Weekly Websites
The Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project with Film Footage
Egypt Journey 2003Scots Egyptologist and archaeologist, Ian Mathieson, has made remarkable discoveries in more than a decade of work as director of the Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project. In 1990 he was awarded a concession from the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt to survey and excavate the burial ground of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. Situated 25 kilometres south-west of Cairo, the area is next to the Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty. This revolutionary use of the latest techniques of scientific survey is revealing the world of ancient Egypt long lost beneath the desert sands.
In 2002 Glasgow Museums became the Scottish sponsor of the project, which had first been supported by the National Museums of Scotland. The Friends of Glasgow Museums have generously contributed towards the costs of the project. The Saqqara
Geophysical Survey Project is also supported by the Wainwright Fund (Oxford), the Russell Trust, and private and corporate donors. . . .
You can view film footage of the survey and excavation work at Saqqara by downloading the files on the right hand side of this page or the links below. File sizes range from 8MB to 16MB. The files are best viewed in QuickTime viewer, and you can download this software for free by following the link to Apple's website. As the files are large, it may take several minutes for them to display and play. This will depend on the speed of your internet connection.
Saqqara movie 1, excavation, with sound (QuickTime file, file size 11MB)
Saqqara movie 2, surveying, with sound (QuickTime file, file size 8MB)
Saqqara movie 3, surveying, with sound (QuickTime file, file size 16MB)
Saqqara movie 4, surveying, with sound (QuickTime file, file size 16MB)
Travel blog about a journey taken in 2003 - far more detailed and informative than most online travelogues that I know of.
Here's the gist of it:
the plan: notes and ruminations on the early stages of planning the trip as well as some notes on general travel issues in Egypt.
itinerary: our itinerary, with links to photos, the travelogue, and historical notes, as well as some alternate itineraries for shorter (or longer!) trips. Includes sites and lists of must-see's.
photos: annotated photographs and historic details for the sites we visited. Lots of
them. An embarassing amount, actually.
travelogue: A day-by-day narrative of the trip (often odd, but linked to photos and other notes). A bit long, and probably best taken in small doses.
costs: the details of the expenditures for this trip
info: general info, including average temperatures, tourist offices, embassies, and other useful tidbits
books: reviews of the many guidebooks that I've bought, and recommendations for those with less of an urge to buy books by the foot.
history: condensed cultural and historical information about Egypt and egyptian cities, linked to a complete gazeetter of pharaohs from the first dynasty to the last, all linked to the sites and photos.
The tomb of Hetepheres
Dr Steven Snape covered the tomb of Hetepheres on the first day of the Tombs with a View course at Bloomsbury (of which more later). The artefacts recovered from this strange tomb were in very decayed condition, but were painstakingly reconstructed using Reisner's precise and detailed photographs and illustrations which showed the exact relationship between remaining parts of individual furnishings. The above page shows some of those artefacts
Thanks very much to Michael Tilgner and Heiko Vesala:
Hieroglyphic text: Urk. IV, 315-355 on Etana
Hieroglyphic text, transcription and German translation on Sachmet.ch
For sources of other AE texts see EEF's dedicated page and the AEL Texts pages.
Temple of Dendur
Thanks to Kat for the link to the link to the book by Aylward M. Blackman, (Le Caire, Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale), 1911. It can be downloaded in pdf format as three separate files, which has been done to reduce download times.
- Online Publication: Excavation In Egypt At Tell El-balamun
British Museum The fourth volume in the series of final reports for this project is entitled Excavations at Tell el-Balamun 2003 – 2008. It is available to download here in PDF format. The file is low-resolution for on-screen viewing. Users who want...
- Ten Years Of Eef Email Traffic
Congratulations and thanks to Aayko Emya and his team of contributors for all their hard work on the archive at the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum. Here's Aayko's email to the EEF group: The forum's archives (sorted by topic) have been...
- New Url For Saqqara/imhotep Story
A few days ago I posted an extract from a piece that appeared on the Sunday Post website about Ian Matheson's hopes for the discovery of the tomb of Imhotep. Unfortunately, the original URL for this story has now expired. However Chris Townsend has...
- Close To Finding Imhotep At Saqqara?
The original URL for this story has now expired (Sunday Post). However Chris Townsend has pointed out that another web page is now available with this story: http://rense.com/general79/imhotep.htm Unfortunately, expiring URLs are a hazard of blogging,...
- Seven-mile Ceremonial Burial Route Located
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1929852005m "Ian Mathieson, 78, director of Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project, has located part of a seven-mile ceremonial burial route to the Step Pyramid of Djoser, near Cairo. . . . Mr Mathieson, a former civil...