Egypt

Computer reconstructed image of Nefertiti - from her skull (left) and Joanne Fletcher, who found her body

Speak the name of the dead, and they shall find eternity - Book Of The Dead
(Nefertiti's skull was disfigured to prevent her speaking her name to the Gods)

Tutankhamun	One of the most amazing stories in Egyptology. The unknown boy king who became the most famous of all the Pharaohs. Howard Carter's diaries are linked from this page. Startling revelations about secret papyri and The Exodus! Tutankhamun was murdered!
Howard Carter	He discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun - His Diaries
Moses	Who was he? What really happened in the Exodus? Archaeologists have found where the 10 Commandments were written and supposedly handed down by god to Moses on the present Egyptian - Israeli border.

It was originally thought that Scorpion King was ruler in Upper Egypt only. Archaeologists have discovered new evidence, in the desert, of the probable burial place of King Scorpion, who lived 1800 years before Tutankhamun, and 500 years before the first Pharaoh. His burial "house", hidden in the sand, contained vases of beer and wine and marked with his "mark"; also found were small ivory squares marked with an early form of hieroglyphic and indicated where a particular tribute came from. An example was a stork and a seat. Bah + Set = Bahset, a large market town that existed on the Upper Nile not far from the current Delta region. King Scorpion was a warrior king and united upper and lower Egypt by conquest. The famous Scorpion Mace depicts hanging birds and banners around the top, this symbolised conquered regions.

November 2008: Channel 5 (UK) has been running a most interesting series entitled Secrets of Egypt. This weeks episode was about King Scorpion. The revelations it threw up have rewritten the history of ancient Egypt. For many decades, historians believed that writing originated in Mesopotamia. This is now known to be false, it was in Egypt, 500 years before the first Pharaoh. In 1898, James Quibell unearthed a ceremonial stone macehead at Hierakonpolis in southern Egypt. It was carved with the figure of a man who bore all the signs of being a Pharaoh: a Rosette next to his head, and a Scorpion. Quibell read this as the name, ‘King Scorpion’. Yet no Scorpion appeared on any of the ancient lists of Egyptian Pharaohs; only the style of the macehead was similar to previous finds from the first dynasty of Pharaohs. Quibell concluded that he had found a local king from an era before the first Pharaohs united the whole of Egypt. But this raised an exciting new possibility, turning on its head a common assumption of the time: that the Pharaohs were foreign invaders from the East, who introduced their more advanced civilization to North Africa. If there was a King who predated the first dynasty this would change the entire face of Egyptian history.

More than a hundred years later, modern archaeologist Dr John Darnell discovered an ancient inscription carved on a rock face in the desert landscape of Southern Egypt, west of the River Nile. Depicting a procession of human and animal figures, it revealed the image of a Falcon above a Scorpion - a remarkable echo of Quibell’s earlier find. Darnell believes he has discovered the name of the same King Scorpion, and that the procession carved into the rockface records a major event in his life. A kingly figure leads a bound prisoner in what looks like a scene of military victory. Darnell interpreted this as the celebration of a decisive battle in King Scorpion’s rise to power, uniting the cities of Southern Egypt under his kingship.

The search for King Scorpion has revealed a man who was a pivotal figure in the creation of Ancient Egypt. He organised his kingdom with the world’s earliest phonetic writing system, and began a new style of burial that may have inspired the complex tombs and pyramids of the Pharaohs. Now at last experts are discovering the true origins of ancient Egypt, and the remarkable legacy of the Scorpion King. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, features in the programme in which he authenticates much of the findings and speaks most authoritively on a subject so very dear to his own heart.

On November 10th 2009 I paid a visit to the Egyptian section of Birmingham Museum

(3) Isis. Ideal mother and patron of nature & magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers^. Right: stele of a loving wife and husband