ancient Egypt

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Robot to Explore Secret Pyramid Passageway

 Robot to Explore 
 Secret Pyramid 
 Passageway 
in case you missed it
Aug 22, 2010 6:52 PM CDT

Robot to Explore Secret Pyramid Passageway

'Djedi Rover' aims to find out where mysterious tunnel leads

(Newser) - A high-tech robot is setting out to solve one of the Great Pyramid of Giza’s long-standing puzzles. Armed with a drill, a snaking camera, and other state-of-the-art bells and whistles, the “Djedi Rover” will scamper up the mysterious 8-inch tunnels in the Pyramid of Khufu’s so-called “...

Cleopatra Died From Poison
 Cleopatra Died From Poison 
Jul 1, 2010 2:39 PM CDT

Cleopatra Died From Poison

She used hemlock, not snake's venom, says historian

(Newser) - Cleopatra committed suicide using poison, not by allowing herself to be bit by an asp, says a German scholar. He deduced that the widely known story of Cleopatra killing herself by allowing an Egyptian cobra to bite her was false, despite having made it into Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. "...

King Tut's Penis Has Gone AWOL

(Newser) - It seems that King Tut and his penis have parted ways despite spending several thousand years joined at the, er, hip. When he was discovered in 1922 the king was fully intact, Time reports. Sometime in the last almost 90 years, his kingly member was removed, some hypothesize, to maintain...

Radar Uncovers Ancient Egyptian City
 Radar Uncovers  
 Ancient Egyptian City
in case you missed it
Jun 26, 2010 12:42 PM CDT

Radar Uncovers Ancient Egyptian City

Researchers map long-buried city of Avaris

(Newser) - Archaeologists have used satellite radar images to map a long-lost Egyptian city, reports the BBC. The team discovered a detailed outline of Avaris, the summer capital of the Hyksos invaders some 3,500 years ago. The picture reveals streets, houses, tombs, and the remains of a port area. The site...

'Lost' Since 1885, Tomb Found Near Cairo

Treasure hunters forgot where Memphis mayor's tomb was

(Newser) - Archaeologists have discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital's mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 1885, when treasure hunters first carted off some of its trove—only to forget its location. Some of the stolen artifacts ended up in museums, providing...

57 Ancient Tombs Found in Egypt

Many remarkably intact, include religious texts

(Newser) - Archeologists have discovered a cache of ancient tombs in Egypt, some of which are almost 5,000 years old. Most of the 57 tombs hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus that houses a mummy; the oldest among them dates back to the rule of Egypt's first and second dynasties. One...

Egyptian Oasis Yields Roman-Era Mummy

'Unique find' appears to be 3-foot-tall adult: archaeologists

(Newser) - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered an intricately carved plaster sarcophagus portraying a wide-eyed woman dressed in a tunic in a newly uncovered complex of tombs at a remote desert oasis, Egypt's antiquities department says. It is the first Roman-style mummy found in Bahariya Oasis some 186 miles southwest of Cairo, said...

Egyptian Desert Yields 'Door to Afterlife'

Massive granite slab was moved from tomb to Roman building

(Newser) - A decorative granite door that dates to the 15th century BC has come to light in Egypt, illustrating the importance the ancient society attached to connections to the afterlife. The 6-foot-tall granite slab came from the tomb of User, a top adviser to Queen Hatshepsut. It would have been intended...

Enormous Pharaoh Head Found
 Enormous Pharaoh Head Found 
Mar 1, 2010 6:00 AM CST

Enormous Pharaoh Head Found

8-foot artifact is best likeness yet of Amenhotep III

(Newser) - A remarkably intact stone likeness of the head of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III has been found in the Egyptian city of Luxor. The granite statue is 8 feet tall and gives the most complete picture of the ruler's face. "Other statues have always had something broken—the tip of...

Mystery of King Tut's Death Solved

Pharaoh died of malaria, bone condition

(Newser) - Scientists armed with DNA evidence believe they’ve discovered the long-mysterious cause of King Tut’s death: a combination of malaria and bone abnormalities. The cause of the young pharaoh’s early demise has been a topic of speculation ever since his tomb was uncovered, with theories ranging from gangrene...

UK TV Show Wants to Mummify You

Production company seeks dying volunteer to demonstrate process

(Newser) - Giving new meaning to the term, "that's a wrap," a British TV company would like to film a terminally ill volunteer for a few months before they die—and then mummify them using techniques a scientist says are the same as those used in ancient Egypt. “We...

Pyramids Not Built by Slaves: Scientists

Tombs found near king's suggest laborers were free workers

(Newser) - The Great Pyramids of Egypt were built not by slaves, as is commonly believed, but by free workers of such high status that their tombs lie near the king's. The laborers built the Khufu and Khafre pyramids, and the research made public today sheds new light on graffiti describing the...

Germany: We're Keeping Nefertiti

Museum says ancient bust too fragile to go back to Egypt

(Newser) - Germany has refused Egypt's latest request for the return an ancient bust of Queen Nefertiti held in a Berlin museum. Officials say the 3,300-year-old bust is too fragile to be moved and insist it was acquired legally by Prussia nearly 100 years ago, the BBC reports. The bust was...

Heart Disease: Pharaohs Had It, Too
 Heart Disease: 
 Pharaohs Had It, Too 
RE-EXAMINING THE FOOD PYRAMID
Nov 17, 2009 7:20 PM CST

Heart Disease: Pharaohs Had It, Too

'Part of the human condition,' so fast food not only culprit

(Newser) - In a finding that pokes holes in the thinking that our modern fast-food lifestyle is behind heart disease, scientists have discovered that Egypt’s mummies, too, had hardened arteries. “Atherosclerosis is not just a disease of modern times,” one researcher tells WebMD . “It’s part of the...

Vanished Persian Army Turns Up in Sand
 Vanished Persian Army 
 Turns Up in Sand 
HERODOTUS WAS RIGHT DEPT
Nov 17, 2009 2:21 PM CST

Vanished Persian Army Turns Up in Sand

Evidence of 50K doomed soldiers found in Egyptian desert

(Newser) - Italian archaeologists in Egypt claim to have unearthed evidence of a 6th-century BC Persian military folly once thought mythical. Herodotus described an army of 50,000 Persians sent by their emperor, Cambyses, to destroy an oracle that had spoken ill of his ambitions. The army was, according to lore, beset...

Opening Her Tomb Won't Tell Us Who Cleopatra Was
Opening Her Tomb Won't Tell Us Who Cleopatra Was
OPINION
Apr 22, 2009 10:05 AM CDT

Opening Her Tomb Won't Tell Us Who Cleopatra Was

Even Shakespeare had a hard time improving on her true story

(Newser) - If the tomb that archaeologists are about to start excavating in Egypt really is Cleopatra’s, what will that really tell us about the legendary queen? Aside from possibly clearing up questions about her heritage and cause of death, probably not much, writes Cleopatra expert Stacy Schiff in the New ...

Archaeologist: Cleopatra, Mark Antony Tomb Is Close

Artifacts unearthed in Egypt hint at lovers

(Newser) - An eccentric Egyptian archaeologist believes he knows where Mark Antony and Cleopatra were buried, the AP reports. An excavation team has uncovered a mask fragment with an Antony-style cleft chin, coins bearing Cleopatra’s likeness, and 10 mummies from the same time period in the Toposiris Magna temple, hinting that...

Nefertiti Bust May Be Ancient 'Makeover'

(Newser) - Nefertiti’s image as a flawless beauty of antiquity may not be entirely accurate, Reuters reports. New computer scans reveal a slightly different face at the core layer of the Egyptian queen’s famous 3,300-year-old bust than the finely chiseled planes of the statue’s surface—one with a...

Egypt Unveils Ancient Mummy
 Egypt Unveils Ancient Mummy 
Feb 11, 2009 7:01 PM CST

Egypt Unveils Ancient Mummy

(Newser) - Illuminated only by torches and camera lights, Egyptian laborers used crowbars and picks to lift the lid off a 2,600-year-old limestone sarcophagus, exposing—for the first time since it was sealed in antiquity—a perfectly preserved mummy. Wrapped in dark-stained canvas, the mummy is part of Egypt's discovery of...

4,300-Year-Old Tombs Unveiled Near Cairo

(Newser) - A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt's top archaeologist said today. "We announce today a major, important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300...

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