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- Colour bas-relief of Anubis
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- Colour bas-relief of Seti I
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- Controversial “over-carved” hieroglyphs
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- Delicate glyphs on offering box
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- Offering by Seti I
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- The name Menmaatre in hierolgyphs
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- Unpainted relief of Seti I
(If you click on any image and then navigate through the set, there are additional descriptions on some images. If the layout isn’t quite perfect, please refresh your style sheet by keying CTRL-F5 while your mouse pointer is in the browser address bar.)
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James, I am very impressed with your photos. I have been to Abydos on a couple of occasions and have a fairly representative collection of the wall reliefs, all taken in natural lighting with no flash. However they come nowhere near the clarity and depth of colour of yours.! So I was wondering have any of your shots been ‘photo-shopped?’
I am also curious about the ‘over carved hieroglyphics’ frieze. I have a similar photo and was wondering why you have referred to it as ‘over carved?’
They are exceptional aren’t they. I like to think I am decent with a camera but I have rarely managed anything of comparable quality – and never a set.
No “Photoshopping” at all, just a digital camera. Trust me, I had several that didn’t end up looking quite so good. I think part of what helped was that we were about the only people there and I was able to get very close and combined with a steady hand, that produced some photos of which I was very happy. I’ve got a couple more similar ones of Isis and Re which show the beautiful quality of carving. The quantity of light varied quite a bit in some places, so at times the stone appears as a creme color, others a bit yellowish, and finally some look kind of grey (the latter applies to the photos I haven’t submitted, but will send in soon.)
With respect to “over carved”, I suppose that might not be the proper term for it, but I am referring to the fact that the hieroglyphs dedicated to Seti I (referred to in this case as Menmaatre) were replaced with those for Ramses II (Usermaatre). That replacement involved carving the new glyphs over the old ones.
Which digital camera do you have, James? I use a Canon SLR with a zoom lens. It produces some excellent results, but it is a rather heavy combination to hold with a steady hand under poor lighting conditions.
Well, actually I was using a Kodak Z1012IS that is 10.1MP and 12x zoom. It is an High Definition camera, but the newer ones that are out are quite a bit better. But it is a nice weight and actually didn’t cost that much. Having the time to take a good photo really made the difference I think.
Did you get the Dendera ones I sent? I’ll send the 800×600 resolution versions along with some others in the next couple of days.
Thanks for the Gravatar link Andie and Kate, I’m still feeling my way around how this all works! If it’s not too off topic and as we are on the photo discussion, could you post something, in the future about using images, image copyright etc. I’m not familiar with ‘Creative Commons’ and would like to know more. Great pics of Abydos James!
Yes, good point Barbara. I will write more about images and copyright for the Write For Us section under Participate. Creative Commons is a great way of enabling people to share photographs on the Internet but influence how they are used. I’ll try to get those changes done in the next couple of days but in the meantime here’s a link to the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/
Hi Barbara,
Cute piccie!
Kate
Enjoyed – thanks
I’m glad that people like the photos. I just love Abydos and it was a pleasure to take them. I’ll see what information I can put together on those shots, especially the ones with one set of glyphs carved over another, and am looking at sharing more from there as well as photos from other sites if they will let me. ;)
Oh I think we might let you James! :-)
Beautiful. Thank you. Makes me want more!
I love the images, but I wish there were a little more information or links to further info. about the pictures. Interested in background of Controversial “over-carved” hieroglyphs
Thanks
We’ll have to see if we can persuade James to do a short piece of text for you but if you click on an image then there is additional text for some of them.
Very nice.
Any sign of images of the KV58 shabti???
Email to you has gone missing. I have resent the info so you can contact Richard directly.
Great pix. Thanks.
They are aren’t they!