Massive Ancient Statue
Discovered Submerged In Mud In Cairo
March 9, 20175:31 PM ET
A quartzite colossus
possibly of Ramses II and limestone bust of Seti II have been discovered at the
ancient Heliopolis archaeological site in the Matariya area of Cairo.
Anadolu Agency/Getty
Images
Archaeologists working
under difficult conditions in Cairo have discovered an ancient statue submerged
in mud.
A joint German-Egyptian
research team found the 8-meter (26-foot) quartzite statue beneath the water
level in a Cairo slum and suggests that it depicts Ramses II, according to Reuters.
The team was working at
what was once Heliopolis, one of the oldest cities in ancient Egypt and the
cult center for the sun god.
Khaled al-Anani, Egypt's
antiquities minister, posted on Facebook that one of the researchers who found the statue
called it "one of the most important archaeological discoveries."
Anani also spoke to
Reuters at the site of the statue's unveiling. Here's more from the wire
service:
"The most powerful
and celebrated ruler of ancient Egypt, the pharaoh also known as Ramses the
Great was the third of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and ruled from 1279 to
1213 BCE. ... His successors called him the 'Great Ancestor.'
" 'We found the bust
of the statue and the lower part of the head and now we removed the head and we
found the crown and the right ear and a fragment of the right eye,' Anani said.
"On Thursday,
archaeologists, officials, local residents, and members of the news media
looked on as a massive forklift pulled the statue's head out of the
water."
In addition to the
massive statue, researchers also found part of a life-size limestone statue of
Ramses II's grandson, Pharaoh Seti II, Reuters says.
Egyptian workers look at
the site of a new discovery by a team of German-Egyptian archaeologists in
Cairo's Matariya District on Thursday.
Khaled Desouki /AFP/Getty
Images
The identification of the
newly discovered colossus as the famous Ramses II is not yet confirmed, as
Anani explained on Facebook:
"Dr. Ayman Ashmawy,
the head of the Egyptian team, indicated that they are going now to complete
the research and excavation work of the remaining sections of the statue to
confirm the identity of its owner. On the discovered portions there is no
inscription found that would make it possible to determine which king it is.
But its discovery in front of the gate of the temple of Pharaoh Ramses II
suggests that it is likely him."
Ashmawy and Dietrich
Raue, of the University of Leipzig, have been working in ancient Heliopolis for
more than a decade under trying conditions, as the American Research Center in
Egypt explained in 2015:
"Heliopolis once
stood at the centre of the ancient Egyptian sun-cult, a core element of ancient
Egyptian religion for more than three millennia. Today the site is seriously
threatened by new construction and a rapidly rising water table. Eight meters
of domestic and industrial waste as well as building rubble have been dumped on
the site in the past four years. Added to this bleak scenario is the fact that
the level of the water table on the site has risen alarmingly, and continues to
do so."
As of 2015, ARCE
explained, the archaeological items in Heliopolis were submerged in 1 1/2 to 3
feet of water — a "most challenging environment" for archaeologists
to work in, ARCE writes.
The discovery of a
forgotten, submerged statue of Ramses II brings to mind one of the most famous
poems in English literature — albeit substituting muck for desert sands.
An Egyptian worker stands
next to the head of a statue at the site of a new discovery by a team of
German-Egyptian archaeologists in Cairo's Matariya District.
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty
Images
Ramses II was known to
the Greeks as Ozymandias. Today, that name is most familiar thanks to a sonnet
on hubris and the implacable passage of time, by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe
Shelley:
I met a traveller from an
antique land,
Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
That poem is widely
believed to have been inspired by a broken statue of Ramses II that is now,
like many priceless Egyptian artifacts, in the possession of the British Museum.
The newly discovered
statue won't be traveling nearly so far. Once restored and its identity
confirmed, it may be placed at the entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which
is expected to open in Cairo in 2018.
NPR's Merrit Kennedy
contributed to this report
Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/09/519488251/massive-ancient-statue-discovered-submerged-in-mud-in-cairo
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