- TODO SOBRE LA RECONSTRUCCIÓN DEL ROSTRO DE TUTANJAMON (TUTANKHAMON) -

- VER FOTOGRAFÍAS DE LA RECONSTRUCCIÓN DEL ROSTRO DE TUTANJAMON (TUTANKHAMON) -

- TODO SOBRE EL CAT REALIZADO A LA MOMIA DE TUTANJAMON (TUTANKHAMON) -

- VER ADEMÁS FOTOGRAFÍAS NUEVAS Y ANTIGUAS DE LA MOMIA DE TUTANJAMON -

28/09/05
- Explicación de la Dra Wafa El Sadidik, Directora del Museo Egipcio de El Cairo, sobre la prohibición de sacar fotografías en el mismo -
Photography at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo
Following on from my earlier posting about the partial ban on photography in the Louvre, my sincere thanks to Bob Partridge, Editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine (www.ancientegyptmagazine.com), for permission to publish the following on this weblog. "Ancient Eypt Magazine has reported the recent ban on photography in the Egyptian museum in Cairo (and also in other museums in Egypt). This ban has greatly disappointed many AE readers, your editor included, and during a recent visit to Cairo, I was able to meet the Director of  the museum, Dr Wafa El Sadidik, and I asked her directly why the ban had been imposed. Dr Wafa explained that the Egyptian Museum has become incredibly busy over the last few years, more so than ever before. In addition to the visitors traveling the Nile  valley, the Museum now has coaches coming in for the day from the Red Sea resorts as well as from Alexandria, where day trips are arranged for the many cruise ships which dock there.The rules for photography had always been very clear, but with the vastly  increased numbers of tourists, who seem determined to photograph themselves in every location they visit, it became a problem. In the Museum, they began taking photos in contravention of the restrictions, and controlling this became  impossible. Many digital cameras are small and mobile phones can also be used to take photos. What made things worse was the desire of many visitors to be photographed next to the major objects in the museum. AE readers will know that some of the corridors in the museum and gaps between the cases are  narrow. A group of thirty people, determined to be photographed with the Khafra statue, or especially with Tutankhamun's gold mask, completely ground the flow of visitors through the museum to a halt and made viewing the objects for others difficult, if not impossible. In addition, many people taking photos could not, or would not, turn off their flashes. Some were even climbing onto or leaning against statues and, to make matters worse, were often less than polite to museum staff when asked to stop. So the difficult decision to ban all photography was taken. Having seen the problem at first hand myself on a visit last year, I can see how serious the problem was and how there could be a real danger of damage to the objects. I now appreciate why there was really no alternative. With the ban in place, the flow of visitors improved dramatically and the squash of people in confined places around fragile glass display cabinets was reduced dramatically. I then asked the Director if it was possible for people to take photos by arrangement with the museum. The answer is that for students or for anyone  undertaking a programme of study or research, then applications to take photos in the museum will be viewed favourably. This permission, at the moment at least, needs to be obtained in advance and in writing. The definition of "student" does not necessarily mean study at a University, but clearly the museum will need to know the area of interest and the reasons why photos are needed.In the future, things may change. Perhaps with the opening of the new Museum at Giza in a few years' time, the rules on photography in the old museum will be relaxed, as it will attract only the more serious visitor. AE readers need to know that decisions such as the ban are not made lightly and the ultimate concern has to be the safety of the objects. Similar problems at the Louvre (notably around the "Mona Lisa") have caused, what appears to be a partial ban there, but not in the Egyptian galleries. Keeping the enthusiasts happy and the "ordinary" tourists with cameras under control.is never easy"

Fuente: TourEgypt
  
26/09/05
Egypt Centre to have virtual tomb
How the Pharaoh's burial chamber looks on Virtual Egypt A virtual reality pharaoh's tomb is being developed in Swansea so school children can journey to ancient Egypt. Pupils visiting the Egypt Centre at the city's university will test what they learn in a 3D interactive setting. Youngsters aged eight and upwards will be asked to solve a series of tasks  as they explore the virtual tomb. Created by locally-based web and 3D animation firm Waters Designs, it will be housed in the £500,000 VR Cave at Technium Digital at the university. The VR Cave, the only one of its kind in Wales, allows groups of up to six to enter three-dimensional settings. We checked the accuracy of our design for objects that go inside the tomb with the British Museum  They are then immersed in a 3D virtual world in which objects appear to be both in the middle of the room and to extend beyond the walls. "It's based around the Egyptian Book of the Dead and how the pharaoh was thought to enter the afterlife," said Ms Wheatley.  "We checked the accuracy of our design for objects t at go inside the tomb - like scarab brooches and canopic jars - with the British Museum. "It's aimed at pupils from eight years plus. We are going to be doing some  testing with a few schools to make sure that the level of learning is consistent with the children it's aimed at". Waters Designs is half-way through the 12-month project which it is hoped  will be launched in Science Week in March next year. The virtual cave is used for academic and commercial development at Technium Digital. There are plans to link it to Blue C super-computer, said to be one of the most powerful of its kind, that will be housed at the university as part of a £50m research centre.
Fuente: BBC News
  
24/09/05
Land grab ruins relics of pharaohs
Egyptian reliefs dating back thousands of years could disappear within 10 years because the demands of the living are undermine the pharaohs' quest for immortality. As Egypt's population grows, agricultural plots encroach ever closer to land reserved for ancient temples and funeral monuments, archaeologists say. Water for irrigation is weakening temple foundations and eroding the carvings. "We've seen it. We have photographic evidence of something we took a picture  of 10 years ago and we go and take a picture of the reliefs now and they are simply not there," said Nigel Hetherington, an archaeological conservation manager. "What's happened is that farming land, as the population increases  dramatically, now stretches out into the desert and into [the Nile's west bank at] Luxor, which was once considered the realm of the dead in the pharaonic period." Egyptian laws are too weak or sporadically imposed to deter farmers from grabbing land, the archaeologists say, and the erosion could damage Egypt's  tourism industry, the country's main source of foreign exchange. Millions of tourists a year are drawn to archaeological sites such as the mortuary temple of Rameses II, known as the Ramasseum, or the sprawling temple complex of Karnak. Both are under threat from farming, archaeologists  said. "Look at the two statues of Memnon in Luxor, or the Ramasseum. All the agricultural land in the Karnak area . They are examples of how people are  damaging these monuments," said Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities. Water not only undermines the foundations but also wipes the details off carvings.  The limestone temples absorb ground water and, through the action of heat and cold, the salts in the water crystallise on the surface, removing reliefs and drawings until the rock eventually cracks. The Government  has tried to persuade farmers to use drip irrigation, a method that uses relatively little water, but farmers prefer the old method of flooding farmland with Nile water. Draining the area around archaeological sites is also an effective solution  but is too expensive,  nd overseas donations have not been forthcoming, the  archaeologists said.When the towering rock face statues of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt were  under threat from flooding during the construction of the Aswan dam in 1960, an international rescue effort led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation moved the statues block by block. But gradual erosion over the years is not dramatic enough to capture international attention, Mr Hetherington said. "The problem is that it's not a sexy enough topic. When Abu Simbel . was going to be flooded, it made a real impact. "People could see the size of the lake and that the temples were going to disappear. But this is such a slow process."

Fuente: Reuters
  
22/09/05
Farming threatens ancient Egyptian sites
Egyptian reliefs dating back thousands of years could disappear within a decade, archaeologists said on Thursday. As Egypt's population grows, agricultural land moves closer to ancient temples and funeral monuments. Water for irrigation is weakening temple foundations and eroding the carvings. "We've seen it. We have photographic evidence of something we took a picture  of 10 years ago and we go and take a picture of the reliefs now and they are simply not there," said Nigel Hetherington, an archaeological conservation manager.  "What's happened is that farming land now stretches out into the desert and into (the Nile's west bank at) Luxor, which was once considered the realm of the dead in the pharaonic period," he said. The problem could also erode Egypt's tourism  industry. Millions of tourists a year visit the mortuary temple of Ramesses II and the massive temple complex of Karnak. Both are under threat.  Water not only undermines the foundations but also wipes the details off carvings. The limestone temples absorb ground water and the salts in the  water crystallize on the surface, removing reliefs and drawings until the rock eventually cracks. The government has tried to persuade farmers to use drip irrigation, a  method that uses relatively little water. But farmers prefer the traditional method of flooding farmland with Nile water. Laws are generally considered too weak to stop the land grab, but that is something officials think they can change.  Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, thinks stricter legislation will protect land around the ancient sites from farmers  trying to take it without permission. "Antiquities laws do not punish anyone who takes land, this is why I'm  changing the law now ... so that taking antiquities land is a crime. That is the only way to stop those people from taking more land for agriculture," he  said. He said he expected new laws to be presented to parliament in January.
Fuente: CBC News
  
21/09/05
Was the mummy found on our shelf at school a murder victim?
Egyptian mummies are generally seen as the province of museums and antiquarian collections that keep their secrets bound close. However, on a cold February day I found myself at Manchester University interviewing a world expert in Egyptology about the latest  scientific techniques being used to unravel the mysteries locked up in these strange artefacts. Together with a small group of students and teachers, I had arrived in Manchester following the rediscovery of an Egyptian mummy at our school. A pathologist, Dr Dick  Kittermaster, had donated the mummy to Uplands Community College but, with changing staff and the passing of time, it had been forgotten and mislaid. In the summer of 2004, however, a box was found on the top shelf of an  unused cupboard containing  he disarticulated mummy wrapped in linen: a delicate hand with nails, a foot, two femurs and a pelvis, which, along with  the head and tightly wrapped neck, constituted what is now referred to as the Kittermaster Mummy. A previous post-mortem had identified that the mummy was that of a young  female from around 700BC, but little more was known. To build up a picture of this shadowy stranger we would need expert help. We turned to Rosalie David, professor of biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester, and she  offered to carry out tests. We were invited to Manchester to witness some of the techniques which would be used to extract information from the ancient remains. This introduction was to open up a world of scientific research of which I had previously had no  idea. Prof David is a pioneer in the use of non-destructive medical techniques to investigate mummies. She explained how the university has established a mummy tissue bank, which already contains more than 2,000 samples.  This makes it the largest single collection of Egyptian mummified tissue in the world and the tissue is seen as a resource with huge potential to throw light on many aspects of life in the ancient world, including the possible  evolution of disease from those times. Through a process called immunocytochemistry using tagged antibodies, Prof David and her team are able to identify disease markers in the ancient tissue. In this way they hope to chart minute changes in the molecular  biology of disease and see if there are any alterations through the millennia. Currently their particular interest is in schistosomiasis, a debilitating parasitic disease that has been a scourge in the Middle East since ancient times. Prof David said: "We are looking at the DNA of the core parasite to  see whether it has evolved. Any knowledge we can get about what a disease does may help in the development of modern vaccines." Prof David explained that visceral tissue provided the best evidence for their work, but "if there are bits hanging off the mummy and the curator is happy for those to go into the tissue bank then we'll take those".  However, skin can be problematic as there is always the possibility of contamination by others who have handled the mummy. "The best samples are achieved when you endoscope a mummy which is still anatomically intact and retrieve deep tissue." Following the  interview we assisted with the endoscopy of the head of the Kittermaster Mummy. Samples from the tongue and back of the eye sockets were collected for analysis. During the inspection of the neck a vertebra was observed to be displaced in an abnormal position. This had clearly happened before mummification and was the result either of a severe blow to the back of head or strangulation, either way causing  instant death. Were we dealing with a 3,000-year-old murder victim? The retrieved tissue and bones will be studied using state-of-the-art techniques and we must wait for the results. The most dramatic process will be a three-dimensional facial reconstruction enabling us to come face to  face with the individual who has found her way down to us through thousands of years. The  rediscovery of the Kittermaster Mummy at our school gave us a glimpse of the way science can be used to sharpen historical understanding, which in turn can be used to further scientific knowledge. Like so much in this world, seemingly disconnected things can often  interweave and support each other to give mutual benefit.

Fuente: connected.telegraph
  
19/09/05
Desaparecen tres piezas de los sótanos del Museo Egipcio
Tres piezas arqueológicas que datan del Imperio Antiguo (2575-2150 antes de Cristo) han desaparecido del sótano del Museo Egipcio, en el centro de El Cairo, informó hoy, el periódico estatal Al-Ahram. Las tres piezas son dos estatuas de piedra caliza, una de un hombre de 23,5 centímetros, y la otra de una pareja, de 35 centímetros, además de una caja de madera sin cubierta y que contiene en su interior una estatua del dios Osiris de 40 centímetros de ancho. Según el diario, las tres piezas, que pesan 45 kilos en total, habían  sido trasladadas junto a otras once de un almacén en Giza, oeste de El Cairo, hasta el museo, para ser mostradas en una exposición celebrada el pasado día 18 de abril y titulada "Giza durante los diferentes períodos". Sin embargo, un día antes de la exposición, las tres  piezas fueron descartadas de la muestra y guardadas en el sótano del museo que alberga 65.000 piezas sin las necesarias medidas de seguridad ni catalogación, hecho  que recibe frecuentes críticas. La desaparición de las piezas se puso de manifiesto cuando el director del Consejo Supremo de Antigüedades, Zahi Hawas, pidió el pasado día 7 la devolución a su sitio original de todas las piezas expuestas en la muestra temporal.  Al constatar la ausencia de tres piezas, Hawas presentó una denuncia a la Fiscalía General  egipcia, que ha emprendido una investigación del caso, que no es el primero de estas características que se produce en el Museo Egipcio. El museo, fundado a principios del siglo XX, alberga la mayor colección de piezas arqueológicas egipcias del mundo, pero la  acumulación incesante de piezas ha hecho que las autoridades egipcias proyecten ahora el traslado de la mayor parte de la colección a un nuevo emplazamiento junto a las Pirámides.
Fuente: Yahoo news
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18/09/05

- Los métodos egipcios de hacer vino siguen muy vivos -
Egyptian winemaking methods still very alive
In the tomb of Intef, a royal herald of the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom (1500 to 1100 B.C.), there is a detailed mural of Egyptian winemaking. From the pictures in the mural, and particularly the captions in and under the pictures, we know many details about the way the ancient Egyptians made wine. They were the first to use trellises, and the pickers reached above their  heads to cut down the bunches of grapes hanging from the trellises. The grapes then were carried in baskets to the crushers, who stomped them in a large, raised tub, sampling the proto-wine and singing an ode to Rennutet, the goddess of the harvest. Over the tub was a beam with pieces of rope  hanging down, like the straps in a public bus, which the crushers held onto for dear life to keep from slipping and falling. Next, the must was pressed in a large, yellow jelly bag between two poles.  The press operators turned the poles clockwise at one end and counterclockwise at the other. The juice was sometimes dark red and sometimes light pink, which indicates that the Egyptians made red tannic  wines and also a blush. So, you see, white zinfandel was popular even before California was discovered. In Egyptian wine, the primary fermentation was done in open jars, and the  secondary fermentation was always done in amphoras with sealed tops. There was a small hole in the seal that allowed the carbon dioxide to escape so the jar would not explode; the hole was sealed when fermentation ceased. The question, though, is: Why did the amphoras have pointed bottoms?  Flat-bottomed jars are so much easier to store. The answer may be a big surprise. These amphoras, with two handles on the top and a pointed bottom, fit nicely in a bed of sand and could easily be removed and put back in place if the sand was moist.  There is a wall painting of workers fanning amphoras in a sandbox. Evaporative cooling of the water in the moist sand would cause refrigeration  of the wine, and cool fermentation enhances the fruity flavors in the wine. Thus, the Egyptians invented a refrigerator. In 1922, in the Valley of the Kings, Howard Carter found King  Tutankhamen's tomb. More to the point, in an annex to the tomb he found a wine cellar with 26 sealed amphoras of wine. Unfortunately, these containers were not vitrified and liquids leach slowly through the sides of the jars. After 3,000-odd years, nothing was left in  the jars but solid residue. We missed our opportunity to taste really aged wine. The pharaohs had a labeling system much like the modern French Appellation Contrôlée. On each jar, more likely on the seal because they recycled the  jars, was inscribed information about the wine. The first would be the k3mw (the word for winery or estate in ancient Egyptian); second, the location of the vineyard, or the appellation. The  third word was the quality of the wine, such as merry making, not good, good, very good, or descriptions of style, such as blended, sweet or genuine. Fourth is the vintage in years of the pharaoh's reign -- 1345 B.C.  was a very good year; 23 of the 26 jars were from the fourth, fifth or ninth year of Tut's reign. Fifth is the k3my, the vintner -- six of the wines were made by Khay.  The labeling rules varied a bit over the 600 years of the New Kingdom but by and large remained the same. Typical labeling would have read: Year 4. Sweet wine of the House-of-Acton -- Life, Prosperity, Health! -- of the Western River. Chief vintner Àperershop; Year 5. Sweet wine of the House-of-Acton from Karet. Chief vintner Ramose; Year 4. Sdh of very good quality of the House-of-Acton of the Western River. Chief vintner Khay. Although most of the labels listed sweet wine, the Egyptians seem to have  preferred dry wine -- only four of the jars were sweet wine. Likewise, almost all the wine came from near Alexandria. We were worried that we were not going to be able to recommend a wine you could try. Then we discovered that "sdh" is pomegranate wine. Try Casa de Fruta Pomegranate at $14 a bottle from California or Piyaman International Pomegranate wine from Beijing. The Egyptians were temperate in their habits and drank with moderation. We should learn to do the same. The sage Ani advises us: "Don't indulge in drinking beer, lest you utter evil speech and don't know what you're saying. If you fall and hurt your body, none holds out a hand to you; your companions in the drinking stand up, saying: 'Out with the drunk!'

Fuente: CentreDaily.com  

 
13/09/05
"Trois momies au CHU de Liège"
Trois momies égyptiennes de la 26e dynastie ont quitté le musée Curtius pour rejoindre le service de radiologie de l'hôpital universitaire de Liège. L'autopsie virtuelle de personnes mortes depuis plus de 2.500 ans permet aujourd'hui aux archéologues d'étudier les momies sans les détériorer.  Trois momies égyptiennes, provenant du Musée Curtius et appartenant à l'Institut Archéologique liégeois, vieilles de plus de deux millénaires et demi, sont arrivées ce lundi au Centre hospitalier universitaire de Liège afin d'y subir une série d'examens en laboratoire. C'est dans le cadre de l'exposition "La Caravane du Caire", qui se tiendra à la Salle Saint-Georges  du musée de l'Art wallon du 15 septembre 2006 au 24 décembre 2006, qu'Hector Magotte, président de l'ASBL Les Musées de Liège, a commandé au Centre  Européen d'Archéométrie une série d'analyses scientifiques des momies suivant des techniques d'investigations modernes. La campagne d'examens de laboratoire, sous la conduite de l'égyptologue Dimitri Laboury, chercheur du FNRS à l'Université de Liège, et du physicien David Strivay, directeur du Centre Européen d'Archéométrie, débutera le 12 septembre par une étude en radiologie et CT-Scan réalisée grâce à une collaboration des services d'imagerie médicale des professeurs Robert Dondelinger, Frédéric Snaps et Alain Seret. La momie du prêtre Ousirmose, "barbier et portier du dieu Rê" sous la XXVIe dynastie (VIIe et VIe siècles avant notre ère), une momie humaine anonyme, qui révélera peut-être ses secrets et son identité, et une petite momie de crocodile passeront sous le scanner de l'hôpital liégeois. Cette technique du CT-Scan avait également été utilisée lors de l'analyse de la momie du pharaon Toutankhamon et avait permis de pratiquer une reconstitution virtuelle de son visage.

Fuente: RTBF    

13/09/05 

- EL profesor Antonio Loprieno nominado Rector de la Universitá di Basilea -
Il Professor Antonio Loprieno nominato Rettore dell'Università di Basilea
L'Istituto Italiano per la Civiltà Egizia esprime il suo più vivo rallegramento e rivolge i più cordiali auguri al socio e componente del Comitato Scientifico Professor Antonio Loprieno per la sua nomina a Magnifico Rettore dell'Università di Basilea.
Fuente: Archaeogate
 

31/08/05
El Templo de Debod recupera su horario y actividades habituales
El Templo de Debod retoma, a partir del 1 de septiembre, sus actividades habituales tras el horario especial del mes de agosto, por lo que abre sus puertas por las tardes, desde las 18 horas. Las visitas guiadas para grupos con niños los primeros sábados de mes se reanudarán el próximo 3 de septiembre y las visitas guiadas para adultos comenzarán de nuevo a partir del día 10, informó el Ayuntamiento en un comunicado. La visita comenzará con el documental "Debod, un templo ptolemaico", que  aborda la función religiosa de los templos egipcios, sus cultos y ritos. Además, un recorrido por las distintas capillas informará al visitante,  mediante elementos audiovisuales y sensaciones olfativas en la 'capilla del naos', de sus funciones y fines. En la terraza de este templo madrileño se ofrece  además la posibilidad de contemplar algunas piezas pertenecientes al propio templo, una maqueta y una animación en 3D que permite conocer cuáles fueron sus fases de construcción  y el aspecto que presentaba en la era cristiana.

Fuente: Telemadrid
  
31/08/5
Momia faraónica en oferta
Dos egipcios recientemente detenidos la habrían comprado por u$s1.000 y planeaban venderla a un traficante de antigüedades por una suma mucho mayor Un conductor y un empleado egipcios fueron detenidos por intentar vender una momia de la época faraónica por u$s17 mil, informaron hoy fuentes de las fuerzas de seguridad. Los sospechosos fueron arrestados ayer en el barrio de Madinat Salam, en el noreste de El Cairo, con piezas arqueológicas en su poder. Además de la momia con su sarcófago de madera, les fueron  decomisados siete pequeños escarabajos de grafito con inscripciones faraónicas, precisaron las fuentes. Los detenidos confesaron ante la policía que compraron las antigüedades por u$s1.000 en Asiut, en el centro del país, y las llevaron a la capital  egipcia para venderlas a un traficante de antigüedades. La fiscalía pidió a un comité de expertos examinar los artefactos incautados para determinar su valor histórico y a que dinastía faraónica pertenecen.  En los últimos años las autoridades de Egipto, país donde sólo se desenterraron un 30% de las riquezas arqueológica, detuvieron a decenas de personas por robar momias y otras antigüedades de sitios monumentales. 

Fuente: INFOBAE
 

22/08/05

- Contactos entre Egipto y Jordania para recuperar estatua faraónica -

Egyptian-Jordanian contacts to restore Pharaonic statue 
The Egyptian Embassy in Amman had contacts with the Jordanian authorities to bring back to Egypt a statue dating back to the Pharaonic era.  Jordanian Customs authorities seized the statue when a person tried to smuggle it on the Jordanian-Syrian borders. Egypt's ambassador to Jordan Ahmad Rizq, said that contacts with the Jordanian officials were part of an agreement signed by the two countries last January.

19/08/05

Nefertiti vuelve al corazón de Berlín. El busto de la reina egipcia retorna, 60 años después, a la isla de los museos de la capital alemana
Es la mujer más bella de la historia de Egipto, con permiso de Cleopatra; el icono artístico del mundo de los faraones, con permiso de las pirámides y el tesoro mejor guardado de los museos estatales alemanes. El célebre busto de Nefertiti ha vuelto, después de 60 años, a la isla de los museos de Berlín y los alemanes lo han celebrado acudiendo en masa a la planta superior del Altes Museum, que, desde el 13 de agosto y hasta el 2009, albergará las obras del Museo Egipcio y la colección de papiros de Alemania.
"Con el regreso de la colección del antiguo Egipto al centro de Berlín se cierra una de las peores heridas de guerra de los museos estatales", afirmó la ministra de cultura alemana, Christina Weiss, en la inauguración. Desde que, en 1939, se evacuara el Neue Museum de Berlín con motivo del inicio de la segunda guerra mundial, las obras de la colección egipcia no habían vuelto a encontrar un emplazamiento definitivo. Primero, los bombardeos de 1945 inhabilitaron el museo que había sido su hogar desde 1850, y luego la división de Berlín forzó el reparto entre el este y el oeste que llevó una parte de la colección al Bodemuseum, en la isla de los museos de la capital de la entonces República Democrática Alemana, y otra al palacio de Charlottenburg, en el Berlín occidental. Habría que esperar a que las obras iniciadas en el Bodemuseum en 1995 obligaran a volver a reunir toda la colección.
UN PERIPLO AGITADO
Y en medio de todo este caos, siempre Nefertiti. El busto de la esposa de Amenofis IV, el hombre que llevó el monoteísmo a Egipto, ha sido la pieza que más ha viajado en todo este tiempo. Entre el 6 de diciembre de 1912, día en que fue hallado el busto, hasta 1967, año en que volvió definitivamente al ala oriental del palacio de Charlottenburg, este icono de belleza y misterio fue y volvió dos veces de El Cairo, llegó a refugiarse en unas salinas del Harz y rodó de Frankfurt a Wiesbaden.
Cuando, el 1 de marzo, se organizó el traslado de la colección del Museo Egipcio a su ubicación actual, los alemanes decidieron que no podían esconder su joya durante tanto tiempo. Prepararon una exposición especial en el Kulturforum de Potsdamer Platz que se mantuvo hasta dos días antes de inaugurar la nueva y definitiva exposición.
"Nefertiti es la imagen de nuestra isla de los museos. Es, sin lugar a dudas, la Mona Lisa de los museos estatales", aseguró la ministra Weiss. Más de 10.000 visitantes en el primer fin de semana de exposición han corroborado las palabras de los que aseguraban que no bastaba con tener a Nefertiti en Berlín, que había que llevarla al mismo centro de la ciudad. De momento, parece que no habrá más viajes intempestivos para las reliquias del antiguo Egipto, al menos hasta el año 2009, cuando terminen las obras de rehabilitación del Neues Museum y el Museo Egipcio pueda volver a su lugar de origen, eso sí, ya siempre dentro de la isla de los museos.
Hasta entonces, el Altes Museum, la obra arquitectónica más significativa del clasicismo prusiano, servirá de escenario provisional, aunque de lujo, para una colección que nunca debió permanecer tanto tiempo en "las oscuras salas de Charlottenburg", como las calificó en una ocasión el director del Museo Egipcio, Dietrich Wildung.
Fuente: El Periódico de Catalunya

18/08/05

- La lenta resurrección del meroítico, la primera lengua escrita de África -

La lente résurrection du méroïtique, première langue écrite d'Afrique
Le méroïtique est mort. Claude Rilly, chercheur (CNRS) au laboratoire Langage, langues et cultures d'Afrique noire, veut le ressusciter. L'énoncé est simple ; l'affaire est délicate. Elle était même réputée perdue ­ ou presque ­ jusqu'à ces toutes dernières années. La langue des royaumes de Kerma, de Napata et de Méroé ­ qui se sont succédé sur le territoire de l'actuel Soudan, entre le milieu du troisième millénaire avant J.-C. et le IVe siècle de l'ère chrétienne ­ s'est éteinte de longue date. "Vraisemblablement au Moyen Age", dit le chercheur, et "sans descendance" .
L'idiome de Méroé a cependant laissé d'abondantes traces écrites : environ un millier de documents ont, à ce jour, été exhumés, textes magiques ou funéraires, édits royaux, etc. Dès le IIIe siècle avant J.-C., les Méroïtes ont adapté à leur langue l'écriture inventée quelque vingt-cinq siècles plus tôt en Egypte, le puissant suzerain du nord.
Les relations sont en effet étroites entre les civilisations koushitique et égyptienne. L'Egypte a dominé, plusieurs siècles durant, le pays de Koush. Quant à ce dernier, il a donné à l'Égypte les rois de la XXVe dynastie (environ 715-656 avant J.-C.), celle des "pharaons noirs", ainsi dénommés pour la couleur de leur peau.
Le syllabaire méroïtique existe sous deux formes, cursive et hiéroglyphique. Il a été entièrement décrypté en 1911 par l'égyptologue britannique Francis Llewelyn Griffith, grâce à une stèle bilingue comprenant des inscriptions hiéroglyphiques égyptiennes et méroïtiques. Celle-ci a permis d'établir les valeurs phonétiques de chaque signe du système graphique. Toutes les inscriptions peuvent donc être lues et prononcées. Mais elles demeurent incomprises.
Pour la majorité des linguistes, la probabilité était grande que la langue de Méroé soit un isolat, c'est-à-dire une langue sans aucun apparentement connu, à la manière du sumérien en Mésopotamie, de l'étrusque méditerranéen ou encore du basque, toujours parlé en France et en Espagne. Si tel avait été le cas, les chances de pouvoir comprendre un jour le parler des "pharaons noirs" auraient été nulles ou presque.
STÈLES BILINGUES
Le sumérien, langue principalement liturgique morte dès le milieu du troisième millénaire avant J.-C., n'a pu être reconstitué que grâce à la présence massive de tablettes bilingues suméro-akkadiennes. Quant à l'étrusque, qui a vraisemblablement perdu ses derniers locuteurs peu après l'émergence de Rome, il résiste encore et toujours à la sagacité des linguistes.
Quelques stèles bilingues ont, certes, permis de traduire un petit corpus de termes méroïtiques. Rien qui permette, tant s'en faut, la compréhension totale des textes exhumés. Egyptologue, disciple de Jean Leclant ­ le fondateur, dans les années 1950, de l'école française d'études nubiennes, sans formation initiale de linguiste, Claude Rilly a formulé, ces dernières années, l'ambitieuse hypothèse d'un apparentement du méroïtique avec plusieurs langues parlées dans l'actuel Soudan, au Tchad et en Erythrée. 
Etudiés depuis une vingtaine d'années par le linguiste américain Lionel Bender, le nubien, les dialectes taman, le nara ou encore le nyima ont été rassemblés par M. Rilly, avec le méroïtique, dans le groupe soudanique oriental nord (SON), sous-ensemble de la grande famille des langues nilo-sahariennes.
Les comparaisons entre des termes méroïtiques connus et leurs équivalents dans les différentes langues du groupe SON valident le postulat de M. Rilly. Mais, pour ouvrir définitivement la voie à la compréhension totale du méroïtique, il reste à reconstituer le lexique du proto-SON, la protolangue dont dérivent ces idiomes. Une tâche considérable, d'autant que toutes les langues du groupe ne sont pas encore totalement documentées.
La traduction des édits des souverains de Méroé permettrait d'éclaircir certaines zones d'ombre de l'histoire du pays de Koush, mais aussi de son voisin égyptien. Outre les aspects historiques et linguistiques, ces travaux, de l'aveu même de M. Rilly, présentent une dimension "presque politique". Puisque l'égyptien parlé à la cour des pharaons (dont dérive le copte) est une langue chamito-sémitique apparentée aux idiomes du Levant, le méroïtique est en effet la première langue typiquement africaine à avoir été écrite. La retrouver serait, aussi, rendre à l'Afrique une part glorieuse, mais perdue, de son histoire.

Fuente: Le Monde

10/08/05

- El Museo Egipcio de El Cairo abrirá una nueva sala con nuevas momias -

Egyptian museum to open new mummy showroom: report

The Cairo-based Egyptian Museum of Antiquities will open soon a second showroom for displaying more mummies to attract more visitors from the world, the Egyptian Gazette daily reported Tuesday.

Preparations for inaugurating a second showroom for mummies with a cost of 1.5 million Egyptian Pounds (259,067 US dollars) by the end of this year, Wafaa el-Seddiq, director general of the museum was quoted as saying.

The new showroom No. 52, which will display 12 newly discovered mummies, has been provided with the latest-state-of-the-art techniques to ensure the best display quality for the visitors, she added.

At present, 11 mummies from Luxor in southern Egypt were being displayed at showroom No. 56, which was opened in 1994, Seddiq said, adding that the new mummies were among 27 mummies that had been unearthed in Luxor recently.

The new showroom, which occupies an area of 170 square meters, has been designed like a tomb in order to make visitors feel like entering a real cemetery that dates back to the modern pharaonic state.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, which was built more than 100 years ago and has been one of the most attracting sites in Egypt, houses the richest store of remains from the 3,000 years long age of ancient Egyptian civilization.

- Complemento dela noticia anterior:

24/08/05

- 12 nuevas momias se podrán ver el próximo mes en el Museo Egipcio de El Cairo -

Farouk Hosni : 12 mummies to be displayed at Egyptian Museum 
Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni is to open next month the second hall displaying royal mummies at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square after the Ministry completed a project to develop display room 52 complete with modern technology. Dr. Zahi Hawwas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said 12 mummies will be displayed at the museum for the first time including mummies of Tuhutmos III known as the greatest warrior of Egypt and Amenhotep II, the most famous king of the 16th dynasty.

10/08/05

- Será excavada al tumba de Amenhotep I -

Amenhoteb I tomb to be excavated 
Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni agreed to allow an Egyptian-Polish mission to exacavate Amenhoteb l tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor

Más sobre esta noticia:

"Scientists discover non-looted tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh"
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/16001_Amenhotep.html
"The lost tomb of "the father of Egypt". The discovery that has never been made."
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/16028_Amenhotep.html

09/08/05

- El Museo Amenhotep abre sus puertas el próximo mes en Saqqara -

Amhoteb museum opens next month 
Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni will open early next month Amhoteb Museum in Saqqara, Giza. 
Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawas said the museum will be the first of its type in Egypt as it tells the life story of the "Pharaonic Architect". 
Construction of the museum took three years at the cost of LE 5 million, he said. 
The new museum will showcase 1,500 unique antiques and will be placed on the Egyptian tourist map. 
Director of Museums Sector at the ministry Mahmoud Mabrouq said the renovation of the museum will be in symmetry with the pyramids plateau and Saqqara in the background.

Fuente: EOL

08/08/05

- Sobre el Proyecto de momias de animales egipcias a cargo de la Dra. Salima Ikram -

All Wrapped Up. A Professor of Egyptology is committed, through her essays, to do justice to ancient forgotten animal mummies
ALTHOUGH PRACTICED BY other civilizations, mummification is most popularly associated with the ancient Egyptians. Our modern fascination with the mummy is only too apparent in the crowds that flock to the Egyptian Museum to gawp at the wizened remains of long dead pharaohs, or the enduring popularity of certain B-rate horror movies of which they are the spine-tingling focus. 
Apparently the human mummy is only just part of the story, for not only did the ancient Egyptians also mummify their animals, they did so in industrial quantities. Animal cemeteries at places such as Tuna al-Gebel, Saqqara, Bubastis and numerous other sites have yielded animal mummies that number in the millions and yet have received relatively little attention. Divine Creatures Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, edited by American University in Cairo (AUC) Egyptology Professor Salima Ikram, does much to redress this imbalance though it remains, in the most positive sense, very much still a work in progress.
Divine Creatures is basically a series of essays written on the subject of animal mummies and mummification that starts by addressing the general and most accessible and then progresses to discuss the more specific and technical. These range from the reasons behind animal mummification to the detailed analysis of particular cults. The book is illustrated throughout with numerous maps of key sites, in both black and white and color, which show the sheer extent of the catacombs. 
Ikram’s opening essay on animal mummies sets the scene in general and divides the mummies into four broad categories: pets, victual mummies, sacred animals and votive mummies. The second essay is Ikram at her best. She has a gift for communication, as her students readily testify, that is evident in the manner in which she reports her findings in the exciting field of experimental archaeology. 
Ikram describes her adventures in recreating ancient mummification techniques using materials as close as possible to those used by the ancients. Those expecting a dry chemical analysis can be assuaged for it is indeed dry: a natron bath is not a liquid bath but rather a desiccation process. Ikram’s description of the simulated process is anything but dry. Perhaps, compared to popular scientists, she even goes a little over the top by giving names to her puppets. Does one really want to know that Rabbit Four had been killed by strangulation and eviscerated when it has just been called “Fluffy?”
Her subsequent essays focus increasingly either on a specific necropolis or a specific cult species. There is a chapter on Bull Cults and it’s no surprise when the opening concentrates on the Apis at Memphis and an exploration of the Serapeum. But fewer people may be aware of the Mothers of Apis and fewer still, myself included, of Mnevis, the ‘Bull of Heliopolis’ or the Buchis bull of Armant. The “Cult and Necropolis of the Sacred Ram at Mendes,” while not as readable as earlier chapters, also casts light on one of the lesser-known icons of ancient Egyptian worship. 
One of the most intriguing aspects of the Egyptian animal mummies is that many of them were not mummies at all. Elaborately wrapped ‘mummies’ bearing the masks of falcons or ibises have been unwrapped or X-rayed only to expose a few bones, coagulated feathers or even nothing but sand and mud. This happens to be a recurring theme in the essays, whether it’s about Tuna el-Gebel, Saqqara or elsewhere. 
Interestingly, it is often the case that the more elaborate the mummy, the bigger the fake. Regarding this phenomenon, different essayists offer a variety of different explanations. For example, was it a priestly con whereby devotees were fobbed off with dummy mummies in some theocratic dupe? Or were these creatures simply so rare and precious that only portions of them were available to be offered to the gods by any one devotee? These essays offer a wide scope of different explanations, all of which are very fascinating.
Clearly, whether ibis, baboon or crocodile, demand outran supply and the animals had to be bred in absolute or semi-captivity. Hence we get a fascinating essay on the crocodile cult including a discussion of the crocodile hatchery at Medinet Madi. Extraordinary, but spoilt by a reference to the young crocs as being “little amphibians.”
Ikram makes an interesting observation in her third and last essay of the series. While cleaning the mummified pair of vast Nile crocodiles in the Egyptian Museum, she noted that baby crocodiles had been placed in their mouths. Why? We now know that crocodiles are ‘caring’ parents and that the young are carefully taken in the adult’s jaws from nest to water. What we rediscovered in the twenty-first century, courtesy of Discovery Channel, was previously well known to the ancients.
Divine Creatures is not a totally trouble-free tome and may have needed more consultation on zoological facts. Another example may be Zivie and Lichtenberg’s essay: “The Cats of the Goddess Bastet,” which suffered especially from zoological inaccuracy. For example: Felis chaus is not the wild cat but rather the swamp or jungle cat while Felis sylvestris libyca is not the domestic cat but the wild ancestor of the domestic cat, a point of view or fact upheld in the very next essay by Kessler and Nur el-Din. Most now look at the domestic cat as Felis catus. 
Though this may seem an exercise in pedantry, it is indeed of vital importance when considering the domestication of the cat. The assertion that F. chaus cannot be distinguished from F. sylvestris in juvenile animals is not tenable, given the tail-to-body length ratio and skull characteristics. In “Tuna al-Gebel Millions of Ibises and Other Animals,” phalacrocorax africanus are called shags when they should be long-tailed cormorants and I would really question the rough-legged buzzard being ever recorded here when it is in fact a sub-arctic species.
The closing essay of this book demonstrates Ikram’s utter commitment to do justice to Egypt’s forgotten mummies. She has dusted off the non-human treasures of the Egyptian Museum and catalyzed, through the Animal Mummy Project, the study of this neglected area of Egyptology. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than through her description of the mummy of the pet gazelle of Isitemkheb. And it is, perhaps, through our relationship with pets that we are now most related to our ancestors. We, however, no longer need victual mummies nor have sacred animals or require votive mummies but we do keep pets. Again, this is a work in progress, but nevertheless an absolutely fascinating and important work in progress

Fuente: Egypt Today

08/08/05

Los científicos descubren los secretos de una momia gracias a un escáner. Tomaron más de 60.000 imágenes del interior de Sherit y crearon una reproducción tridimensional
San Francisco. (EFE).- La tecnología más futurista ha permitido a un equipo de científicos californianos descubrir los secretos de Sherit, una misteriosa momia que vivió hace 2.000 años en Luxor y que seguramente murió de disentería a los 4 ó 5 años.
El grado de detalle es tal, que los investigadores han llegado a saber, gracias al examen del agujero por el que se extrajeron los órganos de la momia, que la persona encargada de embalsamarla era diestra.
También se sabe que Sherit (o "la pequeña" en egipcio antiguo, como han apodado a esta momia), fue amamantada hasta poco antes de su muerte, seguramente a los cinco años, y que hasta ese momento había disfrutado de una vida activa.
Para hacerse con esta información, los científicos de la Universidad de Stanford no tuvieron necesidad de separar el pequeño cuerpo de su mortaja.
Toda esta información, expuesta desde el sábado en el museo Rosicrucian, en San José (California), se consiguió a partir de un sofisticado escáner que tomó más de 60.000 imágenes del interior de la momia y creó una reproducción tridimensional.
Aunque obviamente ésta no es la primera vez que los egiptólogos se adentran en este enigmático mundo, este análisis ha producido una cantidad ingente de material de alta calidad que en el pasado nunca habría podido recogerse sin haber abierto físicamente a la momia.
La hazaña es relevante porque, al margen de Sherit, sienta un precedente para la utilización de tecnología similar en aplicaciones médicas y para la resolución de crímenes.
"Las mismas herramientas que nos permitieron mirar hacia atrás nos permitirán ir hacia adelante", dijo Bob Bishop, presidente de la compañía de tecnología Silicon Graphics, con sede en California. Según Bishop, las autopsias virtuales "nos permitirán estudiar los cuerpos con exactitud de una manera menos agresiva".
Los científicos tienen ahora mucho trabajo por delante para, por ejemplo, averiguar el significado de los jeroglíficos en una pequeña tablilla que podría contener el nombre real de la pequeña y otros detalles como las ocupaciones de sus padres.
"Estamos muy cerca. Sabré el nombre de la pequeña en unos pocos años", dijo Lisa Schwappach-Shirriff, a cargo del museo que precisamente este sábado celebra su 75 aniversario.
Los análisis efectuados hasta el momento revelan que Sherit tenía más de cuatro años pero no más de seis, ya que todavía no le habían salido los molares propios de esa edad.
"Parece que tenía una sonrisa muy bonita", dijo Eric Herbranson, un dentista que trabaja con el equipo de Stanford. "Sin embargo, si esta niña hubiera nacido hoy, estaría utilizando un aparato de ortodoncia desde los 12 años", señaló Herbranson.
Los científicos creen que Sherit procedía de una familia acaudalada, ya que el proceso de momificación es de la más alta calidad.
La familia podría haber pertenecido a la clase noble pero no a la realeza, ya que se utilizó pintura de oro en lugar de oro puro en el sarcófago exterior.
En cuanto a las causas de su muerte, lo más probable es que se tratase de disentería u otro parásito intestinal.
La mortalidad en el valle del Nilo entre los niños de 3 a 5 años -cuando dejaban de consumir leche materna- era muy alta, del 50 por ciento. Si sobrepasaban esa edad, señalan los expertos, era muy probable que alcanzasen los 50 ó 60 años.
Las imágenes muestran que la fosa nasal izquierda de la momia está ahuecada, ya que a través de ella se extrajo la masa cerebral de la pequeña.
Esa masa reposa, junto a sus órganos internos, en un pequeño recipiente entre sus piernas, que habría de acompañarla en su largo viaje.
Schwappach-Shirriff se mostró satisfecha de haber dado a Sherit una identidad después de 2.000 años de anonimato.
"La hemos resucitado, sus padres estarían muy contentos", dijo Schwappach-Shirriff, haciendo caso omiso de las películas de terror que advierten de las terribles consecuencias de profanar la paz de los muertos.

Fuente: La Vanguardia

02/08/05

Scientists and humanists join forces to use X-ray technology to shed new light on ancient stone inscriptions

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In an unusual collaboration among scientists and humanists, a Cornell University team has demonstrated a novel method for recovering faded text on ancient stone by zapping and mapping 2,000-year-old inscriptions using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging.

This is a scan of a group of letters on CIL VI 12139. The top panel is the photographic image. The middle panel is the iron fluorescence; while there is iron fluorescence visible, it becomes very weak in areas that have been significantly worn away. The bottom panel is lead fluorescence. Even in areas that have been significantly weathered, the fluorescence is strong enough to clearly read the text.

The research, carried out at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), applies a nondestructive chemical analysis technique widely used in geology, archaeology and materials science.

"X-ray fluorescence imaging has the potential to become a major tool in epigraphy [the study of incised writing on various surfaces, including stone]," said Robert Thorne, professor of physics and co-author of an article in a German journal titled "Recovering Ancient Inscriptions by X-ray Fluorescence Imaging." "It's just so much more powerful than anything that's been used in the past."

The article describes the first successful application of XRF imaging to the study of ancient stone inscriptions between 1,800 and 2,400 years old. It will be published in August in Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik (journal for papyrology and epigraphy) , one of the world's leading journals on ancient texts. The discovery could herald an important breakthrough in the study of ancient cultures.

"Inscribed texts are of considerable interest to the linguist and philologist," said Kevin Clinton, Cornell professor of classics, a co-author of the article. "Because of the information contained in them, they are invaluable sources for the historian, archaeologist, art historian and every student of institutions and life in the ancient world."

The findings result from a multidisciplinary effort among Cornell's faculty and graduate students in the departments of Physics, Applied Physics and Classics, as well as members of CHESS -- where the XRF imaging experiments were conducted.

"A synchrotron is a high-intensity X-ray machine," said Donald Bilderback, associate director of CHESS and a Cornell applied physics professor, also a co-author. "It's over a million times more intense than the tube X-ray sources used in medical imaging and in standard XRF analysis."

At CHESS, a high-energy, ultra-intense X-ray beam is produced by the electrons and positrons that circulate inside the synchrotron at almost (99.9999995 percent) the speed of light. This X-ray beam was fired at three inscribed marble stones loaned from Columbia University's Butler Library. Just as with a fluorescent lighting tube in which higher energy ultraviolet light is converted to lower energy visible light by atoms coating the inside surface, atoms illuminated near the surface of the stone emitted lower energy fluorescent X-rays. By using a spectrometer to analyze the energies and intensities of these rays, the concentrations of trace elements in the stone were determined. Because the synchrotron's X-ray beam was so intense, these trace-element measurements could be quickly repeated as the stone was scanned back and forth in the beam, producing a map or image of each element's concentration.

The chosen inscriptions -- one in Classical Greek and two in Latin -- each presented different levels of wear. XRF imaging detected minute amounts of iron, zinc and lead in the inscribed regions, among other elements. Iron chisels were commonly used to inscribe the stones, and the letters were usually painted with pigments containing metal oxides and sulfides. These may account for the iron and lead, but the source of the zinc is a mystery. In the most worn stone, the trace elements measured by XRF clearly revealed the contours of the original letters, even where they were no longer visible to the eye. For modestly worn stones, XRF imaging will help to decipher texts and may provide new information on how the inscriptions were made.

"This means restoring thousands of stones, including, possibly, part of the law code of Draco," said Clinton. Draco was a seventh-century Athenian politician who codified the law of Athens. "It applies to practically any kind of public document you can think of, including many laws, decrees, religious dedications and financial documents."

What's more, an XRF device can be made portable (though collecting the data will be significantly more time consuming than at a synchrotron X-ray facility).

02/08/05

- Ríos de datos decodifican los ciclos del Nilo -

River of data decodes Nile cycles

The Old Testament may seem like an unlikely source from which to draw inspiration for a modern-day climatology study. But a story from the book of Genesis — in which Joseph predicts seven years of abundant crops, followed by seven years of famine for Egypt — drove researchers to scour centuries of water-level data for the Nile River to determine if such a cycle actually exists, and if so, what causes it.
Climatologists have already combed the abundant Nile River data and revealed a connection between patterns in the water-level cycles and Indo-Pacific Ocean patterns. But large gaps in the data, especially after A.D. 1470, have left this analysis incomplete. Now, Michael Ghil, a geophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, developed with colleagues what he calls an advanced technique to fill the gaps. Analysis of the data, published in the May 24 Geophysical Research Letters, turns up evidence for a seven-year cycle that researchers say may be influenced by the North Atlantic ocean.
Ghil, working with Dmitri Kondrashov, the lead author, and Yizhak Feliks, attributes credit for the idea to Feliks, who thought of the possible biblical connection after visiting a Byzantine-period mosaic that was created a century or two before the start of the Nile River flood records in A.D. 622. It shows a man clambering to etch onto a column — called a “nilometer” — the highest level reached by the Nile that year.
Locals routinely monitored water levels for the following 1,300 years because the Nile directly affected their agricultural livelihood. Annual summer floods covered the region and then receded, leaving behind arable soil for winter crops. The resulting data, among the longest climatic records available, have been of great interest to climatologists. “People have analyzed such records for a long time, going back to the early 20th century,” Ghil says.
The dataset, however, as extensive as it appeared, was not without problems. Typically when working with historical climate records, more data gaps exist in the beginning. But for the Nile records, the early dataset between A.D. 622 and 1470 seems to be fairly complete. After 1470, however, full decades of data went missing, and the record ended in 1922. Previously, researchers replaced the missing data with the mean value, which was not always accurate. “The resulting records were analyzed using fairly traditional methods,” Ghil says.
To better fill in the gaps, Ghil and colleagues used an advanced form of the Singular Spectrum Analysis, which helps to separate data into statistically independent components that the researchers can classify as a trend, oscillations or noise. “Using data adaptive methods, we are actually interrogating data in a much more intensive manner,” Ghil says.
“They used a more advanced, sophisticated statistical method than previous researchers,” says Matthew Lachniet, a paleoclimatoligist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. What struck him about the study was the decision to include in the models not only the high-water levels, but also the difference between high and low measurements. “It’s not as common as only looking at high levels,” Lachniet says. “I think it’s an interesting contribution.”
With the gaps filled in, Ghil and colleagues discovered multiple cycles in water levels, ranging on scales from two to 256 years, which they say can be attributed to several known influences, including that of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) from the Pacific Ocean. But the most striking cycle had a seven-year period, which Ghil thinks is due to an additional influence from the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Atlantic’s version of the Pacific’s ENSO.
Models of the North Atlantic’s variability and of the NAO — characterized by changes in air pressure and storm tracks — show that they contribute to weather patterns in Europe, the Middle East, central Asia and North Africa. But according to Ghil, the influence likely extends farther south, all the way to the East African sources of the Nile River. He and his colleagues found that the Nile’s seven-year cycle parallels a known seven- to eight-year peak in recorded NAO data. “Making that link to the North Atlantic doesn’t surprise me,” Lachniet says. “The North Atlantic has dominant control on climate globally.”
Ghil says that short periodicities of ENSO have been used to predict future Nile River water levels, but the newly detected NAO cycles have not yet been used as such. The first step would be to contact the hydrological services in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, and gather at least 30 to 40 years of recent Nile data, Ghil says. “That would be fun.”
A brief history of a collaboration

In the Mediterranean alone, there are an estimated half-million Greek and Latin inscriptions on stones in various states of decay and legibility. The collaboration that led to XRF restoration grew from conversations between Clinton and his colleague Nora Dimitrova, a Cornell postdoctoral associate in classics. They asked Cornell physicist Bogomil Gerganov if there were any new scientific methods for deciphering worn text. While teaching at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar, Gerganov raised the issue with Thorne, who was visiting Doha in March 2003. Thorne, also physics course director for the pred-med program in Qatar, was familiar with Bilderback's success in applying XRF imaging to paintings and immediately saw its potential for inscriptions.

Back in Ithaca, Thorne met with Clinton, Dimitrova, Bilderback and John Hunt, an expert in microanalysis at the Cornell Center for Materials Research. A preliminary measurement by Bilderback and his research associate Rong Huang in March 2004 gave encouraging results. Physics graduate student Judson Powers then joined the team. With help from CHESS staff scientist Detlef Smilgies, Powers took over the lion's share of the work and is first author on the team's publication.

The only thing missing: some ancient inscribed stones. No problem. Clinton and Dimitrova had identified suitable samples at the Butler Library and contacted Columbia colleague Roger Bagnell, who arranged for a loan.

By July 2004 the team had proven the principle of XRF imaging in the field of epigraphy.

Thorne finds no small amount of wonder in the process.

"Here we are reading stones that were inscribed with iron chisels 100 generations ago, using invisible rays that are produced by relativistic anti-matter," he said, referring to the synchrotron's role in the experiments.

These first experiments were supported by Cornell's Office of the Vice Provost for Research and by the Department of Classics with additional support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The collaboration recently received a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to continue the work. CHESS is supported by the NSF and the National Institutes of Health.

Fuente: Geotimes.

01/08/05

SCA launches Children's competition
The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is currently running a competition for children in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailiya, Beni Suef, Luxor and Aswan. "Called the Golden Pharaoh Children Festival," the competition aims at spreading awareness of the Ancient Egyptian civilization and the Pharaohs. We will go to children everywhere to teach them about their ancestors," SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass told The Gazette. He added that there would be beach competitions between children, as well as sculpting, cloth-making, jewellery-making and photography workshops. "The children who manage to build the best Pharanoiac sand statue will get prizes," said Hawass. "There will also be an animated cartoons competition."

Fuente: Arabic News

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Agosto 2002
Julio 2002

Nota: Las noticias sin origen referenciado en las mismas, provienen siempre de http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html1/