BITS and PIECES

News and views from the world of Egyptology

The Great Pyramid of ... Germany German entrepreneurs are planning to build the world’s largest pyramid on a derelict site at Dessau in Eastern Germany. The idea is that the pyramid will be a burial site and will hold the remains of millions of people in concrete burial blocks. The plan is for a pyramid around sixty feet taller than the Great Pyramid at Giza, which is four hundred and thirty-two feet high. The developers explained, “In future the chance to be buried in a pyramid will be open to all ... . Our great pyramid will be the first internationally advertised burial and remembrance site to link the peoples, religions and cultures of the world.” The burials will be in one cubic metre-sized concrete blocks. Each block will contain an urn holding the ashes of the deceased and will bear an inscription in his or her memory. The pyramid is expected to grow gradually over a period of up to thirty years as concrete blocks are added to the structure. A number of customer enquiries have already been made. Interestingly, this modern idea for a pyramid is not new. A similar plan was devised, but never executed, for a mass-burial pyramid to be built in London in the nineteenth century.

?Found in Tutankhamun’s tomb There has been much in the Egyptological news about the ‘discovery’ in the Valley of the Kings of around twenty intact clay pots sealed with the cartouche of Tutankhamun. The discovery was actually made in the Treasury of Tutankhamun’s tomb, a room that has been sealed and clearly not entered by anyone, if not since the 1930s, then certainly not in recent years. Also found in the Treasury were some baskets containing large numbers of domfruit. Some reports have implied that these items had been overlooked by Howard Carter when he cleared the tomb. This is certainly not the case, but Carter did not remove everything to Cairo. Clearly there were many items that were duplicated and others that were not considered suitable for, or worthy of, display. The tomb of Sennofer, for example, still contains many objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb, including the black shrines that once housed the gilded images of the gods (though these may have been moved recently to a newer, secure storage facility). What was, and is, important, is that these objects have been preserved and not that they have been rediscovered; they can now perhaps be examined, using tech

niques not available to Howard Carter. Lying untouched, they should still be in excellent condition and can hopefully tell us more about the burial of the king.

Tutankhamun was not black The Tutankhamun exhibition in the United States saw record attendances, but not everyone was happy with the display. One of the main criticisms, and one made loudly and in several demonstrations, was that the exhibition failed to recognize that Tutankhamun was black. The ancient Egyptians were very particular about how they depicted skin colours and this can clearly be seen when their artists made the distinction between Egyptians and Nubians, or the people they traded with from the far south towards the centre of Africa. At a lecture in the United States, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities insisted that Tutankhamun was not black. “Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it,” Dr. Hawass told reporters. “Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa.” Dr. Hawass was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there in September. Protestors claimed images of Tutankhamun were altered to show him with lighter skin at the exhibition. There were similar problems during an earlier stage of the tour in Los Angeles, when activists demanded that a reconstructed portrait of the king be removed because it portrays him as white. Hopefully the London exhibition will not see similar protests.

Tutankhamun’s mummy on display Amid much media publicity, the mummy of Tutankhamun was recently removed from the outer coffin and sarcophagus, and placed on display in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, allowing visitors to see his face for the first time. The mummy is now in a special climate-controlled glass case in the tomb and the body is covered with linen, only the head being visible. “You will enter the tomb and see for the first time the face of Tutankhamun ... . This is the first time in history that anyone will see the mummy [in public]. This will continue the magic of Tutankhamun,” Dr. Hawass said. Whilst many objects from the tomb have toured the world, and the rest are on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the mummified body of the king has

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ANCIENTEGYPTDecember2007/January 2008 been seen and examined in detail only a handful of times since the tomb was discovered.

Anubis on the River Thames At the beginning of October, anyone near the River Thames may have been somewhat surprised, and no doubt perplexed, to see a twenty-five foot tall Golden Anubis passing under Tower Bridge on its way to Trafalgar Square. The statue was paving the way for Tutankhamun’s arrival in London. The installation coincided with the closure of the three-year exhibition tour in the United States and the departure of Tutankhamun’s treasures for the United Kingdom. The exhibition at The O2 opened in November and will run until the 30th August 2008. For tickets and information, please visit www.visitlondon/tut

More on the request for the loan to Egypt of some important Egyptian antiquities In the last issue of AE , I mentioned that the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) recently formally requested the temporary loan of unique ancient Egyptian antiquities kept in several museums abroad for the inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza in 2011. The five important objects the Egyptians would like to borrow are: the Rosetta Stone, in the British Museum; the bust of Nefertiti, in Berlin; the statue of Great Pyramid architect Hemiunnu, in Hildesheim; the Dendara Temple zodiac, in Paris; and the bust of Khafra Pyramid builder Ankhaf, in Boston. Egypt recently announced that the museum at Hildesheim had agreed to loan their statue. There has been no formal announcement about the response, if any, from the other museums, but getting any agreement may take some time and negotiation.

bits and pieces

Damage to ancient whale fossils European diplomats in four-wheel-drive cars have caused damage to a fossilized whale lying for millions of years in the Egyptian desert near the Faiyum. The site, known as Wadi Hitan (Whale Valley), was home to whales around forty million years ago when the area was ocean. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to hundreds of whale fossils. Egyptian authorities have said Belgian diplomats ran over the fossil after ignoring signs warning visitors not to drive in the area. The area involved is huge and difficult to cordon-off or guard all the time. Parts of the desert are popular with drivers of four-by-four vehicles who like to drive on the sand dunes, but any damage, by diplomats or anyone else, is to be deplored.

The Egypt Centre at Swansea shortlisted for THES award The Egypt Centre at Swansea University has been shortlisted in a national award scheme for its excellence in encouraging people to consider higher education. This Times Higher Education Supplement Award, for the widening participation initiative of the year, is backed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It is awarded to the most imaginative and innovative project that encourages potential students from non-traditional backgrounds to enter higher education. The Egypt Centre, a museum of mostly Egyptian antiquities, was opened in 1998 with the aim of making a largely teaching collection more accessible to the public as well as scholars, and was supported by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. The collection comprises over four thousand five hundred items, mostly from the Wellcome collection and attracts over twenty-three thousand visitors each year. The Centre has made the Times Higher Awards’ shortlist of just six initiatives for its volunteer programme and award-winning Saturday workshops for socially and economically disadvantaged children. The workshops aim to raise standards of literacy and numeracy and, more importantly, to allow children who would not normally set foot in a university to develop their confidence, skills and aspirations. Schools with a high number of disadvantaged pupils are actively targeted and approached by the Centre. The Egypt Centre also runs a successful volunteering scheme. Volunteers, whether children or people in their eighties, are not simply from the traditional educated and high socio-economic volunteer pool, but include people who would not normally visit a university campus. The Egypt Centre also works with people who have mental health problems or learning difficulties, the longterm unemployed, and the economically disadvantaged.

ANCIENTEGYPTDecember2007/January 2008

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