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November 2015

Egypt Holiday 2014: el Tod

The last site we visited in Egypt last November was a temple dedicated to Montu, which is in the modern village of el Tod. I don’t think it gets many tourists – our bus had a bit of trouble getting through the winding streets of the village and we had to walk the last little bit. My main memory of the place is that it was very peaceful, despite being in the middle of the village. There were palm trees throughout the site and it was a little oasis of calm. Even the guardians here were pretty laid back! My photos from this site are on flickr: click here for the full set, or on any photo in this post for the larger version on flickr. When you go into the site the first thing you come to is a block storage area with loose bits of the temple that… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: el Tod

“New Light on the Narmer Palette with Advanced Digital Imaging” Kathryn E. Piquette (EEG Meeting Talk)

On Sunday Kathryn Piquette came to the Essex Egyptology Group to talk to us about the work she’s been doing using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to examine the Narmer Palette (and some other ancient Egyptian objects). She started her talk by giving us context for the Narmer Palette, and then explained the imaging technique she is using. She then showed us several examples of objects she’s studied before returning to the Narmer Palette to tell us about her findings so far. The Narmer Palette was discovered in 1898 by Quibell & Green at Hierakonopolis, near the “Main Deposit”. This was a cache of sacred objects that had been buried around the time of the 5th Dynasty when they were no longer being used. The palette dates to around 3100BC, and is a larger version of the type of palette that was used by the ancient Egyptians to grind eye makeup… Read More »“New Light on the Narmer Palette with Advanced Digital Imaging” Kathryn E. Piquette (EEG Meeting Talk)

Egypt Holiday 2014: Sites at el Kab

El Kab is a couple of hours drive south of Luxor and was the furthest south we went on this trip. There are several different Ancient Egyptian sites at or near el Kab, and we visited four of them, covering a sweep of history from predynastic (and perhaps before) through to the Ptolemaic era. The site is pretty big – we were driven through it to visit the various bits and it didn’t feel silly getting back on the coach rather than walking. This is also the area of Egypt where the predynastic sites of Nekheb and Nekhen are; Renee Friedman gave a talk to the EEG about Nekhen last November just before we went on holiday. I think we saw the enclosure wall for Nekheb, but nothing inside. My photos for this site are, as usual, on flickr – click here for the full set or on any photo… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Sites at el Kab