Generally, a happy anniversary | Harvard Gazette
December 4, 2010
Giza Presentation at Avignon Forum
November 21, 2010
I have just returned from presenting Giza 3D with my colleagues from Dassault Systèmes at the Cultural Forum in the Palais des Papes in Avignon. See below for photos, and for the Avignon Forum website, please click here.
Harvard Gets Immersive VR with Giza 3D | 3D PERSPECTIVES
November 15, 2010
Society of American Archivists: Giza Archives Project Wins 2010 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award
May 24, 2010
In recognition of outstanding efforts to promote its vast holdings of early 20th century archaeological expedition records, the Giza Archives Project at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the 2010 recipient of the Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award.
Part of the Giza Archives Project staff at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. From left to right: Hayley Lacis, Rachel Aronin, Catherine Pate, Rus Gant. Photo by Peter Der Manuelian, May 10, 2010 (PDM_IMG05491).
The Giza Archives and its accompanying web site provide unprecedented access to the records of the MFA archaeological expeditions of the early 1900s. The digitization of thousands of glass plate negatives, expedition diary pages, object records, maps, and manuscripts provides people from all over the world the opportunity to virtually explore Giza and learn more about the history of archeology. Additionally, the web site’s creative display, visual search, and high resolution zoom features effectively use today’s technology to provide insight into the ancient Egyptian civilization during the Pyramid Age. Scholars and enthusiasts alike now have immediate access to important primary research materials that previously had been difficult, and in some cases impossible, to examine.
Since 1973, the Hamer Kegan Award has recognized individuals or institutions that have increased public awareness of archival documents for education, instructional, or other public purposes.
For more information:
http://www.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-hamer.asp
The Giza Necropolis in 3D – Dassault Systèmes and the Giza Archives Project at the MFA
April 21, 2010
Giza 3D – Real-time 3D – Dassault Systèmes.
Dassault Systèmes, a world leader in 3D software solutions and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), one of the world’s most important encyclopedic art museums, today announced that they will join forces in a strategic innovation partnership to bring the power of industrial and experiential 3D to the domain of archaeology.
For more information, see the press release by clicking here.
VIDEO – Laser Scanning the Sphinx | drhawass.com – Zahi Hawass
February 5, 2010
New Tombs Found at Giza
January 11, 2010
More on the So-called “Caves” at Giza
September 16, 2009
Recently Andrew Collins and Nigel Skinner-Simpson have been in the press concerning “newly discovered” caves and catacombs underneath the Giza plateau. An informative short blog entry by Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, has also recently appeared. Dr. Hawass sets the record straight, and indicates the location of the tomb in question, an undecorated rock-cut series of rooms west of the pyramids and the Western Cemetery (see fig. 1; to zoom in on this Quickbird satellite image on the Giza Web site, click here).
Figure 1. Quickbird satellite image of the Giza plateau, showing the location (marked in red) of two of the rock-cut tombs in the northern cliffs (January 5, 2009).
He mentions the excellent reference work known in the field as the Topographical Bibliography by Porter and Moss. The Giza pages from volume III of Porter-Moss are available on our Giza Digital Library page. However, that volume was last updated in 1974. The Giza Web site contains much more up-to-date information on the Giza plateau, and includes links to photographs, drawings, plans, manuscripts, and other documents absent from the Porter-Moss volumes.
Members of the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, directed by George Reisner, were indeed aware of several rock-cut tombs during their excavations between 1904 and 1947. One of them lies about 160 meters north of “Harvard Camp,” as the Expedition’s dig house was then called. The tomb in question is one of three rock-cut structures in the cliffs, numbered by the Expedition as NC1 (for “North Cliff”), NC2, and NC3. In fact, Reisner designated NC3 as the air raid shelter for his Egyptian workmen during World War II. (Reisner himself and other crew-members used tombs on the east side of the Great Pyramid when the air raid sirens sounded.) I recently visited the area with two sons, now in their 70s, of one of Reisner’s foremen (see fig. 2).
Figure 2. The facade of rock-cut tomb NC3, looking south (Peter Der Manuelian, January 16, 2006; PDM_06228).
The view from the façade looks north towards the location of the future Grand Egyptian Museum site and greater Giza (see fig. 3).
Figure 3. The view northwards from the entrance to tomb NC3 (Peter Der Manuelian, January 16, 2006; PDM_06235).
The Harvard-MFA Expedition also produced preliminary plans of these North Cliff tombs. Tomb NC2 does not yet have an individual tomb record on the Giza Archives Project Web site, but it will eventually, as will its companions NC1 and NC3. In the meantime, one archaeological drawing at the MFA in Boston, by Expedition draftsman Alexander Floroff, is dated April 29, 1939. The inked version of this pencil drawing (figure 4 below) shows the façade of NC2 (see figure 5), the pillared chamber behind, and the long corridor extending further to the south.
Figure 4. Plan of rock-cut tomb NC2 by Nicholas Melnikoff (1939). Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Figure 5. Entrance to tomb NC2 during recent SCA excavations, with the pyramid of Khafre in the background (SCA photo).
A new clue as to the possible original date of this rock-cut tomb is provided by a pencil note added to the inked version of this plan, drawn by Nicholas Melnikoff. It is written in the hand of MFA Egyptologist William Stevenson Smith, and notes: “Rock cut tombs due north of Harvard Camp. Used as air raid shelters during War. In 1930 I saw traces of painting on columns in central one. Had the idea that this was an 18th Dyn. tomb or N.K. W[illiam] S[tevenson] S[smith] 1946” (see fig. 6 below).
Figure 6. Handwritten notation by William Stevenson Smith added to drawings of tombs NC1, NC2, and NC3 (1946). Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Old plans and notes such as these indicate how valuable archaeological archives can be in reconstructing the history of the Giza Plateau. In fact, we are preparing about 5,000 additional archaeological drawings from the MFA for the Giza Web site before the end of 2009. And more documents, from our partner institutions in Berkeley, Berlin, Cairo, Hildesheim, Leipzig, Philadelphia, Turin, and Vienna, are on the way. Our work is an international collaboration that is steadily growing to cover the entire Giza Necropolis, not just the Harvard-MFA Expedition concession.
In recent years, the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, under the direction of Dr. Wafaa el-Saddik, has mounted a number of important exhibitions highlighting the discoveries of foreign excavations working in Egypt. This month, it is the Japanese who are honored. Dr. Sakuji Yoshimura has worked in Egypt for forty years, and made many valuable contributions to our knowledge of ancient Egypt. On the blog page of SCA director Dr. Zahi Hawass, you will find a statue of a lion with the cartouche of Khufu. Dr. Yoshimura’s particular interest is Giza and the Great Pyramid. And the best may be yet to come, as his team has been entrusted with raising and restoring the second boat of Khufu.
Aerial view of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, showing the location of the excavated (left) and unexcavated (right) boat pits (marked with white arrows).
This boat is still buried on the south side of the Khufu pyramid, just west of the famous first boat, and discovered by Kamal el-Mallakh in 1954. One of the best-preserved examples of naval architecture from the ancient world, the Khufu boat is well worth the price of admission; don’t miss it if you go to Giza!
The first Khufu boat pit, with of its huge limestone covering slabs. The Khufu Boat Museum is constructed directly on top of the boat pit, with the reconstructed boat displayed above it.
Dismantled and carefully placed into the pit in hundreds of pieces by the Egyptians of Dynasty 4, the Khufu boat was painstakingly reconstructed in the late 1900s by distinguished Egyptian conservator Hagg Ahmed Youssef. It represents one of the greatest conservation triumphs in all of Egyptian archaeology.
Hagg Ahmed Youssef as a young man, working on the curtain box (and reproduction) of Queen Hetepheres (G 7000 x), discovered in 1925 by the Harvard-MFA Expedition. This photo was taken on May 12, 1939.
Mr. Youssef also worked for George Reisner’s Harvard-MFA Expedition in the 1920s, and helped to restore much of the Hetepheres furniture discovered in 1925. I was privileged to meet Mr. Youssef during my first season at Giza, in August 1977.
The famous Khufu boat, as it is displayed today at Giza, beside the Great Pyramid.
There is talk of moving the boat northwest to the Grand Egyptian Museum, and dismantling the current structure on the south side of the Great Pyramid, which some find to be an eyesore that distracts from the ancient site. Meanwhile, what will the second boat pit reveal? A camera placed into the pit in 1987 by National Geographic revealed much more insect damage to this vessel. Today, another camera provides a live feed into the boat. Dr. Yoshimura will have his hands full with this important project; we wish him all success!
Side view of the cabin of the Khufu boat. Was it built solely for Khufu's funeral, or used in everyday life? One clue: there are no windows to the cabin!
President Obama at Giza with Zahi Hawass
June 5, 2009
In addition to my comments in the previous post about President Obama’s visit to Giza, click here for Zahi Hawass’s description of the 80-minute tour of the site.
President Obama talks with Zahi Hawass on the north side of the Great Pyramid (June 4, 2009).
For a video look at the US President’s visit to Giza, this clip was posted on the official Web site of Zahi Hawass.
President Obama Visits Giza
June 4, 2009
President Obama toured the Giza Pyramids today. Zahi Hawass showed him around, and also took him into the tomb of Qar, a small Dynasty 6 subterranean chapel with engaged statuary on the east side of the Great Pyramid.
Zahi Hawass tours President Obama around the Pyramids.
This tomb, numbered G 7101, was excavated in 1924-25 by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. The tomb is published in Giza Mastabas 4: The Mastabas of Qar and Idu, by William Kelly Simpson, and a free download of the entire publication is available on our Giza Digital Library page.
The tomb of Qar (G 7101), as it appeared shortly after excavation, on December 6, 1924. Today the tomb is protected by a modern roof.
The president saw a hieroglyphic her face, a sign that is carved frontally, and he remarked that the prominent ears reminded him of himself.
The hieroglyphic face sign pronounced 'her' (sounds like "hair") that President Obama saw in the tomb of Qar.
This hieroglyph, often standing for the preposition meaning “because, on account of,” is a standard sign, and was not intended to show the likeness of Qar himself.
Interior chambers and statues in the tomb of Qar, as it appears today.
For more photos of this tomb, simply type “G 7101″ in the Search box on the Giza Archives Web site. Qar’s tomb page also contains QTVR 360-degree interactive panoramas showing every chamber of the tomb.
For those ever-curious about hidden chambers inside the Great Pyramid, the wait won’t be much longer. Zahi Hawass plans his next steps for July 2009. Click here for more.
“How do I . . . ?”
April 27, 2009
Database engines are are curious beasts. Even the best of them doesn’t always return results the way you’d expect. And sometimes it’s hard to know just how much information is actually available, “hidden” behind a Web site’s homepage.
The new "how to" videos page is full of searching tips, tutorials, and general demos about the Giza Archives
To help make the Giza Archives easier to navigate, and to highlight some of the more exciting bells and whistles lurking on these pages, we are pleased to offer a series of short videos on how to search for the many types of photos, documents, and other items on www.gizapyramids.org. Available from the “Search the Archives” menu (choose “How to Use this Web Site“), these videos should show you how to get to where you’re trying to go. Let us know what you think!
