Knossos Palace Puzzles

04/08/2024

Fulfilled a long-held ambition of getting a look around KV34, the beautiful tomb of King Tuthmose IV today - and again had it all to myself for half an hour!

04/08/2024

British archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his wife Catherine at the moment of the discovery of pottery pipes that were used as a sewage and rainwater network in what is considered the first water drainage system in history before about 4000 BC. Ur (Mesopotamia) in 1930.

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04/08/2024

A well-preserved late Neolithic flint dagger found in Allensbach at the Lake Constance, southwest Germany, dating 2900-2800 BCE. The blade was made of flint from Monte Baldo in northern Italy. It was fastened with birch tar in a handle made of elderwood

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04/07/2024

First proof of beer production comes from period of Sumerians around 4000 BC. During an archeological excavation in Mesopotamia, a tablet was discovered that showed villagers drinking a beverage from a bowl with straws.

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04/07/2024

Cartonnage Mummy Mask

Gilded cartonnage mummy mask of Mareis, obsidian and limestone eyes cased in bronze (lost on left side). Greek text on forehead, painted funerary scenes on front and back.

Mummy masks of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods often had gilded faces that reflected the association of the deceased with the gods. Mummy masks are shaped like a face wearing the tripartite long wig which extends onto the chest. They were fitted over the mummy’s head, with the shoulders remaining bare.

Roman Period, ca. 20-40 AD. From Hawara, Faiyum. Now in the British Museum. EA21807

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04/07/2024

04/06/2024

Love and beauty in Luxor Temple 🇪🇬

04/06/2024

Roman Blue Glass Pitchers (3rd-4th Century AD), from Cologne, Germany.

Blue colored glass has been made since the very beginning of glass making. Most blue glass is given its color either from cobalt oxide or from copper oxide finely ground and added to the molten glass. Copper is a more delicate colorant than cobalt. It only requires a small amount of cobalt oxide to produce a deep rich blue.

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04/05/2024

Amber, yellow-brown, carved and polished in the form of a skull, containing several small inclusions, from La Pimienta Mine, near Simojovel, Chiapas, Southern Mexico. Date: (?)

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04/04/2024

Ivory painter’s palette with pigment and inscribed with the throne name of king Amenhotep III
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1390–1352 B.C.
From Thebes, Egypt. Now in the Met Museum, NYC. 26.7.1294

04/04/2024

Tomb of the Warrior king!
✨ Ramesses III ✨

- " KV11 " Valley of the King"s
- Luxor

📸 Egypt With Ahmed
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04/03/2024

The Crypta Neapolitana, an Ancient Roman Road Tunnel, originally built over 2000 years ago. It remained in use until its partial destruction during WW2.

04/03/2024

Head of a princess probably Meritaten

This yellow-brown quartzite head of a princess is probably Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten. It was excavated by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft in 1912 in a studio of the chief sculptor Thutmose at Tell el-Amarna.

The head is from a composite statue where different pieces were sculpted separately and joined together. The skull is elongated and the features include protruding eyes, thick lips, and large ears. The style belongs to the middle period between the early Amarna style with its exaggerated deformation and the later return to convention.

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, Amarna Period, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353-1336 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 44869

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04/03/2024

Roman bird-shaped glass vessels were used as perfume bottles. The liquid was sealed inside the vessels and the tip of the tail had to be broken to remove the perfume. The one in the bottom picture (dated to the 1st century CE) is still intact and filled with the scented content

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04/02/2024

Afternoon obsession: this little-known Late Period votive statuette of a goddess, found near the sacred lake of the temple of Hathor at Dendera in 1918 and now @ the Egyptian Museum, Cairo 🤩

04/02/2024

Then vs Now :

House Of Neptune and Amphitrite Herculaneum, Italy.

When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it buried not only city of Pompeii, but a number of other nearby towns as well. One of them was Herculaneum.

Among many houses in Herculaneum is a relatively small, but richly decorated town house, called House of Neptune Mosaic, which must have belonged to a wealthy family.

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04/02/2024

A 19th century illustration of the Dendera zodiac, a bas-relief on the ceiling of the Hathor temple at Dendera in Egypt. It is the only complete map of the ancient skies to have survived.

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03/28/2024

Statue of Ptahshepses as a Scribe

Ptahshepses in this statue is portrayed as a scribe sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. He has a partly unrolled papyrus on his knees, a common “reading scribe” posture in Ancient Egypt. A heart-shaped amulet hangs around his neck with a counterpoise at the back. The head of Ptahshepses is inclined gently toward the unrolled papyrus on his lap to read the text facing him.

The inscription on the base of the statue gives the name and titles of Ptahshepses as “The Honoured One, the priest Ptahshepses.” The papyrus on his lap contains two lines of inscription written in black.

Ptahshepses was the vizier and son-in-law of the 5th Dynasty king Nyuserre Ini. As such he was one of the most distinguished members of the royal court. Ptahshepses’ mastaba complex in Abusir is considered by many to be the most extensive and architecturally unique non-royal tomb of the Old Kingdom.

Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, ca. 2494-2345 BC. Painted limestone, from Saqqara necropolis. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. CG 83

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03/28/2024

An old Tower of Silence in Iran. Zoroastrians believe that earth is a holy element, and thus do not pollute it by burying. Instead, they place their dead bodies in a tower of silence, allowing vultures to consume the corpses.

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03/28/2024

A bear body made from clay with a bear skull in between its paws, made during the Upper Paleolithic (between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago) and found in the Montespan cave in France. Riddled with holes from spear points, it was possibly used to teach hunting, or perhaps used for a ritual

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03/28/2024

The Complete Egyptian Religious Calendar for the year 2024: the most comprehensive publication of the lists of the festivities of the Egyptian Religious Tradition (dated for the year 2024). A practical application of the Egyptian Religious Calendar for the current age.

What’s new in this edition:

In this edition you will find, for the first time, the list of the Chronokratores and the Presiding Deities of the days of the year from the top frieze of the Outer Vestibule, also known as the Offering Hall, of the Temple of Horus at Edfu.
Contents:

- Preface
- The Egyptian Religious Calendar
- The Calendars of Ancient Egypt
- The Civil Calendar
- The presiding Deities and the Chronokratores of the days of the year
- The Sothis-based Lunar Calendar
- The Lunar months
- The Deities of the days of the Lunar month, the names of the days of the Lunar month, and their presiding Deities
- Favorable and adverse days
- Sources
- Egyptian Religious Calendar for the year 2024
- Notes
- Bibliography

The sources used to reconstruct the Egyptian Religious Calendar and for the dating of the sacred festivities are:

– the “Cairo Calendar n. 86637”
– the “Sallier papyrus IV”
– the “Budge papyrus”
– the list of the religious celebrations dated to the Middle Kingdom

And the lists of the sacred festivities from the Temples’ religious calendars:

– the religious calendar of King Thutmosis III from Ipet-Sut-Karnak
– the Temple of King Thutmosis III at Elephantine
– the Temple of King Ramses II at Abydos
– the Temple of Millions of Years of King Ramses III at West Uaset-Thebes (“Medinet Habu”)
– the Temple of Horus at Edfu
– the Temple of Hathor at Dendera
– the Double Temple of Haroeris and Sobek at Ombos (“Kom Ombo”)
– the Temple of Neith and Khnum at Esna

— Egyptian Religious Calendar 2024: 424th-425th Great Year of Ra, by Luigi Tripani

03/27/2024

A 4,500-year-old Egyptian dress was painstakingly reassembled from approximately 7,000 beads found in an undisturbed tomb in Giza, Egypt. The dress is thought to have belonged to a female contemporary of King Khufu (2589-2566 BC). While the original strings had disintegrated over the years, the beads were still in their original position, allowing for an accurate reconstruction. Although the color of the beads had faded, they were originally blue and turquoise. Initially believed to have been worn for a dancing ritual, the dress"s heavy weight suggests that it may have been used during funerals, according to archaeologists.

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