The ancient Egyptians produced statues by the bargeload, yet their feet were probably no more beautiful than yours or mine.

Luckily for sculptors of the day, there was a ready way around the natural irregularities of human anatomy: the standardized foot.

Fuyuki Matsumura, curator of the Nagoya City Museum, pointed out one such foot in "L'Homme Egyptien," an exhibition of ancient Egyptian art from the Louvre that began a tour of Japan at his museum.   The show recently moved on to the Fukuoka City Museum in Fukuoka and will stop at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum later this year...

[Source]   Daily Yomiuri, Japan, June 09, 2005.

cf. The Gateway to Ancient Egypt, Yokohama Museum of Eurasian Cultures.

By Hassan Saadallah

The rare statue of King Neferhotep of the 13th Dynasty, recently discovered beneath the foundations of the southern obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut at Karnak Temple, will not be moved from its place.

Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), said at a press conference early this week that the limestone statue is life-size and depicts the king in a standing position wearing the royal crown ornamented by a cobra.

The position of the 3600 year-old statue was so awkward an ad-hoc committee was formed to decide whether the statue should be moved out of its ditch or kept in place to protect the obelisk.   The committee has opted to leave the statue temporarily until the obelisk is reinforced.

Dr Hawass said that the position of the statue might prove the existence of an important structure that goes back to the pre-Modern Kingdom - this being likely given that parts of a huge such structure already having been found.   Dr Hawass revealed that the statue is the second of its kind belonging to King Neferhotep to have been found.   The first was found in 1904 among the cachet of the Karnak courtyard which is currently on display in the Egyptian Museum.

The Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, Sabri Abdul Aziz, said the hands of the statue appear to have been originally interlocked with another statue.   However, the second statue has yet to be excavated upon the approval of the Standing Antiquities Committee.   He added that to unearth the statues, the chapel surrounding the obelisk would need to be dismantled.

Dr Hawass' press conference was held on the sidelines of the meetings of the Egyptian-French committee assigned to save the Karnak Temple.   The committee reviewed project accomplishments so far including the restoration of the Priests' Residences in the vicinity of the Sacred Lake, the northern wing of the fourth pylon, and parts of the reliefs found on the outer part of the Hypostyle Hall.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, June 09, 2005.

By Hassan Saadallah

Rosetta lies in the western Delta and gained its worldwide fame from being the town in which the Rosetta Stone - a black basalt slab that enabled the deciphering of hieroglyphics - was found.   But that is not all Rosetta holds, embracing also Egypt's largest number of Islamic structures outside of Cairo.

Rosetta houses a unique collection of twenty historic mansions, ten mosques, a public bath, a mill, a citadel, a gate and remains of an old wall.   These all date back to the Ottoman age with the exception of the citadel and the gate which belong to the Memluk age.   These structures are built from a kind of brick which as of yet the experts have failed to understand how it was produced.

Although several of these structures have undergone restoration projects, a much more comprehensive project is still needed owing to their dilapidated condition.   Most of the mansions have large wall fissures with disintegrated floors.

Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the SCA, said that a plan is soon to be administered which will restore the architectural and ornamental aspects of Rosetta's Islamic treasure.   This will include replacing some of the buildings' existing wooden ceilings with new ceilings of the same pattern.

From the inside, the painting used will be the same as the original material in order to convey the same impression of age.   Rust will be also removed from the ironware in houses which will then be coated with Vaseline to protect them.

The mansions of Rosetta reflect the architectural boom in the city during the Ottoman age.   They display excellence both in carpentry work and architecture.

Among the houses to be restored is a three-story building constructed in 1808 and named after its owner, Osman Al Amasyli, who was a soldier in the Turkish army.   The mill is named after its owner Abu Shahin and belongs to the 9th Century.   The mill built by Osman Agha was powered by horses.

The house of Al Maizouni, built in 1740, belonged to the father of Zbeida, the wife of Mino, the third commander of the French expedition in Egypt.   The four-storey mansion of Arab Killy, built by the governor of Rosetta in the first half of the 18th Century, is also part of the restoration plan.

The Bath of Azuz is over 100 years old and comprises two wings.   The first wing, the reception wing, leads to a corridor with a marble fountain in the centre.   At the end of the corridor lies a wooden compartment where the master of the place would sit to receive people.   The second wing was flanked by bathing rooms and had a marble floor ornamented by another fountain.   The ceilings of both wings were domes with glass windows to allow adequate lighting.   Annexed to the bath building was a small house used as a residence for the bath owner and its workers.

The mosques of Ali Al Mahali and Al Abbas, constructed in 1721 and 1809 respectively, are two of the city's mosques included in the restoration plan.

Reports show that the Qaitbay citadel of Rosetta is in dire need of restoration as parts of it have collapsed.   But before embarking upon the project, a barrier is to be built around the citadel to prevent water leakage within.   The citadel resembles in design the interior fortress of Alexandria citadel, which also bears the name of Qaitbay.   It was in the citadel of Rosetta that an officer of the French expedition found the Rosetta stone in 1799.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, June 09, 2005.

Some of Egypt's stolen antiquities might be returned.   Switzerland has recently become party to an international agreement on the prevention of antiquity smuggling.   The agreement would give the Egyptians a carte blanche to demand a return of their country's monuments which had been smuggled to Switzerland in the past.   Local antiquities' experts are blithe.

"The Swiss signing the agreement would of course benefit Egypt," says Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Dr Zahi Hawass.   "There are big antiquities' smugglers in that country."

Hawass explains that in the course of the next few weeks the Egyptian government is due to take measures to retrieve Egyptian antiquities that had been smuggled to Switzerland in the past.   He also refers to a problem in relation to unregistered relics.   Because they are unregistered, the authorities might find it difficult to trace them.

Away from Hawass' euphoria, a question might be asked now: how exactly did the antiquities get out of Egypt in the first place?   How did they reach the hands of the smugglers thousands of miles away in Switzerland and other parts of Europe?   Can't we protect our own heritage regardless of whether other countries sign an agreement or not?

"An end to the smuggling of antiquities must start in Egypt itself," suggests antiquities' expert, Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr.   "The retribution for smugglers must be very big in a way to scare them away from such actions.

"We've been waiting for a long time for the Swiss to sign the agreement on the prevention of antiquities' smuggling," Bakr says.   "The agreement would put an end to antiquities' smuggling to this country," he adds in a recent interview with Rose el-Youssef magazine.

"Switzerland is famous for smuggled antiquities auctions," says Dr Ibrahim al-Nawawi, an adviser to the SCA.   "The government there has previously devised plans with the aim of legalising this kind of activity, which turned into a huge source of national income.

"The signing of the agreement is a severe slap on the face of antiquities smugglers and money launderers in this country," al-Nawawi adds.   "Egypt must act swiftly to retain its stolen monuments."

Egypt has recently decided not to cooperate with archaeological expeditions from museums or universities that have in the past smuggled antiquities from Egypt.

"It is time the government approves the new Antiquities Law," demands al- Nawawi.   "We must tighten the grip on our monuments internally.   Internal laws must precede the search for the stolen antiquities outside our own country."

Antiquities' expert Ibrahim Abdel Magid is overjoyed.   The signing of the agreement on the prevention of the smuggling of antiquities is to him of special importance.

"Most of the big antiquities' smuggling cases are related to Switzerland," says Abdel Magid.

Abdel Magid tells that when he was in Switzerland recently, he came across a booklet for a Swiss special monument fair.   Turning the pages of the booklet, which contained the photos and information about the relics displayed in the fair, he discovered that the contents included around 500 original Egyptian relics including pure gold ones.

"Egypt can recover thousands of its stolen antiquities in the light of the new agreement," says Abdel Magid.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, June 08, 2005.

In 1978, on the heels of the first Star Wars, the Tutankhamun exhibit opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with blockbuster lines and electricity usually reserved for Hollywood premieres.

The exhibit celebrating the discoveries of a boy pharaoh became the biggest show in the history of the museum, whose front at the time resembled nothing like the present facade.

More than 50,000 visitors a week saw that exhibit in Los Angeles and six other cities in what became a King Tut craze in pop culture, including a Top 40 hit by comedian Steve Martin.

Star Wars creator George Lucas himself toured the exhibit several times, later remarking to a friend that he was in awe of the Tut tomb discovery much the same way movie-goers were of the futuristic world he had created.

Now, 28 years later, coincidentally coming on the release of the third Star Wars prequel that completes that saga, the Tutankhamun exhibition returns to Los Angeles in which LACMA officials anticipate will be yet another blockbuster showing...

[More]   The L.A. Independent, California, June 08, 2005.

When a woman in Canada refused to return a valuable statue to the Cairo Museum, Dr Zahi Hawass, who was handling the negotiation, casually mentioned a curse said to be associated with the artefact. The next day the statue duly arrived at the Egyptian embassy in Canada.

The fear of the Pharaohs' curse has long been the stuff of fiction and films.   It is a subject that has stirred public imagination.   There are those who believe that the pharaohs placed a curse on whoever disturbed their place of eternal rest.

When Lord Carnavon died on 5 April 1923, barely six months after the expedition's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, it appears that there was indeed a curse...

[More]   The Star, Malaysia, June 08, 2005.

The teenaged king - who ruled briefly from BC 1333 to 1323 - was not the greatest of ancient Egypt's rulers.

Yet no pharaoh fascinates us as much.   Tutankhamun's golden funerary mask is, like the pyramids and the Sphinx, a recognizable image of Egypt's timelessness.   Over the years, selected treasures from his tomb have been exhibited in the United States and Europe, and these attract large number of visitors.

The King Tut enigma has been analysed in countless books and documentaries.   And this evening National Geographic Channel is premiering a two-hour special on Tutankhamun as part of the Pharaoh Week programmes...

[More]   The Star, Malaysia, June 08, 2005.

The CT Scan carried out on King Tutankhamun's mummy is an example of how National Geographic Channel is employing modern science and cutting- edge technology to gain exciting insights into seemingly old subjects.

In this case X-ray technology is used to determine the exact cause of death in Tutankhamun, a question that has long intrigued scholars.

Some 1,700 three-dimensional images of the mummy were obtained to help a team of radiologists, epidemiologists and forensic pathologists to determine the nature of the boy-king's injuries...

[More]   The Star, Malaysia, June 08, 2005.

King Tut never grows old. The boy king and his earthly treasures have endured 3,300 years thanks to ancient Egyptian burial practices.   But it's the millions of fascinated fans worldwide who have pored over his treasures since the discovery of his tomb in 1922 that keep King Tut mania alive.

"Part of it is the objects themselves are what make this such a fascinating story, and trying to reconstruct the period at a distance in time when there is a lot not known - the reign of this king, how he died, and who his family members were," said Nancy Thomas, curator for the Los Angeles County museum where the exhibit will debut in June.   "These unanswered questions are part of what make this period of Egyptian history so tantalizing..."

[More]   ABC News, USA, June 09, 2005.

National Geographic Channel digs through superstitions to reveal the real, ancient Egypt.

Ask most people to talk about ancient Egypt and you'll quickly hear four words: mummies, curses, pyramids, treasures.   Thanks to Hollywood movies that stretch history thin to weave horror, our knowledge of ancient Egypt is shaped largely by myths and superstitions.

Now, National Geographic Channel (NGC) hopes to change all that through several dedicated programmes that look at history through the microscope of science.

NGC's Pharaohs Week, on June 12 at 3pm, will be piecing together clues that reveal exciting new stories about ancient Egypt. The series runs until June 15...

[More]   Gulf News, UAE, June 07, 2005.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo Tuesday inaugurated an exhibition of funerary portraits and death masks that display a fusion of Pharaonic and Greco-Roman cultures.

The centrepiece of the two-month show, entitled "Faces from the Past," is a collection of 15 Fayyoum portraits dating from the Roman era during the first centuries AD...

[More]   DPA via Washington's Classical 103.5, District of Columbia, USA, June 07, 2005.

African-American activists criticized the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for allowing a King Tut exhibition at the county Museum of Art, saying that renderings of the boy king as white are inaccurate.   The "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs" exhibit opens a four-city, nationwide tour at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on June 16. Among the installations are three busts of Tut II reconstructed from the boy king's mummified corpse.

All of the busts, fashioned by three groups of researchers, show Tut as a caucasoid North African.   That representation led to Tuesday's protest by about a dozen speakers, who asked that the busts be removed from the exhibit...

[More]   MSNBC, USA, June 08, 2005.

cf. Official website for the King Tut Exhibition.