Sudan’s Pyramids and Egypt’s Chariots in the News

Welcome Captain Capitalism readers! The Goddess of Capitalism welcomes the denizens of the “Man-o-sphere” with open arms! For more Man-o-sphere goodness, please check out the “HISTORY OF WAR PAINT“.

Dear Readers:  Please check Legal Insurrection for today’s political punditry — Conservatives need craftiness as well as courage!

One of the items on my “bucket list” is to see the legendary city of Meroe, which is in the Sudan and is home to some of the most beautiful ancient structures that exist:

Some of my readers may be shocked to learn there are more pyramids in the Sudan than there are in Egypt:

The kingdom of Cush (or Kush) flourished south of Egypt along the Nile from the Eighth Century B.C. to the Fourth Century A.D. Here the rulers of Cush built some 228 pyramids, three times as many as the Pharaohs managed to pile up! We rarely hear or see anything of these strange, steeply pointed structures. They are usually less than 100 feet high and not as impressive and mysterious as those farther north beyond the Aswan Dam.

The Cushite kingdom’s passion for pyramids was probably acquired in the Eighth Century B.C., when it actually ruled Egypt for a few years until the Assyrians pushed its armies back south in 671 B.C. With them, the Cushites took the pyramid idea, Egyptian art forms, and hieroglyphics. They liked pyramids so well that the Cushite rulers kept on building them until the kingdom’s demise in 350 A.D. — some 2,000 years after the Egyptians had abandoned this form of architecture altogether.

There is nothing in the Cush pyramids that can be called anomalous. It’s just so surprising to learn there are so many of them and that they are so neglected in the TV documentaries.

The Cush empire did leave us one enigma: an alphabetical script of 23 symbols that has never been deciphered. P. Wolf, at Berlin’s Humboldt University, fears that, “Maybe we will never be able to decipher the language. Every-body is hoping for some sort of Rosetta stone.”

That being noted, there has been an exciting new discovery: Cluster of 35 ancient pyramids unearthed in Sudan

At least 35 small pyramids, along with graves, have been discovered clustered closely together at a site called Sedeinga in Sudan.

Discovered between 2009 and 2012, researchers are surprised at how densely the pyramids are concentrated. In one field season alone, in 2011, the research team discovered 13 pyramids packed into roughly 5,381 square feet (500 square meters), or slightly larger than an NBA basketball court.

They date back around 2,000 years to a time when a kingdom named Kush flourished in Sudan. Kush shared a border with Egypt and, later on, the Roman Empire. The desire of the kingdom’s people to build pyramids was apparently influenced by Egyptian funerary architecture.

The entire history of the region is fascinating. The area was so highly influenced by ancient Egyptian culture that when it was waning because of internal strife, Kings of Kush came up to re-assert the traditional ways and formed the 25th Dynasty:

By the eleventh century B.C., the authority of the New Kingdom dynasties had diminished, allowing divided rule in Egypt, and ending Egyptian control of Cush. There is no information about the region’s activities over the next 300 years. In the eighth century B.C., however, Cush reemerged as an independent kingdom ruled from Napata by an aggressive line of monarchs who gradually extended their influence into Egypt. About 750 B.C., a Cushite king called Kashta conquered Upper Egypt and became ruler of Thebes until approximately 740 B.C. His successor, Painkhy, subdued the delta, reunited Egypt under the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and founded a line of kings who ruled Cush and Thebes for about a hundred years. The dynasty’s intervention in the area of modern Syria caused a confrontation between Egypt and Assyria. When the Assyrians in retaliation invaded Egypt, Taharqa (688-663 B.C.), the last Cushite pharaoh, withdrew and returned the dynasty to Napata, where it continued to rule Cush and extended its dominions to the south and east.

King Taharqa

Finally, please check out the NOVA special on the reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian war chariot — it was awesome! (Click here for link to video).

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Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagi in the News

Dear Readers:  Please check Legal Insurrection for my most recent political punditry – Losing CA high-speed rail bidders get $2 million payout from state

Now, for some items of historical interest.  I have two pieces that feature examples of the high quality of ancient Egyptian funerary arts.

The first is a fascinating look at the reconstruction of the largest sarcophagus ever built, that of 19th Dynasty pharaoh Merneptah (who fans may recall from my earlier post on Queen Tausert).

Merneptah’s Sarcophagus Reconstruction

Via Discovery News: Largest Egyptian Sarcophagus Identified

The largest ancient Egyptian sarcophagus has been identified in a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, say archaeologists who are re-assembling the giant box that was reduced to fragments more than 3,000 years ago.

Made of red granite, the royal sarcophagus was built for Merneptah, an Egyptian pharaoh who lived more than 3,200 years ago. A warrior king, he defeated the Libyans and a group called the “Sea Peoples” in a great battle.

He also waged a campaign in the Levant attacking, among others, a group he called “Israel” (the first mention of the people). When he died, his mummy was enclosed in a series of four stone sarcophagi, one nestled within the other.

Archaeologists are re-assembling the outermost of these nested sarcophagi, its size dwarfing the researchers working on it. It is more than 13 feet (4 meters) long, 7 feet (2.3 m) wide and towers more than 8 feet (2.5 m) above the ground. It was originally quite colorful and has a lid that is still intact. (See Photos of Pharaoh’s Sarcophagus)

“This as far as I know is about the largest of any of the royal sarcophagi,” said project director Edwin Brock, a research associate at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, in an interview with LiveScience.

Brock explained the four sarcophagi would probably have been brought inside the tomb already nested together, with the king’s mummy inside.

Holes in the entrance shaft to the tomb indicate a pulley system of sorts, with ropes and wooden beams, used to bring the sarcophagi in. When the workers got to the burial chamber they found they couldn’t get the sarcophagi box through the door. Ultimately, they had to destroy the chamber’s door jams and build new ones.

Also, last month brought an exciting discovery of a wooden 17th Dynasty sarcophagus of a child and collection of 18th Dynasty Ushabti figurines of a priest: More discoveries at Djehuty’s tomb in Luxor

Although the Egyptian sarcophagus does not have any engravings, decoration, or mummy inside, early studies carried out in situ by Jose Galàn, head of the archaeological mission, revealed that it belongs to a yet unidentified child who died during the 17th Dynasty.

A collection of wooden pots and pans was also unearthed beside the sarcophagus in the Draa Abul Naga area in Luxor’s west bank, along with a collection of Ushabti figurines (statuettes) carved in wood and wrapped in linen .

Mansour Boreik, supervisor of Luxor antiquities, told Ahram Online that the Ushabti figurines depict the similar facial features of the well-known priest Ahmosa saya Ir, who played a major role in the royal palace during the 18th Dynasty.

Galàn described Djehuty as an important official who lived in the reign of Hatshepsut, but died in the reign of Thutmosis III, because the names of both Pharaohs are written on the tomb wall. However, the name of Hatshepsut is slightly scratched.

Djehuty would appear to have participated in the construction and decoration of most of Hatshepsut’s monumental constructions in Thebes as well as registering all the exotic products, including minerals and spices, brought from the land of Punt, as shown on his tomb walls. “He was such an important official that he is even represented carrying out such activities on one of the walls of the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir Al-Bahari,” Galàn said.

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said that Djehuty’s tomb was discovered in 2003. The discovery amazed Egyptologists and historians because of its distinguished and uncommon architectural design and decoration as well as the artefacts found within its corridors. Since 2003 until now, objects from different dynasties were piled in the tomb to form a haphazard treasury. Among the artefacts unearthed are eight mummies of falcons and a demotic graffito relating to them. The drawing located on one of the tomb walls suggests the tomb was reused in the Graeco- Roman era.

 

 

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“The Cleopatras” — like “The Sopranos” but with more dancing girls

Dear readers:  As a result of seeing “Cleopatra – The Exhibition” last week, I discovered a 1983 BBC series called “The Cleopatras”.

Last night, I located the YouTube videos.

It is an 8-episode production that supposedly covers all the Cleopatras [though it starts with the "love triangle" if mother Cleopatra II, daughter Cleopatra III, and Ptolemy VIII (aka Physcon/"Fatty")].

The production clearly demonstrates that the worst enemy a Ptolemy had was another Ptolemy.

Clearly, it is not the same production quality of “I, Claudius”.  However, I thought it may amuse some of the history fans among my readers.

 

 

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Oldest Depiction of Egyptian Pharaoh sparks “alternative history” queries!

Dear Readers:  Some ancient Egypt news to share with you today, via Discovery News -

Oldest Known Depiction of Pharaoh Found

From: http://news.discovery.com/

The oldest known representation of a pharaoh has been found carved on rocks at a desert site in southern Egypt, according to new research into long forgotten engravings….

Indeed, the style of the carvings suggests that the images were made at a late Dynasty date, around 3200-3100 B.C. This would have been the reign of Narmer, the first king to unify northern and southern Egypt, thus regarded by many scholars as Egypt’s founding pharaoh.Dating back more than 5,000 years, the rock drawings appear to feature the earliest known depiction of a pharaoh, according to Gatto and colleagues.

“There are depictions of local rulers since the first half of the fourth millennium B.C., but Hamdulab seems by date to be the earliest datable representation of a king wearing one of the recognizable crowns of the ruler of all Egypt, engaged in a labeled royal ritual,” John Darnell, professor of Egyptology at Yale University, told Discovery News.

…The researchers investigated a total of seven carvings, which feature scenes depicting hunting, warfare, and nautical festival events.

The most extensive rock art picture, nearly 10 feet wide, shows five boats, one of which carries an anonymous king holding a long sceptre and wearing the White Crown, a conical shaped headpiece that symbolized rulership of southern Egypt.

The king is followed by a fan-bearer and preceded by a dog and two standard-bearers. A falcon standard appears below the king, while three of the boats boast a standard with bull horns.

“Both the falcon and the bull are royal symbols, emphasizing the royal character of the boats,” the researchers wrote.

At the bottom of the tableau, another boat features a decorated vaulted cabin, which according to the researchers represents a shrine. The vessel is then transformed into a “divine boat,” placing the tableaux in a religious context.

This sparked a wonderful question from a very good friend from the Military History Page on Facebook:

I am curious what you think about the theories of von Deniken, Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, Robert Schoch, Michael Cremo etc regarding the pyramids and the Egyptian civilization. Could the Sphinx have been built by the Atlanteans in 10.000 BC? Do you support the mainstream archaeology-history? Or do you believe that there are some unexplained mysteries and that pyramids could have been built around 10.000 BC? And also if you believe that there are pyramides in China and Bosnia. I know, all these questions are too much “Ancient Aliens” ones, however I believe the theory of a Lost civilization (check Graham Hancock works). I wish such discussion could be made in the Military History group, to read other opinions but it is not so…military topic.

That’s a lot to chew on, especially as I like to keep my posts under 1000 words. So, I am going to provide a general answer, then offer an Egypt-specific case to prove my premise.

ANSWER: I AM A HUGE SKEPTIC OF ANY “ALTERNATIVE HISTORY” THEORY.

If a history involves either aliens or time travel, I consider it entertainment and not science.

My opinion on history discussions is that unless there is video record, photograph, or solid written account (backed up with supporting evidence and some carbon-14 dating) that it is hard to prove any assertion 100% definitively. So, I am game for considering someone else’s take on an event. And, I really detest those who deride other reasonable theories that seem to logical explain a set of evidence.

Furthermore, I think humans have been creative, intelligent, and great at problem-solving since the beginning of the species. And just because we can’t figure our how, why, or with what they did something doesn’t mean we need to invoke aliens or time travel. As an example, I offer the tale of Ishi, a California Indian from the Yahi tribe who went and identified very practical uses for a wide array of artifacts mis-identified by educated archeologists as “religious objects”.

Let’s take a look at the pyramids. No Atlantean built them, as clearly attested by the “Tombs of the Pyramid Buliders” that were uncovered in 1990.

Titles such as” overseer of the side of the pyramid,”" director of the draftsmen,” “overseer of masonry,” “director of workers,” and “inspector of the craftsmen” are another indication that those buried in the upper part of the cemetery were of higher status than the people buried below. Perhaps the most important title we found was the “director for the king’s work.” I believe some of these are the tombs of the artisans who designed and decorated the Giza pyramid complexes and the administrators who oversaw their construction. We need, however, to analyze the names, pottery, and decoration of the tombs further to be sure they date to the time when the Giza pyramids were being built

The whole complex was essentially “Camp Pyramid”, where families quartered and organized themselves to feed, clothe, house, medically treat, and otherwise commune effectively. The sole purpose of that community was to build an eternal resting place of the pharaoh. Furthermore, despite some challenges with radiocarbon dating, the dates obtained in testing correspond well with traditional assignment of pyramid building at Giza (2589 and 2504 B.C.)

Additional proof of the ingenuity of humans is that  there is a clear and demonstrable evolution of pyramid building. It goes something like this:

1) King Djoser – Dynasty 3 – Step Pyramid/2648 BC
2) King Sneferu – Dynasty 4 – The Collapsed Pyramid at Meidum (first attempt at true pyramid = fail)
3) King Sneferu – The Bent Pyramid(second attempt at true pyramid = fail)
4) King Sneferu – The Red Pyramid (third attempt at true pyramid = success)
5) King Khufu-  Dynasty 4 (Snefru’s son) Great Pyramid – 2540 BC – icon of Egypt (success)

In fact, Khufu’s son Djedfre, may have built an ever more grand pyramid, which was slowly deconstructed in ancient times!

My favorite Egyptologist, Bob Brier, discusses the evolution in a wonderful episode of “The Great Egyptians”.

Additionally, “experimental archeologists” have started to figure out how Egyptians could of built the structures with only the tools we know they had:

Bob Brier has a great book that features photographic evidence of the corkscrew approach the ancient Egyptian engineers likely used: The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man’s Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Mystery

And, yes, I believe we can find pyramids elsewhere, too.  Not because of ancient aliens, though.  It is because it is the most structurally stable shape for large scale projects.  Clever men of any race or nation would have figured that out, without the intersession of extra-terrestials.

The next topic for my learned discussion: The Piri Reis Map
.

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Egyptians mock Morsi and “Merchants of Religion” and show they aren’t completely down with the concept of Islamic Pharaoh quite yet.

Welcome Instapundit readers! If you like ancient Egypt, please check out my post on 2 other Egyptian Queens – Ahhotep and Tausert. Fans of Medieval History will like Deadliest Blogger’s “Age of Arthur” series and superb podcast.

Dear Readers:  I am throwing up a two quick link summaries and a graphic that all caught my eye, as they deal with Egypt.  First, the graphic:

It seems that it may still be “Egypt for the Egyptians” – Egypt opposition shuns Morsi move

Egypt’s opposition has rejected an attempt by President Mohammed Morsi to end an increasingly bitter face-off.

Mr Morsi annulled a decree that gave him huge powers, but vowed that a vote on a new constitution would go ahead.

Opposition leaders rejected the move and called for protests on Tuesday. Later, Islamist groups said they would hold counter demonstration

It seems that Egypt’s version of “The Daily Show” poked a whole lot of fun at the ‘merchants of religion’, too:

For a brief moment on Friday night, Egyptians got some respite from the ongoing political crisis tearing the country apart. The comic relief came courtesy of Bassem Youssef’s satirical news show “Al Bernameg“ (The Program) which has just decamped from one ‘secular’ privately owned Egyptian TV channel to another….

By unleashing a deluge of satire on Egypt’s leaders – to great comic effect – Youssef is not only making light of the situation but also openly questioning authority and holding elected officials to account.

When I spoke to Youssef, shortly after taping his latest show, he told me “I don’t criticize, I satirize. I make fun, which is even more shocking. Whoever is in authority will have to deal with our program.”

In the newest episode, broadcast on Friday Dec. 7, as tensions in country remained on a knife-edge, Youssef raised the bar significantly by calling out those he describes as ‘merchants of religion.’ After mixing politics with religion, they were now using violence and sowing hate in the name of religion, he said.

In a country where the lines are blurred between politics and religion, Youssef says he gets a lot of heat from Islamists whom he considers Egypt’s right wingers.

“Our right wing here in Egypt is different from the U.S. because people here are more emotional about religion, they can’t differentiate between politics and religion. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis are the right wing, I don’t deal with them as religious groups but as political groups,” he said.

Other links of note:

• From Word Warrior – Egypt’s Draft Constitution: Religious Freedom Undermined
• Doo Doo Economics:  Europe in double-dip recession.
• Beers with Demo recounts the best of the week, including Korean pop sensation Psy’s apology for his anti-American song 8 years ago.
• B-daddy: Deficit Agenda for Obama’s Second Term

Finally, Lonely Conservative offers the first bit of good news related to the administration post-election: Obama Admin Caving On Lunch Menus

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A Masala of Fun and Facts – King Tut, Napoleon and Tango

Dear Readers:  I wanted to thank Georgina Vargas and Oscar Mandagaran for their wonderful discussion of the art and history of Tango last night.  I am afraid my fast, mid-western dialect was a but much, but Silvio was the gracious translator and we had a ton of fun (click HERE for the show link).  Georgina has a CD she is working on, and we were treated to some of her incredible, passionate singing.

I came across some amusing, entertaining, and informative links that  wanted to share today.

The Pharaoh Island: 90 years after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, how Britain has embraced Egyptian architecture

There may not be a sphinx on every street corner in London or Manchester, but Egypt has had a bigger influence on British architecture than you would think.

From cinemas to supermarkets, factories to mausoleums, a new book has revealed the deep-seated influence the ancient territory has had on British building design for more than 200 years.

‘Egypt in England’ by Chris Elliott examines over 50 Egyptian sites in Britain, revealing the curious stories behind these unusual and often outlandish pieces of architecture and interior design.

For centuries the wonder of Ancient Egypt remained largely inaccessible to European travellers, until its ‘rediscovery’ in the 19th century.

During England’s Regency era (1811-1820) Egyptian style became the very height of fashion.

This ‘Egyptomania’ was fuelled by the British discovery, exactly 90 years ago this November, of Tutankhamun’s tomb, which gave the world some of its most iconic images of the ancient civilisation.

Part of the reason for Britain’s “Egyptomania” is that used the French Description de l’Egypte, with was a graphic illustration of the wonders discovered by Napoleon’s expedition into Egypt.

Which brings me to the subject of my next post, Word Warrior’s piece — DEMOCRATS PUSH FOR TOTAL VICTORY – that likens Obama to Napoleon.

It appears as if President Obama and the Democrats are taking a page from Napoleon’s playbook. Smelling blood in the water, they seek to turn a slender tactical victory on election night into a strategic political victory. Pursuing a relentlessly partisan, populist approach the President seeks to pursue the disordered and demoralized Republicans off the looming “fiscal cliff”.

After 3 weeks of leaving them hanging, the President has contemptuously placed before the Republicans an offer that is little more than insulting: a tax hike of $1.6 trillion; in return for an ephemeral promise of addressing essential entitlement cuts sometime in the future.

I am tired of Obama being compared to Roman Emperors, so this was a very refreshing take! The entire piece is a must-read, so please head on over.  In a related piece, Lonely Conservative note: Americans’ Net Worth Drops To 43 Year Low

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Other News and Links:

• My latest at College Insurrection, which is a look at husband-wife vacation challenges: “Check out” latest Prager U. Course — “He Wants You”
• A big thanks to W.C. Varones who links to my Legal Insurrection piece on the high speed train fiasco: California, the Pineapple Express, Axl Rose, and the High-Speed Fail to Nowhere
• Beers with Demo notes the dirty UN is trying to get its hands on our internet: Kind of a no-brainer when one thinks about it
• Edge of the Sandox has a great demographic analysis: I Don’t Know Why Asians Are Democrats, But

As a side note, I will be chatting with Aaron Clarey, Captain Capitalism this Wednesday on Canto Talk.  He has a wonderful analysis about our current batch of college students:  The Pathetic Conformity of Young “Rebels”

As a student I remember my teachers and I were sworn enemies.  It was never stated, but it was obvious through actions and behaviors, and as quickly as the first week of kindergarten, that teachers were not there to help the students, but to take advantage of them.  I do not mean in a “physical” or “sexually abusive” way, but in a financial and psychological way.  It was very apparent to me at the age of 5 that the teachers were not there to help `us, they were there for ulterior motives, and me and my peers would be the victims in this racket.

Obviously I could not articulate this at that time.  I didn’t have the vocabulary, the thought, let alone the context.  But now in hindsight and knowing the racket education is, I can identify precisely what was going on.  Young adults, too lazy to find real work, used “educating the children” as an excuse to avoid math, rigor or any career endeavor that required effort.  And so, for 13 years, me and millions of other youth had to suffer at the hands of overpaid, overglorified, inferior-human, baby sitters, and though we couldn’t articulate the argument above, we intuitively KNEW IT becuase of the day in, day out hell these morons forced upon us.  It was WAR.  And it was between the innocent students and the people posing as teachers (why else would “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” be so popular?).

Fast forward to today and times have definitely changed.  And changed for the worse.

Finally, check out College Insurrection friend, American Glob’s piece on the 5 People Fox News should kick to the curb and see if you agree!

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Queen Ahhotep: The Badass Matriarch of Egypt’s 17th Dynasty

Dear Readers: I was recently reminded of Queen Ahhotep by a friend who posted a picture of a prestigious military award given to Egypt’s 17^th Dynasty ruler, which accompanied her to the grave: The Golden Flies of Valor.

So, today, I would like to review the life and death of one of Egypt’s most dynamic and influential women.  It seems she was the “leader of the pack”, obviously influencing the strong women who later dominated Egypt’s 18th dynasty (e.g., Hatshepsut, Tiye, Nefertiti and Mutnodjmet)

Ahhotep, whose name means “The Moon is Satisfied”, was the wife of pharaoh Seqenenre Tao (likely her brother), whose own mummy points to a rather gruesome death at the hands of the Hyksos (a group of mixed Semitic-Asiatics who immigrated into Egypt’s delta region and eventually dominated it).  She lived sometime around 1560- 1530 BC.  Eventually, her son drove the foreigners from the country and established the extremely famous 18^th Dynasty (featuring favorites such as Thutmosis III, Akhnaton, Tutankhamon).

Ahhotep was likely the mother of Pharaoh Ahmose I. Her exact relation to Pharaoh Kamose is not known, but he may have been her brother-in-law (brother of Tao) or her son. Other children of Queen Ahhotep I include the later Queen Ahmose-Nefertari who was married to her brother Ahmose I.

It seems that she was an active Queen Regent once her husband was killed in battle.  In a unique inscription dated to a later part in his reign, Ahmose calls upon the people to honor his mother and credits her not only for having ruled Egypt while he was too young, but also for having rallied the troops and fought off rebellion:

“Give praise to the lady of the land, the mistress of the lands of Haw-nebut, whose name is (held) high in every foreign country, who has made many plans, the King’s Wife, the sister of the sovereign, may he live, propser and be healthy, the King’s Daughter, the noble King’s Mother, who knows (all) things, who took care of Kemet. She looked after its troops, she guarded them, she rounded up its fugitives, brought back its deserters, she pacified the South and she repelled those who rebelled against her, the King’s Wife Ahhotep, may she live””

So, Ahhotep is acknowledged for suppressing a rebellion, but the the nature of the rebellion itself is not recorded.  Could it be that her regency was not generally accepted by all those who here under Theban rule, and this period represents a transition in ancient Eygptian attitudes toward female rulers that would eventually culminate in Pharaoh Hatshepsut?

This effort seems to have been worthy of formal military honors.  More details about the “Golden Flies of Honor” can be found in a wonderful piece by Graciela Gestoso Singer:  Ahhotep I and the “Golden Fly

“From the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty, gold rewards were given in several forms: a) bracelets and necklaces -as the “Order of the Golden Collar” or šbyw collar,  b) flies -as the “Golden Fly of Valor” or the “Order of the Golden Fly”,  and c) ceremonial and warlike artifacts -such as daggers, axes, armlets, headdresses, barks, and lions.  Queen Ahhotep did wear and/or receive most of them, initiating an era of brave and political active Queens.

The fly motif in military decoration could be related to several aspects: a) the behavior and the persistence of biting flies attacking humans; b) the presence of flies on battlefields, where blood is being shed; and c) the fly is the hieroglyphic determinative sign of the word “fly” (‘ff), the verb “to fly” (‘ff ), and the sound “aff” (‘ff) (expressing “rejection” and “bother”),  all of them connected with the same idea of “shooing away” animals or enemies. In later times (ca. 1550 BCE onwards) it was used as a symbol of bravery.

The weaponry and the “Golden Fly”, found in the tomb of Ahhotep, and the inscriptions of Ahmose, at Karnak, permit to confirm her active role during the Hyksos war. Queen Ahhotep received splendid ceremonial artifacts after the country was liberated from the Hyksos because of her bravery and support for her late husband and her two sons. The ceremonial artifacts (three golden fly pendants, a battle axe, and two models of ceremonial bark) found in her tomb were part of the funerary and ritual objects used to symbolize and guarantee the eternal victory of the order (maat) over the chaos (the enemies or evil forces).

The jewelry, awards, and axe from Ahhotep’s tomb.

Ahhotep is mentioned on the Kares stela (CG 34003) which dates to year 10 of Amenhotep I, and her steward Iuf mentions her on his stela (CG 34009). Iuf refers to Ahhotep as the mother of King Ahmose I, and would later be the steward of Queen Ahmose, the wife of Thutmose I. This suggests Ahhotep I may have died at a fairly advanced age during the reign of Thutmose I.  There are suggestions she may have lived to the ripe-old-age of 90.

She was buried with all due honors, but like with most of Egypt’s rulers, her tomb was plundered.  Ahhotep I’s outer coffin was eventually reburied in TT320 in Deir el Bahari.

In 1858, Auguste Mariette’s team excavating at a site called discovered a coffin labeled for a King’s Great Wife Ahhotep.   Interestingly, it was during the New Kingdom that King’s Great Wife was the title bestowed pn the principal consort of the pharaoh.  Opening the coffin, the excavators found a mummy and a collection of golden artifacts. In one of the biggest tragedies known to Egyptology, the mummy was stripped, and both body and bandages were thrown away – eliminating all the possible data we could collect with today’s technology.  The coffin shows the queen with a tripartite wig and a modius. The body is covered in a rishi-design (feathers).  The “Golden Flies of Valor” were found with the coffin.

Then, in 1881, a large outer coffin belonging to the King’s Daughter, King’s Sister, King’s Great Wife and King’s Mother Ahhotep was recovered from the famous Deir el-Bahari cache of royal mummies.  It is thought this might have been unusable for the queen at the time of her dealth so the smaller coffin was used.  The mummy found in this coffin was that of Pinodjem I, a High Priest of Amun who, at the start of the Late Dynastic Period.

Image of the Deceased Ahhotep in the Afterlife

Interestingly, there is a theoretical association of Ahhotep the mythical Io, a nymph who was seduced by Zeus, who changed her into a cow to escape detection by Hera. The glyph ‘Ah’ in her name is the same as Canaanite/Pelasgian moon goddess Io or Ya(h). The Aegean region was known to the ancient Egyptians as Yawan (Iaones).  Ahhotep’s unique title, hnwt idbw h3w-nbwt ‘Mistress of the Shores beyond the Islands’, refers to the Egyptian term for lands bordering the Aegean Sea.  Furthermore, Egyptain queens were often associated with cow-goddesses such as Hathor.  (David Rohl: The Lords of Avaris)

It seems as if Ahhotep’s death has been as adventuresome as her life.  Truly, her influence on the Great Queens of Egypt’s famous 18th dynasty was powerful.

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Egypt in the Wake of Pharaoh Morsi’s Decree

Dear Readers:  A quick Egypt-based update for my fans of the ancient land.  I bet the true believers in the “Arab Spring” were shocked to discover that the new Muslim Brotherhood President transformed himself into the new pharaoh!

This via Egypt Daily News: Egypt journalists blast Morsi declaration, warn of general strike

The general assembly of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate on Sunday voiced its rejection of President Mohamed Morsi’s constitutional declaration, threatening to stage a general strike in retaliation against Morsi’s divisive Thursday declaration.

“The general assembly announces its total rejection of the latest decisions issued by the president,” Gamal Fahmi, member of the syndicate’s executive board, shouted to hundreds of journalists at the syndicate’s downtown headquarters.

The president’s decisions “represent naked aggression against general freedoms, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary,” he added, as fistfights erupted around him between supporters and opponents of the syndicate’s head Mamdouh El-Wali.

Another article shows the turmoil and economic hardship that the dictate has wrought: Entirely predictable to those of us who recognized the only entity in Egypt to organize after the power vacuum following Mubarak’s ouster was the hate-mongering fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt’s stock index fell by nearly 10 percent Sunday in the first trading since President Mohammed Morsi issued decrees to assume sweeping new powers, while a 15-year-old boy was killed in an attack on the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters and police in central Cairo fired tear gas at protesters.

Morsi’s edicts, which were announced on Thursday, place him above oversight of any kind, including that of the courts. The move has thrown Egypt’s already troubled transition to democracy into further turmoil, sparking angry protests across the country to demand the decrees be immediately rescinded.

The judiciary, which was the main target of Morsi’s edicts, has pushed back. Judges and prosecutors stayed away from several courts in Cairo and across much of the country.

Fortunately, a dear friend of mine has relocated his family. Charles Caesar also has an Egyptian friend who makes the following report: The country now is divided between two camps and no other, Egyptians versus the Muslim Brotherhood, anyone who says anything differently doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

In essence, what has happened is that Morsi feels entitled to act out, now that he has the Obama Administration’s blessing following the pseudo-cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. It looks like the Muslim Brotherhood is going to get a crack at rewriting the Egyptian Constitution:

Among Egypt’s secular opposition groups, there was mounting alarm over Morsi’s declaration that no court could dissolve the country’s Constituent Assembly, which is drawing up a new Egyptian constitution.

The rewriting of the new constitution has been a controversial issue, with most non-Islamist members quitting the Constituent Assembly – including representatives of the Coptic Christian Church and the April 6 Youth Movement, which played an influential role in the 2011 ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

That’s going to go well for the Copts./sarc X 1,000,000

EGYPT FOR THE EGYPTIANS!

This is one of my favorite lines from George Bernard Shaw’s “Caesar and Cleopatra. I have always maintained that Egypt will be best served by the citizens recalling their ancient roots and remembering that they are Egyptians first and foremost.

On a slightly lighter, but related note, here is a video tour of the ancient Egyptian hell. You only have to turn on your TV to see its modern one.

UPDATE: Video: Protests, clashes spread outside of Cairo

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Exquisite Old Kingdom Statues from Newly Discovered Tomb!

Dear Readers: A bit of Egyptology news for the history fans among my friends. I recently mentioned that a Czech team located an undiscovered tomb of an Egyptian princess. It seems nearby tombs contained statues of surpassing beauty, and as I love the statuary of ancient Egypt from the Old Kingdom, I am thrilled to share a few items:

(Image courtesy of the Egyptiana Emporium)

Breathtaking.

Also, there is a great video from NTD Television detailing the find — well worth the 5 minutes for any Egyptophile (click here for link to video). A snippet from the story:

A team of Czech and Egyptian archaeologists are continuing to excavate a recently discovered tomb complex.

They say it includes the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess from the Old Kingdom.

The excavations have yielded a treasure trove of statues that experts say are some of the finest examples of their kind.

The findings were made near the Abu Sir necropolis in Saqqara, known to be a burial site for high officials of the Old Kingdom, when the capital was still located in Memphis.

Last week, archaeologists apparently unveiled the 4,500-year-old tomb of Princess Shert Nebti and three other tombs nearby—some of the most significant finds in recent years.

[Miroslav Barta, Head Archaeologist, Abu Sir Mission]: “All the monuments around us developed during the fifth dynasty and belonged to several powerful families. One of the leading persons that was buried here is the princess Sherit Nebti. The excavation is not finished yet but still what we have at the moment is this unique pillared courtyard, which contains four pillars which were originally roofed, and inscriptions which say that Sherit Nebti,’ the nose of two ladies’, belonged to a royal family, a royal family of the kings that were buried northward in the pyramid field of Abu Sir.”

Another notable temple at the site is believed to have belonged to a high official named Nefer or ‘the Beautiful One’.

One of the most impressive finds in Nefer’s tomb is a well-preserved passage that archaeologists say was a kind of ‘passport’ to the underworld.

Nefer was believed to cross back into the land of the living to participate in the offerings, later returning to the land of the dead.

Chief inspector for Northern Saqqara, Hamdi Amin, says that there are still countless discoveries waiting to be made in Abu Sir.

[Hamdi Amin, Chief Inspector, Northern Saqqara]: “We have a lot of treasure we find this season, nine statues, intact ones, limestones, good preserved colour, intact colours. Now they are situated in the magazines [storehouses] of Saqqara. Here we have a very big site for a new area. Abu Sir, we considered it to be a virgin area which is still keeping a lot of secrets.”

Egypt’s antiquities authorities say, excavators have uncovered four sarcophagi, and some highly detailed statues have now been moved to nearby storehouses.

[Miroslav Barta, Head Archaeologist, Abu Sir Mission]: “The statues are important for two principle reasons—one of them is the mastery of their execution and the second important thing is that they represent a very huge new corpus of Old Kingdom unique statuary.”

The authorities are hoping such spectacular discoveries may remind holiday-goers of Egypt’s impressive and still unfolding heritage.

I would also like to take a few moments for a little link love:

• One of my heroes, Captain Capitalism, is looking for some good women — to help with some editing of his new book.  This is a great chance to make a difference by supporting the free market message!
• Lonely Conservative is keeping up the good fight in New York, and has some great stories:  WH Website Hit With Petition To End WH Petition Website and Obama Voters Not Welcome At Arizona Gun Store
• Sitting on the Edge of the Sandbox, another survivor of the Great California Nov. 6 Slaughter, blames the kids: California Students: Not So Bright
• Word Warrior shares a great post that touches on the Israel-Hamas situation: KILL FOR PEACE
• B-Daddy describes the anarchist group Anonymous and their hacking of Israeli cyberspace to support terrorists.
• WC Varones offers another fine example of government inanity: FHA needs a bailout; Gee, who could have seen that coming?
• KT Kat makes some salient observations on a blog that is a source of liberal fiscal rage and ignorance: AMERICAblog
• Beers with Demos features another saccy Micahel Rameirz cartoon and weighs the real meaning behind the election results: Political cartoon of the day…
• Charles Caesar has his zombie apocalypse Twinkie stash.

And finally, Lipstick Underground offers some salient post-election advice:  SUCK IT UP!

Finally, the perfect blend of Bollywood and Egypt as my Music Mix offering for this week. BONUS – the video has the translation!

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Another Leftist Lie: The Tea Party is Dead

Dear Readers: I was thrilled to have a piece featured at Bill Jacobson’s great site, Legal Insurrection: Shattering the Myth that the Tea Party is Dead. Please check it out, and leave a kind comment if it suits.

I also wanted to thank SovietKitchen.com‘s Michael Bogdanov for an awesome Canto Talk show last night (click HERE to listen): I learned a to ton about the Soviet Union and cooking. We will be featuring his site and recipes again for future update.

Now, something related to ancient Egypt — featuring something rally dead. Virtual autopsy: exploring a natural mummy from early Egypt

This is the first pre-dynastic mummy to have undergone a CT scan. From bone formation evidence, this specimen, referred to Gebelein man, was 18-21 years old at the time of death. The autopsy revealed he was likely stabbed to death. Fore more information on Gebelein man, click HERE. A snippet:

This man died more than five thousand years ago and was buried at the site of Gebelein, in Upper Egypt. The reconstruction of his grave illustrates the early Egyptian custom of placing the body in a contracted, foetal position, usually on the left side, with the head to the south, facing the west, the land of the dead where he would be reborn. Around him were all the things he might need for his afterlife, especially pottery to hold and serve food.

In the Predynastic period (4400-3100 BC), the time before the pharaohs, the dead were buried in shallow graves cut into the desert sand. The graves were often lined with reed mats, making them like a bed, and the body was covered with linen or skins and more mats, like a blanket, before the grave was refilled and perhaps topped by a mound of dirt. Contact with the hot dry sand naturally preserved the bodies because the sand absorbed the water that constitutes approximately 75% by weight of the human body. Bacteria cannot breed without moisture and as a result, the bodies frequently did not decay, but simply dried out. The body of this man is remarkably well-preserved, even down to his finger-nails and hair, which has probably faded with time.

Finally, a little link love to one of my dearest heroes, Captain Capitalism, who has a must watch video that addresses Christmas shopping!!!

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