Exclusive: new excavations in valley of the Kings

Exclusive: new excavations in valley of the Kings by an Egyptian mission 

Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty told Luxor Times today that an Egyptian mission will start excavation in the valley of the Kings on the 1st of August.

This will be the second time in history for an Egyptian mission to excavated in the Pharaohs burial place for over 500 years.

The first mission was led by Dr. Zahi Hawass.

The new mission will be under direct supervision of the minister of Antiquities and led by Dr. Mostafa Waziry with field director Salah El Masekh and will excavated in the areas to the north and south of Ramses IV tomb (KV2) which was last excavated in 1902.

#Egypt #Luxor #Egyptology #Archaeology #AncientEgypt 

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.

Egyptologists and guards abort an attempt to steal 160 tons statue of Ramses II in Aswan

Dr. Zahi Hawass announced that the guards and the Egyptologists at the quarries of Aswan managed to abort an attempt to steal the red granite statue of Ramses II. The statue measures 6 meters tall, width vary between 100 cm to 175 cm and depth about 80 cm with a 160 tons weight on.
The statue doesn’t have any inscriptions as it was not completely finished and still attached to the bed rock.

The thieves were stopped with digging and quarrying tools as they wanted to cut it out which would have meant smashing it but they were arrested and extradited to the Attorney General of Aswan where they are under ongoing questioning.

Dr. Zahi Hawass says 4

 3^rd February 2011

Again, I want to tell everyone that all the fights and fires in Tahrir Square that many people saw on television yesterday did not affect the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, at all.  There were rumors that began last night that claimed the museum was on fire. I was in contact with the control room of the museum all throughout the night. The cameras of the control room can see outside of the museum into the gardens and also outside of the surrounding walls. When some people saw a car burning, they started to say that the museum was burning as well.  The people spreading these rumors are idiots, because, as I have been saying in each of my statements, if the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, is safe, Egypt is safe.  If there was a fire near the museum, I have the fire department located outside of the museum, and they could quickly control and put out any fire.  

Again, I am the only source of continuing truth concerning antiquities, and these rumors are aimed at making the Egyptian people look bad.  If anything happens to the museum, I would bravely tell everyone all over the world because I am a man of honor, and I would never hide anything from you.  It is from my heart that I tell people everywhere that I am the guardian of these monuments that belong to the whole world.  

The Gezira television station has reported that the monuments of Saqqara have been damaged and items were stolen- this is not true.  The army is in charge of guarding the site; I called the general there 5 minutes ago (it is now 10:30 am on February 3, 2011), and he informed me that Saqqara is safe and all the monuments are fine; nothing is damaged or stolen.  The site of Lisht has excavations run by Dieter Arnold of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The guards of the Lisht monuments called Dieter two days ago to reassure him that they were doing a good job of guarding the site.  I want Dieter to know that Lisht is safe and will remain safe.

If anything happens I will announce it. I want people to know that only two things have happened so far: 1) The break-in at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, resulting in 70 broken objects, all of which can and will be restored, and 2) The break-in at the storage magazine at Qantara, in the Sinai. We do not know exactly how many objects were stolen from this magazine, but a total of 6 boxes were taken.  All of these objects came from excavations or were being stored there from the Port Said Museum. As of today, 288 objects have been returned, and I am sure that any other artifacts still missing from this magazine will be returned.

I want everyone to relax, and know that I am here and we are all watching with open eyes. I want people to know that after 9 days of protests, the monuments are safe. Why? Because the Egyptian people are protecting them.

From Egypt to Germany : It's home time for Nefertiti

 The Supreme Council of Antiquities announced today that Secretary General Dr. Zahi Hawass has sent an official request that the bust of the famous Queen Nefertiti be returned to Egypt.  This request was approved by the Prime Minister of Egypt, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, and Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, after four years of research by a legal committee composed of famous legal personnel and Egyptologists.

The request letter was send to Dr. Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin.  This foundation is the governing body of all state museums in Germany, including the Neues Museum, where the Nefertiti bust is currently located, accessioned as Inventory No. AM 21300. In addition, a copy of the letter has been given to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cultural Department to forward on to the Egyptian Ambassador to Germany who will, in turn, send it to Dr. Parzinger. The SCA has sent a third copy of the letter to the German Ambassador to Egypt.

On December 6, 1912, Ludwig Borchardt and his team at el-Amarna excavated this bust of Queen Nefertiti in the workshop of the court sculptor, Thutmose. It is clear from all the records that Borchardt recognized immediately the unique nature and artistic quality of this piece, as well as its historical importance. 

Dr. Hawass said that this request is a natural consequence of Egypt’s long-standing policy of seeking the restitution of all archaeological and historical artifacts that have been taken illicitly out of the country, especially those items that are considered unique. The painted bust of Nefertiti is universally recognized as a unique and irreplaceable artifact. The bust is first on the “Wish List” of five important objects that Egypt hopes to have returned, as announced on April 8th, 2010, at the Conference on International Cooperation for the Protection and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage.

Dr. Hawass and the Government of Egypt is confident that the German authorities will act in accordance with article 13(b) of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970), which calls on all states party to the convention “to ensure that their competent services cooperate in facilitating the earliest possible restitution of illicitly exported cultural property to its rightful owner.”  In this context it should be pointed out that in 1978 the Director General of UNESCO issued A Plea for the Return of an Irreplaceable Cultural Heritage to those who Created it, and called upon “those responsible for preserving and restoring works of art to facilitate, by their advice and actions, the return of such works to the countries where they were created.”

After World War II, Egypt made another formal request, this time to the Allied Control Council, who at that time was responsible for art objects in Germany. The Legation of His Majesty the King of Egypt at Prague sent a memorandum, dated April 14, 1946, to the Allied Control requesting the repatriation of the Nefertiti head, which was followed up by an official request from the Egyptian Ambassador to the US Secretary of State, dated February 21, 1947. On March 8, 1947, the Allied Control answered that they did not feel that they had the authority to make this decision, and recommended that the request be made again after a competent German Government had been reestablished.

Egypt recognizes, and appreciates, the care and effort undertaken by the Government of Germany to preserve and display the painted limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti. Inspired by the excellent relations between our two countries, the Government of Egypt is confident that the German authorities will assist in facilitating its return. The Government and People of Egypt are eager that this unique treasure be returned to the possession of its rightful owners, the Egyptian People.  Dr. Hawass added that the bust of Nefertiti, upon its return, will be exhibited at the Akhenaten Museum in Minya opening in early 2012.

New Aboudi Official opening in Co-operation with AUC Press

Today was the official opening of New Aboudi Bookstore, behind Luxor temple. Dr. Zahi Hawass was the guest of honour but he apologise at last minute at he is on his way back from Portugal where he received an Honourary Doctorate. So Dr. Mark Linz cut the ribbon and as you can see him in the view below with the March from Opera Aida in the background.
Aboudi Bookstore has a long history goes back to 1909(more about it with are picture will be in Luxor Time magazine soon) and at the moment it has the only copy in Luxor of Dr. Zahi Hawass latest book “Secret Voyage” of which only 750 copies are printed and Egypt’s share was 51 copies. The book cover price is 4400$ (22.500L.E)

More official pictures and details will be in Luxor Times in co-operation with American University Press.

We would like to thank AUC Press staff who worked hard on organising this event.
Thanks to Dr. Mark Linz,Trevor Naylor and Special Thank you to Mrs.Nabila Akl and MS. Tahany el-Shammaa

The missing parts are here, 130 years later

After 130 years, 6 parts were missing of Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye’s statue were found.
When Mariette found Amenhotep III statue in 1889 in Habu, it was fragments and it was restored and reconstructed at that time using materials of the same origin before put it on display at the Egyptian museum.
While working on the underground water project on the west bank, the Egyptian team found the 6 parts.

Dr. Zahi Hawass said “the found pieces are; a part of the right side of Amenhotep III chest, a part of the right leg and right foot toe. Also Queen Tiya side, there are parts found which are a piece of the right side of the Queen’s wig, left hand’s fingertips, statue base. The found pieces sizes vary from 47cm to 103 cm.”

“After the pieces were found, we made a test to check if they match and it was 100% match. The pieces will be reconstructed in the statue as a team of conservators to work on the project." Zahi added.

Since the underground water project began on west bank, the SCA mission found over 1000 objects dated to different ancient Egyptian dynasties and Coptic too.

There is no list for Stolent Antiquities & Rosetta Stone is our top priority

Dr.Zahi Hawass said earlier today (at Shura Council during the discussions of the agreement with Switzerland concerning returning the stolen antiquities) that Egypt doesn’t have a list of the stolen antiquities as it was legally sold till 1981. We established a new department at the Supreme Council to follow the antiquities auctions and in case an Egyptian artefact is found so we demand to stop the auction and start taking the legal procedures to return it back.
Also Dr. Zahi announced that an exhibition will be held within a month at Prince Taz palace, Cairo to show the 5000 objects were returned back to Egypt. He also referred that the registration project of the Egyptian antiquities will be completed in 2 years.
Hawass said “one of our top priorities is to return Rosetta stone back but having it back from the British Museum is a difficult issue but we are doing our best”. He didn’t forget to mention that the media makes a huge effect in returning the stolen artefacts.
Concerning protecting the antiquities in Egypt already, Dr. Zahi commented saying “we received about 3000 reports concerning dealing in antiquities or smuggling but it turns out to be fake, we need to change the culture of the people concerning digging for antiquities. We also make sure that Egypt’s treasures are safe as the SCA has 46 museum storage and 29 control points all over Egypt beside 10.000 security personnel who have been trained to secure the sites and provided with the needed information and culture on the importance of the sites they work on as they replaced the old guard guy who used to have a stick and doesn’t know the value of the site he is supposed to be protecting.”

West Bank lighting system completed

The SCA had finished the lighting system project of west bank, Luxor with a budget of 56 million Egyptian pounds. The project was done in co-operation with Egypt sound and light company and Architecture Lumiere (French company).

Dr.Zahi Hawass said that the point of the project is to protect the tombs of the west bank as the huge number of visitors will be distributed on longer hours of the day from 7am till 8pm which will decrease the humidity that affects the tombs badly. Hawass added that the west bank mountains represent a marvelous background for the Nile which the tourists can see from the east bank.

The lighting system includes all the mountains of west bank, Valley of the Kings, valley of the queens, assasif, north Qurna and Hatshepsut temple.    

General. Essam Abd El-hady(Chairman of Egypt sound and light company) explained that there are 992 lighting units were installed in a specific chosen locations on west bank to be accommodated within the rough nature of the area and concerning the cables, they were carefully chosen to take the heat and resist rustiness. Gen. Essam referred also to the completion of lighting the palm trees area near Qurna in co-operation with the locals.

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)

New Statue found on west bank,Luxor

Almost 4 weeks ago we published the news about the discovery of a double statue of Amenhotep III beside Amon Re and the only standing Thot statue found so far. Now the new discovery is in the same area.

SCA mission working on the site known as Kom Hetan on west bank,Luxor has found the upper part of a double statue of red granite for Amenhotep III (1410-1372 B.C) in the north west of Amenhotep III temple site.

The statue represents Amenhotep III next to Re Hor Akheti in a shape of a falcon or hawk. Amehotep III left behind many statues with different Ancient Egyptian gods like Amon Re,Mut,Bastet,Sobek and Sekhmet.
The German mission who is working on Amenhotep III temple behind the statues of Memnons has found nearly 80 statues of Sekhmet as she was the goddess of healing and the King was sick for a while at the end of his reign.
When Dr. Zahi Hawass was checking the south east area of the temple he found a number of statues underground in an area was infringed by farmers nearby since a long time ago and Dr. Samir Farag the governor is negotiating with the farmers in the surrounded area to take the land for a compensation in order to convert it into an open display area for the found artefacts

New discovery in Giza by the Valley Temple

The Egyptian mission headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass discovered a huge mud brick wall dated back to Tutmoses IV (1419-1410 B.C) in the area opposite of Khafre’s Valley Temple in Giza.

Minister of culture Farouk Hosni announced the discovery and said it came as a part of the excavations by SCA within the development plan of the Pyramids area.

 Dr. Zahi said that wall consists of two parts. The first part is to the east of the Valley Temple and the Sphinx and it measures 86 meters from north to south with height of 75 cm, the second part of the wall is located at the south of the temple and it is 46 meters from east to west with a height of 90 cm. The two parts meet in a point at the southern part of the eastern wall.

Hawass added “According to the preliminary studies on the site we can say that the discovered wall was a part of the huge wall exists at the north of the Sphinx which was built by Tutmoses IV to protect the Sphinx from the wind. Archaeologists thought it only located at the northern part but the discovery made by the Egyptian mission shows that it extended to the east and south too.”

There is a wall stretches 12 meters and 3 meters high on the north of the Sphinx that was built by Tutmoses IV after the dream he saw when he was asleep near the Sphinx after an exhausting hunting trip. In his dream the Sphinx (Known as Hor am Akht at that time) asked the King to remove the sand around as it suffocating the Sphinx and it was done.

The mission also found mud brick walls at the west of the tunnels that were discovered before in the eastern area of the Valley temple. Dr. Zahi Hawass believes that these walls are the remains of the Pyramidian city of Khafre where the priests and high officials of khafre lived till the end of the Old Kingdom. 

Essam Shehab, the Valley Temple excavation inspector said that the mission has dug a 6 meters deep hole in front of the Valley Temple to make sure there was no activity of the Middle Kingdom in that area and the excavations still going on the reveal the rest of the wall and the secrets still hidden under the sand.