Althouse: "[A]rchaeologists have unearthed the upper half of a double limestone statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago."

October 2, 2010

"[A]rchaeologists have unearthed the upper half of a double limestone statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago."

A news item that would be so much better with a photograph.

UPDATE: Pic.

17 comments:

Tyrone Slothrop said...: Those silly Egyptians-- making statues and then burying them.; 10/2/10, 11:01 AM
traditionalguy said...: Now that was a a Theocracy. The Pharaoh was the high priest, the god itself, and the head of state. And they had a tradition of extra powerful super natural magic that is still the envy of would be rulers practicing at it today. Nefertiti, consort of Pharaoh Akhenaten, was the most powerful woman ever known, and not bad looking for a brunette, either.; 10/2/10, 11:34 AM
Anonymous said...: Try here.; 10/2/10, 11:45 AM
Zach said...: It's a pretty standard pharaoh statue. Hard to believe that thirty years later everybody would look like pregnant space aliens during the Amarna period:

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=ubuntu&channel=cs&biw=1440&bih=738&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=akhenaten&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

And thirty years after that, it would be back to normal for Tutankhamen.; 10/2/10, 12:40 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Zach

Interesting period. Akhenaten used his godhood to foment an appalling heresy, appalling to the Egyptian establishment to the point that they probably offed him, even in the afterlife. I just learned a cool phrase from the Wikipedia article, damnatio memoriae, the likely treatment for Jimmy Carter.; 10/2/10, 12:57 PM
Mutnodjmet said...: This site will take you to a story about 2 black granite states of Amenhotep III found earlier at this site. It has a great image of one of them.

http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/03/amenhotep-iii-statues-found.html; 10/2/10, 1:12 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Oligoncella

Thanks for the link, but I think the Observer could use some competent editing:

Headline:

Egypt unearths 3,400-year-old granite statues

Lede:

CAIRO Archaeologists have unearthed the upper part of a double limestone statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago.

FWIW, I think it's granite.; 10/2/10, 1:21 PM
Christy said...: What is a double limestone statue? Amenhotep III ruled long and prospered. More statues of him than of any other pharoah.

Hmmm. First discovery out of Egypt in forever that didn't have Zahi Harwass's name all over it. Wonder if he is ailing?; 10/2/10, 2:53 PM
William said...: Those Pharaohs all look alike. That's what comes from marrying your sister.....Amenhotep believed in one and only one god. He was history's first recorded monotheist. After his death, his religion went underground in the way of paganism during early Christian times. There is speculation that the Jews in Egypt may have picked up on this religion--hence Moses growing up in the Pharaoh's house. If true, Amenhotep, not Abraham, is the father of us all ....It's interesting to note that the greatest artists of the period created their works with the expectation that they would be buried and unseen by mortals for all eternity. In medieval times, artists worked for the greater glory of God, but their works were on display for all to see. The Egyptians did them one better.; 10/2/10, 3:32 PM
Ralph L said...: So, One god, but two statues of Pharaoh. No wonder they deleted him, it was so confusing.; 10/2/10, 7:04 PM
Christy said...: William, I believe you are confusing Amenhotep III, he of the statue, with his son Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his devotion to Aten. While it may have been a genuine spritual awakinging, conventional wisdom is that this was an attempt to break the power of the priests of Amun.; 10/2/10, 8:18 PM
AST said...: Never heard of "double limestone."

Or was it a double statue with only one upper half.

And did he rule 3400 years ago or is that how long ago the statue was made?

wv: repact; 10/2/10, 8:59 PM
Revenant said...: The Pharaoh was the high priest, the god itself, and the head of state.

My understanding is that by the New Kingdom period, the Pharaoh's religious authority had been diluted significantly in favor of the priest class. I could be misremembering tho.; 10/3/10, 3:46 AM
Johanna Lapp said...: We have reports from some guy named Shelley of two vast and trunkless legs of stone. Can we get the CSI boys to do a DNA comparison here?; 10/3/10, 9:43 AM
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