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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: ancient Egypt

ancient Egypt stories: 16 news summaries
RE-EXAMINING THE FOOD PYRAMID

 Heart Disease: 
 Pharaohs Had It, Too 

'Part of the human condition,' so fast food not only culprit

Nov 17, 09 7:20 PM CST
(Newser) - In a finding that pokes holes in the thinking that our modern fast-food lifestyle is behind heart disease, scientists have discovered that Egypt’s mummies, too, had hardened arteries. “Atherosclerosis is not just a disease of modern times,” one researcher tells WebMD . “It’s part of the... More »

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CT scans • heart disease • fast food • ancient Egypt • ancient Egyptians • atherosclerosis • hardened arteries • mummies

HERODOTUS WAS RIGHT DEPT

 Vanished Persian Army 
 Turns Up in Sand 

Evidence of 50K doomed soldiers found in Egyptian desert

Nov 17, 09 2:21 PM CST
(Newser) - Italian archaeologists in Egypt claim to have unearthed evidence of a 6th-century BC Persian military folly once thought mythical. Herodotus described an army of 50,000 Persians sent by their emperor, Cambyses, to destroy an oracle that had spoken ill of his ambitions. The army was, according to lore, beset... More »

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Iran • archaeology • Libya • ancient Egypt • archaeologist • ancient history • Persia • sandstorm • army • Herodotus

OPINION

Opening Her Tomb Won't Tell Us Who Cleopatra Was

Even Shakespeare had a hard time improving on her true story

Apr 22, 09 10:05 AM CDT
(Newser) - If the tomb that archaeologists are about to start excavating in Egypt really is Cleopatra’s, what will that really tell us about the legendary queen? Aside from possibly clearing up questions about her heritage and cause of death, probably not much, writes Cleopatra expert Stacy Schiff in the New ... More »

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archaeology • tomb • ancient Egypt • Cleopatra • Marc Antony

Archaeologist: 
Cleopatra, Mark Antony Tomb
Is Close

Artifacts unearthed in Egypt hint at lovers

Apr 19, 09 3:29 PM CDT
(Newser) - An eccentric Egyptian archaeologist believes he knows where Mark Antony and Cleopatra were buried, the AP reports. An excavation team has uncovered a mask fragment with an Antony-style cleft chin, coins bearing Cleopatra’s likeness, and 10 mummies from the same time period in the Toposiris Magna temple, hinting that... More »

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archaeology • Egypt • mummy • tomb • ancient Egypt • Cleopatra • masks • Mark Antony

(Newser) - Nefertiti’s image as a flawless beauty of antiquity may not be entirely accurate, Reuters reports. New computer scans reveal a slightly different face at the core layer of the Egyptian queen’s famous 3,300-year-old bust than the finely chiseled planes of the statue’s surface—one with a... More »

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CT scans • statue • ancient Egypt • Nefertiti

 Egypt Unveils Ancient Mummy 


Feb 11, 09 7:01 PM CST
(AP) - Illuminated only by torches and camera lights, Egyptian laborers used crowbars and picks to lift the lid off a 2,600-year-old limestone sarcophagus, exposing—for the first time since it was sealed in antiquity—a perfectly preserved mummy. Wrapped in dark-stained canvas, the mummy is part of Egypt's discovery of... More »

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archeology • mummy • ancient Egypt

(AP) - A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt's top archaeologist said today. "We announce today a major, important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300... More »

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archaeology • Cairo • tomb • ancient Egypt

 DNA Tests Set
 for Baby Girls
 in King Tut's Tomb

Was mummy a daddy?

Aug 7, 08 2:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - The 3,000-year-old mummified remains of two stillborn baby girls found in King Tutankhamun's tomb will undergo DNA testing to dermine their relationship to Egypt's famous boy king and Queen Nefertiti. The babies' remains were discovered in Tut's tomb in 1922 but never publicly displayed, reports the BBC. More »

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Tutankhamun • ancient Egypt • Supreme Council of Antiquities • Nefertiti • Ankhesenamun • Cairo School of Medicine • Luxor • Zahi Hawass • Howard Carter

  Dirty Jokes of the Ancients Unearthed

Academics discover 3,000-year-old Sumerian fart joke

Aug 1, 08 8:57 AM CDT
(Newser) - Academics studying ancient texts have discovered bawdy jokes that wouldn't be out of place in a Farrelly brothers movie, the Daily Telegraph reports. "What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?" asks a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon manuscript.  "... More »

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humor • joke • history • ancient Egypt • ancient customs

 Lost Pyramid Found in Egypt 

4,500-year-oldtomb rediscovered

Jun 6, 08 3:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - The remnants of a 4,500-year-old Egyptian pyramid lost for generations has been rediscovered by archaeologists, National Geographic reports. It's believed to be the tomb of  King Menkauhor—who ruled in 2,400 BC—and was found in the midst of a sprawling burial complex at Saqqara, where scientists also... More »

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Pyramids • ancient Egypt • Memphis • King Menkauhor • Saqqara • Headless Pyramid • Supreme Council of Antiquities • National Geographic Society • Old Kingdom • Middle Kingdom • sarcophagus

Archaeologist: I've Found Cleopatra's Tomb

Discovery could be biggest in decades

May 25, 08 5:18 AM CDT
(Newser) - A leading archaeologist in Egypt has announced he’s found the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, the Times of London reports. Zahi Hawass believes the ancient lovers are buried beneath a temple near Alexandria, where he found a 400-foot tunnel. “We’ve found tunnels with statues of Cleopatra... More »

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archaeology • Egypt • tomb • ancient Egypt • Cleopatra

 Did the Egyptians
 Invent Concrete?

New theory on the Pyramids: 'less sweat and more smarts'

Apr 22, 08 1:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Egyptians may have used concrete to build the pyramids, an MIT professor suggests, and he's using materials available at the time (and students as his slave labor), to test the theory on a small mock-up of a pyramid, reports the Boston Globe. "It could be they used... More »

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Boston • MIT • Pyramids • ancient Egypt • concrete • Linn Hobbs

BC Movie Critters Strong
on Terror, Not Accuracy

Still, most of the beasts in the new flick did exist somewhere at some point

Mar 5, 08 8:42 PM CST
(Newser) - The computer-generated critters in the movie 10,000 BC—due out Friday—all actually existed at some point, but their portrayal in the film is scientifically sketchy. Saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths weren't as big as portrayed, and the film's huge terror birds died out 40 million years ago. One... More »

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fossil • woolly mammoth • ancient Egypt • prehistoric mammals • movies • 10,000 BC • saber-toothed cats • terror birds • special effects

Egypt to 'Copyright' Sphinx™

New law will demand royalties for replicas of ancient monuments

Dec 26, 07 4:26 AM CST
(Newser) - Egypt is set to pass a law that would "copyright" the pyramids and the Sphinx, the BBC reports. The law would apply to large-scale replicas anywhere in the world of any ancient Egyptian monument or museum piece.  Egypt intends to collect royalties from the duplicates to protect its... More »

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Las Vegas • Egypt • Pyramids • ancient Egypt

Mask Lifts, Reveals Tut's Face

Face of boy-pharaoh on public display for the first time

Nov 4, 07 1:00 PM CST
(Newser) - King Tut, Egypt's famous boy-king, has shown his face publicly for the first time in about 3,000 years, BBC reports. Archaeologists worried about the effects of humidity on Tut removed the mummy from its stone sarcophagus and placed it in a climate-controlled case in his Valley of the Kings... More »

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Tutankhamun • ancient Egypt • Valley of the Kings

What Killed Tut?
Scientists Crack the Case

Not-so-coddled boy king fell from a speeding chariot

Oct 23, 07 10:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists may have finally solved the mystery surrounding the death of King Tut: The boy king took a tumble from a speeding chariot while hunting. New CT scans show Tut suffered a broken leg as well as a blow to the head, the Independent reports. Analysis of tomb artifacts suggests... More »

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Egypt • Tutankhamun • ancient Egypt

16 Stories


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