The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids PDF Download

Author: Mark Lehner
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500777020
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
The inside story, told by excavators of the extraordinary discovery of the world’s oldest papyri, revealing how Egyptian King Khufu’s men built the Great Pyramid at Giza. Pierre Tallet’s discovery of the Red Sea Scrolls—the world’s oldest surviving written documents—in 2013 was one of the most remarkable moments in the history of Egyptology. These papyri, written some 4,600 years ago, and combined with Mark Lehner’s research, changed what we thought we knew about the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Here, for the first time, the world-renowned Egyptologists Tallet and Lehner give us the definitive account of this astounding discovery. The story begins with Tallet’s hunt for hieroglyphic rock inscriptions in the Sinai Peninsula and leads up to the discovery of the papyri, the diary of Inspector Merer, who oversaw workers in the reign of Pharaoh Khufu in Wadi el-Jarf, the site of an ancient harbor on the Red Sea. The translation of the papyri reveals how the stones of the Great Pyramid ended up in Giza. Combined with Lehner’s excavations of the harbor at the pyramid construction site the Red Sea Papyri have greatly advanced our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians were able to build monuments that survive to this day. Tallet and Lehner narrate this thrilling discovery and explore how the building of the pyramids helped create a unified state, propelling Egyptian civilization forward. This lavishly illustrated book captures the excitement and significance of these seminal findings, conveying above all how astonishing it is to discover a contemporary eyewitness testimony to the creation of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World.

Author: Jonathan Downs
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 9781845295790
Category : Egyptian language
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In 1798, the young French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, entered Egypt with an army and a brigade of 'savants', scientists, anthropologists and historians. His aim was not just conquest on the banks of the Nile but the rediscovery of the ancient world after years of obscurity under the Ottoman Empire. At the heart of this quest was a stone that was discovered in the small town of Rossetta which would offer the key to unlock the mysteries of the ancient Egyptian. It contained wording in Greek, Hieroglyphs and demotic Egyptian. It was the prize that Napoleon had dreamed of, but in a series of adventures the stone came into English hands. Discovery at Rosetta will be the first book that tells the full story of how the English won the battle to claim the Stone and how it was then shipped to England. The book also tells the story of the extraordinary characters involved leading up to the race to decipher the Stone's code between Thomas Young and Champollion.

Author: Chris Naunton
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500774528
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
An exciting archeological exploration of ancient Egypt that examines the potential for discovering the remaining “lost” tombs of the pharaohs. Tombs, mummies, and funerary items make up a significant portion of the archeological remains that survive ancient Egypt and have come to define the popular perception of Egyptology. Despite the many sensational discoveries in the last century, such as the tomb of Tutankhamun, the tombs of some of the most famous individuals in the ancient world—Imhotep, Nefertiti, Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra—have not yet been found. Archeologist Chris Naunton examines the famous pharaohs, their achievements, the bling they might have been buried with, the circumstances in which they were buried, and why those circumstances may have prevented archeologists from finding these tombs. In Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt, Naunton sheds light on the lives of these ancient Egyptians and makes an exciting case for the potential discovery of these lost tombs.

Author: Rebecca J. W. Jefferson
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
ISBN: 178831963X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Cairo Genizah is considered one of the world's greatest Hebrew manuscript treasures. Yet the story of how over a quarter of a million fragments hidden in Egypt were discovered and distributed around the world, before becoming collectively known as “The Cairo Genizah,” is far more convoluted and compelling than previously told. The full story involves an international cast of scholars, librarians, archaeologists, excavators, collectors, dealers and agents, operating from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and all acting with varying motivations and intentions in a race for the spoils. Basing her research on a wealth of archival materials, Jefferson reconstructs how these protagonists used their various networks to create key alliances, or to blaze lone trails, each one on a quest to recover ancient manuscripts. Following in their footsteps, she takes the reader on a journey down into ancient caves and tombs, under medieval rubbish mounds, into hidden attic rooms, vaults, basements and wells, along labyrinthine souks, and behind the doors of private clubs and cloistered colleges. Along the way, the reader will also learn about the importance of establishing manuscript provenance and authenticity, and the impact to our understanding of the past when either factor is in doubt.

Author: Howard Carter
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486141829
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
This book captures the painstaking, step-by-step process of excavation, and the wonders of the treasure-filled inner chamber. 106 on-the-spot photographs depict the phases of the discovery and the scrupulous cataloging of the treasures.

Author: Jürgen Bischoff
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783958291799
Category : Alexandria (Egypt)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the spring of 1992, acknowledged pioneer of modern maritime archaeology Franck Goddio set out to locate the port facilities and palace quarter of the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria, founded in 331 BC. Equipped with cutting-edge sonar and nuclear magnetic resonance technology capable of detecting structures hidden deep in sediment, never before had maritime archaeologists put so much effort and technology into uncovering the mysteries of human history. Years later Goddio extended his search to include the Bay of Aboukir, where he discovered cities that had been swallowed up by the sea more than a thousand years before, along with huge temples, colossal statues and the world's largest ancient ship cemetery to date. Diving to the Pharaohs offers a first-hand account of this thrilling journey into the past, following Goddio's divers on their underwater ventures. It depicts life on board a research vessel and provides exciting insights into the scientific findings. What was life like for the people of the pharaonic kingdom more than 2,000 years ago? How did they celebrate their feasts and festivals? Why did their cities vanish? These and more questions are answered in this book in the original text by accomplished science writer Jürgen Bischoff, and photos by one of the world's most respected underwater photographers Christoph Gerigk, many of which appear here for the first time in print.

Author: Ahmed Abul Ella
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781523608850
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
It is astonishing to think that many great archaeological discoveries occurred in Egypt only by way of accident during the 19th and 20th centuries. Even today accidents still play a vital, frequent and sometimes comical role, with new discoveries happening almost weekly and with many more secrets of the ancient Egyptian civilization still remaining. This book takes readers beyond these discoveries and their associated accidents. This book cannot be considered purely as an Egyptological and archaeological reading or even as dry history pages covering Egypt's modern era of the 19th and 20th centuries. Rather, it is a book that sheds light on the intimate links between the birth of Egyptology after the deciphering of the famous Rosetta Stone and the raging world politics and regional power shifts in Egypt and its surroundings. The book ties together the political storms of colonialism in the first half of the 19th century and the unsettling effect these upheavals had on Egypt during the reign of Mohamed Ali Pasha. In a storytelling style, the book is a journey through time and place. The book takes readers on a guided tour to most of Egypt's well-known monuments that were mainly discovered by simple accident or in which an accident played a major part leading to discovery. In addition, the book leads readers through time exploring ancient Egypt, the days of the pharaohs, ancient gods, rituals and public ceremonial festivals, with old and new stories that shed light on the true value of such discoveries in antiquity and modern day.

Author: Susan J. Allen
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588391892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
This richly illustrated book of vintage photographs commemorates one of the most memorable episodes in the history of archaeology: the discovery and exploration in 1922 of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (Dynasty 18, ruled ca. 1336-1327 B.C.). These photographs, documenting every stage in the process of discovery, were taken by the renowned archaeological photographer Harry Burton. Burton was a staff member of the Metropolitan Museum Egyptian Expedition when he was "lent" to Howard Carter, the famed excavator of Tutankhamun's tomb. From the rock-cut steps leading down to the entrance passage, to the opening of the sealed chambers inside, to the first view of the contents of the tomb and the removal of the objects, Burton's beautiful black-and-white photographs show thousands of the richly made and decorated objects found in the tomb. Carefully reproduced from Burton's original prints, the photographs are accompanied by new descriptive text written by two prominent Egyptologists with extensive knowledge of the history of Tutankhamun and the contents of his tomb.

Author: Terence Russell
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075249581X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Dominique-Vivant Denon was a lover of the Empress Josephine, a compulsive collector, the first director of the Louvre museum and Bonaparte's adviser on artistic matters. Indeed, Denon was known as 'Napoleon's eye'. But the man who impressed the emperor with his courteous manners and his talent for pornographic drawing was also the primary force behind revealing Egypt's civilisation to an astonished Europe. Invited to accompany Bonaparte during the French Expedition to Egypt - a staging post in Napoleon's campaign to wrest India from the British - Denon was forcibly struck by Egypt's architecture. With often only a few minutes to record the scene before him, he would sketch under fire. On one occasion he worked for sixteen hours, while the windblown sand caused his eyelids to bleed. Upon his return to France, Denon published Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt. His insightful and deeply humane volume became an instant bestseller. Hitherto no one had suspected that Egypt's rich and mature civilisation existed. In this book Terence M. Russell unfolds Denon's colourful, extraordinary and contradictory character. While Denon was the first to present to Europe a true and honest image of ancient Egypt and the first European traveller to spend months exploring the desert and recording the monuments he found there, he was also a hard-headed collector. Throughout his travels he made plans for the wonders of Egypt to be crated up and shipped back to Paris.The Discovery of Egypt is a story of heroic endurance and accomplishment set against a bloody military campaign. Illustrated with Vivant Denon's incomparable drawings and the works of others who accompanied Napoleon to the deserts of Egypt, it gives an insight into the mind of one of the first Egyptologists: an adventurer, an artist of consummate ability and a compulsive collector.

Author: Alice Stevenson
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1787351424
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Between the 1880s and 1980s, British excavations at locations across Egypt resulted in the discovery of hundreds of thousands of ancient objects that were subsequently sent to some 350 institutions worldwide. These finds included unique discoveries at iconic sites such as the tombs of ancient Egypt's first rulers at Abydos, Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s city of Tell el-Amarna and rich Roman Era burials in the Fayum. Scattered Finds explores the politics, personalities and social histories that linked fieldwork in Egypt with the varied organizations around the world that received finds. Case studies range from Victorian municipal museums and women’s suffrage campaigns in the UK, to the development of some of the USA’s largest institutions, and from university museums in Japan to new institutions in post-independence Ghana. By juxtaposing a diversity of sites for the reception of Egyptian cultural heritage over the period of a century, Alice Stevenson presents new ideas about the development of archaeology, museums and the construction of Egyptian heritage. She also addresses the legacy of these practices, raises questions about the nature of the authority over such heritage today, and argues for a stronger ethical commitment to its stewardship. Praise for Scattered Finds 'Scattered Finds is a remarkable achievement. In charting how British excavations in Egypt dispersed artefacts around the globe, at an unprecedented scale, Alice Stevenson shows us how ancient objects created knowledge about the past while firmly anchored in the present. No one who reads this timely book will be able to look at an Egyptian antiquity in the same way again.' Professor Christina Riggs, UEA