An ancient Egyptian at Auckland Museum has had the benefit of that most modern of medical inventions, CT scanning, to help solve the mystery of her identity.

The name, gender, occupation and probable age of the mummy were revealed during a four-year process to preserve the remains, which also involved repositioning some of the bandages and building a special low-oxygen display case.

"It's nice to be able to give the mummy more of a personal history," said museum curator Julia Gresson. "That's been one of the bonuses of the CT scan..."

[More]   New Zealand Herald, New Zealand, 16.04.2005, via Explorator.

There is in the British Museum an enormous mind ... hoarded beyond the power of any single mind to possess it," wrote the author Virginia Woolf, describing the vast collection of nearly 7 million cultural artifacts held by the museum.   The reputation of the renowned institution, whose history dates back to 1753, is largely based on this collection.   Now, more than 300 of those items have come to Seoul for an exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center [, Korea]...

[More]   JoongAng Daily, Korea, April 15, 2005, via TourEgypt.

cf. Hangaram Art Museum.

"An offering which the King gives to Osiris [God of the Dead].   He may give an offering of bread and beer, ox and fowl, for the soul of the estate manager Khnumhotep, son of Nebut."

Dr Bill Manley reads out the mass of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics on the front of one of the ornate coffins on display at the Royal Museum as if he were reading words written in English.

...

...Bill is at the forefront of work unravelling the mystery of one of the most exciting exhibits there - the only royal Egyptian burial outside Egypt.

The skeletal remains of a woman and child found by eminent archeologist Sir Flinders Petrie during a dig at Qurneh on the banks of the Nile almost a century ago have long been suspected to be those of royalty because of the splendour of the gilded coffin and the luxurious gifts, including gold jewellery, left in the tomb.

However, the symbols on the unidentified coffin stop at the point where the person's name would be given...

[More]   The Scotsman, UK, 15 Apr 2005, via Archaeologica.

Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long- lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome.

By David Keys and Nicholas Pyke

For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation.   If only it was legible.

Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.

...

The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm- eaten and blackened by the passage of time...

[More]   The Independent, UK, 17 April 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said he will Friday re-open the two tombs of Kings Thutmose III and Merenptah at the Valley of the Kings in the ancient Upper Egyptian archaeological city of Luxor to tourists after a six-month closure for restoration.

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the two tombs of Kings Ramesses III and Ramesses VI, in the meantime, will be closed for regular rejuvenation works.

Sabri Abdel-Aziz, Chief of the SCA's Egyptian Antiquities Sector, said King Thutmose III's tomb is one of the most important royal ones considering his undisputed role in founding the Egyptian empire during the Modern Kingdom era.

[Source], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 16, 2005.

Visitors can sample life in ancient Egypt at a new museum exhibition.

A decorated mummy case is just one of many exhibits now on show at the Royal Pump Room Museum, in Harrogate.

The Discover Ancient Egypt exhibition also includes many objects used in everyday life - and death - by Egyptians living thousands of years ago.

The museum is running trails for younger visitors. Also for the visitors, there are clothes to try on, objects to handle and a mummy book to investigate.

Visitors watched a poetry drama on the death of Tutankhamun, while sampling food served by a local Egyptian restaurant, at the launch on Saturday.

The Discover Ancient Egypt exhibition runs at the museum until September.

[Source]   This is Northallerton, UK, undated, via David Beard's Archaeology in Europe weblog.