Le temple de Sethy I à Gournah vient de réouvrir. [Je l'avais visité en octobre 2003 et il n'était pas fermé??.]
Cet article remet un peu à sa place ce grand pharaon, éclipsé souvent par son fils Ramses II. La question de l'usurpation du Ramesseum par ce dernier au détriment de son père est posée.

The mortuary temple of Sethy I at Qurnah has re-opened after restoration.
The son of an army officer, Sethy I achieved more for his country politically and culturally than did his much more famous son Ramses II -- who even falls under suspicion of stealing one of Luxor's most famous monuments from him: the Ramesseum

Ce n'est un mystère pour personne: le sous-sol du musée du Caire regorge d'antiquités non ou mal répertoriées. A l'initiative de Zahi Hawass, une grande entreprise de remise en ordre devrait commencer et s'étaler sur 5 ans. La décision a été prise après la disparition du Musée du Caire de 38 pièces, dont 36 bracelets et 2 bagues de l'époque romaine découvertes dans la région du Delta en 1905.

Egypt is about to begin the painstaking five-year task of cataloguing and restoring some 90,000 pharaonic and other artifacts which have lain almost forgotten for decades since they were dug from ancient ruins.

Plusieurs découvertes importantes ont eu lieu par l'équipe de Jean Louis Empereur. La partie inférieure d'une statue d'Isis dont le haut avait été sorti de l'eau il y a 4 ans; une partie de stèle Ptolémaïque et, ce qui est considéré comme le plus important, des fragments massifs du phare d'Alexandrie. Zahi Hawass a déjà évoqué une "reconstruction possible".

A team from the Alexandrian Studies Centre has recently found pieces of rose granite that represent the lower part of the famous statue of Isis found four years ago underwater in the vicinity of the Qaitbay Citadel in Alexandria. The pieces provide the statue's legs, and ankles.
The team has also found part of a large granite stele that bears the tax law enforced in the reign of Ptolemy I The bulk of the panel had been lifted from the sea bed a few years ago.
However, the most important of recent finds are huge granite masses, one of which weighs 15 tons, found ten metres underwater. The pieces proved to be remains of the old Alexandria lighthouse .

La découverte en Alexandrie de ce qui avait été initialement pris pour des salles de cour de l'ancienne librairie ("qui pouvaient contenir 5000 étudiants" selon Zahi Hawass) serait en fin un amphitéatre.

The recent uncovering of semi-circular stone steps at the eastern side of the archaeological site of Kom AI Deka in Alexandria has caused controversy among archaeologists.
The halls are most probably part of an art centre rather than lecture rooms.
Most archaeologists believe that the amphitheatre was an odeum where artistic competitions and music performances were held. So the unearthed halls are more of music listening halls within an art centre.

Le SCA envisage de démonter puis de remonter sur un niveau réhaussé le temple de Khnoum a Esna.

The Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) has worked out a plan to restore Essna Temple which is currently in a procuring condition. It involves the dismantling of the temple and reinstalling it after raising the level of its floor to the level of the ground just as was the case with the Philae Temple in Aswan.

Lors de travaux de restauration dans le temple d'Hathor à Denderah, une équipe égyptienne a retrouvé la chapelle primordiale du temple où était stockée la barque de la déesse.

In March, a Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) mission restoring the temple at Dendera uncovered the main chapel of the temple where the sacred boat of the goddess Hathor once stood. The boat found by the archaeologists, who have been working in Dendera since the beginning of the year, was used during the goddess's annual festival, one of the most delightful celebrations in Ancient Egypt.

Des archéologues australiens ont mis au jour une nécropole vieille de 5.000 ans, qui présente 20 tombes bien préservées, dans un quartier pauvre d'Helwan, au sud du Caire. La ville d'Helwan se trouve à 25km au sud du Caire, dans une zone industrielle densément peuplée. Certaines des tombes mises au jour étaient petites et simples, d'autres, visiblement destinées à des classes plus aisées, étaient plus grandes et contenaient des pots et des plateaux en albâtre, en terre et en cuivre, selon le communiqué. Par ailleurs, le Conseil suprême des antiquités égyptiennes a déclaré que deux grandes tombes datant des années 2575-2134 avant Jésus-Christ, avaient été trouvées à Helwan. Elles possédaient le même style architectural que des tombes de Guizeh et de Saqqara, leurs murs contenant un ensemble de petites chapelles et de niches.

Archaeologists have unearthed a 5,000-year-old necropolis with 20 well-preserved tombs in a poor neighborhood just outside Cairo, Egyptian authorities announced Sunday.The site in the suburb of Helwan is a mixture of small, plain tombs with larger ones meant for the middle and upper classes, with containing alabaster, limestone, clay and copper pots and pans, the statement said. The necropolis also contains a limestone relief with early uses of hieroglyphic texts.

La fameuse cachettes des momies royales de Deir el Bahari est explorée depuis plusieurs années par l'université de Münster. Un résumé des campagnes, avec de nombreuses photos.

Tomb TT 320 at Deir el Bahari is famous for having been the cache for some of the royal mummies.
The University of Münster has been working in it for many years.

Une annonce sur le nouveau site du musée:

The new site includes:
- all 80,000 objects online with images (one of the largest illustrated online museum catalogues available)
- improved catalogue search facilities, with browse option for non-specialist users
- direct access to Digital Egypt for Universities: a 3000 page learning and teaching resource based on the collection
- downloadable resources for teachers and students
- online opinion polls on topical issues

Sept momies vieilles de plus de 3.800 ans appartenant au peuple chinchorro, qui vivait dans le nord du Chili, ont été découvertes par des archéologues dans l'enceinte historique de la ville d'Arica, près de la frontière avec le Pérou, a annoncé vendredi la responsable scientifique.
Les Chinchorros, un peuple de pêcheurs, ont peut-être été les premiers à momifier leurs morts, plus de 2.000 ans avant les Egyptiens.

Source: Voilà.fr

John Hare a mis en ligne la première traduction des textes des pyramides, celle de Samuel A.B. Mercer datant de 1952. Il s'agit du volume I d'une série de 4.

An online version of the Pyramid texts, with translitteration and English translation.

A heavily corroded Egyptian bronze figurine of the god Osiris was examined and shown to have been originally gilt with gold leaf and inlaid with blue glass. Detailed formal comparison between this Osiris figure and the known corpus of bronze and stone sculpture leads to the inference that the statuette dates to the time between the Third Intermediate Period and the fourth century BC, with a greater probability of originating from the Third Intermediate Period through to the 26th Dynasty, or even possibly as late as the fourth century on the basis of stylistic similarities. An extensive corrosion crust of atacamite and chalconatronite completely obscures inlaid glass decoration, found during the investigation, together with remnants of a gilded surface. Analysis of the glass by electron microprobe showed a composition consistent with early Egyptian blue glass with high sodium oxide and low potassium oxide content. The solid cast bronze is a leaded tin bronze, and the gold is a gold foil applied to the bronze surface, originally alternating in decoration with the blue glass. The loss of the light blue corrosion crust was prevented by consolidation with Paraloid B72, as examination over several months showed no sign of continued chemical instability.

Un article de Gaston Maspéro, donc plutôt "classique", reproduit in extenso.

An article by Gaston Maspero on dogs in Ancient Egypt

Abstracts of Papers, International Conference Origin of the State. Predynastic and
Early Dynastic Egypt (Cracow, Poland, 2002). Publication on the egypt.edu site

Un excellent article avec beaucoup de photos couleurs, les textes hiéroglyphiques, la translittération et la traduction. Un article de John Sarr, comme on aimerait en trouver plus souvent. Bravo!

An excellent aricle by John Sarr, with colour photographs, the hieroglyphic text, translitteration and translation. A must!

La mission Britannique à Hiérakonpolis a mis à jour dans la tombe N°9 les restes d'une femme dont le corps comportait de nombreux tatouages.

A discovery by the Hierakonpolis British team: the rests of a tattoed woman.
" Quickly we gathered up the loose pieces of tattooed skin and remarkably we were able to connect some pieces with that still in place and reconstruct the elaborate pattern spreading across her abdomen, around her hip and on to her back"

, University of Toronto, 2000. (E) Source: EEF

Toute une série d'articles consultables en ligne:

*The chemical composition of glass and its usage in comparative analysis in Ancient Egypt, by Mikey Brass
*The Egyptian Predynastic, by Professor Kathryn Bard
*Badarian government and religious evolution, by Mikey Brass
*The Narmer Macehead and Related Objects, by Professor N.B. Millet
*Remembering Egypt: Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of the Image of Egypt, by Mikey Brass (unpublished Masters degree essay, 2003, in pdf format)
* How can we attempt to assess what real power the scribes of ancient Egypt wielded?, by Mikey Brass (unpublished Masters degree essay, 2004, in pdf format)
* Review of Michael Rice's "Egypt's Making", World Archaeological Bulletin issue 10 (Nov 1999), co-authored by Mikey Brass
* Ecological context of Ancient Egyptian Predynastic settlements, by Mikey Brass
* Are the Early Holocene Cattle in the Eastern Sahara Domestic or Wild?, by Professor Fred Wendorf and Associate-Professor Romuald

* Schild New radiocarbon dates and Late Palaeolithic diet at Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt, by Professor Fred Wendorf et al.

* Predynastic Egyptian subsistence activities, by Mikey Brass
* The Palermo Stone, by Mikey Brass Hieratic Paleography : A Reference Series, edited by Professor Sheldon Gosline

Les titres des publications de l'ASAE de 1900 à 2000.

Author index of "Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte", vols. 1 - 75 (1900-2000)