Head (porphyritic diorite) of an ancient Egyptian cow goddess, perhaps Hathor or Mehetweret. Artist unknown; ca. 1390-1352 BCE (reign of Amenhotep III, 18th Dynasty, New Kingdom). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Man, I really just wrote an entire essay in a discord server with a bunch of my friends about geology. I swear to shit. In all honesty, I'm kinda bummed that geology isn't a major in the college I plan on going to bc I feel like I would knock that shit out. I just love it so much. Like, don't even get me started. I just think it's amazing how not only have WE been able to create new minerals as well, but that we're able to study them. Whenever I go on a hike now, all I can do is look at the rocks around me. Geology, what have you done to me. I mean, it's not exactly something I can brag about because most people don't give a shit until I mention the fact that I have a rock collection. I have a few geodes, but they're ALL QUARTZ, which is nice, I guess, but it gets to a point where I'm literally begging for any geode I find to have anything BUT quartz in it. Quartz is nice, dont get me wrong, but I have SO MUCH of it. I remember one time I almost tossed away a chunk of diorite bc I thought it was quartz. Like come on, do better, Earth. Btw here's quartz and diorite.
I know they look super different but my dumbass brain sees white on a rock and then goes "Oh yeah, that's quartz I don't need more quartz" but I was WRONG and an IDIOT. I really like geology and rocks and minerals btw did I mention that
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Abdel Aziz and the conservators finished their work on the columns in the Mut Temple’s porches on March 7. This photo and most of the others in this post were taken by Abdel Aziz in the final stages of the work and at the end. If you compare this shot with the next picture (taken some years ago), you’ll see what a difference their work has made. We are incredibly fortunate that they were willing to take on this project. And we are most grateful to Abdel Aziz for taking all the photos for the last few posts.
Just a reminder that this is what the porches looked like before the 2023 season, with fallen column drums lying helter skelter in the East Porch and the collapsed column blocking the view of the rams near the West Porch.
On March 4 Ayman supervised the lifting of what should have been the final column drum in the west column. It turned out not to fit, no matter how they tried, so it had to be taken down and left beside the column.
By March 6, the west column was finished. It looks much better than it did at the start of the season, when it was pretty much a heap of sand. Now at least you can tell it is a column.
This is the West Porch on March 7, with the column restored as much as it could be and the whole area cleaned up.
And here is the East Porch on March 7. While there are still miscellaneous column fragments that can’t be put back in place, the porch is looking much more organized.
A leftover piece of business from our shortened season. While working in the north square in Temple A, we uncovered these three pieces of diorite (not to scale): the back of a throne (left), part of a torso (top) and a hand. On the torso fragment you can just make out the bandeau at the bottom that ran under the breast and part of the broad collar at the top left.
It wasn’t until the season was almost over that we realized the fragments came from the lone Sakhmet statue on the north side of the court – why we didn’t think of this immediately we don’t know. The hand and throne fragment fit easily, but the statue’s torso was too damaged for the breast fragment to be reattached. When they finished with the columns, the Egyptian conservators re-attached the hand and throne back, and left the torso fragment sitting on the statue’s lap.
Almost every evening around sunset we watched huge flocks of ibises fly north. We don’t know where they came from or where they were going, but the flights were beautiful.
We close this last post of our last season with a view of the moon setting over the Nile. We will miss the beauty of this place as well as the people there we have come to know and love.
Posted by Richard Fazzini and Mary McKercher
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GUDEA WITH ARCHITECTURAL PLAN
[circa 2150 B.C. | diorite | height: 29″]
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diorite sucks and i'll stand by that, but POLISHED DIORITE? OHHHH YEA GIMME THE MARBLE COUNTERTOP BLOCK GIMME IT NOWWWWWW. i really like polished diorite and i don't care what anyone says
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“Statue Cube de Penimen" diorite égyptienne du Nouvel Empire (1550-1069 avant J.-C.) à l'exposition "Rêve d'Égypte" du Musée Rodin, Paris, février 2023.
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Au Louvre-Lens, il y avait une expo fort intéressante : “Champollion - La Voie des Hiéroglyphes”, sur l’homme, son époque, l’image de l’Egypte en Europe avant l’Egyptologie....
- les 3 premières : couvercle du sarcophage en diorite de Djedhor - le "ba" du défunt d’un côté, la déesse Nout de l’autre - Saqqara, 380-300 av. J-C.
- les 2 suivantes : cercueil de Tamoutnefret - Thèbes, Nouvel Empire, 1250 av. J-C.
- couvercle du sarcophage de la “Divine Adoratrice” Ânkhnesnéferibrê- Deir-el-Médineh, 530 av. J-C.
- Auguste Bartholdi - "Jean-François Champollion”
- ex-libris pastiche de Champollion en copte
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I did an aggie.io board with the xBfam and spent far too long drawing this in the corner of the board! It’s alright enough that I felt okay posting it here.
Enjoy!
(You may want to turn up your brightness if you’re viewing on a phone, sorry!)
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