Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Review of Discovery Channel's Rameses program Pharaoh's legacy lives on

In nearly seven decades of ruling ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh Rameses II — aka Rameses the Great — scattered dozens of temples, tombs and sons across the land of the Nile.

Archaeologists believe they have found the remains of four of those sons during the excavation of a tomb called KV5, the largest in Egypt's famed pharaonic burial ground, the Valley of the Kings, outside Thebes.

Forensic reconstructions of the sons' faces provided to USA TODAY show a strong family resemblance to the powerful pharaoh who ruled Egypt more than 3,200 years ago. Some scholars believe that the exodus of Hebrew slaves from Egypt described in the Bible took place during the reign of Rameses II.


Also, check out the "Gather the children" photo series. It would probably have been better had the forensic person doing the reconstruction done it "blind" so they wouldn't know whose skull it was thought to belong to. That would take care of any confirmation bias that might be present.