Nubian history is not about the ongoing cycle of external influence and disruption created by Egypt

https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/2938384-6009736842029592580

Ellie Rose Elliott independent researcher, writer and translator

1 day ago

Nubian history is not about the ongoing cycle of external influence and disruption created by Egypt over the millennia, it is the continuous history of a free people, and should be seen as such.

The fact that this has to be seen as an innovative approach shows that there is much work still to be done. The classical perspective that saw Nubia only through Egyptian eyes and judged its culture only by its relationship with and conformity to Egyptian social and religious norms, is being replaced by a determination to see it as a power in its own right, and in its own terms.

This is an expensive book, but hopefully it may be in a library somewhere near you. The author is dealing with the period after the fall of Meroe and is rebuilding our whole impression of what was happening, based on the simple thought that it was all about Nubia as a political entity and that what's happening in the history just needs to be taken seriously as such.

Dr. Artur Obłuski is involved with the excavation at al-Ghazali in Northern Sudan, where Polish archaeologists have discovered a unique church in the Byzantine style and a large number of fragments of funerary stelae and inscribed vessels, with a pilgrimage centre attached: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/byzantine-monastery-discovered-in.html#.VWc9sdJVhHw

The Rise of Nobadia Social Changes in Northern Nubia in Late Antiquity [Hardback]

oxbowbooks.com

Details

The author of this book presents an innovative approach to the history of Nubia. The period covered includes the fall of Meroe and the rise of the united kingdom of Nobadia and Makuria. The emphasis was put on the analysis of social and political change/dynamics/transformations. Moreover some major improvements of the chronological nomenclature have been suggested. To date, it has been largely influenced by the early 20th cent. politically incorrect approach to African cultures and the contemporary state of research. The author implies that there is actually no reason which would compel modern scholars to study and describe the history of Nubia in other ways than the rest of the world. It means that all studies postdating this path-breaking book should be based on actual political changes and not vague racial or religious criteria. Nowadays we can be certain that after the fall of Meroe there was no political vacuum, but various political organisms immediately started to rise: Nobadia, Makuria and Alwa. For this reason the term 'Group X' should not be used any longer.

Reviews & Quotes

"…Obłuski’s broader claim about the essential continuity of Nubian late antiquity is convincing. It is in keeping with more general trends in Nubian studies, which have in the last generation seen Nubian studies less as an ongoing cycle of external influence and disruption and more as the continuous history of a single population. Obłuski’s work on late antique Nubia is a welcome addition to this corpus."
Giovanni R. Ruffini
Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2015.01.31 )

Fwd: Miroslav Barta uploaded "Bárta, M., 2009. A mistake for the Afterlife?, in: Rzeuska, T.I., Wodzińska, A...."

Miroslav Barta (Charles University, Prague, Czech Institute of Egyptology) just uploaded a paper on Academia.edu: Bárta, M., 2009. A mistake for the Afterlife?, in: Rzeuska, T.I., Wodzińska, A. (Eds.), Studies on Old Kingdom Pottery, Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warsaw, pp. 43-48. by Miroslav Barta This article deals with the significance of the Combed Ware in Egypt during the Old Kingdom (EB III Period). At the same time it explores the ways this commodity was used in expressing the status of deceased officials as mediated through their funerary equipment. View Paper Download Thanks, The Academia.edu Team

Three-time Egyptian Golden Globe Winner Omar Sharif ‘Has Alzheimer’s’

http://egyptianstreets.com/2015/05/24/three-time-egyptian-golden-globe-winner-omar-sharif-has-alzheimers/

Three-time Egyptian Golden Globe Winner Omar Sharif ‘Has Alzheimer’s’

Legendary Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, known for his roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, is suffering from Alzheimer’s, according to statements made by Omar’s son to a Spanish newspaper.

According to Tarek Sharif, the iconic 83-year-old actor has been suffering from the disease for three years, reported El Mundo in an exclusive interview.

“It is clear that he will never improve and it [the disease] will get worse,” said Tarek in the interview.

Omar Sharif, who has won two Golden Globes for his performance in Lawrence of Arabia and one Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Doctor Zhivago, confuses his fans who ask him for autographs for people he thinks he used to know, revealed Tarek.

Omar Sharif and Tarek Sharif in 2001.

“When someone sees him in the street and approaches, he [Omar] often thinks it’s someone he knew whose name and face he had forgotten, when most often it’s just a fan,” said Tarek.

Tarek, who is the only child of Omar Sharif and the late Faten Hamama, also added that Omar Sharif often forgets the names of the movies for which he won awards and where they were filmed.

More heart-clenching, Tarek added, was the fact that his father sometimes asks how his ex-wife, Faten Hamama, is, despite her passing away in January. Faten Hamama was known as the ‘Lady of Arab Cinema’ and was one of the Arab world’s most prominent producers and actresses. Hamama had starred in many films starring Omar Sharif, who was born a Christian and had converted to Islam to marry her. Omar had always described Hamama as the only love of his life after their divorce in 1974.

Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama

The revelation of Omar Sharif’s condition comes after years of rumors that the legendary actor suffers from Alzheimer’s. In the past decade, the award-winning actor, who had also been nominated for an Academy Award, had experienced several bursts of public anger. In 2003, Omar Sharif was fined $US 1,700 and received a one-month suspended prison sentence for hitting a police officer in a Paris casino. In 2007, the actor was charged with assaulting a parking lot attendant and breaking his nose in Beverly Hills.

Following his attack on a police officer in Paris, Omar Sharif joked that it made him a hero.

“It made me the hero of the whole of France. To head-butt a cop is the dream of every Frenchman,” said Omar.

Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago

According to his son, Omar now spends his days relaxing and listening to music. The actor is often sighted in Cairo’s up-scale Katameya Heights, where he owns a villa, and in the Red Sea resort-town of El Gouna.

Famous quotes by Omar Sharif

“I lived very humbly, in fear, I accepted the films they wanted me to do and even films I didn’t want to do and I didn’t like because I was afraid of saying no.”

“When one sees what happens in the world between the religions, the different religions – killing each other and murdering each other, it’s disgusting and as far as I am concerned it’s ridiculous. So I thought I might be useful, I believe in God and I believe in religion, but believe religions should belong to you. The extraordinary thing is that Jews believe that only the Jews can go to paradise, the Christians believe that only a Christian can go to paradise and the Muslims believe that only the Muslims can go to paradise. Now why should God, in His great justice, make somebody born that cannot go to paradise – it is absurd. Please forgive me, I don’t mean to say it’s absurd, people made it absurd.”

“I lived in America for a long time. Only ten percent of all Americans have a passport. In other words, ninety per cent have never left America. They don’t know anything. The typical Middle Eastern man is far more intelligent.”

http://www.thecairopost.com/news/152711/topnews/colorful-fragment-hacked-out-from-ancient-egyptian-tomb-excavators-say

Colorful fragment hacked out from ancient Egyptian tomb, excavators say

May. 26, 2015 16:45

Close-in view showing scratches made by tomb robbers. Courtsey of KU Leuven - Egyptologie

By Rany Mostafa
CAIRO: A wall relief fragment was hacked out from the 3,850 year-old tomb of Djehutyhotep, according to a Tuesday Facebook statement by the Catholic Leuven University archaeology mission.
The fragment in question measures 30 by 50 centimeters (12 by 20 inches.) The archaeology mission, currently carrying out excavations where the tomb is located, has posted photos of the wall and the fragment before and after the looting.
“We have since been trying to get reliable information on this matter from the antiquities authorities. The reports we now have are consistent in confirming the grave news that the tomb has been entered and that a relief has been stolen,” said the statement.
Co-founder of Egypt’s Heritage Task Force archaeologist Monica Hanna told The Cairo Post that she first reported the shocking looting and extensive destruction of the tomb on May 11.

(L) Scene at the tomb showing Djehutyhotep standing and being purified. To the right is a mark showing the fragment reportedly hacked out. Courtsey of KU Leuven – Egyptologie. (R) Wall at the tomb of Djehutyhotep with a mark showing the hacked out fragment. Courtsey of KU Leuven – Egyptologie

The tomb is located in Deir el-Bersha, an archaeological site from the east bank of the Nile to the south of Egypt’s Delta governorate of Minya, according to Hanna.
“A small scene to the east of the entrance has been hacked out. It was damaged already in Newberry’s day (1891-1892), but it still showed the well preserved top part of a man carrying a chest towards Djehutihotep. It was also one of the few reliefs where the head of a figure was still in good condition,” said the statement.
We have no photos at our disposal that confirm what the other walls of the tomb look like, according to the statement.
Deir el-Bersha was the necropolis for the governors of ancient Upper Egypt’s 15^th province during the First Intermediate Period (2160B.C.-2040B.C.) and the Middle Kingdom Period (2040B.C-1750B.C.), according to Hanna.
Head of Upper Egypt Antiquities Department Aly el-Asfar has confirmed to the Cairo Post an attempt to loot the tomb but said the attempt was foiled by security forces, saying that the tomb is “sound and safe.”
“The tomb of Djehutyhotep was penetrated earlier this month but the assailants did not take anything from the tomb,” Asfar said, adding that the police forces have arrested the assailants.
Djehutyhotep was most likely a nomarch (province governor) during the reign of the 12^th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenemhat II (1922B.C-1878B.C.) all the tombs in the area are badly preserved except for Djehutyhotep’s tomb, which is renowned for the great quality of its decorations.

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Gallery: What Mummifying a Human Body Looks Like

http://www.livescience.com/50961-modern-mummy-gallery.html

Gallery: What Mummifying a Human Body Looks Like

by Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer   |   May 26, 2015 01:42pm ET

 

 

By mummifying part of a fresh human corpse, scientists have gained an unprecedented look at the process of how the ancient Egyptians prepared their dead for the afterlife. The researchers used traditional techniques that involved preserving the body in a salt solution, and closely observed the mummification process using advanced microscopy and imaging techniques, as shown below.
Egyptian ritual

During mummification, the ancient Egyptians would first remove the corpse's organs and sterilize the body, then place it in a fluid of "natron" salt, which dehydrates the tissue and stops bacteria from degrading it. Finally, they wrapped the body in strips of linen before burying it in a grave or tomb. (Image credit: General Antiquites Egyptiennes du Musee du Caire: The Royal Mummies Le Caire, 1912, public domain)

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Modern mummy

Scientists replicated the ancient Egyptian process using the leg of a recently deceased woman who had donated her body to science. They immersed the leg in natron solution, and took tissue samples every few days to analyze them under a microscope. They also examined the tissue using X-ray imaging and genetic analysis. (Reproduced with permission from The Anatomical Record 298(6), June 2015:  Special Issue The Anatomy of the Mummy.)

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Mummification progress

The mummification process was successful, but took almost seven months (208 days). By contrast, the ancient Egyptians took two months or less, historical accounts suggest. This may be due to the cooler, damper conditions in the lab where the study took place, compared with the arid environment of ancient Egypt. (Reproduced with permission from The Anatomical Record 298(6), June 2015:  Special Issue The Anatomy of the Mummy.)

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Mummified muscle tissue

After 208 days, the muscle tissue was shrunken, but intact. The removal of water from the tissues using salts was critical for preventing bacterial degradation. (Reproduced with permission from The Anatomical Record 298(6), June 2015:  Special Issue The Anatomy of the Mummy.)

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Mummified skin tissue

The skin tissue was shrunken and the top skin layer peeled off from the underlying layers. Nevertheless, the skin was well-preserved during the mummification process, showing just how effective ancient methods were at preserving bodies after death. (Reproduced with permission from The Anatomical Record 298(6), June 2015:  Special Issue The Anatomy of the Mummy.)
Follow Tanya Lewis on& Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

Egypt authorities admit mistakes but aim for 20 million visitors by 2020

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africaandindianocean/egypt/11630395/Egypt-authorities-admit-mistakes-but-aim-for-20-million-visitors-by-2020.html

Egypt authorities admit mistakes but aim for 20 million visitors by 2020

Egypt’s tourism chief admits “we have made our share of mistakes” as he announces a three-year delay to the new Grand Egyptian Museum and a need for hygiene training on Nile cruises

The Temple of Karnak at Luxor, one of the Nile Valley cities to which Egyptian authorities hope to boost tourist numbers  Photo: AP

By Lizzie Porter

3:37PM BST 26 May 2015

Comment

Khaled Ramy, Egypt's minister of tourism, said that “we failed to tell people about the positive things about Egypt” over the past four years, but confirmed plans to attract 20 million annual visitors by 2020, up from 9.8 million in 2014.

His ambitious plans to bolster the Egyptian tourism industry, which has suffered as a result of domestic political unrest and terrorist attacks, as well as violence in neighbouring Libya, ride on a new advertising campaign with a “six zero” budget, due to be launched in August.

But he announced that the Grand Egyptian Museum, a large museum near the Giza pyramids that was due to open at the end of this year, would not be ready until 2018, because of a lack of money.

“We need funding. We will be fundraising in the next few months, but $1.2 billion (£779m) is needed to finish the museum,” he said.

^{A tweet purportedly showing the Grand Egyptian Museum site last week.}
He said that although most of the concrete shell has been finished, half of the rest of the museum remains incomplete.
• How well do you know Ancient Egypt?
The much-feted project, designed to ease pressure on the National Museum in Cairo by housing 100,000 objects, began in 2002, when the former president Hosni Mubarak laid the first foundation stone, but since then progress has stalled. Mr Ramy said that the museum would not open until higher income from tourism could contribute to its funding.
^{Egyptian authorities are hoping to attract more visitors to Aswan (Photo: AP)}
Speaking in London, Mr Ramy said that tourism authorities hope to draw visitors back to the Nile valley, where hotel occupancy in Luxor, renowned for the temple complex at Karnak, stood at 20 per cent last month. Mr Ramy, who has been in his post since March, said he is “working very hard” on attracting visitors to the city, but said, “I really don’t know what happened [to arrivals]. Have tourists changed?”
• Sharm el-Sheikh tourists confined to resort
The British Foreign Office currently considers the Nile valley suitable for visitors, but advises against all but essential travel to the Sinai peninsula outside Sharm el-Sheikh, putting the Red Sea resort towns of Taba, Nuweiba and Dahab off limits to ordinary travellers. Taba was the scene of a terrorist attack in February 2014, in which three South Korean tourists and an Egyptian driver were killed.
Mr Ramy insisted that security in Sharm el-Sheikh was “very high” and that it may only be a “matter of time” before foreign travel advisories changed. He pointed to the relaxation in France’s stance towards Taba after a meeting between French and Egyptian ministers.
^{Lake Nasser: the Foreign Office currently has no advisories against the Nile Valley (Photo: AP)}
He did not appear to consider the target of 20 million visitors by 2020 overly ambitious, despite a significant drop in tourist numbers from their 2010 peak of 14.7 million. The aim is to attract more visitors from the Far East, while also encouraging more people from the UK, Egypt’s second biggest market after Russia. The number of UK tourists to Egypt fell from 1.5 million in 2010 to 900,000 last year, as travellers eschewed its beaches and ancient sites for destinations they considered more secure.
• 13 reasons why the Nile is the world's greatest river
The Egyptian Tourism Ministry is also attempting to improve training around food hygiene and quality on Nile cruise boats. Mr Ramy reported that Abta, the Association of British Travel Agents, would be visiting Egypt in the coming weeks for food inspections. “We need to train them again [boat and hotel operators] , and tell them every few weeks.” He said that non-compliant hotels and boats would be shut down: “Quality is very important to us and those who don’t comply will stop operating.” He also announced plans to build three “state-of-the-art” docking facilities at Abu Simbel and Aswan to help with the maintenance of tourist boats.
^{The Tourism Minister has plans for a boat docking station near Abu Simbel. (Photo: AP)}
Following an embarrassing U-turn earlier this year, in which Egyptian authorities were forced to rescind announcements to end visas on arrival for independent travellers, Mr Ramy said that no changes would be made to visa arrangements until an e-visa system is introduced. He said that this would happen in 8-10 months’ time, which would be followed by a trial period of 3-4 months before being rolled out for all visitors.

Nile Unveil 'What Should Not Be Unearthed' LP

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/nile_unveil_what_should_not_be_unearthed_lp

Nile Unveil 'What Should Not Be Unearthed' LP

By Gregory Adams

Published May 26, 2015

Following a recent round of vinyl reissues, technical death metal deities Nile have announced they're now set to bless us with a brand new LP. Warnings be damned, you can dig into the group's What Should Not Be Unearthed on August 28 via Nuclear Blast.

The album is the band's eighth overall and first since 2012's Exclaim!-approved At the Gate of Sethu. It comes self-produced, with leader Karl Sanders explaining in a statement that the long-running outfit chose to focus on "brutally heavy metal riffing."


"Our last record, At the Gates of Sethu was super surgically clean and very 'musicianship oriented' whereas the new disc is a polar opposite," he said, adding that the record "is aimed straight at utter metal heaviness and memorable songwriting."

Neither a tracklisting nor samples from the set have been coughed up so far, but Nile did unveil the cover art, which was supplied by visual collaborator Xaay. As could be expected, the pyramid-focused art plays into Nile's long-documented obsession with ancient Egypt. Xaay explained that the hieroglyphs were lifted from the Book of the Dead, while the winged scarab in the centre of the pyramid is used as a protective measure.

"With the art I excavated the theories of an elder ancient civilization which could give the origin to ancient Egypt," the artist said. "That's why you can find a new ingredient in the band imagery, pointing at some higher obscure intelligence, eroding and covered with time. That trace of a dismal legacy is resembled in the outer structure which radiates from the block, sealing the unknown, and it's only an adumbration of what we will meet, once it is removed."

Xaay added, "Keep in mind that opening the package means you will deal with the deadliest essence..."

Nile have a European tour coming up with Suffocation. You'll find the show info here.

Christian Oxyrhynchus Texts, Documents, and Sources

What's New in Papyrology

Recent publications of papyri & ostraca 4th BC-8th AD; conferences, lectures etc. from Papy-L and other sources as noted. gregg.schwendner AT wichita.edu

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

L. Blumell, T. Waymant, Christian Oxyrhynchus Texts, Documents, and Sources

Forthcoming in August: 
Christian Oxyrhynchus
Texts, Documents, and Sources
Edited by Lincoln H. Blumell and Thomas A. Wayment
Baylor University Press
Hardback, 778 pages
$89.95
Published: 15th August 2015
ISBN: 9781602585393
Format: 9in x 6in

Blumell and Wayment present a thorough compendium of all published papyri, parchments, and patristic sources that relate to Christianity at Oxyrhynchus before the fifth century CE. Christian Oxyrhynchus provides new and expanded editions of Christian literary and documentary texts that include updated readings, English translations––some of which represent the first English translation of a text––and comprehensive notes.

The volume features New Testament texts carefully collated against other textual witnesses and a succinct introduction for each Oxyrhynchus text that provides information about the date of the papyrus, its unique characteristics, and textual variants. Documentary texts are grouped both by genre and date, giving readers access to the Decian Libelli, references to Christians in third- and fourth-century texts, and letters written by Christians. A compelling resource for researchers, teachers, and students, Christian Oxyrhynchus enables broad access to these crucial primary documents beyond specialists in papyrology, Greek, Latin, and Coptic.

“Christian Oxyrhynchus is a marvelous resource for scholars and students alike. The volume collects not only the fragments of texts that eventually became part of the ‘New Testament’ but also a wealth of extracanonical Christian texts, hymns, prayers, tractates, and amulets that constituted the library of knowledge that Oxyrhynchite Christians had in the second to the fourth centuries C.E. Taken together, these form a rich dossier, illustrating the complexion and contours of Christianity at this important Egyptian city.”

—John S. Kloppenborg, F.R.S.C., Chair and Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

"This important new collection forms an indispensable aid to research on early Christian Egypt, and will serve as the basis for the next generation of work on Christianity in Oxyrhynchus".

—Malcolm Choat, Associate Professor, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University

"A treasure trove! This book will serve as a rich resource both for teaching and for original research on a formative period in the history of early Christianity with first hand documents from a known provenance. I am sure it will stimulate and generate new research on this important site and its Christian population. I recommend it warmly.”

—AnneMarie Luijendijk, Chair and Professor, Department of Religion, Princeton University

“For the first time ever, Lincoln Blumell and Thomas Wayment provide a collection of literary and documentary witnesses to early Christianity from a late ancient town in Upper Egypt. Students and scholars alike will profit from the meticulous and scrutinizing work of collecting this mass of papyri from the second to the fourth century.”

—Thomas J. Kraus, University of Zurich, Switzerland

 

Ancient Mummies Meet Modern Medicine with “The Anatomy of the Mummy” | Popular Archaeology - exploring the past

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2013/article/ancient-mummies-meet-modern-medicine-with-the-anatomy-of-the-mummy

Ancient Mummies Meet Modern Medicine with "The Anatomy of the Mummy"

Fri, May 22, 2015

Co-edited by Penn Museum Curator Janet Monge, Publication Follows Earlier Penn Museum Symposium Exploring Range of Techniques to Study Mummies

PHILADELPHIA, PA May 22, 2015—Mummies are fascinating to the general public. It turns out they are fascinating to scientists, too. Anthropologists, archaeologists and doctors and researchers in the medical community have been coming together for decades, now, engaging in interdisciplinary exploration of mummies from all over the world. What have they learned? What can modern medical techniques applied to long deceased humans tell us—and what techniques and practices hold the best promise for scholars eager to unwrap more about the human experience in the past?

Several years ago, Janet Monge, Penn Museum Curator of Physical Anthropology, connected with Jeffrey Laitman, Associate Editor of the scholarly journal The Anatomical Record, to bring together a range of scholars to discuss these questions at a Penn Museum public symposium. That 2011 symposium formed the kernel of an unusual June 2015 Special Issue of The Anatomical Record (available online beginning May 22), "The Anatomy of the Mummy."

"We wanted to bring together the growing number of people—medical and scholarly—who were actively engaged in this cross-disciplinary work. What could we learn from each other about how diverse procedures, applied to diverse mummy populations, are or are not providing new and meaningful data about our shared human past?" noted Dr. Monge.

Dr. Monge is guest editor with Frank Reuhli, Swiss Mummy Project, Institute of Evolutional Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland, on what has become an international mummies and science volume. Twenty-six research articles explore mummy studies, most employing state-of-the-art scientific techniques like CT scans, MRI and endoscopy, far more commonly used on living patients by the medical community, as well as newly developed techniques of Terahertz MRI imaging.  Mummies studied come from around the world, including Egypt, Korea, Sicily, Greenland, Peru, New Guinea, and Denmark. The development of a mummy database for future study, and consideration on the ethics of mummy studies, are included in the issue.

"The scope and depth of the topics makes this volume truly unique," noted Dr. Monge. "The Anatomy of the Mummy explores the challenges and emerging techniques for studying mummies under varied conditions of preservation including natural and artificial mummification as well as bodies preserved in bogs.  In addition to discussions of ethical practice and disease patterns in past human populations, authors discuss best practices of mummy conservation for future generations. These wide ranging topics will interest those in many fields ranging from anthropology to zoology."

_______________________________________

Dr. Janet Monge, Curator-in-Charge and Keeper, Physical Anthropology section, Penn Museum, and guest co-editor with Frank Reuhli, of "The Anatomy of a Mummy," the June 2015 Special Issue of The Anatomical Record. Photo taken of Monge in Museum storage, by Steve Minicola, Penn Communications.

_______________________________________

Penn Museum has a history of mummy conservation and research, and two articles in the special issue come from the museum: Molly Gleeson, project conservator for the Museum's In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies public lab and exhibition, collaborating with Dr. Michael Zimmerman, Adjunct Professor, Villanova University, offers an historic perspective on a famous Penn Museum mummy, PUM I, autopsied more than 40 years ago—and revisits the earlier mummy study with new techniques of analysis to learn more. Samantha Cox, Penn Museum scholar and a graduate student, University of Cambridge, UK, offers "A Critical Look at Mummy CT Scanning," reviewing the history and assessing the potentials, and the pitfalls, of high-resolution scanning, with particular attention on two Egyptian mummies in the Museum's collection.

Read more about the Artifact Lab and Molly Gleeson in the free premium article, The Mummy Doctors, published in the Fall 2014 issue of Popular Archaeology.

____________________________________________________

About The Anatomical Record and the American Association of Anatomists

The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, is a peer-reviewed journal, an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists, founded in 1906, and published by John Wiley & Sons. The American Association of Anatomists (AAA) was founded by Joseph Leidy in Washington, D.C. in 1888 for the "advancement of anatomical science." Today, via research, education and professional development activities, AAA serves as the professional home for an international community of biomedical researchers and educators focusing on the structural foundation of health and disease.

About the Penn Museum

Founded in 1887, the Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), 3260 South Street in Philadelphia, is one of the world's great archaeology and anthropology research museums, and the largest university museum in the United States. With nearly one million objects in the collection, the Penn Museum encapsulates and illustrates the human story: who we are and where we came from. A dynamic research institution with many ongoing research projects, the Museum is an engaging place of discovery. The Museum's mandate of research, teaching, collections stewardship, and public engagement are the four "pillars" of  its expansive mission: to transform understanding of the human experience.

The Penn Museum can be found on the web at www.penn.museum. For general information call 215.898.4000.

Photo above: Project Conservator Molly Gleeson at work on a mummy In the Artifact Lab. Photo: Penn Museum.

A press release of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS LEAD CHRISTIE’S SALE OF ANTIQUITIES ON JUNE 4 - Artwire Press Release from ArtfixDaily.com

http://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/8295-distinguished-private-collections-lead-christie's-sale-of-antiqui

ArtfixDaily ArtWire^tm

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DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS LEAD CHRISTIE'S SALE OF ANTIQUITIES ON JUNE 4

New York , New York -- 26 May 2015

PROPERTY FROM THE CATTAUI FAMILY COLLECTION AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF PHARAOH NECHO II LATE PERIOD, 26th DYNASTY, REIGN OF NECHO II, CIRCA 610-595 B.C. Estimate: $150,000-250,000 (Christie's Images Ltd. 2015)

A large Neo-Babylonian clay cylinder, Reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 604–562 B.C., Estimate: $250,000-350,000) (Christie's Images Ltd. 2015)

(ArtfixDaily.com) 

New York – Christie's presents the spring sale of Antiquities on June 4th, which comprises of over 170 lots, offering a range of ancient objects from across the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds including two distinguished private collections. The Cattaui Family Collection features an excellent assembly of Egyptian and Classical works of art, including a rare Egyptian bronze kneeling figure of the 26th Dynasty Pharaoh Necho and an Egyptian limestone relief from the Amarna period. The ancient Near East is represented by the collection of the prominent New York dealer Elias S. David (1891-1969), with an extensive variety of cuneiform-inscribed objects made of clay, copper and stone. This exceptional group will be joined by a selection of Greek vases, including an amphora formerly in the Collection of William Randolph Hearst and a group of Attic and South Italian vases from the Collection of Emile Foltzer, Switzerland. 

 

PROPERTY FROM THE CATTAUI FAMILY COLLECTION

Christie's is pleased to be offering the Cattaui Family Collection of ancient art, an impressive assembly of Egyptian and Classical art. It was formed with great passion over the course of multiple generations, beginning in the mid 19th century. The Cattauis are a prominent family formerly based in Cairo and the collection was begun by the family patriarch Joseph Aslan Cattaui Pasha (1861–1942). Members of the Cattaui family had been generous donors to museums since the 19th century, such as the Alexandria National Museum and the Louvre, where there is a lengthy papyrus scroll that today bears the family name.

 

Highlights of the collection include an important Egyptian limestone relief from the Amarna Period, which depicts Royal figures navigating a sailboat on the Nile, circa 1352-1336 B.C. (estimate: $40,000-60,000); and a splendid section of an Egyptian papyrus scroll with text from the Book of the Dead for Nes-Khonsu, with an exquisite vignette showing the deceased standing in adoration before Osiris, 21st Dynasty 1069-945 B.C. (estimate: $40,000-60,000). Animals also feature prominently in the collection including an ibis and a seated cat.

 

THE COLLECTION OF ELIAS S. DAVID

Elias S. David (1891-1969) was one of the most prominent dealers of ancient Near Eastern art during the mid 20th century. Many masterpieces that passed through his hands are now in some of the great international museums, including the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Noteworthy objects from his collection include the many cylinders, barrels, cones and tablets, chiefly of clay but also in bronze and stone, all inscribed with cuneiform texts, and predominantly made as foundation deposits.

 

Among the many important objects of this group is a large Neo-Babylonian clay cylinder from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 604–562 B.C., which commemorates his rebuilding of the temple of the god Lugal-Marada at Marad (estimate: $250,000-350,000); a clay barrel from the same period was made to mark Nebuchadnezzar II's restoration of the Ebabbar Temple of Shamash in Sippar (estimate: $250,000-350,000); and a rare copper tablet from the Isin-Larsa Period, reign of Rim-Sin I, 1822–1763 B.C., records that the King's wife built a temple for the goddess Ninegal (estimate: $50,000-70,000).

 

ArtfixDaily.com © 2015 Wildfire Media.

Technology helps unlock secrets of mummies - CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/technology-unlocks-secrets-of-mummies/

ByMichael CaseyCBS NewsMay 26, 2015, 6:00 AM

Technology helps unlock secrets of mummies

20 Photos

The sarcophagus of King Tut is seen in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. Scientists using a CT scan have been able to shed light on what ailed him during his short life. AP Photo/Ben Curtis

Doctors have become accustomed to using magnetic resonance imaging or CT scans to assess a whole range of ailments in living human beings. Now, scientists are increasingly using the same technology to unlock the secrets of dead - in many cases the mummified remains of humans dating back thousands of years.

In an entire issue of The Anatomical Record dedicated to mummies, researchers describe how CT (computed tomography) scans - which use X-rays of virtual cross-sections of the body to create three-dimensional images - have become one of the leading diagnostic tools for the in-depth analysis of ancient mummies. Coupled with that has been the use of terahertz imaging or MRIs to give researchers a a more detailed look at mummified tissues.

19 Photos

Inside view of ancient mummies

"Noninvasive imaging of ancient tissues is of increasing interest in paleopathological studies, with conventional X-ray and computed tomography currently considered the diagnostic gold standard," Frank J. Rühli, an author on several papers who is part of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich's Centre for Evolutionary Medicine, wrote. Using novel MRI techniques, he added, will broaden available methods for "noninvasive studies on ancient corpses, whether they have wet or dry soft tissue, or bone."

Researchers in the past year have used the technology to determine that one mummy was a girl who lived more than 500 years ago in Peru. In another case, they used a CT scanner to determine that an Egyptian mummy still had her lungs - unusual since the organs were often removed before burial - and that she had an array of small objects around her head that might have been a headdress or shroud. And in still another example, they were able to use it to disprove a theory that King Tut suffered from a painful inflammatory disorder called ankylosing spondylitis.

In a case study highlighted in the journal, Samuel Marquez of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center and his colleagues used data gleaned from three CT scans of Egyptian mummies to explore a hypothesis that paranasal sinus size was related to the environment. The data from the mummies helped strengthen the case that, indeed, sinus size was related to climatic and temperature conditions.

And in what's undoubtedly one of the strangest cases ever to use such technology, scientists and hospital staff at a Dutch hospital used a CT scanner to determine that the mummified remains of a monk were contained inside a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue. The monk had evidently practiced the ancient tradition of self-mummification, in which Buddhist ascetics would starve themselves for years and essentially meditate themselves to death.

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Along with the technological advances, the journal also features a literal who's who of mummies around the world - documenting examples from ancient Egypt to those found preserved in Danish bogs to the ice mummies of the Inuit peoples of Greenland. There are also studies detailing the mummies of Papua New Guinea and Peru.

Researchers discussed how studying the conditions and ailments of mummies could prove a boon to modern medicine - prompting some to suggest the time has come to develop a code of ethics for the handling of these specimens.

"Ancient mummies are an especially rich source of information about past human biological conditions as they originated worldwide and from different cultures and time periods," Janet Monge, of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, wrote, along with Rühli, in one of the articles.

"Mummies are likely to yield, for example, more ancient DNA than skeletal remains. The examples of contributions made by mummy studies to our medical knowledge are increasing," they wrote. "This is true particularly to the study of infectious diseases. Naturally and artificially mummified human remains have also been the source for genomic analyses of the adaptive evolution for example of Mycobacterium strains or with more recent mummified samples of the analyses of the Spanish flu."

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150525-ancient-egypt-zoo-pets-hierakonpolis-baboons-archaeology/

In Ancient Egypt, Life Wasn't Easy for Elite Pets

Animal skeletons found buried in a 5,000-year-old cemetery reveal injuries from beatings, restraints.

Exotic animals such as baboons were buried near their high-status owners in the ancient Egyptian cemetery of Hierakonpolis.
Photograph by Renee Friedman, Courtesy of Hierakonpolis Expedition

By Traci Watson, National Geographic

PUBLISHED May 25, 2015

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For ancient Egyptians, owning a menagerie of exotic animals conveyed power and wealth. But the remains of baboons, hippos, and other elite pets buried more than 5,000 years ago in a graveyard near the Nile reveal the dark side of being a status symbol.

NG MAPS
SOURCES: ANCIENT WORLD MAPPING CENTER AND INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Baboon skeletons found at one tomb bear dozens of broken hand and foot bones, hinting at punishing beatings. At least two baboons have classic parry fractures, broken arms that typically occur when trying to shield the head from a blow. A hippo calf broke its leg trying to free itself from a tether, and an antelope and a wild cow also show injuries probably related to being tied.

Ancient zookeepers "clearly had difficulty maintaining these animals," says zooarchaeologist Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, who led a new analysis of the skeletons to be published in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. "The practical means of keeping animals in captivity were not so sophisticated as nowadays."

The animals were found in the ancient cemetery of Hierakonpolis, a town that thrived long before Egypt became a united kingdom ruled by pharaohs. Excavations have revealed two elephants, a leopard, two crocodiles, and remains of nine more exotic species buried near the tombs of powerful citizens. Nowhere else in Egypt have archaeologists found such an array of ancient zoo animals, which were probably sacrificed after their owners died. (See evidence of possible human sacrifice at Hierakonpolis.)

Workers excavate the skeleton of a male elephant. Large, powerful animals inspired awe. So did the rulers who owned them.

Photograph by Renee Friedman, Courtesy of Hierakonpolis Expedition

Pets Make a Statement

Different animals held different meanings for their owners, says Renee Friedman, who is director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition and has received past research support from National Geographic. Elite rulers would have wanted to emulate the strength of an elephant. The hippo, on the other hand, was a terrifying, destructive beast. To keep a hippo "means you're controlling a really chaotic force in nature," she says.

The animals' injuries show signs of healing, suggesting they were kept alive in captivity for several weeks or longer, rather than being killed immediately. Exactly when the animals were injured is not clear, says archaeologist Richard Redding of the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum, who has studied animal bones excavated in ancient Egypt. Redding argues that the animals' struggles while being caught and subdued could have led to the injuries.