ESI News

2007-11-22T21:46:00.000Z

Ancient Egypt - what is the fascination?

What is it about Ancient Egypt that has fascinated us down through the years and continues to do so today? You don’t need to be a history buff or a student of ancient world to be intrigued and captivated by this ancient civilisation. Since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankamun by Howard Carter in 1927 the world has been griped by the power of Egyptomania ever since. Little did Carter know at the time how profound an effect his discovery would have on everyone during the subsequent years! Ancient Egypt would not longer be just the domain of academics and interested scholars but thanks to the mass media circus that followed the discovery everyone now wanted a piece of the action and were drawn in by the sheer magic and mystery of this ancient world.

Sure enough, everyone is intrigued by the discovery of ancient treasures and this was the first time such tomb found in tact. Tombs and burial chambers had been discovered before but all too frequently tomb robbers had made the initial discovery and had cleaned out all the valuables in advance. But it was not just the fascination with the treasures and works of art, important though it is, that is the fascination here but the whole range of questions that also began to be unearthed. Who were these people? What did they believe in and why was this civilisation so advanced at the time?

These are the questions that many explorers and academics had been wrestling with pre Howard Carter. Herodotus the Greek historian as far back as circa 450 BC was fascinated by the monuments he saw there when he visited this land. In more recent times during the great empire building period of the 18th and 19th centuries, explorers and adventurers from Britain, France and Italy plundered Egyptian sites to be the first to exhibit these newly discovered marvels in places like London and Paris. The race to claim these monuments by the major powers in many ways reflected the colonial race to claim new territories at the time. Irrespective of the ethical arguments in relation to this period, the net result was that vast collections of Egyptian artefacts now found there way to Western Europe and one has only to visit such institutions as the British Museum or the Louvre to view these collections first hand. Carter’s discovery therefore culminated in an ever increasing interest, built up over time. However a major factor in projecting Egypt to centre stage was the growing importance and power of the media. Newspapers and newsreel carried news of the latest discoveries and excavations to an ever eager public and soon this was not lost on the advertisers who wasted no opportunity of using Egyptian imagery on everything from chocolate to soap. Brand “Egypt” was suddenly flavour of the month and would remain so for a long time to come. Hollywood also played its part with many epic movies which helped fuel the passion.

Finally as air travel became more accessible many of us wanted to view these wonders first hand for ourselves and needless to say, many including myself, got totally hooked and Ancient Egypt has become a major interest since then. And what of today? Well recent discoveries are again in the headlines – the opening up of tomb KV5 in the Valley of the Kings, the largest tomb ever discovered there and the discovery of Queen Hatshepsut’s mummy earlier this year has again fascinated the world. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as Pharaoh in her own right prior to Tutankhamen’s reign but for reasons unknown all monuments related to her were destroyed following her death. We await further developments as Egyptologists carry out various tests to learn more information.

You may be surprised to know that Ireland has its own society devoted to Ancient Egypt founded in 1987. David Breslin who founded the ESI is still involved in running “the Egyptological Society of Ireland” today. You can visit my website to find out more about the ESI and read some of the articles published there if you get a chance.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~ancientegyptfan/index.html

2007-11-21T23:48:00.000Z

You expect to find mummies in Egypt and in the British Museum but are there any mummies in Ireland?

http://homepage.eircom.net/~ancientegyptfan/MummiesIreland.mht

The Princess Scota - daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh in Ireland circa 3,500BC - could this be true?

http://homepage.eircom.net/~ancientegyptfan/PrincessScota.mht

2007-11-21T00:20:00.000Z

Tutankhamun Exhibition at O2 Arena in Docklands London

More than 130 treasures from the Valley of the Kings - all of them between 3,000 and 3,500 years old - are showcased in the exhibition, which runs until August 2008.

> More than 325,000 tickets have already been sold or reserved for the exhibition

> Over 1.6 million people visited the last exhibition in 1972.
> Tutankamun’s tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
> The boy king was only 18 years old when he died.

2007-11-12T23:53:00.000Z

Mummification

Ancient Egypt is a source of fascination for many people and if you ask most people to list some features which interest them, mummification will come high on the list. Why is this? Well most of us no doubt will admit to a morbid side to ourselves that is fascinated with death because it is a process that we will all experience at some point in the future. Indeed death and mummification forms a central theme in many books, stories and horror films, where our imagination can run riot. The recent films The Mummy and The Mummy's Return are examples of this, but how accurate do such films and stories portray this ancient art? The short answer to this question is not very and we are back to imagination again and the demand for entertainment at the expense of an accurate account of ancient customs. This poetic license is fine as far as it goes but what about those of us who want a more accurate account of what this procedure involved? Well not to worry because there are many accurate accounts recorded by such notable Greek historians as Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus.
In many ways it is difficult for us to look at the whole question of life and death and to see it in the same context as the Egyptians did. We have to try and discard for the duration our own more recent Judeo/Christian beliefs to get to the truth as they saw it and this is not an easy exercise you will agree.
Not everyone in ancient times was given the option of being mummified. Only these close to the Pharaoh or those wealthy enough to be in a position to pay for this lavish treatment were considered. It was a mark of a person's esteem as to how he could provide for his own afterlife.
The standard period of embalming lasted seventy days in all. Firstly, the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines were removed and placed in separate vessels called canopic jars.

From left to right
Duamutef the jackal-headed god, guarded the stomach.
Qebehsenuef the falcon-headed god looked after the intestines.
Hapy the ape-headed god protected the lungs.
Imsety the human-headed god guarded the liver.
Originally all organs were placed in one jar but this practice changed after the 4th Dynasty. The heart was the only organ to be left within the body, contrary to popular belief as it was considered to be the seat of reason, emotion, memory and personality as we attribute to the brain today. Dry natron was then used on the body, both internally and externally for forty days, after which the body was washed, packed with linen and resin and finally wrapped with linen bandages. These constitute the main elements of mummification but there were slight variations introduced depending on the era we are talking about. For example during the Middle Kingdom the brain was extracted through the nose, and again depending on the era facial features were adorned by funerary masks in earlier times as opposed to painted wooden panels Faiyum portraits during the Roman period. When Egyptian society converted to the Coptic Christian religion, mummification began to be associated with the old pagan ways and was finally denounced.

Anubis
Anubis the jackal-headed deity the watcher of graveyards and conductor of souls was the god of mummification. He was able to restore life to the murdered body of Osiris by embalming his corpse and wrapping it in linen. Osiris was the god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.
As well as fulfilling the needs of the Egyptians as regards belief, duty and ritual, mummification has had some positive spin off value to our own society today. Thanks to this ancient procedure, we are now able, with the aid of modern techniques and equipment, to observe these mummified corpses and to learn a great deal about the way they lived, the state of their health, how they tried to combat diseases and many other interesting facts. This in the end can only help to increase our store of knowledge and put us in a better position to try and understand more fully this great civilisation.

2007-11-11T23:57:00.000Z

Egyptological Society of Ireland (ESI)

We are a small society founded in 1987 consisting of about 50 members who are interested in all things connected with Ancient Egypt. We hold six meetings throughout the year and produce a Newsletter every two months for our members. We have members in many parts of the world as far away as USA, Netherlands and Germany as well as in Ireland itself. Members contribute articles to our newsletter as well as helping out with lectures and slid shows.
From time to time we invite visiting lecturers to Ireland and we organise public talks on various topics connected with Ancient Egypt. David Breslin our current Secretary/Treasurer was a founder member and has always had a great passion for Ancient Egyptian history.

2007-11-11T23:28:00.000Z

Animal Welfare in Luxor

I would like to draw your attention to a website I visited recently where Animal Welfare of Luxor (AWOL) is doing some great work in educating local people in Luxor on animal welfare. As well as trying to encourage local people to take better care of their animals, the group also look after all animals brought to their centre including dogs, cats, working donkeys and other animals in need. I’m sure anyone who has visited Egypt in the past will appreciate the good work been undertaken here. There website is http://www.awol-egypt.org/ and you can see for yourself the work in hand and their plans for the future. Maybe you may wish to help out a small donation.

2006-02-20T22:08:00.000Z

Egyptology News

This is a good link to find out all the latest developments in Ancient Egypt.

2006-02-16T16:57:00.000Z

Just to say hello - to get this blog rolling so to speak.
Hope to write the odd piece on history, Ancient Egypt and anything else that takes my fancy!

If you are interested in Ancient Egypt and the Irish connection, this link will give you some information.

Bye the way this is Seti my blog mascot.

VarneyTheVampire