Thursday, March 27, 2014

Colossal pharaoh statues of Amenhotep III found in Egypt’s temple city Luxor

Tourists and journalists walk past a newly-displayed statue of pharaoh Amenhotep III in E

Tourists and journalists walk past a newly-displayed statue of pharaoh Amenhotep III in Egypt's temple city of Luxor.Source: AFP

Egyptian archaeological workers stand next to a newly-displayed alabaster head from an Am

Egyptian archaeological workers stand next to a newly-displayed alabaster head from an Amenhotep III statue in Egypt's temple city of Luxor.Source: AFP

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unveiled two colossal statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in Egypt's famed temple city of Luxor, adding to an existing pair of world-renowned tourist attractions.
The two monoliths in red quartzite were raised at what European and Egyptian archaeologists said were their original sites in the funerary temple of the king, on the west bank of the Nile.
 
The temple is already famous for its existing 3400-year-old Memnon colossi — twin statues of Amenhotep III whose reign archaeologists say marked the political and cultural zenith of ancient Egyptian civilisation.
 
“The world until now knew two Memnon colossi, but from today it will know four colossi of Amenhotep III,” said German-Armenian archaeologist Hourig Sourouzian, who heads the project to conserve the Amenhotep III temple.
 
The existing two statues, both showing the pharaoh seated, are known across the globe.
 
The two restored additions have weathered severe damage for centuries, Ms Sourouzian said.
 
“The statues had lain in pieces for centuries in the fields, damaged by destructive forces of nature like earthquake, and later by irrigation water, salt, encroachment and vandalism,” she said, as behind her excavators and local villagers washed pieces of artefacts and statues unearthed over the past months.
“This beautiful temple still has enough for us to study and conserve.”
 
One of the “new” statues — its body weighing 250 tonnes — again depicts the pharaoh seated, hands resting on his knees.
It is 11.5 metres tall, with a base 1.5 metres high and 3.6 metres wide.
Archaeologists said with its now missing double crown, the original statue would have reached a height of 13.5 metres and weighed 450 tonnes.
The king is depicted wearing a royal pleated kilt held at the waist by a large belt decorated with zigzag lines.

AFP

....

Taken from: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/colossal-pharaoh-statues-of-amenhotep-iii-found-in-egypts-temple-city-luxor/story-e6frg6so-1226862911031




Friday, March 21, 2014

Does the Name ‘Senenmut’ Reflect the Hebrew 'Solomon'?

 by

Damien F. Mackey

 
 

Because, according to my historical reconstruction, Senenmut of 18th Dynasty Egypt

was King Solomon.

 

  
 
Senenmut in hieroglyphs
 
 
 
 

The name ‘Senenmut’ has variations (http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/senenmut.html):

 
"Senenmut (literally "mother's brother" sometimes transliterated as Senemut or Senmut) was one of the most powerful and famous (or infamous) officials of ancient Egypt. At the height of his power he was the Chief Steward of Amun, Tutor to the Princess Neferure and confidant (and possibly lover ) of the pharaoh Hatshepsut. However, both his early career and the circumstances surrounding his death and burial are obscure".
 [End of quote]

 
In “The House of David” (http://www.specialtyinterests.net/david_abishag.html) I wrote concerning the name and possibly also an Egyptianised King Solomon:

"…. Peter James and David Rohl, British revisionists, have each proposed that an ivory found at Megiddo, one of Solomon's forts in Israel, "showing a monarch holding court", may actually be a depiction of Solomon himself and his queen in Egyptian guise.
Megiddo it should be noted was one of Solomon's great forts in northern Israel, where Solomon had, writes James [2010], built a "monumental palace compound" (1.Kings 9:15). And it was at the site of Megiddo that the "material culture of Palestine at the end of the Late Bronze Age [Solomon's era by the revision] is best seen". The ivory plaque, says James:
... is of particular interest. [The monarch] is seated on a throne decorated with sphinxes. If it was intended to represent a specific rather than an idealized ruler, would it be too much to imagine that in this ivory we actually have a depiction of the Egyptianized King Solomon?
Now Rohl (who has apparently fallen out so badly with James that they no longer refer to each other's writings) gives his descriptive account of this amazing item [2020], arriving at the same sort of conclusion as had James:
To the right the king arrives in his chariot, driving before him Shasu captives; in the center is an intimate cameo of the same ruler, seated upon his throne with his queen and lyre player standing before him; to the left, behind the king, two courtiers attend to the royal couple's needs. Now let us pick out what might be interpreted as Egyptian elements in the scene. First, above the chariot horses is a winged sun-disk; second, the queen offers a lotus flower to her husband; and third the king is seated upon a throne, the sides of which are guarded by winged sphinxes (i.e. human-headed lions). Surrounding the monarch we see three doves - a well known motif of peace, Solomon married an Egyptian princess; he had 'a great ivory throne' made for him which was protected by 'lions' on either side [1.Kings 10:18-20]; his traditional name means 'peaceful'.
Solomon's Hebrew name, Shelomoh [שְׁלֹמֹה]- said to derive from shalom ('peace') - may indeed be said to mean 'peaceful'. Dr. Metzler though, in his inimitable fashion, argues that Solomon is partly an Egyptian name, derived from she-El Amon (sounds like a bit of a hybrid).
So far, I have not successfully managed to find any sort of connection between the names Solomon and Senenmut (whom I have nonetheless identified as the one person). The name Senenmut, Egyptian sn-n-mwt …. means:
 "Brother of the mother."
"Brother of the mother" is not a particularly helpful concept, and I can in no way adapt it to the name Solomon. (Although it may pertain to some other name of Solomon's for he had apparently several names, e.g. he was also known as Jedidiah (2 Samuel 12:25). However, we saw in "Solomon and Sheba" that Senenmut liked to manipulate the Egyptian hieroglyphs, for example creating cryptograms in regard to Hatshepsut's throne name, Makera (meaning "True is the Heart of Ra"). Perhaps he, as the crafty and intellectual Solomon, had adapted Egyptian names to Hebrew ones in Metzler-ian style. If so, the name Senenmut may be more cryptic than has so far been appreciated. …".
 [End of quote]
However, I would now like to reconsider some of this.
I want to propose that the Egyptian name, Senenmut, especially in its form of Senemut, is very much like the Hebrew name Shelomoth (1 Chronicles 24:22), also derived from ‘peace’ (http://www.truthunity.net/texts/mbd/shelomoth), and therefore basically the same name as Shelomoh (‘Solomon’).
Shelomoth is also considered to be the same name as Shelomith (‘peaceful’); a name given to a grandchild of King Solomon (2 Chronicles 11:20).
The basic difference between the names Senemut and Shelomo[t]h, as far as transliteration goes, is that the first name has an ‘n’ where the second name has an ‘l’ (there is also the ‘S’ and ‘Sh’ difference, which is less significant, see e.g. Judges 12:6, since it can be a dialectical thing). But the letter ‘l’ does not occur in the Egyptian alphabet, for (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_language): “In Egyptian … Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian n〉 …”.
Charles W. Johnson has written on this, in his fascinating (http://earthmatrix.com/linguistic/nahuatl.htm):

Linguistic Correspondence:
Nahuatl and Ancient Egyptian

"One very obvious characteristic of the nahuatl language is the extensive use of the letter "l" in most of the words, either as ending to the words or juxtaposed to consonants and vowels within the words. One of the very apparent characteristics of the ancient Egyptian language is the almost total absence of the use of the letter "l" within most of its word-concepts. The letter "l" appears as an ending of words only a handful of times in E.A. Wallis Budge's work, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. It would appear that this very dissimilar characteristic between these two languages would discourage anyone from considering a comparative analysis of possible linguistic correspondence between these two very apparently distinct idioms. ...."
[End of quote]

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Vizier Rekhmire Powerful Like Senenmut (= Solomon)








Taken from: http://www.luxoregypt.org/English/historical_sites/TOMBS_OF_NOBLES/TombsFrom

....



At the top of his career, Rekhmire was Vizier of Upper Egypt, Mayor of Thebes, and possessor of over one hundred other important titles. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and uncle were also viziers, a position second only to pharaoh in prestige and authority. Even though his father never rose above the rank of Priest of Amen, this august lineage helped to ensure his own rapid rise in the bureaucracy. Rekhmire boasted that “there was nothing of which he was ignorant in heaven, on earth, or in any quarter of the underworld.” An immodest bit of hyperbole to be sure, but he was one of the best-informed, most powerful men in all Egypt.

Rekhmire held office during the last years of the reign of Thutmes III and the early years of Amenhetep II. These were heady times in Egypt. After Hatshepsut had departed the throne, Thutmes III undertook a series of military campaigns that greatly increased Egypt’s power abroad and brought the country a degree of wealth unknown in previous dynasties. The pharaoh launched huge building programs and richly supported the arts and crafts. Egypt continued to thrive under his successor, Amenhetep II, and the great projects continued.

Nearly all these activities were supervised by Rekhmire. He oversaw projects throughout Egypt, managed the vast royal estates, supervised temples, judged court cases, checked irrigation schemes, attended official ceremonies, chaired administrative meetings, managed the civil administration, maintained state security, approved rates of taxation, and collected the taxes. Rekhmire was fully aware of his talents as Egypt’s senior administrator, and he proudly and at length quoted his pharaoh’s description of the vizier’s duties in inscriptions on his own tomb walls:

‘Then his majesty said to him: “Look you to this office of vizier. Be vigilant over [everything that] is done in it. Behold, it is the support of the entire land. Behold, as to the vizierate, behold, it is not sweet at all, behold, it is bitter as gall...Behold, it does not mean giving attention (only) to himself and to his officials and councilors, not (yet) making [dependents] out of everybody....Therefore, see to it for yourself that all [things] are done according to that which conforms to law and that all things are done in conformance to the precedent thereof in [setting every man in] his just desserts. Behold, as for the official who is in public view, the (very) winds and waters report all that he does; so, behold, his deeds cannot be unknown....”

Rekhmire describes, with no false modesty, how well he handled this difficult job: “I judged impartially between the pauper and the wealthy. I rescued the weakling from the bully. I warded off the rage of the bad-tempered and I repressed the acts of the covetous. I cooled down the temper of the infuriated. I wiped away tears by satisfying need. I appointed the son and heir to the position of his father. I gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, meat, beer, and clothing to him who had none. I succored the old man by giving him my staff and caused old women to say, ‘What a gracious act!’”

He sounds like the ideal bureaucrat. But later in his career, Rekhmire fell out of favor at court and may even have been stripped of his titles. No offspring are known to have succeeded him to government office, although he had at least five sons and several daughters. There is no evidence that he was ever buried in TT 100, but there are indications that part of the tomb decoration was deliberately mutilated and his name destroyed.

TT 100 was known to most nineteenth century explorers. Some of its scenes were published by Frederic Caillaud in 1831, but the tomb was not cleared until 1889 and not completely published until 1943.

In plan, TT 100 looks like many other cruciform-shaped tombs at Thebes, but in section it is unique. Beyond a standard transverse corridor, an inner room extends nearly 25 meters (82 feet) into the hillside of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qurna. At the entrance, the ceiling is 3 meters (10 feet) high. But the ceiling of the inner room slopes steeply upward, reaching a height of over 8 meters (26 feet) at its western end. The result of this strange design was to give Rekhmire’s tomb over 300 square meters (3200 square feet) of wall surface, all of which was decorated with painted scenes of the highest quality. In the transverse hall, the scenes deal with personal and business matters and contain lengthy texts describing the duties of the vizier, the administration of temple holdings, and Rekhmire’s activities during the reign of Amenhetep II. The inner room has scenes of arts and crafts, daily life, funeral banquets, and burial rituals. The famed nineteenth century British Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson said in 1835 that the paintings of this tomb shed more light on ancient Egyptian culture than any other source known.

At the ENTRANCE to the tomb, prayers to Ra-Harakhty, Amen-Ra, Thoth, Osiris, and other gods are accompanied by Rekhmire’s boastful claims of having close relations with each.

On the right half of the front (east) wall of the TRANSVERSE HALL, Rekhmire has included texts describing in some detail his duties as vizier. The British Egyptologist Percy Newberry believed that the accompanying scene was meant to show the actual audience hall in which Rekhmire held court, and if you look closely you will see thin columns with palm leaf capitals, walls that define a large chamber, and a raised dais on which Rekhmire sits. Distributed around that chamber are numerous officials and petitioners. The text accompanying the scene goes into considerable detail about Rekhmire’s duties, even noting that in the audience hall he has to “sit on a backed chair, a reed mat being on the ground, the chain of office on him, a skin under his back, another under his feet, and a [canopy] of matting over him.”


 ....


Monday, March 17, 2014

Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky’s 600 Year Shift Strengthened



From: http://www.conservapedia.com/Jehoahaz_I


….

The monarchy period of Israel and Judah can be firmly dated as contemporary with the 18th and 19th dynasties of Egypt, which conventional historians have placed six centuries too early. This historical revision was first suggested by Immanuel Velikovsky, and much ridiculed, but has since been confirmed beyond doubt by revisionist scholars such as Damien Mackey[10].

….
 
 
 
For more up-to-date sites now regarding this study, check out:
 
 
Description of our AMAIC sites

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Bible, Herodotus, and the Phoenicians



Taken from: https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/212-herodotus-and-the-bible


....

Phoenicia was a small country on the Mediterranean coast northwest of Canaan. Naturally, there was frequent contact between the Phoenicians and the Hebrew people. Again, the accuracy of the biblical descriptions of these people is forcefully demonstrated by the secular historical record.
 
The Old Testament represents the Phoenicians as skilled in the hewing of timber (1 Kings 5:6). They were fine craftsmen in gold, silver, brass, and iron. The king of Tyre made some of the vessels and pillars for Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 7:21-23). Herodotus once visited Tyre, a leading city of Phoenicia, and he described a temple as “richly adorned with a number of offerings, among which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night” (ii.44).
The historian commented that the people of Tyre boasted that their city had stood for 2,300 years. Isaiah appears to take note of this claim: “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?” (23:7).
 
Several Old Testament prophets foretold Tyre’s subjection to the Babylonians (see Jeremiah 25:22; 27:1-11; Ezekiel 26:1-28:19; 29:18-20; Zechariah 9:2ff). Isaiah declared that Tyre would be “forgotten seventy years,” but that after that period (likely the era of the Babylonian domination), the city would “return to her hire,” that is, her prosperity would resume (23:15-17). This is confirmed by Herodotus who notes that in the time of the Persian rulers, Darius Hystaspis and Xerxes, the Phoenicians were providing their ships as allies for Persian conquests (v.108; vii.89).
 
....