This is silly, but may bring a smile to you.

This Bird in Jalandhar Loves Egyptian Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX85m5k6d2A

Here's another one:
Parrot dancing to arabic wedding song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj5dBRcLQtQ

It's interesting the birds respond so strongly to sound.

Major archaeological discovery in Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists have been taking a break from the sun lately to excavate
the hidden depths of the national museum in Cairo, reportsArchaeology News.
They're refurbishing The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities before opening a bigger
museum near the pyramids at Giza. Part of the project is to go through all the
poorly recorded artifacts that have been languishing in the basement since they
were excavated decades ago.

They've recently found nine artifacts that don't appear in museum records,
including stones with hieroglyphs and a sacred table to make offerings to the
gods.

This isn't the first time new old stuff has turned up in the museum. Random bits
that have come the museum's way over the years that archaeologists have
considered possible fakes have traditionally been buried in the museum's garden.
These are now being dug up again and examined.

http://www.gadling.com/2009/07/26/major-archaeological-discovery-in-egypt-in-mus\
eum-basement/

a Biographical Novel of Hatshepsut-Maatkare, the Female Pharaoh, by Maria Isabel
Pita.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUMXi2UVEEY

Truth is the Soul of the Sun - A Biographical Novel of Hatshepsut-Maatkare

NY Times
To Catch a Looter

AS United States troops begin withdrawing from Iraq, we should take stock of the
staggering damage that Iraq's ancient archeological sites have suffered from
looting over the last few years. After the 2003 invasion, swarms of looters dug
huge pits and passages all over southern Iraq in search of cuneiform tablets and
cylinder seals. At Isin, where a Sumerian city once stood, I watched men sifting
through tons of soil for 4,000-year-old objects to sell to Baghdadi dealers. It
was mass pillage.

The worst of the looting appears to be over, say the experts who monitor
archeological sites with armed inspections and aerial photographs. With security
improving, Iraqi authorities now have the chance to bring long-lasting
protection to what's left of the country's ancient heritage. They could take
some pointers from an unexpected place: Peru.

In 1994, residents of eight villages in northwestern Peru — a region of deserts
and oases that looks much like Iraq — organized citizens' patrols. The patrols
weren't out to stop house burglars or cattle rustlers. They were looking for
looters, who, for several years, had plundered the area to feed the robust
international market for pre-Inca artifacts.

I spent a few days with one of these patrols in the village of Úcupe in 2002.
The members were unarmed and well organized, and they knew the terrain as well
as you know your dining room. When they spotted looters digging up the overgrown
ancient burial mounds that dot the landscape, they surrounded them and called
the police. In this way, I saw the patrols apprehend three potential looters
without firing a shot.

Last year, archeologists excavated an intact tomb at Úcupe that contained the
remains of a lord who ruled during the Moche civilization around A.D. 450. He
was buried with golden headdresses, war clubs, silver rattles and opulent
jewelry. If sold piecemeal on the black market, these objects could have fetched
millions. Instead, their discovery opened the door to a new understanding of how
power was exercised in the Moche world.

Without the civilian patrols, this tomb would certainly have been emptied by
looters. The people of Úcupe will now benefit from the archaeological tourism
that often follows such discoveries and that, in Peru, is booming. They
protected a community asset, and it paid off.

This kind of grassroots organizing — where local officials, police officers and
archaeologists join forces with local residents — is the best way to combat
looting and protect sites from being swallowed up by the illicit antiquities
trade. A similar strategy has proved effective in Mali, a country that has
little in common with Peru besides a rich archaeological heritage. It would work
in Iraq and elsewhere.

Surprisingly, though, relatively few governments have focused on getting rural
people involved in protecting threatened sites. Most spend their energy pressing
museums in the United States or Europe to repatriate looted artifacts, instead
of focusing on safeguarding the archaeological riches still in the ground.
Repatriation is a valuable goal, but an immense amount of historical information
is lost whenever looting occurs and sites are damaged, even if the objects are
later recovered. The government's time would be better spent expanding the
patrols to prevent looting in the first place.

In Iraq, the authorities could start by inviting provincial museums and
archaeologists to work with local governments and police departments on
organizing residents who live near key ancient sites. Rural citizens' patrols
aren't expensive — they need binoculars, cellphones, maybe a few dirt bikes and
some basic training. Financing could come from international conservation and
community development organizations and should include money for education to
encourage people to see the ruins in their midst as valuable community assets as
much as potable water or clean streets. Once organized, the patrols need to be
lightly armed if armed at all, and they have to be well regulated by the police.
But as the good citizens of Úcupe have shown, they work.

Roger Atwood, a contributing editor at Archaeology magazine, is the author of
"Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers and the Looting of the Ancient
World."


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/opinion/13atwood.html?th&emc=th

Today Berlin's "Neues Museum" has reopened.
I was among the thousands of visitors who
visited it today, it took me more than two
hours standing in an endless queue. But it
was worth it. If you are in Berlin in the
next years, you must visit it. It's wonderful.

http://is.gd/4nUDL

The official German site is here
(unfortunately only in German):
http://www.neues-museum.de/

-J.

http://www.seanet.com/~realistic/psalm104.html

Book review: Truth is the Soul of the Sun - A Biographical Novel of
Hatshepsut-Maatkare by Maria Isabel Pita

Historical objectivity and sensuality of expression interweave across the entire
span of "Truth is the Soul of the Sun", Maria Isabel Pita's new biographical
novel of Hatshepsut, arguably the most powerful woman of all time. We can tell
that Pita worked tirelessly and with the same level of passion with which she
communicates human emotion in her erotic literature to construe how a woman was
able to break the long line of male kings and wear the double crown of the Two
Lands as Maatkare, hence the title.

Granted, "Truth is the Soul of the Sun" is a chronological narrative of love and
power with little suspense, but this is more than compensated by the parallel
metaphysical world that Pita evokes with her magnificent and prolific use of
imagery. The queen who would be king might be the main official character, but
it is Maat, the spirit of beauty and order, a transcendent creative power
breathing life, which is the true catalyst for the author's inspiration. Thus,
the novel demands a slower pace of reading, heightening our senses as we turn
every page and imbue ourselves in the realm of beauty and spirituality of 18th
dynasty Egypt.

Paradoxically, Maatkare Hatshepsut's unique achievement of becoming a female
Horus did not lead to any further break of tradition. In fact, once pharaoh,
Hatshepsut limited herself to preserve Maat, exercise sekhem and perform heka
and did not do anything different from previous rulers. Her greatness is
inextricably attached to the support of two loyal and powerful male characters,
whose relationship with the female king allows us to experience her womanhood.

Pity that these two men, important figures in the novel, one a commoner who
rises to the highest positions on account of his intelligence and creativity,
the other a direct descendant of ancient aristocracy, do not engage in a
conflict of ideas leading to explore opposing views of ancient Egyptian social
and political structure. We only encounter them together for a brief moment when
they are involved in nedjemit with the female king.

To truly appreciate "Truth is the Soul of the Sun", the reader must have a
reasonable knowledge of Egyptology, as Pita thoroughly explains the symbolism
and the neteru (she prefers to use neters) of Ancient Egypt, and names the
cities and villages in the original Egyptian language. However, the publication
includes references and more than a hundred footnotes.

In conclusion, "Truth is the Soul of the Sun" is a fascinating, well-researched
and richly narrated biography in the historical fiction genre recommended for
anyone interested in strong women in history.

Review posted by Ben Morales-Correa on the site Egypt Then & Now

[[ASIN:1448652685 Truth is the Soul of the Sun - A Biographical Novel of
Hatshepsut-Maatkare]] - Paperback

[[ASIN:B002HWRUFW Truth is the Soul of the Sun - A Biographical Novel of
Hatshepsut-Maatkare]] - Kindle E-Book

Hotep/ Greetings

My new website is up and I, would like for you to visit.  Yes we will be going
back to Africa, specifically to Egypt and Nubia in August 2010.
So let's get ready for a once in a life time experience that you will never
forget.  Check out the great price at: www.blackegypt.net

When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns

Egypt has requested the return of a bust of Nefertiti and other artifacts from
European museums, a move motivated as much by politics as by culture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/arts/design/24abroad.html

Baseball: All-American Sport Created by Ancient Africans?

Sometimes I get teased by my friends when I tell them that baseball is my
favorite sport. Oh sure, I enjoy a good Knicks game (I know these are very rare)
and I root for both New York football teams, but the Mets have long been my
guilty pleasure. My friends say, "How can any self-respecting Black man choose
baseball over basketball or even football!" What can I say? No matter the
good-natured ribbing, I still love the game. As I sat watching the Yankees fall
to the Angels last night, the thought occurred to me, "What if my friends knew
that baseball was created by ancient Africans?"

I know. Maybe this is a little bit of hyperbole. The Europeans who played early
variants of the game were probably not aware of the game's similarities with one
played by the Ancient Egyptians thousands of years earlier. However, it is
incredible that our ancient African ancestors enjoyed "baseball" long before the
days of billionaire owners and mammoth free agent contracts. There have been
very few games in recorded history which used a bat and a ball.

To read the rest of this post, visit The Udjat, the blog of the Center for the
Restoration of Ma'at by clicking the following link:

http://blog.centerformaat.com/2009/10/baseball-all-american-sport-created-by.htm\
l

This weekend I had the privilege of once again taking the Egypt on the Potomac
tour of Washington, D.C. With groundbreaking historical research by the Founder
of the Institute for Karmic Guidance, Tony Browder; the tour uncovers the
esoteric Ancient Egyptian symbols embedded in the very design of our nation's
capital.

I know what some of you are thinking. "So what? Some of the buildings in
Washington, D.C. are designed with the world's most noted ancient civilization
in mind. Everyone loves Ancient Egypt." Actually, Brother Browder's exhaustive
research proves that the very design of the city utilizes Kemetic sacred science
to attempt to harmoniously channel divine energy for sustenance of this nation.
The entire city is a monument to Ancient African symbolism.

Our story begins with the first president, George Washington, announcing the
creation of a permanent capital along the banks of the Potomac River on January
24, 1791. The plan called for a perfect diamond/square with straight 10-mile
boundaries at 90 degree angles from land ceded from Virginia and Maryland.
Washington charged Andrew Ellicott with surveying this "sacred" location with
the help of Benjamin Banneker. Banneker's background is quite interesting. A
free-born African, he seems to have been descended from the Dogon people of West
Africa who are known for their long tradition of tracking the heavens (more on
this in a later post). Banneker was a self-taught astronomer of the highest
order and perhaps a genius. He was able to accurately predict solar and lunar
eclipses which he published in 6-year almanacs. He was also reputed to have
borrowed a watch from a traveling merchant and replicated each piece in wood.
His working wooden watch was able to chime hourly, and continued to operate
efficiently until long after his death.

To read the rest of this post, visit The Udjat, the blog of the Center for the
Restoration of Ma'at by clicking the following link:
http://blog.centerformaat.com/2009/10/ancient-egyptian-symbols-basis-of.html

Metropolitan Museum to Return Artifact

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will return a piece of a red granite
naos of the 12th Dynasty king Amenemhat I to Egypt on Thursday. Egypt's Minister
of Culture, Farouk Hosni, announced the return Monday, adding that the piece was
purchased by the Museum from an antiquities collector in New York last October
in order to return it to Egypt.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities
(SCA) described this action by the Metropolitan Museum as "a great deed," as
this is the first time a museum has bought an object for the purpose of
returning it to its country of origin. This action, asserted Hawass, highlights
the deep cultural cooperation between the SCA and the Metropolitan Museum, as
well as the Met's devotion to return illegal antiquities to their homelands.

"It is also a kind gesture from the newly appointed Met director Thomas
Campbell," said Hawass.

Hawass relates the story of this object, which started last October when Dr.
Dorthea Arnold, the curator of the Egyptian section at the Metropolitan Museum,
wrote an official letter to Dr. Hawass, stating the Met's desire to offer Egypt
the piece. It is a part of the base of Amenemhat I's naos, the rest of the naos
is now in the Ptah temple of Karnak in Luxor.

The piece of the base was presented to the Metropolitan Museum by a collector in
New York, who claimed he bought it in the 1970s. Dr. Arnold discovered that the
granite fragment must join with the naos in Karnak, which scholars believe was
moved there during the New Kingdom.

An article with a drawing in the Annales de Service Vol. 3 and a photograph
taken in the early 20th century by French Egyptologist Georges Legrain show that
the naos base in Karnak has been missing its corner since at least 1902.  The
Met successfully negotiated with the owner of the piece for the transfer of the
naos corner to the Metropolitan Museum, which will in turn send it to Egypt.

The piece will arrive in Cairo on Thursday and it will undergo restoration in
order to return it to its original place in the naos in the Ptah temple at
Karnak.


http://www.drhawass.com/node/348

Officials at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art returned an artifact to the
Egyptian government on Thursday. The red granite fragment was on loan to the
museum from an unnamed private owner. As museum staff inspected the artifact,
which has never been displayed on the premises, they realized that the fragment
was the corner of the base of a shrine enclosure meant to contain the statue of
a deity. The shrine was dedicated to Amun, the chief deity of Karnak
(Ipet-Isut), by Amenemhat I.

Dorothea Arnold, the Chairman of the Museum's Egyptian Art Department recognized
the piece, "For a long time, I puzzled about the object to which this fragment
belonged. I finally pieced it together when I came across a photograph showing
the Naos in Karnak which is missing a corner in an article by Luc Gabolde in the
journal Egypt Afrique et Orient ... We decided that, in these circumstances, the
appropriate thing to do was to alert the Egyptian authorities and to make
arrangements with the owner so that we could return the fragment to Egypt." The
MET purchased the granite block, which was acquired last October on the
antiquities market, in order to repatriate it.

This was not the first time that the MET returned "ill-gotten" objects to Egypt.
8 years ago the museum returned a 19th dynasty relief displaying the head of a
goddess. The item was recognized by a Dutch Egyptologist, who had studied a
chapel dedicated to Seti I at Memphis (originally Men-Nefer). Similar to the
latest repatriated relief, the Seti I relief was purchased by the museum to
facilitate its return.

Most media outlets hailed the relief's return as a victory for Zahi Hawass, the
very visible head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Hawass has lead a
public battle to return many of Egypt's most noted artifacts on foreign soil,
including the Rosetta Stone (British Museum) and the disputed bust of Queen
Nefertiti (Neues Museum in Berlin). After refusing to return a golden burial
mask of a noblewoman, Hawass cut ties with the Saint Louis Art Museum. He next
lobbied France's Louvre to return 5 painted wall fragments. The Louve relented
after Hawass cut ties with the museum by halting their excavations and
cancelling a lecture by a former staff member. Hawass has still remained
"chilly" to France's Minister of Culture after the return of the items.

Regular readers of The Udjat should know that I am certainly no fan of Zahi
Hawass (read one of my posts on the topic here). He has worked diligently to
deny the African origins of the Ancient Egyptians. I am also routinely annoyed
by his obligatory inclusion in virtually any documentary by the History Channel
on Kemet. He very seldom adds anything of value to the discussions. I must give
Hawass credit, however, for his dogged commitment to the return of Egypt's
ancient artifacts.

To read the rest of this post, visit The Udjat, the blog of the Center for the
Restoration of Ma'at by clicking the following link:
http://blog.centerformaat.com/2009/10/new-yorks-metropolitan-museum-of-art.html

New York Times:
In the Mediterranean, Killer Tsunamis From an Ancient Eruption

The massive eruption of the Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea more than 3,000
years ago produced killer waves that raced across hundreds of miles of the
Eastern Mediterranean to inundate the area that is now Israel and probably other
coastal sites, a team of scientists has found.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/science/03tsunami.html?th&emc=th

The diagonal lines mean that the rock has been damaged. The artist may be able
to see enough to guess at what was there.

--- In Ancient_Egypt_Group@yahoogroups.com, "AE" <archaic.egypt@...> wrote:
>
> Standards-9989
>
>
>
> This is a very small section of  The Davies Great Speos Inscription.
>
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_SnrkgXreYWA/SrwKzJjgiwI/AAAAAAAAAEM/sSyhGphuAz4/Glyph-sket\
ch.jpg
>
>
> If a researcher is working from a sketch of a hieroglyphic that no longer
exists, they will have to work for what that artist left behind.
>
> Here I am guessing the horizontal lines .. means strike through or "I can't
really be sure what this glyph is" ???
>
> While the line numbers are essential, horizontal lines can and should be
rendered to vertical lines if possible. It is a problem I never thought of
before when creating standards, but even the horizontal lines can be kept in
tact with a little additional lines in the program.
>
> What % of hieroglyphic text is written horizontally?
>
> The standard digital code would make research a snap, only if the Egyptology
community adopts it.
>
> ===========================================
>
> This is a hieroglyphic I have been told has a word that translates to
"Asiatic" .
>
> If every set of glyphs were given a 4 digit code assigned to it
>
> a)  The transcriber could create that glyph by typing it's number and
>
> b)  As each hieroglyphic source was typed into a data base, that digital code
would be placed in that file.
>
> Hypothetical a word took 3 glyphs 0157.0027.1002 (periods take the place of
spaces)
>
> If the standardized program read these numbers it would create the set of
glyphs.
>
> If a search for this word was placed in the standardized program, it could
search thousands of hieroglyphic sources that had been entered into the data
base and display the same word in it's context.
>
> To understand the meaning Egyptians applied to words, seeing it in the context
of different works would give more information as to what a set of hieroglyphics
actually meant to the Egyptians.
>
> If a word was thought to translate to the European word Asiatic and in a cross
reference it was found the same word was applied to an Egyptian's brother and in
another source, it was applied to another Egyptian's camel ... translators would
rethink what the word actually meant.
>
> If different translators looked at different sources of hieroglyphics and
determined that a set of glyphs held the European meaning, Asiatic, they could
cross reference their word with other sources which were believed to have that
meaning.
>
> How fast could one research for specific hieroglyphic text? Do a search on
Google and see their search program finding a word or a phrase in a couple
million web pages in a matter of seconds.
>
> Assigning each glyph a standard 4 digit number is the key to do a super search
on every hieroglyphic entered into a common data base.
>
> Creating a standard set of fonts for all glyphs is the key to placing all
transcribers on the same page and all future readers of hieroglyphics would have
the ability to recognize which glyph they were looking at.
>
>
>
> More about standard glyphs.. later
>
>
>
> ~
>

Austrian archaeologists make Babylonian find in Egypt

By Lisa Chapman

Austrian archaeologists have found a Babylonian seal in Egypt that confirms
contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos during the second millennium B.C.

Irene Forstner-Müller, the head of the Austrian Archaeological Institute's (ÖAI)
branch office in Cairo, said today (Thurs) the find had occurred at the site of
the ancient town of Avaris near what is today the city of Tell el-Dab'a in the
eastern Nile delta.

The Hyksos conquered Egypt and reigned there from 1640 to 1530 B.C.

She said a recently-discovered cuneiform tablet had led archaeologists to
suspect there had been contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos.

Forstner-Müller added that Manfred Bietak had begun archaeological research on
the period of Hyksos dominance at the remains of a Hyksos palace at Avaris in
1966.

She said ÖAI would open a museum at the Avaris site that the Egyptian government
and sponsors would fund to make the seal and other objects accessible to
tourists.

Forstner-Müller added Avaris would remain ÖAI's main project site in Egypt but
that ÖAI and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) were working together at a
site at Philae/Aswan and ÖAI and Berlin's Humboldt University were working
together at another in Luxor/Asasif.

Ephesos, Turkey, remained the site of ÖAI's so-called "flagship" project since
it had been important historically from the Copper Age to the time of the
Ottoman Empire, she said.

Austrian Times
http://www.austriantimes.at/news/Panorama/2009-10-29/17649/Austrian_archaeologis\
ts_make_Babylonian_find_in_Egypt

quote

These Egyptian myths are the earliest sources of what was to become
the Christian myth of the lost and redeemed Goddess. Although this
perennial story has been expunged from Christianity,it survived in
the form of fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty. As her name
suggests, Sleeping Beauty is an image of the psyche fallen asleep in
the world. The story portrays her as a princess cursed to sleep
forever, imprisoned in a dark castle surrounded by deep impenetrable
forest, but finally rescued by her lover, the hero prince.

unquote

In my humble position, I have come to believe the Helen of Troy (siren) was a
belief system called *Atenism (one higher power the Sun). The Trojans maintained
Atenism long after the Egyptian Amunist destroyed Atenism in Egypt for 200
hundred years, but the day came when Egypt and Troy would face each other in
battle. It had all to do with who's gods were more powerfull, the Sun
worshippers of Atenism and the Egyptian **Amunism. The Egyptians wanted to
destroy this out-post trading city of Troy...some Greeks were involved, I think
they were on the Egyptian side, but there  would be many Greeks who would be on
the Trojan (Helen of Troy) side as well, Homer wrote a story of the battle.

Egypt was represented through out the Mediterranean, she was the most
powerfull country of that era.


* Atenism one higher power...the Sun
**Amunism many gods

The Egyptians had 1,000 ships or more?

aper_el

the book; Jesus and the Lost Goddess, by Freke & Gandy

Hi Blair,

As the caption implys the Lost Goddess is *Sleeping Beauty from said book. And a
sense of timing of when Atenism faltered, in other words destroyed. But Atenism
in Troy didn't give up the ship when Atenism (the Sun) faltered in Egypt...they
were a thriving system under the one higher power of Atenism.

Troy was a city that Egypt supported, as their out-post that is untill they
wouldn't take Amunism back as their higher power. This caused a pain in the side
of Egypt who had ruled the Mediterranean for 2,000 years or more at that time.
EGYPT RULES...

Aper_el

*P.S. Sleeping Beauty is Nefertiti.



--- In Ancient_Egypt_Group@yahoogroups.com, Blair Parkinson <blair@...> wrote:
>
> just curious as to where the evidence is for this theory?  Do you have >
references?  From where did this quote come from?
>
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:50 PM, tom <aper_el@...> wrote:


  quote

These Egyptian myths are the earliest sources of what was to become
the Christian myth of the lost and redeemed Goddess. Although this
perennial story has been expunged from Christianity, it survived in
the form of fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty. As her name
suggests, Sleeping Beauty is an image of the psyche fallen asleep in
the world. The story portrays her as a princess cursed to sleep
forever, imprisoned in a dark castle surrounded by deep impenetrable
forest, but finally rescued by her lover, the hero prince.

  unquote

  In my humble position, I have come to believe the Helen of Troy (siren) was a
belief system called *Atenism (one higher power the Sun). The Trojans maintained
Atenism long after the Egyptian Amunist destroyed Atenism in Egypt for 200
hundred years, but the day came when Egypt and Troy would face each other in
battle. It had all to do with who's gods were more powerfull, the Sun
worshippers of Atenism and the Egyptian **Amunism. The Egyptians wanted to
destroy this out-post trading city of Troy...some Greeks were involved, I think
they were on the Egyptian side, but there would be many Greeks who would be on
the Trojan (Helen of Troy) side as well, Homer wrote a story of the battle.
> >
  Egypt was represented through out the Mediterranean, she was the most
powerfull country of that era.

  * Atenism one higher power...the Sun
  **Amunism many gods

  The Egyptians had 1,000 ships or more?

  aper_el
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Blair Parkinson
>
> Living Horus Designs
> livinghorus.com
>

Quote: Trojan War

The ancient Greeks traced their history to mythological events and their
genealogy to the gods and goddesses. Perhaps the most pivotal event in the early
history of ancient Greece was the Trojan War, which was started, according to
the ancient reports, (*by a conflict among the goddesses).

*Nefertiti was a higher power and god like...she was married to Akhenaten...She
was very beautifull and there is a bust of her in the German museum in Berlin.

Aper_el

NY Times November 17, 2009

A Case in Antiquities for `Finders Keepers'

By JOHN TIERNEY

Zahi Hawass regards the Rosetta Stone, like so much else, as stolen property
languishing in exile. "We own that stone," he told Al Jazeera, speaking as the
secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The British Museum does not agree — at least not yet. But never underestimate
Dr. Hawass when it comes to this sort of custody dispute. He has prevailed so
often in getting pieces returned to what he calls their "motherland" that museum
curators are scrambling to appease him.
Last month, after Dr. Hawass suspended the Louvre's excavation in Egypt, the
museum promptly returned the ancient fresco fragments he sought. Then the
Metropolitan Museum of Art made a pre-emptive display of its "appreciation" and
"deep respect" by buying a piece of a shrine from a private collector so that it
could be donated to Egypt.
Now an official from the Neues Museum in Berlin is headed to Egypt to discuss
Dr. Hawass's demand for its star attraction, a bust of Nefertiti.
These gestures may make immediate pragmatic sense for museum curators worried
about getting excavation permits and avoiding legal problems. But is this trend
ultimately good for archaeology?
Scientists and curators have generally supported the laws passed in recent
decades giving countries ownership of ancient "cultural property" discovered
within their borders. But these laws rest on a couple of highly debatable
assumptions: that artifacts should remain in whatever country they were found,
and that the best way to protect archaeological sites is to restrict the
international trade in antiquities.
In some cases, it makes aesthetic or archaeological sense to keep artifacts
grouped together where they were found, but it can also be risky to leave
everything in one place, particularly if the country is in turmoil or can't
afford to excavate or guard all its treasures. After the Metropolitan Museum was
pressured to hand over a collection called the Lydian Hoard, one of the most
valuable pieces was stolen several years ago from its new home in Turkey.
Restricting the export of artifacts hasn't ended their theft and looting any
more than the war on drugs has ended narcotics smuggling. Instead, the
restrictions promote the black market and discourage the kind of open research
that would benefit everyone except criminals.
Legitimate dealers, museums and private collectors have a financial incentive to
pay for expert excavation and analysis of artifacts, because that kind of
documentation makes the objects more valuable. A nation could maintain a public
registry of discoveries and require collectors to give scholars access to the
artifacts, but that can be accomplished without making everything the property
of the national government.
The timing of Dr. Hawass's current offensive, as my colleague Michael Kimmelman
reported, makes it look like retribution against the Westerners who helped
prevent an Egyptian from becoming the leader of Unesco, the United Nation's
cultural agency. But whatever the particular motivation, there is no doubt that
the cultural-property laws have turned archeological discoveries into political
weapons.
In his book "Who Owns Antiquity?", James Cuno argues that scholars have betrayed
their principles by acquiescing to politicians who have exploited antiquities to
legitimize themselves and their governments. Saddam Hussein was the most
blatant, turning Iraqi archeology museums into propaganda for himself as the
modern Nebuchadnezzar, but other leaders have been just as cynical in using
antiquities to bolster their claims of sovereignty.
Dr. Cuno advocates the revival of partage, the traditional system in which
archeologists digging in foreign countries would give some of their discoveries
to the host country and take others home. That way both sides benefit, and both
sides have incentives to recover antiquities before looters beat them to it. (To
debate this idea, go to nytimes.com/tierneylab .)
As the director of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dr. Cuno has his own obvious
motives for acquiring foreign antiquities, and he makes no apology for wanting
to display Middle Eastern statues to Midwesterners.
"It is in the nature of our species to connect and exchange," Dr. Cuno writes.
"And the result is a common culture in which we all have a stake. It is not, and
can never be, the property of one modern nation or another."
Some of the most culturally protectionist nations today, like Egypt, Italy and
Turkey, are trying to hoard treasures that couldn't have been created without
the inspiration provided by imported works of art. (Imagine the Renaissance
without the influence of "looted" Greek antiquities.) And the current political
rulers of those countries often have little in common culturally with the
creators of the artifacts they claim to own.
Dr. Hawass may consider the Rosetta Stone to be the property of his government
agency, but the modern state of Egypt didn't even exist when it was discovered
in 1799 (much less when it was inscribed in 196 B.C., during the Hellenistic
era). The land was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the local
historians were most interested in studying their Islamic heritage.
The inscribed stone fragment, which had been used as construction material at a
fort, didn't acquire any significance until it was noticed by Napoleon's
soldiers and examined by the scholars on the expedition.
When the French lost the war, they made a copy of the inscriptions before
surrendering the stone to the English victors, who returned it to the British
Museum. Eventually, two scholars, working separately in Britain and in France,
deciphered the hieroglyphics.
This all happened, of course, long before today's nationalistic retention laws
and the United Nations' Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. But
what if the Rosetta Stone were unearthed in modern times?
Were the Rosetta Stone to appear on the art market without the proper export
permits and documented provenance, Dr. Cuno says, a museum curator who acquired
it would risk international censure and possible criminal charges. Scholars
would shun it because policies at the leading archeological journals would
forbid the publication of its text.
"Not being acquired or published, the Rosetta Stone would be a mere curiosity,"
Dr. Cuno writes. "Egyptology as we know it would not exist, and modern Egyptians
would not know to claim it as theirs."
The Supreme Council of Antiquities wouldn't even know what it was missing.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17tier.html?th&emc=th

quote:

In other words, Orthodox Christianity is no more monotheist than Hinduism; and,
in fact, the Hindu Faith expressed the idea of the Trinity-of-Godhead long, long
before Christianity came upon the scene. Then, of course, there was the
Matriarchal Pagan Triple Goddess—also well before Christianity.



And, too, there were the Ancient Egyptians whose highly stylized—yet spiritually
mutable—religion is illustrated in a hymn quoted by the Authors:



Three are all the gods, Amon, Ra, Ptah;
there are none like them. Hidden in his name as Amon,
he is Ra, his body is Ptah. He is manifested in Amon, with Ra and Ptah,the three
united.

aper_el

Ancient Egyptian theology changed over the centuries. In the New Kingdom, Amun
took on a "monotheizing tendency" - the priests of Amun claimed, at times, that
all other Gods were aspects of Amun. This pre-dated Akhenaten.

This was not strict monotheism, it took Akhenaten to come up with that.

But other priesthoods, and earlier periods of Egypt, were more highly
polytheistic.


--- In Ancient_Egypt_Group@yahoogroups.com, "tom" <aper_el@...> wrote:
>
> quote:
>
> In other words, Orthodox Christianity is no more monotheist than Hinduism;
and, in fact, the Hindu Faith expressed the idea of the Trinity-of-Godhead long,
long before Christianity came upon the scene. Then, of course, there was the
Matriarchal Pagan Triple Goddess—also well before Christianity.
>
>
>
> And, too, there were the Ancient Egyptians whose highly stylized—yet
spiritually mutable—religion is illustrated in a hymn quoted by the Authors:
>
>
>
> Three are all the gods, Amon, Ra, Ptah;
> there are none like them. Hidden in his name as Amon,
> he is Ra, his body is Ptah. He is manifested in Amon, with Ra and Ptah,the
three united.
>
> aper_el
>

Dear Ancient_Egypt_Group group,
David Rohl's special TV program 'Pharaohs & Kings: A Biblical Quest' was
released again last September, but with only a few copies.
You can order both 'Pharaohs & Kings' and the David Rohl 'Myth or Reality'
seminar (shot in Florida) here:
http://stretchproductions.com/RohlProducts.html
David Rohl video SAMPLES in the center of the page:
http://www.youtube.com/StretchProductions
(Also, if you order one of these DVDs, there is a special 3rd DVD
available on 'Eden' - just write to me and ask me about it, at stretch @
swbell.net)
   There is still time to get this to you before Christmas!
-Cami McCraw

Egypt is the father of western religion

I remember in church where one of the crowd stated god is father, son and the
holy ghost in one...that threw a spanner into my belief system...this is where
the rubber hits the pavement. I was troubled by the power of words, if you are
easily led certain words will lead you down the road of the inability to think
for yourself.

This goes to show how the ancient power of religion in Egypt is still alive and
drilled into minds of the willing. People are educated just enough today to
realise they don't need the excess baggage religion has to offer.

aper_el


--- In Ancient_Egypt_Group@yahoogroups.com, "tom" <aper_el@...> wrote:
>
> quote:
>
> In other words, Orthodox Christianity is no more monotheist than Hinduism;
and, in fact, the Hindu Faith expressed the idea of the Trinity-of-Godhead long,
long before Christianity came upon the scene. Then, of course, there was the
Matriarchal Pagan Triple Goddess—also well before Christianity.
>
>
>
> And, too, there were the Ancient Egyptians whose highly stylized—yet
spiritually mutable—religion is illustrated in a hymn quoted by the Authors:
>
>
>
> Three are all the gods, Amon, Ra, Ptah;
> there are none like them. Hidden in his name as Amon,
> he is Ra, his body is Ptah. He is manifested in Amon, with Ra and Ptah,the
three united.
>
> aper_el
>