Let's talk history

[Wistman]

Here is a Feb. 13 article about the famous 'screaming mummy': https://www.livescience.com/61749-screaming-mummy-backstory.html ...formerly known as "unknown man E", has now through DNA analysis been identified as Prince Pentawere who likely murdered his father Ramesses III, and who subsequently hanged (or poisoned) himself.  Thus the agonized grimace on his face.  The mummification and burial process was unusual...perhaps his 'natural' drying out caused the mouth to gape....?

This is a mild image.  I didn't want to shock the children.  Though these days people seem to be delighted by such remnants of suffering: the mummy is now on temporary public display at the Egyptian museum.  It will surely be a tourist magnet. 

Edited to add:  note the arm position.  If a prince, should there not be certain positioning?  Was this denied him perhaps because of his patricide/regicide?  Maybe I'm wrong about this, but still....a curiosity. 

Edited February 19, 2018 by The Wistman

[Wistman]

Two articles on the recent big discovery of 8 new tombs (filled with goodies!) at Tuna el-Gebel:

EgyptToday:  https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/43713/8-new-tombs-discovered-in-Tuna-el-Gebel-in-Minya

CBC:  (with short video)  http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ancient-necropolis-1.4552004

[Wistman]

The Ancient Egyptians may have used the fall equinox to achieve near-perfect alignment of the GP with the four cardinal compass points:

https://www.livescience.com/61799-great-pyramid-near-perfect-alignment.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fall-equinox-secret-pyramids-near-perfect-alignment-180968223/

[Wistman]

Feb 6: University of Chicago excavations at Tell Edfu uncover two 6th D. structures of curious architecture and unique preservation along with many artifacts including metallurgical equipment (w/short video):  https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2018/02/06/newly-discovered-buildings-reveal-clues-ancient-egyptian-dynasties

 

Edited March 8, 2018 by The Wistman

[Wistman]

Long neglected gold artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb now receive intensive study and initial efforts toward restoration by trio of Museums/Universities:

http://www.culthernews.de/?tag=gold

edited to add:

Scientists studying 15000 y.o. North African remains (Morocco): genomic testing indicates ancestral descent from both Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan populations:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180315141221.htm            (March 15, 2018)

Edited March 21, 2018 by The Wistman

[Wistman]

March 13 - Red granite column of Merneptah arrives at Grand Egyptian Museum; will join Ramesses II colossus in forecourt: https://www.archaeology.org/news/6434-180313-egypt-column-move 

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/24023.aspx

[Wistman]

A couple more images:

column in transport

arrival at GEM

More images available online.  Best ones are owned by Getty Images, and I seem to be unable to load them here.

 

 

[TheBIHLover]

Yo, guys! Long time no see. 

I've got a philosophical - I hope it's okay to ask here. 

Do you think WW1 could have been prevented? If yes, how and why? 

I appreciate all the answers.

[Wistman]

Because of my profession, I watch the auctions; because of my dad, I'm interested in all things Apis.  So, though this is not related to any mystery per se, I thought some may be interested in a rather extraordinary item at Christie's:

photo credit: Christie's

https://www.christies.com/features/5-minutes-with-an-ancient-Egyptian-statue-of-a-bull-8974-1.aspx

AN EGYPTIAN GRANODIORITE SACRED BULL

LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C.

Estimate on request

Lot 54

* There are many other beautiful antiquities in this sale. View them all at: https://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?lid=1&intsaleid=27521&dt=2732018141942&saletitle=&pg=3&action=paging&sid=1a8dea71-8c14-47a8-8255-848cca7d7267

 

[Piney]

5 hours ago, TheBIHLover said:

Yo, guys! Long time no see. 

I've got a philosophical - I hope it's okay to ask here. 

Do you think WW1 could have been prevented? If yes, how and why? 

I appreciate all the answers.

If the U.S. didn't send weapons under the cover of a "passenger ship"......

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

5 hours ago, TheBIHLover said:

Yo, guys! Long time no see. 

I've got a philosophical - I hope it's okay to ask here. 

Do you think WW1 could have been prevented? If yes, how and why? 

I appreciate all the answers.

There are lots of contributing factors to WW1, but IMO the biggest was all the Empires looking for an excuse to knock seven bells out of each other. 

[Wistman]

1 hour ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said:

There are lots of contributing factors to WW1, but IMO the biggest was all the Empires looking for an excuse to knock seven bells out of each other. 

Yes to this.  Recommend Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly" for details (Pulitzer Prize winner).

[TheBIHLover]

16 hours ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said:

There are lots of contributing factors to WW1, but IMO the biggest was all the Empires looking for an excuse to knock seven bells out of each other. 

I know that A-H Empire's excuse to attack Serbia and to deal with Serbian nationalism was the murder of Franz Ferdinand. But what about the other countries? What was their *main* excuse to attack each other? 

[Wistman]

16 minutes ago, TheBIHLover said:

I know that A-H Empire's excuse to attack Serbia and to deal with Serbian nationalism was the murder of Franz Ferdinand. But what about the other countries? What was their *main* excuse to attack each other? 

Put simply: military/political alliances openly, greed for power subversively.

[Sir Smoke aLot]

15 minutes ago, TheBIHLover said:

I know that A-H Empire's excuse to attack Serbia and to deal with Serbian nationalism was the murder of Franz Ferdinand. But what about the other countries? What was their *main* excuse to attack each other? 

I believe that British and Russians didn't want competition which they saw in Germany. Germany, as an rising power with the same colonial strives as others was seen as an direct threat to their interests. That was natural. It surely is not that simple because there is larger picture but colonial disagreements were at the essence, domination and rest is merely sparks and side effects.

16 hours ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said:

the biggest was all the Empires looking for an excuse to knock seven bells out of each other

Seems plausible but it's hard to label everyone as warmonger without motive. It's the end goal which makes us go forward and, bmo, without goals we would never start to travel. That is applicable to states and empires as much as it's to individuals with difference that it's ideology which moves the masses.

[Wistman]

4 hours ago, Sir Smoke aLot said:

I believe that British and Russians didn't want competition which they saw in Germany. Germany, as an rising power with the same colonial strives as others was seen as an direct threat to their interests. That was natural. It surely is not that simple because there is larger picture but colonial disagreements were at the essence, domination and rest is merely sparks and side effects.

Seems plausible but it's hard to label everyone as warmonger without motive. It's the end goal which makes us go forward and, bmo, without goals we would never start to travel. That is applicable to states and empires as much as it's to individuals with difference that it's ideology which moves the masses.

Colonial disagreements: such things can be worked out peacefully via diplomacy, sometimes after implying armed conflict, but ultimately avoiding armed conflict.  Willingness to compromise would be a needed component for it to work.  Not necessarily easy, but it is known to be possible, and far less destructive to civilization (if less profitable for some interests.)  That would have been rational.  WWI ipso facto denied these (and other) possibilities as solutions to avoid a catastrophic war under the prevailing Manichaean political circumstances. Squashing any potential for international competition in trade, resource acquisition, or military control of land and ports is the very tool of imperial domination.  Each of the contesting powers' notional domination of international land and commerce as well as their ruling party's self-entitled greed (and for some key players, lust for personal glory) are the motivational goals in and of themselves I think, the colonial disagreements are incidental to the prize of hegemony, power, glory: the goal; subsequently, political/military alliances 'trapped' many client nations into the ideological web of their sponsor nations' agenda.  'National pride' was then mobilized to get the populace to buy into the idea of aggressive war.  No nation at the time felt capable of withdrawing from the rising calamity because the motives and goals were so massively ideological, and not rational.  IMO, that is. 

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Pretty much it was a perfect storm of chaos. 

Everyone has just devdloped new weapons that they thought would give them the edge over the others. They all expected an18th century war, where you lined up your armies, they marched, you fired cannon, folks died, you watched from the hill and at the end of the day (literally) someone was declared a winner. Roll on the next fight. 

Britain wanted to give Germany a knocking to stop it’s Imperial Ambitions. Germany wanted to give Britain what for because they “won” the Boer War and thought they could seize a bit of Europe and give the Poms a black eye. The French wanted more space in Africa and needed to belt the Germans to get it and hoped the Brits would get mauled enough that they could seize some property as well while they were recovering, the Austro- Hungarian Empire was dying and needed something to reunify the Empire, a good war would do that by giving everyone an Enemy go unite against. Britain had lost a bit of prestige, they lost to the Boers, they lost in Afghanistan (everyone loses in Afghanistan), they lost the Congo to the Belgians, parts of the Empire were Federating off all over the place, China had just told them to sod off - in fact China had told all the Empires to sod off.

Then thevalliances started to from, France and Britain and Russia against Germany, The AH Empire and Italy. So if one was attacked they all got in and went off.

 

They all thought it would be over by Christmas. 

 

 

[Orphalesion]

Don't forget that Germany, the Habsburgs and Russia all wanted to use Central/Eastern Europe for their planned expansions. The Prussians wanted to expand to the Black Sea in their own version of "Manifest Destiny" the Habsburgs were used to collecting Slavic nations like they were Pokemon (but as Harte said their ridiculously outdated empire was failing and so they weren't really a competitor for Germany in that ambition), and Russia wanted more ice free ports and create a Pan-Slavic empire.

[Sir Smoke aLot]

18 hours ago, The Wistman said:

Colonial disagreements: such things can be worked out peacefully via diplomacy, sometimes after implying armed conflict, but ultimately avoiding armed conflict.

If only that would be the norm  Unfortunately history teach us that armed conflict was always the end result of diplomacy, especially prior to world wars but not excluding those wars. Those could be worked out peacefully and via diplomacy, but the fact is that it didn't happen and rational thinking could not prevail over strive for domination. 

18 hours ago, The Wistman said:

Willingness to compromise would be a needed component for it to work.  Not necessarily easy, but it is known to be possible, and far less destructive to civilization (if less profitable for some interests.)  That would have been rational.  WWI ipso facto denied these (and other) possibilities as solutions to avoid a catastrophic war under the prevailing Manichaean political circumstances. Squashing any potential for international competition in trade, resource acquisition, or military control of land and ports is the very tool of imperial domination.  Each of the contesting powers' notional domination of international land and commerce as well as their ruling party's self-entitled greed (and for some key players, lust for personal glory) are the motivational goals in and of themselves I think, the colonial disagreements are incidental to the prize of hegemony, power, glory: the goal; subsequently, political/military alliances 'trapped' many client nations into the ideological web of their sponsor nations' agenda.  'National pride' was then mobilized to get the populace to buy into the idea of aggressive war.  No nation at the time felt capable of withdrawing from the rising calamity because the motives and goals were so massively ideological, and not rational.  IMO, that is. 

As once was said, without evolving ideology every regime would slowly wither. Those conflicts arise from most basic national needs, such as for government to be able to sustain certain standard of living within national borders and colonialism was most important asset in that respect, at the time. Truly turbulent period and i think that one could find good reasons to strive towards that which was important to many at the time but the cost is always neglected.

[Wistman]

I've missed these items (busy, busy me) recently, so I'll post them here:

Ancient Egyptian incantations tell of Biblical human sacrifice:  https://www.livescience.com/62324-ancient-egyptian-papyrus-biblical-human-sacrifice.html

Rare stone head of emperor Marcus Aurelius discovered at AE temple at Kom Ombo:  https://www.livescience.com/62400-stone-head-emperor-marcus-aurelius.html

Two massive carvings rescued from looters by archaeologists near Amenemhat pyramid at Lisht in 2011 : https://www.livescience.com/62468-massive-carvings-rescued-egypt-looting.html

General/High Steward's 19th D tomb at Saqqara recently discovered:  https://www.livescience.com/62514-ancient-general-tomb-saqqara.html

Earliest version of our alphabet possibly discovered on limestone shard in Egypt:  https://www.livescience.com/62580-earliest-alphabet-discovered.html

Tanis excavations reveal large brick Greco-Roman baths and many artifacts: https://www.livescience.com/62671-coin-roman-bath-found-in-egypt.html

       * All Live Science articles from over the last month or so.

 

 

[kmt_sesh]

Interesting articles. Wistman. Thanks for posting.

I especially enjoyed the first link on the Coptic document, and I got a kick out of the adventures of the archaeologists at Lisht. How long before the movie comes out? 

[Wistman]

On 5/28/2018 at 11:14 PM, kmt_sesh said:

Interesting articles. Wistman. Thanks for posting.

I especially enjoyed the first link on the Coptic document, and I got a kick out of the adventures of the archaeologists at Lisht. How long before the movie comes out? 

How prescient you are!  The movie's not released yet, they decided to change it a little, for drama's sake.  Here's a still shot from the climactic ending:

Egyptologists to the rescue!!!  

[Windowpane]

36 minutes ago, The Wistman said:

... The movie's not released yet, they decided to change it a little, for drama's sake.  Here's a still shot from the climactic ending

What about the love interest?

[Wistman]

Edited May 31, 2018 by The Wistman

[internetperson]

I'm reading a book on Indians in FL. Some were buried in peat with brains still (partially I assume) in tact. This got me thinking:

With AE's sophisticated mummification techniques why were the brains discarded? Odd how organs were preserved but brains scrambled, removed and discarded. Is the answer that it was just too much of a PITA to remove?