November 2012: Egypt’s antiquities Ministry official Mohammed El-Bialy has announced that archaeologists have unearthed the 4,500-year-old tomb of a Pharaonic princess south of Cairo. Princess Shert Nebti’s burial site is surrounded by the tombs of four high officials from the Fifth Dynasty dating to around 2,500 BC in the Abu Sir complex near the famed step pyramid of Saqqara. Antiquities minister Mohammed Ibrahim stated that the antechamber to the tomb of the princess includes four limestone columns and hieroglyphic inscriptions. El-Bialy stated further excavation is needed before the tomb can be opened to the public

The pharaohs of this dynasty ruled for approximately 150 years. The Horus names and names of the Queens are taken from Dodson and Hilton. Manetho writes that the Dynasty V kings ruled from Elephantine, but archaeologists have found evidence clearly showing that their palaces were still located at Ineb-hedj (“White Walls”).

Egyptian Pharaonic Princess Tomb Discovered

Expeditions were sent to Wadi Maghara and Wadi Kharit in the Sinai to mine for turquoise and copper, and to quarries northwest of Abu Simbel for gneiss. Trade expeditions were sent south to Punt to obtain malachite, myrrh, and electrum, and archaeological finds at Byblos attest to diplomatic expeditions sent to that Phoenician city. Finds bearing the names of a several Dynasty V kings at the site of Dorak, near the Sea of Marmara, may be evidence of trade but remain a mystery.

How Pharaoh Userkaf founded this dynasty is not known for certain. The Papyrus Westcar, which was written during the Middle Kingdom, tells a story of how king Khufu of Dynasty IV was given a prophecy that triplets born to the wife of the priest of Ra in Sakhbu would overthrow him and his heirs, and how he attempted to put these children – named Userkaf, Sahure, and Neferirkare – to death; however in recent years, scholars have recognized this story to be at best a legend, and admit their ignorance over how the transition from one dynasty to another transpired.

During this dynasty, Egyptian religion made several important changes. The earliest known copies of funerary prayers inscribed on royal tombs (known as the Pyramid Texts) appear. The cult of the god Ra gains added importance, and kings from Userkaf through Menkauhor Kaiu built temples dedicated to Ra at or near Abusir. Then late in this dynasty, the cult of Osiris assumes importance, most notably in the inscriptions found in the tomb of Unas.

April 3, 2012: The Israel Antiquities Authority seized two stolen lids of ancient Egyptian coffins smuggled from Egypt to Jerusalem’s Old City via Dubai. Officials believe that the lids were stolen from a coffin containing a mummy and were smuggled from Egypt to Europe, then to Dubai and then Israel. The coffin lids suffered damage caused when the smugglers cut the lids in half.

The elaborate plastered lids are decorated with paintings and hieroglyphics. Israel Antiquities Authority experts dated the coffin lids from between 2,900 and 3,500 years ago, a period that includes the 210 years when Israelite Tribes descended from Israel during a famine, then known as Canaan, to Egypt where they later were subjects of slavery.

Egypt has requested Israel to return the lids and allege the smuggler probably chose Israel as their destination in order to affirm official authentication of their antiquity so they could sell them at a higher price. The coffin lids were discovered during a raid on antique stores in the Old City.

May 2011: Using infra-red satellite imaging, Egyptologist Sarah Parcak has discovered 17 lost pyramids and more than 1,000 tombs and 3,100 ancient settlements were revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings. The pyramids are thought to have been covered by silt from the Nile and Dr Parcak believes there could be thousands more sites of interest further beneath the desert’s surface. Two test excavations have been carried out at Saqqara which revealed two lost pyramids, with the area now being described as one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.

The work has been pioneered at the University of Alabama at Birmingham by American Egyptologist Dr. Sarah Parcak. The research was funded by the BBC. Using satellites that orbited 700 km about the Earth, Parcak was able to capture the images of the antiquities. A French excavation team confirmed what the images saw. The new discovery will be revealed in the UK on the BBC on Monday. The Discovery Channel will air its own version of the story over the summer.

“We were very intensely doing this research for over a year,” she stated. “I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the ‘Aha!’ moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we’d found and I couldn’t believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt. To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist.”

The satellites that took the images orbited 700km above the earth and were equipped with cameras so powerful they can pin-point objects less than 1 meter in diameter on the earth’s surface. Infra-red imaging was used to highlight different materials under the surface.

Parcak recently traveled to Egypt to conduct excavations in the areas photographed and hopefully to back up what her technology was able to detect under the surface. According to the report, local authorities were not initially interested in her findings, but when she told them she had seen two potential pyramids, they made test excavations and now believe it is one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.

The most exciting moment for Parcak was visiting the excavations at Tanis, a city in the north-eastern Nile delta of Egypt. “They’d excavated a 3,000-year-old house that the satellite imagery had shown and the outline of the structure matched the satellite imagery almost perfectly. That was real validation of the technology.”

She expressed her hopes that the new technology will help engage young people in science and will help archaeologists around the world. “It allows us to be more focused and selective in the work we do,” she explained. “Faced with a massive site, you don’t know where to start. It’s an important tool to focus where we’re excavating. It gives us a much bigger perspective on archaeological sites. We have to think bigger and that’s what the satellites allow us to do.”

Note: History could be relative to the times of Joseph, then Prime Minister of Egypt and later Moses the master builder of Pharoah.

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