Egypt unveils tomb of ancient priestess

Yahoo – AFP, 3 February 2018

A general view shows well-preserved and rare wall paintings inside the tomb of an
 Old Kingdom priestess discovered by Egyptian archaeologists on the Giza plateau on
the southern outskirts of Cairo on February 3, 2018

Egyptian archaeologists on Saturday unveiled the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess adorned with well-preserved and rare wall paintings.

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany told reporters that the tomb on the Giza plateau near Cairo was built for Hetpet, a priestess to Hathor, the goddess of fertility, who assisted women in childbirth.

The tomb was found during excavation work in Giza's western cemetery by a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The antiquities ministry said the cemetery houses tombs of top officials from the Old Kingdom's Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC), and that several have already been dug up since 1842.

The newly discovered tomb "has the architectural style and the decorative elements of the Fifth Dynasty, with an entrance leading to an 'L' shaped shrine", the ministry said.

"The tomb has very distinguished wall paintings in a very good conservation condition depicting Hetpet standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or... receiving offerings from her children," it said.

The paintings also show scenes of musical and dancing performances as well as two scenes featuring monkeys -- domestic animals at the time -- one picking and eating fruit and the other dancing in front of an orchestra.

A woman takes a photo inside the newly discovered tomb of Old Kingdom official

 Hetpet who was priestess to fertility goddess Hathor on Egypt's Giza plateau

Waziri told AFP the paintings were unusual.

"Such scenes are rare... and have only been found previously in the (Old Kingdom) tomb of 'Ka-Iber' where a painting shows a monkey dancing in front of a guitarist not an orchestra," he said.

That tomb is located in Saqqara, a necropolis about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Cairo.

Enany told reporters the new tomb includes "a purification basin on which are engraved the name of the tomb's owner and her titles".

"A German expedition had found in 1909 a collection of antiquities carrying this lady's name, or a lady who has the same name, and these antiquities were moved to the Berlin museum at the time," he said.

"And 109 years later, we find this tomb that carries Hetpet's name."

Waziri said archaeologists will continue to excavate the site and hope to make new discoveries.

Egyptian archaeologists unveil the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess adorned with well-preserved and rare wall paintings. pic.twitter.com/a0eXSfD3pf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 3, 2018

Nigerians meet their Olympic bobsled team

Yahoo – AFP, Phil HAZLEWOOD, with Jim Slater in Washington, Feb 3, 2018

Nigeria's Seun Adigun (L), Ngozi Onwumere (2L) and Akuoma Omeoga (C) will
become the first African bobsleigh team in Winter Olympic history while Simi
Adeagbo (R) will be the first African to compete in the skeleton (AFP Photo/Stefan HEUNIS)

Lagos (AFP) - Nigerians met their Winter Olympic bobsled team for the first time just one week before the start of the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Thirty years after a Jamaican squad became a global sensation, the trio of Nigerian women Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga will become the first African bobsleigh team in Winter Olympic history.

Born to Nigerian parents they all live in the United States but travelled to Lagos for a rousing Nigerian send-off on Friday night at a corporate reception held in their honour at a luxury hotel.

Their qualification late last year for the February 9-25 Games has since attracted massive interest around the world and won the previously crowd-funded athletes a string of big-name sponsors.

Many people in Africa's most populous nation said they were unaware the country even had a bobsled team. Some were keen to play up their supposed ignorance for comic effect.

"So, you are the driver?" the comedian compering the event said, pointing at Adigun.

"And you are the brake... appliers," he ventured eagerly to Onwumere and Omeoga, as if searching for the correct terminology. "And what is that thing you are pushing? A wheelbarrow?"

"First question," he asked the women's team-mate Simi Adeagbo, who will also make history by becoming the first African to compete in the skeleton. "What is that?"

Despite being new to hurtling down an icy track at 150 kilometres (93 miles) per hour, Nigerians -- noted more for their passion for football -- are happy to cheer the team on.

On the hotel's rooftop bar, with temperatures still in the mid-30s Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) by late evening, guests drank champagne and ate "small chop" (finger food). Dance music distorted through a skyscraper of loud-speakers. Most people arrived late. Everyone blamed bad traffic.

But Nigeria's pioneering winter sports team were made to feel at home with fairy lights and Christmas snowflake decorations twinkling overhead, above white plastic sheeting stuck to the floor with gaffer tape.

Nigerian bobsled team member Seun Adigun was a 100m hurdler for Nigeria 

at the 2012 London Summer Olympics (AFP Photo/Stefan HEUNIS)

Dry ice and cotton wool

To complete the frozen idyll, a bored-looking teenager wearing a single red rubber glove operated a dry ice machine that sent damp-smelling fog curling over snow drifts of cotton wool.

Nearby, air conditioning units were set to the equivalent of 16 degrees -- a good 10 degrees below the temperature that normally makes some in tropical Nigeria don a hat and coat.

The team took the gentle ribbing with good humour, batting back comparisons to Jamaica's participation in the 1988 Games in Calgary, Canada, that led to the 1993 Hollywood film "Cool Runnings".

Adigun is the driving force behind the team's Olympic dream, from working with the US team to learn the sport to hammering and nailing together a makeshift wooden sled in Houston and gathering fellow sprinters to make a run at history.

She was a 100m hurdler for Nigeria at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Omeoga was a sprinter for the University of Minnesota and Onwumere was a double sprint medalist at the 2015 African Games.

"I basically got into the sport of bobsledding in 2015 after a little bit of a hiatus from athletics," the US magazine People recently.

"I also learned that Nigeria had never had any Winter Olympians... and then to cap it off I learned the continent of Africa had never been represented, man or woman, by any bobsleigh team.

Their qualification last year for the Olympic Games has won previously 

crowd-funded athletes (L-R): Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere, and Akuoma 

Omeoga a string of big-name sponsors (AFP Photo/Stefan HEUNIS)

"So I was like, 'OK, this is obviously something that's going to hang over my head if I don't step in and try and do something about it."

At the reception, questions about the basics of the sport -- from timings to the number of people participating -- were met with polite responses.

But in a country where self-sufficiency is a matter of life and death for most people, the women's hard work and commitment to achieving their goals got the loudest cheer.

Adigun explained that once she had told herself out loud that she was going to try to make the Winter Olympics there was no going back.

"Once you speak (something) into existence, that's an affirmation that you're going to commit," she added.

"Can you speak gold into existence?" asked the compere.

Adigun smiled. Then the dancing started.