#egyptian history

[blueiscoool]

Egypt Announces Discovery of the Lost Tomb of King Thutmose II

Egyptian officials announced Tuesday the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II, the last of the lost tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty, which reigned for over two centuries between about 1550 BC and 1292 BC. It's the first royal Egyptian tomb to be discovered since King Tutankhamun's final resting place was found in 1922.

A joint Egyptian-British archaeological mission discovered Thutmose II's tomb in the mount of Thebes area, west of Luxor and the renowned Valley of the Kings. The team and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which made the announcement, said evidence was discovered that clearly indicates it was King Thutmose II's tomb during excavations of what had previously been known only as tomb No. C4.

The entrance and main passage into the structure were discovered in 2022, and internal excavations have continued meticulously since then.

Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said when the mission first found the entrance to the tomb and its main passage almost three years ago, the team believed it could belong to one of the wives of the kings, given its proximity to the tomb of the wives of King Thutmose III and its proximity to the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, which was prepared for her as a royal wife before she became ruler of the ancient kingdom. She ended up being buried in the Valley of the Kings, due to her ascent to the throne.

As the excavation work and examination of artifacts continued, the mission found new evidence that identified the owner of the mysterious tomb as King Thutmose II, suggesting also that his burial rites were carried out by Queen Hatshepsut, who was his wife and half-sister.

Khaled said parts of alabaster vessels found in the ruins have inscriptions bearing the name of King Thutmose II and identifying him as the "deceased king," along with the name of his wife, Hatshepsut, all of which he said had helped to confirm Thutmose II as the owner of the tomb.

He described the discovery as one of the most important archaeological finds in recent years. The artifacts discovered are important additions to the body of knowledge around the history of the area and the reign of King Thutmose II.

The mummy of King Thutmose II was discovered during the 19th century, not far away at another archaeological site known as the Deir el-Bahari Cachette, to which the it was likely moved centuries after being looted by tomb raiders, according to the relatively new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. His mummy is now on display, among those of other ancient royals, at the museum.

The tomb is in a poor state of preservation due largely to exposure to floods shortly after Thutmose II's death, according to Mohamed Abdel Badie, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Head of the Egyptian team that has worked on the dig. Abdel Badie said initial studies also indicate much of the original contents of the tomb were moved to another location after the ancient floods.

He said the teams had discovered mortar in the tomb with remnants of blue inscriptions and yellow stars, and some paragraphs from the book of "Imydwat," which is one of the most important funerary books found in ancient Egyptian tombs, written to help guide the late royals through their underworld journey.

Dr. Piers Litherland, head of the English team at the site, said the tomb is characterized by a simple architectural design typical of those chosen by the successive rulers of Egypt who came after Thutmose II.

Litherland said the mission would continue its survey work and try to determine where the rest of the contents from Thutmose II's tomb were relocated to, and to uncover any further secrets that may have been locked beneath the earth for millennia.

By Ahmed Shawkat.

[toyastales]

Gold swivel ring featuring an amethyst frog, from the New Kingdom period of Egypt, dating between 1550-1229 BC.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Egyptian

Game of Hounds and Jackals

Middle Kingdom, ca. 1814-1805 B.C.E.

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Akhenaten and Nefertiti

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

Ceiling and imagery of the Tomb of the Vineyards, burial of Sennefer, Mayor of the Southern City, Thebes, during the 18th dynasty of Egypt.

Photos taken by me, August 2023

It’s hard to tell which way is up and down when walking through the tunnel leading from the surface into the tomb. Before entering the main chamber there is a small antechamber whose ceiling is quite low, and then a shallow arch which leads to the main room depicted in the above photographs. Both chambers contain a good deal of paintings, however the main chamber holds the most numerous and well preserved paintings, of course. Besides the ceiling, everything is encased in glass.

[floatyflowers]

Back to the past| Dark! Tutankhamun x Modern! Reader

After discovering your fiance's cheating, you didn't expect to make a car accident and get transported to the past.

And not only that but meet Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Who becomes fiercely protective of you, monitoring their every move to ensure their safety.

He might even go to extreme lengths to eliminate perceived threats.

He declares you in front of others as his wife and royal Possession Tutankhamun insists on having yoy close at all times, whether it's attending royal events together or keeping them within the palace walls.

As he Becomes more possessive as time goes on, Tutankhamun might isolate you from others, limiting your interactions to maintain control over your social circle.

Any attention you receive from none other than him, triggers Tutankhamun's jealousy, leading to intense reactions that range from subtle displeasure to more overt displays.

The young pharaoh gives you symbolic tokens of his love, like unique jewelry or clothing, to strength your connection to him.

Expensive gifts are the way to the woman's heart.

He even built a tomb for you beside his own.

"What do you think of your tomb, my love? I had everything made out of gold"

Like the delusional pharaoh really wants you to be with him in the after life.

He would pretend to be sick sometimes because he enjoys how you worry over him.

Even though you are aware of his tendencies, but you have to bear with it.

I mean what choice do you have?

It's either the streets or be the queen of one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs.

[alpaca-clouds]

Let's Talk About Drolta's Historical Context

Okay, anyone who has been around like fifteen Months ago, when the first season of Castlevania Nocturne released knows the drill. Let's do some history.

I will talk a bit about some historical context of the new season and I am going to start with Drolta, because oh boy, she definitely is an interesting character in this context. After all we learn her backstory this season - and it is actually really interesting.

I am super sorry, right now I cannot do proper screenshots from the flashbacks. So bear with me.

Spoilers for season 2, obviously!

The first scene we see with Drolta is her at a temple of Sekhmet in Southern Egypt in what we get told is 1199 CE. Now, this is interesting. Because this is far, far after the end of anything recognizable as "Ancient Egypt". In 1199 CE what we now know as Egypt was under the control of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Muslim government.

Now, Egypt in terms of religion was a bit of a battleground in the early middle ages.

There is one thing y'all need to understand about the Ancient Egyptian religion. It has a lot of staying power. I have heard so many Egyptologists joke about this. Egypt was colonized so often - and while most other countries got then forced into another religion under the Romans and Greeks, somehow everyone in Egypt during Ancient Times went just and adopted the Egyptian religion. Something that is quite interesting, because Egyptian religion - in terms of anthropology - is an older religion that bears a lot of hallmarks of old religions. I talked about this before: From what we can say, first human religions worshipped animal gods, that then became some sort of chimera, that took up more and more human attributes, before the gods became humanoid in their appearance. And if you know anything about Egyptian religion, than it will be probably that the gods have all their animal aspects, dating it as a bit earlier than the Greek and Roman religion - even though some of the oldest Greek gods also have still their animal aspects (like Pan).

Now, due to the later Roman/Byzantine Empire Christianizing - and Egypt being part of it - Egypt was Christianized as well. And this is where we talk about this one historical figure that somehow haunts me in all my creative persuits: Emperor Theodosius I. He was a hardliner for Christianity. Until he came into power, Christianity was not exactly chill with the pagan religions, but accepted them somewhat. And then Theodosius enacted a decree that set fire to all the pagan temples in the Empire. And they burned down a lot of temples to the old gods. That was the Roman gods, the Greek gods, the Egyptian gods, and some pagan gods of a variety of smaller religions, like the Canaanites and such.

However, again: The Egyptian religion had a hell lot of staying power. So yes, people would often "convert" to Christianity at the point of a sword but secretly still pray to the old gods still.

Between the 7th and the 8th century, Egypt was taken over by the Muslims, and a lot of people converted to Islam. However, as I spoke about before: Muslims were always a lot more chill about other religions. So while people praying to other gods were higher taxed, it was generally just allowed.

In 1199 - as I said - Egypt was under the control of the Ayyubid Dynasty, with the majority of people living there being Muslim.

Realistically speaking, we do not have any historical evidence for any acitve temples to any of the Egyptian deities for after the 9th century, from all I know. While some aspects of the Ancient Egyptian religion were generally were incorporated into Muslim tradition - and still are to this day (like some Ancient holidays are still celebrated in Egypt to this day!) - but from all we know there was no active temple worship.

However, realistically speaking, obviously none of the temples held the actual mummy of an actual god. lol By the time Egypt Islamized, most of the actual mummies of even kings were long forgotten and burried under the sands of the deserts and people practices burial of the dead.

If there had actually been an active temple, yes. It is absolutely possible that this temple would have been attacked and plundered multiple times. And of course anyone still worshipping the old gods would absolutely know that their religion was kinda doomed to disappear. They would be a small holdout. And in this case there is of course the additional aspect of knowing that the goddess one prays to is already physically dead. (Fuck, I need to talk about the worldbuilding in this. I hope I will around it - because I am out of town over the weekend. Argh.)

The attackers we mainly see in the temple are just random bandits. However, the vampire who comes later, definitely wears a specific armor - though this is where I still need to do some research. While I recognize some aspects of the armor, I could not properly place it - because it is definitely a bit too early for Ottomans. (My first thought was Ottoman because of the helmet, but yeah, the Ottoman empire is 250 years out at this point.) The slightly pointed helmet was also used in some part of the Byzantine army, but again, this definitely is something I will look more into.

From there on, of course, her story gets more dominated not by the historical context, but by the fictional worldbuilding.

Something that is however interesting is, that she is of course a member of a cult - and that is by the historical definition of the word, not the modern one.

See, historically speaking cult members where people who among a religion praying to a pantheon served just one deity. In Drolta's case of course this deity is Sekhmet, whom she revears above all the other gods. So much so, that she completely goes against the central cour of the religion at large - which was a religion in which the highest god was a sun god! Ra!

I think in general Drolta goes very strongly back there to something that very much is at the heart of Castlevania's vampire mythology: The way how vampires remain in that world that is changing around them, because the humans in this world are dying, and new humans have new ideas. The world changes - but the vampires are frozen in time.

She holds onto her old religion, that was technically already "dead" when she was born for the first time, and that just dies out further as she cannot die, because she is now a vampire.

In her pursuit of the will of a deity, whose will she thinks she knows, she is ironically very close to Isaac - though other than him, she canot find it in herself to turn it around. Especially after going down that wrong path for hundreds of years.

The interesting part of this though is, that it very much reframes Erszebeth from someone who came in as a colonizer to take the blood - in comparison to someone upon whom it was trust.

[heroineimages]

Let's build a Ptolemaic Pharaoh!

Sadly, I ran out of room and had to cut the options about boyfriends, mistresses, and incest.

Thanks to @allbeendonebefore, @ahallister, and @en-theos for the feedback and inspiration!

[baebeylik]

Fragment of a Woodblock Print on Linen. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

From the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. 1200s/1300s.

[theinternetarchive]

ankh ceremonial implements, egyptian c. 1490-1300 b.c.

[blueiscoool]

An Egyptian almost life-size bronze and wood striding ibis Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C.

[toyastales]

A small statue of Tutankhamun (1341-1323 BC), of gilded wood, depicting Pharoah wearing red crown of Lower Egypt, standing in a papyrus boat made of green painted wood, and gilded, where papyrus details are supposed to appear.

Egyptian Museum, Cairo

[the-cricket-chirps]

Egyptian

Bastet

Between 664 and 610 BCE, Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (664 BC-525 BC)

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Nefertem x Brahma supremacy 🗿🪷🪷🪷

[classicstober]

✨Welcome to ClassicsTober 2024!✨

The idea is to create something – anything – for the prompt. Like other October prompt lists, it can be an illustration, but it can also be text, reference, historical artefact, video, story, translation, pretty much anything you’re interested in from the Ancient Med World that fits with the prompt. There’s no pressure to do every single one, just the ones you like.

This year it’s an ANCIENT HISTORY TAKEOVER! We asked Classicists, Ancient Historians, Archaeologists and Authors we know and love to suggest an ancient personage that they think everyone should know about! And, to combat misinformation and encourage research, we invite you to share your sources with your submission, whether that’s image references, texts, or even a whole bibliography!

✨NO AI USAGE ALLOWED✨

See the ClassicsTober24 Details page for background on each of the names chosen by our friendly Classicists, Archaeologists, Historians and Authors, to get your creativity going! https://greekmythcomix.com/classicstober-24-details/

THE LIST:

1 Regina of South Shields

2 Eumachia

3 Thucydides

4 Cleopatra Selene

5 Pliny the Elder

6 Meleager of Gadara

7 Harmodius and Aristogeiton

8 Boudicca

9 Eritha

10 Vitruvius

11 Julia Felix

12 Homer

13 Zenobia

14 Kallistomache

15 Aesop

16 Elagabalus

17 Iphikrates

18 Tacfarinas

19 Vespasian

20 The Trung Sisters**

21 Marcus Aquilius Regulus

22 Martial

23 Corinna

24 Cleopatra Thea

25 Sappho

26 Vitellius

27 Menander I Soter

28 Crassus

29 Phryne

30 Flavius Cerialis

31 Sejanus

*Ancient Greece and Rome and other near-Mediterranean Ancient cultures

**wildcard!

[skf-fineart]

Head of a Statue of the God Sobek Shedeti

Egypt, Middle Kingdom, ca. 1859-1802 B.C.

Limestone, 21 7/16 × 20 1/16 × 18 7/8 in.