Egypt

Weekly Websites

Examination of the Gayer-Anderson Cat

The Gayer-Anderson cat is one of the best known objects in the British Museum collection, but until recently it had not been studied by the Museum’s scientists. In 2007 the cat was X-rayed, analysed and carefully examined under a microscope. This produced a range of results, some expected and some far more surprising.

By studying the surface and taking X-rays, which were then magnified, Museum scientists discovered small square features all over the body. These are metal ‘core-pins’ or ‘chaplets’ and show the cat was produced using a process called lost-wax casting.

Using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scientists have been able to find out what the cat is made from.

2007 Toronto Scholars' Colloquium , 2 and 4 Nov 2007

On the 2 and 4 November 2007 more than one hundred people, scholars from several countries, students and lay people with an interest in the civilization of ancient Egypt got together to attend a series of presentations by professional egyptologists who made known their latest original research on a number of very interesting topics. The event took place in the Museum´s large and very comfortable auditorium which has a huge movie theatre kind of screen and the latest technology to make any kind of projection equipment available to the speakers.

Geology of the Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uweinat

There doesn't appear to be a home page to intoduce this site, by Norbert Brügge (Dipl-Geol), which sometimes happens with the AOL Hometown hosted sites, but don't be put off. If you are interested in the geology of this area then this site has a colossal amount of information to impart, all aggregated in one place. I have not seen anything elsewhere which provides such useful information about the geology and geomorphology of the area. Use the links at the top of the page to navigate between clearly marked pages. There are excellent photographs and diagrams which help to explain the processes and features described in the text.

Karanis: An Egyptian town in Roman times

This web site is an on-line version of the 1983 Kelsey Museum of Archaeology exhibition catalogue of the same name by Elaine K. Gazda. For the purposes of the electronic version, text has been abridged and some illustrations omitted; full text and illustrations can be found in the print version of the catalogue, which is still available for purchase from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (Go to Kelsey Museum Publications).

The site is divided into the following sections:

Karanis in perspective
The rural economy
Domestic life
The temples and the gods
Biblopgraphy

Geotourism: Egypt's Secret Treasure

This article dates to over a year ago, and was published in September 2006. It is in PDF format, with a number of photos.

"There is no country which possesses so many wonders." So said the Roman Heroditus when he visited Egypt in 420BC, confirming that Egypt has been a magnet for tourists for thousands of years. For the earth scientist, however, there are wonderful treasures to be found in the constantly changing shapes, colours, landscapes and rocks of the desert areas surrounding Cairo and the Nile Valley.

- Egyptology Websites
Thanks very much to Kat Newkirk for pointing out two websites which might be of interest to blog visitors. If anyone else wants to point out sites that they think may be of interest to other visitors to the blog, please let me know. An Introduction...

- Weekly Websites - Faiyum Part 2
New Kingdom The New Kingdom is something of a black hole in the Faiyum. During the Middle Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period the Faiyum's vast lake was at around 20m above sea level but research has suggested that for a 200 period between 3100...

- Making Room For History In Michigan
The Michigan Daily The floorboards creak, the olive walls are worn and there's a radiator in every room. The building has been around 116 years, and there are plenty signs of aging in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology on State Street. Tucked away between...

- Book Review - The Gayer-anderson Cat
Thanks to Kat Newkirk for sharing her review of the book with me, and granting permission to publish it on this blog: The Gayer-Anderson Cat by Neal Spencer, British Museum Press, c. 2007 This slim little book, part of the British Museum's 'Objects...

- New Book: Atlas Of Cultural And Environmental Change In Arid Africa
Heinrich Barth Institut Bookshop I don't know exactly when during the year this book was released, but it was new to me at Poznan in early July. The Atlas of Cultural and Environmental Change in Arid Africa is edited by Ofaf Bubenzer, Andreas Bolten...

Egypt