Ancient African Archaeological Discoveries
2009
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Archaelogists declared Cleopatra's mother "was African" after locating her sister, Princess Arsinoe's tomb in Ephesus, Turkey. Based on bone analysis, the remains of Arsinoe were found to have maternal African ancestry, implying at the least, Cleopatra's mother was African. The discovery was scantily mentioned in U.S. media outlets, but well publicized in Europe and elsewhere. Read More.
18th Dynasty Temples on Sinai Peninsula
African temples were discovered in Qantara, Sinai, just east of Suez canal in Northeast Africa. The temples' depictions of Suten Ramses II and Suten Seti I (1314-1304 B.C.) suggest they were built in the 18th Dynasty. Interestingly, inscriptions in the Karnak Temple foretold of this previously unknown temple's location along with 11 other fortresses that helped guard Africa against its enemies from Asia. Read more.
2008
Complete Royal Dedication in Ancient Meroitic Script in Sudan
Ram statues found in El-Hassa, some 200 km north of the once powerful capital city of Meroe in central Sudan, reveal the first complete royal dedication in the ancient Meroitic script. Previously, such dedications were found only in fragments, but with the new find, archaeologists hope to gain insight into ancient Ethiopian thought. Read more.
6th Dynasty Pyramid Near Saqqara
Archaeologists uncovered the base of the 118th ancient pyramid found in modern Egypt to date. The discovery was made adjacent to the recently discovered pyramids of Suten Teti's wives near Saqqara, which is home to the world's oldest known step pyramid. Read more.
Ancient Graveyard and Settlement in the Tenere Desert
In Gobero, Niger, the remains of nearly 200 inhabitants (4500-7000 years old) were buried in the fetal position, similar to early Kushitic and Kemetic practices. In addition to the human remains, hippo tusks, harpoons, fish bones, and pottery shards were also found. Read more.
Stone Age Weapons Factory in Tanzania
Excavations at the Isimila archaeological site near Iringa, Tanzania uncovered stone tools from as late as the Iron Age to as early as 200,000 years ago, with evidence that the site was first settled some 300,000-400,000 years earlier. Among the finds include hand axes, hammers, spears and slingshots made from granite and quartzite. Read more.
More Timbuktu Manuscripts
The Ahmed Baba Library in the 1,500-year old Malian city of Timbuktu already contains 20,000 medieval manuscripts (over 70,000 have been located), but even more were found after a cave was opened. Among the finds include books written primarily in the West African Ajami script (closely related to the so-called "Arabic" script, which descends from Kemetic Demotic writing, used to write in Hausa and other African languages) of the indigenous Malians. The contents of said texts include writings on math, medicine, poetry and law. Experts believe thousands more manuscripts are still hidden throughout the region--in attics, basements and buried underground. Read more.
4,500 Year Old Ship at Giza
A team of archaeologists from Japan's Waseda University will begin excavating and reassembling the pieces of a ship recently located underground at Giza. Currently on display in a museum located above the site of discovery, another ship of similar stature is equipped with a rectangular deckhouse and oars that measure 142 feet long, or nearly twice as long as Christopher Columbus' biggest ship, the Santa Maria. Read more.
Shipping Ropes found on Ancient Kemetic Red Sea Port Town
The world learned about a discovery made three years earlier of 4,000 year-old, 98-ft. long ropes coiled in the same manner as those used by modern sailers. The find was made in a hewn cave in the Red Sea port town of Mersa Gawasis, to the East of Waset. Read more.
Ancient Tools in South Africa
Prehistoric stone tools were found on the grounds of a school in Pretoria, South Africa that are at least 100,000 years old. The tools were sharpened hand axes similar to those found at the nearby prehistoric Kromdraai site. Read more.
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