The first ever ancient Egyptian epigraphy

"Following the relocation of the artefacts, a team from Yale University, the University of Bologna and the Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg, Belgium, has completed the first epigraphic and digital record of a site near Nag El-Hamdulab on the west bank of the Nile, north of Aswan. The site was discovered nearly half a century ago by the famous Egyptian Egyptologist Labib Habachi. Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said this new and thorough study has brought to light a previously unknown Early Dynastic cycle of royal images and an early hieroglyphic inscription. This work was carried out by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project (AKAP)..., lead by Maria Carmela Gatto and Antonio Curci, ... Now in its seventh season, the project aims to survey and rescue the archaeology of the region between Aswan and Kom Ombo, in the southern part of Upper Egypt. Gatto said that this group of images and the short inscription—carved around 3200 BCE, at the dawn of the dynastic period—record the earliest depiction of a royal Jubilee complete of all the elements known from later documents: an Egyptian ruler wearing a recognizable crown of Egypt; “the following of Horus”; and the royal court as known it is known to have been in Early Dynastic accounts such as the Palermo Stone."

The first ever ancient Egyptian epigraphy - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online

Harappa

An interesting problem concerning the development of  writing systems, is the following: where had they first appeared? Probably, writing systems developed independently in at least three places, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa. In places where an agricultural civilization flourished, the passage from the use of symbols to a true writing system was early accomplished. It means that, at certain period in some densely populated area, signs and symbols were eventually used to create a writing system, the more complex society requiring an increase in recording and communication media.

On Harappa culture see http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/india/all.html

 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization 

The earliest signs of human activities in India go back to the Palaeolithic Age, roughly between 400,000 and 200,000 B.C. Stone objects and cave paintings from this period have been discovered in many parts of the South Asia. Evidence of domestication of animals, agriculture, permanent village settlements, and wheel-turned pottery, dating from the middle of the sixth millennium B.C., has been found in Sindh and Baluchistan, (both in Pakistan). One of the first great civilizations--with a writing system, urban centers, and a diversified social and economic system--appeared around 3,000 B.C. along the Indus River valley in Punjab and Sindh.

The remains of two major cities - Mohenjo-daro and Harappa - reveal remarkable urban planning, systems of water supply and drainage. Excavations at these sites and later archaeological digs at about seventy other locations in India and Pakistan provide the knowledge of what is now generally known as the Harappan culture (2500-1600 B.C.).

The major cities contained a few large buildings including a citadel, a large bath, flat-roofed brick houses, fortified administrative or religious centers having meeting halls and granaries. Essentially a city culture, Harappa civilization flourished  because it was supported by a solid agricultural production and by the commerce, which included trade with Sumer in Mesopotamia. The people made tools and weapons from copper and bronze but not iron. Cotton was woven and dyed for clothing. Wheat, rice, and several vegetables and fruits were cultivated. A number of animals, including the humped bull, were domesticated. The scholars consider the Harappan culture as conservative, because it seems that it remained relatively unchanged for centuries: for instance, when the villages were rebuilt after flooding, the new constructions closely followed the previous ones. Stability seems then  to have been one of the features of this civilization, but it is not yet clear who had the power, whether an aristocracy of priests or the community of traders.

Interesting artifacts of Harappa are steatite seals. These small, flat, squared objects with human or animal motifs provide a picture of the Harappan life. They also have inscriptions generally thought to be in the Harappan script, which has eluded the scholarly attempts at deciphering it. There is a large debate whether these signs represent numbers or are an alphabet. If there is an Harappan alphabet is proto-Dravidian or proto-Sanskrit?

A possible reasons for the decline of civilization of Harappa was the invasions from central and western Asia,  destroyers of Harappan cities. Other causes were several  recurrent floods, earthquakes, the increases of soil salinity and desertification.

Let me compare in  the following figures, a small terracotta elephant head from Harappa and a representation of Ganesha (Museo Arti Orientali, Torino), and a small statue form Mohenjo-Daro with a statue of Parvati.

For more references on the problem of Harappa writing system, see

“Icons and signs for the ancient Harappa”, http://cogprints.org/6179/

The Lady of Introd

Notizia ANSA
Trovato in Valle d'Aosta scheletro donna di 5.000 anni fa. Contemporanea di Oetzi, l'uomo del Similaun, ritrovato nel '91 l confine tra l'Italia e il Tirolo austriaco. E' ora chiamata la Signora di Introd, 16 luglio, 2011.
Found in Valle d'Aosta the skeleton of a woman, lived 5,000 years ago. She was contemporary of Oetzi the Iceman, discovered in '91 at the Italian border with Austria. She is called the "Lady of Introd", July 16, 2011.


"La Stampa" 
http://multimedia.lastampa.it/multimedia/in-italia/lstp/65668/

E' stata soprannominata la "Signora di Introd" e dopo 5000 anni la sua sepoltura è ancora perfetta. Lo scheletro di questa donna ancora misteriosa e ancora senza età, è stata ritrovato all’interno di una tomba ad Introd, paese alpino di poco più di 600 abitanti, non lontano da Aosta. Rannicchiata sul fianco destro e con il capo rivolto a nord ovest, non ha attorno nessun oggetto di corredo funebre. I resti della signora sono già stati trasferiti in laboratorio, dove nei prossimi giorni saranno oggetto di analisi approfondite per determinarne l'età, le abitudini alimentari e la causa di morte. L’Assessore all’Istruzione e Cultura Laurent Viérin esprime“grande soddisfazione per questo importante ritrovamento, unico nel suo genere, che testimonia la ricchezza e la qualità del patrimonio archeologico valdostano e della nostra storia.”

She is the "Lady of Introd" and 5000 years after  burial her skeleton is still perfect. This woman is a mystery and her age has yet to be determined. She was found in a tomb, at Introd, a mountain village with 600 inhabitants, not far from Aosta. Huddled on her right side and with the head facing west, no objects had accompanied her burial place. The remains of the woman have already been transferred in a laboratory, where, over the next few days, it will be determined the age, habits and cause of death. The Head of the Education and Culture Council, Laurent Vierin, told that there is a great satisfaction for this important and unique discovery, demonstrating the abundance and quality of the archaeological heritage of the Aosta Valley.

La Signora di Introd

"AOSTA - E' un ritrovamento eccezionale quello dello scheletro di una donna avvenuto in Valle D'aosta e ribattezzato per ora come la  "La Signora di Introd". Tuttavia saranno i bambini della scuola di a scegliere il nome di questa persona vissuta 5.000 anni fa e ritrovata sepolta in condizioni perfette all'interno della propria tomba ad Introd, paese alpino di poco più di 600 abitanti non lontano da Aosta."
More
http://www.dazebaonews.it/dazebao-news/societa/item/4613-valle-daosta-scoperto-scheletro-di-donna-di-5-mila-anni-fa

Fotografías de Hiram Bingham en Machu Picchu

La National Geographic Society ha donado un histórico material que muestra a la ciudadela entre 1911 y 1915, perennizada para el mundo en el lente de explorador norteamericano.

Ministerio de cultura exhibe fotografías de Hiram Bingham en Machu Picchu

Source: ConNuestroPeru

Workers in Egypt

Museo Egizio - Torino

The digital restoration of ancient papyri

My paper on the Digital Restoration of Ancient Papyri has been selected by
Drives 'n' droves
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23293/

You can read it at the site
arXiv:0903.5045 http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.5045
Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Digital Restoration of Ancient Papyri
(Submitted on 30 Mar 2009)
Image processing can be used for digital restoration of ancient papyri, that is, for a restoration performed on their digital images. The digital manipulation allows reducing the background signals and enhancing the readability of texts. In the case of very old and damaged documents, this is fundamental for identification of the patterns of letters. Some examples of restoration, obtained with an image processing which uses edges detection and Fourier filtering, are shown. One of them concerns 7Q5 fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Faience of Egypt

"Egyptian faience is a non-clay based ceramic displaying surface vitrification which creates a bright lustre of various blue-green colours. Having not been made from clay it is often not classed as pottery. It is called "Egyptian faience" to distinguish it from faience, the tin glazed pottery associated with Faenza in northern Italy. Egyptian faience, both locally produced and exported from Egypt, occurs widely in the ancient world, and is well known from Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean and in northern Europe as far away as Scotland." Wiki

Faience bowl blue-glazed decorated with lotus flowers and the face of the goddess Hathor, symbol of rebirth are the decoration.

Faience. Provenance unknown. New Kingdom, dynasty XVIII-XX (1350-1070 B.C.)
Egyptian Museum, Turin.

Weighing of the Heart

"In Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit."
Wiki

Egyptian Museum Torino

Four sons of Horus

Statuette dei quattro figli di Horus: Duamutef, a testa di sciacallo, Hapi, a testa di babbuino, Qebehsebuf, a testa di falco, Amset, a testa umana erano i protettori delle viscere del defunto, XXV-XXXI dinastia. Statuettes of the four sons of Horus:  Duamutef, jackal headed, Hapi, baboon headed,  Qebehsebuf, falcon headed, and human headed Amset, protectors of the deceased's viscera,  Dinasty XXV-XXXI
(712-332 BC)

Locations of archaeological sites

A collection of Placemarks of archaeologically interesting locations of the ancient world.
http://www.ancientlocations.net/
For instance, the egyptian pyramids
http://www.ancientlocations.net/index.php?sp=-1&in=0&rep=0&sort=0&f=22#section_22_Pyramids

Earliest Roman basilica found outside Alexandria - Ahram Online

"At Al-Baron area in Semouha district, south of Alexandria, an Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered several significant monuments and artefacts that will help in the writing of the history of the area.

During excavations, archaeologists uncovered the earliest Roman civil basilica yet found on top of a Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the three Alexandria deities (Isis, Serapis, Harpocrates) along with a collection of terracotta statues."
Earliest ever civil Roman basilica found outside Alexandria - Greco-Roman - Heritage - Ahram Online

Ice Age Art

L’arte più antica d’America trovata su un osso di mammut, LUGLIO 4, 2011. di Aezio
"I ricercatori dello Smithsonian Institution e dell’Università della Florida hanno confermato la veridicità di un misterioso manufatto scoperto in Florida nel 2006: un frammento osseo, di circa 13.000 anni fa, con incisa l’immagine di un mammut o un mastodonte. Questa incisione è l’esempio più antico e l’unico conosciuto di arte dell’era glaciale a raffigurare un Proboscidato nelle Americhe. La ricerca del team è stato pubblicata sul Journal of Archaeological Science."
" Scientists Reveal a First in Ice Age Art. June 22, 2011. Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Florida have announced the discovery of a bone fragment, approximately 13,000 years old, in Florida with an incised image of a mammoth or mastodon. This engraving is the oldest and only known example of Ice Age art to depict a proboscidean (the order of animals with trunks) in the Americas. The team’s research is published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The bone was discovered in Vero Beach, Fla., by James Kennedy, an avocational fossil hunter, who collected the bone and later, while cleaning it, discovered the engraving. Recognizing its potential importance, Kennedy contacted scientists at the University of Florida and the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute and National Museum of Natural History."

Khufu’s second solar boat revealed

"Today, hundreds of foreign and Egyptian journalists along with photographers, cameramen and TV presenters flocked to the Giza Plateau, where Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass, Chargé d’Affaires at the Japanese Embassy to Egypt Masami Kinefuchi, and the chief executive representative of the Nitori Holding Company, Akio Nitori, unveiled King Khufu’s second solar boat. This boat was first discovered in 1954 by Egyptian architect and archaeologist Kamal El-Malakh with fellow archaeologist Zaki Nour during routine cleaning at the southern side of Khufu’s Great Pyramid. The first pit was found under a roof of 41 limestone slabs. Removing one of these slabs, a cedar boat, completely dismantled but arranged in the semblance of its finished form, was found along with layers of mats, ropes, instruments made of flint and some small pieces of white plaster with 12 oars, 58 poles, three cylindrical columns and five doors."
Khufu’s second solar boat revealed - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online

Four actors

A group of four actors
Tang Dinasty, first half of the 8th century AD

Museo Arte Orientale, Torino