"The Spanish archaeological mission under the National Antiquities Museum in Madrid has unearthed about eleven tombs built with unburnt bricks inside a cemetery dating back to 2061-2190 BC", Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni said adding that the mission found fake gates, religious paintings and courban tables.

For his part the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass said that the mission has unearthed 12 chambers built with unburnt bricks with arch ceilings.

The mission also found chains and necklaces made of precious stones with the shape of sea shells, added Hawass.

[More], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 31, 2005.

A travelling exhibition of works from the British Museum's magnificent Egyptian collection is making its last North American stop in Montreal.

In some respects, time, the most vast philosophical concept and as immediate as life itself, is the primary subject of a blockbuster exhibition called Eternal Egypt, which has just opened at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the last stop after a multi-city U.S. tour.

As Ronald J. Leprohon, professor of Egyptology at the University of Toronto and guest scientific consultant for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, explains, the ancient Egyptian civilization was "older at the time of Cleopatra than Cleopatra is to us today..."

[More]   The Montreal Gazette, Canada, January 29, 2005.

In contrast to the many exotic spots where University of Chicago researchers have uncovered archeological treasures, this one was right under their noses.

In fact, some of the items soon to be on display in a new gallery at the university's Oriental Institute were found only recently -- in the institute's basement.

They date from 6000 to 600 B.C. from Assyrian, Hittite, Egyptian and Israelite cultures.   The area, which touches modern-day Turkey, Syria and Israel, was first named the "Fertile Crescent" by Oriental Institute founder James Henry Breasted in 1914.

[More]   Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois, USA, January 28, 2005, via Archaeologica.