Jason Colavito has another telling and humorous review of the latest Ancient Aliens episode from season 7. Jason's review starts this way: Tonight’s exceptionally boring episode of Ancient Aliens, S07E07 “Mysteries of the Sphinx,” takes us back in time—to the 1990s,...
Ancient Egypt
Akhenaten’s Mummy Identified via DNA Testing?
I just wanted to post an update on what has emerged as a controversy regarding the identification of Akhenaten's mummy (or not). The Egyptology News blog has been keeping up with the discussion pretty closely. Yesterday a post appeared in favor of confirmation that...
Caves Beneath the Giza Plateau
Not Paleobabble; this is for real. A couple weeks ago I blogged about Andrew Collins' discovery (and Zahi Hawass' ridiculous denial). Here's a link to a video of the caves. And the Talking Pyramids blog is a cool one. Editor's note: broken link replaced with the...
The Sphinx 800,000 Years Old? A Good Lesson on How Alternative Historians Select Their Data
You may have seen this item enthusiastically recently reported on the Ancient Code site: "Scientists: Geological evidence shows the Great Sphinx is 800,000 years old." Ancient Code is a repository of fringe archaeology. Surprise! What Ancient Code doesn't tell you is...
Cemetery in Egypt Yields 7-Foot Man
Some of you may have heard about the new BYU excavations at the Fag el-Gamous necropolis in Egypt. Because the area is so large (300 acres) and the mummies recovered at buried in mass graves (these are commoners of the Roman era through Late Antiquity), some...
Egyptology Journals and Books Available Online
The list located here was compiled for the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum (EEF), so this isn't the library from Wackytown. A lot of good stuff here for anyone interested in ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egyptians and Race
Some of you may have noticed in the comments that I replied to a commenter that the idea that ancient Egyptians were Negroes is nonsense (er, paleobabble). I thought I'd direct anyone interested in this to some resources. Here is a scholarly article that does a nice...
Egyptomania
Came across a nice (and fairly lengthy) article on Egyptomania today. A nice sketch. For those PaleoBabble faithful who want solid academic material on the wacky things people think and have thought about Egypt (including pyramidiocy and the "true" symbolic meaning of...
Latest Salvo in the Giza Caves Debate
From professor Peter Manuelian here.
Guest Blogger Andrew Collins on the Giza Caves Discovery
Back on August 5 I blogged about Andrew Collins' discovery of caves under the Giza Plateau and Zahi Hawass' apoplectic response to the news. Dr. Hawass recently posted a lengthier response on his website. The response was less hysterical than his initial reaction, but...
Pharaoh Akhenaten’s Unusual Physique: Proof of Alien DNA?
Uh . . . nope. Well . . . it does have something to do with genetics . . . but not from space aliens. Fortunately, we have something called . . . science . . . to help us understand what may have been going on with Akhenaten (and other members of the 18th dynasty)....
Did Ancient Egyptians Identify Themselves as a Black Race?
I know I blogged about this recently, but I came across the item below today and thought I'd post it now instead of later. As to the question in the post title .... Short answer: No. Anyone who has look at Egyptian art knows that Egyptians portrayed foreigners as that...
Giant Sarcophagus Leads to Discovery of Previously Unknown (and Normal-Sized) Pharaoh
News of this discovery (also here) has been circulating around the web today. An archaeological team from the University of Pennsylvania (on of my alma matres) has uncovered a Second Intermediate Period necropolis at Abydos, Egypt. The discovery includes the remains...
Recent New Scientist Article on Tutankhamen DNA
The article is accessible here. It includes some new criticisms.
Howard Carter Missed the Aliens
Pretty cool news from the Griffith Institute at Oxford, a Mecca for Egyptology: They have digitized all of Howard Carter's handwritten notes (3500 handwritten cards) taken about King Tut's tomb and put them online. The online database also includes over 1000 photos. I...