Archaeological discovery of unknown pharaonic king inscription
The American archaeological expedition working in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Al-Kharga Oasis discovered a rocky inscription north of the oasis including a royal name dating back to pre-dynastic era (32nd century B.C).
The SCA Secretary-General Dr Zahi Hawass said that the name was unknown and the rocky inscription discovery came during the survey actions by the archaeological teamwork in Al-Kharga oasis region.
The chairman of the US archaeological expedition Dr Solima Al-Harram pointed out that the discovery would reveal new information about the Egyptian royal presence in the western desert in the pre-dynastic era.
She added that the inscription showed a new royal name which read Hoor within a shape representing the old pharaonic palace on top of it a bird of Horus, common at the eras of 1st and 2nd dynasties.
She asserted that the inscription indicated the trade activities with Africa through the western desert or to find out the different natural raw materials for buildings and industries during that early period of the Egyptian history preceding the era of the unified country.
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Are you aware people have found new evidence that some of the Egyptian population originated in the Dakhla and Kharga Oasis? Some the fossils show traces of sub-Saharan ancestry,but the Sahara oasis mostly during this period was without a doubt black.
Makes sense if you study the Edufu inscriptions.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by ausar: Some the fossils show traces of sub-Saharan ancestry,but the Sahara oasis mostly during this period was without a doubt black.
Wow. Didn't take long for this topic to switch to a discussion about racial affinities...
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Bodies of Evidence Secrets of the sands: Neolithic people from Dakhleh Oasis Over the past few years, several skeletons, representing individuals from about 3000BC, were found around the Dakhleh Oasis, in the western desert of Egypt. These skeletons were recovered by Dr Jennifer Thompson, from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), as part of her investigation of human adaptation to arid lands. People have lived in and around Dakhleh Oasis for thousands of years - as shown by the stone tools and pottery recovered throughout the region. From the archaeological evidence, we know that the Neolithic people in this region were pastoralists. Once the area began to become more arid, from about 6000BC onwards, people moved closer to the centre of the oasis, where water and plants were still available, and this shows that they were affected by changes in their environment. However, not much was known about the people themselves: what did they look like, did they have any connection with the Nile Valley, and how did they manage to survive the rapid aridification of the desert?
Skeleton keys
To answer the first question, there are now skeletons, or parts of skeletons, of six individuals from this era. What can they tell us? Four of these individuals are males, one a female, and one is of unknown sex as it is too fragmentary to make a diagnosis. One male was at least 5ft 6ins tall and the female about 5ft 2ins in height, so there were some size differences between the sexes. Most of these people died between the ages of 20 to 30 years of age, while one male reached an age of about 40. So life must have been pretty tough for these individuals.
Dakhleh Oasis, located about 250km west of Luxor, is several days travel by foot from the Nile Valley: was there any contact between these two areas? The older male individual suffered from arthritis, and markings left by his muscles indicate that he was powerfully built and probably had walked long distances. He was the only individual who had an artifact with his burial. A copper pin was found underneath his pelvis. Apparently, in the Nile Valley, Neolithic males carried copper pins in leather pouches on their waists, as indicated by burials from that region. This suggests that there may have been contact between people of the two areas.
A comparison of the skulls of the most complete male and the female show interesting size and shape differences. The female is similar in facial features to females from the Nile Valley, while the male is more similar to males from sub-Saharan Africa. More work needs to be done to confirm this, but this evidence, along with the copper pin, suggests that travel occurred between several regions of Africa at this time.
Survival skills
How did these people cope with increasing aridification in the area surrounding the oasis? Again, the skeletons reveal clues about the health of these pastoralists. Several individuals have enamel defects on their teeth that suggest they suffered systematic stress from disease or poor nutrition. Some enamel defects may have occurred at weaning, while others occur throughout the teeth and indicate long-term stress during the time when the teeth were forming.
Several individuals had incidences of dental cavities (caries). Root caries are commonly found in pre-agricultural people because the diet tended to be more abrasive, wearing down the surfaces of the crowns before carious lesions could form there. With root caries, the lesion starts on the root and eats its way up to the crown. This can lead to tooth loss or infection of the bone surrounding the teeth, causing an abscess. In fact, two individuals had abscesses and this may have been the cause of their death. Abscesses can lead to blood poisoning and without treatment can be fatal.
Lifestyle choices
What are the implications of all this in terms of the lives of these people? In terms of health, many of them died young: most of these individuals were 20 to 30 years of age. Their teeth show signs of pervasive and ongoing stress. Only one individual lived to about 40 years - long enough to develop arthritis.
These skeletal and dental finds are important because this time period, approximately 6500 to 4000 years ago, is so far not well documented in terms of physical remains. Skeletal evidence becomes more plentiful when it became more common for people to be buried in cemeteries. The discovery of these individuals from Dakhleh Oasis has helped to shed light on the health of people from this time, and also allows contrasts to be made with earlier people in this area as well as later agriculturalists.
• Dr Jennifer Thompson is a physical anthropologist known for her work on Neanderthal and early modern humans, on more recent Chinese immigrants from northern Nevada, as well as on the prehistoric people of Dakhleh Oasis. She has been a member of the Dakhleh Oasis Project since 1997 and was invited to join the project as their expert in prehistoric human remains. For more information visit her website. http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/bodies/tsands00.html#jen
Here is what I was talking about.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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This is just what I have complained about in several postings. It took you one sentence to start a racial "bickering match" on this subject--i.e. that the peoples of the oasis were black. Then you posted information that, obviously, was a cut and paste of a logical explination of the skeletal finds at the oasis. Notice, in 6 paragraphs in her statement, race is not mentioned. This is an example of an interesting, on-track paper, that does not flaunt any racial overtones. All the people who post here that foam at the mouth trying to "prove" their racial concepts should take note of scientific, logical thoughts--that should be the starting point for all postings on this site.
[This message has been edited by Osiris II (edited 05 March 2004).]
Posts: 174 | From: Long Beach, CA U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Osiris II: This is just what I have complained about in several postings. It took you one sentence to start a racial "bickering match" on this subject--i.e. that the peoples of the oasis were black. Then you posted information that, obviously, was a cut and paste of a logical explination of the skeletal finds at the oasis. Notice, in 6 paragraphs in her statement, race is not mentioned. This is an example of an interesting, on-track paper, that does not flaunt any racial overtones. All the people who post here that foam at the mouth trying to "prove" their racial concepts should take note of scientific, logical thoughts--that should be the starting point for all postings on this site.
[This message has been edited by Osiris II (edited 05 March 2004).]
Relax Osiris. The post did mention that the man seemed to be sub-Saharan African, and the the woman was typical Nile-Valley. Still, you gripes are easily solved by posting other topics.
Now on to the good stuff. Ausar, this seems to show that the civilization that would eventually settle along the Nile was far more spread out then we may have originally thought. I wonder now if the similarites amongst some modern cultures and AE are because AE's spread out, or that after the Sahara dried up, a single civilization was dispersed into a number of smaller groups.
quote:Originally posted by Kem-Au: Relax Osiris. The post did mention that the man seemed to be sub-Saharan African, and the the woman was typical Nile-Valley. Still, you gripes are easily solved by posting other topics.
Now on to the good stuff. Ausar, this seems to show that the civilization that would eventually settle along the Nile was far more spread out then we may have originally thought. I wonder now if the similarites amongst some modern cultures and AE are because AE's spread out, or that after the Sahara dried up, a single civilization was dispersed into a number of smaller groups.
It seems Osiris wants to discuss 'Arithmetic' but just don't bring up the subject of numbers... We already know of this 'single civilization' from the Ancient Egyptians themselves. Their words "TaKhent" - Land of the Beginning and "kentu hon nefer" - Founders of the perfect order (ie, civilization) aren't just idle terms. It expresses their lineal descent from this place. This civilization, long referred to as 'Ethiopia', is merely being authenticated by modern science(ie, TaSeti). We have known all of this since Herodotus. (PS: the etymology of Ethiopia is African,and not Greek)
quote:Originally posted by neo*geo: Wow. Didn't take long for this topic to switch to a discussion about racial affinities...
Neo*Geo, I understand what you mean. When talking about any civilization it is a common thing to talk about the founders of that civilization. However, when it comes to AE its shrouded in "mystery" about who these people were when there is more than enough facts pointing to their origins, who they were as a people, and how they viewed themself as a people. But Egyptology (as a whole) refuse to accept the AE's self definition of who they are and were. No other civilization is this way of thinking seen, NONE. If how the AE's viewed themself is accepted then there would be no discussion about race. I honestly look forward to the days when the race of AE does not matter because its no longer a "mystery" anymore. Don't we take the word of other civilizations when they define themself? Why is Egypt different?
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Kem-au said:I wonder now if the similarites amongst some modern cultures and AE are because AE's spread out, or that after the Sahara dried up, a single civilization was dispersed into a number of smaller groups.
Ausar responds: I believe that this is true that the early Nubian and Egyptian population absorbed Saharan populations that melted with the already existing Nile Valley. we also observe at the same time when the Sahara dries many of these populations move into Western Africa around the Niger river. I believe the Sahara is the origin for both Egyptians and Western Africans. This makes sense to me after my evaluation of pre-dyanstic Egypt and the Saharan cultures. This might be also why so many Western African groups claim origins in the East as opposed to just being indigenous to the region.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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