A team of scientists has shed light on one of the most abiding mysteries of ancient Egypt: what happened to Pharaoh Ramesses III?

Ramesses, who reigned from approximately 1186 BCE-1155 BCE, is regarded by Egyptologists as Egypt’s last great monarch. But the later years of his reign appear to have been a time of disarray. The increasingly penurious state found itself unable to pay the workmen who built the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, which resulted in the first recorded strike in history.

Amidst this general turmoil, members of his court planned a coup to replace him with one of his sons, Prince Pentaweret. The details of the conspirators’ trial are preserved in three documents, the Judicial Papyrus of Turin, the Rollins Papyrus, and the Lee Papyrus. Thanks to these records, we know that the accused included a wide range of individuals, from royal women to palace officials. At some point during the course of the trial, some of the women seem to have tried to seduce the judges, who suffered the loss of their noses and ears as punishment for consorting with the accused. As for the hapless Prince Pentaweret, he was said to have committed suicide (probably in lieu of execution). We do not know what became of his mother, Queen Tiye, who appears to have been the driving force behind the plot.

But the biggest mystery of the whole affair is what happened to Ramesses III himself. The official records are silent as to his fate, though they imply that he died during the course of the trial. This led many scholars to wonder if the coup failed, or if it merely took a while for the king to die.

Now, thanks to the recent CT scans of the king’s mummy, we have the answer: his throat was slit. The wound was so severe that it went all the way down to the spine, severing the trachea, esophagus, and major blood vessels. The result would have been almost instantaneous death. Until now, the wound was overlooked because the neck retained its original bandaging. Interestingly, the CT scan also revealed that the embalmers placed an Eye of Horus amulet in the wound, perhaps to ensure that it healed in the afterlife.

“[The cut] might have been made by the embalmers but this is very unlikely,” said Dr. Albert Zink, a paleopathologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy who took part in the investigation. “I’m not aware of any other examples of this.”

The researchers also made another surprising discovery: an unidentified male mummy found in an unmarked coffin is probably Prince Pentaweret. The body had not undergone the usual mummification process, and was found wrapped in a goat skin, which was considered ritually impure by the ancient Egyptians. Marks on his neck suggest that he might have been strangled, though the lack of fractures to the laryngeal skeleton make it impossible to say so with certainty.

Furthermore, genetic analysis indicated that Unknown Man E and Ramesses III were closely related. ”From our genetic analysis we could really prove the two were closely related. They share the same Y chromosome and 50% of their genetic material, which is typical of a father-son relationship,” said Dr. Zink.

Although the genetic data does not prove that Unknown Man E is in fact Pentaweret, his dishonorable burial would seem to be consistent with that of a condemned criminal. Burying him in an unmarked coffin without the usual mummification process was probably intended to deny him a posthumous existence in the afterlife.

A full report of the team’s findings can be found on the website of the British Medical Journal.

Image Courtesy : G. Elliot Smith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The article Pharaoh’s Throat Was Slit, Study Finds appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Sofie Skein, the creator of Bonjour Poupettes, continues to branch out into new art forms. Her new website shows her creative diversity as well as a glimpse into her everyday life. In this portion of her interview, Sofie gives readers a chance to delve deeper into the mind behind the artist.

ToonariPost: When you first started did you ever hit any bumps in your art process. What were they and how did you overcome them?

Sofie Skein: In the beginning, with the Poupettes, I had very little money to invest in materials. Fortunately, polymer is affordable and my pieces were small. At that time, I was more interested in form than color and all of my figurines were monochrome, about half the size that they are now (4-5″), and I made them in my hands, without tools of any kind.

I kept getting requests for pet portraits and larger figurines, which I was game to make, but they were particularly time consuming and sometimes impossible to make without tools. I reached a point where I had to decide whether or not I was going to invest in this project or move on.

I have never regretted the purchase of a single tool, and every one I’ve acquired has improved my work considerably. The tools I speak of are mostly hand tools for modeling as well as a pasta machine for conditioning and blending the polymer compound. They completely transformed the way that I worked.

TP: Who or what are your inspirations and why?

SS: I’m inspired by the creatures, ideas and things that I love – and what I love tends to be both vulnerable and brave. These are qualities associated with the human soul, but I recognize them in poetry and music, plants and animals, special places and objects as well. Also, the logic of dreams and fairy tales has always been close to my heart.

A world where animals stand up and walk around on two legs, wear clothes and have conversations in human languages makes sense to me in a way that the everyday world does not.

TP: Have you ever had to deal with a situation where someone else took credit for your work?

SS: Fortunately, I’ve never had to deal with a situation like this. My style of figurine is pretty unique and it has evolved over time in ways that I could have never planned for. Not only do I custom blend most of the polymer I use, I also use particular techniques and tools to achieve each piece.

TP: What is your favorite subject to design and why? You design a lot of animals, does any one in particular have special meaning to you?

SS: I’ve always loved to study faces. To me, animal faces are as expressive and revealing as human faces if you pay close enough attention. I do enjoy creating animal people and pet portraits because it’s an excuse to study their faces and discover what qualities really differentiate, for example, a fox from a wolf – and decipher what qualities are essential to maintain our recognition of a type of animal.

For me, this is an ongoing, evolving process of discovery. I have a personal story to tell about almost every creature I make. For example, when I was a child, a small circus came to my village and set up in the empty lot behind my house for a week. We were free to wander about and I spent most of that week watching the elephants and even got to ride on their backs.

I realize it sounds like something that happened in the nineteenth century, not rural Oregon in the 1980′s, but it did happen and those elephants have been a part of my imagination ever since.

TP: If there was any art medium that you wish you could master, what would it be and why?

SS: This past year I have been exploring an ancient technique of portraiture using encaustic wax medium and a torch using a four-color palette of naturally occurring pigments. It is exceptionally difficult but the results can be astonishing. It would be an amazing achievement to master this technique!

TP: How did you hear about encaustic portraits and what made you decide to take on this new medium?

SS: I’ve actually been painting with encaustic for a lot longer than I’ve been making poupettes. The pieces that I’ve shown publicly have been exclusively encaustic landscapes.

The portraiture technique I mentioned is based on a four color palette that the ancient Greeks developed. I was inspired to learn about this technique after studying a book (‘The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt’ by Euphrosyne Doxiadis) about the Greek funerary paintings entombed in Egypt. It’s something that I would absolutely love to study in depth.

TP: You have also mentioned that your partner is an artist?  Can you tell me a little about his creative process?

SS: Nicolas describes himself as ‘a maker of things’. Currently he’s making miniatures, digital artwork, and Egyptian votive sculptures. We are both passionate about our work and share a studio, however, our creative processes couldn’t be more different. My creative process is rather orderly and structured, whereas his is much more organic and flowing.

My approach toward my work tends to be painstaking – working from a big picture idea and whittling it down to the detail; his ideas seem to spring out of nowhere, fully formed. We are both very appreciative of each other’s approach and instead of our differences creating conflict, we get to share our unique perspectives, which I think enriches our work as well as our relationship.

TP: What are your goals in life?

SS: I’ve reached a point in my life where I’ve finally achieved two long-term goals: supporting myself with my creative work and making a home on the coast. For now, I’m content with continuing this path; however, I do feel called to share more of my writing, in the hope of encouraging and inspiring others who are trying to find their way to a life that truly supports who they are.

Five years ago, I couldn’t have imagined achieving the goals that I had dreamed of, and I strongly feel that if I could do so, it’s possible for anyone who is willing to commit to their plans.

TP: Do you feel that your culture or background has influenced you in some ways that make you different than other artists?

SS: I never planned to make animal figurines and would have been nonplussed if you had told me even just five years ago that I would be doing this full-time. However, it seems kind of inevitable to me now. I grew up next door to a veterinary clinic, both of my parents were passionate vets and horse-people. Animals were such an intrinsic part of my world and considered a part of the family.

I’m in my thirties, so I might not have enough perspective on this – but the older I get, the more impressed I am at the profound influence of both landscape (especially the physical landscape of our childhood) and history (personal history as well as family history) on who you are and how you view the world.

It seems that many of us spend the first half of our lives trying to escape those forces, and the second half trying to find a way home to them. If you are an artist, your work is likely to reflect this cycle of departure and return.

The article Artist Spotlight: Sofie Skein, Interview Part 2 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.