More on "Ancient mummies revealed in Egypt "

[Adsos Letter]

Source: BBC
Christian Fraser reports.

Egyptian archaeologists have found more than 20 mummies in a burial chamber dating back at least 2,600 years.

Very interesting video at the link, starring the ubiquitous Zahi Hawass...and some mummies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7883914.stm

[illuminaughty]

1. Thanks adsos, I am strangely comforted by all things past.

Zahi is everywhere! Maybe you can help me. I've been trying to find the name of a tomb I was in near this very place in Sakkara. It was many years ago before many tourists went to this area and before all the new excavation. We had to take horses out to the site.

I was with my boyfriend's cousin that day, who only spoke Arabic. We started out at the Serapeum (tomb of Apis bulls) but at the time I thought they were human mummies. We were way back inside the tomb when Cairo had one of it's famous blackouts. We're talking pitch black in the middle of sarcophagi until the guides could run to us with lanterns.

Then we went into a tomb where we had to crawl on our stomachs off and on. When we got to the main chamber, we were facing a big wall with a small rectangle cut out. They put a lantern inside and showed us the sarcophagus and elaborate decor. To our left was another wall with a rectangle cut out which was exposed to daylight. The guide also spoke little English, but I understood that the tomb was built so that the light would shine through the opening on the left into the opening of the wall of the tomb, but only on the birthday of the deceased. There are many things of this sort in Egypt, but I'd really like to know the name of this particular tomb.

Since the days of the internet, I've looked at maps of the Sakkara area, but never found it. The excavations are so extensive it is confusing. If it sounds familiar or you have any info, would you send it to me? I haven't been able to post pics on here recently or I'd put up a photo of us entering the Apis tomb, however it is on my myspace link.

Sorry to go on and on. But, I do appreciate all the archeology related links you post. I'm familiar with Dever and Finkelstein, I DVR "Naked Archaeologist" and anything on ME excavations. It's my dream to get back to at least Italy and the Middle East to crawl around among the old stuff again.

[Bravo Zulu]

2. Theban Mapping Project

Sites
Browse the text, images, and maps of this comprehensive database on the Valley of the Kings.
http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/

[Bolo Boffin]

5. What a fantastic site that is.

I found it years ago, but it's a treasure trove.

Here's another that came online recently: Digital Karnak Temple

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/

I found it at one of my favorite blogs, an English lady who married an Egyptian and lives in Luxor. She and her husband manage several flats in Luxor and if I ever get to go back, I'm going to stay with them.

http://luxor-news.blogspot.com/

[G_j]

6. that is awesome

just took a tour, wow..

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

3. Most interesting

If there are a lot of mummies, it could be a reburial site like the ones that yielded many of the famous Pharaohs now in the Cairo museum. Maybe there are some"lost" royals there just waiting to be identified. Hawass and company managed to identify Hatshepsut's mummy a few years ago, and she was long believed to have disappeared so who knows. Why the hell don't they do a DNA on the famed "elder lady" and finally figure out whether she's Queen Tiye? :rant:

For some reason, ancient Egypt has had a hold on me since I was a little kid and this stuff fascinates me to no end.

[LibertyLover]

4. Ah, Zahi

Two years ago my husband, stepdaughter, daughter and I went up to Philadelphia to see the Tutankhamon exhibition. We were disappointed, as it was not as good as the show that came in 1978-79. Nor as good as the Cairo Museum. I did enjoy seeing the stuff from the tomb of Yuya and Thuya because when I've been to the Cairo Museum it hasn't been as well displayed, but I digress. What amused the hell out of me however was in the gift show at the end of the show. Piled up prominently on a shelf were fedoras. From a distance, I thought they were Indiana Jones hats, but wait, no - they were . . . wait for it . . . official Zahi Hawass hats. Good grief.

[Bolo Boffin]

7. Hawass is quite a card.

I love that old guy.