Not too long ago a party of Egyptians were digging near the pyramids when they uncovered a large tightly sealed jar of honey. Since Egyptians always seem to be hungry, they sat down and dug into it with their fingers. Presently one of them complained he'd found a hair. Then they discovered more hairs, finally pulling out the body of a small child which had been buried centuries before!
A quick search of the Web found this story in a slightly different context. Alexander the Great was also said to have had his body returned to Egypt preserved in honey. This makes some sense as honey is known to be a reasonably effective antibiotic, and thus could halt the decomposition of a body. Apparently, however, apart from this one story, no actual "honey mummies" have ever been found.
Archaeologists unearth more burials; expect more unscheduled delays to give time for investigation
An unexpected two-week delay in the excavation of the Tice Creek detention basin outside Rossmoor's gate allowed archaeologists further investigation of the site, yielding five more burials and objects of interest. This brings to eight the number of burials, and archaeologists expect more as the project progresses.
Archaeologists from William Self Associates (the firm contracted by the county to excavate and document the cultural history of the site) uncovered five additional burials and a possible fire pit.
Note this: Last week an expert operator gingerly scraped the floor of the excavation pit with a 30,000-pound backhoe to peel back one-inch layers of blackish brown clay while archaeologists watched for signs of burials or artifacts. It's true, some of these backhoe operators could empty a teacup with one of those things.
Okay, we exaggerate a bit. But they really can be delicate.
Biblical Archaeology update Archeologists claim Essenes never wrote Dead Sea Scrolls
Located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Qumran is famous throughout the world as the place where the Essenes, who have been widely described in studies, conferences and exhibitions as a type of Jewish "monk," are said to have lived and written the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, based on findings soon to be published, Israeli archaeologists now argue that Qumran "lacks any uniqueness."
The latest research joins a growing school of thought attempting to explode the "Qumran myth" by stating that not only did the residents of Qumran live lives of comfort, they did not write the scrolls at all.
Times New Roman? ANCIENT FIND UNEARTHS PAST RELIGIOUS BATTLES
A Roman font dating back more than 1,600 years has been unearthed in a Lincolnshire field.
The 4th century artefact is one of only 18 to be discovered in Britain and has been described by archaeologists as a "significant" find.
It is thought the find, which has been cut into pieces, reflects a period of religious tension in the country between Christianity and Paganism.
The font was located by metal detector experts Gary Lee and Jim Wilkinson in a farmer's field near Market Rasen two weeks ago.
Following courtesy of the EEF.
At last: THe Inside story.
Since early this month, the British Museum's special exhibitions gallery above the old British Library Reading Room has been converted into a theatre with a 12-metre curved screen for the virtual viewing of the mummy of Nesperennub, an ancient Egyptian priest who served the cult of Khonsu in Karnak Temple about 800 BC. The technology is by Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI), of Mountain View, California.
The museum no longer unwraps mummies as it did in the past, and this interactive, 3-D visualisation has been brought about by non-invasive techniques. The tour inside Nesperennub's corpse probes his secret layers and reveals details of his age, lifestyle, appearance, state of health and how he was mummified. A number of gold shields, amulets and scarabs of carved stone ceramic and wax were also located on his body.
We liked the orange glowy pictures of Nesperennub better:
Following submitted by Michael Tilgner
* The Rosetta Stone
-- Hierolyphic text: Urk. II, 166-198
URL: http://snipurl.com/83px
-- English translation of the Greek Section
URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/rosetta-stone-translation.html
-- photograph - 650 KB
URL: http://www.hi.is/~marj/kennsla/rosetta.jpg
-- photograph - 785 KB
URL: http://snipurl.com/83pz
-- drawing - 570 KB
URL: http://snipurl.com/83q1
This is cool: Website with all Egyptian articles of the Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (BMFA) in PDF:
http://www.mfa.org/giza/pages/publpdfsbmfaall.html
And two excellent sites:
The database of all 5398 objects found in the tomb of Tutankhamun is now complete and can be consulted at the web pages of the Griffith Institute in Oxford:
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/4tut.html
Further, ca. 850 tracings made by Norman and Nina de Garis Davies in various Theban tombs are now available for consultation at the Archive of this Institute. (Source: two messages by Jaromir Malek on ANE-L)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/4.html
These last two are really neat, especially the first one as it has images of original documents and photos from that most famous of excavations. You can spend hours perusing them.