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Five Tombs of Senior Statesmen Discovered in Egypt

Sarcophaguses that are around 2,500 years old, from the newly discovered burial site near Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, are seen during a presentation in Giza, Egypt November 14, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
Sarcophaguses that are around 2,500 years old, from the newly discovered burial site near Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, are seen during a presentation in Giza, Egypt November 14, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
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Five Tombs of Senior Statesmen Discovered in Egypt

Sarcophaguses that are around 2,500 years old, from the newly discovered burial site near Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, are seen during a presentation in Giza, Egypt November 14, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
Sarcophaguses that are around 2,500 years old, from the newly discovered burial site near Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, are seen during a presentation in Giza, Egypt November 14, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has announced the discovery of five historic cemeteries in the Saqqara region, Giza, (western Cairo) that belong to major statesmen from the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC), and the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC), dating to over 4,600 years ago. The ministry organizes a media tour in the site on Saturday to explore the cemeteries.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El Anani visited the discovery site to examine the excavation works led by the Egyptian mission near the King Merenre pyramid in Saqqara. “Five engraved cemeteries containing burials and antiquities from the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period have been discovered in the Saqqara region, which saw many archeological discoveries in the past years,” the minister noted in an official statement.

“This discovery will help rewrite the First Intermediate Period in the Egyptian history because it could provide more information about those who lived and ruled during that period. It was a critical phase in the Egyptian history, it saw the political and economic collapse of the state, the independence of rulers each in his region, and an economic deterioration caused by wasting the state’s resources on building the pyramids in the Old Kingdom, in addition to the scarcity of Nile water and its impact on agriculture,” Dr. Hussein Abdul Bassir, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Saqqara is a part of the Memphis cemetery, located 40 km west of Cairo, and was named after God Seker from the Old Kingdom. The region is an open museum featuring antiquities from different eras of the Egyptian history.
“The first cemetery, burying a senior statesman named Eri, includes a well leading to a burial chamber with engraved walls featuring funerary drawings including sacrifices tables, the palace’s façade, containers of the seven oils, a huge tomb built of limestone, and a collection of engraved pieces that belonged to the cemetery’s owner,” said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and head of the Saqqara mission, in a press statement.

“The archeological mission currently works on cleaning and documenting the discovered cemeteries,” he added.

The second cemetery, a rectangle-shaped well belongs to the wife of a man named ‘Yart’. The third belongs to a man who had many titles including the supervisor of the grand house. The fourth cemetery belongs to a lady, ‘Betty’ who held many titles; it’s a rectangular well located at six meters underground. Built for a man called ‘Heno’, the fifth cemetery is a rectangular well built at seven meters underground. Its owner had many titles including the supervisor of the royal palace and the mayor.

The Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest stone construction in history, is Saqqara’s most known landmark. The Saqqara archeological site includes the cemeteries of kings and senior statesmen from the 1st and 2nd Dynasties, in addition to king pyramids from the 5th and 6th Dynasties including the King Wenis Pyramid, who was the first to engrave his burial chamber with texts to protect himself during his journey in the other world.

The region also features cemeteries of statesmen from the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2055-1650 BC), and the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC) known for its unique architecture and constructions such as the cemetery of King Horemheb (1323-1295 BC).

The region also houses the cemetery of sacred calf Apis, known as Serapeum of Saqqara, which was used from the 18th Dynasty until the Ptolemaic Kingdom. But Saqqara is not only Pharaonic; it includes Coptic landmarks such as the Monastery of Anba Ermia, located to the southeast of King Djoser’s pyramid collection. The Monastery was used until the 10th century AD.

Over the past year, Saqqara witnessed many archeological discoveries including hundreds of colored tombs containing well-preserved mummies of senior statesmen and priests from the 26th Dynasty, selected among the world’s top 10 archeological discoveries in 2020. Two cemeteries of priest Wa Ti, and the supervisor of the royal palace ‘Khoy’, in addition to several cat cemeteries were unearthed last year as well.

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Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
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Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS

Brazilian scientists have identified a new species of giant dinosaur with ties to a similar animal found in Spain, reinforcing knowledge that land routes once connected parts of South America, Africa and Europe about 120 million years ago.

Named Dasosaurus tocantinensis, the species is one of the biggest found in the South American country and was described this month in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Reuters reported.

The fossils were uncovered in 2021 at a site hosting infrastructure works near Davinopolis, in Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhao, and the research was led by Elver Mayer of the Federal University of the Sao Francisco Valley.

The remains include a femur measuring about 1.5 meters (59 inches), which helped researchers estimate the animal stretched roughly 20 meters long.

"As the excavation progressed over the days, we began to see the evidence of that huge bone, which is the femur," said Leonardo Kerber, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) who contributed to the research.

"This indicates it was a very large dinosaur. Today we know Dasosaurus is among the biggest dinosaurs ever found in Brazil," he noted.

According to UFSM, analysis indicated the species is the closest known relative of Garumbatitan morellensis, a dinosaur described in Spain.

Their lineage was European and may have dispersed into what is now South America roughly 130 million years ago, likely via northern Africa, before the Atlantic fully opened, the university said.

Dasosaurus tocantinensis's name combines references to the region where the dinosaur was found, including the Tocantins River, a major waterway whose eastern margins lie near the fossil site.

Varieties

German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
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German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo

The German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has died, a spokesperson for his publishing house, Suhrkamp Verlag, told AFP on Saturday.

He died at the age of 96 in Starnberg, in southern Germany, she said, citing information from the family of the politically engaged theorist.

Habermas was considered the most influential German philosopher of his generation, involved in all the major postwar debates and seeing a united Europe, in his view, as the only remedy for the rise of nationalism, AFP reported.

In his later years, he devoted himself to promoting a federal European project and prevent the continent from falling, as it did in the 20th century, into nationalist rivalries.

Throughout his life, Habermas linked philosophy and politics, thought and action.

After serving as the voice of German student protest in the 1960s, he became its target thirty years later while warning of the risks of "left-wing fascism".

In 1989, he criticised the terms of German reunification, guided essentially by the demands of the market, and which made "the Deutsche mark its standard."

Born on June 18, 1929 in Duesseldorf, Habermas had been enrolled in the Hitler Youth, but he was too young to have taken an active part in the war. As a teenager, he was deeply marked by the collapse of Nazism.

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Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
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Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)

A long-running dispute about the origin of a North Sea crater has finally been settled, as new research finds a massive asteroid hit the water and triggered a towering tsunami millions of years ago.

Scientists have found that the Silverpit Crater – which lies around 700 meters beneath the southern North Sea seabed, roughly 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire – was formed when an asteroid or comet struck the region roughly 43 to 46 million years ago, sparking a 330 feet tsunami.

Since geologists first identified the formation in 2002, the 3km-wide crater and its surrounding ring of circular faults spanning about 20 km have sparked intense debate, according to The Independent.

But researchers say their new study marks the clearest evidence yet that the structure is one of Earth’s rare impact craters.

This confirmation places it in the same category as well-known structures such as the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, which is linked to the dinosaur mass extinction.

The team used computer modelling and analyzed newly available seismic imaging and microscopic geological samples taken from beneath the seabed.

Dr. Uisdean Nicholson, a sedimentologist in Heriot-Watt University’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, who led the investigation, said: “New seismic imaging has given us an unprecedented look at the crater.”

He said samples from an oil well in the area also revealed rare ‘shocked’ quartz and feldspar crystals at the same depth as the crater floor.

“We were exceptionally lucky to find these – a real ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ effort. These prove the impact crater hypothesis beyond doubt, because they have a fabric that can only be created by extreme shock pressures,” said Nicholson.

The scientists say these microscopic minerals form only under the extreme pressures generated during asteroid impacts, providing strong confirmation of the event.

Early research proposed that the feature was created by a high-speed asteroid impact. Supporters of that idea pointed to its round shape, central peak, and surrounding concentric faults, which are often seen in known impact craters.

But other scientists suggested different explanations. Some proposed that underground salt movement distorted the rock layers and created the structure.

Others argued that volcanic activity may have caused the seabed to collapse.

In 2009, geologists even voted on the issue. According to a report in the December 2009 issue of Geoscientist magazine, most participants rejected the asteroid impact explanation at the time.

The latest findings, published in the journal Nature Communications and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), now appear to overturn that conclusion.

Dr. Nicholson said: “Our evidence shows that a 160-meter-wide asteroid hit the seabed at a low angle from the west.”

“Within minutes, it created a 1.5 km high curtain of rock and water that then collapsed into the sea, creating a tsunami over 100 meters high.”

The impact would have produced a violent explosion at the seafloor and sent enormous waves spreading across the region.

Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London, who attended the 2009 debate about the crater’s origin and contributed to the new research, said the researchers have “finally found the silver bullet” to end the debate.

He said: “I always thought that the impact hypothesis was the simplest explanation and most consistent with the observations.”

“It is very rewarding to have finally found the silver bullet. We can now get on with the exciting job of using the amazing new data to learn more about how impacts shape planets below the surface, which is really hard to do on other planets,” Collins added.

Dr. Nicholson also expressed his excitement about using the new findings for further research into asteroids.

“Silverpit is a rare and exceptionally preserved hypervelocity impact crater,” he said.

“These are rare because the Earth is such a dynamic planet – plate tectonics and erosion destroy almost all traces of most of these events.”