New Discovery, Nile Delta: Skeletons Of Two Possible Eunuchs Discovered In Ancient Egypt

Recent excavations at the Ptolemaic-Roman site of Quesna in Egypt have revealed two skeletons of individuals who might have been eunuchs. But these people’s above-average height and other skeletal irregularities might also reflect a congenital condition rather than castration.

Skeleton B21 from Ptolemaic era Quesna, Egypt. With its immature bones and 

tall stature, this individual might have been intersex.

Presenting at last week’s American Association of Physical Anthropologists conference, archaeologists Scott Haddow (University of Bordeaux), Sonia Zakrzewski (University of Southampton), and Joanne Rowland (University of Edinburgh) highlighted the two unusual burials out of 151 total interments at Quesna, located in the Nile Delta region of the country.

One person – B21 – was an adolescent of indeterminate sex from the Ptolemaic Era. The burial was oriented rather differently: with the head to the south, rather than the typical head-north orientation of the period. Although the skeleton was poorly preserved, Haddow and colleagues noticed that most of the person's bones looked extremely immature, including the growth plates of the limb bones, which were completely unfused. This meant that the person was taller than average, even though they were not fully grown.

The other person – B26 – was also an adolescent of indeterminate sex, dating to the Roman Era. Buried in a collective tomb, this person was similarly much taller than average with completely unfused growth plates.

Archaeologist Scott Haddow excavating B26, a potentially intersex

individual from Roman-era Quesna, Egypt.

Haddow and colleagues began to suspect these individuals were possibly eunuchs because castration before the onset of puberty typically results in people who are tall and slender, with broad hips, narrow shoulders, and a sunken chest. Although there are few skeletal studies of individuals known to have been castrated, those that exist – such as of the Italian castrati Farinelli and Pacchierotti – also reveal incompletely fused long bones, tall stature, and osteoporosis.

So were these people from ancient Egypt eunuchs? The historical record would certainly allow for that possibility. Intersex individuals were present throughout the ancient world, Haddow and colleagues note, with eunuchs playing important administrative roles in Assyrian, Persian, and Roman courts. Linguistic evidence also indicates the recognition of non-binary gender statuses. In Egypt specifically, there are textual references to eunuchs working in administrative roles in the Ptolemaic and Roman courts.

But the skeletal evidence is not conclusive. Haddow and colleagues clarify that, beyond castration, other causes need to be considered. These involve a number of congenital conditions affecting the endocrine system, including sex chromosome abnormalities such as Klinefelter Syndrome or autosomal disorders such as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and an estrogen deficiency called aromatase deficiency. Because these conditions disrupt a person's hormonal balance and subsequent skeletal development in a similar way to pre-pubertal castration, it is difficult to differentiate among them..... READ MORE.

Source: Forbes

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News, Luxor: The Biggest German Tourism Magazine Holds Its B2B Workshop in Egypt

The Leading German Trade Magazine for Tourism and Business Travel "FVW" continues to hold its high-profile workshops internationally. 

This time "fvw workshop" was held in Egypt (22-26 of April 2017)

40 German tour operators and travel agents came to meet with hoteliers and Egyptian officials to discuss the advantages, potentials and strategies for marketing Egyptian destinations to the German market which is the largest in Europe.

Mr. Klaus Hildebrandt, Editor-in-chief, spoke to Luxor Times on the workshop and tourism situation in general.

Update: You can read (In German) what Mr. Klaus Hildebrandt wrote about fvw workshop inEgypt HERE

For full interview, please watch the video below.

Source: Luxor Times Magazine

News, Cairo: Monuments on Cairo's Al-Muizz Street Safe And Sound After Shop Fire

Investigations are currently underway to determine the cause of the blaze. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

The storied Islamic monuments surrounding Al-Muizz Street in Historic Cairo are safe and unaffected by a fire that broke out in a shop there on Wednesday, Head of Egypt's Islamic and Coptic Antiquities Sector Al-Saeed Helmi announced.

Helmi told Ahram Online that the shop that caught fire sits in front of private residential building number 88, which is not registered on Egypt's heritage list for Islamic monuments.

The nearest monument is Al-Ashraf Bersbay School, located 400 metres away, Helmi said. The school was untouched by the blaze and remains safe and sound.

The civil security authority extinguished the fire promptly after it started at dawn. Investigations are currently underway to determine the cause of the incident.

A committee from the Ministry of Antiquities is also on site to follow the investigation and monitor all monuments on the street.

Source: Ahram Online

More about Islamic Cairo Click Here 

News, Cairo: Collection of Prince Mohamed Ali Horse Paintings On Display at Cairo's Manial Palace

The Cover of A Book on Display

A temporary exhibition displaying a collection of paintings of Arabian and Egyptian horses belonging to Egypt's Prince Mohamed Ali (1875 - 1954) will open on Wednesday at El-Manial Palace. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

Walaa El-Din Badawi, director of the Manial Palace, told Ahram Online that the exhibition will put on display a collection of 75 paintings by renowned Egyptian and foreign artists.

The exhibition will last for one month, where a number of painting workshops for visitors will be held.

Badawi said that the exhibition comes as part of an effort by the ministry to organise temporary exhibitions to promote tourism and attract more visitors to archaeological sites and museums.

Badawi said that two books written by Prince Mohamed Ali – one on Arabian horses and other on Egyptian horses – will also be on display. “Prince Mohamed Ali was fond of horses and had [a very large stable],” Badawi said.

Source: Ahram Online

Short Story: Ancient Egyptians in Japan

The Japanese city of Shizuoka is celebrating Easter the ancient Egyptian way with a major exhibition of antiquities, reports Nevine El-Aref.

It seems that ancient Egyptian artifacts are hogging the attention of the Japanese city of Shizuoka this Easter, taking away attention from traditional bunnies and coloured eggs. 

Pictures of the Great Pyramids at Giza, the Pharaoh Khufu’s solar boat, a golden mask of Amenemopet, a limestone pyramidion of Ry and Maya, a black basalt statue of Khafre and jewellery embellished with precious stones have been decorating the walls of the city’s train station, shops, hotels and streets instead of the usual Easter decorations.

Last Saturday a gala ceremony was organised at the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art to celebrate the opening of “The Golden Pharaohs and Pyramid Builders” exhibition on the seventh leg of its tour, with Japanese officials, Egyptologists and curators gathering to attend the inauguration.

The exhibition was originally opened in October 2015 in the Japanese capital Tokyo and was scheduled to tour seven other cities in Japan over a 25-month period, including Matsuyama, Sendai, Kagoshima, Kyoto, Toyama, Shizuoka and Fukuoka. 

“The exhibition at its sixth stop in Toyama attracted 80,000 visitors, and we are expecting around 110,000 people to visit the exhibition in Shizuoka,” Naomi Kudo, the exhibition coordinator, told Al-Ahram Weekly. She said that all the tickets for the first day had been sold.

“The exhibition not only sheds light on the Old Kingdom and the age of the Pyramid Builders, but also highlights the strong relationship between Egypt and Japan,” Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, told the Weekly. He added that the exhibition was a good opportunity to promote tourism and to encourage Japanese tourists to return to Egypt.

Afifi said that Egyptian-Japanese cooperation in the cultural field was being seen in many current projects. Among the most important was the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau, which will put on display 100,000 artefacts and welcome millions of visitors every year. 

“This is thanks to the Japanese government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency [JICA] for their continuous efforts and support in offering two soft loans to complete one of the most important cultural projects in the world,” Afifi said.

In addition, Japan has provided technical and scientific support through the provision of scientific equipment and materials to the GEM’s conservation centre. 

There are many joint Egyptian-Japanese missions at various archaeological sites in Egypt that have yielded important results. Waseda University, for example, has been excavating in Egypt since 1966, and it was among the first foreign institutions to introduce advanced technological tools to better understand Egypt’s archaeology.

One of the university’s recent projects is the exploration of Khufu’s second solar boat in its pit on the Giza Plateau. “The exhibition is the first of its kind in Japan,” Sakuhi Yoshimura, president of the Higashi Nippon International University and the exhibition’s supervisor, told the Weekly, adding that exhibitions featuring the Pyramids were currently rare internationally.

He explained that the aim of the exhibition was to use a variety of exhibits to decipher the truth behind the construction of the Pyramids in order to discard fantasies and present only established facts. “This is the first comprehensive exhibition dealing with the Pyramids to be held anywhere in the world, and the artifacts it presents are amazing for their quality,” Yoshimura said.

The exhibition has five sections. The first features the construction of the Pyramids and the techniques employed, displaying a pyramidion, a hammer that was used to work the square stone blocks, surveying tools and other items....  READ MORE.

Source: Al Ahram Weekly

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News, Luxor: Mummies, Thousand Statues Discovered in Ancient Egyptian Tomb

During excavations of a 3,500-year-old tomb near the city of Luxor, Egyptian archaeologists made what is being hailed as a major discovery. Written By/ Sarah Gibbens.

Entering a tomb near the famed Valley of the Kings for the first time, a team of Egyptian archaeologists has made what they are labeling an "important discovery."

Several mummies, 10 wooden sarcophagi, and more than 1,000 funerary statues were discovered inside a 3,500-year-old tomb. Erected during Egypt's 18th Dynasty, the tomb is thought to have belonged to an ancient Egyptian magistrate named Userhat, who belonged to Egypt's noble class.

The find was made by Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities during a dig and was the first time the tomb has been examined.

Speaking to the Luxor Times about the discovery, Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany noted that the find was significant for the numbers of items found and the intact condition in which they were discovered.

"This tomb was known from the outside, but we have never been inside," he said during a press conference with reporters.

During the coming weeks, the team plans to continue excavation and hopes to find more artifacts.

The tomb is arranged in a "T" shape that opens with a courtyard, before narrowing into a long hall with a corridor that leads to an inner chamber. Nearly 16,000 cubic feet of debris had to be removed to expose the tomb's opening.

During the dig, a shaft extending from the main burial hall was found, revealing two small rooms. The first held a collection of ushabti figurines, and the second was home to sarcophagi and linen-wrapped mummies from what the research team believes to be the 21st Dynasty.

In an interview with reporters, El-Enany explained that the tomb might have been used as a possible cachette, or hideout, after its initial construction.

The tomb was located near the Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis on the Nile's west bank, which is situated near Ancient Egypt's famed Valley of the Kings. Located near the ancient capital of Luxor, the Valley of the Kings was the final resting place of some of Egypt's most famed rulers, including the young King Tutankhamen. Luxor, which sat to the east of the Nile, was the epicenter of life during Egypt's 18th Dynasty.

Egyptians from the ruling and upper classes were buried to the west of the Nile as a sign of reverence.

The Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt is optimistic that the find will increase tourism in the region. Following a wave of protests that removed former military and political leader Hosni Mubarak from power, tourism, a major economic driver in Egypt, has significantly declined.

Two adjacent tombs are currently being excavated in an effort to unearth their ancient artifacts.

Source: National Geographic

News, Luxor: 3,000-Year-Old Nobleman's Tomb Discovered by Egyptian Archeologists

Eight mummies, along with sarcophagi, figurines and other artifacts, were uncovered in the vault.

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed the 3,000-year-old tomb of a nobleman - the latest in a series of major discoveries of ancient relics. 

Discovered near the Nile city of Luxor, it contains the remains of Userhat, who worked as a judge in the New Kingdom from roughly 1,500 to 1,000 B.C.

The vault consists of an open court leading into a rectangular hall, a corridor and inner chamber, according to the country's Ministry of Antiquities.

In one of the rooms in the tomb, archaeologists found a collection of figurines, wooden masks and a handle of a sarcophagus lid. Excavation is continuing in a second chamber.

Earlier this year, Swedish archaeologists discovered 12 ancient Egyptian cemeteries near the southern city of Aswan that date back almost 3,500 years. In March, an eight-metre statue that is believed to be King Psammetich 1, who ruled from 664 to 610 BC, was discovered in a Cairo slum.

Hisham El Demery, chief of Egypt's Tourism Development Authority, said tourism was picking up and discoveries like the one at Luxor would encourage the sector. "These discoveries are positive news from Egypt's tourism industry, which is something we all really need," he said.

Tourism in Egypt has suffered in the aftermath of the mass protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Militant bomb attacks have also deterred foreign visitors.

Source: Independent UK

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