A new website called Glyphdoctors has been launched with the aim of providing easy online lessons in Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

The Egyptologist running the online course is University of Chicago Ph.D. candidate Nicole B. Hansen who is also a staff member of Kent Weeks' Theban Mapping Project.

The site includes a glyph gallery and a discussion forum split into fourteen topics and is looking very promising.

cf. Continuity and Change of Reproductive Beliefs and Practices in Egypt from Ancient to Modern Times, Nicole B. Hansen, Ph.D. dissertation proposal, University of Chicago, 1999.

More on the Oxyrhynchus papyri first mentioned in the Independent article.

Classical Greek and Roman literature is being read for the first time in 2,000 years thanks to new technology.   The previously illegible texts are among a hoard of papyrus manuscripts. Scholars say the rediscovered writings will provide a fascinating new window into the ancient world.

Salvaged from an ancient garbage dump in Egypt, the collection is kept at Oxford University in England.   Known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, the collection includes writings by great classical Greek authors such as Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides...

[More]   National Geographic, District of Columbia, USA, April 25, 2005.

Queen Cleopatra, celebrated for her love affairs with Roman rulers Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, inherited the throne of Egypt at age 17 and dodged assassination to rule for over 20 years.   But to this day, her death on Aug 12, 30 BC, at the age of 39 remains shrouded in mystery.

As the last Pharaoh to rule Egypt, her extraordinary life was filled with enigma and intrigue, as was her strange and untimely death. For two millennia, historians have recorded only one cause of death - suicide by snakebite.

Now, criminal profiler Pat Brown and a team of experts that includes an underwater archaeologist and a toxicologist are re-examining the circumstances of her alleged suicide, which marked the end of the Egyptian monarchy...

[More]   The Star Online, Malaysia, April 26, 2005.

National Geographic Channel World Premiere Special Features First-Ever Bust of the Pharaoh Created from 3-D CT Scans Exhibition of Tut's Treasures to Include Bust and CT Scans.

Begins June 2005 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

He is the most famous Egyptian king in history.   He became pharaoh at the age of nine -- and ruled for nearly a decade before his mysterious death.   Since his tomb was discovered in 1922, King Tutankhamun and the circumstances surrounding his death have been a source of intrigue worldwide.   Why did the famed "boy king" die so young? Was he murdered? Is there truth to the legendary curse set upon those who would disturb his final resting place? And what did he really look like?

On Sunday, May 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the National Geographic Channel premieres "King Tut's Final Secrets," a high-tech forensic investigation unveiling new findings related to his death and the first-ever reconstruction of his face and head using revolutionary 3-D CT scan imaging -- revealing what he looked like on the day he died.   This groundbreaking research is also featured as the cover story of National Geographic magazine's June issue...

[More]   PRNewswire via Yahoo! News, USA, April 25, 2005.