Following George Reisner’s discovery (in 1925) and meticulous excavation of the Tomb of Queen Hetepheres I at Giza, William Arnold Stewart was engaged by Reisner to reconstruct the furniture (‘the carrying-chair, the bed, the arm-chair, the jewel- box, and the…
The world’s most comprehensive collection devoted to ancient Egyptian civilisation has opened its doors in full. Tony Field reflects on his visit to the new museum in Giza.
FROM THE HUDSON TO THE NILE: DOWS DUNHAM AND THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF EGYPT AND SUDAN This exhibition explores Dows Dunham’s pioneering fieldwork in Egypt and Sudan, including excavations at Giza, Gebel Barkal, and Nuri, and the discovery of the Tomb…
The long-delayed official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum finally took place on 1 November, after a decade of announcements and postponements. The lavishly staged opening ceremony featured music and dance, speeches by top officials and cultural figures, and was…
• A German-Egyptian ScanPyramids team has discovered two previously unknown air-filled cavities in the Pyramid of Menkaura at Giza, which might suggest the presence of a second entrance on the eastern side of the monument. • Research published in the…
An unusually lifelike piece of sculpture, supposedly depicting an important Old Kingdom official, is analysed by Campbell Price.
Julian Heath pays tribute to one the world’s greatest Egyptologists.
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS This new British Museum publication explores the lives of the ancient Egyptians through objects held in the museum’s extensive Egyptology collection. Having first explained the basics (geography, the dynasty system, historical evidence, and the role of…
Dr Campbell Price describes the unique statuette of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina (USA), using remote sensing and other geophysical methods, have identified sections of an extinct branch of the Nile which flowed close to the line of Old and Middle Kingdom pyramids between Giza and…
SCULPTED PORTRAITS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT Sculpted Portraits explores revival and renewal during Egypt’s Twenty-sixth Dynasty, through a series of sculpted portraits of court officials and priests, created for display in tombs and temples. The artefacts at the exhibition are on…
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
• Akhenaten: the battle for Egyptian identity
• Surgery in ancient Egypt
• Pyramid Man: Charles Piazzi Smyth
• Cleopatra III: the female king
• Carter’s rare linen ‘bag-tunic’
• The sidelock of youth: the significance of a curious hairstyle
• A journey through Sudan: the royal road to Meroë
HORIZON OF KHUFU: JOURNEY TO ANCIENT EGYPT An immersive expedition to explore the Great Pyramid of Giza, including spaces previously closed to the public, followed by a trip 4,500 years back in time to attend the funeral of King Khufu.…
When was this curious hairstyle used and what was its significance?
The lion-shaped Great Sphinx at Giza may have been shaped by wind erosion, according to new research from New York University. Laboratory experiments suggest that sphinx-like shapes can form naturally when clay is subjected to a fast-flowing stream of water,…
A new virtual-reality experience in London transports visitors to the Great Pyramid of Giza, allowing them to explore its interior and immerse themselves in the world of ancient Egypt. Carly Hilts tried it for herself.
For the first time in nearly a century, these famous Old Kingdom bracelets were scientifically analysed by an international team led by Macquarie University in Sydney, with surprising results, as Karin Sowada explains.
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith attends the ‘soft opening’ of Giza’s new blockbuster museum.
Analysis of the silver bracelets belonging to the Fourth Dynasty queen Hetepheres I has revealed the origins of the silver ore used in Egypt, and the extent of Egypt’s trading networks. A team led by researchers from Macquarie University in…
REVIEW BY CATHIE BRYAN Harvard-based Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian examines the life, career, and legacy of George Reisner (1867-1942), and considers his place in Egyptological and archaeological history. He argues that Reisner’s contribution ‘cannot be overstated’, and is not sufficiently…
The international ScanPyramids team has published a paper revealing more details about one of the voids discovered in the Pyramid of Khufu in 2016/2017 (see ‘News’, AE 93). Several large anomalies were discovered after the pyramid was bombarded with radiographic…
Do you recognise where in Egypt this photograph was taken?
How did Egypt build the pyramids? It is a question that has excited the imagination of scholars and visitors for millennia. Now papyri documenting work on the Great Pyramid are revealing fresh insights into construction work. Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner told Matthew Symonds how combining text and archaeology can expose the secrets of an extraordinary building project.
What Lehner’s team found was a far-flung complex of houses, storage galleries, kitchens, dormitories, and offices. The ‘Lost City of the Pyramid Builders’ saw light.
The British Museum said that it would continue to use the word ‘mummy’, but would use the name of the mummified person wherever this was known
Having learnt Arabic, Hilda would hire and pay their workers. She slept in a hut at Tarkhan with 80 skulls by her bed, living off canned pilchards and bully beef.
The study suggests that the existence of a Nile branch during the Old Kingdom allowed the Egyptians to transport heavy stone blocks by water close to where these monuments were built.
Review by Miroslav Bárta. The Old Kingdom papyri count among the rarest of finds. For several decades, the Abusir papyri archives from the pyramid complexes of the Fifth Dynasty kings Neferirkare and Nyuserre and queen-mother Khentkaus were among the earliest…
Review by Aidan Dodson. In 2013, a remarkable discovery was made at the site of Wadi el-Jarf on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. It comprised a group of papyri, which not only proved to be the oldest inscribed examples of…
The ancient Egyptian necropolis at Giza is one of the most celebrated archaeological sites in the world. Although the iconic pyramids dominating the plateau continue to excite awe and curiosity, these royal tombs are only one aspect of an extraordinary site. A new book reveals how the rich and poor, and the living and dead, rubbed shoulders at Giza, as Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass told CWA's Matthew Symonds.
This cigar box, containing several wooden splinters that make up a piece of cedar discovered in the Great Pyramid of Giza, was recently found in the University of Aberdeen’s collections.
A missing piece of wood, one of the three objects collected from the Great Pyramid of Giza by engineer Waynman Dixon in 1872, has been rediscovered in a cigar box in the University of Aberdeen’s museum collection. Two of the…
In December 2019, a small fragment of cedar, which had been missing for more than 70 years, was rediscovered within the collections of the University of Aberdeen. The fragment may, at first glance, seem unprepossessing, except for the fact that…
The sheer scale of Khufu’s Great Pyramid is breathtaking, but there is more to this audacious monument than immediately meets the eye, as Matthew Symonds recalls.
Measuring 105cm high, this is the first granite Ka statue to be discovered.