opportunity.
Intended or not, experts said Mr. Obama’s
decision would be interpreted as an effort by Washington to
bolster a fragile position in the region. “The U.S. is facing
quite a few challenges, and it needs to shore up relations with
allies,” said Steven Simon, a former Middle East adviser to Mr.
Obama now affiliated with Dartmouth. “The assistance to Egypt was
always predicated on its foreign policy, not its domestic policy.
That was certainly the Egyptian understanding of it.”
But other experts and human rights advocates said Mr. Obama had
effectively capitulated to Mr. Sisi, a former general who helped
lead the military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim
Brotherhood government in 2013 and then won the presidency in an
election tainted by wide-scale arrests of opposition figures. They
compared Mr. Obama’s decision to lift the arms freeze to past
instances when he did not live up to his own words, citing the “red
line” he drew against Syrian use of chemical weapons in its civil
war.
“Unsurprisingly, in
this case you see that national security priorities, broadly
defined, trump virtually everything else,” said Sarah Margon, the
Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “And that’s a very
myopic, short-term approach to fighting terrorism. Human rights
abuses are actually a very bad counterterrorism strategy.”
According to Human
Rights Watch and an Egyptian group called the Arabic Network for
Human Rights Information, the Egyptian authorities arrested more
than 40,000 people after Mr. Sisi’s removal of Mr. Morsi and have
never provided a full accounting of the detentions.
Mr. Sisi’s
government has cracked down on nongovernmental organizations that
take foreign money and has authorized military courts to hold mass
trials in terrorism cases that the rights groups call a way of
suppressing protesters.
Amy Hawthorne, a senior fellow at the Rafik
Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council in
Washington, said Mr. Obama’s decision would be seen as a victory
by Egyptians who wore down American officials’ resistance.
“This isn’t their
intention, but it will be read by Sisi as acceptance of his
legitimacy and a desire to satisfy his demands in their
relationship,” she said. “I’m still trying to understand, how do
our concerns factor in?”
Mr. Obama’s decision does include elements
that may irritate Mr. Sisi, however. Until now, Egypt and Israel
were the only countries permitted to buy American arms by drawing
credit from future foreign aid. Mr. Obama said he would halt that
for Egypt, barring it from drawing in advance money expected in
the 2018 fiscal year and beyond. He will also channel future
military aid to four categories — counterterrorism, border
security, maritime security and Sinai security — rather than give
Egypt broad latitude to decide how to use it.
The change in
policy is intended to wean Egypt away from large, expensive
weapons systems that signal national prestige but are not suited
to fighting the sort of insurgent and terrorist threats it now
confronts, American officials said.
Without its aid
already spoken for years in advance, Egypt will have more
flexibility to make arms purchases to deal with immediate
challenges. The United States will also have more flexibility to
cut it off if future actions warrant, officials said.
Indeed, some
scholars said the end of cash-flow financing, as it is called, was
the most significant element of Mr. Obama’s announcement because
the resumption of aid had been expected eventually.
“Now the military aid could be much more
easily discontinued in the future,” said Michael Wahid Hanna, a
researcher at the Century Foundation in New York. “This is a very
far-reaching step.”
Bernadette Meehan,
a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the release
of the weapons did not mean that the United States would stop
pressing Egypt to ease its domestic repression of dissent.
“We will continue
to engage with Egypt frankly and directly on its political
trajectory and to raise human rights and political reform issues
at the highest levels,” she said.
David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Cairo.
I am happy
to share with you a new section on the ARCE website of Educational
Resources that we have been developing since last summer
specifically for school age children.
I wanted you all to be among the first to know of this
resource and invite you to visit the ARCE website and explore
the many expanded options for children to learn more about
Egypt and to assist teachers in your communities in developing
curriculum.
Jeffrey W. Novak
Membership Coordinator
American Research Center in Egypt
8700 Crownhill Blvd., Suite 507
San Antonio, TX 78209
tel.: 210.821.7000210.821.7000
fax: 210.821.7007 membership@arce.org www.arce.org
(CNN) —There's a famous New Yorker cartoon that features a pooch facing a PC and quipping to his fellow canine that "On the Internet, no one knows that you're a dog."
But the sad doggone truth is that if you're a dog on the Internet, no one cares, because the geeks who rule the Web are focused on felines.
The digital landscape is saturated with cats. On his Diary of Numbers blog, back in 2010, Aaron Santos, physics professor and author of "How Many Licks?" made the rough calculation that there are about 1.3 billion cat pictures on the Internet.
Since then, the Internet has quintupled in data size, so that number could now be 6.5 billion. That would be nearly one cat pic for every person on Earth.
Which helps explain why Purina, makers of Friskies cat food, estimates that a staggering 15% of all traffic on the Web is cat-related.
And it's not just photos. There are videos, like the ones starring Maru, the Japanese cat who loves boxes, which have been viewed over 200 million times. There are cat stickers. And there are millions of cat memes --- pictures overlaid with text captions, like the LOLcats of "I Can Has Cheezburger" fame.
The king of cat memes is undeniably the perpetually peeved puss named Tardar Sauce, aka "Grumpy Cat," whose appearance --- along with fellow Internet su-purr-stars Waffles and Nala of the #CatsOfInstagram and Oskar the Blind Cat and his brother Klaus --- drew a three-block-long queue at Friskies' "Haus of Bacon" pop-up café at the recent SXSW, the hipster-heavy annual gathering in Austin, Texas, that blends the worlds of technology, film and music.
Grumpy Cat has captivated just about everyone who has met her and generated good money from merchandise sales, books, television specials and even a coffee drink called Grumpaccino. Grumpy has even allowed her human owner, Tabatha "Tabby" Bundesen, to quit her day job.
There's no canine counterpart to Grumpy Cat on the Internet. Dogs may dominate movies (hello, Lassie, Benji and Rin Tin Tin!), cartoons (Scooby, Snoopy and hundreds of dalmatians) and the book world ("Marley and Me," "Sounder," "Old Yeller," "Clifford" and, er, "Cujo") but they've got a much tinier digital paw print than their viral rivals, and much of it is embarrassing.
So what gives? Why is the Internet so darned crazy about cats?
The most frequently cited answer to this puzzling question is a practical one. Felines aren't outdoor companion animals; when they walk outside, they walk alone. As a result, cat owners eager to show off their pals or interact with their peers don't have an easy way to socialize. "The Internet is the dog park for cats," notes Niky Roberts, spokesperson for Friskies. "I follow cats online to connect with other cat people."
Other experts point to the uniquely mysterious nature of felines --- which led to their being worshiped as gods in ancient Egypt, feared as demons in ancient Japan and associated with magic just about everywhere (and isn't the Internet just another form of magic?).
As viral meme expert Sam Ford, author of the book "Spreadable Media," notes that while dogs interact like humans, cats do not. "Cats have an alien quality to them, a mystique that drives our interest in projecting emotions onto them."
Derek Liu, co-caretaker of Waffles the Cat, agrees. "They're eccentric creatures," he says. "Some cats, not naming names, do nothing but sit in the bathroom staring at the water in the toilet all day. And they don't respond to you predictably. They come if they want, not if you want them to."
And that might be the ultimate explanation for why cats are so big on the Web. As enigmatic, homebound individuals with unconventional obsessions, unusual interests and limited social skills, "They have a lot in common with the people who spend the most time on the Internet," says Joshua Green, vice president of digital strategy at Arnold Worldwide. "The centrality of cats to the digital world is because they have a cultural connection to the people who live there. The fact is, cats are just better nerd pets."
As a card-carrying nerd and a staunch member of Team Dog, I find that unfair and irrational. Dogs are loyal, loving companions. At their fickle best, cats merely tolerate their owners as a source of food and attention on demand. Dogs aim to please (and when they fail, they express shame with extreme cuteness).
Cats, meanwhile, knock stuff off other stuff and LOL about it afterward. Dogs can be trained to do helpful and useful things. Cats will only wait a day before eating you if you die. In short, dogs are the hot cocoa of pets; cats are grapefruit juice.
Do nerds really need another source of social rejection and emotional withholding that walks on keyboards and spills liquids onto electronics for fun and has no obvious utility other than being decorative?
We dog geeks disagree. Browsers of the Worldwide Web unite! We have nothing to lose but our leashes!
CAIRO: The Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx will be lit up in blue Thursday evening in honor of World Autism Awareness Day, according to an antiquities ministry statement.
“The move is a part of an initiative that aims to increase social awareness on the importance of supporting children who live with autism,” Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said.
The initiative was launched in coordination with the Egyptian Autistic Society, said Damaty.
Nashwa Gaber, head of the antiquities ministry’s technical office said that the initiative also includes organizing cultural activities and workshops for children in various museums across the country.
“The activities aim at providing people around children with autism with simple understanding of autism’s basic elements which will result in an important impact on the children’s ability to proceed towards productive, independent adulthood,” Gaber told the Cairo Post.
The initiative also comes in the framework of the ministry’s plan to attract children of different ages and classes to visit archaeological sites and museums, she added.
The Empire State Building in New York City, Nelson Mandela Bridge in South Africa, and the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles are among the landmarks to be lit blue Thursday, according to autismspeaks.org.
On Dec. 10, the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx as well as the Cairo Tower were lit orange in commemoration of the conclusion of the UN’s 16-day campaign to end violence against women.
During excavation work by the French Institute for Oriental Studies (IFAO) at Tabetl Algish in the south Saqqara necropolis, two very-well preserved tombs were uncovered.
The tombs belong to two priests from the reign of the sixth dynasty King Pepi II, and include their skeletons and a few items of their funerary collection. The first priest is named Ankhti and the second is Saby.
Tomb of Ankhti
Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty explains that the walls of both tombs are very well decorated with paintings depicting religious rituals, among them presenting offerings to deities.
He asserted that the paintings are still bearing their vivid colours as if they were painted yesterday, although they were dug 4,200 years ago.
“These paintings are a good documentary revealing the type of religious rituals at that time as well as showing the skill of ancient Egyptian artisans,” Eldamaty confirmed.
French Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev, head of the mission, explains that burial shafts are found at a very deep level inside the tombs. Saby’s burial shaft was six metres deep, while the one of Ankhti was found 12 metres deep.
He went on to say that each tomb is built on two levels: the upper one is on the ground built of mud bricks, while the lower part is a rock hewn of limestone.
Kamal Wahid, director of the central administration of Giza antiquities, told Ahram Online that although a few alabaster vessels, offerings and the skeletons of both priests were found, both tombs were subjected to looting in antiquity. Both skeletons were found scattered on the ground and not inside sarcophagi.
He explains that both tombs are almost identical and bear very distinguished scenes, among them the ancient Egyptian offerings painted on the walls of the priests’ burial chambers.
It shows the pot of the seven ritual oils and the list of offerings with their names and quantities. Incense balls and copper burning incense are also depicted as well as head rests and necklaces worn by priests.
Ancient seal rings and seals typical of Egyptian culture, discovered during an archaeological excavation in a cave in southern Israel, are displayed at Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem on Apr. 1, 2015. Reuters/Baz Ratner
Archaeologists Unearth 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Artifacts In Israeli Cave
Archeologists, working in an underground cave in southern Israel, found 3,000-year-old Egyptian artifacts left behind by robbers, reports said. The researchers found Scarab seals, figurines and amulets carrying inscribed images of Egyptian gods dating back to the Bronze Age.
Officials from the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery said that they found indications that showed that a cave near Kibbutz Lahav in the Tel Halif region in southern Israel was looted, according to LiveScience. When officials investigated the area they found the artifacts and said that as of now, the purpose of placing the objects in the cave is not clear. Officials reportedly also found several intact ceramic pots, bronze jewelry, shells and faience, oil lamps, amulets, alabaster jars, cosmetic vessels, and Egyptian scarab seals dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries B.C.
Yoli Shwartz, a spokeswoman for IAA, said, according to the Jerusalem Post, that authorities “thwarted further damage to the cave and carried out a salvage excavation there, in order to save the artifacts and extremely valuable archeological information from the robbers’ pickaxes.”
Some of the seals reportedly carry the names of the kings who ruled at the time, while one artifact showed a sphinx next to the name of the pharaoh Thutmose, who ruled from 1504-1450 B.C., Daphna Ben-Tor, curator of Egyptian archaeology at the Israel Museum, said, according to LiveScience, which cited the statement from the IAA. He also added that another scarab seal was found, bearing the name of Amenhotep, who ruled from 1386 to 1349 B.C. Ptah, the principal god of Memphis, was also found inscribed on another scarab.
Amir Ganor, director of the Robbery Prevention Unit, reportedly said that further investigation into the artifacts showed that some of the objects were made in Egypt and were brought to ancient Canaan by the Israelites or merchants. Canaan, which is believed to have included the modern-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, western Jordan, and southwestern Syria, was also under Egyptian rule at the time. Ganor added that other artifacts were made in ancient Israel, using methods that were used by the Egyptians.
“Egyptian authority was not only manifested in political and military control, but was a strong cultural influence that contributed to shaping society,” Dr. Amir Golani from IAA said, according to the Jerusalem Post, adding: “Along with an administration of Egyptian officials in Israel, a group of the local elite evolved in the country who adopted many of the Egyptian customs and their artistry.
“The investigation of the cave and the finds is still in its early stages, and upon completing the treatment of the hundreds of objects that were exposed, it will be possible to add important information regarding Egypt’s influence on the population of the Land of Israel in the biblical period,” Golani said.
The Northern California Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt; the Department of Near Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley; and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley, are sponsoring the following lecture:
Afterglow
of Empire: The Third Intermediate Period
By Dr.
Aidan Dodson, University of Bristol
April
19th, 2015 2:30 PMRoom
254 Barrows Hall
About
the Lecture:
During the half-millennium from the eleventh through the sixth
centuries BC, the power and the glory of the imperial pharaohs of the
New Kingdom crumbled in the face of internal crises and external
pressures. Dr
Aidan Dodson will this afternoon give an overview of what is known
and not known about the period and its monuments, highlighting some
of the most interesting (and problematic!) issues of the time.
About
the Lecturer:
(From the University of Bristol website) Dr Aidan Dodson was born in
London in 1962, and educated at Langley
Grammar School,
Berkshire (1975-81), Collingwood
College,
University
of Durham,
(1981-82), the University
of Liverpool
(1982-85) and Christ's
College,
University
of Cambridge
(1985-6). Holder of the Royal Institution Scholarship at Liverpool
from 1983-5, he was awarded a BA (Hons) in Archaeology of the Eastern
Mediterranean in 1985, an MPhil in Museum Practice and Archaeology in
1986 and a PhD in Egyptology in 1995. He was appointed to a Visiting
Fellowship in the Department of Archaeology at Bristol in 1996, and
became a Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and
Anthropology in 2005, teaching extramural courses during 1996-1999,
and undergraduate and postgraduate units from 1997 onwards as Unit
Tutor for Egyptology.
He became a Senior Research Fellow in 2009. For the Spring semester
of 2013 he was William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Professor of
Egyptology at the
American University in Cairo.
Elected a Fellow of the Society
of Antiquaries of London
in September 2003, in December 2011 he was elected Chairman of the
Trustees of the Egypt
Exploration Society,
and is a Contributing Editor of the Kmt:
a Modern Journal of Egyptology,
as well as Chairman of the Egypt
Society of Bristol,
and is the author of twelve
books and over two hundred papers, articles and reviews.
Bringing tourists back by celebrating the legacy of modern Luxor's founder next year. After Thomas Cook name disappeared from Egypt last year when the company name was changed to Travel Choice, an idea was created to recall the legendary tourism industry name in order to retrieve the tourists numbers to how they were before 2011, if not more.
HE John Casson speaks to Luxor Times about the upcoming event planned in 2016 to celebrate Thomas Cook anniversary.
Not just a celebration event but an initiative to open a new door for cooperation between UK and Egypt which would include documentaries, exhibitions, scholarships etc.
Any creative ideas are welcome to make this event special and effective to serve its purpose.
Coming soon ... More exclusive information on this event and the history of Thomas Cook in Egypt.
The British ambassador John Casson’s first official visit to Luxor started on Saturday 28th of March. On Saturday, Luxor’s Governor Mohamed Badr met John Casson and discussed the different fields of cooperation.
On the second day of his official visit to Luxor, British ambassador to Egypt John Casson started his day with a trip to Qena where he visited the projects funded by the British government as a part of the Arab partnership.
The projects aim at empowering youth and women by teaching them skills and handcrafts which enabled them to produce different products and sell them in Cairo or even export to UK. In the evening, H.E. John Casson spoke to Luxor Times about the cooperation between UK and Egypt.
He also talked about the ongoing preparations for the event to be held in Luxor in 2016.
To know all about it and watch the interview with the editor of Luxor Times below.
One of the masterpieces on display at the exhibit 'Fauna in the Nile. The Animal Kingdom in Egypt of the Pharaohs' in Madrid
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) - MADRID - Egyptian pharaohs' passion for animals, their representation as divinities and use in sarcophagi are at the center of an exhibition inaugurated in the Spanish capital on Tuesday. 'Fauna in the Nile. The Animal Kingdom in Egypt of the Pharaohs' will be at the CaixaForum until August 23. It was organized by the Louvre Museum and the La Caixa foundation and was first exhibited in Paris. There are 430 exhibition pieces included in the show, most of which restored specifically for the occasion and which bear witness to the multiple and omnipresent representations of fauna in ancient Egypt's artistic production. The sphinxes, statues, cups and vases, watercolors and wall paintings, furniture, tables jewels, chests, amulets and sarcophagi included have mostly come from the Louvre Museum, which has one of the most important collections of Egyptian cultural artifacts thanks to the Napoleonic campaigns. There are also loans from the Monserrat Catalan museums, the Egyptian and natural sciences museums in Barcelona, Madrid's National Museum of Natural Sciences CSIC and Paris's Bibliotheque Centrale des Musees Nationaux. One of the most impressive works on display is the one at the end of the exhibition itinerary: a group of sculptures portraying baboons that had constituted the base of an obelisk of the Luxor temple, alongside statues of the Royal Sphinx.
There are also 14 animal mummies that - given the important role that had in funeral rituals - were embalmed using three different techniques of animal mummification. Analyses have shown that they contain animal innards or at least bones and feathers, in the case of ibis mummies. Considered earthly manifestations of the divine, the animals were worshiped and were a recurring element in codified, written and represented language, placed on a 'pedestal' of religious thought in ancient Egyptian civilization. They were also an endless source of inspiration and origin of vast, variegated artistic production. The exhibition is divided into nine parts that describe the links between people and animals that were companions, means of transportation and a representation of the divine both in daily life and in funerary, religious and civil rituals of the ancient Egyptians.(ANSAmed).
Impressive
archaeological artifacts, mostly from some 3,000 years ago, were found
in an underground cave in the Tel Halif area near Kibbutz Lahav in
southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said Wednesday.
Inspectors from the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities
Robbery arrived at the cave to discover robbers had already broken into
it and began looting pottery vessels from the Late Bronze Age (circa
1,500 BCE) and the Iron Age (1,000 BCE) and caused damage to the cave
and the artifacts entombed within it.
To save the archaeological artifacts, the IAA inspectors carried
out a salvage excavation during which they discovered over 300 pottery
vessels of different types, some of which were still intact. They also
found dozens of pieces of jewelry made of bronze, shells and faience,
unique vessels fashioned from yellowish alabaster, seals, seal
impressions and cosmetic vessels.
Faience amulets depicting images of Egyptian gods (Photo: Clara Amit, IAA)
Archaeologists believe the objects had been placed in the cave and accumulated there for decades.
"Among the many artifacts that were discovered, most of which
are characteristic of the Judahite culture (the tribe of Judah, which
wasn't exiled to Babylon) in the south of the country, we found dozens
of stone seals, some of which are shaped in the form of a winged beetle
(scarabs) and bear carved symbols and images typical of the Egyptian
culture which prevailed in the country in the Late Bronze Age. Some of
the seals were fashioned on semi-precious stones that come from Egypt
and the Sinai Peninsula," said Amir Ganor, the director of the
Prevention of Antiquities Robbery unit.
A scarab seal of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III. A sphinx is crouching near the pharaoh's name (Photo: Clara Amit, IAA)
According to Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, curator of Egyptian archaeology
at the Israel Museum, "Most of the scarab seals found in the excavation
date to the fifteenth–fourteenth centuries BCE. During this period
Canaan was ruled by Egypt."
An oil lamp and a ceramic jar that date to the Iron Age, which were discovered in the cave (Photo: IAA)
"The names of kings appeared on some of the seals," Dr. Ben-Tor
added. "Among other things, we can identify a sphinx lying opposite the
name of the pharaoh Thutmose who reigned from about 1504–1450 BCE.
Another scarab seal bears the name of Amenhotep who reigned from about
1386–1349 BCE. Still another scarab depicts Ptah, the principal god of
the city of Memphis."
A
collection of artifacts with characteristics of the Egyptian culture,
which were discovered in the excavation (Photo: Clara Amit, IAA)
Other artifacts discovered included seal rings made of faience and a
wealth of figurines and amulets in the image of gods sacred to the
Egyptian culture.
A
ring that was discovered in the excavation which is inlaid with a seal
depicting an Egyptian warrior holding a shield and sword (Photo: IAA)
"It is true the Israelites left Egypt but the evidence from the
excavation in the cave shows the Egyptians did not leave the Israelites
and their descendants," Ganor said. "This has been attested to in
archaeological excavations where we uncovered evidence from many years
after the 'Exodus' which reflects the influence of Egyptian culture on
the Judahite residents of the country."
Alabaster bottles that were discovered in the cave (Photo: Clara Amit, IAA)
Dr. Amir Golani of the IAA added, "During the Late Bronze Age
Egypt was an extremely powerful empire and imposed its authority
throughout our region. Egyptian authority was not only in manifested in
political and military control, but was also a strong cultural influence
that contributed to shaping society. Along with an administration of
Egyptian officials in Israel, a group of local elite evolved in the
country, who adopted many of the Egyptian customs and their artistry."
The artifacts were transferred to the IAA for further treatment.
The investigation of the cave and the findings is still in its early
stages and upon completing the treatment of the hundreds of objects that
were exposed, it will be possible to add important information
regarding Egypt's influence on the population of the Land of Israel in
the biblical period, a statement from the IAA said.
An ancient Egyptian masterpiece, hailed by some scholars as the "Mona
Lisa" of Egyptian painting, is in fact a fake created in the 19th
century, a researcher says. But the painting may conceal an authentic
Pyramid Age piece underneath.
The "Meidum Geese," as modern-day Egyptologists and art historians call
it, was supposedly found in 1871 in a tomb located near the Meidum
Pyramid, which was built by the pharaoh Snefru
(reign 2610-2590 B.C). The tomb belonged to the pharaoh's son,
Nefermaat, and the painting itself was supposedly found in a chapel
dedicated to Nefermaat's wife Atet (also spelled Itet). A man named
Luigi Vassalli discovered and removed the painting, which is now located
in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. [Faux Real: See Photos of Amazing Art Forgeries]
"Some scholars compared it, with due respect, to 'The Gioconda' (Mona Lisa)
for the Egyptian art," wrote Francesco Tiradritti, a professor at the
Kore University of Enna anddirector of the Italian archaeological
mission to Egypt, in a summary of his finds sent to Live Science. The
painting's beauty and detail has helped it gain this level of fame.
"Doubting the authenticity of a masterpiece seems almost impossible and
it is a mentally painful process," he wrote. "After months of study, I came to the conclusion that there are few doubts on the falsification of the 'Meidum Geese.'"
But while Tiradritti's research suggests the painting is a fake, a real
one may be hidden underneath. "The only thing that, in my opinion,
still remains to ascertain is what was (or 'is') painted under them. But
that can be only established through a noninvasive analysis,"
Tiradritti wrote.
Tiradritti is set to publish his findings on April 5 in the art
specialty papers Giornale dell'Arte and The Art Newspaper, in Italian
and English, respectively.He sent Live Science an advance summary of his
finds. Tiradritti examined the painting in-person and used
high-resolution photographs in his study. Goosey finds
The first clues that led Tiradritti to doubt the authenticity of the
painting came from studying the birds depicted on it. Two of these birds
were unlikely to have flown to Egypt.
Painted on plaster, "the painting depicts three different couple[s] of
geese, three turned to the left and three to the right," Tiradritti
wrote. Two of the geese were labeled as white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons), with the pair looking to the left identified as bean geese (Anser fabalis) and the pair turned to the right as red-breasted geese (Branta ruficolis), he wrote.
The bean goose breeds in tundra and taiga and winters as far south as
the north of Spain, Greece and Turkey, he said, while the red-breasted
goose breeds in tundra and rarely winters as far south as the Aegean coast of Greece and Turkey.
That species information in itself doesn't prove the painting is a
fake, but it made Tiradritti take a more critical look at it. "After
that, it was like to see a castle of cards collapsing." Hints at forgery
Tiradrittithen found many other problems with the painting. For
instance some of the colors are unique and were not used by other
ancient Egyptian artists. "Some of the hues (especially beige and marc)
are unique in the Egyptian art. Even the shades of more common colors,
like orange and red, are not even comparable with the same colors used
in other fragments of painting coming from Atet's chapel," he wrote.
The way the geese are drawn, so that they appear to be the same size, is also unusual, Tiradritti pointed out. The ancient Egyptians
tended to draw different features of a painting, such as animals and
people, in different sizes, sometimes relating their size to their
importance.
The artist of the "Meidum Geese" went so far as to have two geese
leaning over so that the size of all the geese appears to be balanced.
"It is a unique characteristic in Egyptian art, but it is a common feature in modern art," Tiradritti wrote.
Even the cracks on the painting don't seem right, as they "are not
compatible with the supposed ripping of the painting from the wall,"
wrote Tiradritti.
The "Meidum Geese" painting also seems to be painted over another painting,
parts of which can still be seen. "The background [of the Meidum Geese]
is repainted in a blue hue of grey," he wrote. "The original had a more
cream shade and it is still visible on some areas of the painting,
especially on the right-top corner and at the two sides [of] the
red-breasted goose to the right." [Gallery: Images Reveal Paintings Hidden Beneath Others] Who did it?
If the painting is a fake, and Tiradritti is convinced it is, then the question is who painted it?
Luigi Vassalli, pictured here, is credited with
finding and removing the painting from a tomb near the Meidum Pyramid in
1871. Research suggests Vassalli may have faked the painting. Credit: Photo courtesy F. Tiradritti
The culprit was likely Vassalli, the person credited with discovering
and removing the painting, Tiradritti said. Vassalli was a curator at
the Museum Bulaq in Cairo and was an accomplished artist, having studied
painting at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, said Tiradritti. [Gotcha! Tales of 8 Famous Art Forgers]
While he is credited with finding and removing the painting, Vassalli
never published a word about it, which is unusual given that he loved to
talk about his discoveries in Egypt, Tiradritti noted.
"In the manuscripts of Vassalli, there is not [any] mention of the
'Meidum Geese,' and that can be taken as a proof 'ab silentio,' given
the fact that he used to mention his exploits even years after he made
them. It is highly likely that Vassalli has to be considered the real
author of 'the Geese,'" wrote Tiradritti. A romantic clue
The reason why Vassali forged the painting is a mystery. Tiradritti
said the man could have done it because a painting was needed at the
Museum Bulaq, or he could have simply done it for fun.
Although Vassali didn't write about the painting, he may have left behind a mark of his work.
While investigating remains from the Atet Chapel, Tiradritti noticed a
fragment of painting that Vassalli supposedly found. It was painted with
an image of a vulture and a basket. These two signs have meanings in Egypt's hieroglyphic language that spell the initials for Vassalli's second wife Gigliati Angiola.
Tiradritti wrote that the "basket can be read as a 'G,' while the
vulture corresponds to an 'A,' giving room to the hypothesis that they
have to be interpreted as a monogram." A big revelation
His finds will be shocking to Egyptologists and art historians, Tiradritti told Live Science in an email. After his work is published, he will be able to get more feedback.
"I already announced it to some of my colleagues, and their first
reaction ranged from astonishment to disbelief. At the end, they had to
admit that what I am affirming could be likely," he said.
Tiradritti said he hopes that his research will help scholars think
more critically about ancient art, especially pieces being sold today on
the art market. "I would like to alert my colleagues and invite them to
look at the Egyptian art in a different way. We strongly need to revise
it." Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
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suggests the "Meidum Geese" painting on plaster (in the Egyptian Museum
of Cairo) is a fake created in the 19th century and that a real Pyramid
Age painting may be hidden underneath it.
This painted piece of plaster, supposedly found in
the tomb, raises suspicions that Vassalli faked the painting. It shows a
basket and vulture, symbols that in Egyptian hieroglyphs represent a G
and A respectively, possibly the initials of Vassalli's second wife.
Luigi Vassalli, pictured here, is credited with
finding and removing the painting from a tomb near the Meidum Pyramid in
1871. Research suggests Vassalli may have faked the painting.
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