A military garrison of mud-brick and seashells unearthed in Egypt's Sinai desert may be key to finding a web of pharaonic-era defenses at the northeast gateway to ancient Egypt, archaeologists said on Thursday.Archaeologists who discovered the 3,500-year-old garrison, where up to 50,000 soldiers could be posted in times of heightened tensions, say they hope inscriptions at Luxor's Karnak temple may serve as a guide to finding other outposts. But knowing the location of the garrison at the ancient city of Tharu, in aformerly fertile area of Egypt where a branch of the Nile river once met the Mediterranean Sea, is key to understanding where to start looking."As we understand from the inscription at Karnak temple, the city of Tharu had two fortifications with the Nile in the middle," said Mohamad Abdul Maqsoud, who heads archaeological exploration in Egypt's Nile Delta and Sinai regions. In their 3,000-year history, Egypt's Pharaohs often ventured across Sinai to fight Hittites and other civilizations in the area now covered by Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. "This city was used to protect Egypt and as a gate to the Delta.

It was a post of control. If you wanted to cross the Nile, you asked for permission before you crossed the bridge," Abdul Maqsoudsaid. Most Egyptian fortifications at the time were made of stone, not easily available in the Sinai. So Egyptians used seashells to strengthen the mud brick used to build the garrison, with a 15 meter thick and 12 meter high wall to discourage attack.

Garrison used to expel Hyksos Abdul Maqsoud said a full exploration and excavation of possible pharaonic military installations in Sinai could take 15 years to complete, but he expected to find more outposts. The garrison, called Tell Heboua, is now some 15 km (9 miles) from the coast and the Nile branch is no longer there. The fortress was first used as a base from which to expel the occupying Hyksos, who occupied Egypt for some 120 years between 1620 and 1534 BC and whose capital, Avaris, was located nearby in the Delta, AbdulMaqsoud said......

Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of pharaonic-era mummies in brightly painted wooden coffins near Egypt's little-known Lahun pyramid, the site head said on Sunday. The mummies were the first to be found in the sand-covered desert rock surrounding the mud-brick Lahun pyramid, believed to be built by the 12th dynasty pharaoh Senusret II, who ruled 4,000 years ago. The team expects to announce more finds soon.The site was first excavated more than a centuryago. "The tombs were cut on the rock itself, and they vary in architectural designs," said archaeologist Abdul Rahman Al-Ayedi, head of excavations at the site.

"Most of the mummies we discovered were with these bright and beautiful colors."At the site, bare skulls from some of the mummies sit on a hillside while workers gently brush away sand from coffins below the earth that bear images of their occupants, some painted in striking hues of green, red and white. Ayedi said the dozens of tombs dotting the site near Fayoum, 60 km (35 miles) south of Cairo, could give insight into the development of Egyptian funerary architecture and traditions from the Middle Pharaonic Kingdom all the way to the Roman era. Some of the tombs were built on top of graves from earlier eras, and Ayedisaid archaeologists had found dozens of mummies, including around 30 that were well-preserved. Some were inscribed with prayers intended to help the deceased.

Site may date to earlier era Ayedi said Egypt would soon announce an additional significant find near the Lahun pyramid, once covered by slabs of white limestone, showing the site could date back to an earlier era thousands of years before previously thought. "The prevailing idea was that this site has been established by Senusret II, the fourth king of the 12th dynasty. But in light of our discovery, I think we are going to change this theory, and soon we will announce another discovery," he told reporters. He said teams had made a discovery dating to before the 12th dynasty, but gave no details on what it was andsaid an official announce......

U.S. researchers say they have found evidence that the Egyptians spiked their wine with medicinal herbs as long as 5,000 years ago. A chemical analysis of pottery dating to 3150 B.C. shows that herbs and resins were added togrape wine, researchers led by Patrick E.

McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.Adding tree resin to wine to prevent disease was widely known in ancient times, also being reported in ancient China, and continuing into the Middle Ages, the researchers say.And they note that Egyptian records report that a variety of herbs were mixed in wine, beer andother liquids for medical uses. Chemicals recovered from the pottery indicate that in addition to wine there were savory, blue tansy and artemisia _ a member of the wormwood family _ present. Other chemicals indicate the possible presence of balm, senna, coriander, germander, mint, sage and thyme.

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Three sites in Egypt will be excavated starting next week in an attempt to solve one of ancient Egypt"s most enduring mysteries - where is the final resting place of Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony ?"Archaeologists will begin excavating sites in Egypt next week in an attempt to solve a mystery that has stymied historians for hundreds of years: Where is the final resting place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony?"

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The burial place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony has remained an enduring mystery, but new evidence suggests it could soon be laid to rest. Archaeologists are to begin searching three new sites identified in a radar survey of a temple close to Alexandria for the tombs of the celebrated queen of Egypt and the Roman general.

Egypt's top archaeologist Zahi Hawass said the finds have raised hopes that the legendary couple will be found together in a system of tunnels beneath the temple of Tabusiris Magna. The discovery would be even bigger than the uncovering of King Tutankhamun's tomb, which was found in 1922, according to Dr Hawass.

The excavation is hoped to unravel a number of questions that have lingered over the couple, including whether they were buried together, her reputed beauty and their suicide. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the three sites were identified last month during a radar survey of the temple close to Alexandria.

It is located on Lake Abusir, once known as Lake Mariut, near the northern coastal city and was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II from 282 to 246 BC. Teams from Egypt and the Dominican Republic have been excavating the temple for the last three years.

They have already discovered a number of deep shafts inside the holy site, three of which were possibly used for burials. The leaders of the excavation believe it's possible Cleopatra and Mark Anthony could have been buried in a deep shaft similar to those already found.

The couple are widely believed to have committed suicide after their defeat in the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Kathleen Martinez, an Egyptologist involved in the dig, said that Roman records suggested that the lovers were then buried together.

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Archaeologists working in an Egyptian oasis have found a necropolis containing dozens of brightly painted mummies dating back as far as 4,000 years, the country's antiquities chief said on Sunday."The mission found dozens of mummies in 53 rock-hewn tombs dating to the Middle Kingdom" from 2061-1786 BC, Zahi Hawass said."Four of the mummies date back to the 22nd Dynasty (931 to 725 BC) and are considered some of the most beautiful mummies found," he said.

The linen-wrapped mummies are painted in the still-bright traditional ancient Egyptian colours of turquoise, terracotta and gold. The necropolis was uncovered near the Ilahunpyramid in Fayoum oasis south of Cairo.Abdel-Rahman el-Ayedi, who headed the mission, said that a Middle Kingdom funerary chapel with an offering table was also found, and that it was probably used up to the Roman era which lasted from 30 BC to 337 AD. The team also found 15 painted masks, along with amulets and clay pots, Hawass said.

Copyright: MiddleEast Online

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered an ancient necropolis containing dozens of beautifully preserved mummies dating back as far as 4,000 years. Excavations sponsored by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities revealed 53 tombs cut into rock south east of the Illahun pyramids in the oasis of Fayoum.

Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass described four of the mummies, dating to the 22nd Dynasty (931-725 BC), as among the most beautiful ever discovered. Sitting in wooden coffins, the mummies are wrapped in linen and painted in the traditional Egyptian colours of gold, turquoise and terracotta.

The decoration and inscriptions on the mummy trappings are remarkably well preserved.The mission, led by Supervisor of Antiquities for Middle Egypt Dr. Abdel-Rahman El-Ayedi, also recovered charred remains from a number of other coffins, which are thought to have burned during the Coptic period.

Among the remains, the team unearthed 15 painted masks, clay pots and protection charms known as amulets.The archeologists also found a Middle Kingdom funerary chapel with offering table.

Preliminary study suggests the chapel was reused in subsequent periods, perhaps as late as the Roman era (30 BC to 337 AD). Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, who announced the discovery, said the tombs vary in design. While some are reached through a single burial shaft, others have another shaft leading to a second, lower chamber.

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Russian archaeologists working at Egypt's Fayoum Oasis have uncovered a number of mummies wearing golden masks, as well as other artifacts of historical value, a Russian Egyptologist said on Wednesday. A group of Russian archaeologists has been working in the Fayoum province, some 80km southwest of Cairo, since 2003. It has been carrying out excavations at the Deir Al-Banat necropolis for the past twoyears."It is a huge necropolis," said Alexei Krol, deputy chief of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Egyptology center.

"Despite the fact that the site was badly robbed in the early Christian period, the Coptic era and in the 1960s-1970s, we are still managing to find mummies with golden masks," he said.The Deir Al-Banat necropolis contains burial sites from three periods of Egyptian history - Ancient Egypt, Roman Egypt and Christian Egypt. Apart from traditional Egyptian mummies, scientists have also found several so-called Fayoum mummy portraits from the Roman Egyptian period, realistic portraits of a deceasedperson made on a piece of wood and attached to a mummy. The scientist added that several findings made at the necropolis challenged the existing theory, based on early Christian literature, that pagans and Christians in Egypt had a long and bitter feud at the dawn of the religion. "They could live in the same city and pray to different gods," Krol said. Russian archeologists have also been carrying out underwater research of the ancient part of Alexandria and excavations in the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.

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