THIS IS SENSATIONAL NEWS!
Ancient Tides is a nice blog by Gregory LeFever with the motto "Linking ancient history to today". The blog covers current news on the topic of ancient cultures. One posting that caught our eye is More Fragments of Ancient List Are Found, which we plan to look into more carefully soon, as the Turin list of kings is an important document for the chronology of Ancient Egypt, upon which the chronology of the Ancient Near East is also principally based. We provide our decipherment of the Turin Canon (viz. Turin Papyrus, Turin Kinglist) here, here, here and here. See also COJS.org. As written at LexiLine:
"As some of you know, I have several times recommended the re-study of the Turin Canon by new thermoluminescence methods, since I am sure some of the pieces of this important historical papyrus have been mis-pasted in the reconstruction process. Thermoluminiscence would easily determine where the pieces should properly be pasted (by grains on the paper, etc.). My suggestions have fallen on deaf ears in Egyptology, for the same reason as given above - the object is "too important" to study - it might be damaged. And so, erroneous conclusions drawn from a - surely - falsely reconstructed document are used to map the chronology of ancient Egypt, for which the Turin Canon is of eminent importance."LeFever links us to a Discovery article by Rossella Lorenzi of Discovery News, Fragments of Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Found, in which Lorenzi reports that additional fragments of the Turin Canon (they call it the Turin Kinglist), an ancient Papyrus listing the rulers of Ancient Egypt, have been found. As Lorenzi writes, the fragments were found:
"[S]tored between two sheets of glass in the basement of the Museo Egizio in Turin, the fragments belong to a 3,000-year-old unique document, known as the Turin Kinglist.... Scholars from the British Museum were tipped off to the existence of the additional fragments after reviewing a 1959 analysis of the papyrus by a British archaeologist. In his work, the archaeologist, Alan Gardiner, mentions fragments that were not included in the final reconstruction on display at the museum. After an extensive search, museum researchers found the pieces....The finding could help more accurately piece together what is considered to be a key item for understanding ancient Egyptian history.
This is one of the most important documents to reconstruct the chronology of Egypt between the 1st and 17th Dynasty," Federico Bottigliengo, Egyptologist at the Turin museum, told Discovery News.
Unlike other lists of kings, it enumerates all rulers, including the minor ones and those considered usurpers. Moreover, it records the length of reigns in years, and in some cases even in months and days....
Some of the finest scholars have worked on the papyrus last century, but disagreement about its reconstruction has remained," Bottigliengo said. "It has been a never-ending puzzle....
We are confident that a new examination with modern scientific techniques will enable a much improved reconstruction to be achieved," Richard Parkinson, curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, told Discovery News."
This is a great day for the study of Ancient Egypt, because it means that the reconstruction of the Turin Papyrus will finally be corrected by the necessity to fit in the new pieces - which of course will demand that the old reconstruction also be reviewed. I am certain that my decipherment will be shown to be accurate.
See the full Discovery News posting.
A longer and more detailed account is found at New fragments of the Turin King List : Fresh light on the pharaohs , by Robyn Gillam
See also Vittorio Sabadin "I faraoni scomparsi nel buco:Trovati nei sotterranei dell'Egizio di Torino i frammenti mancanti del "Papiro Reale": sovrani sconosciuti e una storia da riscrivere " (see Google Translation into English) La Stampa, 19th February, 2009
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Update February 22, 2010. Nothing more has been heard about progress on the re-reconstruction of the Turin Papyrus so that we reproduce the original Discovery News story by Rossella Lorenzi from February 27, 2009 below so that it is not lost in the digital shuffle - as so much has been, but as long as it is still online, make sure you see the original with graphic:
Fragments of Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Found
Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News, Feb. 27, 2009
Some newly recovered papyrus fragments may finally help solve a century-old puzzle, shedding new light on ancient Egyptian history.
Found stored between two sheets of glass in the basement of the Museo Egizio in Turin, the fragments belong to a 3,000-year-old unique document, known as the Turin Kinglist....
Like many ancient Egyptian documents, the Turin Kinglist is written on the stem of a papyrus plant.
Believed to date from the long reign of Ramesses II, the papyrus contains an ancient list of Egyptian kings.
Scholars from the British Museum were tipped off to the existence of the additional fragments after reviewing a 1959 analysis of the papyrus by a British archaeologist. In his work, the archaeologist, Alan Gardiner, mentions fragments that were not included in the final reconstruction on display at the museum. After an extensive search, museum researchers found the pieces.
The finding could help more accurately piece together what is considered to be a key item for understanding ancient Egyptian history.
"This is one of the most important documents to reconstruct the chronology of Egypt between the 1st and 17th Dynasty," Federico Bottigliengo, Egyptologist at the Turin museum, told Discovery News.
"Unlike other lists of kings, it enumerates all rulers, including the minor ones and those considered usurpers. Moreover, it records the length of reigns in years, and in some cases even in months and days."
Written in an ancient Egyptian cursive writing system called hieratic, the papyrus was purchased in Thebes by the Italian diplomat and explorer Bernardino Drovetti in 1822.
Placed in a box along with other papyri, the parchment disintegrated into small fragments by the time it arrived in Italy.
Some 48 pieces of the puzzle were first assembled by French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832).
Later, some other hundred fragments were pieced together by German and American archaeologist Gustavus Seyffarth (1796-1885).
One of the most important restorations was made in 1938 by Giulio Farina, the museum's director.
But in 1959, Gardiner, the British Egyptologist, proposed another placement of the fragments, including the newly recovered pieces.
Now made of 160 fragments, the Turin Kinglist basically lacks two important parts: the introduction of the list and the ending.
Some of the finest scholars have worked on the papyrus last century, but disagreement about its reconstruction has remained," Bottigliengo said. "It has been a never-ending puzzle."
"The enumeration of the kings does not continue after the 17th Dynasty. We are confident that the recovered fragments will help reconstruct some of the missing parts as well as add new knowledge to Egyptian history and chronology."
"It is possible that some dates will have to be changed and names of pharaohs will have to be added," Bottigliengo said.
The newly recovered fragments have been examined by the experts of the British Museum, following a collaboration begun by the museum director Eleni Vassilika. She drew on the experience of Gardiner, in conserving and mounting papyri.
"A preliminary visit revealed that there is huge potential to conserve and reconstruct the papyrus, including many small fragments that were left unplaced in Farina's arrangement of the 1930s."
"We are confident that a new examination with modern scientific techniques will enable a much improved reconstruction to be achieved," Richard Parkinson, curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, told Discovery News.
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