Culture & Travel, News, Travel / 22 Jan 2021

Archaeologists Discover a Temple to an Ancient Queen and 50 Stunning Sarcophagi in an Egyptian Necropolis

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed more than 50 sarcophagi and an ancient funerary temple at the Saqqara necropolis, just south of Cairo. Led by Egypt’s former antiquities minister, archaeologist Zahi Hawass, a team recovered intact, sealed wooden coffins carved into the shape of human figures and decorated with colourful designs. The coffins, dating to the New Kingdom period (ca. 1570–ca. 1069 BC), were buried in shafts around 35 feet underground alongside burial wells, mummies, statues of deities, and other artifacts. Hawass said the “major discoveries” also included a 13-foot papyrus scroll inscribed with text from chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, an ancient missive directing the dead toward the underworld. Games intended to keep the dead occupied were also discovered in the funerary site, according to CBS. The funerary temple has now been identified as the burial place of Queen Neit, wife of King Teti, who was the first king of the sixth dynasty, who ruled for a dozen years. Archaeologists had been working at the site for more than 10 years but had no indication of who was buried inside until further excavation revealed Neit’s name written on a wall inside and on an obelisk. “I’d never heard of this queen before. Therefore, we add an important piece to Egyptian history,” Hawass said, adding that the dig also turned up a shaft with a limestone sarcophagus inside, a first for this location. In November 2020, the ministry of tourism and antiquities announced more than 100 painted sarcophagi discovered at the UNESCO heritage site of Saqqara, coming on the heels of a spate of discoveries in September and October. At the time, minister Khaled el-Enany said, “It is a treasure. Excavations are still underway. Whenever we empty a burial shaft of sarcophagi, we find an entrance to another.” Turns out, he was right. Opening…

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Architecture, Architecture & Design, Art, Culture & Travel, News, Travel / 02 Jul 2020

Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Tools in Gabon that May Rewrite Our Understanding of Humankind’s History in Central Africa

Archaeologists have dated stone tools from Lopé National Park in Gabon to 620,000 to 850,000 years ago, making them the earliest known evidence of a human presence in the Congo Basin. “In the African chronology, we always thought Central Africa was reserved for gorillas and the great apes, but in fact that’s false—there was a human presence,” said archaeologist Richard Oslisly of France’s Research Institute for Development, in a video produced by the organisation. He made his first trip to the region in 1987 when he noticed what appeared to be a carved terrace, suggesting ancient agricultural activity. There, Oslisly found stone tools that could have been used to cut meat. The initial carbon dating suggested the artifacts were nearly 400,000 years old, but that technology was limited in the 1980s. In the decades since, Oslisly has continued his research in the region and has become convinced that there was a widespread ancient agrarian civilisation in the Congo Basin—a region previously assumed to be virgin forest, too dense and dangerous to be penetrated by ancient peoples. Archaeologist Richard Oslisly believes these formations are evidence of the terraced plantings of an ancient agrarian civilisation in the Congo Basin (Image from Bing Maps). Oslisly’s latest findings come from a 2019 expedition to the Elarmékora alluvial terrace in the Lopé National Park, led by the European Center for Research and Education in Environmental Geosciences and the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux. New samples of the ancient tools were tested with the most innovated technology, using cosmogenic nuclides produced by a large accelerator mass spectrometer. If the preliminary dating of up to 850,000 years old holds up, these artifacts would represent the oldest evidence of human existence in the Congo Basin. “These results thus show a tremendous advance in our knowledge of the evolution of our ancestors that could not only upset the models…

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Art, Culture & Travel, News, Travel / 10 Jun 2020

Historic Tunisian Items Withdrawn from Paris Auction after Heritage Body Claims Works Left Country Illegally

A Paris-based auction house has withdrawn more than 100 historic Tunisian items from an online sale following claims that they were exported illegally out of the north African country. The annual Noblesse & Royauté sale organised by Coutau-Bégarie, which runs until 11 June, included the disputed works. The controversy centres on 114 objects which once belonged to the Tunisian politician Habib Djellouli (1879-1957) including an ancient Quran. Faouzi Mahfoudh, the director of Tunisia’s National Heritage Institute, told Le Monde newspaper that the items were removed without permission, contravening “article 57 of the [government] heritage code, which stipulates that cultural objects cannot leave the territory without express authorisation from the Ministry of Culture”. Coutau-Bégarie says in a statement that after consulting the owner of the works, the sale of the works was halted “in order to start discussions with the relevant authorities”. The Art Newspaper contacted the auction house, asking if due diligence was followed with regard to the items’ provenance; at the time of writing, the company had not responded to a request for comment. Other unrelated items are still available for sale in the 308-lot online auction according to the website. “We need a more active heritage protection policy, which would involve classification of acquisitions, as well as constant monitoring of the international market, in particular a commission that seriously scrutinises sales catalogues,” the Tunisian art historian Ridha Moumni told Le Monde. Earlier this week, Tunisia’s culture minister, Chiraz Latiri, pledged that an inventory of cultural assets would be compiled. Read Adolf Tega: Mwana wevhu (Son of the Soil) https://www.theartnewspaper.com/