Friday, February 17, 2006

Amenhotep III temple red granite head

Hourig Sourouzian, director of the German conservation project for the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III's temple, has been interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly: "She explained that since excavation of the site began in 1998 the mission had consistently stumbled upon homogenous New Kingdom statuaries until last week, when a well-preserved red granite royal head with Kushite features -- full cheeks and bulging lips -- was unearthed. The 50-cm-tall head was found among several decaying granite block on a sandstone slab at the north end of the temple. Its top and right side were damaged, the nose was lightly chipped and the chin was broken. 'It is a very beautiful head wearing a nemes (regal headdress),' says Sourouzian, who asserts that it does not belong to the area where it lay buried.
See the above web page for the full story on the Al Ahram website.

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