Amazing Find Pieced Together in Egypt!
Egyptologists have made a most unusual find by piecing together 14 fragments of wood: The first frontal portrait of a pharaoh that is either Tuthmosis III or Hatshepsut. Other portraits of Egypt's ancient leaders were always depicted from a profile view. Reuters reports that the portrait was painted on a wooden board and found buried in the courtyard in front of a tomb in the southern town of Luxor, also known as Thebes. The board, covered in creamy-yellow stucco, features a drawing created in black paint with a square red grid of the kind used to copy proportions.
Jose Manuel Galan, an Egyptologist who works at the Spanish Supreme Council for Scientific Research in Madrid, explained to Reuters that Hatshepsut, who was the mother of Tuthmosis III and was often portrayed as a man, ruled concurrently with her son for about 20 years from 1503 BC. A frontal portrait of a pharaoh is highly unusual because this view was reserved exclusively for foreigners, underworld demons and other weird creatures, and the dwarf god Bes. Galan thinks this newly found royal portrait was either a sketch for a statue or a casual drawing, possibly done by an art student who wanted to show off.
One fragment of the portrait was found in 2002 and the other 13 were located in 2003. It has taken a full year to piece together the 14 fragments and prepare the board to be exhibited in a Luxor museum. The unusual frontal portrait is definitely a pharaoh because the "nemes" crown is depicted on the head. This is a trapezoidal cloth garment exclusively worn by kings. "We find the closest parallel to this object in a wooden board in the British Museum and the way their eyes, their lips, their nose, their figures are done is very peculiar to this time," Galen explained to Reuters in an exclusive interview.
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Archaeologists have also made an astounding discovery in an ancient Egyptian tomb near that of the boy king, Tutankhamun. Click to find out what it is!