Israeli-born Canadian producer-director Simcha Jacobovici (The Struma) debuts his new biblical history series The Naked Archaeologist on Monday night on Vision TV.

Filmed on location in Israel, Egypt and Greece, the documentary program takes a radically different approach to its theme, even employing dance and rap music (think Ali G. meets Indiana Jones, say the creators) to look at biblical archeology.

"My goal is to demystify the Bible in general and archeology in particular," says the Emmy-winning host Jacobovici.   "To brush away the cobwebs and burst academic bubbles."

Initial episodes include Delilah's People, Who Invented the Alphabet?, Jerusalem and the Black Prince and What Killed Herod?   (Monday, Sept. 5, Vision)

The '68 Mustang and the Cirque du soleil highlight coming week's TV fare, Brandon Sun, Canada, August 31, 2005.

cf. Jacobovici explores biblical archeology in new TV series, The Canadian Jewish News, September 01, 2005.

Fragile mummies crumble to dust in their display cases.

Rare artifacts sit randomly stacked in corners and hallways, or crowded onto shelves too small for them.

Labels are tattered, curling and faded, typewritten decades ago and apparently untouched since then.

Welcome to the Egyptian Museum: the world's largest and most important repository of ancient Egyptian art — and at the same time, a ramshackle, deteriorating mess...

Cairo's Egyptian Museum doesn't match the majesty of its treasures, Dayton Daily News, Ohio, USA, August 28, 2005.

Hours have been extended for the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit, organized by National Geographic, AEG Exhibitions, and Arts and Exhibitions International, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and sponsored by Northern Trust Corporation.

Tickets are now on sale for the following extended hours time slots [Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)]:

• Friday, September 2: 8 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.
• Saturday, September 3: 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
• Sunday, September 4: 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
• Monday, September 5: 8 p.m.

Hours Extended for “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” During Labor Day Weekend, Business Wire, USA, August 31, 2005.

Thousands of Americans booked their tickets for an exhibition of Egyptian treasures in Dayton, Ohio.

The number of ticket buyers for the exhibition "The [Quest] for Immortality" stood so far at 25,000.

Director of the Modern Art Museum, which hosts the exhibition, expected the number to reach 400,000 by January...

US newspapers urge Americans to visit Egyptian exhibition, State Information Service, Egypt, August 29, 2005.

A number of documents of Egyptian Princes and Sultans have been chosen to enter world memory register.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said on Sunday that the International Advisory Committee for UNESCO's World Memory programme during a meeting in China recently selected a number of documents of Egypt's Sultans and Princes to be among the world memory register sponsored by UNESCO.

Documents of Egyptian Princes, Sultans selected by UNESCO, State Information Service, Egypt, August 29, 2005.

A team representing Japan's TV Man channel is currently visiting Egypt to shoot a tourist programme on archaeological sites in Aswan and in Saqqara — Giza.

Youssef Khaled, representative of the Japanese university of Waseda, said the delegation, which is visiting Aswan at the invitation of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) will shoot the programme in cooperation with SCA.

The programme is due to be aired on TV Man channel that covers Japan, China and most of the European countries with the aim of promoting tourism in Egypt.

Japan TV programme Aswan, Saqqara, State Information Service, Egypt, August 29, 2005.

A joint Egyptian-US archaeological team has discovered a 5,000-year-old funerary complex in Upper Egypt, the Egyptian Gazette reported Wednesday.

The tomb was found in the Kom al-Ahmer region near Edfu, some 97km south of the famous ancient city Luxor on the west bank of the Nile, Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, was quoted as saying.

Three mummies were found inside the tomb alongside a small flint statue of a cow's head and a ceramic funeral mask, Hawass added.

The tomb is believed to have belonged to one of the first rulers of the Greek city of Apollinopolis Magna, the ancient name of Edfu*.

Edfu was the capital of the second nome (Horus) of Upper Egypt.   The main attraction here is the Temple of Horus, which is widely considered to be the best preserved cult temple in Egypt.

Egypt discovers 5000-year-old tomb, Xinhua, China, August 31, 2005.

cf. Egypt discovers ancient tomb, People's Daily, China, August 31, 2005.

* The ancient Egyptian name for Edfu was not, of course, Apollinopolis Magna as that is the ancient Greek name.   The ancient Egyptians called the town Wetjeset-Hrw — “The Place Where Horus is Extolled”.   It also seems to go by the name Djeba.

The Dayton Art Institute is counting down the days before the Sept. 1 [2005] opening of its most expensive exhibit in museum history.   The museum hosted a preview of "Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt" Tuesday morning and announced it already has sold 30,000 tickets...

30K tickets sold for Egypt exhibit, Dayton Business Journal, Ohio, USA, August 29, 2005.

This is the third part of this article about King Tut from the Marco Island Sun Times Florida.   The second part can be found here.

Howard Carter, A. C. Mace, his patron Lord Carnarvon, and Lady Evelyn Herbert, the lord's devoted companion in Egyptian digs, were eagerly awaiting this day, to enter the burial chamber in the Tomb of King Tutankhamen.

What would they find?

The first thing they found, lying beside a small hole in the door made by robbers in ancient times were portions of two necklaces, dropped by the thief.   Ancient Egyptian officials had resealed the doors...

Who was King Tut? - Part III, Marco Island Sun Times, Florida, USA, September 01, 2005.

PBS have a transcript of an interview with Bonnie Burnham, of the World Monuments Fund, which is also available in streaming video format.

The World Monuments Fund, a nonprofit organization, released a list of the 100 most endangered sites around the world in an effort to call attention to buildings and monuments threatened by natural disasters or pollution.   The fund's president discusses the organization's effort to save the world's architectural treasures.

One of the sites that we've had on several watch lists is the ancient Egyptian monuments at Luxor.   First, the Valley of Kings was listed and now the entire West Bank of the Nile...

World Monuments Fund releases a list of the 100 most endangered sites around the world, PBS, USA, August 23, 2005.

[Thomas Keyes] lived in Egypt for six months in 1990 and 1991, but [he] went there primarily to meet Egyptian people and study Arabic, not to visit ancient ruins.   Alexandria, the city where [he] had [his] apartment, was founded in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, who deposed Nectanebo II, the last of the Pharaohs, so there are no ruins there more ancient than the Greco-Roman period.

Still, about a week or so before [his] flight on Lufthansa Airlines to Frankfurt, Germany, [he] decided to make a quick tour of the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum.   After all, who goes to Egypt without visiting the pyramids? ...

A Quick Tour Of The Pyramids, The Sphinx And The Egyptian Museum, Thomas Keyes, Useless Knowledge, USA, August 24, 2005.

One would not blame you, upon meeting Zahi Hawass, if you thought of Indiana Jones.

There's the outfit — the dusty jeans, the blue work shirt with rolled-up sleeves, the crumpled fedora that is sweat-stained to almost Hollywood perfection.   There's the confidence, too — he's a look-you-in-the-eye, take-charge lion of a man.   He is impatient with people being uninformed around him and assumes that if you're talking to him, you understand that he's important.

And he is important, beyond his willing cultivation of a dashing Indy image.   Hawass, 57, is Egypt's secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities — a key government post that makes him the country's chief promoter and protecter of its history.

That means he's in charge of every tomb, temple, museum, relic, archaeological dig and ancient site...

Official on mission to promote, protect Egypt's history, Dayton Daily News, Ohio, USA, August 29, 2005.

The entrance to Khnum-hotep's royal tomb yawns open, the rough-hewn passage inside dark, ominous and irresistible.   A slight figure brushes past the dimly lit columns and descends into the cool, shadowy depths, searching for a stone sarcophagus, hieroglyphics and his sixth-grade teacher.

Some 46,000 young Indiana Joneses get a hands-on taste of ancient Egypt every year, but they don't have to travel to Cairo to do it.   San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium not only houses the largest Egyptian artefact collection west of the Mississippi, but also the building itself is practically enough to satisfy California's social studies curriculum standards for sixth-grade.

"It was always part of the vision," said museum manager Juanita Ortiz.   "A museum to share with the community." ...

Museum teaches visitors of all ages all about Egypt, Contra Costa Times, California, USA, August 28, 2005.

Filming for a major BBC series in Egypt has been hit, allegedly, by the 'Curse of the Pharaohs'.   Nonsense, says a Midland descendant of the tomb-openers.   Richard Edmonds meets John Carter.

When a member of your family happens to be the man who opened the fabulous tomb of Tutankhamun, it is obvious that the love of antiques is in your blood.

John Carter, a well-known dealer in the Black Country, is a descendant on his grandfather's side of the world famous Egyptologist, Howard Carter.

Antiques dealer John Carter He claims to have what he calls the "Carter Hunch".   He says that if he could sell it canned and labelled, he would be a billionaire...

John's hunch on the Carter Curse, Express and Star, UK, August 30, 2005.

In 30 B.C. (by some estimates), the seventh and most famous queen of ancient Egypt known as "Cleopatra" committed suicide.

Today in history, Indianapolis Star, Indiana, USA, August 30, 2005.

Concurrent with Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at LACMA, the world premiere of "Egypt in Hollywood: A Retrospective 1898 — 2005" will open at The Hollywood Museum on Thursday, September 29, it was announced today by Donelle Dadigan, President and Founder.   Located in the lower level of the historic Max Factor Building, the exhibit presents the largest collection of Egypt-themed props, costumes, jewelry, photographs, and memorabilia ever assembled.

Dating from "La Fruite en Égypte" (France, 1898), the new exhibit is comprised of treasures from hundreds of movies including "The Mummy" (USA 1911, 1932, 1959 and 1999 versions), "Cleopatra" (1899, 1912, 1917, 1934, 1963 versions), "The Ten Commandments" (1923 and 1956 versions), "Charlie Chan in Egypt," "Caesar and Cleopatra," "Aida," "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy," "Land of the Pharaohs," "The Spy Who Loved Me," "Death On the Nile," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Stargate," "The Prince of Egypt" and "The Scorpion King."

Artefacts include a wide variety of special effects-laden mummies, death masks and corpses, weapons including daggers and rifles, Cleopatra costumes designed for Elizabeth Taylor and Claudette Colbert, the throne chair designed for Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra," sarcophagi from "Death On the Nile" and "The Mummy," and jewelry from both versions of "The Ten Commandments."   More than 50 posters from around the world and hundreds of movie stills round out the exhibit.

“Egypt in Hollywood: A Retrospective 1898 — 2005” Opens at The Hollywood Museum September 29, 2005, Yahoo! Finance, USA, August 29, 2005.

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.

Visitors to the Brooklyn Museum will want to have a look at a new long-term installation, "The Popularization of Ancient Egypt," which examines how Western writers and artists saw and recorded Egypt from the 1820s to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.   This is the second installment of "Egypt Through Other Eyes: Images from the Wilbour Library of Egyptology."   (The first part, "Early Travel and Exploration," covered the period from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth century.) ...

Wilbour's Legacy, Mark Rose, Archaeology Magazine, USA, Volume 58, Number 5, September / October 2005.

Working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Sir William Flinders Petrie was one of the first in the field of archaeology to recognize that humble everyday objects could reveal as much about a culture as its great monuments.   In the half century that he excavated nearly 50 sites in the Nile Valley, Petrie amassed one of the largest collections of Egyptian material outside of Egypt.   Currently housed in an aging teaching museum at University College London (UCL), few of the 80,000 objects have been seen outside England.

Now, more than 220 of the most interesting pieces have begun a three-year tour of American museums, starting with Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, which proposed and prepared "Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum."   The objects are touring while UCL builds a facility, slated to open in 2008, that will for the first time h