Beautiful paintings of ancient Egyptian goddesses revealed beneath layers of bird droppings

 

Archaeologists have uncovered a staggering 46 depictions of ancient Egyptian goddesses previously buried under layers of soot and bird droppings. Almost 2,200 years ago, artists created detailed and colorful frescoes on the ceiling of a temple.

The temple is located in Esna, a city in southern Egypt about 60 kilometers south of Luxor (ancient Thebes). It is dedicated to Khnum, an ancient Egyptian god associated with fertility and water.

Hieroglyphs on the temple show that it was in use for almost 400 years - between the time of Pharaoh Ptolemy VI. (ruled 180 BC to 145 BC) and Roman Emperor Decius (ruled Egyptology at the University of Tübingen in Germany, Live Science said in an email. Leitz is a member of the Egyptian-German team studying the preserved and documented temple.

Over the centuries after the temple was abandoned, its colorful paintings became covered in soot and dirt. The Egyptian-German team cleaned the paintings with alcohol, which revealed their vibrant colors, Leitz said.

The team discovered that the temple paintings depict Nekhbet, a goddess depicted as a vulture, and Wadjet, a goddess with a cobra head and wings. Nekhbet wears the white crown of Upper Egypt and Wadjet wears the crown of Lower Egypt. Nekhbet and Wadjet were sometimes referred to as the "two ladies" by the ancient Egyptians.

"The now revealed splendor of the color of the depictions of the 'Two Ladies' Nekhbet and Wadjet was previously unknown to experts," says a statement from the University of Tübingen, which noted the soot and dirt on the paintings prevented them from being properly studied.

Nekhbet and Wadjet were often depicted as "protective deities" in ancient Egypt, Leitz said. What's "out of the ordinary here is the colors" of the paintings, he added.

Only the vestibule (also known as the pronaos) of the temple survives today, the statement said, describing the vestibule as 121 feet (37 meters) long, 66 feet (20 m) wide, and 49 feet (15 m) high. The ancient Egyptians may have built the vestibule at some point after other parts of the temple were built, the statement said. Work is ongoing and the team will be releasing details of their findings in the future.

The cleaning and conservation of the paintings is still in progress. "More than half of the ceilings and eight of the 18 columns have now been cleaned, conserved, and documented," the statement said.

The Egyptian-German team is led by Hisham el-Leithy of Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and Ahmed Emam, also of the Ministry, is overseeing the clean-up efforts. Referral link