An international research team from the University of Beijing have recovered a number of Egyptian art objects that were lost from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven).

Leuvense onderzoekers vinden Egyptische kunstvoorwerpen terug in China, ArcheoNet, Belgium, August 24, 2005, via Explorator.

Translated version from Babel Fish.

A tourism article about Turin that mentions the Egyptian collection at the Mueso Egizio di Torino (Egyptian Museum of Turin).

A few blocks south of the Piazza, on Via Accademia delle Scienze, is the Museo Egizio and its 30,000-plus artifacts.   Turin officials consider it the equal of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the British Museum in London, thanks in part to the statues of Ramses II and the sarcophagus of Nefertiti.   Although the Museo doesn't have a headliner to match the Rosetta Stone (London) or King Tut's gold (Cairo), it's certainly worth an hour or two...

Turin's turn: Olympics host city aims to be tourism contender, San Jose Mercury News, California, USA, August 28, 2005.

Two Ishi Hills Middle School teachers will be trekking to Egypt next spring to study a monumental solar eclipse amid an international audience.

...the two will join researchers in Egypt[, for a week next March and April,] for this eclipse that is not expected to occur for another 10 to 15 years.   Egypt is supposed to be the best place to see it, science officials said...

Teachers to visit Egypt for solar eclipse, Oroville Mercury-Register, California, USA, August 26, 2005.

How King Tut evolved from Cold War cultural ambassador to today's corporate pitchman.

...In 1976, when [Tut] first landed on these shores, cultural diplomacy between nations was a serious endeavor with high social purpose.   The general proposition then was that government is a problem-solver.

But societies change.   Today the establishment's answer to social problems, big and small, is private enterprise.

The difference between public purpose and private enterprise contains the seed for the critical commotion that has swirled around the Tut exhibition at LACMA — tumult that did not accompany the first American show of the pharaoh's artifacts.   Art museums used to be places of escape and refuge from the commercial world.   Now they're just another roadside attraction.   Tut is a marker for that shift...

The boy shill, Los Angeles Times, California, August 28, 2005.

The Kimbell Art Museum has announced that Hatshepsut, the most powerful female ruler of ancient Egypt, will be the subject of a show at the museum next year.   Hatshepsut was more than a queen regent warming the throne for her offspring.   She claimed the rights and full entitlements of pharaoh in the traditionally patriarchal society.   Her reign lasted for almost two decades (c. 1479-1458 B.C.).   Egypt — and its arts — prospered under her control.   Approximately 300 objects including statuary, reliefs, sculptures, ceremonial objects and jewelry will be included in the exhibit.   After her death, all images of her were destroyed by her stepson and nephew Tuthmosis III, who struck her name from the list of kings.   Before it opens at the Kimbell on Aug. 27, 2006, “Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh” will make stops at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the deYoung Museum in San Francisco.

People watch: Here comes Hatshepsut, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, USA, August 25, 2005.

“Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh” Probably no exhibition could outshine the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum's daring architectural reinvention of itself.   But “Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh” will open the spectacular new Herzog & de Meuron building with a crowd-pleasing bang.   With stellar antiquities of all kinds, "Hatshepsut" will reassess the reign and aftermath of ancient Egypt's only female ruler.   Oct. 15 – Feb. 5, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; (415) 750-3600

Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, Fall Arts Preview, San Francisco Chronicle, California, USA, August 28, 2005.

The Museum’s Josef Wegner, Associate Curator in the Egyptian Section, has been interested in Egyptology since childhood.   Growing up in New Hampshire, he was long aware of the significant Egyptian collections housed at the Museum and the opportunities for academic training in Egyptology.   Wegner thus came to Penn in 1985 as an undergraduate and completed a double major in Egyptology and Anthropology...

Meet the Curators — Josef Wegner, Expedition Magazine, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Volume 47, Number 2, Summer 2005.

by Zahi Hawass

It was an important day in my life when we looked behind the secret door inside the Great Pyramid.   This was inside the southern "airshaft" in the Queen's Chamber.   The function of these airshafts was a mystery.   Those leading from the King's Chamber to the outside of the pyramid might have been magical tunnels so that the soul of Khufu could travel to join the imperishable stars.   But the shafts in the Queen's Chamber did not go to the outside, and now we had found this enigmatic door, or slab, blocking the southern shaft.

There was great interest from all over the world.   I had been in Hong Kong the month before, and everyone there was fascinated, and could not wait to see the investigation.   They set up big screens everywhere so that people could see the National Geographic show at 8 am.

We sent the robot into the shaft and it drilled a hole about 1.1 cm in diameter.   But we did not put the camera in.   We told the world that this great moment would be live, for everyone to see.   I never thought that we would find evidence for Atlantis or aliens, but I truly did not know what to expect.   My best guess was that there would be nothing there but empty space.   This would be important, however, because even empty space inside the Great Pyramid could be very interesting for archaeologists.

We made the TV programme live at 3 am Cairo time, which was 8 pm in the States and 8 am in China.   We began by talking about the development of the pyramids, from the tombs of the Early Dynastic Period to the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, to the first true pyramid, built by Khufu's father Sneferu.   So we put the Great Pyramid into context, and showed that there were other pyramids before and after Khufu's.

We sent the camera into the hole that had been drilled through the first door at 4:50 am Cairo time.   Twenty-one centimetres behind this door was another limestone slab, this time without any handles.   This was a very important discovery, and a big surprise to me.

The Second Door, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, August 29,2005.

Egypt Revealed: Life & Death in Ancient Egypt, a British Museum exhibition, investigates little-known facts about one of the world’s greatest civilisations and includes rarely seen ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Egyptian mummies provide an unparalleled source of scientific data, shedding light on physical appearance, family relationships, life expectancy, nutrition and health, disease and the causes of death.   They provide a unique insight into the complex process of mummification and the relationship between life and death in ancient Egypt.

For many years, the only way to extract data from mummies was to unwrap them — a destructive and irreversible process.   Modern non-invasive imaging techniques such as X-rays have now made it possible to look inside a mummy without disturbing the wrappings in any way.   Thanks to the latest advances in computer technology, we are now able to understand more and more about life in ancient Egypt...

The exhibition is on show at the Hancock Museum until April 23, 2006.

Mummies Unwrap the Ancient Past, Hexham Courant, UK, August 26, 2005, via EEF News.