Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 06:3 (Summer 1993)
Article: News and Notes. . .
Author: Anonymous

---

BSP 6:3 (Summer 1993) p. 76

News and Notes. . .

Ancient Tomb Is Found Near Giza Pyramids

ABU SIR, EGYPT - Archeologists have found a 3,200-year-old underground tomb near the Pyramids of Giza and say it may be part of a previously unknown necropolis.

“We are in front of a very big discovery,” the director of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, Mohammed Ibrahim Bakr, told reporters yesterday outside the tomb, cut into a sand-covered slope of rock rising above the village of Abu Sir.

The tomb consists of a limestone-paved courtyard and a room cut into the rock at one level and a series of four chambers underneath stretching deep into the desert hillside. It was built for a man named Nakh-min, “overseer of chariots” and “messenger to foreign lands” for Pharaoh Ramses II.

Ramses the Great reigned for 67 years in the 13th century BC during the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, when the Pharaoh controlled a military empire stretching into what is now Jordan and Syria.

The three Pyramids of Giza, 7 miles northwest of Abu Sir, and the pyramids and tombs of Sakkara, just to the south, all belong to the much earlier Old Kingdom, which began about 5, 000 years ago. The area is just beyond the southern outskirts of Cairo.

“It might be the beginning of the discovery of a whole necropolis in Abu Sir,” said one of the archeologists working on the site. One of the tomb’s underground chambers, about 12 feet square and 5 feet high, is decorated with figures of animal-headed gods, representations of gateways and inscriptions from The Book of the Gates, a book of spells to guide the soul through the underworld.

Fossils Show Gulf Area Had Forests, Report Says

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Scientists have found new fossil evidence that the arid Persian Gulf region was once covered by lush forests with abundant wildlife.

The animals included elephants, crocodiles, hippopotamuses and giraffes, according to early results of research detailed in the annual report of Abu Dhabi’s leading oil-producing company.

Abu Dhabi today, like other countries along the southern shores of the gulf, is mere sand dunes as far as the eye can see. Temperatures are searing hot, and only a few inches of rain fall annually.

Skeletons With Weapons Confirm Fall Of Nineveh

Donald Smith - National Geographic News Service

They lie as they fell more than 2, 600 years ago, a writhing clump of humanity frozen in a moment of fearful combat. Pieces of armor, iron daggers, pikes, and other weapons litter the ground. Buried in the desiccated leg bone of one of the soldiers is another emblem of blood and pain: a triple-bladed bronze arrowhead, cunningly shap...

visitor : : uid: ()