Accessing Universal Intelligence.
Human Ingenuity and Creativity. Our Cultural Heritage.
Favourite things. Music and Movies. Nature. Items that interest me on any topic.
The Holy Grail is a dish, plate, stone or cup that is part of an
important theme of Arthurian literature. According to legend, it has
special powers and is designed to provide happiness, eternal youth and
food in infinite abundance.
A grail, wondrous but not explicitly
holy, first appears in Perceval le Gallois, an unfinished romance by
Chrétien de Troyes.[1] It is a processional salver used to serve at a
feast. Chrétien's story attracted many continuators, translators and
interpreters in the later 12th and early 13th centuries, including
Wolfram von Eschenbach, who perceived the grail as a great precious
stone that fell from the sky.
The Grail legend became interwoven with
legends of the Holy Chalice.[2] The connection with Joseph of Arimathea
and with vessels associated with the Last Supper and crucifixion of
Jesus dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th
century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus
and sends it with his followers to Great Britain.
Building upon this
theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch
Christ's blood while interring him and how he founded a line of
guardians to keep it safe in Britain. The legend may combine Christian
lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.
The mummy, bound with linen stuck together with plaster, was in a brightly coloured wooden sarcophagus buried near a temple from the era of the warrior king Thutmose III.
The tomb was likely to have belonged to a nobleman, Amenrenef, who
would have been a servant of the royal household, the ministry said.
The archaeological team’s head, Myriam Seco Alvarez, said the mummy was adorned with many colourful decorations recalling religious symbols from ancient Egypt, such as the goddesses Isis and Nephtys displaying their wings, and the four sons of Horus.
Evidence suggests that the practice of wrapping bodies to preserve them after death in Egypt dates back as far as 4500BC.
Scattered throughout modern Egypt are many ancient temples which are
famous for their splendor and historical significance. The perfect
example of one of these breathtaking displays of luxury is the Temple of
Hathor.
Built around 2250 BC, the artwork that runs throughout the
building is remarkably well kept, despite being thousands and thousands
of years old. As the main temple within the significant Dendera Temple
complex, it is known for being one of the best-preserved sites in all of
Egypt.
Facing the Nile, the sanctuary layout is classical Egyptian,
containing stunning examples of Ptolemaic Egyptian artwork including
depictions of Cleopatra and her son, fathered by Julius Caesar. The
temple itself was built to worship the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor,
who personified feminine love, healing, and motherhood. Imposing columns
have been carved to bear the face of the goddess, complete with the cow
horns she is typically shown to bear.
Though the entire temple is magnificent, it is the ceiling that
remains the true masterpiece. Recently, workers carefully removed
hundreds of years of black soot which accumulated as a centuries-old
Arab village established camp within the temple.
Through the
restoration, a spectacular and vibrant painting overhead was slowly
revealed. Decorated with a complex astrological chart of the heavens and
zodiac signs, the ancient temple ceiling now offers a highly detailed
setting to study or just a lovely scene to visit and be swept away by
the antiquated opulence. For a 360 degree view go here.
Great to see Sam Neill again, and also Max Irons who was in "Woman In Gold" as well.Same Niell has done some terrific movies. Filmography here.
This discovery would have been so much harder had not Jean-François Champollion deciphered the Rosetta Stone.It took him a very long time to do this.
King Tutankhamun is possibly the most famous pharaoh ever, but in reality he did very little to warrant this.His incredible tomb made him so famous.Cleopatra is equally famous, but she actually did quite a lot! His father, Akhenaten, was virtually wiped from history because he was possibly the first monotheist ever. His mother, Nefertiti, is also incredibly famous because of the bust of her which resides in a German museum. She was known for her beauty.
This story was depicted in the movie "The Egyptian", which is always worth watching.
One was a flamboyant aristocrat
with a passion for fast cars, erotic photography, gambling and
racehorses. The other was a dour and prickly archaeologist who it was
said had “a chip on his shoulder” and could pick a fight in an empty
room.
The Fifth Earl of Carnarvon George Herbert and Howard Carter
were the most unlikely of associates yet the two men, who on the face
of it had so little in common, collaborated successfully to make the
most famous archaeological find of all time.
A new four-part ITV
series Tutankhamun, which begins this Sunday, tells the story of that
find and how, thanks to Carnarvon’s riches and Carter’s stubborn
perseverance, the 3,300-year-old tomb of the Boy King of ancient Egypt
was unearthed in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.
The discovery
made both men global celebrities and led to a wave of “Tutmania” across
the world but for Carnarvon the euphoria was short-lived as he died just
five months later – his untimely demise taken by some as evidence of a
mummy’s curse. The Earl, known to his friends as
“Porchy”, only became associated with Carter and digging for ancient
tombs in Egypt by accident. In his youth the devil-may-care Etonian, who
loved to wear the best clothes and chain-smoke cigarettes in a long
holder, showed little interest in academic matters.
“At Cambridge
University he was more often at the races than at lectures,” noted
Middle Eastern scholar HVF Winstone. Porchy sailed round the world when
he was 21 and two years later he inherited his title and the family
seat, the magnificent Highclere Castle in Hampshire – later the setting
for TV series Downton Abbey.(No coincidence that the dog in the show is called "Isis").
“His handsome features and rather
diffident manner – he was sometimes thought to be a prototype of
Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster – made him popular with all classes of people
wherever he went,” wrote Winstone.
In 1903 Porchy was driving his
car on a country road in Germany at his usual breakneck speed when he
swerved to avoid two carts and was seriously injured. His doctors
advised him to go to Egypt to convalesce. It was there that he became
hooked on Egyptology and decided to finance his own excavations. Carter had first arrived in Egypt
in 1891. The son of a wildlife artist from Norfolk he had none of the
social advantages bestowed by birth on his future benefactor. His
interest in all things Egyptian began when he was employed as a
draughtsman at Didlington Hall, home to one of the largest collections
of Egyptian art in England.
Carter had been in Egypt on and off
for 16 years when he first encountered Carnarvon. The two men, from very
different backgrounds, were both determined to unearth old tombs – and
in particular that of the Boy King who had ruled for around 10 years in
the 14th century BC.
Carnarvon, the great racing enthusiast,
declared that he’d rather find an undisturbed tomb than win the Derby.
Carter started working for the nobleman in 1907 but in 1914 his
excavations had to be put on hold because of the outbreak of the First
World War.
In 1917 he resumed his work with Carnarvon once again
ready with the funds. But the years passed and still there was no
discovery. By 1922 the Earl had spent around £50,000 on excavations with
very little to show for it. Understandably his patience was running out
but at Highclere Castle in June 1922 Carter managed to persuade his
patron to finance one more season of digging. On November 6 that year Carnarvon
received a coded telegram from Carter. It read: “At last have made
wonderful discovery in Valley. A magnificent tomb with seals intact.
Re-covered same for your arrival. Congratulations.” Carnarvon headed to
Egypt and on November 26 he and Carter prepared to view the antechamber.
“I
was struck dumb by amazement and when Carnarvon, unable to stand the
suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, ‘Can you see anything?, it was
all I could do to get out the words, ‘Yes, wonderful things’,” Carter
later wrote. The first press report of the discovery a few days later
caused an international sensation.
“In private houses, hotels,
subways, suburban trains, theatres and in Wall Street everywhere one
goes one hears constantly of the great Pharaoh and his treasures and the
light that is about to be thrown on a historical mystery,” it was
reported from the US.
On his return to Britain the Earl had an
audience with the King. Keen to see a return on his considerable
investment Carnarvon sold exclusive newspaper rights and began to
discuss film deals. But disagreements with Carter about rights to the
tomb’s artefacts occurred. The two men had a heated row – and
shortly afterwards Carnarvon was bitten by a mosquito. He cut the
inflamed bite while shaving and blood poisoning and then pneumonia
developed. He passed away at the Continental Hotel in Cairo in the early
hours of April 5, 1923. He was 56.
Just before he died the lights
in the Egyptian capital are said to have gone out, with no explanation
given for the blackout. But what really inspired the idea of a curse
linked to the discovery of Tutankhamun was the news that thousands of
miles away at Highclere, the Earl’s devoted dog, a three-legged fox
terrier called Susie, “howled inconsolably” and died – at the same time
as her master.
In addition there were reports that on the day
Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened a cobra – the snake that was regarded as a
symbol of royalty in ancient Egypt – had entered Howard Carter’s house
and eaten his pet canary.
The Daily Express reported: “The death
of Lord Carnarvon has been followed by a panic among collectors of
Egyptian antiquities. All over the country people are sending their
treasures to the British Museum, anxious to get rid of them because of
the superstition that Carnarvon was killed by the ‘ka’, or double of the
soul of Tutankhamun.”
