New Discovery, Luxor: Archaeologists Unearth Statue of Queen Tiye in Egypt's Luxor

The discovery of the statue was made by the European-Egyptian mission, working under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

A unique statue, possibly of Queen Tiye, the wife of King Amenhotep III and grandmother of King Tutankhamun, has been unearthed at her husband's funerary temple in Kom El-Hittan on Luxor's west bank. 

The exciting find was made by the European-Egyptian mission, working under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany who visited the site to inspect the discovery, described the staute as "unique and distinghuised". 

He told Ahram Online that no alabaster statues of Queen Tiye have been found before now. 

"All previous statues of her unearthed in the temple were carved of quartzite," he said.

Hourig Sourouzian, head of the mission said that the statue is very well preserved and has kept is colours well. 

She said the statue was founded accidentally while archaeologists were lifting up the lower part of a statue of king Amenhotep III that was buried in the sand.

"The Queen Tiye statue appeared beside the left leg of the King Amenhotep III statue," Sourouzian said. She added that the statue will be the subject of restoration work.

Source: Ahram Online

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New Discovery, Luxor: Statue of Amenhotep III, 66 of Goddess Sekhmet Unearthed in Luxor

Headless statue of goddess Sekhmet. Photo courtesy of The Colossi of Memnon
and Amenhotep III  Temple Conservation Project

The discoveries shed further light on what the eighteenth dynasty pharaoh's temple would have looked like. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project has discovered a magnificent statue in black granite representing king Amenhotep III seated on the throne.

Project director Hourig Sourouzian told Ahram Online that the statue is 248cm high, 61 cm wide and 110cm deep. It was found in the great court of the temple of Amenhotep III on Luxor's West Bank.

"It is a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian sculpture: extremely well carved and perfectly polished," Sourouzian said, adding that the statue shows the king with very juvenile facial features, which indicates that it was probably commissioned early in his reign.

A similar statue was discovered by the same team in 2009 and is now temporarily on display in the Luxor Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art. When the site's restoration is complete, Sourouzian said, the pair of statues would be displayed again in the temple, in their original positions.

The Left - statue of goddess Sekhmet standing with the papyrus slogan in

 her hand. The Right - statue of goddess Sekhmet sitting. 

Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ministry of Antiquities Ancient Egyptian antiquities department said the team has discovered up to 66 parts of statues of the goddess Sekhmet this archaeological season. These statues represent the goddess sitting or standing holding a papyrus sceptre and an ankh — the symbol of life. On many of these statues the goddess' lion head is preserved. Other pieces include busts, heads detached from their bases, as well as several other parts.

Sourouzian said this series of statues was found during excavation between the ruined temple's Peristyle Court and the Hypostyle Hall, as archaeologists searched for remains of the wall separating the two areas.

"The sculptures are of great artistic quality and of greatest archaeological interest, as they survived extensive quarrying of the temple remains in the Ramesside Period, after a heavy earthquake toppled the walls and the columns," she told Ahram Online.

A collection of statues depicting goddess Sekhmet in situ. 

Photo courtesy of The Colossi of Memnon and 

Amenhotep III  Temple Conservation Project

As her name indicates (derived from Sekhem, meaning "might"), the lion-headed Sekhmet is a powerful goddess who protects the sun god against his enemies. King Amenhotep III commissioned hundreds of statues of the goddess for the temples he constructed in Thebes.

In his funerary temple particularly, which was called the "temple for millions of years," the great number of these statues was intended to protect the ruler from evil and repel or cure diseases.

"All of these statues of the goddess will be placed back in their original setting as soon as the site is restored," Sourouzian said.

Source: Ahram Online

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News, Luxor: Egypt's Antiquities Ministry Restores Colossus of Ramsess II at Karnak Temples

Restoration began one month ago on a statue of the celebrated 19th dynasty pharaoh, which decorated the façade of the Karnak Temples' first pylon. Written By / Nevine El-Aref.

Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities is conducting comprehensive restoration work on a colossus statue of king Ramsess II that once decorated the façade of the first pylon of the Karnak Temple Complex.

Mostafa Waziri, head of the ministry’s Luxor antiquities department, told Ahram Online that reconstruction of the statue began one month ago, and is expected to be completed within two months. The statue would then be erected in its original position, he said.

The colossus of Egypt's most celebrated pharaoh stood in front of Karnak's first pylon along with five others. Four of these colossi depict the king standing and the two others sitting.

During the fourth century AD, Waziri said, the colossi were subjected to damages by a destructive earthquake. Their blocks were selected and placed in wooden shelters on the first pylon's western side.

In 2016, the ministry decided to restore and reconstruct one of these statues. Luxor governorate has supported the project by providing the materials needed for restoration. 

The statue is carved in gray granite, weighs 65 tons and stands 10.8 metres tall.

Source: Ahram Online

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Re-Opening, Luxor: Luxor's Stoppelaëre House Transformed Into Scientific Centre For Heritage

The 1940s Stoppelaëre House  opened Last Week on Luxor’s west bank. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

After 12 months of restoration, Stoppelaëre House opened with a view to developing it into a cultural and scientific centre for heritage. 

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and Swiss Ambassador Markus Leitner  opened the house Friday. The house is a fully restored masterpiece of 20th century architecture by Egypt's pioneer architect Hassan Fathy. 

The restoration was part of the Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative launched in 2008 by the Ministry of Antiquities in collaboration with the University of Basel and the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation.

Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department, said that Stoppelaëre House is an example of Fathy's mature approach to mud brick architecture. It was built in 1950 for Alexander Stoppelaëre after the completion of the village of New Gourna, a visionary housing project of the late 1940s. 

The restoration was funded by Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation, Madrid, and the work was carried out by the Waly Centre for Architecture and Heritagein Cairo with a team of local craftsmen.

Tarek Waly, one of the leading heritage architects working in Egypt, worked with Fathy for many years and has a deep understanding of his aims and intentions. Great attention has been paid to preserving the building while also making it serve a new function as a state of the art 3D scanning, archiving and training centre.

Adam Lowe, founder of Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation, explained that the new centre at Stoppelaëre House will bring 3D scanning technologies (including medium/long range survey scanning, close range high-resolution surface scanning, composite photography and high-resolution photogrammetry) to Luxor. High-resolution recording and documentation provides a cost effective solution for heritage documentation that will benefit the local community.

He pointed out that in 2016, Factum Foundation began training local operators under the supervision of Aliaa Ismail, a specialist in architecture and Egyptology, who will run the centre. “The first two local operators are already fully trained and as the centre becomes fully equipped, the number of people receiving training in data recording, processing and archiving will increase,” Lowe said.

He added that the restoration of Stoppelaëre House and the Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative Training Centre are one of the central elements of the Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative (TNPI), a project initiated in 2008. The TNPI gained prominence in 2014 for installing an exact facsimile of the tomb of Tutankhamun on the site near Howard Carter´s house.

Lowe continued that high-resolution recording and documentation are transforming the ways in which we protect, monitor, study and communicate the importance of vulnerable cultural heritage sites like the Valley of the Kings.

Now the initiative is focused on the tomb of King Seti I. Upon the discovery of the tomb 200 years ago by the explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni, a facsimile was made of the tomb’s wall to put them on show in London. Regretfully, Belzoni’s facsimile was made by casting the walls, which caused significant damage to the tomb. Belzoni and others also removed sections of the tomb that are now in international museums and collections around the world.

Stoppelaëre House become the symbol of a new approach, whereby such scattered fragments are analysed and reintegrated into a whole by way of new technologies. During 2017 there will be a significant transfer of skills and technology in order to facilitate the recording of sites in and around Luxor.

Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, describes the training programme as a fantastic idea. “It will provide Egyptians with the most up-to-date technologies that will allow them to preserve and document their cultural heritage accurately and completely. This shows how international cooperation can further the preservation of heritage, not just for Egypt, but for the world," she said.

Source: Ahram Online

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New Discovery, Luxor: Tomb of Ramesside-Era Royal Scribe Uncovered in Luxor

A Japanese mission from Waseda University discovered a private tomb in the Theban necropolis in Luxor, Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the antiquities ministry's Ancient Egypt Department, said on Tuesday. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

Photo: Courtesy of Waseda University

Afifi says that the tomb, located at the El-Khokha area on the west bank of the Nile, is beautifully decorated and likely dates to the Ramesside period, based on its style. Early inspection of the tomb suggests that it belonged to a royal scribe named Khonsu .

Jiro Kondo, the head of the Japanese mission, told Ahram Online that the tomb was discovered while excavators were cleaning the area to the east of the forecourt of the tomb of Userhat, a high official under king Amenhotep III. He added that the team aslso stumbled upon a hole hewn connected to the south wall of the transverse hall of the previously unknown tomb of Khonsu. The tomb is built on a T-shape on an east-west axis, with the main entrance, currently covered in debris, facing the east.

The tomb measures approximately 4.6m in length from the entrance to the rear wall of the inner chamber, while the transverse hall measures approximately 5.5 m in width.

Decoration scene & The scene of the baboons

Kondo explains that on the north wall of the entrance doorway, a scene shows the solar boat of the god Ra-Atum being worshipped by four baboons in a pose of adoration.

On the adjacent wall, hieroglyphic texts are inscribed vertically describing Khonsu as a “true renowned scribe.” On the southern part of the eastern wall in the transverse hall, Khonsu and his wife worship the gods Osiris and Isis in a kiosk, behind which is a depiction of the two ram-headed deity, likely Khnum or Khnum-Re.

On the upper register of the northern part of the tomb, there are carved seated figures of Osiris and Isis, though the upper parts of their bodies are broken. On the lower register, a portion of the paintings shows the followers of the tomb owners. "Regretfully, most of the wall paintings on the western wall of the transverse hall are no longer there," says Kondo.

Hani Abul Azm, the head of the Central Administration for Upper Egyptian Antiquities, says that the wall where the hole hewn is found hold vertical inscriptions at the top. The name and title of tomb's owner are identified. The frieze pattern near the ceiling shows a typical khekher-frize of the Ramesside period.

The ceiling decorations are better preserved than the wall paintings, while more images may be discovered in the inner chamber once the debris is cleared.

Source: Ahram Online

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