Ancient Egyptian ritual protected animal's body, soul.

Inw-Mnw, a mummified dog, followed his master into eternity, as Egyptians made sure they had everything for the afterlife.

"They didn't want anything to pass them by," said Salima Ikram, professor at the University of Cairo and director of the Animal Mummies Project.

In her sold-out talk about mummified animals at the Hibben Center, she described how animals were part of life in ancient Egypt...

More, Daily Lobo, University of New Mexico, USA, April 21, 2005 .

More on the recent boat discoveries.

Discovery includes steering oars, other evidence of Egypt's sea-faring past.

When Kathryn Bard reached through the small hole that opened in a hillside along Egypt's Red Sea coast, her hand touched nearly 4,000 years of history.

The opening that Bard, an associate professor of archaeology at Boston University, and her team's co-leader Rodolfo Fattovich, a professor of archaeology at Italy's University of Naples "L'Orientale," discovered was the entrance to a large, man-made cave.   Two days later at a site about 30 meters beyond this cave, the team removed sand covering the entrance to a second cave, one that held the well-preserved cedar timbers of an ancient Egyptian sea-faring vessel...

More, EurekAlert!, USA, 21-Apr-2005.

This time from Reuters.

Egyptologists Find Tomb of Ancient Southern Ruler, Reuters, UK, Apr 20, 2005.

A selection of stories below.

Archaeologists Find Ancient Egyptian Tomb, AP via ABC News, USA, Apr 20, 2005.

Ancient necropolis found in Egypt, BBC Bews, UK, 21 April, 2005.

Prehistoric Egyptian tomb discovered, AP via MSNBC, USA, April 20, 2005.

7 corpses found in ancient Egyptian tomb, AP via Lexington Herald Leader, Kentucky, USA, Apr. 21, 2005.

An Egyptian-American archaeological mission found the biggest pre-history cemetery which dates back to 360BC.   The cemetery was found in Al Kom Al Ahmar area in Edfu town, Aswan.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said the cemetery was owned by ruler of Hierakonpolis town in the area at the time.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said four bodies were found under the lower rock ceiling of the cemetery.

[Source], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 21 ,2005.

Archaeologists digging in a 5,600-year-old funeral site in southern Egypt unearthed seven corpses believed to date to the era, as well as an intact figure of a cow's head carved from flint.

The American-Egyptian excavation team made the discoveries in what they described as the largest funerary complex ever found that dates to the elusive five millennia-old Predynastic era, Egypt's Supreme Council of antiquities said Wednesday...

...

In the area of Kom El-Ahmar, known in antiquity as Hierakonpolis, some 370 miles south of Cairo, the team working for five years in the area excavated a complex thought to belong to a ruler of the ancient city who reigned around 3600 B.C...

[More]   AP via Yahoo! News, USA, Apr 21, 2005.

cf. Pre-dynastic graveyard has experts buzzing, Sapa-DPA via IOL, South Africa, April 20 2005.

cf. Archaeology Magazine's interactive dig website.

The two tombs of Kings Thutmose III and Merenptah in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor will be re-opened to tourists this Friday after a six-month closure for restoration.   The two tombs of Kings Ramesses III and Ramesses VI, in the meantime, will be closed for regular rejuvenation works.   King Thutmose III's tomb is one of the most important royal ones considering his undisputed role in founding the Egyptian empire during the New Kingdom era.

[More]   TourEgypt, Egypt, April 20th, 2005.

The Ministry of Culture has established a cultural festival at the Egyptian museum on the occasion of International Heritage Day.   Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass and a number of Arab and foreign diplomats attended the festival...

[More], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 20, 2005.

The current areas of Ain Shams and Mataryia were known in ancient Egypt as On, the capital of the 13th nom (province) of Lower Egypt.   In the Greek age, the name was changed into Heliopolis, which means the city of the sun.

Heliopolis had a religious and historic significance as the centre of the worship of the sun.

In the mid 1980s a tomb with coloured inscriptions and pictures that belonged to a senior statesman of the 26th dynasty called Banahs was uncovered.   The tomb was found submerged in subterranean water, and it was left untouched until recently, when the Supreme Council of Antiquities decided to have it dismantled and reinstalled on higher grounds to protect it from damage.

Recently, several tombs have been uncovered in the area and the SCA has decided to move them to the new site in the vicinity of the Banahs tomb.

The present suburbs of Ain Shams and Mataryia are considered housing agglomerations that seem to have been built without regard for their rich archaeological potential.   The most important of the sites there is that of the obelisk.

According to Sabri Abdul Aziz, the finds made in these areas include the tombs of Wagahor and Ankh Khonsu, which are within the residential area in Ain Shams.   The SCA will therefore reinstall these tombs at the site of Banahs under a year-long project.

At the same site of Banahs, an outdoor display of some sarcophagi found at Mataryia and Ain Shams is to be organised.   The site will also have a souvenirs' shop, a cafeteria and an administrative building.   The area leading to the incomplete statue of Ramesses II will be paved to secure easy accessibility to it.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 21 2005.

A billboard bearing the slogan of international heritage will be placed on Egyptian archaeological sites included on the UNESCO list of international human heritage.   The slogan symbolises the link between natural and cultural heritage.   It comprises two united geometric shapes: a square in the middle representing a shape created by man and an outer circle that represents the globe and symbolises protection as well.

Placing the slogan as such goes in line with regulations of the International Heritage Centre.

Egypt has six sites on the UNESCO list, including Memphis, extending from Giza to Dahshur, the tombs of Luxor, Nubia, Islamic Cairo and Abu Mina, which were all registered in 1979.   The monastery of St Catherine is the most recently recognised site, added to the list in 2002.

The billboard will not only bear the slogan but an explanation of criteria according to which each site was chosen as part of human heritage.   A brief account of features of each site will also be available in other languages than Arabic.

Dr Zahi Hawass Secretary General of the SCA said that a booklet on these six sites will be soon released.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 21 2005.

By Hassan Saadallah

Hidden Treasures of Ancient Egypt is a new book by Dr Zahi Hawass Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.   The author takes his readers on a tour of some of the most exquisite artifacts in the Egyptian Museum and acquaints them with adventures that led to their discovery in the mid 19th and 20th centuries.

Many of the antiquities featured in the book were left to languish in storerooms all over the country and were only recently rediscovered.

Hawass writes in the introduction to his book that the centenary of the Egyptian Museum had incited him and the assisting crew to make the rediscovery.   Some 250 objects which were either lying neglected in the basement of the museum or stored in storehouses across the country were brought into focus.   Some of these are now displayed in special galleries in the basement of the museum as a new exhibit given the title of Hidden Treasures of the Egyptian Museum.   The re-exploration of these items had actually inspired Dr Hawass to write a book on some carefully chosen objects of the collection aided by an equally marvellous collection of photographs.

"Working with these objects has opened my eyes to the tales that artifacts have to tell, from stories about men and women who made and used them to adventures of archaeologists who dedicated their lives to finding them," he wrote.

The stories involve the history of Egyptian archaeology over the past century and a half.   The book is divided into three parts.   The first covers the period from 1850 to 1950 focussing on excavations of the first century of the Egyptian Antiquities service, now the SCA.   Among the first finds made at that period was August Mariette's uncovering of 1,200 stelae in Saqqara, spanning the years from the late New Kingdom (1390) to the end of the Ptolemaic era (31 BC).

The second part tells the story of the more recent past from 1940 till the present time while the third part is dedicated to excavations Dr Hawass has personally initiated and which are still ongoing.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 21 2005.