Statue of Egyptian pharaoh found after nearly 3,600 years

AFP ^ | 06/04/05

[TigerLikesRooster]

Statue of Egyptian pharaoh found after nearly 3,600 years

Sat Jun 4, 4:45 PM ET

LUXOR, Egypt (AFP) - Buried for nearly 3,600 years, a rare statue of Egypt's King Neferhotep I has been brought to light in the ruins of Thebes by a team of French archaeologists.

Officials said on Saturday that the statue was unusual in that the king is depicted holding hands with a double of himself, although the second part of the carving remains under the sand and its form has been determined by the use of imaging equipment.

Archeologists unearthed the 1.8 metre (six foot) tall statue, as they were carrying out repairs around Karnak Temple in the southern city of Luxor, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told reporters.

Francois Larche, one of the team that found the limestone statue of the king, whose name means "beautiful and good", said it was lying about 1.6 metres below ground near an obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to have reigned as a pharoah in Egypt, ruling from 1504-1484 BC.

Karnak, now in the heart of Luxor, was built on the ruins of Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt. The huge temple dedicated to the god Amon lies in the heart of a vast complex of religious buildings in the city, 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of Cairo.

The statue shows the king wearing a funeral mask and royal head cloth or nemes, said Larche.

The forehead bears an emblem of a cobra, which ancient Egyptians used as a symbol on the crown of the pharaohs. They believed that the cobra would spit fire at approaching enemies.

Larche said this was only the second time such a statue had been found in Egypt. A similar one was dug up during the excavations of the hidden treasures of Karnak from 1898 to 1904.

But it is not clear when or if the statue will be completely unearthed. It is blocked by the remnants of an ancient structure, possibly a gate.

"In order to pull it out, a structure on top of the statue has to be dismantled and then restored," said Larche, adding that permission from the Egyptian antiquities authorities was needed before the team could go ahead with plans to raise the statue.

"It's up to the Higher Council of Egyptian Antiquities to decide on the fate of the statue of Neferhotep I and whether it will be brought to light or left buried where it was found."

Neferhotep was the 22nd king of the 13th Dynasty. The son of a temple priest in Abydos, he ruled Egypt from 1696-1686 BC.

Experts believe his father's position helped him to ascend the throne, as there was no royal blood in his family.

Neferhotep was one of the few pharaohs whose name did not invoke the sun god, Re. It is written on a number of stones, including a document on his reign found in Aswan.

[dread78645]

The later pharohs had two symbols on their headdress,
the cobra for one and something else for lower Egypt.

Symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt

[Lee'sGhost]

Jeez, people. The pharoah of the Exodus was Yul Brenner.

[ken21]

a lotta new egyptian finds lately.

[jps098]

There is an excellent book on with an alternative dates theory called "Pharoahs and Kings." It is an easy read with some great charts. The author points out how much of the date assumptions made, are all based on one person's original date assumption, and how few question the premise.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, Zahi "Zowie" Hawass has a lot of backs bending, trying to uncover as much as possible.

[SunkenCiv]

FR thread related to your subthread here:

Pharoahs and Kings - A Test of Time
http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/rohl-1.htm | David M. Rohl
Posted on 07/31/2002 7:35:06 PM PDT by Scythian
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/725672/posts

[-=Wing_0_Walker=-]

Can't wait for that blow hard Hawass to make the announcement as if he were the reason for the discovery.

[familyop]

Thanks. I'll find a copy of Pharoahs and Kings.

[familyop]

Thanks for the links and title.

[familyop]

David M. Rohl's A Test of Time: The Bible: From Myth to History looks really interesting, too. It might be interesting to apply Hebrew research and further dating study with a different scale. Or maybe the synopsis doesn't speak quite completely for the book. I'll get the book and find out.

[SunkenCiv]

You're most welcome. "Test of Time" is the British edition title of the same book known as "Pharaohs and Kings". :') I wish I had a pile of either title around here. They're out of print (last I checked) and used copies are kinda steep. I could make a small fortune.

[SunkenCiv]

---

Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest by David Rohl 1st ed hardcover hardcover paperback

---

[SunkenCiv]

Nice cover picture of the "real" face of Tut. Also, the issue comes with a map of Europe, which will come in handy from a historical perspective after the whole peninsula because the Islamic Arab Republic of Europe in thirty years. Anyway, I got the issue tonight on the way home. Looks like there's an issue about poisons out, dunno if it's earlier or later, but both were on the stand.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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