Archaeology
Egyptian Archaeologists Rewrite History With the Discovery of a Tomb of a Previously Unknown Queen
The New Kingdom Tomb of Queen Neith, along with a cache of 300 coffins and 100 mummies, was unearthed at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara at Giza.
The latest finds from a team of archaeologists working at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara in Giza include the tomb of a previously unknown Egyptian queen as well as a new trove of 300 coffins, over 100 mummies, and other antiquities.
The discoveries were made not far from King Tut’s tomb, and follow the recent unearthing of objects relating to the pharaoh Teti and the sarcophagus of King Ramses II’s treasurer. Earlier this year, the Egyptian authorities also announced that a tomb of a royal dignitary had been found at the site.
The latest cache of mummies likely contains the remains of Tut’s generals and advisors. Even more intriguing is a pyramid that experts now believe was dedicated to an ancient queen who is being identified for the first time.
“We have since discovered that her name was Neith, and she had never before been known from the historical record,” Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, the nation’s former minister of antiquities, told Live Science. “It is amazing to literally rewrite what we know of history, adding a new queen to our records.”
Archaeologists conducting excavations at Saqqara now believe this pyramid was built for Queen Neith, a previously unknown ruler. Photo courtesy of Zahi Hawass.
Excavations also uncovered a series of 22 interconnected tunnels. Unlike earlier discoveries at Saqqara, the majority of which date to the Old Kingdom or the Late Period, Hawass believes these are New Kingdom burials, from the sixth century B.C.E. to the 11th century B.C.E.
“Burials from the New Kingdom were not known to be common in the area before, so this is entirely unique to the site,” Hawass added. “The coffins have individual faces, each one unique, distinguishing between men and women, and are decorated with scenes from the Book of the Dead. Each coffin also has the name of the deceased and often shows the Four Sons of Horus, who protected the organs of the deceased.”
The dig at Saqqara has been underway since 2020, yielding a wealth of new finds. The most recent include a mummy of a woman with a solid gold mask, gaming pieces for the ancient game of Senet, a massive limestone sarcophagus, and a soldier buried with a metal axe in his hand.
The nation plans to display some of these artifacts at the forthcoming Grand Egyptian Museum, slated to finally open next year in Giza.
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Shows & Exhibitions
French Designer and Provocateur Michèle Lamy Is Unveiling a High-Art Skate Park in West Hollywood
The fashion legend co-curated "Turning Tricks," a group show celebrating skateboarding culture, at Carpenters Workshop Gallery.
Carpenters Workshop Gallery is opening a high-art skatepark in West Hollywood tonight with “Turning Tricks” (November 17, 2022–January 14, 2023). The group show was organized by Michèle Lamy, the designer and provocateur (and wife of Rick Owens) behind the creative collectives LamyLand and OwensCorp.
Five undisclosed pro skateboarders will be at tonight’s opening event to shred their boards on the show’s twelve skateable sculptures, created by pro skater Danny Minnick (the exhibition’s co-curator) alongside artists and designers Skyler DeYoung, Chris Benfield, and Lamy’s daughter Scarlett Rouge.
Typically, these skaters would charge appearance fees, but they’re friends of Lamy, who maintains a rich cadre of collaborators, and always brings a posse to art openings. Rapper A$AP Rocky credits her with shaping his career.
Lamy and Carpenters Workshop Gallery partner Loïc Le Gaillard are also friends. As the two talked recently, Lamy expressed a desire to push art’s existing limits, transcending mere objects to encapsulate an ephemeral but palpable vibe. Skating, and its community, came to mind.
“I’m fighting for a new way of being,” she said in a statement. “I’m ready to imagine a new world.”
Rouge at work, on site at Carpenters Workshop Gallery. Courtesy of the gallery.
“I have always been about creating spaces for people and inviting artists to create, and this project is an extension of my world,” Lamy continued. “We are all on this ride together.”
Even though skateboarding only gained mainstream appeal in the early 1990s, Los Angeles has been a hub for it since the 1950s. “No sport is more connected to Southern California than skateboarding,” the Los Angeles Times wrote late last year.
L.A. residents emptied their pools during droughts. Some turned them into DIY skateparks. Last summer, the sport made its Olympic debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Still, lingering associations between skateboarding and pesky kids—or worse, crime—persist.
Between the gallery and artists, everyone hopes that the communal energy of tonight’s “Turning Tricks” opening carries on well throughout the show’s run over the next two months, leaving a social memory as much a design one.
To that end, they’ve filled out the gallery by fabricating full-on ramps, while reimagining trash cans and fire hydrants as objets d’art and replicating L.A.’s most iconic skating sites.
An installation view of Danny Minnick, Skater shredding H-Street Office Ramp (2022). Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery.
In Sandpit, for instance, Rouge reanimated a legendary skating site off the Venice Beach boardwalk, once “a notorious intersection between graffiti and skating, with worldwide influence,” the work’s description explained. Legends like Henry Sanchez, Guy Mariano, and Eric Koston practiced there, until the city razed the site in 2000.
Atelier OwensCorp built their own iteration of the Lockwood Elementary School, whose concrete playground remains a popular skating spot, using cinder blocks, asphalt, a chain-link fence, paint, and concrete. Minnick, meanwhile, honors skate and apparel company H-Street, founded in 1986 by pro skaters Tony Magnusson and Mike Ternasky, by recreating their notorious in-house quarterpipe from plywood, masonite, and steel.
The artists also all painted, carved, and re-shaped a total of 65 skate decks from maplewood for collectors at the occasion. Every single one comes with its own print of relief oil-based ink on archival Arches cover paper.
“The essence of skateboarding will be seen and heard for the first time through objects as they should be, without being considered a nuisance, an outlaw, or outsider activity,” Minnick mused in the release. “The exhibition brings the artist energy that has been such a big part of my life to a format for all to consider and enjoy.”
“Turning Tricks” is on view at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Los Angeles through January 14, 2023.
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