Exclusive Footage: Celebrating the Golden Jubilee of CFEETK

Photography Exhibition in Karnak Temple

Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the French-Egyptian Centre for the Study of Karnak Temples (1967-2017)

In July 1967 Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, permanent UNESCO advisor in Egypt, undertook a bilateral agreement leading to the establishment of the “French-Egyptian Centre for the Study of Karnak Temples” or as you would know it in French as “Centre Franco-Égyptien d'Étude des Temples de Karnak” CFEETK.

Since it was established, the centre has been conducting major conservation and cultural patrimony efforts to ensure the preservation of the exceptional ancient complex, as well as the great archaeological discoveries that have helped to shed the light not only on the history of Karnak temples but of Ancient Egyptian in general.

On Tuesday April 18^th, under the auspices of HE Prof. Dr. Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Antiquities, the Ministry of Antiquities and the CFEETK, a photography exhibition will be inaugurated to celebrate the golden jubilee of the centre. The temporary exhibition will last till 31^st of May 2017.

The Photos Exhibition features a number of photos placed carefully around the Karnak temples complex and they show different projects, discoveries or elements of the temples through the years.

You can find below a number of photos cover all the photos of the exhibition including a video shows the panel floating on the water of the sacred lake with a photo of a statue of the god Amun and on the other side a photo of a statue of the scribe Ramsesnakht which was discovered by George Legrain in 1904. (Scroll down for video)

More photos will be published tomorrow.

It is also worth mentioning that CFEETK was awarded “Luxor Times Egyptology Award” for Top Ongoing Achievement for the work in Karnak for 50 years. The ceremonies were held at the Ministry of Antiquities in Cairo on February 19^th, 2017. Dr. Christophe Thiers received the award and gave a presentation on the work on the centre during the past 50 years. 

 http://www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/index.php?page=luxor-times-awards-2017

#Egypt #Luxor #Karnak #CFEETK #Archaeology #Egyptology

Ptolomy Stela unearthed in Taposiris Magna

The Dominican Republic mission directed by Dr. Kathleem Martinez working at Taposiris Magna Site, west of Alexandria unearthed a limestone stela which bears hieroglyphics and demotic inscriptions. The stela measures 105 cm high, 65 cm width and 18 cm thickness.

The discovered stela which was inscribed during the seventh year of king "Ptolomy V" and it contains 20 Hieroglyphic lines with royal cartouches of king "Ptolomy V", Ptolomy's wife and sister, Queen "Cleopatra I", his father King "Ptolomy IV" and his wife "Arsinoe III" too.

The Demotic inscriptions at the bottom of the stela consist of 5 lines of the hieroglyphics inscriptions at the top. 

  

Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty said “The importance of this discovery is the different scripts forming it make it like the Rosetta stone which was inscribed in the ninth year of king "Ptolomy V" reign. (2 years after this Stela was inscribed.)

The Minister added “ The stela is an excat copy of the stela of Philae Temple – Aswan which dates back also to king "Ptolomy V"  that reflects the king's offering a huge area of Nubia to the goddess Isis and her priests.”

 Dr. Kathleen Martinez with Dr. Zahi Hawass (April 2010)

Dr. Kathleen Martinez, director of the Dominican Egyptian Mission, said that the mission has been working for 6 years at Taposiris Magna Site and made a lot of important discoveries concerning the history of Alexandria in general. Some of the major discoveries are tombs of Nobles and a number of statues of the goddess Isis in addition to many bronze coins of Queen "Cleopatra”.

#Egypt #Discovery #History #AncientEgypt

Finally, Ministry of Antiquities has control over the discovered tombsin Aswan

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister of Antiquities said that the ministry will start a project for the restoration and conservation of 4 tombs in Elephantine Island.

The tombs were found by the local people and the ministry managed to take control over them in the beginning of this week after successful attempt in cooperation with the Tourism and Antiquities Police and the people of Gharb Aswan Village. 

The minister referred to the measures had been implemented to secure the site of the discovered tombs to stop infiltration to the tombs.

The minister also said that the needed fund will be available to excavate the site to discover more of the tombs. The initial preview tells that the tomb probably dated back to the New kingdom as a painted scene on the walls of one of the tombs for a man called "Weser" with Vine leaves images which related to the New Kingdom tombs.

This led that the archaeologists working on the site to relate all the discovered tomb to the New kingdom as they are all built on the same level

Ali El Asfr said "The most important one of the discovered tombs belong to one of the Elephantine nome rulers who was called "Weser" and held many titles including "The Prince of Elephantine" and "Overseer of the Land of the Gold". 

The tomb has bright colours and different scenes including a scene shows the tomb owner with his family in front of a n offering table supervised by the high priest wearing leopard skin with a group of the tomb owner's servants.

Nasr Salama, director of Aswan antiquities said "The second tomb belong to a person called "Banfer" who has a titles of "Prince" and "God's priests Overseer in Elephantine". The tomb has sunken reliefs show the tomb owner with his family.

The third tomb is for "Amenhotep" who held the titles of "The Bearer of the Seal of Upper Egypt and Elephantine ruler".

The fourth tomb belongs to a person called "Waser Waget" who held the title of "The Prince and Ruler of Elephantine"

#Egypt #Aswan #Archaeology #AncientEgypt #Egyptology

Latest Archaeological Discovery at San El Hagar

French archaeologists in San El-Hagar have discovered hundreds of coloured and inscribed limestone blocks, which they believe were used to build the sacred lake walls of a temple dedicated to the goddess Mut.

The limestone blocks may have belonged to King Osorkon II of the 22nd Dynasty and used for either a temple or chapel, announced Dr. Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities today. The stone may have also been reused in the late period and the Ptolemaic era. Dr. Hawass added that following a complete excavation and study of the blocks, the French mission would reconstruct the original arrangement to determine if they are from a temple or chapel.

Dr. Philippe Brissaud, director of the French mission, confirmed that the sacred lake measures about 30m by 12m with a depth of 6m. The team has so far cleaned about 120 blocks, 78 of which have inscriptions. Two blocks belong to King Osorkon III or IV, while the inscriptions mention the title “Mistress Mut of Isheru Lake” indicating both goddess and lake during the 21st and 22nd Dynasties.

Dr. Mohamed Abdel Maksoud, Head of Office at the Ministry of State for Antiquities, said that this discovery adds great importance to the San El-Hagar site, one of the most archaeologically rich areas of the delta known as the ‘Thebes of the north’. The region is a huge priority for the Ministry of State for Antiquities who have set aside a budget of 50 million L.E to lower the water table, control agricultural drainage, and build an open-site museum complete with visitors center, tourist facilities and a museum magazine.
Mr. Ibrahaim Suleiman, general manager of Sharkia archaeological sites, mentioned that San El-Hagar (Tanis during the pharaonic era), 70km northeast of Zagazig city, is one of the oldest Egyptian cities and contains many temples belonging to the god Amun. It was the capital of Egypt during the 21st and 22nd dynasties.
Excavation work began at this site in 1860 by Auguste Mariette, followed in 1884 by Flinders Petrie who discovered the Temple of Amun inside the old city. From 1928 to 1958 a French mission directed by Pierre Montet excavated the temples of Mut and Horus and the treasure of the royal necropolis, currently on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Now under the direction of Dr. Philippe Brissaud, the inscriptions of this latest discovery are thought to be amongst the best quality reliefs to be found in Egypt.