Tomb Security in Ancient Egypt: How and Why Did the Egyptians Protect Their Tombs?

When I was young, i wanted to be an Egyptologist..well, I still do..and may well do it once I grow up...

but in the interim, this paper was a fascinating overview of how the egyptian tomb security system evolved to safeguard their contents. Didnt quite work, did it? as with walls and computer security defences, its a never ending fight.

Protecting the dead from abuse is an ancient human instinct but Egypt raised this concern to levels never seen before or since. Tomb robbery is well attested in Egypt from the earliest times and it becomes obvious when looking at the architecture of the Egyptian tomb that physical measures were soon taken to prevent it. This begs several questions: Why did the Egyptians expend such effort in defending their tombs? How did they protect them? And what influence did this have on the design of the tomb?

Public Mass Modern Education, Religion, and Human Capital in Twentieth-Century Egypt

People faff around with educational systems at their peril because the impact of even minor changes are felt 2-3 generations ahead. But people dont listen and as the quote goes, fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

See this example from Egypt

Abstract

Public mass modern education was a major pillar of state-led development in the post-Colonial period. I examine the impact of Egypt's transformation in 1951–1953 of traditional elementary schools (kuttabs) into modern primary schools on the Christian-Muslim educational and occupational differentials, which were in favor of Christians. The reform granted kuttabs' graduates (where Muslim students were over-represented) access to higher stages of education that were previously confined to primary schools' graduates. Exploiting the variation in exposure to the reform across cohorts and districts of birth among males in 1986, I find that the reform benefited Muslims but not Christians.

What Europe is suffering from is the result of generalizing education among all levels of society… they have no chance of avoiding what happened [Europe's 1848 revolutions]. So if this is an example in front of us, our duty is simply to teach them how to read and write to a certain limit in order to encourage satisfactory work and not to spread education beyond that point.

Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt (1805–1848), in a private letter to his son, Ibrahim Pasha (in Judith Cochran 1986, p. 6)

Education is like the water we drink and the air we breathe.

Taha Hussein, Egyptian liberal intellectual and Egypt's Minister of Education (1950–1952)

The poor go to heaven, but can't they have a share on Earth too? They are willing to give up a share in heaven in exchange for a share on Earth.

Gamal Abdul-Nasser, President of Egypt (1956–1970) (Excerpt from a public speech)

Pillows for a King

All that you wanted to know about headrests..most fascinating story behind this amazing piece of bedroom furniture, click here.

A Headrest is made in a variety of materials, unique in shape, form and meaning and is considered strange to modern society. Discoveries of headrests in many tombs and burials would first answer the query of use with the fact that using one was considered essential to everyday life, sleeping well and most every ancient household possessed one. Naturally taken into the tomb at death, little is known of Middle Eastern and Egyptian bedroom furnishings with the exception of bedsteads and sleeping mats. Sitting and sleeping took place mostly on the floor on a reed mat or linen sheets and on a higher elevation or roof with the necessity for catching the night breeze, especially under one’s neck. Simple headrests were made of perishable woods like sycamore, tamarisk or acacia, and were very simplistic in design. Materials such as earthenware, stone and ivory were also used. The early headrests appear to be a simplistic columnar style with solid block pedestals and a curved end for the head. Stone headrests were not uncommon and thought to be made solely for use in the afterlife and a tomb object only due the durability of the hard material perhaps not intended for everyday use.

The Mystery of Mummy Paper

I had heard about this before. That mummies were used to make paper but this is the first time I'm seeing something more concrete. If this was done, then it's shocking no? In rider haggard 'a She, mummified bodies were used as torches! Life imitating art eh? 
Curious
Hope you're having fun with your friends Kannu
And best of luck with the exam today Diya. 
Love
Baba



The Mystery of Mummy Paper
http://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/the-mystery-of-mummy-paper
(via Instapaper)

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Paper. We grab a scrap to jot down a phone number, we see movie posters, exchange greeting cards, hold paper books in our hands. We come in contact with so much paper, it's hard to keep track, and this is during a so-called "digital age" when we should be immersed in a nearly paperless world. And yet, it continues to be necessary, wanted, and part of the fabric of our routines and desires.
Imagine now, a world in which we need paper even more, for nearly everything. From communication to profit, paper is necessary. It's basically the internet of the day, and the civilized world finds itself in desperate need and facing a real shortage. Enter: Mummy Paper!
Mummy Paper is the stuff of legends, much like the mummies it was supposedly torn from. American paper, made from cotton and linen rag fiber, became in short supply due to the huge newspaper boom. The rags, imported from Europe for the most part, were not sufficient to feed the newspaper industry properly.
The man on a mission to save the newspaper industry and locate a new source for linen rags was Dr. Isaiah Deck, who was a geologist, archeologist, and explorer. Visiting Egypt on another task, he discovered "Mummy pits" which were large burial sites full of mummies and parts of mummies, all wrapped in linen. He crunched some numbers and reasoned that there must be at least five hundred million mummies in and around Egypt, and the amount of linen they might provide would be substantial.
This is where fact and fiction part ways, and no one can truly tell what did or did not happen with any amount of certainty.
There are some specific primary sources that give the idea of importing and using mummy rags to make paper some credibility. Daniel Stanwood, son of I. Augustus Stanwood, communicates that his father told stories of importing mummies from Egypt and using the wrappings to make paper in his mills. There is also a letter from a Mrs. John Ramsey who had a father, who had a friend, who remembered unrolling the mummies, and that the "cocoon" used to resemble the human form, even after it had been stripped away, because it had been in that shape for so long.

The strange case of a Nazi who became an Israeli hitman

This made me gape. Such an amazing story. While I read commando comics when I was a boy about world war 2 special forces soldiers, Otto was a real life special forces man. And I knew about his exploits in that theatre. 
But his exploits after the war not so much. And when I read this article I was gobsmacked. What a fascinating man. Totally walking beyond  where normal soldiers walk. So amazing. And also the related story is about how Mossad protected Israel. You need the 007's. Wet work is required. Some acts are done by the state which can be plausibly denied. 
Fascinating story kids. 
Love
Baba



The strange case of a Nazi who became an Israeli hitman - Israel News
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.711115
(via Instapaper)

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On September 11, 1962, a German scientist vanished. The basic facts were simple: Heinz Krug had been at his office, and he never came home.
The only other salient detail known to police in Munich was that Krug commuted to Cairo frequently. He was one of dozens of Nazi rocket experts who had been hired by Egypt to develop advanced weapons for that country.
HaBoker, a now defunct Israeli newspaper, surprisingly claimed to have the explanation: The Egyptians kidnapped Krug to prevent him from doing business with Israel.

But that somewhat clumsy leak was an attempt by Israel to divert investigators from digging too deeply into the case — not that they ever would have found the 49-year-old scientist.
We can now report — based on interviews with former Mossad officers and with Israelis who have access to the Mossad's archived secrets from half a century ago — that Krug was murdered as part of an Israeli espionage plot to intimidate the German scientists working for Egypt.
Moreover, the most astounding revelation is the Mossad agent who fired the fatal gunshots: Otto Skorzeny, one of the Israeli spy agency's most valuable assets, was a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS and one of Adolf Hitler's personal favorites among the party's commando leaders. The Führer, in fact, awarded Skorzeny the army's most prestigious medal, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, for leading the rescue operation that plucked his friend Benito Mussolini out from the hands of his captors.

But that was then. By 1962, according to our sources — who spoke only on the promise that they not be identified — Skorzeny had a different employer. The story of how that came to be is one of the most important untold tales in the archives of the Mossad, the agency whose full name, translated from Hebrew, is "The Institute for Intelligence and Special Missions."

Otto Skorzeny with the liberated Mussolini – 12 September 1943.Wikimedia Commons /Toni Schneiders

the questions to ask every day

lovely quote on the net. I am sure the book of the dead will have more to say about this, but...

You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions.  Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not.  
‘Have you found joy in your life?’ 
‘Has your life brought joy to others?’

once you boil it down to this formulation, then life is good. And why wait for the end of your life? just think of this at the end of every day...if not, why not? 

Did Saladin destroy the Fatimid Libraries?

last year, I came across a fascinating paper. The paper said that there is a belief in the middle east that Saladin destroyed the Fatimid Dynastic libraries. Saladin is a famous character and he is best known for how he tweaked Richard's nose.

But his story is fascinating, not least because of the reactions. Cairenes who are educated and know a bit about their history hate him. Why? because he took the wealth of Cairo and took it off to Damascus...but this was worse...when he conquered Cairo, he apparently destroyed the Fatimid Libraries.

I didnt know that there was a library in the first place! You always associate Egypt with the Library of Alexandria, not something in Cairo!

check out this link. The numbers look a bit OTT but suffice to say that there were 40 rooms full of books, manuscripts, documents, papers and the like. FOURTY rooms full of amazing stuff.

As it so happens, the paper, Did alā al-Dīn Destroy the Fatimids' Books? An Historiographical Enquiry by FOZIA BORA published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society July 2014, pp 1 - 19, takes us through a fascinating story about how the collection wasnt actually destroyed but sold on. Let me quote a little bit from the paper which made me really wince and cry.

Abu Sh  ̄ ama’s informant describes the collections that fell into S  ̄ .alah ̄. al-D ̄ın’s
34 and then reconstructs related events as follows:
1171,
1. Qad ̄. ̄ı al-Fad ̄.il, a lover of books, was allowed to survey the collections and take ‘a great quantity’ of them.
2. S.alah ̄. al-D ̄ın cut off the bindings from many of the rest that were in a good condition, to sell or re-use the leather, and threw the unbound contents into a lake.
3. Other volumes were sold to the public,35 over a period of ten years.
4. When news of the books in the lake became common knowledge, ‘people’ recovered
those, too, because ‘[books] are revered items’.
5. Much of the corpus that was initially discarded was thereby preserved, and this is how
‘that which we have [today] was attained’.

Bloody Kurd, the second point made me furious - how he ripped off the bindings! just to sell the sodding leather, but it gladdened my heart to read about how the Cairenes felt that the books are revered items. do not think that this has stopped, look at this story from recent times. So sodding painful to see. May their groins be infested with camel lice and may their arms be too short to scratch.

that said, dont forget the Lavon affair, when the Israeli's bombed the libraries in Cairo.



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

On "world's oldest papyrus"

This is a long but very interesting story kids. I'll let you read this in peace when you get a chance. Yesterday Diya and I went for a great time at the Wallace collection. Diya loved the landscapes and the food paintings. She shared the photos. We had a nice time wandering around the museum. It's one of my favourite small museums. Had some very cute stuff as well as some really lovely paintings. 

Anyway, what's so interesting about this article son is how it Sheds light on how an entire country was mobilised to build the pyramids. You have to go there once. It's an extraordinary place. The sheer scale is monumental. Completely blows your mind. It's just the years and years of work with millions of people working their hearts out. Stupendous. And then they found papyrus?!!!  

I'm going to explore archeology next time after finishing this study course. Maybe underwater archeology. That way I can kill two birds with one stone on diving and archeology. Anyway. I'm now day dreaming. 

Have a lovely week. Kannu best of luck with your new term. Missing you already :) 

Love

Baba

Begin forwarded message:

From: Agade@listserv.unc.edu

Date: 4 October 2015 at 22:56:45 BST

To: "The Agade mailing list." <agade@listserv.unc.edu>

Subject: [agade] FEATURES: On "world's oldest papyrus"

Reply-To: "Sasson, Jack M" <jack.m.sasson@Vanderbilt.Edu>

From < http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-egypt-shipping-mining-farming-economy-pyramids-180956619/>:

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The World's Oldest Papyrus and What It Can Tell Us About the Great Pyramids

Ancient Egyptians leveraged a massive shipping, mining and farming economy to propel their civilization forward

Alexander Stille

Following notes written by an English traveler in the early 19th century and two French pilots in the 1950s, Pierre Tallet made a stunning discovery: a set of 30 caves honeycombed into limestone hills but sealed up and hidden from view in a remote part of the Egyptian desert, a few miles inland from the Red Sea, far from any city, ancient or modern. During his first digging season, in 2011, he established that the caves had served as a kind of boat storage depot during the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, about 4,600 years ago. Then, in 2013, during his third digging season, he came upon something quite unexpected: entire rolls of papyrus, some a few feet long and still relatively intact, written in hieroglyphics as well as hieratic, the cursive script the ancient Egyptians used for everyday communication. Tallet realized that he was dealing with the oldest known papyri in the world.

The beauty of palm leaf manuscripts (3): storage and preservation

As I've mentioned to you earlier kids, we have three old old manuscripts. Not exactly a full library which will need retrieval eh?

But information retrieval is very important these days. If you do computer science, one of the first things they will teach you is to how to do information retrieval and searches. In a variety of areas, you need to know how to categorise information so that you can retrieve it easily. There's no point in having information and not being able to get to it.

Think about it. People Google for information but they have forgotten that Google also filters and arranges information. So for example if I'm looking for a film or museum opening hours, yes Google is fine. But if I'm looking for say information relating to film or collections, I'm not going to start there. That's where Google scholar comes in. Or science direct or other search engines where more detailed and particular information is served up to you.

SEO. search engine optimisation is an entirely newish field where your content is served up. More efficiently.

But here we hark back to an older age where we have Palm leaf manuscripts. How do you store them? One of my ladies, Hypathia, who I've spoken about before, worked in the library of Alexandria. Can you imagine trying to retrieve a scroll from those towering cupboards? Difficult eh?

Love

Baba

The beauty of palm leaf manuscripts (3): storage and preservation - Asian and African studies blog
http://.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-african/2015/02/the-beauty-of-palm-leaf-manuscripts-3-storage-and-preservation.html?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=feedburner
(via Instapaper)

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In my two previous posts on this topic, I looked at palm leaf manuscripts from central Thailand and the northern Thai regions. In this final post on the beauty of palm leaf manuscripts in Tai manuscript cultures, I will take a closer look at traditional retrieval aids, and storage and preservation methods. Some temple libraries held large numbers of manuscripts which were stored in specially made furniture. Due to the fact that many manuscripts were wrapped in a piece of cloth, and the title or contents were rarely mentioned on the front leaf or front cover of a manuscript, quick retrieval of a particular manuscript was only possible if certain finding aids and methods were in place. For example, the manuscripts could be arranged in a systematic order within one cabinet, and several cabinets could be placed in a systematic order in the library building. One important finding aid was the title indicator. A title indicator, which could constitute a beautiful little work of art itself, was attached to a rope, and the rope was wound around the manuscript.    

Wooden title indicator covered with black lacquer, and text incised in Tham script on gold background. Lanna, 19th century. British Library, Or.16555. Acquired from Dr Henry Ginsburg’s bequest, in memory of Dr Henry Ginsburg.

Title indicators made from wood or bamboo were important means of identifying manuscripts when these were stored together in large numbers in wooden cabinets. The length of a title indicator could range from 100 to 400 mm. Bamboo and wooden indicators were often simple strips with the title and list of contents of the manuscript incised or written on, but sometimes wooden and ivory indicators could be carved with beautiful floral ornaments. Often they were lacquered red or black and decorated with gold leaf before the text was incised.    

Two wooden title indicators covered with red lacquer, with text incised in Tham script on a gold background. Lanna, 19th century. British Library, Or.14528-9.

Old Cairo: the Capital of Faith

I think I've mentioned this. From couple of years back, there are more people living in urban areas than in rural areas. So it's going to be interesting to see how they grow and develop. Middle Eastern cities have such a long history. Damascus is considered to be the oldest city going back 7k years. Read the book on Jerusalem by montefiori. Fascinating layers of history. Same with Cairo. It's a fairly young city comparatively. But it has several layers to it. It has the ancient Egyptian one. It has the Greco Roman layer. It has the fatimid Shia layer. It has the Sunni layer. It has the Jewish layer now sadly almost totally vanished. And then the Christian layer. Christianity spread out from Israel and took deep roots in Ethiopia and Egypt. They are some of the oldest churches in the world. And one that I haven't seen to my regret. But then again there's so much to see there. It's on my bucket list :)

Love

Baba

Old Cairo: the Capital of Faith
http://www.cairoscene.com/viewArticle.aspx?Aid=125076-Old-Cairo-the-Capital-of-Faith-ahmed-seddik
(via Instapaper )

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The genesis of Coptic Cairo is a story of life and light. The stars of the story appear in the Bible and in the Quran. Thanks to its exceptional location, you may explore the sophistication of every treasure at your leisure with pleasure beyond measure. There is an exuberant mix of mystic and domestic architecture in a hearty harmless harmonious fashion.

Once upon a tower, around the seat of power, in the fortress of Babylon, the Babylon of Egypt, a house worthy of worship was founded in the name of Virgin Mary. The Hanging Church of Virgin Mary, the most beautiful in Egypt, is still suspended in time and space on the remains of the southern gate of the Roman fortress. As people congregate at the gate that is ornate to promulgate the message, they read above the entrance: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. We ascend to the church through a flight of steps that led western pilgrims to call it the Church of the Steps. Before we climb, to the left we see a modern mesmerising mosaic relating the old story of the miracle of moving the Muqattam mountain.

Algerian War

Son

You know that I hate wars. It's a spectacular waste of intelligence and human resources. The uk has invaded more than 180 countries and what do we have to show for it? Mouldering graves in all those countries of young men and their families? 

Wars have very long memories son. They don't end when the peace treaty is signed. And have seriously bad repercussions for decades and centuries afterwards. Think about Thermopylae. It still excites emotions. How about the battles of panipat? Or of Vienna? Or the Golden Horde and Moscow? Or or or. 

This is another example of how imperialism has cast a very long shadow over so many people and generations. France has suffered hugely because of its imperialism, the fourth republic fell because of this, civil wars happened. 

Tocqueville praised how Algeria was taken over. This man praised the quality of American democracy and wasn't able to look at Algeria in the Same way. We got you his book for your 18th birthday son. Read it. 

Then the fight between Algeria and Egypt. It boils over every now and then, over football recently. But look at the history, Egypt helped Algeria regain it's independence and paid for it by having France invade it. Again! Poor Egypt keeps getting its teeth kicked in. 

But Algeria is still suffering from what the French did. 

And the Berber Arab fight in the Maghreb goes back to what the Muslims did when they expanded their empire. So on and so forth. Wars are crap. Hate them. They ruin lives societies not only when they are raging but for generations afterwards. We allowed the irAq war to happen son but you will keep on suffering the repercussions of that idiotic war for decades. 

Read and weep for a tragic violent pathetic horrible war where hardly anybody came out smelling like roses. 

Love

Baba

Algerian War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War

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The Algerian War, also known as theAlgerian War of Independence or theAlgerian Revolution(Arabic: الثورة الجزائرية‎Ath-Thawra Al-Jazā’iriyya; French:Guerre d'Algérie, "Algerian War") was a war betweenFrance and theAlgerianindependence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An importantdecolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare,maquis fighting, terrorism, the use of torture by both sides, and counter-terrorism operations. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerians believing in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian Muslimcounterparts.^[5] Effectively started by members of the National Liberation Front(FLN) on November 1, 1954, during the Toussaint Rouge ("Red All Saints' Day"), the conflict shook the foundations of the French Fourth Republic (1946–58) and led to its eventual collapse. In 1961, president Charles de Gaulledecided to give up Algeria—which was up to then regarded as an integral part of France—after conducting a referendum showing huge support for Algerian independence. The planned withdrawal led to a state crisis, to variousassassination attempts on de Gaulle, and some attempts of military coups. Most of the former were carried out by the Organisation de l'armée secrète(OAS), an underground organization formed mainly from French military personnel supporting a French Algeria, which committed a large number of bombings and murders in both Algeria and the homeland to stop the planned independence.

the migration of Citron

While studying the destruction of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians, I came across an interesting mention of India. Citron was imported from India to Ancient Persia / Babylon and from there it came to Jerusalem. And then I bumped into those in Sicily. Here’s the wiki entry. Some interesting factoids…

The citron could also be native to India where it borders on Burma, in valleys at the foot of theHimalayas, and in the Indian Western Ghats.^[23][24] It is thought that by the time of Theophrastus, the citron was mostly cultivated in the Persian Gulf on its way to the Mediterranean basin, where it was cultivated during the later centuries in different areas as described by Erich Isaac.^[25]Many mention the role of Alexander the Great and his armies as they attacked Persia and what is today Pakistan, as being responsible for the spread of the citron westward, reaching the European countries such as Macedonia and Italy.^{[26] The citron is mentioned in the Torah as being required for ritual use during the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40). According to this tradition, the Jews brought it back to Israel from their exile in Egypt, where the Egyptologist and archaeologist Victor Loret claimed to have identified it depicted on the walls of the botanical garden at the Karnak Temple, which dates back to the time of Thutmosis III, approximately 3,000 years ago.[27]}

how fascinating, eh? I love this fruit, delicious….and a commentary by Theophrastus..

In the east and south there are special plants... i.e. in Media and Persia there are many types of fruit, between them there is a fruit called Median or Persian Apple. The tree has a leaf similar to and almost identical with that of the andrachn (Arbutus andrachne L.), but has thorns like those of the apios (the wild pear, Pyrus amygdaliformis Vill.) or the firethorn, Cotoneaster pyracantha Spach.), except that they are white, smooth, sharp and strong.

Spines of the Firethorn.

The fruit is not eaten, but is very fragrant, as is also the leaf of the tree; and the fruit is put among clothes, it keeps them from being moth-eaten. It is also useful when one has drunk deadly poison, for when it is administered in wine; it upsets thestomach and brings up the poison. It is also useful to improve the breath, for if one boils the inner part of the fruit in a dish or squeezes it into the mouth in some other medium, it makes the breath more pleasant.

The seed is removed from the fruit and sown in the spring in carefully tilled beds, and it is watered every fourth or fifth day. As soon the plant is strong it is transplanted, also in the spring, to a soft, well watered site, where the soil is not very fine, for it prefers such places.

And it bears its fruit at all seasons, for when some have gathered, the flower of the others is on the tree and is ripening others. Of the flowers I have said^[30] those that have a sort of distaff [meaning the pistil] projecting from the middle are fertile, while those that do not have this are sterile. It is also sown, like date palms, in pots punctured with holes.

This tree, as has been remarked, grows in Media and Persia.

So for friends in Europe and USA, when you are squeezing a lemon on yourself or on your dishes, remember the antecedents of this lovely little fruit.

Discoveries At Teotihuacan's Pyramid Of The Moon Help Unlock Mysteries Of Western Hemisphere's First Major Metropolis

Kids

I visited these pyramids last nov. and have posted a photo essay so check it out if you can. 

Funny comparisons with the Giza and Saqqara pyramids in Egypt. . Both are old but I was more familiar with the Egyptian ones as we know more about them. I could stand there and imagine the ordinary Egyptians walking living eating loving there. 

But in Mexico it was a different feeling. First nothing. I couldn't hear anything. Not a peep. Yes you could feel the antiquity and feeling of old age but no sense of the people who lived and died there. I usually employ a trick at these old mouldy buildings. Sit and close your eyes, try to tune out the current noises and feel the stones talk to you son. Think of it as your attempt to be so silent that a butterfly lands on you. Then the ancients talk to you. 

It moved me. That kind of an experience changes lives :) I hope you will also experience what I did in saqqara. 

But fascinating. Giant structures and no idea if the people who made these. 

Love

Baba. 

Discoveries At  Pyramid Of The Moon Help Unlock Mysteries Of Western Hemisphere's First Major Metropolis
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/09/990921071513.htm

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Sep. 21, 1999 — An unexpected set of new discoveries in the ongoing excavation beneath the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan may provide critical clues in reconstructing a 2,000-year old history still mysteriously missing from the ruins of the ancient master-planned metropolis, located 25 miles from current Mexico City.

Announced today, the latest discovery at the site is a tomb apparently made to dedicate the fifth phase of construction of the pyramid, containing four human skeletons, animal bones, large conch shells, jewelry, obsidian blades and a wide variety of other offerings. Excavation is expected to continue for another two weeks.

Found by a team of archaeologists led by Saburo Sugiyama, associate professor at Aichi Prefectural University in Japan and adjunct faculty at Arizona State University, and Ruben Cabrera of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, the burial contains important evidence that may help archaeologists define and examine a particularly active period in Teotihuacan’s history and perhaps one of the culture’s “defining moments.”

The Revolution That Wasn’t

Kannu

Here's an excellent overview of the train crash disaster that is Egypt. Let me lay my opinion up front. The brotherhood presidency was bad but overthrowing it has really made a bad situation worse. A liberal democracy does not happen overnight. Look at India. It took years. It made many mistakes. But it's a good country. Same with the uk and USA. Some common themes. Enlightened leaders. Rule of law. Freedom of speech. Army under control. Free media. Religion firmly kicked in the balls and controlled. Good institutions. Free judiciary. But egypt keeps on making mistakes and keeps on being stupid. What? 5 revolutions in the past century? 

The army is the biggest problem. Second problem is the religion and the religious leaders. Third is the judiciary. And and and. Thousands have now died and now it's back to what it was few years back. Disgruntled Islamists. Army in command. Economy fucked up. Population in distress. 

The solution is clear but the Egyptians don't have patience. Heck the Egyptians laughed at Pakistan and there's an Egyptian quote which said that they don't want to become Pakistan. But with the democratic transition in Pakistan, Egypt will do worse. They would be lucky to be like Pakistan. I do not have a good prognosis about Egypt. Another decade of decay beckons. 

Love

Baba

LRB · Hugh Roberts · The Revolution That Wasn’t
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n17/hugh-roberts/the-revolution-that-wasnt

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Hugh Roberts

• The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life by Roger Owen
  Harvard, 248 pp, £18.95, May 2012, ISBN 978 0 674 06583 3
• Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria by Joshua Stacher
  Stanford, 221 pp, £22.50, April 2012, ISBN 978 0 8047 8063 6
• Raging against the Machine: Political Opposition under Authoritarianism in Egypt by Holger Albrecht
  Syracuse, 248 pp, £25.00, October 2012, ISBN 978 0 8156 3320 4
• BuySoldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt byHazem Kandil
  Verso, 303 pp, £16.99, November 2012, ISBN 978 1 84467 961 4

Western opinion has had difficulty working out what to think, or at any rate what to say, about Egypt. It now seems that the pedlars of hallucinations have been cowed and it is no longer fashionable to describe the events of 3 July in Cairo as a ‘second revolution’. But to describe them as a counter-revolution, while indisputably more accurate, presupposes that there was a revolution in the first place. The bulk of Western media commentary seems still to be wedded to this notion. That what the media called ‘the Arab spring’ was a succession of revolutions became orthodoxy very quickly. Egypt was indispensable to the idea of an ‘Arab spring’ and so it had to have had a revolution too.

Why Tunisia's Islamist Party Agreed to Give Up Power

There are four fascinating political experiments going on son, in the Islamic governing political economic spheres. Like in Iran, turkey, Egypt and Tunisia. Mind you, pretty much all Muslim countries are constantly struggling with democracy, rule of law and the role of Islam. But these 4 are the furthest advanced. Iran has had the longest history of constitutionalism going back almost 100 years. Turkey started even earlier but stuttered. Egypt frankly started and has now gone back even further. Tunisia seems to be the most advanced and if I had to put money down, I would say that Tunisia will reach civilisation the earliest compared to the others. Despite the issues they are facing with assassinations and demonstrations. It's an urbanised society so the usual rural obscurantist structures are avoided. Mind you, the Bahrain example is the counter example for urbanism. Then again the gulf Arabs are particularly well noted to be a bunch of weirdass morons. There's a very good reason why Allah decided to emerge his religion in the gulf. Imagine what they would have been without it when you see what they have done up till now with it. 

But politics is this. The spirit of consensus and compromise. And religion usually doesn't allow you to do so hence the utmost importance of having a secular structure son. 

I'm hoping Tunisia can show the way to how a liberal consensus driven democratic society with some elements of Islam can be part of this modern world son. Turkey went a bit too far with the secularism so it's trying to get back into balance. Iran went totally the other way with religiously driven politics. And well you know the utter mess Egypt is in. 

So interesting days ahead to watch how Tunisia is going to play out.

Love

Baba

Rory McCarthy | Why Tunisia's Islamist Party Agreed to Give Up Power | Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/letters-from/lets-make-a-deal

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Three years after the popular uprising that brought down President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, demonstrations, sit-ins, and strikes have become part of daily life in Tunisia. Railway workers, customs officers, and doctors went on strike earlier this month over changes to their working conditions; next month, taxi drivers will begin an open-ended sit-in to protest rising fuel prices. Politics often seem hopelessly polarized, with Islamists led by the political party Ennahda pitted against their secular opponents in parliament in a manner not unlike Egypt’s bloody rivalries. And the assassinations of two prominent liberal politicians, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, by Islamist militants earlier this year brought public anger against Ennahda into the streets, as many Tunisians blamed the Islamists for a soft embrace of extremist groups. It appeared that Tunisia — whose largely functional democratic transition has set it apart from the other Arab Spring countries — would no longer avoid the violence that has undermined the other revolutions and uprisings across the Middle East.

But for the first time in a long time, the political class has reached an accord. On December 14, after weeks of broken promises and missed deadlines, Tunisia’s rival political parties finally agreed on a deal to dissolve the Ennahda-led government and create an interim administration led by a compromise prime minister. If all goes according to plan, Mehdi Jomaa, who had previously served as minister of industry, will lead a caretaker government of technocrats until elections can be held next year, most likely after the summer. It’s further confirmation that, despite their ideological differences, Tunisia’s Islamists and secularists are perfectly capable of cooperating. It’s also another sign of pragmatism from the Islamists, who in October 2011 swept the first elections after the fall of Ben Ali. Now Ennahda, an Islamist force that sees itself as both a grassroots movement and a political party, has agreed to bow to the demands of its critics and give up power.

Why would you want to repair your hymen 5 times?

This news story is just erm bordering on the off the wtfness scale so many times like its a demented bottle fly banging its head against a window.

I quote the last bit which also completely bewildered me.

Possibly the most interesting thing about both of these websites is that they feature bundle offers—at hymenshop.com, you can get five artificial hymens for $114.95; athymenshop.net, you can get five of them for $103. I’m honestly trying to envision the situation that would call for five artificial hymens—I haven’t had any success yet. It could be a good device in a grim yet devastatingly entertaining farce by Pedro Almodóvar.

Orality, Writing and the Image in the Maqamat: Arabic Illustrated Books in Context

This was one of the most interesting articles about an antiquarian book that I have read. This is about a book called as Maqamat of al Hariri, going back to the 13th century, by which time Islam had well established for 2 centuries and Islamic traditions were moving from the violence to the cultured. So this book had elements of art, rhetoric, Islamic jurisprudence, dramatics, legal disputes, charity, painting, politics, etc. etc. It was popular across the world, at least the Islamic World. The book has a series of chapters, each chapter about how a man preaches amazingly on a particular topic and then gets quite a lot of alms and charity and then is exposed as a charlatan. I quote

The pattern established in the first story remains relatively unchanged throughout the text: each new episode is narrated by al-Harith, who witnesses a masterpiece of eloquence by an old or a young man, a woman, a poet, a storyteller, an orator, a person able to read the stars, to resolve grammatical problems, to pronounce authoritatively on legal issues, and so on.⁵ All of them turn out to be one and the same Abu Zayd, whose performance earns him a generous reward, after which al-Harith discovers the subterfuge; in most cases, he goes on to confront Abu Zayd before both characters part.

What I found amusing was this part.

Besides a solid educational background, the owners of illustrated versions of the work must have boasted some degree of material wealth and deemed pictorial representation acceptable, at least in private, like many people in society appear to have done. In this era, figural art was being deployed on an unprecedented scale in manuscripts, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, statues and figurines, particularly in Iran, Iraq and Syria.³⁰ This phenomenon was, needless to say, not to the liking of all. ‘The angels will not enter a house in which there is a dog or an image’, a well-known religious saying asserted.³¹ An equally widespread hadith warned that ‘on the Day of Judgement, those who make images (al-musawwirun) will be punished most severely by God’, with some versions adding that they ‘will be called upon to breathe life into what they have created, but they will not succeed’.³²

the recent arguments about the Mohammad Cartoons is evidence that so many people still have their heads up the backside of some fundo view of the world. As can be seen, rebellion against this senseless stricture was pretty much widespread across the world and since the beginning. And this is also why accusations of hypocrisy is widespread. I again quote

Such vehement proscriptions did not reverse the societal trends which they implicitly denounced, but one consequence may have been that figural art was generally reserved for private consumption. There is little direct evidence to support this idea, apart from fact that the objects bearing such images were of a private rather than public nature. But it seems likely on the basis of context. The enclosed space of urban homes and their inner courtyards were sheltered from outside interferences by Islamic law. This applied even to houses in which the owners gave themselves over to such unlawful activities as music and drinking, so long as the sound or odour did not blatantly reach outside their walls.³⁵ Theological injunctions against images and legal protection from zealous intrusion thus appear as two sides of the same coin, reflecting a reality in which the norms of religious orthodoxy were plainly ignored by many.

Bah!

but thankfully as the author says, these wonderfully illustrated books came down history for us to see and admire.

and what’s this???are they kissing? :P

the full photographs, journals and diaries of the King Tut expedition

I just stumbled upon this site. Amazing.

 

On November 5th 1922, Howard Carter wrote in his pocket diary: 'Discovered tomb under tomb of Ramsses VI investigated same & found seals intact.' The subsequent excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun captured the public imagination. The complete records were deposited in the Griffith Institute Archive shortly after Carter's death.

Our aim in publishing this material online is to provide an essential resource for scholars, school children and interested adults alike. This demanding project has taken 15 years and has been directed by Dr Jaromir Malek, the former Keeper of the Archive.

Tut's comet

Kids

This is such a fascinating story. It weaves astronomy, archaeology, history, Egyptology, and astronomy along with chemistry. 

Comet remains not found anywhere else other than in this piece and that too in king tut's brooch? 

Amazing story
Can you imagine the ancient Egyptians standing and looking up at the comets blazing across the sky and thinking what kind of a message the gods are sending them? 

Love

Baba

 

From <http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/09012013/article/brooch-of-tutankhamun-holds-evidence-of-ancient-comet>:
[Go there for pix]
===============================================
Brooch of Tutankhamun Holds Evidence of Ancient Comet
Tue, Oct 08, 2013
Even more, scientists confirm first-ever finding of a fragment of the
comet's core.
Most have heard of the treasures of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh
Tutankhamun, first discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in
1922 when they uncovered his tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
Few are familiar with his impeccably preserved brooch, recovered along
with the numerous other artifacts within the tomb. Fewer still know
about the striking yellow-brown scarab that is set at its center, and
that it is made of a yellow silica glass stone procured from the sand
of the Sahara and then shaped and polished by ancient craftsmen. The
silica glass was originally formed 28 million years ago, when an
ancient comet entered the earth's atmosphere and exploded over Egypt,
heating up the sand beneath it to a temperature of about 2,000 degrees
Celsius and resulting in the formation of a huge amount of the yellow
silica glass, which lies scattered over a 6,000 square kilometer area
in the Sahara.

Mystery Solved? A New Theory About Why Egypt Stopped Building Pyramids

Quite an interesting theory son. When I first saw the bent pyramid, I felt so sorry for it. It looks crooked, old, etc etc. specially after seeing the great pyramids and then the stepped pyramid, this one looks sad...

 

Love

Baba

Mystery Solved? A New Theory About Why Egypt Stopped Building Pyramids - Rebecca J. Rosen - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/mystery-solved-a-new-theory-about-why-egypt-stopped-building-pyramids/275738/

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Continue to the TheAtlantic.com

Advertisement

Is it possible they were too perfect?

Rebecca J. Rosen May 10 2013, 9:58 AM ET

STRUCTUREmag

When structural engineer Peter James arrived at the Bent Pyramid, 25 miles south* of Cairo, his task was to secure the structure’s remaining “cladding” — its smooth exterior envelope. But why was it crumbling in the first place?

The foundation seemed completely stable. The prevailing theory — that “the missing cladding was removed by local opportunist thieves” — didn’t inspire confidence: That could explain the destruction at the lower levels, but the damage extended far up the pyramid and “in an apparently random manner, with no signs of indentations from temporary scaffolding or of any symmetrical cutting of the blocks to aid removal,” James writes in STRUCTURE, a structural engineering trade publication. The damage just did not look like the result of thieves. Rather, as James puts it, it “appears to be caused by a giant whose hand has swept across the face of the pyramid with enormous energy, sucking out the facing and leaving the ragged empty sockets.
”

So what was causing the crumbling? James presents a new explanation: thermal movement — that is to say the expansion and contraction of the limestone with temperature fluctuations — has ground down the rocks and shifted their positions.

During the day, the temperature rises to 40°C (104°F) across the face of the outer casing, then at night cools to 3⁰C (37⁰F) because of the lack of cover and exposure to the prevailing winds. This gives an average daily temperature fluctuation of 37°C (67°F). The photographs of the Bent Pyramid show how thermal expansion has caused the blocks to move to the edges, where they have detached. It also shows how individual stones, unsupported, can cantilever and snap off and subsequently fall to the ground.


He estimates that the motion can amount to 1¼ inches per 328 feet. As the stones move, dust and sand would fall from the stones and fill in the spaces between them. The spaces into which they could contract at night would shrink, and over time they would be pushed out of position. “Multiply this endless movement by the number of days that the pyramid has been erected and you have the reason why all the outer casing has moved to the extremities, where it has buckled or displaced against blocks moving in the opposite direction and then fallen off,” James writes. “It may then have been picked up by opportunists and removed from the site.
”

The Bent Pyramid is one of the best preserved and, as a result, it provides a unique opportunity for studying how the crumbling is happening. James theorizes that the reason the Bent Pyramid retains its casing, while the Red Pyramid and the Great Pyramid “have virtually none” is that, ironically, the Bent Pyramid had worse construction to begin with. As the Egyptians became more skilled, and developed more accurate construction techniques, the voids between the stones disappeared, and the structures were less able to absorb the ebbs and flows of the limestone. The other, more perfect pyramids may have developed exterior cracks rather quickly, and, James hypothesizes, may be why eventually the Egyptians moved their burial grounds to the Valley of the Kings. The pyramids’ perfection became their imperfection; their smooth facades broken by the precision of their construction.