Posted on 03/26/2006 8:43:05 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The true mummy of ancient Egyptian queen Hatshepsut was discovered in the third floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Secretary General of Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawwas revealed on Thursday.
The mummy was missing among thousands of artifacts lying in the museum, he said during his lecture at the New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Arts.
He said for decades archaeologists believed that a mummy found in Luxor was that of the Egyptian queen. It was a streak of luck, he said, to find this mummy.
The Metropolitan is hosting a Hatshepsut exhibition that displays 270 artifacts on the life history of the queen.
The American museum honoured Hawwas and his accompanying delegation in appreciation of their effort to unravel the mysteries of the Egyptian Pharaohnic age.
(Excerpt) Read more at sis.gov.eg ...
overcrowded Egyptian galleries -- good problem to have. I think a glimpse of the galleries can be spotted (Temple of Denderah) in the movie "When Harry Met Sally". :')Now, Hatshepsut: A Glorious Show Breaks GroundThe Metropolitan Museum of Art's enormous, glorious show "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh" begins in the Great Hall with the Met's own colossal pink granite "Sphinx of Hatshepsut" (c. 1472-58 B.C.E.). One of the great pleasures of this exhibition, other than the fact that the show celebrates, for the first time, one of the greatest and least understood periods of Egyptian art, is that it frees up sculptures that can sometimes feel cramped in the museum's well-endowed yet overcrowded Egyptian galleries.
by Lance Esplund
March 23, 2006
Nothing like ending the day with a nice juicy politically correct anachronism.She's No TutThrough July 9... it is the response of the present director, Philippe de Montebello, to Thomas Hoving, his predecessor and the man largely responsible for bringing King Tut to our shores. The differences between the two exhibitions are quite clear. The earlier one lingers in the collective memory of the art world as a gaudy crowd-pleaser, intended to hike attendance figures with an abundance of gold jewelry. It also seemed to be utterly typical of Hoving's boisterous, bull-in-the-china shop tenure at the Met... Part of what will draw the crowds is the biographical details of Hatshepsut, a woman who for two decades during the 18th dynasty (ca. 1479-1458 B.C.) was the pharaoh of a united Egypt. In this, she was undeterred by the tradition that only a man could rule the kingdom and she got around that little stipulation by having herself depicted as a man. One senses that the Met is counting on that gender-bending contemporary note to take the place of an abundance of gems.
by James Gardner
March 28, 2006
"Pooloo, see, bagoomba."
KV 60 (Sit-Ra, called In (?))
http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/sites/browse_tomb_874.html
"An inscription on one coffin bore the name and title, royal nurse, In. In has been thought by some to be Sit-Ra, called In, royal nurse of Hatshepsut. The mummy is now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The other, still unidentified mummy remained in situ. Thomas suggested it might be the mummy of Hatshepsut, relocated by Thutmes III."
[Hawass picked up on this idea of Elizabeth Thomas', who died in 1986, iow, 20 years ago.]
KV 20 (Thutmes I and Hatshepsut)
http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/sites/browse_tomb_834.html
"Perhaps the oldest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV 20 lies high in the easternmost arm of the Valley, cut into the cliff face near KV 19. The tomb is of very unusual plan: its axis bends from the east toward the south and then toward the west, curving away from the bay of Dayr al Bahri, undermining the theory that the tomb was originally intended to connect with Hatshepsut's memorial temple... The body of Thutmes I was later moved to KV 38, during the reign of Thutmes III. Hatshepsut's burial was left in KV 20, and was eventually sacked by tomb robbers. No remains of her mummy have been identified, although a mummified liver or spleen was found in TT 320 in a box inscribed with her cartouches."
Okay, so Zahi thinks the mummy in the coffin belonging to the nurse is the real queen. Did they do a blood test or DNA test on the organ in the canopic jar, then?
Also, I noted they said the mummy was on the 3rd floor of the museum. I only remember two floors open to the public when I was there, with the royal mummies in a room at one corner of the second floor, so that sounds like some kind of attic.
Finally, it doesn't surprise me if Hatshepsut didn't have as much gold and jewelry to show off as Tutankhamun did. Nubia had just been conquered, and Syria wasn't part of the "empire" yet, so Egypt wasn't as rich as it would be in a century or two.
Also, her tomb was plundered in antiquity.
Parlour of Hatshepsut time unearthedAn Egyptian-Spanish archaeological expedition unearthed Thursday a parlour belonging to Gihoti, a workers' superintendent in charge of decorating temples and galleries during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, 1502-1487 BC.
Friday, March 31, 2006
A game board was also excavated in a nearby room. Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary General Zahi Hawwas said the parlour found in the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom's capital of Thebes in Luxor Thursday was one of the largest as it is measured 34 metres long. The head of the Spanish team said that house utensils were also found.New discovery in LuxorAN Egyptian-Spanish archaeological team, operating on the West Bank in Luxor, have discovered a room housing the tomb of the foreman responsible for decorating all the temples and palaces in the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor) in the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1502 - 1482 BC). The discovery, announced by Culture Minister Farouq Hosni, also includes a collection of wooden and clay artifacts.
Hassan Saadallah
Friday, March 31, 2006
According to Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, this important discovery sheds light on the design of the buildings that housed tombs in the 18th Dynasty. "The building is 34 metres long and there are many drawings carved on the walls, as well as the words of sermons Ancient Egyptians listened to at the time," he explained, adding that the finds will displayed in the Luxor Museum.
How do you not realize (even in the Egyptian Museum) how many mummies you have?!
Probably because a lot of it was brought in without a lot of documentation. :')
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1603736/posts?page=25#25
I guess that makes sense.
This subject interests me because I once got into an argument with a relative about whether this mummy had been found. I had read a popular book on archaeology that had an illustration purporting to show the mummy of Hatshepsut.
It turned out that it was highly questionable that the mummy in the illustration was indeed Hatshepsut and I had to admit I was wrong.
Zahi Hawas is such a media hog, that the "discovery" of this mummy at the same time there is an Hatshepsut exhibition is cause for suspicion.
update, from the ArchaeoBlog:
http://archaeoblog.blogspot.com/
[snip]
Marianne Luban sent a post to the EEF lists regarding the possible reason why this new mummy is being touted as Hatchepsut, quoting part of an article in the Fall 2005 KMT magazine by Dennis Forbes on this mummy:
"It has recently been suggested to this writer that the elderly female [the one found lying on the floor of KV60 by Don Ryan] is, in fact, that of In-Sitre herself, and that the coffined mummy removed to the Egyptian Museum (and stored there today), very well may be Hatshepsut--this because the latter mummy purportedly has both arms folded across its chest (the so-called "king's pose"); and also because the advanced age and pendulous breasts of the uncoffined mummy are characteristics one would expect of a wet nurse."
The mummy sitting in KV-60 right now has only one arm crossed. That seems to be the only real evidence thus far.
Maybe we should call for more expeditions to the storage rooms of museums....
whoops, should have pinged those who posted to this update:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1603736/posts?page=33#33
:')
Wow, I wish I had relatives who cared about anything beyond their personal lives and what's on telly. Lucky you.
Guzendheit!
Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.