Saturday, January 26, 2008

Barry Kemp talking about Amarna burials

Timewatch: The Pharaoh's Lost City

Just a brief note about a TV programme on UK's BBC 2 tonight at 2010 (The Pharaoh's Lost City).

Barry Kemp was interviewed on BBC News 24 this morning, where he was talking about the discovery of a cemetery dating to the Amarna period.

He said that researchers had been pondering the location of the dead of Amarna for many years, but that the cemetery was only discovered when bones were revealed by floodwater on a part of the site that had never been looked at before. He said that he first thought that the cemetery was much more recent in date, but that a pottery specialist identified that the ceramics accompanying the human remains were eighteenth dynasty. Around 68 individuals have been idenfitied, and these represent only a sample of the true total.

In the interview Kemp said that he has had a personal interest in Egypt since he was 13 years of age, and that many people now working in the field are there because of a childhood interest that they took with them into adulthood.

Details of tonight's programme are available on the above page, where there's a trailer and programme summary.

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