thirteenth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty (12. 832)

After a pause of more than three year after the discovery of the undisturbed burial chamber, the mummified remains of Tutankhamun were discovered on this day in 1925 by Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team. Over three thousand years after his death, the king is notably the only mummy yet found completely intact and with no sign of tampering and despite the famous find and iconic nature of his gold and lapis lazuli death mask, very little is known about the individual’s circumstances or cause of death, other than a reign of about a decade dedicated to undoing the much the cultural and religious reforms enacted by his predecessor and father Akhenaten and expiring only as a young adult, hence referred to a the boy-king. Laid to rest in a series of nested coffins which we carefully opened to reveal the golden sarcophagus—the headdress crafted to give him the likeness of the god Osiris. Inlaid with faience and precious stones, the back of the mask is inscribed with a chapter from the Book of the Dead, a collection of creation and resurrection texts, spells and incantations used in funerary rituals. Studied forensically for nearly a year, the body was indelicately separated from the gold coffin and reinterred within one of the larger ones and stays in repose in Luxor in the Valley of the Kings. Although contributing much to public awareness of the field of archaeology, Tutankhamun’s treasures and alleged curse—published and propaganda in the following decades, turned out to be more captivating than his mortal remains.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a tarot card inspired garden (with synchronopticæ), more air-based food plus a Trump rally in Manhattan

twelve years ago: the NSA espionage in Germany 

thirteen years ago: a Halloween greeting plus a seasonal recipe

fourteen years ago: China relations plus a gathering of the Common Wealth realms

fifteen years ago: polarised politics plus US government budgetary outlays  

seventeen years ago: proving you are not a robot 

𓆫𓂋𓁐 (12. 163)

A rather spectacular tomb (mastaba) was recently excavated in the necropolis of Saqqara in the Giza campus, a burial grounds for the royalty of the ancient capital of Memphis dating to the Sixth Dynasty (circa mid 2200 BC) of one multi-hyphenate called Teti Neb Fu, via Strange Company. Richly decorated with relief depictions of everyday life as well as a catalog of offerings and grave-goods (the body and the originals were looted ages ago) and tools of the trade, the individual was not only physician to the pharaoh and chief doctor of the court, inscriptions also bestow the titles great dentist, director of pharmabotany and priest and magician of the goddess Selket (the scorpion deity who governed venom and its antidotes), providing insight into the intersectionality of religious ritual and medicine of the Old Kingdom. The Swiss-led archaeological dig has uncovered other sites in the area in recent years including one of the vizier Uni with an extensive autobiographical record of his administrative and political achievements, greatly augmenting the knowledge and chronology of the time. More from The History Blog at the link above.

ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅ (12. 136)

Having rescinded the presidential decree recognising him as the patriarch of the See of Saint Mark by Anwar Sadat after a contentious decade for the secular and spiritual leadership of Egypt, the president seen as stoking violence between Islamic and Christian communities to solidify his own power, and banished to the remote desert monastery of St Pishoy, on this day in 1985 the successor administration of Hosni Mubarak fully restored Pope Shenouda III to his original office. Committed to ecumenism and healing religious schisms through interdenominational dialogue, Shenouda met the Bishop of Rome in 1973, the first such summit in fifteen-hundred years, and together with Pope Paul VI forged a path towards reconciliation and was also respected by the Muslim population for his support for Palestinian autonomy and criticism of the Camp David Accords—going on the serve in the papacy for over forty years, until his death in March 2012.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a survey of overused phrases (with synchronoptica), China in miniature plus the Japanese verses of Auld Lang Syne

seven years ago: a robotic DJ, Public Domain Day plus Monumental Trees

eight years ago: the assertion that progress hinges on the unreasonable

nine years ago: more accidental Renaissance art,  a year in full moons plus the Twelve Days of Christmas

ten years ago: plastic coins, songs reimagined as video games, a synaesthetic clock, Martin Luther’s messaging plus motivations for the American Revolution

outline of egypt (11. 483)

Through a series of photographs capturing the outlines of the ensemble of the Pyramids at Giza shrouded in mist, we discover the extensive portfolio of Karim Amr, a young professional whose able to hone and articulate his eye for images and subjects of choice partially by dent of living near the ancient necropolis. The nested silhouettes of the monumental tombs look like computer-rendered backgrounds of an vintage video game. Much more at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: NPR leaves Twitter plus a classic from The Fifth Dimension

two years ago: assorted links to revisit

three years ago: Yuri’s Night, the Union Jack, Bill Haley and his Comets plus On the Record

four years ago: a historic vaccination campaign, artist Jim Gary, St Julius, an Eames multipurpose piece of furniture plus a sketching lesson

five years ago: the found of Bauhaus (1919), more on First Flight, outsider artist Emma Kunz plus the first racoons in Germany

aïda (11. 211)

When originally approached by the Ottoman Pasha Isma’il of the Khedive of Egypt to produce an opera celebrating the opening of the Suez Canal—see also, Giuseppe Verdi declined. Later, however, presented a libretto set sometime in the Old Kingdom, a stretch of three millennia, by famed French Egyptologist and archeological authority Auguste Mariette, the composer ultimately conceded. Delayed by the ongoing Franco-Prussian War (see above) that prevented the elaborate scenery and costumes from being shipped from Paris, the opera eventually debuted in Cairo on this day in 1871. Egyptians forces have captured the titular Ethiopian princess and her captor, military commander Radamès, is caught in a love triangle with the pharaoh’s daughter, whose affections go unrequited, his desire for his prisoner and loyalty to his king and country. One of the most famously choreographed scenes is the Grand March from act II, below, when Radamès enters triumphantly, the chorus chanting “Gloria all’Egitto, ad Iside (Glory to Egypt and to Isis),” through the Gates of Thebes and is granted anything he wishes as a reward for his services.

constructive ambiguity (11. 113)

Credited as the prime negotiation tactic of US diplomat Henry Kissinger, employed both as a way to mask an irreconcilable impasse when sides remain far apart on an issue and as a means for both parties to save face and claim concessions from the other. Postponing true resolution is in retrospect disparaged as papering over systemic and deeper conflicts for its tendency for subsequent eruption for a temporary stay. Examples include the Shanghai Communiqué, considered America’s first expression of the one-China policy during Nixon’s visit and the so called “Six-Point Agreement”—both brokered by Kissinger—and the latter signed on this day in 1973 at the Kilometre 101 of the Cairo-Suez highway. At inroads after the first phase of peace talks to end the Yom Kippur War achieved little progress in de-escalation with the encirclement of the Egyptian army by the Israeli Defence Forces and neither side willing to withdraw. Provision B of the settlement was ambiguously worded so as to incentivise further negotiations to go back to status quo, which both sides choose to interpret as favourable to their cause: Egypt as clear mandate that Israel would surrender its claim on their territory and for Israel a disentanglement of belligerents without the obligation for capitulation.

the battle of the chinese farm (11. 060)

Occurring this day in 1973 after Egyptian forces had advanced beyond the Israeli line of defence during the previous engagement, the Battle of the Sinai, ultimately repulsed but with Israel sustaining significant losses, the titular battlefield that marked a turning point in the Yom Kippur War was given the misnomer for an Egyptian agricultural research station equipped with Japanese-made technology and over the next two days managed to push Egyptian forces back across the Suez Canal in one of the deadliest and brutal clashes of the conflict. Plans for crossing and securing a corridor for re-supply and relief were considered too ambitious and exacting with deviations from the established dead-lines resulting in losses for the Israeli Defence Force, but the Egyptians girded the exposed flank of their forward division (as the IDF had hoped, misinterpreting their objective) and were cut of from re-enforcements, causing Egypt’s withdrawal from the Sinai and abandon its attempts to re-establish control over the peninsula.

operation nickel grass (11. 050)

To replace materiel spent in the first four days of the conflict, the Soviet Union began an airlift on this day in 1973 of military equipment to Syria and Egypt that led a coalition of Arab states against Israel (to gain purchase on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and regain the Sinai) in the Yom Kippur/Ramandan War. The US followed suit with a massive resupply of Israel two days later, and having discovered that Prime Minister Golda Meir had authorised the assembly of thirteen nuclear warheads aimed at targets in Egypt and Syria, a move that was made easily detectable so as to conduce American aid and avoid further escalation, wanting officially to minimise the appearance of involvement. Upon receiving intelligence of this development, US president Richard Nixon ordered the deployment of the Air Force to transport all munitions possible to Israel via the Azores and along a narrow airspace over the Mediterranean to comply with European countries that did not wish to be party to a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union. Although resupply missions on both sides slowed significantly after the 24 October cease-fire resolution, OPEC leaders enacted an oil embargo against America and her allies.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI movie posters plus conjuring Swedish nonsense words

two years ago:  assorted links to revisit plus Upstairs, Downstairs (1971)

three years ago: revolutionary China, happy birthday to the Candy Bomber, the moon Triton, the role of sharks in vaccines plus coin-op convenience

four years ago: Dunbar Number, guerilla advertising plus more on noise pollution

five years ago: more on Osaka’s Expo’70 plus a shopping cart that gauges one’s mood

 

la pierre de rosette (10. 886)

An earlier iteration of Egyptomania gripped the public in Europe following Napoleon’s 1798 campaign in the Ottoman Levant to secure the empire’s trading interests and advance “scientific enterprise,” drawing many scholars, a corps of savants that accompanied the expeditionary army to the newly occupied territories and established égyptologie as a distinct branch of archaeology and philological discipline, and whose presence aided the recognition of the importance of the slab bearing inscriptions spotted by Lieutenant Pierre François Bouchard destined for building material to fortify Fort Julien (an old Mameluk outpost), a few kilometres north of the port city of Rosetta—rediscovered on this day in 1799. The stele bears a bi-lingual decree issued in the first century BC on behalf of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (a council of priests confirming his royal cult) and the Ancient Greek text enabled researchers to understand the profane Demotic script and decipher the heretofore mysterious hieroglyphics (Greek for sacred writing). Fellow officer Nicolas-Jacques Conté, inventor of the modern, lead-graphite pencil just a few years prior, devised a way to use the slab itself as a printing block and helped make the text of the Rosetta Stone accessible to world-wide scholarship.

antechamber (10. 549)

The entrance discovered the previous November with little countenance of what lie beneath, on this day in 1923 with twenty invited witnesses, including the expedition sponsor George Herbert, the archaeological team of Howard Carter broke the seal to the inner chamber of the Tomb of Tutankhamun—being the first to see the treasures and golden sarcophagus of the pharaoh in over three millennia. Ten days later to spare his excavators from toil in the heat of the harsh summer and resume work in Autumn, Carter arranged to have the doorway blocked by tonnes of sand and rubble. This reburial corresponded with reporting from The New York Times that some two hundred and fifty American tourist, including a congressional delegation had boarded the ocean liner S S Adriatic, bound for Luxor to visit the tomb.

cairo circle (10. 317)

Via Strange Company’s Weekend Link Dump, we are introduced to the circle of creatves of the Art et Liberté ( جماعة الفن والحرية) Surrealist movement that flourished for a decade in pre-World War II Egypt that embraced the appellation “degenerate” (see also here and here) in its stance against emergent forces of fascism, British colonial rule in the region and the conservative art establishment Salon du Caire. Informed by Ancient Egyptian and Coptic influences as well as other surrealism styles, this work entitled Nature Adores a Vacuum by Ramses Younan is typical of the collective. More to explore at the links above.

menas of egypt (10. 293)

Early third century wonder-worker and Coptic soldier in the Roman army martyred for refusing to recant his Christian faith, Menas (Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲙⲏⲛⲁ—Amen), is commemorated on this day, corresponding to 15 Hathor on the Egyptian calendar. Garnering a posthumous reputation for intercession on any number on ailments, Abu Mina, the site where his body was buried (according to legend, the camels bearing his corpse stopped twice in this exact location and refused to move further) after being dismembered by fellow soldiers became a popular pilgrimage—following Constantine I (previously) sending his ill daughter, Flavia Valeria Constantina—later known as Saint Constance, destination with terracotta flasks with the saint’s iconography taken as souvenirs and found from Heidelberg to Cheshire and all points in between. Protector of the falsely accused, peddlers and travelling salespersons, Menas is the patron of the city of Heraklion, Koblenz and many Swiss villages in the north Alps.

8x8 (10. 271)

make it another, double, old-fashioned please: a definitive, festive guide to whisky cocktails 

born in arizona, moved to babylonia: a new book on the King Tut’s parents, Akhenaten and Nefertiti  

elf-on-the-shelf: the shrine to departed Dobby in a nature reserve can remain but visitors asked to refrain from leaving mementos  

planchette: the intersection between profit and superstition revisited with a look at the story of the Ouija borad—see previously  

toynbee tiles: an enduring urban myth—see previously  

they’ve got it all on uhf: Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliff appearing in musical biopic parody of Weird Al Yankovic (previously)  

palimpsest: peeling back the layers to rediscover ancient manuscripts recycled as early modern incunabula

limoncello: a doubly lemon aperitif in the ‘Amalfi Dream’

kv62 (10. 270)

On this day in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and team, sponsored by patron George Herbert, Earl of Carnavon, discovered the first step leading down to the tomb of Tutankhamun, inspired to continue the search after other burial goods were discovered bearing the name of the pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt were found by excavators contracted by Egyptologist Theodore Davis in ancillary chambers before the Great War. Digging proceeded at pace throughout the month, reaching the antechamber and unsealing the vault on 26 November, exceeding all expectations and lending heretofore unknown insight into royal funeral rites. The media frenzy following that gripped the public imagination was known as “Tutmania,” influencing styles and decorative arts as well as informing Egypt’s struggle for independence from Britain by reconnecting it with its past.

the yellow fleet

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we are given a bit of historical perspective on the six-day plight of the Ever Given (previously) which has antecedents with a much longer, large-scale stranding resulting from the Six-Day War that broke out in June of 1967 between Israel and Egypt, trapping fifteen international ships and their crews in the Suez Canal that were passing through when the conflict broke out and remained impounded until 1975. Blockaded by Egypt to prevent its use by Israel, debris put in place continued to prevent transport and traffic for eight years during a time when the waterway was not the major artery of trade it is today. Named the above for the colour of the desert sand that accumulated on the decks of the vessels moored in Great Bitter Lake, a turning around point off the main canal, the ships’ crews from West Germany, the UK, the US, France, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Bulgaria quickly forged a community, sharing resources and even holding a mini-Olympic Games—the Swedish ship had a pool, and issuing their own Cinderella postage stamps with the recognition of host nation postal authorities. Within the first few months, countries flagged with these vessels were able to reduce crews to a bare minimum and repatriate their members, rotating in and out skeleton crews for the basic upkeep of the ships and though the population turn-over was regular and complete, the sense of comradery and community endured with each generation. The Suez was reopened with the Yom Kippur War in October of 1975, restoring this trade route but with the spectre of supplies being cut off again, businesses were pressured into making ever larger cargo ships to reduce one’s exposure, like the colossal Ever Given.

forever given

We really enjoyed these curated tweets on the jack-knifed cargo ship blocking traffic in the Suez Canal from Super Punch including a dating app for those captains and crew stuck in the queue, an invitation to tag one’s battle avatar from among the named ships in the growing pile-up (see also, our favourites are a toss-up between Bulk Venus and the Nautical Deborah) plus some clearing up on the identity of the ship: not called evergreen—that’s the company—it’s evergreen’s monster.

nefertiti

Representing chief consort and Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep IV, the iconic limestone bust was discovered on this day in 1912 by a team of archæologists working under the auspices of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (DOG—the German Oriental Society) led by Ludwig Borchadt in Amarna at site that housed the workshop of celebrated sculptor Thutmose. Since its first going on display to the public in a Berlin museum, Egyptian authorities at the bureau of antiquities have requested that the three-thousand three hundred and fifty year old artefact be repatriated, arguing the significance of the find was downplayed and had inspectors been allowed to fully examine the bust, they would have never allowed it to leave. Focus of aspirations for revanchism after the dissolution of the Prussian monarchy and defeat in World War I, Nefertiti was conscripted for a rather fraught political career of propaganda (see also) in the Third Reich in the years to follow. Presence in the Zeitgeist included the 1935 cinematic portray of the Bride of Frankenstein, patterned after the signature crown, and her role and cultural impact has now been rehabilitated insofar as she is considered the counterbalance to the figure of Tutankhamun and a good-will ambassador for representation, art and the field of Egyptology. The arguments against repatriation, characterising nations outside of Europe too unstable to properly care for their treasures and cultural heritage is particularly rubbished by the way Germany has torn itself apart, Nefertiti sent away for safe-keeping in a salt-mine and nearly lost to history.

ihf

We are really enthralled and excited about every last detail of the new promotional campaign for Egypt’s 2021 hand-ball tournament of champions that’s receiving due hype and cheer a year out. The logo is a stylised ankh, the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol meaning key of life, and the official national team mascot is the sky god Horus. Check out more from Super Punch at the link above.

rocky horus

Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are treated to the 1981 production from Egyptian director Mohammed Shebl, who had several horror credits to his name, called Fangs (al’Anyab, الأنياب)—an homage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The plot, with ample musical interludes, is faithful to the original up through the first act (plenty of glam vampires but nothing too transgressive to sneak past the censors) and certainly demonstrates a degree of craft and talent that separates it from other knock-offs, like the nearly unwatchable “Turkish Star Wars.”

the great belzoni

On this day two centuries ago, and with the express permission of the Pasha of Egypt, adventurer and pioneering archaeologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni became the first person since Antiquity to penetrate and explore the Pyramid of Chephren, the second largest structure of the complex at Giza—though looters from nearly a millennium before had already partially plundered the burial chambers. How the Great Belzoni, as he styled himself, came to be there is a pretty intriguing tale in itself—born one of thirteen siblings to a father who was a barber in Padua—he went to Rome as an apprentice plumber with the intent on taking monastic orders but his career path was suddenly diverted by the occupation of the city by the forces of the Napoleonic armies and abduction of the Pope.
After a stint as a barber in the Netherlands, Belzoni moved to London and found his wife and joined a travelling circus (as you do), incorporating magic lanterns into his acts. After nearly a decade of performing with the circus, they allowed him on the international circuit, touring with shows on the Iberian peninsula and Malta—where he happened to meet an emissary of Ottoman Egypt. Informing Belzoni of the pasha’s public works scheme which included large-scale irrigation and land-reclamation, the sideshow actor offered his expertise in in hydraulics and presented the ambassador with a proposal. Ultimately, Belzoni’s damming project was not undertaken but it was enough to get him to Cairo and a relationship with the governor of the county. After a demonstration of engineering prowess and appreciation for the conservation of artefacts with the successful removal (again with the pasha’s permission), transportation and installation of a monumental bust of Rameses II (at the British Museum) and his exploration was partially underwritten by the British consulate. Belzoni embarked on several excavations, making several discoveries. Contracting dysentery, he died en route to explore a dig underway in Timbuktu.