News, Cairo: China Signs Its First MoU with Egypt in the Archaeology Field

China's vice-president also visited Luxor and the Giza Plateau. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

Amid his short visit to Egypt, China's Vice-President Wang Qishan witnessed the signing, along with Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, of the first Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Antiquities and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the archaeological field.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany signed the MoU with Chen Xingcan, director of the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in order to strengthen cooperation in the archaeological field, the training of archeologists and museologists, as well as increasing archaeological awareness among both Egyptian and Chinese citizens.

Starting November, the first Chinese archaeological mission will start work in an archaeological site in Egypt, including conducting an archaeological survey, excavation, and restoration and documentation works. Accompained with El-Enany, Qishan also embarked on tours at Luxor and the Giza Plateau where he admired the beauty of the ancient Egyptian civilisation.

In Luxor, he visited Luxor and Karnak Temples as well as the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. At the Giza Plateau, he visited King Khufu’s pyramid and the Sphinx. Minister of Antiquities El-Enany accompanied the China vice-president at both sites.

Source: Ahram Online

New Discovery, Memphis: 'Massive' Ancient Building Discovered By Archaeologists in Egypt

Building likely a part of ancient capital city of Memphis. Archaeologists have discovered a “massive” ancient building in Egypt.

Large Roman bath and chamber likely for religious rituals
discovered in town of Mit Rahina 

The building was found in the town of Mit Rahina, 12 miles (20km) south of the capital, Cairo.

The country’s Antiquities Ministry said archaeologists also uncovered an attached building which includes a large Roman bath and another chamber that was likely used for religious rituals.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the building probably formed part of the residential block in the area, which was the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.

Memphis, which was founded around 3,100BC, was home to Menes, the king who united Upper and Lower Egypt. “The discovered building was built of brick blocks supported by huge blocks of limestone, whose foundations, external walls and inner staircase were built with red brick molds,” Mr Waziri said, according to Egypt Today.

He said the area would be excavated and studied in order to discover more about the building. Egypt hopes such discoveries will spur tourism, partially driven by antiquities sightseeing, which was hit hard by political turmoil following the 2011 uprising.

Source: Independent UK

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New Opening, Nile Delta: San Al-Hagar Archaeological Site's Conversion to Open-Air Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art Making Progress

The Minister of Antiquities Khaled el-Enany and an entourage of foreign ambassadors embarked on an inspection tour Saturday to the San Al-Hagar archeological site to assess the progress being made to develop the Sharqiya Governorate site into an open-air museum for ancient Egyptian art. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

The minister was accompanied by Mostafa Waziri, General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mamdouh Gurab, Governor of Sharqiya, and a group of a dozen foreign ambassadors to Egypt from Brazil, Lithuania, Congo, Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and other attaches.

El-Enany explained that the project aims to lift the monumental blocks, reliefs, columns, statues, and stelae laying on the sand at the site and to restore and re-erect them onto concrete slabs to protect them for future generations. The artifacts have been laying on sands since their discovery in the 19th century.

Waziri also said that the Egyptian mission restored and lifted-up ancient Egyptian blocks, statues, columns and obelisks onto stone mounts to isolate them from the ground and protect them from subsoil water, salts and moisture, as well as putting the objects on a better display to visitors.

The most important objects that the mission restored and re-erected are the northern and southern colossi of King Ramses II, which had been left on the ground in pieces since its discovery in the 19th century, along with two obelisks and two columns of the King Ramses II era. San Al-Hagar boasts many monumental relics and is one of the country’s largest and most impressive sites, causing Egyptologists to dub it the “Luxor of the North”.

During the 21st and 22nd dynasties, Tanis was a royal necropolis housing the tombs of the Pharaohs as well as nobles and military leaders. Pierre Montet’s excavations between the 1920s and 1950s were the most important carried out at Tanis. Montet put an end to the enigma of the identification of the site, as some Egyptologists saw Tanis as Pi-Ramses, while others suggested that it was the ancient Avaris.

Montet showed that Tanis was neither Pi-Ramses nor Avaris, but rather a third capital in the Delta during the 21st Dynasty. He also unearthed the royal necropolis of the 21st and 22nd dynasties in 1939, with their unique treasures now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

“This discovery was not recognised in the way that the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 was recognised because of the outbreak of World War II,” Waziri said. Among the tombs that were uncovered were those of the Pharaohs Psusennes I, Amenemonpe, Osorkon II and Sheshonq III.

The site houses large number of tombs and temples among the largest is the one dedicated to god Amun. It also houses the Temples of deities Mut and Khonsu and Horus along with a collection of obelisks, columns and colossi of King Ramses II. In December 2017, the ministry launched a comprehensive rescue project to restore Tanis and to develop the site into an open-air museum of Ancient Egyptian art.

Source: Ahram Online

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New Discovery, Minya: Burial Chambers of Two Middle Kingdom Officials Discovered

An Egyptian-Australian mission from Maquarie University has accidently uncovered early this month the burial chambers of Rimushenty and Baqet II, who were top officials during ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom and rulers of the country's 16th Nome. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref

The discovery was made while the team was carrying out cleaning work inside a tomb at the Beni Hassan necropolis in Minya governorate. No mummies or sarcophagi were found in the burial chambers.

Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, said that Rimushenty's burial chamber was found at the bottom of a three-metre-deep shaft.

Ashmawi told Ahram Online that no funerary collection was found inside the main burial chamber, explaining that the collection "was probably removed by British Egyptologist Percy E. Newberry, who worked in Beni Hassan necropolis between 1893 and 1900." Ashmawi said that the burial chamber has an empty rectangular space that likely once housed the now-missing sarcophagus. 

A collection of clay food containers was also found in two side burial chambers located to the east and west of the main chamber.

Gamal El-Semestawi, General Director of Middle Egypt Antiquities, said that Baqet II's burial chamber has the same design as Ramushenty chamber. El-Semestawi added that the walls of the main chamber are painted with well-preserved coloured scenes dedicated to Baqet II. A collection of clay vessels was also found in the chamber.

Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati, the head of the mission, said that the team will resume its work in January to clean, restore and study the wall paintings as well as inspect the shaft and burial chambers as the first step towards scientific publication. The mission has been working in Beni Hassan necropolis since 2009.

 Source: Ahram Online

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New Discovery, Nile Delta: Greco-Roman Bath, Artifacts Discovered at San El-Hagar Archaeological Site in Egypt.

Wriiten By/ Nevine El-Aref: An Egyptian archaeological mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities has uncovered sections from a huge red brick building that might be part of a Greco-Roman bath at San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbeya governorate.

The mission has also uncovered a collection of pottery vessels, terracotta statues, bronze tools and coins, a stone fragment engraved with hieroglyphs and a small statue of a lamb.

Head of the mission Saeed El-Asal told Ahram Online that the most notable artefact discovered is a gold coin of King Ptolemy III, which was made during the reign of his son King Ptolemy IV (244 – 204 BC) in memory of his father. The diameter of the coin is 2.6cm and weighs about 28g.

One side of the coin depicts a portrait of King Ptolemy III wearing the crown while the other side bears the Land of Prosperity and the name of the king.

 Source: Ahram Online 

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News, Cairo: Exhibition of Artifacts from Deir al-Bersha to Open Thursday at Egyptian Museum in Tahrir

The exhibition celebrates 120 years of excavations at the Minya governorate site. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

A temporary exhibition highlighting 120 years of archaeological excavations in Deir el-Barsha in Minya will open Thursday evening at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. Under the title Life in Death: The Middle Kingdom at Deir el-Bersha, the exhibition will be officially inaugurated by Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany, Belgiun Ambassador to Egypt Sibille de Cartier and German Ambassador Julius Georg Loew.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, KU Leuven University in Belgium and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany. The event will be attended by the head of the Belgium-Germany Archaeological Mission, a number of ambassadors to Egypt from foreign counties, Egyptian members of parliament and top officials at the antiquities ministry.

Elham Salah, Head of the Museums Sector at the ministry, told Ahram Online that the exhibition will be on display for 30 days and will showcase 70 artifacts from the discoveries at Deir Al-Bersha, which were previously spread throught the museum’s various galleries or concealed in its basement.

“The artefacts will for the first time be displayed together,” she pointed out, revealing that the objects include the distinguished funerary collection from the tomb of Sepi III.

Among Sepi III's artefacts are the rectangular box coffins, inscribed with religious funerary texts, known as coffin texts, which helped the deceased to travel through the afterlife. Also among the displaed items are wooden models found in the tomb, which often depicting activities from daily life such as making food and drink.

The aim of such models was so that the deceased could enjoy these activities in eternity. Trays found in the tombs of Sepi I, Sepi III and Nehri I will also be on display. These trays, Salah said, are unique as they are made of painted cartonnage, consisting of a layer of gypsum.

The individual offerings on these trays are also made of cartonnage, painted in intricate detail, allowing for the easy identification of objects.

Sabah Abdel-Razek, General-Director of the Egyptian Museum, said that the site at Deir Al-Bersha is located 280 km south of Cairo and is best known as the burial place of the Middle Kingdom governors of el-Ashmunein (c. 2055-1650 BCE).

The governors built elaborately decorated tombs high on the North Hill of the Eastern Desert cliffs, while important officials were buried in tomb shafts in the vicinity of their lords.

The earliest excavations at Deir el-Bersha began in 1897 when the French Egyptologist Georges Daressy began exploring the site on behalf of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. His most spectacular find was the intact burial chamber of Sepi III.

The first Egyptian Egyptologist, Ahmed Kamal, continued to work at Deir el-Bersha from 1900-1902. He excavated several of the elite shaft tombs on the North Hill, including those of Amenemhat and Nehri I.

During their expeditions, she explains, Daressy and Kamal discovered an impressive collection of exemplary Middle Kingdom funerary equipment, such as wooden tomb models and decorated coffins. The majority of these objects are kept in the Egyptian Museum and many will be on display in this exhibit.

In 1915, American Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner excavated for two months at Deir el-Bersha. His most important discovery was the nearly intact tomb of governor Djehutinakht IV or V. Since 2002 KU Leuven University has resumed excavations at this site, reinvestigating several of the areas where these prior excavations took place.

KU Leuven University has also collaborated with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since 2009 on excavations of five large tomb shafts in front of the tomb of governor Djehutihotep, most of the contents of which are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Source: Ahram Online

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