Rare Egyptian Pharoah Statue Found.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

Statue of Egyptian pharaoh found after nearly 3,600 years

 

Sat Jun 4, 4:45 PM ET

 

 

 

LUXOR, Egypt (AFP) - Buried for nearly 3,600 years, a rare statue of Egypt's King Neferhotep I has been brought to light in the ruins of Thebes by a team of French archaeologists.

 

 

 

 

 

Officials said on Saturday that the statue was unusual in that the king is depicted holding hands with a double of himself, although the second part of the carving remains under the sand and its form has been determined by the use of imaging equipment.

 

Archeologists unearthed the 1.8 metre (six foot) tall statue, as they were carrying out repairs around Karnak Temple in the southern city of Luxor, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told reporters.

 

Francois Larche, one of the team that found the limestone statue of the king, whose name means "beautiful and good", said it was lying about 1.6 metres below ground near an obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to have reigned as a pharoah in Egypt, ruling from 1504-1484 BC.

 

Karnak, now in the heart of Luxor, was built on the ruins of Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt. The huge temple dedicated to the god Amon lies in the heart of a vast complex of religious buildings in the city, 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of Cairo.

 

The statue shows the king wearing a funeral mask and royal head cloth or nemes, said Larche.

 

The forehead bears an emblem of a cobra, which ancient Egyptians used as a symbol on the crown of the pharaohs. They believed that the cobra would spit fire at approaching enemies.

 

Larche said this was only the second time such a statue had been found in Egypt. A similar one was dug up during the excavations of the hidden treasures of Karnak from 1898 to 1904.

 

But it is not clear when or if the statue will be completely unearthed. It is blocked by the remnants of an ancient structure, possibly a gate.

 

"In order to pull it out, a structure on top of the statue has to be dismantled and then restored," said Larche, adding that permission from the Egyptian antiquities authorities was needed before the team could go ahead with plans to raise the statue.

 

"It's up to the Higher Council of Egyptian Antiquities to decide on the fate of the statue of Neferhotep I and whether it will be brought to light or left buried where it was found."

 

Neferhotep was the 22nd king of the 13th Dynasty. The son of a temple priest in Abydos, he ruled Egypt from 1696-1686 BC.

 

Experts believe his father's position helped him to ascend the throne, as there was no royal blood in his family.

 

Neferhotep was one of the few pharaohs whose name did not invoke the sun god, Re. It is written on a number of stones, including a document on his reign found in Aswan.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

Ancient Pharaoh's Statue Found

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

 

 

June 6, 2005— A life-sized statue of the 13th Dynasty Pharaoh Neferhotep I has emerged from the ruins of ancient Thebes in Luxor, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Saturday.

 

Buried for almost 3,600 years, the six-foot limestone statue shows the "beautiful and good" pharaoh — this is what Neferhotep means — wearing the royal head cloth.

 

The forehead bears the emblem of a cobra, which pharaohs wore on the crown as a protective symbol: they believed that the cobra would spit fire at enemies.

 

 

 

The statue was found by a French-Egyptian team of archaeologists who were carrying out restoration work around the Karnak Temple, beneath the obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's only female pharaoh, who ruled from 1504-1484 BC.

 

"We found it about 1.6 meters below ground, under a stone portal which was the entrance of a temple for Pharaoh Thutmosis I, who reigned from 1530 to 1520 B.C.," Francois Larché, director of the Center Franco-Egyptian d'Etude des Temples de Karnak (CFEETK), told reporters.

 

The second half of the statue is still buried in sand. Archaeologists cannot dig it out as the carving lies in a niche below the foundation pit of the Hatshepsut obelisk.

 

It is also blocked by the remnants of the stone portal, which would have to be dismantled and then restored in order to bring the statue to light.

 

"It's up to the Higher Council of Egyptian Antiquities to decide whether to unearth the statue or leave it buried," Larché said.

 

According to reports in the Egyptian press on Monday, the statue might be left in its current place as it could disintegrate on removal. An exhibition will be set at the statue's site, Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, said.

 

"The statue shows a very high quality of craft and art," Hawass said.

 

Little is known about Neferhotep I. The son of a temple priest in Abydos, he was the 22nd king of the 13th Dynasty and ruled Egypt from 1696 to 1686 B.C.

 

Though he did not have any royal blood, he ascended the throne thanks to his father's position. Some biblical historians believe he may have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus, under whose reign the Jewish exodus occurred. Neferhotep's body and tomb have never been found.

 

A similar statue of Neferhotep was unearthed in 1904 in Luxor. It is now on display in the Egyptian Museum.

 

Edited June 7, 2005 by Madame Butterfly