

 
 
Dear friends,      (7 September 1999)
 
Thanks for your article "Charlatans and Egyptology." Perhaps you could help me 
determine whether a story, taken from class work in in an American public 
school, is history or fiction. Here it is:
 
***********************
 
The Pharoah Khufu
 
Khufu was a wealthy Egyptian boy, raised traveling over his father's land, 
hunting and fishing. The time came for him to enter the temple school, where he 
faced a series of tests. The priest that greeted Khufu on the temple steps 
stared straight into his eyes, but Khufu just met his stare. The second priest 
made Khufu take a vow of silence for seven days, and he entered the temple. He 
would not be able to leave for three times seven years. First Khufu was locked 
in a small chamber with only one passageway out. The way became so small he was 
crawling like a snake on his belly. The second test was a dark passageway filled 
with icy black water. A room of fire was Khufu's third test, but the fire was 
just reflected on mirrors and did not burn Khufu. After these tests Khufu was 
able to enter the temple school. Khufu spent three times seven years in the 
temple school learning all the Egyptian knowledge of the time. At the end of the 
21 years, priests conducted Khufu through one final test. They put him in a 
sarcophagus and he fell into a death like sleep for three days. In this way 
Khufu obtained the knowledge of Osis. After leaving the school Khufu became a 
priest, and finally a pharoah. He was the pharoah known for building the largest 
four sided pyramid at Giza.
 
Can you tell me if this story comes from an Egyptian historical source? Another 
possibility is that it is drawn from occultist fiction. Any assistance that you 
can render would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Dan Dugan
Secretary, PLANS
 
NOTE BY THE MODERATOR - As to your query, as an Egyptologist, I've never heard 
that story before, besides, by its mention of sort of "initiation tests", it 
resembles the many occultist books that invent things without any consideration 
for the facts. There is so much of that in these "New Age" days ! As I said, I 
would suggest people stick to publications by reputable scholars from reputable 
academic institutions, otherwise you'll risk repeating occultist nonsense, to 
your discredit. Best wishes and thank you for posting this message so we can 
clarify things.
 
 
 
Arte Egipcio      (17 de Setiembre de 1999)
 
Soy un estudiante espaol, que presenta sus respetos y pide ayuda. Debo 
presentar un trabajo sobre el arte egipcio y no s como debera plantearlo, en 
Espaa no hay muchos sitios donde se pueda consultar sobre el tema. Mi nombre es 
Luis y vivo en Barcelona. Gracias.
 
 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR - Es un tema muy amplio y no s la extensin y la profundidad 
que su trabajo debe tener pues no mencion si es para una universidad o para 
alguna otra institucin, sin embargo puedo decir que conviene empezar con 
algunos conceptos generales sobre la naturaleza del arte y de la expresin 
artstica, luego yo pondra conceptos generales sobre el arte egipcio en 
particular destacando sus caractersticas principales que lo definen frente al 
arte de otros pueblos, luego aclarara que al ser Egipto un pas de una 
geografa muy particular, haba diferenciaciones regionales en el arte como en 
todo lo dems y adems el arte evolucion y vari de acuerdo a las diferentes 
circunstancias histricas a lo largo de miles de aos. El perodo de Amarna 
especialmente ofrece muchas oportunidades de comentarios interesantes. No debe 
Ud. tampoco descuidar el tema de los cnones en la historia del arte egipcio y 
su evolucin. Debe Ud. describir las principales caractersticas de la pintura, 
la escultura, la arquitectura (civil, religiosa y funeraria) y las llamadas 
artes menores, tambin conviene tratar las tcnicas de los artistas y los 
elementos usados en su trabajo y su vida como artistas y cmo se vea la 
profesin de artista en la sociedad contempornea. En fin, un tema muy amplio, 
para el que Ud. puede encontrar muy buena bibliografa en cualquier biblioteca 
importante del mundo. Yo le sugiero leer el clsico de Michalowski sobre el arte 
egipcio y si lee ingls, el de W. Stevenson Smith "Art and architecture". Para 
los cnones, Harris, "El legado de Egipto" y luego otras obras para redondear el 
tema, sin dejar de lado, por supuesto, sus propias ideas sobre el tema ya que 
supongo que se espera que Ud. no solamente copie lo que otros dicen sino que 
aporte, con cautela y fundamentando, sus propias ideas.Espero que estos 
comentarios le resulten tiles. Algn otro de los visitantes de este Foro desea 
ayudar al amigo con sugerencias y recomendaciones? 
 
 
 
Hello,          (22 September 1999)
 
I would be glad if you take a look at our new site:
 
"Carlo Vidua and the Travellers of 1800 in Egypt"
 
http://www.doit.it/Egypt
 
Any comment is welcome !
 
Marco Maroccolo (Italy)     (egypt@aleph.it)
 
 
 
Thousands of mummies...        (1 October 1999)
 
I've read in the papers recently about the discovery of hundreds (and the 
possible existence of thousands, they even talked of 10,000) ancient Egyptian 
mummies in the desert, west of the Nile Valley. The articles made much of this 
discovery, as they usually do when something captures their fancy for some 
reason, but from the pictures they included, I don't think those mummies are in 
very good condition or are very good examples of mummification in ancient Egypt, 
they seemed very late in date. I was surprised about the numbers being the 
location out in the desert. I'd like to hear any opinions you may have on this 
subject.
 
Jimmy        (jimmyspa@my-deja.com)
 
 
 
Re: Thousands of mummies...        (3 October 1999)
 
From the little that can be gathered from newspapers and internet discussion 
lists, I agree with you that this discovery was probably blown out of 
proportion. However, although the mummification process was not at its best in 
Roman times, that's when these mummies seem to come from, the very numbers, if 
it's confirmed that they are many thousands, will give validity to statistical 
studies of physical anthropology on them, diseases, congenital conditions, etc., 
so I think they are a treasure from that point of view. Also, they were found in 
the oasis of Bahariya, northwest of Egypt, and I think that their numbers, if 
they don't belong to a very wide chronological range, could be due to the Roman 
policy of peopling the oases with colonists from the valley, after some 
disasters thay had there due to overcultivation. At least, this is what 
apparently happened in other oases such as Dakhla, where the archaeologists have 
found evidence of big settlements in that period and as far as I can remember, 
that is also the explanation thay gave for such population shifts at the time. 
If you want to confirm this, I advise you to read the reports by the Canadian 
missions in JSSEA, I hope the Egyptians will properly publish this discovery 
soon, but I don't hold my breath, some extremely important excavations such as 
Zaki Saad's, for example, at Helwan, were NEVER properly published and some 
people who tried to retrieve at least the excavation notebooks, reached nowhere. 
Many people complain about Petrie's rushed publication style because he left 
much out, but sometimes one wonders and wishes that a compromise could be 
reached so that people can get the information reliably and quickly.
 
J. M. Duarte        (jmduarte@i.com.uy)
 
 
 
Dear Dr. Alberto Bianchi,       (7 October 1999)
 
I am a student at Cal State University Long Beach. I am looking for some 
information for a presentation that my group and I are putting together. If you 
could give me some insight into Egyptian society, how they play as children 
and/or adults, in the past or present. Also any elements of play that might be 
apparent in religious ceremonies, work methods, or any cultural events. The 
class I am taking, Universality of Play, is a study of the importance of play, 
evolution of play and how it has been viewed throughout time. Any special 
stories or information you can share with me about Egyptian culture will be 
greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
 
Christy Gutmann        (cgutmann@csulb.edu)
 
 
 
Dear Christy,       (10 October 1999)
 
Although you addressed your request to Dr. Bianchi, I'd like to help with some 
ideas of my own too. I assume that you're familiar with the classic book by J. 
Huizinga, "Homo Ludens" that takes playing and games beyond the surface of what 
appears to be a form of entertainment for children and grown-ups. If you haven't 
read it, I think you should and select from it what it's still relevant today, 
because this book is quite old but still valuable and thought provoking.
Toys are known in ancient Egypt form the earliest times, some objects that must 
have been toys, were found in prehistoric graves occupied by children. From the 
Early Dynastic period, quite elaborate game sets were recovered from the tombs 
of adults. From historical sources such as tomb reliefs and paintings, we know 
that the ancient Egyptians, young and older, indulged in many kinds of forms of 
playing, some like the ones children in Egypt still play, not involving any 
artifacts, such as lying on the ground and without seeing, being hit by someone, 
whose identity they had to guess, different sorts of athletic games that 
involved gymnastic ability, others involving the use of balls that were thrown 
and had to be caught, and of course, games such as senet (a kind of board game 
that seems to have been a combination of chance and skill), dogs and jackals, 
the serpent game, etc. Little girls had all sorts of dolls, some with movable 
limbs, as well as figures of animals, also movable.
You'll find an interesting article on the subject in one of the Uruguayan sites, 
at:
 
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/5607/
 
look for the second page of the English version.
I hope these brief notes help.
 
Julio Rosas       (jurosas@my-deja.com)
 
 
 
Some remarks on Toys and Games in ancient Egypt       (12 October 1999)
 
In the case of little girls, they played with dolls of several kinds, carved 
from wood or made of clay or other materials. Some of them often had wigs and 
were dressed with elaborate clothes. They had their cots and even beds. Some of 
the ones made of clay had a rounded base instead of feet which allowed to play 
by pushing them and they would perform a sort of dance. Others had limbs that 
could be moved by pulling strings, which was also done with models of dwarfs or 
pigmies and of animals such as hippopotamus or crocodile.
Girls also played by dancing after tying a ball or a mirror to their tresses, 
thus they contorted their bodies and did a spin with Hathorian reminiscences. 
The iconography also shows four girls, holding the hands of two older ones with 
their backs touching and so they performed acrobatic movements.
As for the boys, they played several games involving greater physical capacity. 
In one of them, each embraced the one preceding him, the first two with their 
feet touching, then they held hands and made efforts to topple their opponent. 
They also jumped over obstacles and at other times, they sat on the floor facing 
each other with extended arms and legs, trying to pull their opponent. Another 
game seems to have been similar to the modern leap frog. 
In the harim, young girls were very expert in several juggling feats and dancing 
involving difficult movements which were much appreciated by those who watched 
them.
Adult men practiced games which were forms of athletic ability. One of them, 
very risky, involved a man with a stick placed between two fighting bulls, who 
tried to prevent the animals from getting at each other.
Game boards were played already from the earliest dynasties and were the 
entertainment of adult well-to-do people. The one called "the serpent" involved 
the mhn snake whose name meant "the coiled one" and had a mythical significance. 
The snake's body was divided in spaces and had its head at the centre and the 
tail ended outside the circle. The players threw some balls trying to reach the 
first spaces in the spiral so that they could place their pawns there. 
The serpent was linked to the underground nightly voyage of Ra in whose boat we 
find it completely covering the god's shrine. The fact that the snake appears 
coiled (as we see it in the uraei of kings of the Late Period) is probably due 
to its extreme length, necessary so that it can fulfil its protective function.
In this game the pawns were made in the shape of lions (three male and three 
female), all in the attitude of rest, it is reasonable to think that they are a 
representation of the solar god Ruty, present here with sexual dimorphism in 
order to facilitate the game.
There was also another game called "hounds and jackals", which I think in fact 
implied two different species of dogs, in which a board of various shapes was 
used, which had a palm tree in its centre. Around it and at the edge of the 
board, sticks were placed which ended in the shape of the head of one or other 
of the animals. It seems this game consisted of the accumulation of points 
scored by the players in relation to the signs at each location. It cannot be 
ruled out that this game had some kind of religious implication.
The most important board game seems to have been the one called "Senet" which 
involved a board divided in two parallel lines of spaces with a total of 30 
boxes. In these, signs were painted connected to the voyage the dead had to make 
in the netherworld. Thus, boxes 16 and 27 meant being thrown into the fire pit 
that awaited the condemned souls or their death by drowning. The senet board 
rested on four lion legs. In some cases gold, ivory and ebony were used to make 
these elaborate boards. The number of pawns varied between 14 and 26 and had a 
conic or cylindrical shape. Two sticks were also used and their sides were 
painted with different colours. It was not only a game of chance but also of 
skill so that your pawns would land in the favourable boxes and also to dislodge 
those of your opponent. This game, practiced at first as a form of 
entertainment, later (mainly during the New Kingdom) took a mythical importance 
and so many sets were found in royal tombs. It seems that the player who could 
win the game on this earth, had somehow assured his or her place next to Ra in 
his nightly journey through the netherworld and eternal life in the solar 
paradise, thus avoiding a possible condemnation in the judgment hall of Osiris.
 
Some suggested readings:
C. Aldred, "The development of ancient Egyptian art".
J. J. Castillos, "El Egipto Faranico".
Ch. Desroches Noblecourt, "Tutankhamen".
P. Montet, "Daily life in ancient Egypt in the times of Ramesses".
P. Piccione, "In search of the meaning of senet", Oriental Institute 
publications.
L. Reinhardt, "Kulturgeschichte der Nutztiere".
 
Alberto Bianchi       (juancast@yahoo.com)
 
 
 
Solicitud       (17 de Octubre de 1999)
Hola amigos egiptlogos de Uruguay, quisiera preguntarles si vieron el video de 
National Geographic, "Egipto: en busca de la eternidad", si lo han visto, me 
podran hacer un pequeo resumen con lo que trata?, porque donde yo vivo no lo 
consigo en ningn lado y tengo que hacer un trabajo.
Gracias.
Roberto Bernasconi        (nahuelb@netverk.com.ar)
 
 
Re: Solicitud       (20 de Octubre de 1999)
El video de la National Geographic, "Egipto: en busca de la eternidad", es una 
muy buena produccin que est entre los ms populares de nuestra Videoteca 
social, por ser ameno e informativo a la vez. Dura aproximadamente una hora y 
comienza con imgenes de la vida rural del Egipto de hoy, luego imgenes de las 
grandes pirmides y la esfinge de Guiza, despus de algunas breves notas sobre 
los orgenes del estado egipcio antiguo, nos muestra los trabajos de W. 
Fairservis en Hieraknpolis para rescatar los vestigios de ese pasado remoto. 
Luego se traslada al templo de Karnak y a Abidos donde nos presenta a Omm Sety, 
un peculiar personaje dentro de la egiptologa, que dedic sus ltimos aos al 
estudio de los templos de Abidos. De regreso en Luxor, la accin se traslada a 
la Chicago House donde Lanny Bell dirige los trabajos de la revisin epigrfica 
de los templos de Luxor para preservar textos e imgenes por medio de fotos y 
dibujos fieles. A continuacin se describen las decoraciones de las tumbas y el 
trabajo de Kent Weeks para su adecuada preservacin. Despus la accin se 
traslada a El Cairo y se mencionan los principales acontecimientos de la vida 
independiente moderna de Egipto. Finalmente, se describen los trabajos de 
rescate de los templos de Abu Simbel. La excelencia de las imgenes, una 
constante de la National Geographic (y quizs su punto ms fuerte), esta vez se 
complementan con comentarios sobrios e informativos.
Luis Surez        (luis-suarez@bigfoot.com)
 
 
 
Pedido       (25 de Octubre de 1999)
Hola, mi nombre es Lorena, soy una estudiante de 1er. ao de liceo del San Juan 
Bautista. Estudiamos Egipto en Historia y Geografa as como tambin hicimos 
trabajos sobre este pas en otras materias. Ahora debo preparar una carpeta 
sobre arte egipcio y no tengo casi material. Seran Uds. tan amables en 
proporcionarme algo sobre este tema? Se lo agradezco desde ahora.
Gracias.
Lorena Cobertti       (cobertti@adinet.com.uy)
 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR: Hallars mucha informacin e imgenes en colores en nuestras 
25 pginas de Egiptologa en Internet (algunas en espaol y otras en ingls), 
que estn centradas alrededor de:
http://members.spree.com/juancast/
Tambin en el enlace marcado como "Recomendamos" en nuestra pgina "Maravillas 
del Egipto Milenario" hallars mucha informacin. Espero que te resulten tiles 
para tu propsito.
 
 
 
The Great Pyramid        (6 November 1999)
 
I maintain a site that showcases the discoveries and ideas in the book called 
Pharaoh's Pump. This site talks about how the Great Pyramid was built.
This is the book that is so highly regarded in the recent best selling book, 
5/5/2000 : "Ice, the Ultimate Disaster" by Richard W. Noone, and other books.
Please check out the site at:
http://www.thepump.org
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions or comments 
let me know.
Warm regards,
Steven Myers          stevenm@harborside.com
 
 
Re: The Great Pyramid        (7 November 1999)
 
Dear Mr. Myers,
I visited your webpage and read its contents. I regret to say that although I 
respect your ideas, I found your theory similar to others by engineers and other 
such professional people specialized in disciplines that have very little to do 
with the humanities, history in particular, who study ancient monuments and come 
up with apparently brilliant ideas that explain how those monuments were built 
and what purposes they served.
Unfortunately, they do not seem concerned with the historical side of the 
matter, that is, providing proof that the monuments served such purpose as 
documented by the builders themselves in texts or images, and that the technical 
knowhow (hydraulics in this case) was current in those ancient times. Also you 
seem to imply that the Great Pyramid served a purpose other than a strictly 
funerary one, which is contradicted by all the archaeological evidence 
surrounding it and the transmitted traditions that Herodotus and others picked 
up when they visited Egypt.
I wish you people would use your undoubtedly sound knowledge of technical 
matters to more constructive purposes and always had the sense to consult and 
seriously bear in mind the findings of archaeologists after so many years of 
research. Ingenious explanations will always remain merely that and no more 
until engineers, astronomers, geologists, etc. grasp the basic fact that if any 
archaeologist were to dabble in those technical matters (which they have the 
sense not to), they would expose themselves to rejection and perhaps even 
ridicule. The contributions of scientists can lead to dramatic advances in 
Egyptology provided they work side by side with egyptologists, allowing their 
expertise in their field guide your research so as not to go against all we know 
of ancient Egypt.
Since the times of Piazzi Smyth (a widely respected astronomer) the world has 
seen these ingenious theories enjoy brief popularity and then be forgotten 
because their creators ignored this basic rule of commonsense and decided to go 
on a tangent of their own. Historically speaking, that something is (or was) 
possible, doesn't turn it into a proof that it really happened.
Respectfully yours,
 
J. J. Castillos        juancast@yahoo.com
 
 
 
Egyptians' Ethnicity        (15 November 1999)
I've always been curious as to the ethnicity of the ancient Egyptians. Are they 
the same race of people that inhabit the country today, or were they more 
Africoid?  Thank you for responding!
Othretic1@aol.com
   
NOTE BY THE MODERATOR - I don't know what you mean exactly by the word 
"Africoid" but current thought is that they were much the same as today's 
Egyptians. You can find an article on the subject in one of our pages at:
Papers on Egyptology
 
I hope the information contained therein convinces you that they were a very 
mixed population, as it was common in most ancient civilizations. Perhaps ethnic 
diversity is a positive force, the good old "melting pot" idea?
 
 
 
Re: Egyptians' Ethnicity        (18 November 1999)
Thank you for responding to my curiosity. But still I have my questions and 
fascinations about this. In a class that I am taking, they show a lot of the 
Egyptian artifacts and sculptures and temples. The replicas that the ancient 
Egyptians created of their kings and queens were of Africoid people. The people 
of today's Egypt, I was taught, were the descendants of the Arab conquerors, is 
that not true?  I do agree that white racists have hidden a lot of information 
from the world to perpetuate black inferiority. And I believe that in the past 
they put the image in the world's mind that African people were primitive and 
savage by nature. But however, I do find it hard to believe that the ancient 
Egyptians were a mixed people. How can you say that the original people of a 
land were mixed? Mixed civilizations always come after a migration. In my class 
all the pictures shown of the temples and structures are of definite Africoid 
people. The replicas show thick lipped, broad nosed people. All the great 
statues that haven't been vandalized show the thick lips and broad nose. Today's 
current Egyptian population do not display those features. It was also conveyed 
in class that the sphinx's nose was taken off because of its broadness 
indicating the trait of the Africoid people. This was supposed to be done by 
Napoleon's armies as one of the early seeds of racism. And I now believe that a 
lot of the vandalism that has occurred in the past took place for a racist 
purpose. Because, think about it, why were the noses the main feature that was 
knocked off of statues? Could you if it's possible send me, or direct me to some 
more pictures so I can do a little research for myself, so I can perhaps print 
it out and take it back to my class?
 
Othretic1@aol.com
  
NOTE BY THE MODERATOR-  You have to be careful, I don't know what classes you're 
taking but people can select objects in order to convey a wrong impression. You 
have to bear in mind that the "Arab conquerors" were very few compared with the 
vast Egyptian population, so they simply can't have changed it much. All the 
physical anthropological evidence shows that from early times the Egyptians were 
a mixed population, which makes sense given their geographic location. Still, 
there are people that distort the historical evidence for their own purposes, I 
suggest you don't fall in that trap. Blacks were at all times part of the 
Egyptian population and they even got to be kings in certain times, but to say 
that the ancient Egyptians were Black is clearly untrue. I also believe there is 
much to be proud in being Black, although white racists have always tried to 
hide this and the highly evolved African ancient cultures in Nigeria and 
Zimbabwe (and probably others we don't know about, waiting to be discovered and 
studied), prove the point. Besides, it seems man evolved from early African 
ancestors, so there is plenty for Black people to be proud about. So it's not 
necessary for them to falsify history and make the ancient Egyptians into what 
they were not. Look further and you'll see that there were Egyptians of all 
kinds in the past. Perhaps you were informed by people with a clear prejudice to 
prove something. As I said before, being Egypt at a crossroads between Africa 
and Asia, migrations did occur and that's clearly present in the human remains 
from the earliest times. Any good book of the many there are on ancient Egyptian 
art and painting showing human types will prove my point. Same as today, in 
ancient Egypt, the farther south you went, the darker the skin and other 
features. I don't quite agree with the reason for the alteration to the sphinx's 
nose, I think it is driving the issue a bit too far. In this subject there are 
many people who try to prove a point with complete disregard for the facts. 
Don't let them fool you, just look for the real situation.
Good luck in your studies.
 
 
 
New Website on Egypt and Magazine         (8 December 1999)
 
Note we have launched a new Egypt-specific component of our web site. You can 
view it at:
  
http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/
 
"click" on the Egypt Revealed button. Also note that we are launching a new 
magazine (EGYPT REVEALED) that will cover Egyptian archaeology (will also have a 
small travel component as well -- will also include archaeology and related 
topics from the surrounding regions).
  
Please tell others who might be interested. Thanks.
 
Jeff Leach
President, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Scientific American Discovering Archaeology
1205 N Oregon St.
El Paso, Texas 79902
tel: (915)533-8503
fax: (915)544-9276
jleach@elp.rr.com
www.discoveringarchaeology.com
 
 



 
Ancient Egyptian Mathematics        (11 December 1999)
 
Hello,
You don't know me but I was wondering if you could be of some help. Is there any 
information that you could give me about the ancient Egyptians being the first 
civilization to really study and use math? Also, any information on how they 
incorporated math with the building of pyramids would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time. I'm so sorry to be a bother to you. Good day!
Respectfully,
 
Emma B.        EmmaG707@aol.com
 
 
Re: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics        (15 December 1999)
 
Dear Emma,
Yes, the Egyptians were among the first to develop a practical knowledge of 
mathematics for their everyday needs, they used the decimal system of notation 
that we nowadays still use (computers, for instance, use the binary system, the 
ancient Mesopotamians used a very different one based on the number 60) already 
from 3,000 BC (the Narmer Palette). Although they didn't reach as far as we 
know, the abstraction that later the Greeks would achieve, they knew basic 
geometry and arithmetic, they could calculate volumes of different geometric 
entities, they could work with fractions, they knew a value of Pi of 3.16, 
better than the one used by others at the same of time of just 3. They used this 
for all their activities, also for building the pyramids.
You'll find more information in a specialized forum on ancient mathematics, at:
 
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/epigone/historia_matematica/
 
I hope this helps.
Sincerely, 
 
Jos        jjvalent8@yahoo.com
 
 
Los Charlatanes y la Egiptologa        (23 de Diciembre de 1999)
 
Creo que de cierta manera tienen ustedes razn, pero en cuanto al ejemplo del 
poder de una pirmide les digo que estn muy equivocados, pues yo mismo hice 
construir una pirmide de gran tamao y puedo decirles que en pleno verano, la 
poca ms hmeda de Canad, yo puse dos zanahorias a secar dentro de la 
pirmide, hace dos aos, y an las tengo, aunque cada da se secan ms y ms sin 
pudrirse. Tambin puse un ramo de hojas de menta y ah estn completamente 
deshidratadas con todo su sabor e incluso a veces las he utilizado para hacer 
t, despus de 24 meses.
Un saludo desde Canad,
 
Armando Hidalgo        homar@colba.net
 
 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR - Ud. tiene derecho a creer lo que desee, pero nosotros nos 
remitimos a nuestro sentido comn que nos dice que no hay razn para que una 
forma geomtrica en particular preserve o altere o acte de un modo distinto a 
otras formas geomtricas y a los hallazgos de la Universidad de Guelph que 
dieron "el beso de la muerte" a esas teoras extraas. Pruebe con un cubo o un 
icosaedro o una simple copa invertida y ver que el resultado es el mismo...
 
 
World Pyramids and Ziggurats                (2 January 2000) 
  
I've read in books about the pyramids by which Egypt is famous but also pyramids 
or similar monuments have been found in ancient America (Mexico, Peru) and in 
Mesopotamia (Iraq). I've found it difficult to tell the difference between them, 
if there was any, why did they build them? What were they used for? Since the 
explanations I've seen in some literature seem a bit far-fetched, to say the 
least, I'd like to know more about this subject, which I haven't found discussed 
at all in the serious books I've read so far.
  
Andrs Surez                suarez@starting-point.com
  
  
Re: World Pyramids and Ziggurats                (10 January 2000)
  
In my humble opinion, they represent the human wish to build mountains in which 
to worship their gods or to procure means to enable the souls of their dead 
rulers to ascend to heaven. In ancient Egypt that seems to have been the main 
purpose, also perhaps to show to everybody the power of the ruler who could have 
them built. In Mesopotamia, it seems they were just temples, high places to 
worship the gods, let's not forget that it is a rather flat land (especially 
southern Iraq) and they had to build their own mountains. In America, they seem 
to have fulfilled that purpose and also occasionally acted as tombs, as in 
Mexico. The difficulty some people have to imagine those ancient peoples 
building them with rudimentary technology merely reflects their modern inability 
to realize what ancient people could accomplish with limited resources. G. 
Belzoni, the Italian explorer who worked in Egypt at the beginning of the 18th 
century, illustrates this point very well. In his book of memoirs, he tells us 
that once he tried to move a huge fragment of a colossus near the river to ship 
it to Alexandria and then to London, England, but was unable to make it move one 
inch, even after trying all his European skills. Then a group of local peasants 
came and offered to help. To his astonishment, with the assistance of some long 
sticks and using their lifelong peasant techniques, they managed to move the 
object to where Belzoni wanted. Illiterate, apparently primitive natives had 
accomplished what the modern European couldn't do. It is a sobering example, 
isn't it? Let's not write off ancient people's abilities just because we can't 
figure out how effective their simple but practical resources can be.
  
Duart                (duart@my-deja.com)
  
  
Elementos extranjeros en el arte arcaico egipcio        (24 de Enero de 2000)
 
En algunos de los objetos fechables al Protodinstico egipcio se pueden apreciar 
motivos que no son originarios de Egipto, como por ejemplo en la Paleta de 
Narmer los dos monstruos mitolgicos con los largos cuellos entrelazados, en el 
cuchillo de Gebel el Arak, el hroe mitolgico dominando o estrangulando dos 
leones, etc. En la bibliografa antigua se reconoca que esos motivos eran de 
origen mesopotmico, donde abundan tales representaciones, de modo que se 
menciona en ellos una temprana influencia mesopotmica sobre Egipto que llev 
probablemente a la aparicin de la escritura en Egipto, la arquitectura en 
ladrillo secado al sol de especiales caractersticas y otros elementos. En los 
libros ms recientes sobre tal perodo en Egipto ya no se habla ms de estos 
temas y no veo por ninguna parte la supuesta influencia mesopotmica. Qu ha 
causado el cambio de postura? Por qu no se hallan en Egipto posteriormente ms 
ejemplos de esa influencia? Hay autores populares que ahora hablan nuevamente de 
una conquista de Egipto temprana por invasores mesopotmicos, es sto 
aceptable?
 
Zoser        (zoser8@my-deja.com)
 
 
Re: Elementos extranjeros en el arte arcaico egipcio    (26 de Enero de 2000)
 
Yo creo que debemos tomar en cuenta que esos motivos artsticos tempranos en 
Egipto slo aparecen en algunos objetos y luego nunca ms los vemos en el arte 
egipcio, fueron aparentemente una moda pasajera, quizs producto de copias 
efectuadas por artistas egipcios de decoraciones de objetos provenientes de 
Mesopotamia, en una poca en que el arte egipcio estaba definiendo sus 
parmetros de estilo y forma. 
La supuesta conquista mesopotmica en esa poca, me cuesta creer que alguien la 
est sosteniendo an hoy da, pues la arqueologa egipcia reciente ha aventado 
definitivamente toda posibilidad de conquista extranjera, tal como la definieron 
Petrie y otros posteriormente, pues no se ven por ningn lado en Egipto rastros 
de una dominacin de ese tipo en esta poca tan temprana. Hay una continuidad 
innegable que habra sido rota en el registro arqueolgico si hubieran ingresado 
a Egipto conquistadores extranjeros. 
Segn parece, en el Protodinstico egipcio (Naqada III) parece haber habido una 
colonizacin egipcia del sur de Palestina, que por razones oscuras ces a fines 
de este perodo (Bronce Temprano I). As que lejos de una conquista de Egipto 
por extranjeros, la situacin parece haber sido justamente lo contrario... 
Muchos autores populares generalmente se manejan con bibliografa anticuada y no 
creen necesario enterarse del estado actual de las cuestiones, pues 
probablemente piensan que su pblico jams detectar sus gruesos errores de 
apreciacin con tal que su prosa sea lo suficientemente florida y entretenida. 
Creo que el pblico debera disfrutar de lo ameno de la narrativa de esos 
autores, pero no otorgarles mucha confianza que debera reservarse para obras 
ms serias.
 
Vignolo        (luisvignolo@yahoo.com)
 
 
Black Pharaohs - Egypt's Nubian Rulers         (8 February 2000)
 
This message announces the publication in February 2000 of a new book entitled 
The Black Pharaohs - Egypt's Nubian Rulers, presenting in-depth research, fresh 
analysis, and perhaps a controversial reassessment of the Kushite kingdom in 
ancient Egypt.
Scroll down for more information: 
Many thanks for taking the time to read this. We hope the information is of 
interest. If you know anyone else who may be interested, please feel free to 
pass this information on to others. 
Yours truly,
Robin Page
The Rubicon Press
57 Cornwall Gardens
London SW7 4BE
United Kingdom
Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 207 937 6813
Book Description
The Black Pharaohs - Egypt's Nubian Rulers
How did modern Sudan's ancient civilisation conquer, rule then lose its dominion 
over Pharaonic Egypt? The Rubicon Press is pleased to announce the publication 
of a new book, The Black Pharaohs - Egypt's Nubian Rulers - a major historical 
and archaeological study on the rise and fall of ancient Egypt's one-time black 
rulers. The Black Pharaohs is a detailed and provocative reassessment of the 
Kushite kingdom, which, at its height, stretched from the Mediterranean far into 
modern Sudan, while influencing large parts of Black Africa and much of western 
Asia including Syria and The Lebanon. Written by Dr Robert Morkot, a renowned 
scholar and Egyptologist specialising in the ancient Kushite civilisation, The 
Black Pharaohs describes the extraordinary scope and influence of the Kushites 
at a time of remarkable social, cultural and military upheaval in north and 
north east Africa and the Near East. For nearly one hundred years, between 750 
and 650 BC, the Kushite kingdom was one of the greatest powers on earth. The 
Kushites were seen by the princes of western Asia, notably the kings of Israel 
and Judah, as their defenders against the might of the Assyrian empire. 
Inevitably, their championing of the Asiatic kingdoms brought the Kushites into 
conflict with the Assyrian empire. It was the strength of Assyria combined with 
the self-interest of the Libyan dynasts of the Egyptian Delta that eventually 
forced the Kushites out of Egypt, putting a stop to Nubia's Pharaonic ambitions. 
In this major work of more than 350 pages and 116 illustrations, Robert Morkot 
examines Nubia's legacy in ancient Egypt, describing the impact of this often 
under-estimated people. Where did the powerful Kushite kingdom come from? How 
was it able to conquer Egypt and gain such influence in western Asia? What 
influence did the Kushites wield in Egypt and amongst Egypt's neighbours in 
Africa? Until recently, the Kushite kingdom was thought to have burst from an 
historical void. But, over the past decade, there has been a considerable 
reassessment of the origins of this powerful state. Indeed, the archaeology of 
this period of Nubian history has become the focus of heated academic debate. 
Much of this debate and subsequent controversy has focussed on the minutiae of 
archaeology. As a leading scholar in this field, Dr Morkot seeks to give a more 
expansive view of the era, incorporating a great deal of new evidence and 
interpretation. The Black Pharaohs takes a much broader approach, placing the 
Kushite kingdom in its greater historical context, and in a long tradition of 
formidable opposition to Egyptian southward expansion. As well as significant 
Egyptian and Nubian evidence, the mass of Assyrian texts, some of which have 
been published only recently, sheds further light on the cultures and conflicts 
of these ancient super-powers. Altogether, this book draws on fresh evidence and 
analysis, and presents a new, and perhaps controversial, reassessment of the 
Kushite kingdom.
Publication Details
Full title: The Black Pharaohs - Egypt's Nubian Rulers
Hardback ISBN: 0-948695-23-4 Price Hardback: UK 29.95 US$ 59.95
Paperback ISBN: 0-948695-24-2 Price Paperback: UK 19.95 US$ 29.95
Pages: 352  Illustrations: 116 b&w and line drawings 
Format: 234 x 156 mm
Date of Publication: February 2000 (Rights available.)
 
 
Research Questions        (4 March 2000)
  
> Prof. Castillos,
>
> Thank you so much in advance for responding to my request. I'll really 
appreciate it.
> Thanks again.
>
>Niki
> _________________________________________________________ 
 
> QUESTIONS
>
> 1. Are there any classes that you can take in high school that apply directly 
to egyptology?
>
Unfortunately not. Egyptology is a highly specialized branch of history and 
archaeology, so you only get general glimpses in History at the High School 
level. It would be as unlikely as finding in High School courses on brain 
surgery or particle physics, they are usually graduate studies at universities.
>
> 2. Are there any classes that you can take in high school that apply 
indirectly to egyptology?
>
Yes, History, Archaeology, Classics, modern languages (you'll need these since 
besides English, German and French are the official languages of Egyptology).
>
> 3. What does it cost to go to college to become an egyptologist?
>
It depends on the college. I'd say about the same as for other careers, a few 
thousand dollars a year, depending on how many courses you take, etc.
>
> 4. What is the amount of time that you go to college for?
>
It also depends on the university, but I'd say on average about 4 years for a 
BA, another 2 to 3 for your MA and then, another 2 or 3 for your PhD, as a 
minimum.
>
> 5. Are there any requirements for getting into college to become an 
egyptologist?
>
It depends on the university, but I think requirements are not so high as for 
other careers where you find many applicants and selection is a must. With your 
High School Diploma and fairly good marks, you should be all right.
>
> 6. What are the graduation requirements?
>
First you have to take as an undergraduate courses on Anthropology, History, 
Archaeology, etc., with a major in one of those, then you take up Egyptology as 
a graduate student, the times are roughly as outlined above.
>
> 7. Can you get financial aid?
>
Again, each university has its policies, some do or you can get student loans 
you can repay later. You have to find out for yourself.
>
> 8. Are there any technical requirements to become an egyptologist?
>
I don't know exactly what you mean, but I think that being observant, 
meticulous, organized, with some mathematical skills since statistics are 
becoming more important every day, are basic, besides having the ability to work 
with others (archaeology is teamwork now) and to be a motivator and a leader.
>
> 9. Are there any internships available?
>
As before, you have to find out at your intended college.
>
> 10. Is there any training that is taught while on a job?
>
Yes, you usually go on field projects with your professors.
>
> 11. Is there any experience needed to become an egyptologist?
>
Not really.
>
> 12. Do you need to have any special skills?
>
Well, I answered this above.
>
> 13. What are the average amount of hours you work a day?
>
Well it depends on your responsibilities. As a professor, with my teaching 
duties, my research, administrative duties, student guidance after regular 
hours, lectures, popularization duties, etc., I'd say about 10 - 12 hours a day, 
but I just get carried away...
>
> 14. Explain what traveling is like for you and where you most often go?
>
Egypt is the destination and to wherever your studies take you. Also to 
important libraries and museums in Europe or North America in search of data.
>
> 15. Are there any physical requirements?
>
I don't think so. A strong constitution helps if you will work in the field, 
sometimes in the middle of nowhere.
>
> 16. What are extra duties that come with the job? (ex. committees, meetings, 
community service, etc.)
>
Like I said, you are often expected to popularize your subject because 
universities need to entice students to take up your subject or you'll be out of 
a job, also if there is an Egyptian collection there, you may become involved in 
its conservation and publication, if they can't afford their own people for 
that. You must set some limits to what they will try to get you into, otherwise 
you won't be able to cope trying to do everything and achieving nothing.
>
> 17. Are there any standards? (ex. drug testing, etc.)
>
No, unless you are into (recreational) drug consumption and/or dealing which is 
severely penalized in Egypt.
>
> 18. Is there any independent vs. group planning and productivity?
>
You'll find that the old fashioned individual approach will bring you worse 
results than teamwork, besides you'll most likely be expected to integrate 
yourself into existing ongoing projects. As a general rule, if you don't do 
research, publish little and just teach, if your position is not tenured, you'll 
soon be chucked out. If you managed to achieve tenure, they'll relegate you to 
one side and ignore you, not a nice prospect for anyone. Although productivity 
is less demanded than in business, there is a minimum expected from you.
>
> 19. Do you have to do a lot of paper work? If so, what kind?
>
Yes, but because of shortage of staff in our Uruguayan Institute which has very 
limited financial resources, in bigger places you'll have secretarial staff 
available to take up many of the menial chores, but some of it you'll have to do 
anyway. You have to write your papers, reports, prepare your classes, reply to 
all your mail, etc.
>
> 20. How flexible is your schedule? Why or why not?
>
It's not flexible at all, because of personnel shortages here.
>
> 21. Is your job stressful? Why or why not?
>
Any job is as stressful as you let it be. To the outside pressure and the one 
from within yourself, you must set limits that have to do with efficiency and 
job satisfaction, but without barring you from the normal human being 
recreational activities that will make you a relaxed and balanced person, in 
control of his/her life, as it should be.
>
> 22. What is you salary?
>
I will not answer questions of a personal nature, but in the States I think that 
you may start at about $ 20 - 30,000 a year and if you land a tenured teaching 
position in a good place, you might earn $ 40 - 50,000 a year.
>
> 23. What was you starting salary?
>
I answered this above with an approximate estimation for the United States.
>
> 24. What are the terms of your sick, vacation, and maternity leave?
>
No such thing in our Institute with its honorary teaching positions, but I 
understand they can be quite generous at most universities.
>
> 25. What are perks that come with the job?
>
Respect, admiration for the subject you deal with that is very popular 
everywhere and rubs off unto you, the chance to travel and meet different people 
and see exotic places.
>
> 26. What will the demand for egyptologists be in 7-10 years?
>
I think it will be stable, as people retire or pass away, newcomers will take 
those jobs, besides countries that are just now opening up to Egyptology like 
China, are offering positions to qualified foreigners.
>
> 27. What is the size of the field now and what will it be in the future?
>
I think it's a very restricted area of knowledge that will never become a mass 
activity like medicine or law, but a certain number of talented people will 
always be required to dig, study, publish, teach and preserve the countless 
monuments of Egypt and the objects at the Museums.
>
> 28. What is the competiveness of the field?
>
I think very high, positions are relatively few and the aspiring graduates many, 
but there is always room for bright people who want to leave their mark and 
contribute to the common goal.
>
> 29. What are the areas of availability and what will they be in 7-10 years?
>
I'd say that the destination of the new experts will be universities as teaching 
staff, museums as curators, archaeological institutions dealing with fieldwork, 
even travel agencies as guides and many others that might come up as we move 
towards an increasingly service-oriented world in which people will enjoy more 
time for leisure and longer retirement years to fill with new hobbies and 
interests.
I would like to say that some of my opinions may be debatable, so I would 
suggest you get feedback from other colleagues in order to have a balanced view. 
Good luck with your project !
 
J. J. Castillos         (juancast@yahoo.com)
>
> Thanks a lot,
>
> Niki Spear         (lvedbyall@hotmail.com)







Conservation and Restoration         (7 April 2000)
 
I'm an undergraduate student at an American university. I've visited your many 
pages on Egyptology and I think they are very good. I'd like to bring up a 
subject that I don't have very clear in my mind. In some books and on TV I see 
that much work is going on to ensure the adequate conservation of ancient 
Egyptian monuments and artefacts. In others I read that they are involved in the 
restoration of a tomb or a temple, I know it's two different things, but which 
one is best? Or do they go together? What are the current views on this?
 
Dave          (davzsig@yahoo.com)
 
 
Re: Conservation and Restoration          (9 April 2000)
 
Dave, you just stumbled on a very great problem in archaeology and egyptology. 
People want to see objects and monuments in all their original beauty and glory, 
but if they have suffered damage over the millennia, should they be restored to 
their full splendour? I think definitely NOT, because restorers in most cases 
have to guess or invent (it doesn't matter how professional they are and how 
closely they try to reproduce the original) the features that have been damaged 
or disappeared and we can never be sure if that's the original way the object or 
building was conceived. Restoration is in fact falsifying the ancient work of 
art and should be avoided. What is really required is conservation by which all 
the modern techniques that technology has produced, are used to prevent further 
decay as much as possible. In a nutshell, that's the problem, IMHO.
Sincerely,
 
Jimmy         (jimmyspa@my-deja.com)
 
 
Re: Conservation and Restoration          (11 April 2000)
 
I agree with the above. In fact, in the case of Egypt and no doubt it must be 
the same elsewhere, government officials are mainly concerned about tourism that 
brings the money they need for their budgets so they can stay in office, and 
tourists want to see beautiful things, not cracked artifacts with parts missing 
or monuments that resemble 3D puzzles after an earthquake, so in order to please 
them they sometimes do instead of the required conservation, daring restorations 
that often are so crude even the untrained eye can detect the forgery, because 
that's what it ends up being.
It is simply outrageous and should be stopped. Look what they did to the sphinx 
in Giza a few years ago, they put cement to fill the gaps and cracks and the 
difference between the original stone and the modern cement contracting and 
expanding differently under the blazing sun or the chilly nights in the desert, 
caused more harm than good, they had to do urgent work to save the crumbling 
monument. But I reckon it would be very difficult to tell them so, after all, 
they own it all and probably take with suspicion remarks by foreigners who took 
so much away, still I've been told that even people there are complaining about 
these practices. Let's hope it changes their attitude.
 
Luis Surez         (luis-suarez@bigfoot.com)
 
 
Re: Conservation and Restoration                 (21 April 2000)
I can tell you a similar story that has to do with the crazy urge some people 
have in Egypt to restore things at any cost. I visited Egypt about eight months 
ago and I wanted to see places I hadn't seen before, less crowded, if you know 
what I mean. So, I made my way to Abusir so I could see those pyramids I'd been 
told were in quite bad condition. In one of the funerary temples there (with 
garbage everywhere from tourists that nobody seems to collect and dispose of) I 
saw a column that had been "restored" with cement, just like they had done to 
the Giza sphinx, so you can imagine how long will this last. Maybe in a few 
years there won't be any column left, just a pile of debris... It seems that 
since few people bother to visit this site, nobody has noticed (or cares) about 
what someone did to the poor ruins.
J. Rosas          (jurosas@my-deja.com)
 
 
Arquitectura egipcia                 (5 de Mayo de 2000)
A raz de un trabajo para la facultad, estudio Arquitectura en la Universidad de 
Buenos Aires, para la materia Historia, comenc a buscar informacin sobre la 
cultura de Egipto, con especial nfasis en su arquitectura y encontr la pgina 
diseada por ustedes. Por tal motivo decid escribirles y tomarme el 
atrevimiento de solicitarles, en el caso de que les interese, tengan la molestia 
de enviarme informacin sobre este tema, ya que me es bastante difcil 
encontrarlo en la red. Muchas Gracias.
Dolores Ruiz         (doloresruiz@fibertel.com.ar)
 
Re: Arquitectura egipcia                (6 de Mayo de 2000)
Creo que hallars los datos que buscas en la siguiente pgina:
ENSAYOS DE EGIPTOLOGA
Hay entre los trabajos publicados all uno precisamente sobre el tema de la 
arquitectura.
Luis Vignolo                 (luisvignolo@yahoo.com)
 
 
Comentarios        (15 de Mayo de 2000)
 
Difcilmente puede uno creer en la "popularizacion" de un tema, en Amrica 
Latina escribiendo en ingls... Desde Colombia saludos por nuestra mutua 
aficin.
Cordialmente: 
 
Jorge H. Martnez        johemase@avan.net
 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR: Comprendemos su molestia por nuestras pginas en ingls, que 
otros han expresado tembin, pero el mundo va ms all de Amrica Latina, siendo 
nuestra intencin entablar un dilogo autnticamente internacional. De modo que 
al ser el idioma predominante en Internet por amplio margen, el ingls, que 
tambin es el lenguaje internacional de los viajeros y los negocios, es natural 
que aunque incluimos numerosas pginas en castellano, la principal y otras estn 
en ese idioma, para que podamos llegar al mayor nmero posible de personas. Si 
visita Ud. el vnculo de estadsticas de visitantes en nuestra pgina principal, 
comprobar que esta poltica nos ha permitido tener visitantes de ms de 60 
pases quienes ahora saben que en Uruguay existe y se estudia la egiptologa.
 
 
Comercio y maquillaje          (20 de Mayo de 2000)
 
Hola:
Mi nombre es Alberto y me interesara saber la forma como se comercializaba en 
el antiguo Egipto, es decir qu cosas intercambiaban por otras, quienes se 
maquillaban y cmo conseguan el maquillaje. Gracias.
 
Alberto Burneo         albertoburneo@yahoo.com.mx
 
Re: Comercio y maquillaje         (23 de Mayo de 2000)
 
El comercio en el antiguo Egipto hasta una poca muy tarda no us la moneda, 
que se introdujo en la Baja poca al hacerse universal su circulacin en el 
Cercano Oriente. Anteriormente en Egipto todo se venda o compraba en base al 
trueque, o sea, se acordaba que una vaca, por ejemplo, vala igual que 25 piezas 
de cermica y as se intercambiaban las cosas. Como referencia cuando no se 
quera efectuar tal cambio directo, se usaba el peso de cobre u oro, si una vaca 
vala tantos gramos de oro, por ejemplo, se poda cambiar por otros objetos cuyo 
valor de referencia respecto al oro fuera el mismo. Si bien conceptos como el de 
inflacin y otros similares no podan tener curso en el antiguo Egipto con su 
sistema econmico no-monetario, los precios de las cosas variaban por otras 
circunstancias polticas o econmicas y eran distintos para diferentes pocas.
El maquillaje en el antiguo Egipto, usado por hombres y mujeres, consista en 
sustancias minerales (galena, malaquita, etc.) que se molan y mezclaban con 
aceites u otros productos para aplicarlos al rostro. Se usaban desde la 
prehistoria, como lo atestiguan las numerosas paletas de piedra sobre las que se 
molan los minerales, halladas en tumbas de esa poca.
Espero que esta informacin sea til.
 
Ramtis         ramtis@my-deja.com 
 
 
Necesito informacin sobre las antiguas familias de Egipto          (13 de Junio 
de 2000)
 
Soy la mam de un adolescente que necesita informacin de la forma en que 
estaban conformadas las familias en la antigedad en Egipto. He recorrido todas 
o casi todas las pginas que he podido en Internet y no he podido encontrar la 
informacin que buscamos, supongo que tendrn dicha informacin, los papeles que 
jugaban cada uno, si eran poli o monoteistas como as tambin si eran poli o 
monogmicos, si eran patriarcados o matriarcados y toda la informacin que 
tengan sobre esto. Desde ya muchsimas gracias. Ojal que revisen la pgina hoy, 
ya que esta informacin la necesita para maana 14 de junio. Otra vez gracias.
Laura Bo          (lauritabo@hotmail.com)
 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR - Lamento que hayan esperado hasta ltimo momento, pero 
procurar contestar de apuro. Las familias eran en general mongamas, excepto el 
rey que poda tener un harn pues era un dios y era importante que tuviera una 
descendencia abundante para que de ella surgiera su sucesor, importante en una 
poca en que la mortalidad era alta y la expectativa de vida corta. Eran 
politeistas, adoraban a muchos dioses. Si bien los hombres de hecho tenan ms 
poder que las mujeres, los derechos que estas ltimas gozaban eran mayores que 
en toda la regin en esa poca, podan heredar, tener su propio patrimonio, si 
haba divorcio, retenan sus bienes y la dote. No haba matrimonio oficial, era 
una unin libre refrendada para fines legales por testigos en caso de necesidad. 
Hubo varias reinas mujeres (faraonas) ya desde los orgenes de esa civilizacin. 
En las representaciones hombres y mujeres, marido y mujer, eran representados en 
un plano de igualdad, junto a sus hijos o solos, la mujer pasando a menudo un 
brazo familiarmente sobre los hombros de su esposo. Espero que esto les sirva.
 
 
Good and bad books on ancient Egypt         (25 June 2000)
 
I'm posting this because I'm very interested in ancient Egypt and I buy as often 
as I can books on this subject. I've noticed that many are very useful, mostly 
those by well established names of people who work and teach at prestigious 
institutions. But I've often bought other books (and I've watched films produced 
for TV) in which some people who claim authority on the subject, although I'm 
not familiar with their names, say things that disagree with what I read in the 
former kind of literature, usually quite startling supposedly new discoveries, 
suppressed, so they say, by the academics. This confuses me and I don't know 
what to believe since I like to keep an open mind on everything. Is there a way 
we laymen can detect what is acceptable and what isn't? I don't like to accept 
general and poorly substantiated refutations of ideas that seem reasonable 
enough, but on the other hand, I don't want due to my basic ignorance on this 
subject to appear as believing (and passing on, which is worse) views that may 
prove to be far-fetched and unreliable. I'd like to hear comments on the subject 
from anybody in this Forum. Thanks for your time.
 
Henry Slater          (henslater@yahoo.co.uk)
 
 
Re: Good and bad books on ancient Egypt          (28 June 2000)
 
Well, Henry, welcome to the club !   I'm sure many of us share your anxiety when 
so many hundreds of new publications on ancient Egypt are published every year 
all over the world. I myself go by the author and the institution he or she 
belongs, whether it's an accredited university or institution or not, but since 
people who don't belong to such can still come up with acceptable discoveries, 
ideas or views, we should have some kind of guidelines to assess what we are 
being told. One good example of such, beyond what I could tell you, is something 
that a prominent scientific writer said some time ago. I'm posting it below: 
 
Carl Sagan's
Baloney Detection Kit
 
Based on the book "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark" 
published by Headline 1996.
 
The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting 
fallacious or fraudulent arguments:
 
Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts 
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all 
points of view. Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there 
are no "authorities"). Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with 
the first idea that caught your fancy. Try not to get overly attached to a 
hypothesis just because it's yours. Quantify, wherever possible. If there is a 
chain of argument every link in the chain must work. "Occam's razor" - if there 
are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler. Ask 
whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be 
false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others 
duplicate the experiment and get the same result? 
Additional issues are:
Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the 
person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects. Check 
for confounding factors - separate the variables. 
Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric:
Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument. Argument from 
"authority". Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the 
decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavourable" decision). 
Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence). Special 
pleading (typically referring to god's will). Begging the question (assuming an 
answer in the way the question is phrased). Observational selection (counting 
the hits and forgetting the misses). Statistics of small numbers (such as 
drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes). Misunderstanding the nature 
of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on 
discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!) 
Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but 
scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they 
are not "proved"). Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down. 
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - 
confusion of cause and effect. Meaningless question ("what happens when an 
irresistible force meets an immovable object?). Excluded middle - considering 
only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look 
worse than it really is). Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle 
("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?"). 
Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the 
effects (give an inch and they will take a mile). Confusion of correlation and 
causation. Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it 
easier to attack.. Suppressed evidence or half-truths. Weasel words - for 
example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around 
limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find 
new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the 
public".
 
Perhaps these concepts will be useful when you doubt whether anything you read 
or hear is legitimate scientific or other thinking or "something else"... which 
in Egyptology, unfortunately is plentiful as some people hungry for fame and 
recognition dabble in subjects they hardly know anything about.
 
Liz          (archer44@my-deja.com)
 
 
Egiptologa Sudamericana         (18 de Julio de 2000)
 
Encontr hace poco unas pginas argentinas de egiptologa donde, entre otras 
cosas, se proporcionan datos sobre la egiptologa sudamericana, para acceder a 
esta informacin, hay que ir al siguiente sitio:
 
AMIGOS DE LA EGIPTOLOGA DE ARGENTINA
 
Esta gente ha puesto aqu datos sobre las colecciones del Museo de La Plata en 
Argentina y muchos otros datos de inters que no se encuentran en otros lados. 
Intentan emular a la Asociacin homnima de Espaa y creo que lo hacen sin 
copiarles su estilo pero manteniendo la tradicin de establecer vnculos entre 
instituciones afines y proporcionar informacin til a los navegantes de ese mar 
agitado que es Internet.
 
Luis Surez          (luis-suarez@bigfoot.com)
 
 
Muy buena pgina sobre Amarna - Very good Amarna Page      (2 August 2000)
 
I would like to suggest to those interested in the fascinating Amarna Period of 
ancient Egypt to visit the link given below which has a collection of very 
interesting pictures of the main characters and their city.
Quiero sugerir a todos aquellos interesados en el fascinante perodo de Amarna 
del antiguo Egipto, que visiten una pgina muy interesante con excelentes fotos 
de los personajes principales y de su ciudad, el enlace es el siguiente: 
 
AMARNA PICTURES - IMGENES DE AMARNA
 
Alfie         (alfie5198@my-deja.com)
 
 
Dear Sir or Madam,        (25 August 2000)
I'm looking for translated texts (in English or Dutch) from original documents, 
concerning the daily life in Ancient Egypt.
Do you know any books and authors where I can find this information?.
Thank you in advance.
Respectfully,
Ingrid Van Bogaert         ingrid.vanbogaert@pandora.be
Antwerp, Belgium
 
 
NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR: Actually there are hundreds of such books, but you 
could do well by starting with:
- PRITCHARD, "Ancient Near Eastern Texts" (ANET). 
- TYLDESLEY, "Daughters of Isis" (mainly about women). 
- LICHTHEIM, "Ancient Egyptian Literature", ( 3 Vols.). 
- MANNICHE, "Sexual life in ancient Egypt". 
All can be found in any good library. These will get you going and from the 
bibliography quoted in them you can undertake other readings.
 
 
Para informacin         (5 de Setiembre de 2000)
Mi nombre es Viria Sols, soy de Costa Rica, estudi psicologa, razn por la 
cual desconozco muchsimo de la cultura e historia egipcia, sin embargo, por 
motivos personales, estoy muy interesada en tratar de obtener informacin de un 
pueblo antiguo llamado: Carmaneo, o los carmaneos. Si ustedes tienen alguna 
informacion sobre donde puedo obtener libros o lecturas sobre este pueblo, se lo 
agradecer infinitamente.
Muchas gracias. 
Viria Sols          vmsolis@cariari.ucr.ac.cr 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR - Jams he visto nada sobre tal pueblo mencionado como 
teniendo nada que ver con Egipto, pero quizs algn otro lector de este Foro 
pueda ayudarla.
 
 
EGYPTOLOGY         (24 September 2000)
Hi, I'm a student at a Florida (USA) university and I'd like to share some 
thoughts on Egyptology. I'll appreciate comments from any of you.
Egyptology
First Discipline Report
My Thoughts: It appears to me that Egyptology, while it is a distinctively 
specific discipline, owes its birth to Archaeology. In fact, its existence as a 
separate academic discipline was made legitimate by the foundation of linguistic 
understanding, through the discovery and hieroglyphic translation of the Rosetta 
stone, which forever set it apart from the generic archaeological study of the 
physical place Egypt. Hence, once the written history of the people could be 
read, comprehended, and interpreted Egyptology became an individual field of 
social science with unlimited sub-fields or specifications.
A. Definition(s) of Egyptology
According to The World Book Encyclopedia: The study of ancient Egypt is called 
Egyptology, and experts in the field are Egyptologists (144).
According to Prof. Juan J. Castillos, Director of the Uruguayan Institute of 
Egyptology: "definitions can vary but I would define Egyptology as a specialized 
branch of History of a regional nature that deals with Egypts past, from the 
earliest times to the end of the Byzantine Empires rule in the country, in the 
7th Century AD. This subject encompasses ancient Egyptian history, archaeology, 
the language and all the manifestations of that civilization". (Castillos, Prof. 
Juan J., Online E-mail. 17 Sept. 2000.)
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian society through the perspective of 
various social disciplines in order to understand such social phenomena as 
religious beliefs, government structures, literature and art, education 
(including law and medicine), economics, etc. (Author)
B. Objects of Study Examined
Much of their [Egyptologists] knowledge comes from studying the architecture and 
other arts of ancient Egypt. Excavations of pharaohs tombs,  (World Book 
Encyclopedia 144).
The 1,000 or so Egyptologists cover fields such as language, literature, 
history, religion, art, which for the modern world would be separate. Sadly, 
original work in Egyptology has become an almost exclusively academic pursuit.  
activity in Egypt is a small part of the total work there is often surprisingly 
little contact between the field and the study. (Baines and Malek 29) 
C. Problems/Questions Approached
Egyptologists, while unearthing mummies or studying the Pyramids, are concerned 
not only with dating these objects accurately within their historical time 
periods, but may seek to solve such sociological questions as; What prompted 
the ancient Egyptians to build such monuments? Were they objects of civic 
pride, like statues in modern day public parks or did they serve as religious 
works, attempts to gain closeness to mythical gods? Could they have been 
political or military statements proclaiming Egypts dominance over prospective 
enemies? Or, Why was such care taken in the mummification and burial, within 
Pyramid tombs, of some while others remains were less cared for? The 
Egyptologist may ask: Was such special care and artistry preserved for a 
certain economic or social class of people? How does such an economically 
based theory relate to the masses of ancient Egyptian citizens? How would the 
common person feel, in ancient times, as s/he gazed at the great monuments? 
Bratton has suggested such monuments, as the Pyramids, may have been statements 
proclaiming: The basic belief of the ancient Egyptians and the conviction around 
which all else grew was the changelessness of the universe. Everything in their 
environment pointed to the one consistent fact that the world was static, and 
with that observation went the further conviction that changelessness was the 
only real and unchangeable truth. (19-21).
If this was the case, one can only wonder then if the every day Egyptian, the 
laborer, the lower class citizen would have felt limited, challenged, or content 
with his or her static social position within such a hierarchical structure. 
Did the working class Egyptians really ponder the state of the universe or was 
s/he more concerned with earning a living as most of humanity is today? Is it 
fair for us today, out of our fascination with the geometric accomplishments of 
the ancient Egyptians, to stamp a cultural clich on every ancient Egyptian as 
someone obsessed with the physical sciences? I think Egyptologists try to find 
answers to how ancient Egyptians interacted with one another socially in order 
to understand how the modern world interacts socially. Perhaps Egyptologists, 
like other social scientists, seek to use ancient Egyptian society as a gauge in 
which they compare and contrast our own social structures today. (Homepage of 
Uruguayan Institute of Egyptology) If Brattons theory is correct, the ancient 
Egyptians may have anticipated that someday we would be asking the same 
questions about them as they perhaps imagined about us, and therefore strove to 
preserve their societal history. 
D. Glossary of Key Terms
Rosetta stone - (Discovered in 1799, this is the first word in Egyptology 
because it provided Jean Francois Champollion with the means to break into the 
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic language. Both the Greek and hieroglyphic writings 
were on the same piece of stone so he was then able to translate from Greek to 
Egyptian.)
Hieroglyphs - Signs in the Egyptian script, from Greek sacred carving; used 
only for the monumental form of the script, in which most signs are identifiable 
pictures, and no signs are joined together. (Baines and Malek 226) This form of 
writing is believed to be paralleled by the Babylonian cuneiform and also the 
Chinese writing. (Bratton 47).
Papyrus - A plant material used to write on in ancient Egypt. Sheets were made 
by cutting the pith of the plant into strips laid in rows horizontally and 
vertically, which were then beaten together, activating the plants natural 
starch to form an adhesive. Separate sheets were gummed together to form rolls. 
(Baines and Malek 227).
Phonogram - Sign in the script that records a sound. Only consonants are 
precisely recorded, and phonograms may write 1-4 consonants. (Baines and Malek 
227).
Coptic - Comparing it to Italian in relation to Latin, Bratton describes this 
dialect as a combination of the Demotic writing, introduced around 800 B.C. for 
mostly commercial and public documentation, in which it was a modification of 
the ancient hieroglyphic style combined with letters of the Greek alphabet. (47) 
This language is still used today in the Coptic Orthodox Church throughout the 
world.
E. Sub-fields/Specializations
Some Egyptologists may concentrate their efforts on specific eras of ancient 
Egypts civilization from the earliest known time periods up to 642 A.D. Still, 
some may specialize in certain areas of interest such as religion of the 
Egyptians or medical practices, etc. I found that almost anything one could 
study about a culture or society in the present day, modern technological 
advances excluded, someone has or is studying that subject through the 
perspective of the ancient Egyptian.
According to OConnor, Egyptologists have produced an exceptionally fine data 
base in philological, historical, religious and literary studies, in art 
history, andin archaeology. (17).
F. Works Cited
Ancient Egypt: Mankinds Wonderful Heritage. Gateway to Uruguayan Egyptology. 
Home page. Prof. Juan Jose Castillos, Director of the Uruguayan Institute of 
Egyptology. 27 Jul. 1998 http://members.spree.com/juancast/
Baines, John, and Jaromir Malek. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on 
File, Inc., 1980. 
Bratton, F. Gladstone. A History of Egyptian Archaeology. London: Robert Hale, 
1967. 
Castillos, Prof. Juan Jose. Re: HELP! E-mail to Sara Megala. 17 Sept. 2000. 
Lesko, Leonard H. Egypt, Ancient. The World Book Encyclopedia. 2000 ed. 
OConnor, David. Anthropology and Egyptology. Ed. Judith Lustig. Sheffield: 
Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. 
 
Sara Megala       ALEXANDRIASON@aol.com
Florida, USA
 
 
Re: EGYPTOLOGY           (19 October 2000)
You wrote: "Much of their [Egyptologists] knowledge comes from studying the 
architecture and other arts of ancient Egypt. Excavations of pharaohs tombs,  
(World Book Encyclopedia 144)."
On the other hand, I think that too much attention has been devoted to the study 
of the tombs of kings and other high officials but modern trends in archaeology 
focus mainly on the tombs (and dwellings) of the poor, anonymous peasants and 
their humble possessions because beyond the beauty of the objects and the 
architecture, the true history of the people they are studying comes from the 
areas where these commoners went about their daily lives. I think this is a 
significant shift in methodological thinking that is leading to a much more 
accurate understanding of ancient cultures.
Julio          jurosas@my-deja.com
 
 
Grupos de discusin en castellano          (8 de Noviembre de 2000)
 
Quiero compartir con aquellos a quienes les pueda interesar la direccin de 
Internet de algunos grupos de discusin sobre el antiguo Egipto y temas 
relacionados (historia, antropologa). Para suscribirse y leer los mensajes y 
participar de las discusiones, si as lo desean, las direcciones son:
 
Suscribirse con Email aqu (Lista de Amigos de la Egiptologa)
http://www.egroups.com/list/egiptologia
http://www.egroups.com/group/historia_general
http://www.egroups.com/group/antropologia-ucv
 
Es mucho lo que se puede aportar o aprender participando en ellos. Procurar 
ubicar otros para que los interesados puedan vincularse a ellos.
 
Sal Linares, Montevideo
 
 
 



 
 
Demotic Grammar online - Gramtica Demtica en lnea          (20 de Noviembre 
de 2000)
We have just learnt that there is a Demotic Grammar online that can be accessed 
and read in the link we are giving below. Its in pdf files so you would need to 
have the Acrobat Reader installed in your computer. 
Nos hemos enterado recientemente que se ha puesto una Gramtica Demtica en 
lnea que puede ser leda en el vnculo que damos ms abajo. Como est en 
archivos pdf tendrn que tener el Acrobat Reader instalado en su computadora.
 
CLICK HERE - PRESIONE AQU
 
Moderator - El Moderador 
 
 
 
Nouveau site concernant l'tude de projet dans l'architecture funraire 
gyptienne de l'Ancien Empire          (27 November 2000)
Jai lhonneur de Vous communiquer louverture de mon Web site sur ltude de 
larchitecture funraire royale gyptienne de lAncien Empire: 
ARCHITECTURE FUNERAIRE ROYALE EGYPTIENNE
Sont agrables des opinions et des suggestions. Merci beaucoup et mes 
salutations trs distingues. 
Prof. Arch. Pietro Testa         nofer@libero.it
 
 
Tutankhamen           (7 December 2000)
Please can you answer a question for me? I am very new to the study of 
Egyptology, and have received various answers to the question " How old was 
Tutankhamen when he became pharaoh, and how old was he when he died? " . I have 
read books that have said he became pharaoh at 1 year old, some say he was 7 or 
8 years old, and some say he was 10 years old. The same books say he died when 
he was either 14, 15, 18 or 19 years old! This has confused me greatly and I 
would appreciate it if you could tell me the correct answers. Thank you!!
Daniel Walker          danzoe@ntlworld.com
NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR - As you probably know, age determination of long dead 
people is not easy and is never precise, there is some uncertainty, what is 
given is the approximate age, according to historical sources, most scholars 
agree that he became a Pharaoh at around 9 and died at 18 or 19 years of age, 
give or take one or two years. This is what you could safely say until more 
precise determinations can be made. 
 
La moneda en Egipto           (5 de Enero de 2001)
He ledo que la economa se hizo monetaria en Egipto en la Baja poca cuando los 
Faraones tenan que pagar a sus mercenarios griegos de esa forma, ya que el 
sistema egipcio en toda su historia fue no-monetario y basado en el trueque. Los 
mercenarios exigan moneda pues no podan disponer de las mercaderas que les 
seran entregadas si aceptaran el antiguo sistema y los Faraones la obtenan de 
las ciudades griegas que permitieron se instalaran en el Delta con propsitos 
comerciales (Naukratis, Daphne). Pero tambin me consta por otras lecturas que 
la economa monetaria lleg a los egipcios nativos recin en la poca de los 
Ptolomeos. Sera interesante recibir informacin de quienes estn actualizados 
en el tema ya sea aqu, en este Foro, o privadamente a mi direccin de email. 
Gracias.
Sergio          sergolus@yahoo.com
 
 
Comentario a su artculo: "Los charlatanes y la egiptologa"          (21 de 
Enero de 2001)
Queridos amigos, (espero) 
Me dirijo a ustedes desde mi inmensa ignorancia y con un gesto de sorpresa al 
leer detenidamente el artculo publicado en egiptomania.com. En parte es posible 
que est de acuerdo con el fondo de la idea que intentan transmitir en el citado 
artculo, pero slo en parte... Es cierto que a este, como a otros asuntos 
misteriosos que rodean a nuestra demasiado informada civilizacin, le rodean a 
veces entornos, digamos fantsticos, que transmiten una realidad ya por s 
espectacular e incomprensible, llegando a distraer al lector profano o poco 
animado a investigar por su cuenta. Pero debo advertirles, sin nimo de que esta 
misiva sea una crtica destructiva, que nadie est en posesin de la verdad 
absoluta, y que el da a da de la ciencia desvela novedades que hasta ayer 
parecan poco menos que sacadas de los textos mas fantasiosos que los que 
podamos recurrir. Como ya digo, no es mi nimo criticar, sino aprender, y en ese 
estilo me gustara que me diesen su opinn sobre determinados asuntos que me 
resultaron muy curiosos en un reciente viaje y que an no he tenido respuesta 
por parte de la rama heterodoxa de la investigacin. Si es este el lugar para 
dichas consultas, les agradecera que me lo indicasen para, en sucesivos 
contactos, iniciar lo que seguramente ser una muy fructfera relacin.
Chema Regalado           chemargb@wanadoo.es
 
NOTA DEL MODERADOR - Respetamos su opinin, lo que la pgina que Ud. menciona 
intenta transmitir no es que nadie posea la verdad absoluta, lejos de ello, sino 
que hay mtodos que en el pasado y hasta hoy, han servido para adquirir una 
enorme cantidad de conocimientos sobre la antigua civilizacin egipcia y otros 
mtodos (especulativos, msticos, intuitivos, etc.) que hasta ahora no han 
agregado NADA a lo que sabemos de ese tema y han confundido a mucha gente por lo 
que los consideramos nocivos y desaconsejables. Pero es nuestra opinin, que 
expresamos y que Ud. puede aceptar o rechazar como mejor le parezca. Ser un 
gusto para nosotros intentar responder a sus preguntas. Hasta pronto. 
 
 
Dear Colleagues,                 11 February 2001
Below I introduce my study on the Egyptian heb-sed. The copy below is a gift to 
the library of your Institute/Faculty.
Best regards,
Aymen Ibrahem
 
ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT
AYMEN MOHAMED IBRAHEM
ECLIPSES AND ROYAL JUBILEES IN ANCIENT EGYPT
PART I 
THE UNTRADITIONAL JUBILEES OF THE NEW KINGDOM AND LATER PERIODS 
 
ABSTRACT
The sed festival or royal jubilee was traditionally celebrated in Year 30 of a 
pharaoh's reign. Throughout the history of ancient Egypt, sometimes the royal 
jubilees were untraditionaly celebrated much earlier than regnal Year 30. For 
example, Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BC) celebrated her jubilee in Year 15, King 
Akhenaten (1356-1338 BC) in Year 4. The author shows that solar eclipses are 
plausible explanations of those enigmatic untraditional dates. In Part I of this 
series the author considers the jubilees of the New Kingdom, i.e., those of 
Queen Hatshepsut, King Akhenaten, King Osorkon II, King Psamtik II. In Part II 
the author introduces his solutions to the untraditional jubilees of King 
Mentuhotep IV (Middle Kingdom), King Niuserre, and King Djoser (Old Kingdom). 
SUMMARY
THE ROYAL JUBILEE
The ancient Egyptian calendar included many feasts such as the new year's day, 
the new moon, beginnings of the seasons, religious feasts such as those of 
Hathor and Bastet, and royal festivals such as the coronation and the heb-sed or 
the royal jubilee (1). 
The celebration of the heb-sed (the sed-festival, or royal jubilee) is an 
ancient tradition, dating to pre-dynastic times, and remained popular through 
Egyptian history (2). It was a public ritual of recreation intended to vivify 
the aging king and renew the public confidence in his reign (3).
The ceremonies of the royal jubilee included a reenactment of the coronation, 
where the king was reanointed first with the white crown of Upper Egypt and then 
with the red crown of Lower Egypt, and a ceremonial run where the king, carrying 
traditional emblems, was required to race four times around a specially prepared 
arena in order to reveal his physical fitness to kingship (4).
TRADITIONAL JUBILEES
Traditionally, a king was to celebrate his first jubilee in Year 30 of his 
reign, and thereafter as frequently as he desired (5). For example, the great 
King Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC) who reigned for 54 years, celebrated his first 
jubilee in Year 30, and then in Year 34 and Year 37 (6).
King Ramesses the Great (1279-1213 BC) had plenty of time to celebrate 14 
jubilees in his lengthy reign of 67 years (7).
UNTRADITIONAL JUBILEES
In Pharaonic history, there are several instances in which a pharaoh celebrated 
a royal jubilee, unusually, earlier than Year 30. Notable examples are: Queen 
Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BC) celebrated her jubilee in Year 15 (8). The jubilee of 
King Akhenaten (1356-1338 BC) came too much early in Year 4 (9). Both King 
Akhenaten and Queen Hatshepsut were young at the times of their jubilees, its 
curious they needed to prove their physical fitness. King Osorkon II (874-850 
BC) celebrated his jubilee in Year 22, despite the terrible circumstances of 
that period (10). King Mentuhotep IV (1997-1991 BC) of Dynasty XI (Middle 
Kingdom) (11), and King Psamtik II (595-589 BC) of the XXVI Dynasty (Saitic 
Period) (12) celebrated jubilees in their short reigns of 6 years. Although King 
Niuserre (2453-2422 BC) of Dynasty V reigned for about 30 years, I doubt the 
jubilee was traditional and I do believe it was related to a solar eclipse.
Earlier attempts to explain those untraditional early jubilees include:
1. The kings may have reckoned their celebrations from some dates in the reigns 
of their predecessors (13).
2. They celebrated some other 30th anniversary, e.g., the king became 30 years 
old (14)! 
However, I find that solar eclipses were evidently behind those curious 
jubilees.
ECLIPSES AND JUBILEE FESTIVALS
A total solar eclipse is a most spectacular celestial phenomenon in which the 
totally Sun disappears and day abruptly turns to night for a few minutes. The 
stars even appear. Apparently, an eclipse represents the death of a Sun and the 
rebirth of another. The seems as if she recreated herself. The author has shown 
a hymn to Re (the Sun) to be an ancient Egyptian solar eclipse record (Please 
review: Aymen Ibrahem, Egyptian Cosmology Part VII, Karnak the Horizon of 
Heaven', the archives of Solar Eclipse Mailing List, the Eclipse Viewing 
Network, 2000). It makes everything clear:
Thou risest in heaven's horizon [totality], and thy disk is adored when it 
resteth upon the mountain [the New Moon] to give life unto the world.
Thou risest, thou risest, and thou comest forth from the god Nun. Thou dost 
RENEW thy YOUTH [reborn after totality], and thou dost set thyself in the place 
where thou wast yesterday [totality was brief, the Sun has not moved much in the 
sky]. O thou divine child, who didst CREATE thyself, I am unable [to describe] 
thee.
The words in capital letters help to explain the following ideas:
1. The ancient Egyptians believed that through a solar eclipse the Sun (their 
"King of Gods") recreates her youth, i.e., a solar eclipse was a jubilee of the 
Sun.
2. Inspired by solar eclipses, the ancient Egyptians believed the Sun, the 
creator of the universe in the cosmogonies of Heliopolis and Hermopolis to have 
created herself and have been born through a solar eclipse. 
Also, the author has shown that in the Egyptian cosmogonies the Sun was born in 
a solar eclipse (Aymen Ibrahem, Egyptian Cosmology Part I, The Hermoplotitan 
Cosmogony, www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt1.htm, 2000, and Aymen Ibrahem, Egyptian 
Cosmology Part II, The Heliopolitan Cosmogony, 
www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt5.htm, 2000.). 
It is now quite reasonable to speculate that the royal jubilee rituals were 
inspired by solar eclipses and the untraditional jubilees were urged by some 
historic solar eclipses! It is unlikely that the solar eclipses that were 
visible in ancient Egypt were not followed by special religious festivals, the 
erection of temples, shrines, or obelisks. The table below demonstrates this 
clearly, it lists some untraditional jubilees and the possibly related solar 
eclipses:
Pharaoh Reign Jubilee Year Solar Eclipse
Hatshepsut 1479-1458 BC Year 15 08/23/1464 BC 
Akhenaten 1356-1349 BC Year 4 08/15/1352 BC
Osorkon II 874-850 BC Year 22 10/16/ 853 BC
Psamtik II 595-589 BC Undefined 12/23/ 596 BC
The dates of the eclipses are Julian and were found using an eclipse computation 
software.
King Akhenaten
In his studies 'The Philosopher Pharaoh and the Total Solar Eclipse', and 'An 
Astronomical Approach to the Puzzle of Co-regency', (www.infis.org/aymenibr.htm) 
the author showed that the city of Akhetaten was built according to the totality 
path of the total solar eclipse of 08/15/1352 BC, and that year was Akhenaten's 
Year 4 in co-regency with his father Pharaoh Amenhotep III. These facts makes it 
clear that the jubilee was for the Sun, not the young pharaoh.
Queen Hatshepsut
In an earlier study (Aymen M Ibrahem, Obelisks and Eclipses in Ancient Egypt, 
The Power Stations of Queen Hatshepsut, Eclipse archives, 2000) I have shown 
that Queen Hatshepsut erected her hefty obelisks coated much with electrum at 
Karnak to light the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) when it gets dark through 
a solar eclipse. The pyramidions of the obelisks form an artificial Sun on their 
highly reflective surfaces when the eclipsed Sun starts to shine after totality. 
Thus, Queen Hatshepsut surpassed the recent space projects that aim to 
illuminate the polar cities through their long, dark winter by placing large 
mirrors in orbit around the Earth.
On the base of the standing obelisk of Queen Hashepsut at Karnak, there is a 
text of thirty-two lines which the described both the heavenly (the solar 
eclipse of 08/23/-1463) and the earthly events that accompanied the erection of 
the obelisks. 
In Year 15, Queen Hatshepsut celebrated a jubilee with her young co-regent 
Pharaoh Thutmose III. The jubilee was depicted on scenes on her obelisks at 
Karnak (15). Earlier explanations of the unusual date include: 
1. The possibility that it was her 30th birth day anniversary (16).
2. The 30th year in rule, claiming that she was the immediate successor of her 
father Pharaoh Thutmose I (1504-1492 BC) (17). 
3. The Queen may even claimed a co-regency with Thutmose I that began 30 years 
earlier (18).
Again it seems most likely that the jubilee was for the heavenly pharaoh, the 
Sun, not the Queen. 
The 10th Jubilee of King Ramesses II
King Ramesses II celebrated his 10th jubilee in 1223 BC (19). Egypt actually 
enjoyed a total solar eclipse in that year (Aymen Ibrahem, The Wonders of the 
Sun, www.jas.org.jo/article.html, 2000). Most probably the celebration was for 
the eclipse!
Osorkon II
As we saw earlier, King Osorkon II (Dynasty XXII, Libyan Period), celebrated a 
jubilee in Year 22 (c. 853 BC), despite the troubling circumstances, that 
included the wae against Assyria (20). Solar eclipses seem to prove a plausible 
explanation as seen in table (1).
Psamtik II
Psamtik II, the third king of Dynasty XXVI (664-525 BC), the Saitic Period, 
erected a huge obelisk in Heliopolis, which is now in Monte Citorio, Rome, Italy 
(21). The obelisk is of red granite, its current height is 21.75 meters, and may 
originally have been taller (22). On each side of the pyramidion is a winged 
scarab holding the Sun disk, with the king represented as a recumbent sphinx on 
the shaft below (23). A large part of the text had been damaged, and only the 
standardized list of the king's name remains: 
"The Golden Horus, 'beautifying the Two Lands', beloved of Atum, Lord of 
Heliopolis; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferibre, beloved of 
Re-Horakhty; the son of his own body, who seizes the White Crown and who unites 
the Double Crown, Psamtik, beloved of the Souls of Heliopolis. On the First 
[Jubilee]."
(Source: Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt, Skyscrapers of the Past, p. 125, 
The American University in Cairo Press, 1988.)
The text mentions a celebration, but I doubt that it was a royal jubilee, since 
the king ruled for only 6 years. I rather find it was, more likely, for the 
partial solar eclipse of 596 BC, in which the Sun set eclipsed. 
RESULTS
The ancient Egyptians envisaged solar eclipses as a re-birth and a recreation of 
their "King of Gods", the Sun.
Certain ancient solar eclipses clearly seem to have urged the untraditional 
early jubilees of Queen Hatshepsut, King Akhenaten, the 10th jubilee of King 
Ramesses II, King Osorkon II, King Psamtik II.
The obelisk of King Psamtik II was probably given as offerings to the solar gods 
in response to the solar eclipse of 12/23/596 BC.
THE CHRONOLOGY USED IN THIS STUDY
The author has constructed eclipse-based New Kingdom chronology (Aymen Ibrahem, 
The Dream that Has Come True, Part I, an Eclipse-Based New Kingdom Chronology) 
in which Year 9 of King Amenhotep I is 1517 BC, Year 15 of Queen Hatshepsut is 
1464 BC, Year 4 of King Akhenaten was 1352/1351 BC, Year 9 of King Seti I was 
1286 BC. The author has shown that the solar eclipse recorded in Year 10 of King 
Mursilis II was that of 06/24/-1311 (Aymen Ibrahem, The Dream that Has Come 
True, Part II, An Eclipse-Based Hittite Chronology). This enabled the author to 
construct absolute chronologies of Assyria, Babylonia and Hanilgabat. Also, the 
author has studied the solar eclipses visible in the period 2680-2440 BC and 
their possible influence on the Egyptian monuments. This shows that the advent 
of Dynasty IV was in 2625 BC, with a margin of error of only a few years. All 
the author's chronologies are nicely consistent with the chronology of the 
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Aymen M Ibrahem
Copy Rights: Aymen Ibrahem, 2001.
Email: aymen_ibrahem@hotmail.com (primary)
aymoib@frcu.eun.eg (secondary)
 
FURTHER READINGS
1. Aymen M Ibrahem, The Wonders of the Sun: www.jas.org.jo/article.html, 2000.
2. Aymen M Ibrahem, 'The Philosopher Pharaoh and the Total Solar Eclipse', 
www.infis.org/, 2000.
3. Aymen M Ibrahem, The Power Stations of Queen Hatshepsut, The archives of 
'Eclipse, The Eclipse Viewing Network, 2000.
4. Aymen M Ibrahem, Egyptian Cosmology, Part I, The Hermopolitan Cosmogony, 
www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt1.htm, 2000.
5. Aymen M Ibrahem, Egyptian Cosmology, Part II, The Heliopolitan Cosmogony, The 
archives of 'Eclipse, The Eclipse Viewing Network, 2000.
And, more studies by Aymen M Ibrahem are available at:
1. www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt2.htm.
2. www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt3.htm.
3. www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt4.htm.
4. The archives of 'Eclipse', the Eclipse Viewing Network.
5. Astronomy Digest, July 2000 issue.
6. The electronic Newsletter of Dr. E. Flescher, KCStarguy@aol.com. 
REFERENCES
1. Margaret Bunson, A Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, p.91, University of Oxford 
Press, 1991.
2. Ibid., p. 238.
3. Joyce Tyldesely, Hatshepsut The Female Pharaoh, p. 111, Penguin Group, 1996.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Joyce Tyldesely, Hatshepsut The Female Pharaoh, p. 111, Penguin Group, 1996.
7. Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt Skyscrapers of the Past, p. 92, The 
American University in Cairo Press, 1988.
8. Joyce Tyldesely, Hatshepsut The Female Pharaoh, p. 110, Penguin Group, 1996.
9. Ibid.
10. N. Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, English translation, p. 325, 
Blackwell Publishers, 1994.
11. Ahmed Fakhry, Pharaonic Egypt, p. 215, The Anglo-Egyptian Publishers, 1995.
12. Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt Skyscrapers of the Past, p. 128, The 
American University in Cairo Press, 1988.
13. Ibid.
14. Joyce Tyldesely, Hatshepsut The Female Pharaoh, p. 110, Penguin Group, 1996.
15. Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt Skyscrapers of the Past, p. 60, The 
American University in Cairo Press, 1988.
16. Joyce Tyldesely, Hatshepsut The Female Pharaoh, p. 110, Penguin Group, 1996.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. K. A. Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant, The Life and Times of Ramesses II, Arabic 
translation, p. 344, The Egyptian General Book Organization, 1997.
20. N. Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, English translation, p. 325, 
Blackwell Publishers, 1994.
21. Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt Skyscrapers of the Past, p. 125, The 
American University in Cairo Press, 1988.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
 
 
Hello          (3 March 2001)
My name is Miranda Adelsberg and I am a student researching the first dynasty of 
the egyptian reign and I have been having problems locating these two specific 
pharaohs and I was wondering if you would be able to help me! The two pharoahs I 
am missing are Iti and Kaa. Please if any of you can help me with any 
information you might have on them, it is very urgent and for my GCSE 
coursework.
Yours faithfully,
Miranda         choka54@yahoo.co.uk
 
 
NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR- Im glad to be able to help you. Iti according to the 
king lists would be the second king of the First Dynasty, right after Menes, and 
Kaa the last king of this Dynasty. If we accept Narmer as Menes or the first 
king, then Aha would be Iti, there is no question about Kaa. Youll find much 
information on them if you go to any good university library and consult any of 
the following books which are readily available almost everywhere:
- W. Emery, "Archaic Egypt"
- A. Gardiner, "Egypt of the Pharaohs"
- T. Wilkinson, "Early Dynastic Egypt"
Good luck in your studies.
 
 
Su artculo "Los Charlatanes y la Egiptologa"          (8 de Marzo de 2001)
Estimado profesor Castillos:
Soy un interesado en estos temas, y temo que he quedado algo indignado por el 
tono de su artculo, a la vez que profundamente admirado de su pgina web y sus 
trabajos. Quisiera colaborar y ensearle algunas de mis investigaciones: 
Actualmente trabajo con un programa que facilita la NASA, para el reconocimiento 
de la superficie de Marte. Existen muchas evidencias de la existencia de 
pirmides en Marte, como comprobar en los dos ejemplos que le mando, fotos 
originales de la NASA, obtenidas de su pgina oficial. Hay muchas y con cosas 
mas raras que lo que va a ver. An estoy aprendiendo a manejar el programa, pero 
puedo aportar evidencias an mejores. Mi posicin es que el lenguaje egipcio se 
usa en mas planetas que en la Tierra. Como ver, mi posicin difiere 
radicalmente del artculo. Petrie, saba muy bien lo que haca. Se tom la 
molestia de medir con una precisin deslumbrante cada parte de la pirmide, y 
luego empez a hacer nmeros.... An estamos esperando algunos que se aclare 
cmo coo (con perdn) se construy la pirmide de Keops.... con cuerdas y 
poleas??? Le remito a piramidologia.com, donde encontrar artculos de inters. 
Los libros de Duval, algo tendrn de cierto, no cree? Ver, yo creo, amparado 
en mi derecho de opinin, que las pirmides las construyeron los Sirios, lea 
algo sobre los dogones, y considere cmo y por qu saban que sirio era un 
sistema estelar doble, y que su perodo era de 50 aos.... cmo lo saban? Es 
para m obvio que el inters por Egipto y su cultura tiene algo mas que ver que 
la fascinacin por un pueblo que realiz semejantes proezas.
Un saludo afectuoso:
Juan Carlos, San Sebastin, Espaa        brent@euskalnet.net
 
Estimado seor: Lamento que lo haya molestado nuestra pgina web y le agradezco 
sus conceptos sobre las dems. Respeto a quienes como Ud. creen en pirmides en 
Marte y otros pueblos, no los egipcios, construyendo las famosas pirmides de 
Guiza, etc. pues existe la libre expresin y cualquiera puede creer lo que le 
plazca, pero debo por simple honestidad intelectual denunciar ese tipo de 
creencias como especulaciones sin fundamento histrico o arqueolgico alguno 
para que quienes se interesen por estos temas investiguen cuidadosamente antes 
de embarcarse en viajes de rumbo incierto. 
Atentamente:
J. J. Castillos
 
 
Presentacin          (11 de Abril de 2001)
Querido colega: Deseara incorporarme a su interesante foro internacional. Soy 
una egiptloga de Barcelona -Espaa-, profesora de Egiptologa en el Master que 
se imparte en la UAB (Universidad Autnoma de Barcelona) y directora de una 
excavacin en Sudn. Particip en el Congreso Internacional de Egiptologa que 
se realiz en El Cairo el pasado ao 2000 con una ponencia sobre mi 
investigacin en la necrpolis de Qurnet Mura -Tebas O-. Por ello, espero ser 
aceptada en su foro para poder aportar dicho material de investigacin. Por otro 
lado, y en el mismo sentido, dispongo de un archivo fotogrfico acerca de las 
tumbas que componen la necrpolis mencionada, material indito y de gran valor 
tanto histrico como iconogrfico. Gracias por su amabilidad y en espera de sus 
noticias, le saluda cordialmente: 
Francesca Berenguer (Barcelona - Espaa)           xescaberenguer@terra.es
 
Ser un placer contar con su participacin. El Foro es para poner mensajes 
relativamente breves y buscar el intercambio de opiniones con otros, para 
publicar trabajos suyos tenemos las pginas de Artculos de Egiptologa para 
trabajos acadmicos o la de Ensayos de Egiptologa. Espero sus mensajes y/o 
materiales. Hasta pronto y bienvenida. 
Atentamente:
EL MODERADOR
 
 
Informacin          (4 de Mayo de 2001)
Hola me llamo Gonal Merlos y soy estudiante de batxillerato. Estoy haciendo un 
trabajo de investigacin sobre la comparacin de dos faraones, Ramss II y 
Amenofis IV, en el aspecto poltico, social, militar, religioso, artstico,... 
les ruego si me podran dar informacin de todo esto o si me podran dar ttulos 
de algunos libros que trataran de eso. Gracias por su atencin. Adis. 
 
Le confieso que me sorprende que haya elegido esos dos reyes, algo as como si 
hubiera comparado Napolen con Enrique VIII de Inglaterra, creo que una 
comparacin ms interesante (y compatible) hubiera sido entre Tutmosis III y 
Ramss II, por ejemplo. Le sugiero leer un muy buen libro, A.Gardiner, "Egypt of 
the Pharaohs" para empezar y si consulta la "Historia del Antiguo Egipto" de 
Trigger, OConnor, Lloyd y Kemp, la bibliografa all contenida lo guiar. 
Atentos saludos: 
EL MODERADOR
 
 
CALL FOR PAPERS          (22 May 2001)
 
MINISTRY OF CULTURE - SUPREME COUNCIL OF ANTIQUITIES - EGYPTIAN MUSEUM
Dear Sir/Madame: The Egyptian Museum was inaugurated on the 15th November 1902, 
and in a few months it will be one hundred years old. To celebrate this 
important event, the Director and the curators of the Egyptian Museum invite you 
to write an article on Museums, Artifacts, or Collections. The articles will be 
published in: The Centennial Anniversary Volume/s. If you would like to 
collaborate, please fill out an Application Form and sent it to the following 
address: The Centennial Anniversary of the Egyptian Museum Tahrir Square, Cairo, 
Egypt (tel/fax: 202-579-4596) Dr. Mamdouh Eldamaty, Director General Egyptian 
Museum. Please write your Application Form on computer. Name - Address - Work 
address - E-mail/Fax number - Title of the article - Abstract (not more than 50 
words). Please note the deadline: 31 July 2001.
 
 
 
 




 
 
PROGRAMA DE PC TRADUCTOR DE JEROGLFICOS EGIPCIOS         (29 de Junio de 2001)
Comunico a todos los que lean este mensaje que el programa de PC que traduce 
jeroglficos egipcios automticamente, hecho por un uruguayo y que al parecer es 
el primer programa de ese tipo que se ha completado hasta ahora, y que adems 
funciona como un diccionario entre textos egipcios antiguos y castellano, ingls 
y alemn, ya se ha puesto a la venta como un CD ROM que se puede adquirir en:
CD ROM CON GLYPHKEY - VENTAS E INFORMACIN DETALLADA
He podido manejar una versin preliminar que gentilmente me facilit Carlos 
Galucci y pude comprobar que es un diccionario muy completo con ms de 22.000 
palabras y como traductor es til aunque su manejo provechoso requiere algunos 
conocimientos de lengua egipcia antigua y escritura jeroglfica, el programa es 
de uso fcil y viene con manuales de instrucciones y con numerosos ejemplos de 
textos para practicar que se pueden cargar con el botn LOAD, tambin se pueden 
guardar textos en el disco duro que uno desee conservar y se han previsto 
actualizaciones futuras. Creo que es un programa que merece nuestra atencin.
Luis Vignolo          (luisvignolo@yahoo.com)
 
 
Afrocentrism          (28 July 2001) 
Many people in the second half of the 20th Century adopted the position of 
defining the ancient Egyptians as Black gathering various types of evidence in 
order to prove this theory which has been rejected by mainstream scholarship as 
an extreme view unsupported by the archaeological evidence. Although such views 
and others exaggerating the influence of Black African cultures on other people 
elsewhere and the existence of a "conspiracy" to hide these "facts" have been 
criticized by many Egyptologists, there is an ongoing controversy on these 
matters and it may be pertinent to include in this Forum some of such opposing 
views on the subject. I must also say that the term "afrocentrism" is also 
rejected by those who hold such views, so I will not use it as a title to some 
of their assertions.
 
An opinion:
Introduction. La rdaction du journal bien connu  Le nouvel Observateur , en 
collaboration avec la chane de tlvision culturelle Art, dcidait dditer au 
mois de juin 1997 un numro Hors srie consacr exclusivement  lEgypte. Cette 
initiative, intressante  bien des niveaux, ncessitait la participation 
volontaire de plusieurs spcialistes. Notre attention sest focalise sur un des 
articles de cette publication, crit par lun des participants. En effet, la 
tentative honteuse de mystification des lecteurs de ce journal opre par 
lauteur de cet article, nous a ncessairement conduit  rdiger un message de 
mise en garde. Dans la mesure o la vision occidentale traditionnelle de 
lEgypte ancienne nous semblait tronque, car le plus souvent enleve de son 
contexte africain, nous avons voulu montrer par un exemple  priori anodin 
comment certains spcialistes entendent masquer les origines ngro-africaines de 
lEgypte antique, coupant alors lAfrique Noire de son pass. Les prjugs 
tenaces qui persistent au sein de milieux savants conduisent encore certains, de 
nos jours,  opter pour lescroquerie intellectuelle quand bien mme les faits 
imposeraient le respect. Notre dmarche peut paratre tonnante, elle reste 
nanmoins justifie. Cest lgyptologue Cheikh Anta DIOP qui le premier (1954) 
dnona la falsification moderne de lhistoire des Noirs africains par 
lrudition occidentale, en dmontrant lessence noire et africaine de la 
civilisation gyptienne ancienne. Il faisait alors renouer lAfrique avec ses 
racines, juges floues et incertaines par lOccident et ses reprsentants les 
plus qualifis. Les discussions passionnes et diverses, gnres par un sujet 
aussi sensible que lest celui des origines ngro-africaines de lEgypte, ont 
pris nettement le visage dune polmique de forme. En effet, il convient de ne 
pas sy tromper. Car pour le fond, 1974 ft lanne o, officiellement et sous 
le patronage de lUNESCO, le dbat contradictoire eut lieu entre spcialistes 
africains et la communaut scientifique des autres pays. Le colloque de 1974, 
tenu en Egypte, rassemblait une brochette importante de spcialistes tous venus 
discuter de la question du peuplement de lEgypte antique. De cette 
confrontation cruciale opposant les tenants dune origine noire et africaine des 
gyptiens anciens (DIOP, OBENGA) et ceux dune origine leucoderme (blanche) des 
mmes gyptiens (les autres participants, U.S.A., France), il ressortait en 
conclusion gnrale des discussions le constat suivant :  La trs minutieuse 
prparation des communications des professeurs Cheikh Anta DIOP et OBENGA 
(africains prsents sur place, cest nous qui rajoutons) na pas eu, malgr les 
prcisions contenues dans le document de travail prparatoire envoy par 
lUNESCO (voir annexe 3), une contrepartie toujours gale. Il sen est suivi un 
rel dsquilibre dans les discussions.  ( Le peuplement de lEgypte ancienne 
et le dchiffrement de lcriture mrotique, actes du colloque dgyptologie 
tenu au Caire en 1974 , Histoire de lAfrique Etudes et documents 1, Belgique, 
1978 rimprim en 1986, p. 101, cest nous qui avons soulign). Ce tournant 
soudain mais dcisif, opr dans lvolution des tudes gyptologiques, amena 
alors la communaut scientifique internationale  sintresser de plus prs  
cette nouvelle voie. Voil pourquoi les annes 1980 virent se mettre en oeuvre 
des travaux supplmentaires danthropologie sur les momies gyptiennes, 
puisquil sagissait par cette dmarche de rendre plus probantes les conclusions 
du colloque de 1974. Les domaines de la gntique et de la biologie apportrent 
leur contribution puisque par lanalyse de la pigmentation (aprs C.A. DIOP) et 
de lADN des momies, on entendait fournir des prcisions sur les origines 
ethniques des populations gyptiennes dans lAntiquit.  Lexpress , journal 
dinformation aussi connu que le  Nouvel observateur  se faisait lcho en 
1991 de tels travaux, notamment ceux du Docteur sudois Svant PBO, archo- 
gnticien de luniversit de Munich (Allemagne). Ce qui pourrait apparatre 
comme une dclaration anticipe de la part du journal, nen demeure pas moins 
une ralit dj pressentie dans les milieux trs spcialiss puisquon pouvait 
y lire :  Dautres recherches sont en cours, qui pourraient notamment confirmer 
lhypothse lance il y a quelques mois par des biologistes amricains : la 
civilisation des pharaons aurait t btie par des descendants de populations 
venues dAfrique noire  (Gilbert CHARLES,  Les gnes fossiles du Dr PBO , 
LExpress, 5/12/1991, pp. 104-106). Le professeur Cheikh Anta DIOP (1923-1986), 
premier gyptologue d'Afrique noire. Conscients de la difficile mais ncessaire 
tche  accomplir, les hritiers du pionnier Anta DIOP firent alors merger en 
1992 une revue dgyptologie et des civilisations africaines, revue intitule 
ANKH. Cette dernire, une tribune internationale, est le lieu de rdaction 
darticles scientifiques crits par des savants comptents en grande partie 
africains. Un tel projet se voulait lgitime puisquil rpondait  une demande 
faite dans les conclusions du colloque du Caire en 1974. En effet,  celles-ci 
(discussions dans le dbat, cest nous qui rajoutons) ont toutefois t trs 
positives pour plusieurs raisons : dans nombre de cas, elles ont fait apparatre 
limportance de lchange dinformations scientifiques nouvelles ; elles ont mis 
en lumire, aux yeux de presque tous les participants, linsuffisance des 
exigences mthodologiques utilises jusqualors dans la recherche gyptologique 
; elles ont fait apparatre des exemples de mthodologie nouvelles qui 
permettraient de faire progresser, de manire plus scientifique, ltude de la 
question propose  lattention du colloque  ( actes du colloque, p. 101, cest 
nous qui avons soulign). Voil brivement pour le contexte. Ces quelques 
donnes importantes prcises, venons en  la raison principale qui nous a 
pouss  rdiger ce message. Nous montrerons que, par une attitude malhonnte 
teinte de racisme, lun des participants  la rdaction du journal le  Nouvel 
observateur  a dlibrment masqu aux lecteurs la ralit dune origine noire 
et africaine de lEgypte ancienne. Mais avant dy arriver, il nous faut remonter 
un peu dans le pass. 1) Les Noirs africains historiquement responsables de 
leurs propres civilisations, une ide agaante pour lEurope dite savante du 
XIXme sicle. Le cas du Zimbabw, un exemple parmi dautres. Dans une rgion 
situe entre deux lacs (Zambze et Limpopo) de la partie australe du continent 
africain, se trouvent les ruines dun ensemble ddifices en pierres 
gigantesques dont le nom, depuis 1980 (ex Rhodsie), fait revivre la splendeur 
dun empire pass. Il sagit du grand Zimbaw (Dzimba dze mabw,  difice en 
pierres ). Faite de monumentales murailles en pierres sches assembles sans 
mortier, dont lpaisseur atteint 7 mtres et la hauteur une dizaine de mtres 
environ, cette acropole ou cit forme une forteresse de forme ovale de 2500 
mtres de tour avec un axe de prs de 1000 mtres. Plus au sud se trouve 
galement, toujours fait de pierres, un temple dit  elliptique  dune centaine 
de mtres de long et dune largeur de 66 mtres. Ajoutes  cela des tours 
coniques (10 mtres de hauteur) ainsi que des plates-formes et enceintes, le 
tout constitue de formidables constructions cyclopennes qui tonnent par leur 
immensit et leur degr de sophistication. Le Carbone 14 aurait permis de dater 
le dbut ddification de cette cit au IXme sicle, mme si la prsence 
humaine existait in situ avant cette priode. Progressivement, Zimbabw 
deviendra la capitale dun empire, fond lui au XVme sicle, et qui prendra le 
nom de guerre dun chef puissant (Nzatsimba), Mwn Moutapa ( chef du royaume  
improprement appel Monomotapa). Les ruines de Zimbabw. Pour les premiers 
archologues de la fin du XIXme sicle venus sintresser  ces ruines 
intriguantes, il ne pouvait tre question dune cration locale par un peuple 
indigne. Carl MAUCH, un gologue allemand contact par son compatriote dj sur 
place le rvrend A. MERENSKY, viendra en 1871 satisfaire sa curiosit en 
analysant ces impressionnantes murailles. Pour lui, aucun doute ne saurait 
persister ; les techniques complexes que demandent une telle architecture, ainsi 
que les procds de manipulation de blocs de pierres pesant parfois prs dune 
tonne, sont dus  des phniciens ou des juifs, mais aucunement  des hommes 
Noirs. Au mieux, des peuples  blancs  originaires du Nord seraient venus tels 
des  races suprieures  diriger les indignes pour la construction de ces 
monuments. Cette origine extra africaine (arabes, phniciens, persans) de la 
cration de Zimbabw, devenue une vidence, sera dfendue par nombre 
darchologues et aventuriers imbus de prjugs racistes et du contexte colonial 
de lpoque. Ce ft le cas notamment du chasseur Adam RENDER et de larchologue 
anglais Thodore BENT. Ce nest quen 1905 que la thse dun gyptologue anglais 
(David RANDALL-MAC IVER), confirme en 1930 par le docteur Gertrude CATON- 
THOMPSON, viendra branler des certitudes fondes sur des discours 
vulgarisateurs et peu srieux. Si nous avons choisi de rappeler lexemple du 
Zimbabw, cest parce quil est symptomatique dune attitude intellectuelle 
gnrale venant des  spcialistes  trangers du continent africain, aux XIXme 
et dbut du XXme sicles. Les traces dempires africains (Ghana, Songha, 
Dahomey, Mali, Kanem Bornou), qui coexistaient de toute vidence  la priode 
du moyen ge occidental, devenaient si gnantes quil fallait en nier lorigine 
locale. Cest que les postulats philosophiques et pseudo scientifiques 
dintellectuels europens, comme le diplomate franais Arthur GOBINEAU (Conte de 
GOBINEAU) ou encore le philosophe allemand G. W. F. HEGEL, avaient prpar un 
terrain propice  lclosion de gnrations dafricanistes (nom donn aux 
trangers tudiant lAfrique Noire) en mal dexotisme. L  essai sur les 
ingalits des races  de GOBINEAU (1853- 1855), entre autres ouvrages du mme 
acabit, dveloppait allgrement la thorie selon laquelle les hommes Noirs 
dAfrique constituaient la couche la plus basse dune stratification raciale 
profitable aux hommes Blancs. Les civilisations africaines, que  les leons sur 
la philosophie de lHistoire  de HEGEL (1822) ne faisaient dcidment pas 
participer  lvolution rationnelle du monde, se voyaient passes au rouleau 
compresseur de lintelligentsia occidentale avec, aux commandes, des lites 
reconnues et respectes. Dans ce contexte l, il tait assez vite devenu un fait 
peu contest que lAfrique Noire avait toujours vgt en marge de lHistoire 
des Hommes. Les productions intellectuelles telles que  la mentalit primitive 
 de Lucien LEVY-BRUHL (1857-1939) alors membre de lInstitut de France, et  Le 
non civilis et nous, Diffrence irrductible ou Identit foncire ?  de Raoul 
ALLIER (1927), sont suffisamment loquentes par leur intitul pour quil suffise 
de ne les mentionner qu titre anecdotique. A y regarder de plus prs, la place 
que la recherche africaniste accordait par prjugs aux africains dans 
lHistoire tait telle, quil ntait pas possible de leur attribuer quelque 
fait de civilisation sur le sol africain mme. Il fallait donc trouver des 
initiateurs ailleurs. Cest tout le sens de ce qucrit Cheikh Anta DIOP en 1954 
dans la prface de son ouvrage  Nations ngres et culture  :  En effet, sil 
faut en croire les ouvrages occidentaux, cest en vain quon chercherait 
jusquau cur de la fort tropicale, une seule civilisation qui, en dernire 
analyse, serait luvre de Ngres. Les civilisations thiopienne et gyptienne, 
malgr le tmoignage formel des Anciens, celles dIf et du Bnin, du Bassin du 
Tchad, celle de Ghana, toutes celles dites no- soudanaises (Mali, Gao, etc.), 
celle du Zambze (Monomotapa), celles du Congo en plein Equateur, etc. daprs 
les cnacles de savants occidentaux ont t cres par des Blancs mythiques qui 
se sont vanouis comme en un rve pour laisser les Ngres perptuer les formes, 
organisations, techniques, etc. quils avaient inventes.  (C. A. DIOP, Nations 
Ngres et culture, Prsence africaine, dition 1979, p. 13, cest nous qui avons 
soulign). Il tait donc de bon ton de naccorder aux africains aucune 
responsabilit, si ce nest une maigre contribution, dans la cration de 
civilisations passes sur leur propre continent... LEgypte et son peuple 
antique  lest subiront, plus que toute autre, ce dni dune origine Noire et 
africaine. 2) Cheikh Anta DIOP (1923-1986), restaurateur de la conscience 
historique africaine. Premier gyptologue dAfrique Noire, accumulant les 
formations dans des domaines aussi varis et techniques que sont larchologie, 
lHistoire, la linguistique, ou encore la physique nuclaire, Cheikh Anta DIOP 
fonda une uvre monumentale de restauration de la conscience historique 
africaine, par une tude profonde du pass africain. Lamour du continent 
africain, la volont dexpliquer rationnellement une Histoire africaine que 
lafricanisme occidentale de lpoque jugeait sans pass, motiveront cet 
tudiant au parcours hors normes. Il est vident quun contexte aussi difficile 
que ltait celui des annes 1950- 1960, laube des indpendances africaines, 
rendait ardues des tudes qui venaient remettre en cause les modles 
traditionnels occidentaux dexplication du pass africain. Une Histoire 
atemporelle, une culture faite surtout doralit et de zones dombres, une terre 
africaine de non civilisation, voil les ingrdients dune recette qui 
satisfaisait lorgueil dune Europe remplie de prjugs au sujet des Noirs. De 
gauche  droite : Osiris roi mythique divinis de l'Egypte ancienne, suivi de 
quelques pharaons de l'Ancien empire gyptien. Ces images sont trs rarement 
prsentes dans les mdias. Cest donc arm dune rudition froce et dune 
polyvalence solidement constitue, quAnta DIOP entreprit un travail colossal de 
dfrichement des sources crites de lHistoire (gyptiennes, grecques, latines, 
arabes). Et, au terme de cette remonte dans le temps par la mthode 
scientifique, il dcouvrait que lEgypte et la Nubie constituaient le berceau 
dans lequel les lments culturels fondamentaux de lAfrique Noire taient 
cristalliss (langues, systmes politiques, sociologiques, religieux). En 
somme, Cheikh Anta DIOP aboutissait dans sa recherche,  une thorie 
scientifique capable dexpliquer sans solution de continuit lHistoire des 
peuples dAfrique Noire depuis leur trs haute antiquit. Les procds de 
manipulation de linformation quAnta DIOP devra dfaire en exhumant ce pass, 
lui permettront par ce biais de dnoncer la falsification moderne de lHistoire 
de lAfrique par lrudition occidentale. Entre autres procds de dformation 
des faits, la traduction errone de termes judicieusement choisis dans les 
textes crits par les grecs de lAntiquit, est un thme qui retiendra 
particulirement notre attention dans la suite du prsent document. Il faut 
comprendre l quaussi impensable que cela puisse paratre, et bien loin 
dincarner lobjectivit et lhonntet quon attendrait deux, certains 
illustres savants modernes se laisseront sduire par les mandres de la 
falsification des documents scientifiques. Cest prcisment ce que nous allons 
voir avec le tmoignage dHERODOTE. Le cas dHERODOTE et de ses traducteurs Pour 
Anta DIOP, la littrature grecque et romaine de lantiquit constituait une 
source dinformations cruciale dans la mesure o, les propositions on ne peut 
plus floues de certains gyptologues de laprs CHAMPOLLION, pour qui les 
gyptiens anciens ntaient pas vritablement des Noirs, cultivaient le mystre 
des origines de lEgypte antique. En fait, une ligne de savants grecs et latins 
tous unanimes (HERODOTE, DIODORE, STRABON, Ammien MARCELIN, Appolonius De TYANE, 
ESCHYLE, PINDARE) perptueront une tradition que lon peut rsumer comme suit : 
les gyptiens de lpoque pharaonique taient des Noirs africains venus du sud 
cest  dire du Soudan actuel (lEthiopie des anciens). HERODOTE, le premier en 
date, sera dune clart deau de roche. Au Vme sicle avant notre re, HERODOTE 
(484-420 av JC) dHalicarnasse (colonie grecque dIonie) dcide de voyager dans 
toute lEgypte afin dy observer les us et coutumes du peuple qui y habite. 
Voici la remarque quil fait en voulant comparer le peuple gyptien avec une 
autre population situe dans le sud Caucase, les Colches :  Les gyptiens 
pensent que ces peuples sont les descendants dune partie des troupes du pharaon 
Ssostris. Je le conjecturai aussi sur deux indices : le premier, cest quils 
sont Noirs, et quils ont les cheveux crpus  (HERODOTE, LEnqute, dition 
1786, traduction LARCHER, livre II, chap. 104). La langue dans laquelle 
sexprimait HERODOTE tant le grec ancien, il tait ncessaire de faire appel  
des traducteurs spcialiss dans la culture grecque ancienne, les hellnistes. 
Ainsi, du XVIme sicle  nos jours, on ne cessera de traduire le pre de 
lHistoire au sein dinstitutions savantes rputes. En France cest lAcadmie 
Royale des inscriptions et belles lettres, rforme en 1716 mais dont la 
cration originelle date de 1634 et revient  RICHELIEU, qui fournira en 1786 
une traduction rigoureuse de  lEnqute , avec un de ses membres honorables 
P-H. LARCHER. Il est utile de prciser que, mme si certains des traducteurs qui 
prcdrent LARCHER contestaient de faon outre le tmoignage du pre de 
lHistoire, ces derniers optrent jusqu la fin du XIXme sicle pour une 
traduction fidle et authentique du texte grec dHERODOTE. Ce sera le cas dun 
professeur anglais de philologie compare, A. H. SAYCE (1883). Pour les 
traductions fidles du passage qui nous intresse, on peut citer galement 
Pierre SALIA (1556), P. DU RYER (1645), Andr-Franois MIOT (1822), E. A. BETAUT 
(1836), P. GIGUET (1864), Henri BERGUIN (1932), J. Enoch POWELL (1949). Pierre 
Henri LARCHER, un rudit intgre et honnte. N  Dijon en 1726, P-H. LARCHER, 
que ses parents destinaient  une carrire dans la magistrature, sorientera de 
manire passionne vers les langues et crivains de lAntiquit. Aprs avoir 
frquent un collge de jsuites dans sa jeunesse, et plus tard traduit un 
certain nombre duvres anciennes dauteurs grecs (EURIPIDE, XENOPHON), il 
entrera  lAcadmie des Inscriptions et belles lettres en 1781. Cest donc 5 
ans aprs (1786) quest publie  lEnqute  dHERODOTE, traduite par LARCHER 
lui-mme. Cest alors prs dun sicle qui passe, avant quun professeur de 
lyce (lyce NAPOLEON), Emile PESSONEAUX, napporte quelques commentaires  la 
traduction de LARCHER. Voil ce que, conformment au tmoignage unanime des 
Anciens, il crit en bas de page  propos du passage relatif  lapparence 
physique des gyptiens anciens :  il est trs vraisemblable que la Haute Egypte 
a t peuple par les Ethiopiens, et que les usages gyptiens avaient beaucoup 
de ressemblance avec ceux de lEthiopie.  (dition de 1870). Malheureusement, 
ce type de commentaires, fidle  un modle que nous dpeignent les historiens 
anciens (HERODOTE et ses successeurs), sera clips par une tendance o se 
mleront traductions errones et volont dattnuer les faits. 3) La traduction 
des textes sous lempire du prjug Autant la mconnaissance de la langue des 
pharaons ne perturbait pas fondamentalement lide dune Egypte Noire et 
africaine, autant le dchiffrement des hiroglyphes par Jean Franois 
CHAMPOLLION (1822) obligera les savants de cette nouvelle discipline qutait 
lgyptologie  prciser leurs points de vue sur la question. Mais le cadre de 
la colonisation et ltat desprit esclavagiste de cette priode (avec ses 
implications morales) devaient tre des cueils  une analyse objective des 
rsultats observs par lrudition moderne. DIOP avait dj montr, dans ses 
ouvrages, de quelle faon une tendance  la ngation des faits stait profil 
de plus en plus nettement au sein de la communaut scientifique. Cela devait 
amener aussi certains spcialistes  sengager dans des actes de manipulation, 
telles que la traduction falsifie du texte dHERODOTE prcisment. Philippe 
Ernest LEGRAND est professeur dUniversit  Lyon quand il est requis, de par sa 
correspondance avec lInstitut de France, pour une traduction nouvelle du texte 
dHERODOTE. Car en effet, sa qualit dhellniste comptent le lui permet. Les 
annes 1930 vont donc voir publie une dition traduite par LEGRAND du tome II 
de l  Enqute  dHERODOTE, tome consacr  lEgypte. Rappelons le passage du 
texte dj cit plus haut sagissant de lapparence des gyptiens, mais cette 
fois traduit par LEGRAND :  ils avaient la peau brune  .  (dition LEGRAND, 
1936). Le linguiste de rputation mondiale Thophile OBENGA, spcialiste des 
langues ngro africaines notamment, lavait dj signal dans un ouvrage 
drudition (T. OBENGA, C. A. DIOP, VOLNEY et le sphinx, Ed. Prsence africaine 
& Khpra, 1996), le terme grec  melagcroeV  (qui se lit  Mlankros ) 
utilis par le pre de lHistoire au chapitre 104 du mme tome, signifie  peau 
noire  trs exactement (de Mlas = Noir, et de Kroas = Peau). Ce mot contenant 
un prfixe qui ne permet aucune confusion (le dictionnaire BAILLY est clair l 
dessus), la racine Mlas (do mlanine), LEGRAND naurait jamais d attnuer 
arbitrairement son sens sil ntait pas mu par un besoin particulier. Ses 
prdcesseurs, eux, navaient pas jug utile de se compromettre de cette manire 
l. Seulement voil, nous assistons, avec cette nouvelle dition,  une 
substitution du sens du terme grec, faisant curieusement passer la couleur de 
peau des gyptiens du noir (melaV, mlas) au brun (melanofaioV, mlanophaios). 
Pourtant, partout ailleurs o HERODOTE utilise la racine  mlas , une 
traduction fidle est alors donne au lecteur. Mais puisquil sagit de la 
couleur de peau des gyptiens anciens, on travestit les faits quitte  faire 
crire aux Anciens ce quils nont pas crit en optant pour le mensonge au 
mpris de la vrit. La traduction de LEGRAND du dbut du sicle sera reprise 
par dautres (Jacques LACARRIERE, Andre BARGUET), et cest elle qui  lheure 
actuelle fait office de traduction officielle et srieuse dHERODOTE. Une 
manipulation non fortuite de ce type serait-elle l pour faire concider la 
vision des Anciens, avec le type  racial  que les savants occidentaux (la 
plupart) entendent donner confusment aux gyptiens anciens ? Pour se faire une 
ide de la question, voici comment est dfini en 1974, lors du fameux colloque 
international dgyptologie au Caire, le type  racial  des anciens gyptiens : 
la majorit des gyptologues estime que la population primitive qui occupe la 
valle du Nil gyptienne et nubienne, ds le prdynastique (Badarien et amratien 
ou Nagada I) et jusqu la premire dynastie, appartient  une race brune,  
mditerranenne  ou encore  euro-africaine, souvent improprement appele  
hamite , ou encore  khamite . Cette population serait leucoderme, donc 
blanche, mme si sa pigmentation est fonce pouvant aller jusquau noir  ( Le 
peuplement de lEgypte ancienne et le dchiffrement de lcriture mrotique , 
Histoire gnrale de lAfrique. Etudes et documents, UNESCO, 1978, p. 19). Pour 
ceux que les termes scientifiques rebutent, il sagirait dhommes blancs dont la 
peau peut tre Noire. On a beau tre un savant de haute vole, on nest pas pour 
autant pargn par le ridicule ! Il tait important de prciser ces quelques 
points avant de continuer notre propos, car ils montrent assez bien la rage de 
certains spcialistes face  une question telle que lapparence raciale du 
peuple gyptien de lAntiquit. Lattitude sournoise et pour le moins malhonnte 
de personnalits que lon fait passer pour des autorits scientifiques, trouvera 
un reprsentant au crpuscule de ce sicle en la personne de Maurice MARTIN, un 
correspondant  la revue  Le nouvel Observateur , dans le cadre dun numro 
spcial rserv  lEgypte. 4) La troncature des textes comme mthode de 
falsification de lhistoire des peuples : lexemple du jsuite M. MARTIN. Le  
Nouvel Observateur  est un magazine de presse trs connu en France. Destin  
un large public, ce journal est par consquent tout aussi bien lu par des non- 
spcialistes que par des personnes plus averties. Sagissant du sujet qui nous 
intresse, lEgypte, les annes 1997-1998 furent une priode de publication 
importante pour les revues culturelles et scientifiques. Il faut en effet 
rappeler que lanne 1998 tait en France une anne particulire. Il sagissait 
de clbrer dignement le bicentenaire de lhistorique expdition de Napolon en 
Egypte (1798). Cest pourquoi la rdaction du  Nouvel Observateur , entre 
autres, dcidait au mois de juin 1997 de faire paratre un numro 
Spcial-Egypte. Parmi les participants les plus connus et contacts pour ce 
numro, on peut citer Christiane DESROCHE NOBLECOURT (gyptologue), Jacques 
LACARRIERE (traducteur dj cit plus haut), Pascal VERNUS (gyptologue), 
Dimitri MEEKS (gyptologue), Jean LACOUTURE (historien), Elisabeth DAVID 
(gyptologue). Nous nous sommes arrts, au fil de la lecture du journal, sur un 
article crit par un des autres participants, spcialiste de la culture copte. 
Maurice MARTIN (il est dsign par lappellation de Pre Martin dans le 
magazine), un jsuite anciennement professeur de philosophie, est prsent par 
le  Nouvel Observateur  comme tant lun des spcialistes les plus reconnus de 
la culture copte. Il a dailleurs crit dans le bulletin du clbre Institut 
franais darchologie orientale (BIFAO). Il est actuellement le bibliothcaire 
du Collge de la Sainte famille, situ au Caire en Egypte. Larticle quil crit 
dans le numro hors srie du  Nouvel Observateur  (juin 1997) est intitul  A 
la rencontre des coptes . Il y est question des tapes importantes qui ont 
jalonn, depuis le XVIme sicle, la dcouverte de lHistoire et la culture 
copte (lEgypte chrtienne) aprs une priode doubli. Le jsuite Athanase 
KIRCHER, le Pre dominicain VANSLEB, et VOLNEY sont quelques-unes des 
personnalits qui ont particip de faon effective  ce travail dexhumation. 
Ayant jug utile pour sa dmonstration de faire quelques citations tires des 
uvres de ces personnalits, M. MARTIN utilise donc un passage dun des ouvrages 
importants de VOLNEY. Qui tait VOLNEY ? Constantin-Franois de CHASSEBOEUF, dit 
Conte de VOLNEY, est contemporain de Napolon BONAPARTE. N en 1757 et mort en 
1820  Paris, ce savant franais fait partie des hommes que lrudition 
franaise na pas oubli. Passionn par lHistoire et les langues anciennes, il 
voyagea beaucoup, notamment en Egypte, do il rapporta nombre dobservations 
prcieuses pour lexpdition de son ami BONAPARTE en 1798 (Voyage en Egypte et 
en Syrie , 1787). Auteur galement douvrages drudition, VOLNEY aura 
bnfici, entre autres distinctions, du privilge dtre membre de lInstitut 
ou encore titulaire de la chaire dHistoire  lEcole normale, laquelle cole 
venait dtre fonde. Cest dire la haute estime quon lui rservait  cette 
poque, et le mrite qui tait le sien de son vivant. Ses uvres compltes ont 
t rassembles dans 8 volumes. Voil quelques rappels utiles pour situer ce 
savant dans lunivers intellectuel de lpoque. Ils sont volontairement trs 
brefs, car nous devons revenir au Pre MARTIN. Ce dernier, qui a not le 
contraste existant entre la grandeur passe de lEgypte et la dgradation 
culturelle de la communaut copte, utilise un commentaire du Pre VANSLEB quil 
veut ensuite confirmer avec celui de VOLNEY. Nous reproduisons tel quel le 
passage de larticle du Pre MARTIN, dans lequel il cite VOLNEY :  A la fin du 
XVIIIme sicle,  la veille de lexpdition dEgypte, VOLNEY dans son  Voyage 
dEgypte  rpte aussi VANSLEB, cette fois ci en termes de lpoque des 
Lumires :  Quel sujet de mditation de voir la barbarie et lignorance 
actuelle des coptes, issus de lalliance du gnie profond des Egyptiens et de 
lesprit brillant des Grecs, de penser que cette race aujourdhui lobjet de nos 
mpris est celle-l mme  qui nous devons nos arts, nos sciences   (Maurice 
MARTIN,  A la rencontre des coptes , Le Nouvel Observateur : sagesse et 
mystres de lEgypte - Hors Srie Spcial- Egypte, N 30, Juin 1997, p. 53). Il 
est important pour la suite dindiquer que les trois points de suspension en fin 
de citation ont t reproduits par nous tels que le Pre MARTIN les a rdig. En 
effet, nous verrons plus loin quils ne sont pas l par hasard. Le lecteur de 
bonne foi pourrait penser en toute confiance, sil ny prenait garde, que le 
texte prcit est bien de la plume de VOLNEY. Il nen est rien. En effet, voici 
le texte authentique du savant tel quon peut le lire dans son ouvrage :  Quel 
sujet de mditation de voir la barbarie et l'ignorance actuelle des coptes, 
issus de l'alliance du gnie profond des gyptiens et de l'esprit brillant des 
grecs, de penser que cette race d'hommes noirs aujourd'hui notre esclave et 
l'objet de nos mpris est celle-l mme  qui nous devons nos arts, nos sciences 
 (VOLNEY, Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, d. Mouton & Co La Haye, 1959, p. 64). 
Nous avons choisi de souligner quelques termes du texte authentique de VOLNEY  
bon escient. En effet, ces termes sont littralement absents du passage dans 
lequel Maurice MARTIN croit citer VOLNEY. Nous verrons galement que cet  oubli 
 nest pas fortuit. Pour comprendre davantage la signification relle de ce que 
VOLNEY a crit, il est utile de prciser les motivations du savant quand il se 
rend en Egypte prcisment. VOLNEY faisait partie de ceux quun pays comme 
lEgypte fascinaient. Le got passionn pour lAntiquit aidant, il se rend donc 
au pays des pyramides afin dy observer les divers aspects notamment le peuple. 
Les coptes, sur lorigine desquels il sinterroge, vont susciter chez lui une 
rflexion qui va trouver une issue dans la rencontre avec le sphinx. Ce monument 
grandiose, dont la physionomie tait semblable  celle des Noirs africains, sera 
pour VOLNEY une cl essentielle. Mais laissons le savant sexprimer lui-mme et 
ce, deux pages avant le passage cit plus haut :  En considrant le visage de 
beaucoup d'individus de cette race, je lui ai trouv un caractre particulier 
qui a fix mon attention: tous ont un ton de peau jauntre et fumeux qui n'est 
ni grec ni arabe; tous ont le visage bouffi, loeil gonfl, le nez cras, la 
lvre grosse ; en un mot une vraie figure de multre. J'tais tent de 
l'attribuer au climat lorsqu'ayant t visiter le sphinx, son aspect me donna le 
mot de l'nigme. En voyant cette tte caractrise ngre dans tous ses traits, 
je me rappelai ce passage remarquable d'HERODOTE, ou il dit : "Pour mot j'estime 
que les Colches sont une colonie des gyptiens parce que, comme eux, ils ont la 
peau noire et les cheveux crpus ; c'est  dire, que les anciens gyptiens 
taient de vrais ngres de l'espce de tous les naturels de l'Afrique; et ds 
lors on explique comment leur sang, alli depuis plusieurs sicles  celui des 
romains et des grecs, a d perdre l'intensit de Sa premire couleur, en 
conservant cependant l'empreinte de son moule originel  (Idem, p. 62-63). 
VOLNEY crivant ce texte en pleine priode desclavage, voil pourquoi le savant 
parle de  Race dHommes noirs aujourdhui notre esclave . Le sphinx de Ghizeh. 
Son caractre africain n'a pas chapp  nombre de voyageurs rudits (VOLNEY, 
Vivant DENON, Gustave FLAUBERT). On ne comprend que trop bien,  la lumire de 
ces quelques prcisions donnes, lintention malsaine du Pre MARTIN que traduit 
sa citation lgrement modifie en connaissance de cause. En outre, pour que la 
dmonstration soit plus probante, nous allons reproduire  nouveau le texte de 
VOLNEY que Maurice MARTIN a dlibrment falsifi, en remplaant les trois 
points de suspension quil introduit furtivement en fin de citation, par la 
suite du texte original. Voil donc le passage complet tir du livre de VOLNEY : 
 Quel sujet de mditation de voir la barbarie et l'ignorance actuelle des 
coptes, issus de l'alliance du gnie profond des gyptiens et de l'esprit 
brillant des grecs, de penser que cette race d'hommes noirs aujourd'hui notre 
esclave et l'objet de nos mpris est celle-l mme  qui nous devons nos arts, 
nos sciences, et jusqu l'usage de la parole; d'imaginer enfin que c'est au 
milieu des peuples qui se disent les plus amis de la libert et de l'humanit, 
que l'on a sanctionn le plus barbare des esclavages, et mis en problme si les 
hommes noirs ont une intelligence de l'espce des blancs !  (Ibid. p. 64). Le 
contexte dans lequel VOLNEY sexprime est par consquent clair. Il comprenait en 
voyant le sphinx et sa physionomie typiquement africaine pourquoi HERODOTE avait 
dpos un tel tmoignage. Il comprenait en outre, quaprs les invasions 
successives de lEgypte par les peuples assyriens, phniciens, grecs, romains, 
arabes  partir de la Basse poque (VIIme sicle av JC), il tait logique que 
les traits physiques qui jadis dsignaient des Noirs africains typiques se 
soient relativement estomps. Cest tout le sens mme du discours de VOLNEY 
quil faut rtablir avec force ici. Vouloir, comme la fait le Pre MARTIN dans 
son article, utiliser une citation de loeuvre de VOLNEY en lescamotant pour 
des convenances personnelles, relve de la pure escroquerie intellectuelle. Deux 
remarques videntes sont  faire  ce sujet. D'une part, et nous venons de 
lcrire, Monsieur MARTIN cite un texte dun ouvrage de VOLNEY en prenant soin 
de le tronquer auparavant, et d'autre part, il utilise ce mme passage dans un 
contexte qui n'a rien  voir avec celui dans lequel VOLNEY l'avait crit 
lui-mme, ce qui lui donne une acception nouvelle. La citation qua fait Maurice 
MARTIN aurait d contenir la ponctuation suivante []  la place des mots quil 
a supprims arbitrairement, comme il est dusage. Non, il a prfr effacer 
purement et simplement des termes quelque peu gnants pour ce quil avait  
dfendre dans ce magazine. Nous voulions dnoncer, par et au-del de cette 
tentative honteuse de mystification des lecteurs du  Nouvel Observateur , une 
ncessit persistante chez certains spcialistes. Et nous avons vu plus haut 
quelle ntait pas nouvelle. Nous pouvons rajouter en prime quen cela, 
monsieur Maurice MARTIN sempresse de ractualiser une attitude que Jacques 
Joseph CHAMPOLLION avait dj exprim, et dont Cheikh Anta DIOP (1954) avait 
not avec vigueur le manque dobjectivit. Le frre an du fondateur de 
lgyptologie moderne, chagrin du tmoignage de  la grave autorit  VOLNEY, 
stait consol tout seul en qualifiant lopinion de lhistorien d videmment 
force et inadmissible . Raison principale  cela, toujours daprs lauteur, 
la couleur noire de la peau et les cheveux crpus  ne suffisent pas pour 
caractriser la race ngre  ! (Jacques-Joseph CHAMPOLLION, Egypte ancienne, 
1834, pp. 26-27). Aussi tonnante et malheureuse quelle puisse paratre, une 
volont  peine voile de masquer tant bien que mal les origines Noires et 
africaines de lEgypte ancienne, vient miner la diffusion dune connaissance de 
lEgypte ancienne plus en rapport avec ce quelle tait, une civilisation Noire 
et africaine. Cest  ce genre de falsification des documents que Cheikh Anta 
DIOP avait du faire face dans son travail incessant de recherche de la cohrence 
historique en Afrique. La comprhension de lhistoire des civilisations 
africaines dans leur linarit ncessitait un rtablissement des faits, 
dpassant les a priori concernant les africains et leur culture. Il est 
important de lindiquer. Nous avons donc pu constater avec lexemple de Maurice 
MARTIN,  travers un article tendancieux, de quelle faon lon pouvait sans 
prudence tre pris au dpourvu, et tre orient vers une vision subjective de 
lHistoire des peuples. Le catchisme qua voulu nous livrer ce jsuite 
spcialiste de la culture copte ne fait, bien sr, pas honneur au fondateur de 
la compagnie de Jsus Ignace DE LOYOLA ! VOLNEY, pour sa part, devrait stre 
dj retourn dans sa tombe. Le dogmatisme et l'idologie n'ont pas leur place 
dans les sciences si ce nest pour les entacher. Le bon sens, la bonne foi et 
l'honntet doivent tre les fidles compagnons d'hommes qui prtendent tre des 
scientifiques. Nous devons malheureusement conclure,  propos du Pre MARTIN et 
de son article  scientifique , qu'une telle malhonntet consciente ne saurait 
entrer en adquation avec l'intgrit et la probit intellectuelle. Le vicieux 
bricolage qu'il s'est autoris  faire avec le texte d'un illustre et honnte 
scientifique (VOLNEY), rduit considrablement la crdibilit qu'on serait tent 
de lui octroyer. Son attitude hautement idologique, et surtout teinte de 
racisme, est pour le moins rvlatrice dun tat desprit incompatible avec la 
science. Le Pre MARTIN a par consquent failli dans sa mission, et il est bien 
regrettable quun journal comme le "Nouvel Observateur" ait servi de courroie de 
transmission  une telle drive. M. gouy tudiant. Quelques ouvrages  
consulter q BILOLO Mubabinge,  ARISTOTE la mlanit des anciens gyptiens , 
Revue ANKH, Khpra, N 6-7 1997-1998 q CLAYTON Peter A. , Chronique de 
pharaons, Casterman, 1995 (dition originale  Londres en 1994) q DAVIDSON 
Basil, LAfrique ancienne , Maspro 2me dition, 1973, Vol II q DIOP cheikh 
Anta, Nations Ngres et Culture, Prsence africaine, Paris, 1954, dition 1979 q 
DIOP Cheikh Anta, LAntiquit africaine par limage, Les nouvelles ditions 
africaines, Dakar, 1976 q DUMONT LE CORNEC Elisabeth,  Zimbabw, une acropole 
en Afrique , Revue Notre Histoire, N 175 - Mars 2000, p. 18- 22 q GARLAKE 
Peter S. , Great Zimbabwe, Thomas & Hudson, 1973 q JOUANNEAU Daniel, Le 
Zimbabw, P.U.F. Que Sais-je, 1983 q KI-ZERBO Joseph,  Au sud, Zimbabw et 
Monomotapa , Histoire de lAfrique Noire, Hatier, 1978, p. 186-190 q LAM 
Aboubacry Moussa, Laffaire des momies royales : la vrit sur la reine 
AHMES-NEFERTARI, Prsence africaine & Khpra, Paris, 2000 q OBENGA Thophile,  
Constructions cyclopennes du sud du Zambze , LAfrique dans lAntiquit, 
Prsence africaine, Paris, 1973, p. 28-32 q OBENGA Thophile, Cheikh Anta DIOP, 
VOLNEY et le sphinx, Prsence africaine & Khpra, Paris, 1996 q UNESCO,  Le 
peuplement de lEgypte ancienne et le dchiffrement de lcriture mrotique, 
actes du colloque dgyptologie tenu au Caire en 1974 , Histoire de lAfrique 
Etudes et documents 1, Belgique, 1978 rimprim en 1986 Pour laspect africain 
de la physionomie du sphinx : q DENON Dominique Vivant, Voyage dans la Basse et 
la Haute Egypte pendant les campagnes du Gnral BONAPARTE, P. Didot lAn, 
1802, rdit q FLAUBERT Gustave, Voyage en Egypte, Entente, Paris, 1986 q 
VOLNEY, Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, d. Mouton & Co La Haye, 1959.
 
NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR - For a different view of this subject, you can visit: 
WERE THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS BLACK?
Other scholars have also written very eloquently pointing out the excesses of 
Afrocentrists and their biased thinking when they try to prove their points of 
view with little regard for objectivity and a sound scientific methodology. Yet 
other scholars have attempted a conciliatory tone in order to rescue the 
positive input Afrocentrists provided stressing the African nature of ancient 
Egyptian civilization, like for instance:
Ann Macy Roth - BUILDING BRIDGES TO AFROCENTRISM: A LETTER TO MY EGYPTOLOGICAL 
COLLEAGUES - - - (Ann Macy Roth is Visiting Assistant Professor of Egyptology 
Howard University - amr@cldc.howard.edu ) - - - "What color were the ancient 
Egyptians?" This is a question that strikes fear into the hearts of most 
American Egyptologists, since it so often presages a barrage of questions and 
assertions from the Afrocentric perspective. Few of us have devoted much thought 
or research to the contentions of the Afrocentric movement, so we nervously try 
to say something reasonable, and hope that the questioner won't persist and that 
we won't end up looking silly or racist or both. In late 1993, I received a 
temporary appointment to the faculty of Howard University and began teaching 
Egyptological subjects to classes that were almost entirely African-American. As 
a result, I have been dealing with Afrocentric issues on a regular basis, and 
have spent a good deal of time and energy thinking and talking about them. Since 
my appointment, many of my Egyptological colleagues at other universities have 
asked me about Afrocentric sentiment at Howard and my strategies for teaching 
traditional Egyptology to the students who espouse it. The tone of these 
inquiries has demonstrated to me both the curiosity and the discomfort that 
American Egyptologists feel about Afrocentrism. This attempt to write an account 
of my impressions is partly inspired by such questions, which I have had 
difficulty answering cogently in short conversations. More importantly, however, 
I have come to believe that the Afrocentric movement has a great potential to 
advance or to damage our field. Which of these directions it takes will depend 
upon the degree to which traditionally- trained American Egyptologists can come 
to understand and adapt to its existence. This essay is my attempt to speed that 
process. "Afrocentric Egyptology," as practiced today, has an international 
scholarly literature behind it. (The movement is, if anything, more prominent in 
France than it is here, to judge from the numerous displays of Afrocentric books 
and journals I saw in Paris book shops last summer.) In America, however, 
Afrocentric Egyptology is less a scholarly field than a political and 
educational movement, aimed at increasing the self- esteem and confidence of 
African-Americans by stressing the achievements of African civilizations, 
principally ancient Egypt. As such, it is advocated in popular books, textbooks, 
and even educational posters sponsored by major breweries. It has apparently 
thus far enjoyed considerable success in its educational aims. As a result, it 
is being taught to students from grade school through the university level all 
over America, and its tenets are frequently cited as established fact by the 
media and the educational establishment. Coming to Howard as part of a tentative 
Egyptological experiment, I was amazed at the quantity of Egyptology that was 
already being taught, in courses ranging from drama to mathematics to 
philosophy. (An Afrocentric work by Ivan van Sertima on Egypt is included in the 
recommended reading for freshman orientation.) The movement continues to grow in 
importance and influence, and, whatever one thinks of its content, it has an 
increasing degree of popular acceptance by a large audience. This kind of 
Egyptology has little to do with the Egyptology that we professional 
Egyptologists practice, and many of us currently regard its incursions upon our 
field as a nuisance. We see it only when its exponents ask aggressive and 
seemingly irrelevant questions in classes and public lectures, or make 
extravagant claims about ancient Egyptian achievements (the harnessing of 
electricity, the conquest of large parts of southern Europe), citing authors of 
dubious credibility and outdated theories and translations (often by E. A. W. 
Budge). Especially annoying are those who combine Afrocentrism with the age-old 
mystical-crackpot approach to our field, claiming for the Egyptians fantastic 
lost skills and secret knowledge. In most cases, our reaction to Afrocentrism is 
avoidance: we deal with the issue by dismissing it as nonsense, by disparaging 
the knowledge of its proponents, and by getting back to "real" Egyptology. By 
doing this, however, we are both ignoring a danger and missing an opportunity. 
The number of African- Americans who are taught this material is growing, and we 
will increasingly have to deal with its inaccuracies and exaggerations simply in 
order to teach our students. This gap between our field and the Afrocentric 
version of it is not going to go away; if we ignore it, it will surely widen. 
And by setting ourselves against the whole phenomenon in an adversarial and 
often condescending way, we make it impossible for the responsible educators 
involved in the movement (and there are many) to tap our expertise and improve 
the accuracy of the materials they teach. At the moment, however, we have the 
opportunity to narrow the gap by taking a more positive direction. By granting 
that an Afrocentric perspective may have something to offer our field, we can 
exorcise the defensiveness and hostility that is so often engendered by the 
assertions of Afrocentrists. By making our classes more hospitable to those with 
Afrocentric views, we take the first steps towards training a new generation of 
Afrocentric scholars in the traditional methods of our field. They will then be 
able to correct and improve the argumentation of Afrocentric scholarship so that 
the content of their movement benefits from traditional Egyptology's decades of 
research and hard-won conclusions. Afrocentric Egyptology need not necessarily 
conflict with traditional Egyptology; it seems to me possible to combine the 
two, to the benefit, perhaps, of both. First, however, it is necessary for 
traditional Egyptologists to understand the underpinnings of Afrocentric 
Egyptology. Its contentions, as I have encountered them, fall under four rough 
rubrics: (1) that the ancient Egyptians were black, (2) that ancient Egypt was 
superior to other ancient civilizations (especially that of the ancient Greeks, 
which is seen to be largely derivative), (3) that Egyptian culture had 
tremendous influence on the later cultures of Africa and Europe, and (4) that 
there has been a vast racist conspiracy to prevent the dissemination of the 
evidence for these assertions. Most traditional Egyptologists recognize these 
contentions, but do not understand the motives behind them, and so deal with 
them in a counter- productive way. I will address them one by one. 1. The 
contention that the Ancient Egyptians were Black. Like most of us, it had never 
occurred to me that the ancient Egyptians were any color in particular. Neither 
black nor white seemed an appropriate category- -they were simply Egyptian. This 
view, in fact, is probably the one held by most Egyptians themselves, both 
ancient and modern. As we know from their observant depictions of foreigners, 
the ancient Egyptians saw themselves as darker than Asiatics and Libyans, and 
lighter than the Nubians, and with different facial features and body types than 
any of these groups. They considered themselves, to quote Goldilocks, "just 
right." These indigenous categories are the only ones that can be used to talk 
about race in ancient Egypt without anachronism. Even these distinctions may 
have represented ethnicity as much as race: once an immigrant began to wear 
Egyptian dress, he or she was generally represented as Egyptian in color and 
features. Although there are occasional indications of unusually curly hair, I 
know of no examples of people with exaggeratedly un-Egyptian facial features, 
such as those represented in battle and tribute scenes, who are represented 
wearing Egyptian dress, though such people must have existed. As for indigenous 
categories in modern Egypt, I have been told by most of the modern Egyptians 
with whom I've discussed the question that, if they had to use the categories of 
the modern Western world, they would describe themselves as white. (There are 
some exceptions, but few would describe themselves as black.) As evidence of 
this, one can point to the consternation that was produced in Egypt when it was 
announced that the black actor Lou Gosset would portray President Anwar Sadat in 
a biographical film. There exist terms in modern colloquial Egyptian Arabic to 
describe skin color, most commonly "white," "wheat-colored," "brown," and 
"black." In practice, however, these terms are frequently applied inaccurately, 
so that people are (flatteringly) described as lighter in color than they 
actually are. The term "black" is viewed almost as a pejorative, and is rarely 
used. This categorization of the modern population is only partly relevant to 
the question, although it contributes to the reluctance of Egyptologists working 
in Egypt to describe the ancient Egyptians as "black." I have encountered 
arguments that the ancient Egyptians were much "blacker" than their modern 
counterparts, owing to the influx of Arabs at the time of the conquest, 
Caucasian slaves under the Mamlukes, or Turks and French soldiers during the 
Ottoman period. However, given the size of the Egyptian population against these 
comparatively minor waves of northern immigrants, as well as the fact that there 
was continuous immigration and occasional forced deportation of both northern 
and southern populations into Egypt throughout the pharaonic period, I doubt 
that the modern population is significantly darker or lighter, or more or less 
"African" than their ancient counterparts. It should be noted, however, that we 
really do not know the answer to this question. More research on human remains 
needs to be, and is being, done. But what of scientific racial categories? The 
three races we learned about in grade school? In talking to several physical 
anthropologists, I have learned that these three races have no clear scientific 
meaning. Anthropologists today deal with populations rather than individuals, 
and describe ranges of characteristics that occur within a population as being 
similar to or different from the ranges of characteristics of another 
population, usually expressing the degree of affinity with a percentage. There 
is no gene for blackness or whiteness, and nothing that can allow a scientist to 
assign a human being to one or the other category, beyond the social definitions 
of the culture in which the scientist is a participant. While anthropologists 
sometimes describe people in terms of the traditional three races, this is not a 
result of applying objective criteria based on clear biological distinctions, 
but is instead a shorthand convenience. Such judgments work backwards from the 
social categories to arrive at an identification that would be recognized by a 
member of society. For example, when a forensic anthropologist gives the race of 
an unidentified dead body as "white," it is simply a prediction that the 
"missing person" form with which it will be compared probably described the 
person that way. Scientific determinations are thus just as dependent upon 
social categories as more impressionistic judgments are. Even comparative 
studies can be biased by the assumptions that underlie them. Some "Eurocentric" 
criteria for race acknowledge the wide variety of physical characteristics found 
in Europe, and define as "black" only those populations that differ markedly 
from all European populations. As a result, populations that resemble any 
European population are excluded from the category "black." This is often what 
happens when scientists are asked about the remains of ancient Egyptians, some 
of whom closely resembled southern Europeans. By this model, only Africans 
living south of the Sahara desert, which separates them more markedly from 
European gene pools, are defined as "black." The categorizations arrived at by 
reversing the same procedure are equally extreme. If the range of physical types 
found in the African population is recognized, and the designation "white" is 
restricted to those populations that have none of the characteristics that are 
found in any African populations, many southern Europeans and much of the 
population of the Middle East can be characterized as "black." This method was 
at one time adopted by "white" American schools and clubs, which compared 
applicants to the "white" physical types of Northern Europe, and found that many 
people of Jewish or Mediterranean heritage did not measure up. Neither of these 
ways of determining "race" can result in a definitive division between "black" 
and "white," because those are not in fact distinct categories but a matter of 
social judgment and perspective. What is a continuum in nature is split into two 
groups by our society. (The terms "African" and "European," although easier to 
distinguish because of their geographic basis, are no less subjective and 
problematic as cultural categories.) Race, then, is essentially a social 
concept, native to the society in which one lives. It is anachronistic to argue 
that the ancient Egyptians belonged to one race or another based on our own 
contemporary social categories, and it is equally unjustifiable to apply the 
social categories of modern Egypt or of ancient Greece or any other society, 
although all of these questions are interesting and worthy of study on their 
own. The results tell us nothing about Egyptian society, culture and history, 
which is after all, what we are interested in. This is not, however, what the 
Afrocentrist Egyptologists are interested in. They want to show that according 
to modern Western categories, the ancient Egyptians would have been regarded as 
black. This approach is not invalidated by the cultural limitations of racial 
designations just outlined, because it is an attempt to combat a distinct 
modern, Western tradition of racist argument, a tradition which has the effect 
of limiting the aspirations of young African-Americans and deprecating the 
achievements of their ancestors. This argument contends that black peoples (that 
is, peoples that we would describe as black) have never achieved, on their own, 
a satisfactory civilization, and by extension can never achieve anything of much 
value. "Look at Africa today," argue the adherents of this notion, ignoring the 
added burdens imposed by economic exploitation, cultural imperialism, and a 
colonial past on most African nations, and ignoring the African states which do 
not appear regularly in the newspapers. "Look at history," they add, discounting 
Egypt as part of the Near East and ignoring (generally through ignorance) the 
other great African cultures. These misconceptions are argued in many parts of 
American society. President Richard Nixon was quoted as making several of these 
arguments in the recently released diaries of his chief of staff, H. R. 
Haldeman. Similar assertions were made occasionally in the more intemperate 
discussions of the Los Angeles riots. And I understand that the Pennsylvania 
chapters of the "Klu Klux Klan" give each new member a leather-bound book with 
the gilded title Great Achievements of the Black Race, which is filled entirely 
with blank pages. Is it any wonder that the members of this maligned group want 
to inscribe on those blank pages the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, the gold of 
Tutankhamun, the Asiatic conquests of Thutmose III, and the fame and political 
acumen of Cleopatra? At this juncture, however, many Egyptologists miss the 
point. "Why not use Nubia?," I have been asked, "or any of the other great 
African civilizations? Why can't they leave Egypt alone?" The answer is that 
these other civilizations did not build pyramids and temples that impressed the 
classical writers of Greece and Rome with their power, antiquity, and wisdom. 
Nor have most modern Americans and Europeans heard of the civilizations of 
Nubia, Axum, Mali, Ife, Benin, and Zimbabwe. Hannibal is famous enough to be 
worth claiming, but few other non-Egyptians are. The desire to be associated 
with historical people who are generally acknowledged to be "great" by the 
Western cultural canon accounts for the frequent and (to Egyptologists) puzzling 
contention that Cleopatra was black, despite the fact that she was demonstrably 
descended from a family of Macedonian generals and kings who married their 
sisters, and therefore had little claim to either a black or an African origin 
(although one of my Classicist colleagues at Howard tells me that her paternal 
grandmother is unknown, and might have been Egyptian). The reason she is 
identified as black is that, among modern Americans, she is probably the best 
known ancient Egyptian of them all. Shakespeare and Shaw wrote plays about her, 
her life has been chronicled in several popular films, and her name is regularly 
invoked in our popular culture to signal the exotic, the luxurious, and the 
sexy. In this sense, "Afrocentric" Egyptology is profoundly Eurocentric, and 
necessarily so: it plays to the prevalent cultural background of its intended 
audience. If the question of the race of the ancient Egyptians is entirely 
subjective and political, then, why does it bother Egyptologists at all? Why 
would we rather the Afrocentrists "used Nubia"? I think our reasons are largely 
related to the tenuous place our field holds in academia. Afrocentrists see 
Egyptologists as a strong, academically supported, establishment force; but 
despite, and perhaps even partly because of, the popular fascination with its 
contents, Egyptology tends not to be taken quite seriously by people who study 
other parts of the ancient world. Already many noted departments of Near Eastern 
Studies with extensive faculty in ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant do not feel 
it necessary to teach or support research in Egyptology at a similar level. We 
fear, perhaps, that if we endorse the view that ancient Egypt was a "black 
civilization," we will further cut ourselves off from our colleagues who study 
other civilizations contemporary with ancient Egypt. At the same time, there is 
no place for us in African studies departments, which generally tend to address 
questions related to modern history and current political and social problems. 
While anthropologists working in Africa may offer us insights and models, the 
methods and concerns of our field require more, rather than less, contact with 
scholars studying other ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures. We have 
been too isolated for too long as it is. The politics of the situation, as well 
as the requirements of course topics such as archaeology, make it important for 
us to deal with the question of the race of the ancient Egyptians in our 
university classes. My own method, developed long before coming to Howard, is to 
be very explicit about my own views on the question. I give a lecture on the 
land and the people of Egypt, normally very early in the semester, before the 
question is brought up by students, and I try to present the question neutrally, 
without defensiveness or antagonism. I explain the social nature of racial 
categories, and the categories used by the Egyptians themselves, their 
representation of foreigners, and the frequency of foreign (Asian and African) 
immigration to Egypt in all periods of its history, extending back into the 
Paleolithic. Discussions of geography and language are also useful here. It is 
also necessary to address the political question. In doing so, I often make use 
of Bruce Williams' observation (which really goes to the heart of the matter) 
that few Egyptians, ancient or modern, would have been able to get a meal at a 
white lunch counter in the American South during the 1950s. Some ancient 
Egyptians undoubtedly looked very much like some modern African- Americans, and 
for similar historical reasons. Very few, if any, of them looked like me. I also 
explain the politics of the question in modern Egypt. Finally, I explain the 
irrelevance of the political question to the subject I will be teaching, a 
circumstance that allows me to respect the students' political convictions 
(which I treat rather as I might treat a religious conviction), and should allow 
them to learn about Egyptian culture in my class without violating their 
beliefs. By making my position clear at the outset, I forestall the Afrocentric 
students' speculations and attempts to "trap" me into committing myself to the 
exaggeratedly "Eurocentric" views that they might otherwise assume I espouse. It 
also reassures students that they can come to me with questions about their 
Afrocentric readings, or their own Afrocentric questions about course materials; 
the topic is no longer taboo. It is impossible to build bridges if we discourage 
discussion. 2. The contention that the Egyptians were the greatest civilization 
in history. Contrary to the expectation of most Afrocentrists, most 
Egyptologists are less bothered by the contention that the Egyptians were black 
than by the exaggerated claims made about the achievements of Egyptian 
civilization. These claims, including attribution to the Egyptians of great 
mathematical, scientific, and philosophical sophistication, are often based on 
misinterpretations or exaggerations of the evidence, and in some cases pure 
fantasy and wishful thinking. Many of the arguments advanced show a complete 
ignorance of (or disregard for) the facts of chronology, for example, the 
contention that the Greeks "stole" their philosophy from the library at 
Alexandria and then burned it down to cover their theft, or the claim that the 
architecture of Greek peripteral temples was borrowed from the eastern mamisi at 
Dendera. Paradoxically, while it is in the details of this contention that 
Egyptologists find the most grounds for outrage and dismissal of the entire 
movement, this is also the area where we can do the most to help the 
Afrocentrists move towards a more rigorous and respectable scholarship. In 
principle, few Egyptologists would deny that ancient Egypt was a great 
civilization, and that the ancient Egyptians achieved wonderful things and made 
unique contributions to history and global culture. It in no way detracts from 
these contributions that they had terrible difficulties adding fractions because 
of a ludicrously clumsy system of notation, or that they did not understand the 
importance of the brain, or that they may have borrowed the idea of writing from 
Sumerian civilization. On these points the Afrocentrists need to develop a 
better appreciation of where the strengths of Egyptian civilization really were. 
Most Afrocentrists do not want to be in the position of teaching their children 
things that aren't true. However, because of the political desire to find great 
Egyptian achievements in areas that the West values, and because of the limited 
material available to them and their limited familiarity with the culture, they 
often misinterpret the evidence and seize upon unsubstantiated ideas that fit 
their agenda. The way we can help here is not, however, to argue against these 
misunderstandings and mistaken ideas individually. There are too many of them, 
and the arguments tend to be both unpleasantly adversarial and futile. "See, 
this is a model of an ancient Egyptian glider- plane." "Actually, it's a Late 
Period model of a bird. If the Egyptians could fly gliders at that period, don't 
you think Greek and Egyptian sources would have mentioned it? " "But it's 
aerodynamically perfect!" "Well, of course it is; it's a bird." "But it's 
different from all the other bird models. Besides, what do you know about 
aerodynamics?" This sort of argument gets us nowhere. The only strategy that is 
effective is more fundamental. We must familiarize students with the evidence 
and the way one argues from it. Students who have read translations of ancient 
Egyptian literature and other texts and discussed how social and cultural 
deductions can be drawn from primary sources will generally not stand for 
assertions about ancient Egypt that are blatantly contradicted in these texts. 
Likewise students who have read about the forms of pyramids and the theories 
about their construction, or who have become familiar with Egyptian tomb 
iconography, will not believe claims that do not correspond to the evidence they 
have seen. (There will, of course, be ideologues who will hold on to their 
groundless convictions in the teeth of the evidence, but most of them will have 
dropped the class after the initial discussion of the race of the ancient 
Egyptians.) Teaching students a more source-based, critical approach not only 
will improve their ability to evaluate the contentions of Afrocentric 
Egyptology, but should help them deal with other subjects as well, and lays the 
foundation for academic and other work that will give them pride in their own 
achievements as well as their heritage. Moreover, an explicitly source-based 
approach has the added advantage of forcing us to reexamine our own basic 
assumptions. When Afrocentrists base their conclusions on the evidence, the 
results can serve their purposes without violating the sensibilities of 
scholars. The validity of the evidence also lends authority to the ideological 
position being argued. One example that goes some distance towards this goal is 
an Afrocentric poster given me by one of my students, designed and produced by a 
group called the Melanin Sisters, for grade-school children. The poster is 
decorated with hieroglyphs and urges the reader to adopt behavior in accordance 
with the ancient Egyptian concept of Ma'at. As a guide to the requirements, the 
Negative Confession is quoted (albeit with some substitutions for the weird 
bits). Another student showed me a book called Hip-Hop and Maat, which again 
uses the Negative Confession, as well as selections from Egyptian wisdom 
literature, to construct a system of morality that the author contrasts 
favorably with the street ethics prevalent among many young African-Americans. 
(Unfortunately, I did not make a note of the bibliographic information, and I've 
been unable to find the book again.) The use of actual Egyptian evidence in 
developing Afrocentric materials could be encouraged and made more authentic if 
Egyptologists took a less adversarial attitude toward its creators. If we teach 
Afrocentric students to find evidence for their assertions and to construct 
convincing arguments, there will always be the possibility that they will use 
these tools to argue points that we find uncongenial to our pictures of Egyptian 
civilization. At a conference some years ago, I praised an innovative and 
provoking argument to a colleague, and his reply was, "Yes, I suppose it was 
interesting, but just imagine what they will do with it." To use such fears of 
exaggeration in the popular sphere (regardless of whether they are justified) as 
an excuse for suppressing arguments that contradict our own reconstruction of 
the past is unjustifiable and unscholarly. Political bias is unavoidable, so the 
current wisdom goes, and we all find it more difficult to accept some arguments 
than others, depending upon our own previous ideas or our feelings about the 
person making the argument. But such predispositions are something that we all 
deal with frequently, and should have learned to set aside. We are scholars, and 
we should not be afraid of the truth, whatever it turns out to be. 3. The 
contention that Egyptian civilization had extensive influence on Europe and 
Africa. This argument really has two parts, which are in some ways symmetrical, 
but which have two entirely different motivations. The argument for Egyptian 
influence in Europe is an extension of the argument for the overall superiority 
of Egypt to other cultures: by rooting Greek and Roman civilizations in Egypt, 
Africa can be seen as the source of the civilization we find most impressive: 
our own. The argument for the influence of Egypt on other African civilizations, 
in contrast, is intended to allow modern African- Americans (who are in most 
cases the descendants of people abducted from non- Egyptian parts of Africa) to 
claim the Egyptian cultural heritage as their own. The half of this question 
that has been most discussed of late is the claim that Egypt colonized Greece, 
and that classical Greek culture is essentially Egyptian. Greece is 
traditionally viewed by Western culture as the source of beauty and reason, so 
(again, for political reasons) it is felt especially important to show that 
ancient Egypt was extremely influential in its development. Black Athena, Martin 
Bernal's work on the question, has been at the center of the recent debate on 
this claim, and has given it a degree of prominence and respectability in the 
non- Afrocentric scholarly community. Despite this, I feel strongly that 
Bernal's books do an ultimate disservice to the cause he is trying to advance. 
In the short term, of course, they have brought both the issue and Bernal 
himself to the forefront of public consciousness. However, his arguments are so 
chosen and presented that they cannot serve as a solid foundation for the 
academically credible Afrocentric Egyptology that he hopes to create. In many 
cases, Bernal has either intentionally misled his readers by his selection of 
evidence or he has neglected to investigate the full context of the evidence on 
which he builds his arguments. He routinely cites late Classical traditions that 
support his argument, and ignores the Egyptian evidence that doesn't. A good 
example of these problems is his discussion of the connections of Egypt with 
bull cults on Crete (vol. II, pp. 22-25, and more fully as Chapter IV, 
especially pp. 166- 184). After an initial foray proposing dubious connections 
between Min, bulls, Pan, and the Minoan king Minos, Bernal connects Minos to 
Menes and the name of Memphis, Mn-nfr, because of their phonetic similarity and 
their connection with the bull cult of Apis. (Mn-nfr, of course, comes from the 
name of the mortuary temple of Pepi I and has nothing to do with Menes, who is 
called the founder of the Apis cult only by a late Roman writer.) The name of 
the Mnevis bull also contains the magic letters mn in the Classical sources. The 
fact that the name was consistently written Mr-wr by the Egyptians is not 
mentioned in the summary, while in the fuller argument it is dismissed as 
"confusion among the three biconsonantals mr, mn and nm" in words referring to 
cattle (possibly due to onomatopoeia). The fact remains that the Mnevis bull is 
only rarely called anything but Mr- wr. The "winding wall" sign in Mr-wr, which 
is also used in mrrt, "street," is connected in his summary with the labyrinth 
of the Minotaur. The result of these arguments is a "triple parallel": the 
connection of a bull cult in both Egypt and Crete "with the name Mn, the 
founding pharaoh, and a winding wall." But in Egypt neither the name Mn nor the 
founding king was clearly connected to the Apis cult; and the connection of the 
"winding wall" sign with the Mnevis bull was probably purely phonetic. The 
triple parallel reduces to a single coincidence: the founding king of Egypt and 
the most famous king of the Minoans both had names with the consonants "Mn." 
This relationship, as Bernal points out, has been discussed by previous 
scholars. That both countries had bull cults, like most other ancient 
Mediterranean cultures, is hardly worthy of remark. The following discussion of 
"the bull Montu" is even more tenuous, since Montu is generally characterized as 
a falcon, and is no more to be equated with the Buchis bull with which he shares 
a cult place than the sun god Re is to be equated with the Mnevis bull. That 
these arguments are flawed does not prove Bernal's conclusions wrong, of course; 
but such arguments can never prove him right, and in the meantime they obscure 
the debate. The connections and contacts between Egypt and the Greek world have 
long been recognized, and Bernal misrepresents the degree to which modern 
scholars suppress evidence for them. Certainly the influence of Egyptian 
statuary on Archaic Greek kouroi is widely accepted, among Classicists as well 
as Egyptologists, although the differences in their function and execution are 
obviously of importance too. In arguing for an Egyptian colonization of Greece, 
however, Bernal and his followers disregard the extensive Egyptian textual 
tradition (surely if Thutmose III had conquered southern Europe and set up 
colonies there he would have mentioned it in his annals, for example), as well 
as the arguments of the scholars who have been investigating these questions for 
decades. Most of Bernal's arguments, interestingly, rest on the Greek textual 
tradition, which was of course a product of its culture's own cultural and 
political situation and requirements, and often made use of the Egyptians' 
antiquity and reputation for wisdom. By crediting the Greek evidence over the 
Egyptian, European over the African, Bernal takes advantage of the fact that his 
Western audience is more familiar with (and more inclined to credit) the 
Classical tradition than the Egyptian. That few of the myriad reviews of the 
series have been written by Egyptologists is an obvious indication of the 
European provenience of his evidence. If we are honest, most Egyptologists would 
admit that we would like nothing better than to find indisputable evidence that 
all Western culture derived from Egypt; such a discovery would make us far more 
important, more powerful, and wealthier than we are today. Because of this bias, 
we are justifiably cautious in making such claims. The other half of this 
contention, that Egyptian civilization had a wide influence in the rest of 
Africa, is argued most prominently in the writings of Sheikh Anta Diop. Many 
turn-of-the-century scholars made such a claim, and they are widely and 
reverently quoted in the Afrocentric literature to support the more recent 
contentions. Interestingly, their motivation was essentially racist. The 
invention of the "Hamitic" racial group, defined as a population essentially 
"white" in skeletal features, but with the peculiar anomaly of dark skin, 
allowed some early Egyptologists to categorize the Egyptians and the Nubians as 
"white." Then, working on the racist assumption that "blacks" were incapable of 
higher civilization, they attributed anything that looked like civilization in 
the remainder of Africa to "ancient Egyptian colonization." While there is a 
rather pleasant poetic justice in the fact that the flawed conclusions resulting 
from these racist assumptions are currently being used to argue for the 
connection of all Africans and African culture with the glories of ancient 
Egypt, the evidence for these conclusions is hardly acceptable from a scholarly 
point of view. As with the European conquests and colonies hypothesized by 
Bernal, African conquests and colonies beyond Upper Nubia are unlikely because 
of the silence of the Egyptian records, although other kinds of contact are not 
impossible. These two contentions of Egyptian influence outside of Egypt are 
among the most difficult Afrocentric claims to deal with. Unlike the question of 
race, these are not subjective judgments, and yet like the question of race they 
are yes-no questions that lie at the heart of the Afrocentric hypothesis. In 
particular, to deny the claim that all Africans are descended culturally and 
genetically from the ancient Egyptians is seen as an attack on African- 
Americans' right to claim the ancient Egyptian heritage as their own. At the 
moment, these claims have neither been definitively proved nor disproved, so it 
is probably wisest to take an agnostic position regarding them. The nature and 
extent of Mediterranean connections with ancient Egypt are worthy of further 
study, and may offer scope to arguments more truly Afrocentric than those 
propounded by Bernal. In Africa, too, there clearly were connections of some 
kind with areas beyond Nubia, as we know from the depiction of trade goods; and 
the degree of contact with Western Africa through Libya and the Oases has not 
been exhaustively studied. All of these areas have been receiving more attention 
in recent years, and it may be that there was more contact between Egypt and the 
rest of Africa, or between Egypt and Europe, than our current interpretations 
allow. If there was, let those who would argue it argue from evidence rather 
than authority. 4. There has been a scholarly conspiracy among Eurocentric 
Egyptologists to suppress evidence about the blackness of the ancient Egyptians, 
their greatness, and their influence on European and other African 
civilizations. This is probably the most offensive manifestation of Afrocentrism 
we encounter, implying as it does that Egyptologists as a group have routinely 
abandoned their scholarly integrity, simply in order to further some racist 
agenda. (As an epigrapher, I find the charge that we have recarved the faces of 
Egyptians represented in tomb reliefs particularly ludicrous.) Its most frequent 
manifestation is the Napoleon-knocked- the-nose-off-the-Sphinx-so-no- 
one-would-know-it-was- black contention, a silly argument that demonstrates the 
movement's unattractive paranoia. For the evidence against this, incidentally, I 
refer the reader to a fascinating article by Ulrich Haarmann, "Regional 
Sentiment in Medieval Islamic Egypt," BSOAS 43 (1980) 55-66, which records that, 
according to Makrizi, Rashidi, and other medieval Arab authors, the face of the 
Sphinx was mutilated in 1378 A.D. (708 A.H.) by Mohammed Sa'im al-Dahr, whom 
Haarmann describes as "a fanatical sufi of the oldest and most highly respected 
sufi convent of Cairo." Although some Afrocentrists may have found individual 
Egyptologists uncooperative, for reasons made clear above, we are hardly likely 
to deny the achievements of the Egyptians. In one sense, we are far more 
Afrocentric than the Afrocentrists, since we try, where possible, to study 
Egyptian civilization on its own terms, rather than comparing it to our own 
culture. Most of us have developed a great respect for the skills of the 
Egyptians: their abilities and sophistication as sculptors, writers, diplomats, 
theologians, painters, architects, potters, bureaucrats, builders, warriors, and 
traders will not be denied by those who have studied the results of their work. 
Even greater skill is apparent in the suitability of these achievements to the 
needs of the ancient culture as a whole, and this suitability is better 
appreciated the better one understands the cultural context in which the 
achievement occurred. To yank a building or a statue or a poem from its 
indigenous cultural milieu in order to compare it with its Western counterparts 
is decidedly Eurocentric, especially when one uses the Western products as the 
standard against which the Egyptian are to be judged; and yet, for political 
reasons, this is the most common approach of the Afrocentrists. In another 
sense, however, the contention that Egyptologists are Eurocentric has at its 
center a kernel of truth. Any Egyptologist who proposes to do something 
constructive about the Afrocentric movement must admit that, in its origins and 
to some extent in its current preoccupations, Egyptology is a Eurocentric 
profession. It was founded by European and American scholars whose primary 
interest was in confirming the Classical sources and in confirming and 
explicating the Old and New Testaments for the furtherance of Christianity. A 
look at the earliest Egypt Exploration Society publications illustrates the way 
that early scholars "sold" their work by connecting it to familiar Classical and 
(especially) Biblical names and places: The Store City of Pithom and the Route 
of the Exodus (1885), Tanis (1885), Naukratis (1886 and 1888), The Shrine of 
Saft el Henneh and the Land of Goshen (1887), The City of Onias and the Mound of 
the Jew (1890), and Bubastis (1890). Furthermore, the fact that the cultures to 
the north and east of Egypt provide texts that we can use to correct and augment 
the Egyptian evidence, while those to the south and west do not, provides a 
third reason for concentrating our research on foreign relations to the 
northeast. Insofar as Nubian cultures have been studied, they have until 
recently been seen as distorted and somewhat comical attempts to replicate their 
great neighbor to the north. Because of these circumstances (the Classical focus 
of Western culture, Christianity, and the distribution of writing), as well as 
the often unconscious racism of early scholars which has affected the shape of 
our field, Egyptologists have too often ignored the rest of Africa. This 
ignorance has not been complete. As a result of the birth of cultural 
anthropology around the turn of the century, there was a great interest in 
finding the origin of Egyptian traditions in those of "other primitive 
cultures," i.e., the societies of contemporary Africa, which were taken as 
models for what Egypt was like "before civilization." This rather weird 
perspective led to such anachronisms as the claim that the ancient Egyptian 
jubilee ceremony "derived" from the alleged eighteenth- century African practice 
of killing a king who became too old to rule effectively. Despite the nature of 
the underlying assumptions, this early work in anthropological comparisons 
contains many interesting ideas. (I have found the work of A. Blackman 
especially rich.) Such similarities between cultures, reviewed and reworked to 
accord with current scholarly standards, may help explicate some of the puzzling 
elements in Egyptian culture. It must be remembered, however, that similarity 
does not prove influence, or even contact. As the archaeology and cultural 
anthropology of Africa becomes better known, and as Egyptologists, Afrocentric 
and traditional, become more familiar with and sophisticated about African 
cultures, it may be that patterns of such similarities can be identified, 
categorized, and traced with sufficient scholarly rigor to show routes of 
contact. These are important questions, and represent an area where the 
Afrocentric perspective might make substantial contributions not just to the 
education and self-esteem of African-Americans but to the international 
scholarly field of Egyptology as well. Such discoveries would add immeasurably 
to the resources of the entire field of Egyptology, widening our horizons and 
broadening our understanding of Egyptian culture. Afrocentric Egyptology, 
properly pursued, has the potential to achieve important political goals: 
improving the self-image of young African-Americans and enhancing their belief 
in their own potential for achievement, by combating the racist argument that no 
one from Africa or with a dark skin has ever achieved anything worthwhile. The 
less exaggerated and the more rooted in accepted scholarly argument its 
teachings are, the more authority the curriculum will have. As the movement 
grows more sophisticated and better grounded, and as mainstream Egyptologists 
grow commensurately more accepting of its perspectives, it will, I hope, be 
possible to do away with the defensiveness that so often characterizes 
Afrocentric teachings currently. Instead of learning a doctrine on faith, 
teachers of Afrocentrism should encourage students to investigate the primary 
evidence and refine our knowledge of Egypt and other African civilizations on 
their own, truly Afrocentric, terms. Teachers should not worry that students 
will find that ancient Egypt was not a great civilization after all--on the 
contrary, the deeper one goes into its cultural productions, the more one comes 
to appreciate the ingenuity of the Egyptians. At the same time, Afrocentric 
scholars with traditional training can serve as a useful corrective to the 
European vantage point inherent in traditional Egyptology, by focusing on 
questions that it might not occur to traditional Egyptologists to ask. We all 
ought to help train these scholars. The level of interest and enthusiasm about 
ancient Egyptian culture is amazingly high in the African-American community. 
When I first arrived at Howard University, I was stunned by the enthusiasm I met 
with, both from my own students and from students outside of my classes (not to 
mention the prevalence of Egyptian- themed clothing and jewelry). At Howard, 
Egyptology is not a peripheral field in which one might take an elective as a 
novelty or to add an exotic line to one's law school application--Egyptian 
culture is seen as a heritage to be proud of, and something worth learning more 
about. Whether or not one agrees with the premise that inspires this enthusiasm 
(and, as I've said, this is largely a matter of faith and definition), there is 
a real potential for the expansion of our field among these students. While some 
Afrocentric students will lose interest once they get past the political 
questions, others will remain fascinated by the culture. A few of these may go 
on to become Egyptologists, whether with an Afrocentric agenda or not. Others 
will enter other professions, enriched by an appreciation for a culture other 
than their own, but to which they feel some connection. In a time when 
university administrators talk endlessly of bottom lines and judge the validity 
of scholarly fields by the number of students they attract, we cannot afford as 
a field to ignore such an audience for the material we want to teach. In view of 
the growing influence of Afrocentrism in the educational and larger community, 
we cannot afford to maintain our adversarial attitude towards it and to refuse 
to contribute to its better grounding in Egyptological evidence and research. 
Most importantly, as scholars and teachers, we cannot afford to ignore 
enthusiastic, talented students with new perspectives that have the potential to 
expand both our academic field and our understanding of ancient Egypt. 
 
 




 
Los Charlatanes y la Egiptologa          (17 de Agosto de 2001)
Este es el texto de una entrevista concedida por J. J. Castillos al periodista 
peruano Rodolfo Ardiles sobre el tema del ttulo y que puede ser de inters para 
los visitantes de este Foro:
1.- Es sabido que detrs de muchas de las publicaciones que albergan a 
charlatanes de las ms variadas gamas, existe un fin de lucro inescrupuloso que 
no se detiene ante ninguna ciencia establecida, usando muchas veces, no el 
cuestionamiento a estas ciencias, sino empleando ideas tiradas de los pelos, 
pues bien, qu otras razones cree usted que pueden estar "tras bambalinas", es 
decir, qu otros intereses podran empujar a estos sujetos?
Respuesta - Creo que no todos son personas inescrupulosas en busca de hacer 
dinero a expensas de la ignorancia y la buena fe de la gente, los hay que en el 
caso de Egipto y en el de otros pases, ante las incertidumbres de la Historia y 
de la Arqueologa que no puede responder a todas nuestras interrogantes tal como 
a ellos les gustara, sustituyen la prudente actitud cientfica de esperar por 
la de dar rienda suelta a su imaginacin y compartir tales "hallazgos" con los 
lectores de lo que escriben. Pienso que hacen mucho dao confundiendo a la gente 
sin aportar nada positivo, pues es sumamente significativo (y les duele mucho 
esta realidad inobjetable) que jams ni uno solo de estos iluminados autores ha 
aportado nada serio, nada concreto, ningn nuevo descubrimiento arqueolgico que 
haya sido hecho merced a sus "descubrimientos" intuitivos, lo que de por s es 
muy revelador. El caso de Schliemann y Troya, que algunos intentan mencionar, no 
es vlido pues lo que este seor hall en Turqua no era la Troya que l pensaba 
y sus conclusiones eran casi todas errneas, su mrito es haber descubierto 
vestigios de la Edad del Bronce en esa zona que iluminan el contexto histrico 
de lo que se cuenta en los poemas homricos, pero nada ms. En esa poca, 
dondequiera se excavara, casi seguro que se hallara algo, lo que no demuestra 
nada y torna este descubrimiento en el hallazgo fortuito de un arquelogo 
aficionado con fortuna en ambos sentidos, dinero y suerte.
2.- Usted es un arquelogo que muestra gran inters por este tema, pues bien, 
alrededor de las grandes culturas de la antigedad, como la egipcia por ejemplo 
que es su especialidad, se mueven muchos pseudo-cientficos y periodistas de 
grandes medios (por grandes me refiero a su gran capacidad de llegada) que 
aseguran que los enormes monumentos como las pirmides no han sido construidos 
por seres humanos y que ms bien stos han sido hechos por inteligencias 
aliengenas cree usted que detrs de esto se muevan peligrosas motivaciones 
racistas, muy bien encubiertas tras el antifaz de la pseudociencia?
Respuesta - Concuerdo totalmente con Ud., pienso que es la herencia de las 
potencias colonialistas que despreciaban a los "nativos" inferiores y se negaban 
a reconocer que podan haber construido esos monumentos grandiosos. Es un 
racismo que recurre a hiptesis fantsticas para negar la realidad que rompe los 
ojos a los pies mismo de las pirmides, donde ciudades funerarias de quienes las 
construyeron contienen las tumbas de funcionarios y artesanos que se identifican 
y narran quienes eran, para quien trabajaron y lo que hicieron.
3.- La indiferencia de algunos medios de comunicacin, incluyendo algunos de 
destacada trayectoria, cree usted que se d por falta de inters, desidia o le 
parece que prima en los medios de comunicacin la intencionada necesidad de no 
responder a estos personajes?
Respuesta - Me inclino por esto ltimo, no olvide que las teoras extraas 
atraen ms la imaginacin popular, son ms fcilmente comprensibles, que las 
explicaciones sobrias, cautas, de los arquelogos. Las especulaciones seudo- 
cientficas venden diarios, elevan el "rating" en la TV o las radios, es todo un 
negocio y desgraciadamente muchos de los que estn al frente de esos medios de 
comunicacin masiva le dan ms importancia a sus ingresos monetarios que a 
cumplir con su deber de informar y educar a un buen nivel. Hay excepciones, por 
supuesto, que marcan el camino a recorrer, como la BBC de Londres por ejemplo, 
cuyo ejemplo de probidad debera ser recogido por otros.
4.- La arqueologa, y las dems ciencias "atacadas" por estos sujetos, han 
establecido frentes de defensa en los que estas propuestas descabelladas son 
refutadas una por una, pero por qu cree usted que la gente termina por ser 
seducida fcilmente por estos sujetos a pesar de contar con informacin veraz, y 
ciertamente mucho ms creible, que aquellas que involucran hombrecillos verdes 
del espacio? En el Per por ejemplo, un famoso Uflogo llamado Sixto Paz reuni 
en 1989 sobre las pampas de Nazca a cientos de personas incluyendo a numerosos 
medios de comunicacin nacionales y extranjeros, para lo que sera el primer 
contacto con vida inteligente del espacio exterior "atradas precisamente por 
las misteriosas lneas de Nazca", al final claro est, no pas nada, salvo una 
ligera lucecilla que apareci a las seis de la maana, sin embargo la gente tom 
esa pequea lucecilla como la prueba irrefutable de la veracidad de aquel 
contacto.
Respuesta - Tuve oportunidad de ver y escuchar a esa persona que Ud. menciona en 
una entrevista en la TV uruguaya en la que debi enfrentarse a los 
cuestionamientos de un astrnomo profesional y su reaccin fue muy pobre, sin 
aportar ninguna prueba convincente de sus dichos y visiblemente afectado por la 
forma como el astrnomo con toda calma mostr lo absurdo y carente de fundamento 
de los dichos de este seor. Es como una religin en la que Ud. es libre de 
creer o no, pero que pretende vestirse de "ciencia" y queda ms desnuda que el 
emperador del famoso cuento. Los arquelogos y los hombres de ciencia en 
general, estn demasiado ocupados para molestarse en responder a los dislates de 
esta gente, lo que estimo que es un error pues confunden a muchos y luego en las 
aulas universitarias se oyen tales alegatos y los docentes deben perder valioso 
tiempo dando las explicaciones que muestran lo absurdo de esas ideas, necesidad 
que desaparecera si de vez en cuando los cientficos se molestaran en usar los 
medios de difusin masiva que deseen entrevistarlos para demitificar sus temas.
5- En diferentes oportunidades los charlatanes han sostenido que sus ms 
encarnizados crticos no son ms que positivistas fanticos incapaces de aceptar 
ideas innovadoras, est la ciencia abierta al anlisis de estas ideas, o como 
sostienen estos personajes, se cierran las puertas sin mayor investigacin?
Respuesta - Es uno ms de los argumentos difamatorios que usa esta gente para 
justificarse. Por supuesto que la ciencia es conservadora y est bien que lo sea 
hasta cierto punto pues si a cada teora que aparece se le concediera la 
aprobacin, tendramos un caos de interpretaciones conflictivas conviviendo, las 
nuevas ideas deben ganarse su reconocimiento y aceptacin mediante un complicado 
y lento proceso de estudio, crtica por sus pares, investigacin, etc., al cabo 
del cual las innovaciones que resisten ese proceso se incorporan al cuerpo de la 
ciencia oficial. Es este proceso que la teoras extraas de esta gente no puede 
sobrevivir y ante el rechazo de los especialistas, recurren al pblico como si 
la aprobacin popular les fuera a conceder validez, el resultado en todos los 
casos es una fugaz popularidad y luego la oscuridad de la que quizs nunca 
deberan haber salido.
Fin de la entrevista.
 
 
Material sobre Egipto          2 de Setiembre de 2001
Hola. Soy de un colegio en Montevideo, Uruguay y buscando informacin en 
Internet llegu a estas pginas. Tengo que hacer un trabajo sobre Egipto 
(coordinando historia y geografa) y si me pudieran dar cualquier informacin 
que tengan se los agradecera. Lo que tengo que contestar es esto:
1) Explique cmo fue que los egipcios pudieron construir las pirmides y cmo 
fue que utilizaron el Ro Nilo para ayudarse en las construcciones.
2) Explique cmo actu la solidaridad entre los egipcios para poder realizar la 
canalizacin del Ro para aprovechar la inundacin.
3) Qu impacto ambiental produjo (negativo y positivo) la construccin de la 
Represa de Asun?
4) Confeccionar un cuadro comparativo del Ro Nilo en la antigedad y en el 
presente.
Gracias y espero que me puedan ayudar.
 
Ins Gonzlez          inegonza1@hotmail.com
 
 
Re: Material sobre Egipto          4 de Setiembre de 2001
 
--- Ins Gonzlez escribi:
Hola. Soy de un colegio en Montevideo, Uruguay y buscando informacin en 
Internet llegu a estas pginas. Tengo que hacer un trabajo sobre Egipto 
(coordinando historia y geografa) y si me pudieran dar cualquier informacin 
que tengan se los agradecera.
 
Bueno, aqu va:
 
1) Explique cmo fue que los egipcios pudieron construir las pirmides y cmo 
fue que utilizaron el Ro Nilo para ayudarse en las construcciones.
Las pudieron construir porque en esa poca la monarqua egipcia era muy poderosa 
y centralizada y poda disponer de todos los recursos del pas para empresas de 
esta magnitud. Adems, durante cuatro meses de cada ao los campesinos estaban 
en su mayora inactivos por la crecida del Nilo y podan ser reclutados para 
labores de apoyo. Otra de las cosas que hay que hay que tener en cuenta es que 
la mayor parte de la piedra que forma las pirmides de Guiza, por ejemplo, es 
piedra calcrea, relativamente blanda y fcil de trabajar, adems se ha 
descubierto que las canteras de donde se extrajo estaban situadas a corta 
distancia de las pirmides mismas, facilitando el trabajo.
 
2) Explique cmo actu la solidaridad entre los egipcios para poder realizar la 
canalizacin del Ro para aprovechar la inundacin.
 
La prosperidad del naciente estado egipcio dependa de los recursos generados 
por la agricultura intensiva aprovechando la fertilidad del limo arrastrado por 
el Nilo desde las montaas de Etiopa, de modo que el trabajo organizado de la 
poblacin permita una adecuada canalizacin y aprovechamiento de las aguas del 
ro. El hecho que Egipto se hubiera unificado permita a los reyes disponer de 
grandes masas de mano de obra que podan ser reclutadas a tales efectos. Sin tal 
control y manejo racional, el agua era ms un agente destructor y se 
desperdiciaba de modo que los trabajos organizados de los egipcios generaron la 
riqueza del pas que lleg a ser el granero del mundo antiguo, bajo el dominio 
de Roma, el trigo de Egipto era tan o ms importante para el abastecimiento de 
Roma que el proveniente del norte de frica.
 
3) Qu impacto ambiental produjo (negativo y positivo) la construccin de la 
Represa de Asun?
La gran represa permiti a los egipcios modernos un control ms racional y 
exhaustivo del agua del ro haciendo posible grandes proyectos de irrigacin y 
ampliacin del rea cultivada sin depender de los caprichos irregulares de la 
inundacin anual. Tambin les permiti contar con gran cantidad de energa 
elctrica para su industria. El lado negativo est representado por la prdida 
del frtil limo que ya no fecunda ms a Egipto con lo que el pas debe gastar 
mucho en fertilizantes para que no se agote el suelo y en la tabla (nivel) de 
agua general en el pas que hace aumentar la humedad con lo que cambia el clima 
y se amenaza la conservacin de los antiguos monumentos del pas, fuente de 
atraccin para el turismo, gran fuente de recursos. Tambin la represa 
constituye un gran peligro para Egipto pues si un enemigo la hiciera volar, todo 
Egipto quedara bajo el agua por cierto lapso y la destruccin sera espantosa.
 
4) Confeccionar un cuadro comparativo del Ro Nilo en la antigedad y en el 
presente.
El ro Nilo era en la prehistoria un ro mucho ms ancho y caudaloso que el 
actual, con afluentes peridicos que le aportaban agua de las lluvias a ambos 
lados del ro, luego el desecamiento progresivo del rea agot ese aporte y la 
fertilidad pas a depender slo del ro que vi disminuido su caudal y anchura. 
En la remota prehistoria el Nilo desembocaba en un largo golfo que estaba a la 
altura de Asun aproximadamente, luego al retroceder el Mediterrneo en varias 
etapas bruscas, pas a desembocar en el vrtice del Delta actual que se fue 
rellenando con el limo del ro durante muchos milenios. En los comienzos del 
neoltico hace unos 8.000 aos el paisaje de Egipto era ya parecido al actual.
 
Gracias y espero que me puedan ayudar.
Ins Gonzlez
 
Espero que te saques buena nota con esto. Chau.
 
Julio Rosas          julsas@yahoo.com
 
 
BURIAL OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN QUEENS          (5 October 2001)
Hi, my name is Renee and I was wondering if any of you would know how an 
Egyptian queen would have been buried. Do you know any certain rituals that 
would have been done during the mummification or the burial? Specifically do you 
know what Cleopatra would have been buried with? If you know anything please let 
me know. Thank you so much for your time.
Renee          Mscongeniality25@aol.com 
 
 
Re: BURIAL OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN QUEENS          (8 October 2001)
As far as I know, ancient Egyptian queens were submitted to the same burial 
rituals other royal people enjoyed, that is, mummification, a tomb, rituals to 
restore bodily functions to the mummy, etc. Cleopatra being a queen that was not 
really Egyptian but Greek (Macedonian), was given most probably the different 
treatment other Ptolemies received, similar to Alexander the Greats and 
different from the Egyptian one, for instance, no mummy of any Ptolemy has ever 
been found. 
Sergio          sergolus@yahoo.com
 
 
LOVE POEMS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT          (27 October 2001)
How are you? I am doing research for a class and I need to find out information 
on love poems from Egypt, one in particular called: distracting is the foliage 
of my pasture. In my text, the poem was translated by William Kelly Simpson. Do 
you or anyone you know have extensive knowledge on Egyptian poetry (1570-1090 
B.C.E.), here's my situation: My class attacked this poem saying that from the 
very first word, distracting, the poem demeans women, that the Egyptian culture 
was patriarchal, therefore this poem reflects the male perspective that women 
were mere objects, and that they were viewed "as tools for men." The discussion 
included that women had the babies, took care of the housework, and were used 
for male sexual pleasures. They were not in politics or business. I just don't 
see how one makes the connection from the patriarchal society and mentality to 
this poem expressing that sentiment. I saw this poem as what it is called: a 
love poem. I understand the difference in connotation and denotation. I do not 
know whether or not William Kelly Simpson was able to decipher the poem 
correctly, but for the sake of argument I will give him the benefit of the 
doubt. With what I have before me, I don't see the poem as demeaning toward 
women. I see it more as a man bragging about how beautiful his girl is. Words 
like lotus buds and berries don't offend me. Should they? Is there something I'm 
missing? Please let me in on any information you have. I'd appreciate it. Thank 
you for your time,
Sincerely,
Michelle Poturich          Hassle4me@aol.com
California Polytechnic University at Pomona
English Department
 
NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR - William K. Simpson is one of the most outstanding 
living egyptologists with a very distinguished career, so I can assure you that 
his translations are mainstream and reasonably accurate. Im afraid your class 
is wrong and you are right, in ancient Egypt women enjoyed a higher position 
than in any other Near Eastern country at the time, some women even managed to 
become Pharaohs and rule Egypt... Herodotus perceived this reality when he 
visited Egypt and declared in his History that the Egyptians were different from 
all other peoples in that women went about and did things while their men stayed 
at home and looked after the house... Women could inherit property and recovered 
their dowry in case of divorce, they were respected members of their communities 
and some even acted as judges in local courts. I advise you to do a search in 
for instance: http://www.altavista.com/ and enter "women in ancient egypt", 
youll find much useful information. For instance, in: 
http://www.up140.jacksn.k12.il.us/Egypt99/Wiggs/Egyptian.htm you would find the 
following:
Women in Ancient Egypt
There were many things about women in Ancient Egypt. Some women were lucky 
enough to become a part of the royal family. Other women were hired for other 
occupations. All the women had almost as many rights as men. The women wore 
make-up and jewelry. They also had similar clothing to wear. Some women even 
became Queen. At least four women became rulers. Sometimes daughters claimed the 
throne. Kings had several (or chief) wives at the same time. The wives of 
noblemen lived in large, impressive houses. A kings chief wife was a member of 
the royal family, and would be treated as royally as his sister or half sister. 
All women, however, were kept busy with their own occupations, royal or not 
royal. Historians studying Egypt noticed that in the tomb and in tomb paintings, 
the women had paler skin than the men. This suggested that women spent most of 
their time inside. Indoor jobs would include being a weaver, a professional 
mourner, a maid, or a nurse. Outdoor jobs would include being a gardener, a 
singer, a dancer, an acrobat, and sometimes a musician. Wealthier women were 
hired as priestesses, and even doctors. Women had almost as many rights as men. 
They could own and inherit property. They could also buy and sell goods. 
Concerning family, they could make a will, obtain a divorce, and were treated 
almost as fairly as men. All women enjoyed putting on make-up and dressing up. 
They would wear wigs, put on perfume, and wear jewelry. They would put on eye 
paints, red lip-powder, and outlined their eyes and eyebrows with green, gray, 
or black on their faces. In addition, they dyed their hair and painted their 
fingernails. Women did not have a big variety of clothes, however. They wore 
robes and tight dresses with shoulder straps. They often used eye shadow 
palettes and mirrors. They spent hours in front of their mirrors, admiring and 
perfecting themselves. As stated above, there are many facts about women in 
Ancient Egypt. They could become royal. They all had occupations and jobs. Women 
were treated fairly. They were also concerned about their appearance. They are 
not too different from todays women. 
 
 
X CONGRESO NACIONAL DE ARQUEOLOGA          (10 de Noviembre de 2001)
 
Entre los das 26 y 29 de Noviembre prximo tendr lugar en Montevideo el X 
Congreso Nacional de Arqueologa. En la ceremonia de inauguracin del Congreso 
se realizar un homenaje de reconocimiento al Prof. J. J. Castillos, Director 
del Instituto Uruguayo de Egiptologa y a sus numerosos colaboradores, por los 
logros obtenidos en la implantacin de los estudios egiptolgicos en Uruguay y 
la trascendencia internacional de su gestin, lo que ser seguido de una 
conferencia inaugural a cargo del referido investigador sobre el desarrollo y 
estado actual de la Egiptologa en su pas.)
 
PROGRAMA
 
LUNES 26 de noviembre
 
INSCRIPCIONES
Cronograma: 8.30 a 10.30 - Sala 1
 
ACTO DE APERTURA
 
Cronograma: 10.30 a 11 - Sala 1
 
CONFERENCIA y RECONOCIMIENTO
J. J. Castillos: "La Egiptologa en el Uruguay"
 
Cronograma: 11 a 12 - Sala 1
 
BRINDIS
 
(A continuacin, siguen numerosas ponencias de calificados investigadores del 
mbito acadmico de Uruguay, Brasil y Argentina sobre Arqueologa Prehistrica e 
Histrica de la regin, Arqueologa y Difusin, de Impacto y Rescate, 
Arqueologa Subacutica, Anlisis de Material Ltico, Poblamiento Temprano de 
Amrica, Arqueologa y Turismo, Arqueologa y Medio Ambiente, slo citamos aqu 
las sesiones que tienen alguna relacin con la Egiptologa):
 
MESA TEMTICA:
ARQUEOLOGA HISTRICA II
Cronograma: Martes 28/11 : 9 a 12.30 : Sala 2
Coordinadora: Lic. Nelsys Fusco
1. Seculo XIX: cotidiano e cultura material, visto atravs do Casarao dos 
Mellos
N. Machado y S. Milder
2. Projeto Jara
Pedrozo
3. Monumentos funerarios y sectores sociales a fines del siglo XIX y principios 
del XX
M. Semp
4. Integridad y distribucin en el registro urbano. Un avance en el anlisis 
qumico y tafonmico del sitio Nueva Torre Banco Galicia, Buenos Aires
M. Cardillo, M. Morales y M. Weissel
5. Las artesanas del humo: Un ejemplo de Arqueologa Industrial
L. Cabrera y I. Barreto
6. Sociologa y Arqueologa: Aportes para una mejor comprensin del perodo 
predinstico en Egipto
J. J. Castillos
 
Exhortamos a todos aquellos que puedan estar interesados en estos temas y/o 
consideren asistir a las conferencias y debates, a visitar la pgina oficial de 
la Asociacin Uruguaya de Arqueologa donde se brindan muchos otros detalles y 
un listado completo de las comunicaciones a este Congreso:
 
ASOCIACIN URUGUAYA DE ARQUEOLOGA
 
Julio Rosas          julsas@yahoo.com
 
 
Egyptian (and other) origins          (December 23, 2001)
 
I've read in many books and also in the web that the ancient Mesopotamians had 
some influence in the appearance of Egyptian civilization, but that's somewhat 
downplayed in other books I've read, they mention the brick architecture, 
fabulous animals depicted in palettes of the time, pottery types, among others, 
and I wonder what is the contemprary thinking among those who know about these 
things, also about the origin of civilization in Iraq and the mysterious 
Sumerians, where they came from? It's bewildering all you see on these subjects, 
often conflicting and any input might clarify a bit these matters. Thank you.
 
Bob           bobfoun@yahoo.com
 
 
Egyptology for fun          (17 January 2002).
 
I've visited your page "The Perils of Ra" and I found it very funny, you people 
must have been gathering the best stuff in the web to put there, I personally 
liked the one on the guy who writes to the Smithsonian in Washington to report 
some discovery he made digging in his backyard... Although meant as a joke, I'm 
sure there must be lots of people like that. But I'd like to reciprocate with a 
page that while attempting to be "serious", is also very funny because of the 
extreme and preposterous views it contains, I called it "Crazy Egyptology" but 
you name it as you wish after you've read what it says, it's at:
 
Crazy Egyptology
 
Have fun and if any of you find more of this stuff, please share it with us...
 
Sam          samler85@hotmail.com
 
 
Egyptian (and other) origins           (19 January, 2002)
 
Some people have in the past and more recently revived these views but it seems 
that they are nor correct, if you go over the current literature on this subject 
you will see that such "Mesopotamian influence" is a group of traits that 
appeared briefly in Egypt and disappeared later on, they may be very well due to 
trade and the import of foreign innovations that even today happens and we call 
(temporary) fads. None left any permanent or important imprint on the fabric of 
ancient Egyptian civilization. The main representative of this renewed assertion 
of Mesopotamians "civilizing Egypt" is David Rohl, a person that has been 
gradually drifting from serious scholarship to popular sensationalist theories, 
perhaps it has to do with his past as a rock musician and his artistic 
inclinations which seem at odd with serious, methodical scholarship. He 
"rediscovered" rock inscriptions in the Egyptian Eastern desert and then brought 
back old ideas that they revealed such a foreign intrusion in Egypt in early 
times, a concept long abandoned by academia. He seems to make such basic 
mistakes often which devalues his claims on many subjects. About the origin of 
the Sumerians, also thought to have been due to foreigners, it seems that 
specialists on the subject don't accept that anymore and are more and more 
inclined to describe it as a natural and native development of the chalcolithic 
cultures of southern Iraq at the time. 
 
Henry Slater          henslater@yahoo.co.uk
 
 
La Administracin en el antiguo Egipto          (21 de Enero de 2002)
 
Soy una estudiante de la carrera de administracin de empresas y estamos 
investigando para exposicin la historia de la administracin de la civilizacin 
sumeria y egipcia. En tanto me dirijo a ustedes para ver la posibilidad si 
podran ayudarme envindome informacin especfica de la administracin en la 
cultura egipcia. Agradeciendo su colaboracin, quedo de ustedes, atentamente,
 
Dunia Andino          dandino@esa.hn
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, C.A.

NOTA DEL MODERADOR: Puede Ud. hallar mucha informacin sobre el tema que busca, 
por lo menos en torno al antiguo Egipto, en:
Ensayos de Egiptologa
Amigos de la Egiptologa
 
 
 
 



