More antiquities transferred to Grand Egyptian Museum

According to Dr. Osama Abu ElKheir (General director of restoration at the Grand Egyptian Museum) there are 376 objects out of the 525 are from the golden boy King collection (Tutankhamen's collection), in order to display the whole collection together at the GEM which is scheduled for partial opening before the end of 2017,  for the first time since the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922.

Mr. Essa Zidan (General director of primary restoration at GEM) explained that once the antiquities object are unwrapped, they will be sent to the specialised restoration lab to make a report of the state of each object and do the needed primary restoration for the objects in critical state. 

The objects moved to the GEM include a granite tablet with King Khufu's cartouch. As for King Tut's collection, there are pink granite lion head, a number of shabtis and writing tools. 

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King Tut collection is being transferred to GEM for 2017

For the partial opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) by the end of 2017, a number of King Tutankhamon’s artefacts were transfered from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

According to Dr. Tarek Tawfik (General supervisor of the GEM project), the transferring process is going according to a carefully studied plan by a committee of experts in order to move the artefacts which need restoration first so they get restored at the specialised labs at GEM. Also keeping in mind not to disrupt the collection display at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

The committee headed by Dr. Osama Abo Elkhier (General director of restoration labs at GEM) and including Mohamed Atwa (Director of information and antiquities at GEM) and Dr. Hala Hassan (head of Tut’s section at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir)  

  

Eissa Zidan (General manager of elementary restoration at GEM) said “It is scheduled to move the rest of the golden pharaoh’s collection according to plan as the partial opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum will include the full collection of King Tutankhamon as well as the grand staircase."

(According to the museum plans, Grand Staircase is stretching for a length of 64 meter and rising 24 meters, with a width of 85 meters at the bottom and 17 meters at the top, the Grand Staircase will create one of the principle chronological streams that will define the story line of the museum for the visitors. Artifacts displayed along its length will introduce and illustrate the history of Pharaonic Egypt.

The exhibition to Grand Stair is ordered by the chronological grid. This exhibition brings the visitor from modernity, which is Cairo , back in time to antiquity at the top of the stairs, which is the view to the pyramid complex. From this pyramid outlook, the visitor enters the permanent exhibition spaces. The Grand Stair is flanked by Temporary Exhibition, Children’s Gallery and researcher’s entrance).”

Zidan also added “The transferring process is being handled by the experts committee following the highest safety protocols using the needed techniques.”  

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Luxor Times Egyptology Awards 2016

Luxor Times Egyptology Awards 2016

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Another King Tut's related discovery would change chapters in history books. This time in Sakkara

This morning at Sakkara, Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty, minister of antiquities, accompanied with governor of Giza and Dr. Alain Zivie (head of the French mission who has been working on the site since 1996 and discovered the tomb of Maia) visited the tomb after the completion of the cleaning and restoration of the tomb.

Maia’s tomb will be open to public for the first time soon.

Dr. El-Damaty said "During the recent cleaning of the tomb, an ostracon was found inscribed with the title of "Mistress of Women" which made the team believe that Maia wasn't only King Tutankhamon's wet nurse but she probably had a higher position if she held the title "Mistress of Women" even though the "wet nurse" is the most known title of her.

The minister added "There is a possibility that Maia could be the sister of Tutankhamon who is called "Meritaten"." In the royal tomb of Meketaten (Elder daughter of Akhnaten) in Tell Amarna there is a scene depicting "Meritaten" breast feeding (nursing) a baby who is believed to be "Tutankhamon"

Dr. Mahmoud Affifi, head of Egyptian antiquities department, said "The tomb was reused heavily in late periods and Greco-Roman time as cats cemetery where original scenes and inscriptions were covered with stones and building material. The cleaning process included removing all those addition to show the tomb as it was in its original state."

Dr. Mahmoud Affifi mentioned that the tomb will receive the visitors soon in the near future.

Below a video of Minister of Antiquties, Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty talking to Luxor Times about what is possible to be found behind the walls of King Tutankhamon's tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV62) and the link with Maia's tomb in Sakkara.

Last year, there was a sarcophagus dated back to Third Intermediate Period (TIP) discovered in the tomb during clearing the debris. (More information HERE)

Photos and video copyrights: Luxor Times magazine

Photographer: Mohamed Anwar

#Egypt #Cairo #Giza #Sakkara #Saqqara #KingTut #NewKingdom #History #Archaeology #Egyptology #KV62 #TIP 

Exclusive footage: As good as new. King Tut's golden mask is back on display

FAfter 68 days since the famous golden mask of King Tutanhamon was moved from its display case and taken into room number 55 for restoration. It is finally back to where it belongs in the Egyptian museum in Tahrir. 

Dr. Manding El Damaty (Minister of Antiquities),  Christian Eckmann (German conservation specialist), Dr. Stephan Seidlmayer (Head of DAI Cairo) and the representative of German ministry of foreign affairs spoke at the press conference which was held at the Egyptian museum on Wednesday evening.

The mask which was moved on the morning on 10th of October, it was moved back to its case amongst the other King Tutankhamen's treasures on Wednesday evening after closing hours of the museum. The moving actually started 4:45pm and the mask was already in its place by 5:30pm under the supervision of Dr. El Damaty, Dr. Khalid Anany (Director of The Egyptian Museum) and Dr. Moamen Othman (Head of restoration department at the museum).

More details with exclusive videos and more photos will be published soon on Luxor Times new site @ www.luxortimes.com

Photos copyright: Luxor Times magazine

Photographer: Mohamed Anwar

#Egypt #Cairo #KingTut #Egyptology #Museum #AncientEgypt  

Permission granted for Reeves to use radars in King Tut's tomb in his search for Nefertiti

Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty, minister of antiquities, told Luxor Times that the permanent committee approved in its meeting yesterday the proposal from Dr. Nicholas Reeves to use radars in King Tutankhamon tomb (KV62) in the valley of the kings in order to determine if there is any hidden rooms behind the northern and western wall of the golden king's tomb. 

The minister emphasised that this step was taken after making sure that the radars and equipment that will be used will not affect the tomb, its walls or painted scenes in anyway.

The elementary work will start as soon as all permissions granted. 

Dr. El Damaty also said "This could be a big step in the discovery of the century if Dr. Reeves studies and theory is proven to be correct." 

#Egypt #Luxor #Antiquities #KingTut #Nefertiti #Discovery #AncientEgypt 

Metropolitan Museum of Art to return 19 objects from King Tutankhamun’s tomb back to Egypt

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Under the auspices of Farouk Hosni, the Minister of Culture, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, and Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, announced jointly today that, effective immediately, the Metropolitan Museum of Art would acknowledge Egypt’s title to 19 ancient Egyptian objects that have been in its collection since the early 20th century.  All of these small-scale objects, which range from study samples to a three-quarter-inch-high bronze dog and a sphinx bracelet-element, attributed to Tutankhamun’s tomb, which was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings. The Museum initiated this formal acknowledgement after renewed, in-depth research by two of its curators substantiated the history of the objects.

“This is a wonderful gesture on the part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” said Hawass. “For many years the Museum, and especially the Egyptian Art department, has been a strong partner in our on-going efforts to repatriate illegally exported antiquities. Through their research, they have provided us with information that has helped us to recover a number of important objects, and last year, the Museum gave to Egypt a granite fragment that joins with a shrine on display in Luxor, so that this object could be restored. Thanks to the generosity and ethical behavior of the Met, these 19 objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun can now be reunited with the other treasures of the boy king.” Hawass continued that “The objects will now go on display with the “Tutankhamun” exhibition at Times Square, where they will stay until January, 2011. They will then travel back to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they will be shown for six months in the context of the Metropolitan Museum’s renowned Egyptian collection. Upon their return to Egypt in June 2011, they will be given a special place in the Tutankhamun galleries at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and then will move, with the rest of the Tut collection, to the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza, scheduled to open in 2012.”

Bracelet inlay in the form of a sphinx made of lapis lazuli (Photo Metropolitan Museum of Art)

At the time that Howard Carter and his sponsor, the Earl of Carnarvon, discovered the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun (reigned ca. 1336-1327 B.C.), the Egyptian government generally allowed excavators to keep a substantial portion of the finds from excavations undertaken and financed by them.  However, during the decade that it took Carter and his team to recover the thousands of precious objects from this king’s tomb, it became increasingly clear that no such partition of finds would take place in the case of the Tutankamun tomb.

Owing to the splendor of the treasures discovered in the tomb, conjectures soon started nevertheless, suggesting that certain objects of high quality, dating roughly to the time of Tutankhamun and residing in various collections outside Egypt, actually originated from the king’s tomb.  Such conjectures intensified after the death of Howard Carter in 1939, when a number of fine objects were found to be part of his estate.  When the Metropolitan Museum acquired some of these objects, however, the whole group had been subjected to careful scrutiny by experts and representatives of the Egyptian government; and subsequent research has found no evidence of such a provenance in the overwhelming majority of cases.  Likewise, thorough study of objects that entered the Metropolitan Museum from the private collection of Lord Carnarvon in 1926 has not produced any evidence of the kind.

Figurine of a dog made of bronze with a gold collar (Photo Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The 19 objects now identified as indeed originating from the tomb of King Tutankahmun (see illustrated list attached) can be divided into two groups.  Fifteen of the 19 pieces have the status of bits or samples.  The remaining four are of more significant art-historical interest and include a small bronze dog less than three-quarters of an inch in height and a small sphinx bracelet-element, acquired from Howard Carter’s niece, after they had been probated with his estate; they were later recognized to have been noted in the tomb records although they do not appear in any excavation photographs.  Two other pieces—part of a handle and a broad collar accompanied by additional beads—entered the collection because they were found in 1939 among the contents of Carter’s house at Luxor; all of the contents of that house were bequeathed by Carter to the Metropolitan Museum.  Although there was discussion between Harry Burton (a Museum photographer based in Egypt, the Museum’s last representative in Egypt before World War II broke out, and one of Carter’s two executors) and Herbert Winlock about the origins of these works and about making arrangements for Burton to discuss with a representative of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo whether these works should be handed over to Egypt, that discussion was not resolved before Burton’s death in 1940.  When the Metropolitan Museum’s expedition house in Egypt was closed in 1948, the pieces were sent to New York.

Reconstruct faience broad collar (Photo Metropolitan Museum of Art)