Thursday, January 21, 2021

Tomb of Ancient Egyptian Queen Identified as Queen Neit, 6th Dynasty Old Kingdom

It is mind-boggling that these discoveries keep surfacing even after excavations taking place more than 100 years.  I did not include any of the photos contained in the original article.

Article from Yahoo News, originally reported on CBS News

4,200-year-old Queen's Identity Among Remarkable New Finds in Egypt

By Ahmed Shawkat
January 19, 2021, 8:36 AM

Cairo — Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities has revealed details of the latest landmark discoveries to emerge from the Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo. The vast burial grounds sit in what was once Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to more than a dozen pyramids, including Egypt's oldest, the Pyramid of Djoser.

The site has yielded thousands of artefacts over decades of excavation, but among the biggest rewards for Egyptologists in this latest round of discoveries was the identity of a queen who died around 4,200 years ago.

"The excavation started in 2010, when we discovered a pyramid of a queen next to the pyramid of King Teti, but we didn't find a name inside the pyramid to tell us who the pyramid belonged to," leading Egyptologist and former minister of antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass told CBS News.

About a month ago they discovered a funerary temple, and now researchers finally have a name for the ancient female monarch: Queen Neit, the wife of King Teti. Her name was finally found, carved on a wall in the temple and also written on a fallen obelisk in the entrance to her tomb.

"I'd never heard of this queen before. Therefore, we add an important piece to Egyptian history, about this queen," said Hawass, who heads the archaeological mission. He said the recent discoveries would help "rewrite" the history of ancient Egypt.

His team also discovered 52 burial shafts, each around 30 to 40 feet deep, inside of which they found have more than 50 wooden coffins dating back to the New Kingdom, around 3,000 years ago.

"Actually, this morning we found another shaft," Hawass told CBS News on Monday. "Inside the shaft we found a large limestone sarcophagus. This is the first time we've discovered a limestone sarcophagus inside the shafts. We found another one that we're going to open a week from now."

The team also found a papyrus about 13 feet long and three feet wide, on which Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead is written in hieroglyphics, with the name of its owner recorded on it. The Book of the Dead is an ancient manuscript that explains how to navigate through the afterlife to reach the field of the Aaru — paradise, to ancient Egyptians.

Hawass said it was the first time such a large papyrus had been discovered inside a burial shaft.

Other finds from the site include numerous wooden funerary masks, a shrine dedicated to the god Anubis (Guardian of the Cemetery), statues of Anubis, and games that were buried with the dead, to keep them busy in the afterlife. One of them was a game called "Twenty," found with its owner's name still visibly written on it.  [I assume this is a reference to the ancient game evidently imported from ancient Sumer to Egypt and spread across the ancient Middle East known as "Twenty Squares."  It was a race game similar to Senet.]

Another game, called "Senet" (cross), was found in the shafts. It's similar to chess, but if the deceased player wins, they go safely into the afterlife.  [Note: Senet is not similar to chess, it is classified as a race game, where the game pieces are moved from the starting board on the narrow board (typically of 30 squares, although the oldest stone carved boards recovered from early Old Dynasty tombs have as many as 33 squares) to the end of the board/off the board, based on the throw of dice or dice-predecessors.]

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Never Try to BS a Multi-Generational Progressive

 Come on, Moscow Mitch.  You used the word "provoked" earlier today in your comments about the soon to be ex-*president of the United States as he slinks his way to a "good bye" celebration at Andrews Air Force Base that nobody who is anybody is going to attend, including his OWN VICE-PRESIDENT!  Good riddance, Scum Bag in Chief.  Here's some of my puke accumulated over the past four years for you to take with you as a snack on your way to your cesspit at Mar-a-Lago.  Will North Palm Beach ever be able to get rid of the stench once they manage to kick you out of their jurisdiction?

Moscow Mitch, you won't be able to slime your own way out of what you said today about Trump "provoking" the Fascists who attacked and desecrated our national Capitol and went looking for Vice-President Pence and Speaker of the House Pelosi to kill them.  You may try to argue that "provoke" is NOT THE SAME MEANING AS INCITE, as the Article of Impeachment against Donald J. Trump lists as his ultimate sin against our country, which he has used and abused and attempted to destroy for the past four years.  Nope.  Maybe you, Moscow Mitch, are now familiar with the word SYNOMYM, tsk tsk.  You should be, as you're even older than I am.  I realize teachers are no longer allowed to actually educate our students these days, but back when I was in school, in the "good ol' days," they still taught us proper English and what words synonyms, homonyms and antonyms were.  

Just to refresh your memory, Moscow Mitch, I bring you fresh from the Oxford Dictionary courtesy of Google:

Similar and opposite words
incite
verb
stir up
whip up
work up
encourage
fan the flames of
stoke up
fuel
kindle
ignite
inflame
stimulate
instigate
provoke
excite
arouse
awaken
waken
inspire
trigger
spark off
ferment
foment
agitate for/against
cause
generate
bring about
enkindle
egg on
urge
goad
spur on
drive on
push
prod
prompt
induce
impel
motivate
make
influence
rouse
sting
prick
put up to
root on
procure

Do you see the word PROVOKE in the list?  Yep, it's there.  It has the same meaning as INCITE.  Golly Gee, MM, were asleep that day in English class?  


Sunday, January 17, 2021

Tower of London's Raven Queen Missing Two Weeks and Presumed Dead

I had no idea about this legend although I have read about and seen photos of the ravens at the Tower of London.  They have always fascinated me.  Like the crows who visit me on occasion for peanuts and unshelled almonds, they are very smart.  "My" crows will occasionally gift me with a small token - a marble here, a particularly shiny stone there, one time a rather scuffed up single dice, a piece of what appears to be pink quartz shaped rather like a pyramid, and the piece de resistance, a gold-colored bracelet with brown stones set around it (one of the stones is missing and the bracelet is slightly bent).  Over 30 years or so, the crows have brought and left me a number of gifts, including a couple of bottle caps from beer bottles, LOL! They always leave their gifts in my old concrete birdbath, because during the summer I will visit it at least once a day to refresh/refill water.  It is a very popular bath in the neighborhood and gets a lot of traffic :)

Here is a photo of the Raven Queen Merlina, who has been at the Tower of London since 2007 (14 years) and flew away two weeks ago.  She has not returned and is now presumed to have died.

Image from CNN article January 14, 2021 "Tower of London's
'queen' raven, Merlina, missing and feared dead"

Here are some articles on Merlina's flying off and presumed death.  

By Alan Cowell
January 14, 2021

People Magazine, "Tower of London's Queen Raven Missing, Feared Dead"
By Katie Campione
January 14, 2021

By Mindy Weisberger
January 15, 2021


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