The so-called curse of Tutankhamun in the 1920s was the inspiration for the many mummy films that have been made over the past 70 years.

Stories of the curse of the pharaohs had been passed from generation to generation of Egyptians and was probably introduced by government officials in the ancient kingdom in an unofficial attempt to prevent tomb robbing.

It gave Hollywood plenty of scope for scripts, too...

We love... The Mummy, Western Mail, Wales, October 11, 2005.

Five artifacts from the Cairo Museum, including a statue of king Tuthmosis III, known as the greatest warrior of Egypt and another statue for Hatshepsut left Cairo on Monday for Chicago on a four-month US tour.

The rare pieces, weighing some 6,000 kg, were flown on board an Air France Paris-Chicago flight amidst tight security measures.

They will be displayed in the various American museums from October 15 to February 5 next year.

Tuthmosis, Hatshepsut tour USA, State Information Service, Egypt, October 11, 2005.

The new issue of Current World Archaeology is out now and contains a two page article, in the diary section, of interest to Egyptologists. Geoffrey J. Tassie, Managing Director of the Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organisation, looks at some of the recent undertakings in Egypt, with a focus on the sites of Giza and Hierakonpolis.

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, Number 1, Issue 13, October / November 2005.

Subscribe to Current World Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

You might think the Ancient Egyptians too remote in time to be anything other than intellectual curiosities for us. Jan Assmann, the great German Egyptologist, thinks otherwise. Early on in his masterful reconstruction of the Egyptian mind set, he tells us that "ancient Egypt is an intellectual and spiritual world that is linked to our own by numerous strands of tradition." A brief review can only barely touch on the topics discussed in this book, but I will try to give some examples of Assmann’s conclusions...

Book Review: The Mind of Egypt, Political Affairs Magazine, New York, USA, October 11, 2005.

The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs, Jan Assmann (translated by Andrew Jenkins), Harvard University Press, New York, 2003.

Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, or Amazon.ca.

A couple more regarding the latest robot to survey Khufu's pyramid shafts.

Egypt will send a robot up narrow shafts in the Great Pyramid to try to solve one of the mysteries of the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum, Egypt's top archaeologist said.

Zahi Hawass said he would inspect a robot designed to climb the two narrow shafts which might lead to an undiscovered burial chamber in the pyramid of Cheops at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo.

Hawass said the shafts and stone panels which block them could mark the location of the burial chamber of ... Khufu...

Pyramid probe may find mystery chamber, AAP via Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, October 11, 2005.

cf. Egypt Prepares New Probe of Mystery Pyramid Shafts, AP via CRI, China, October 11, 2005.

Egyptian police arrested two men in connection with the disappearance of three 3000-year-old pharaonic statues from the basement of the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo.

Police captured the men, both of them employees of a company contracted to do restoration work in the museum, in a sting operation with officers presenting themselves as antiquities dealers.

The statues, one representing a man and his wife side by side, another the head of the royal guard and the third an unknown character, vanished from the museum last month under mysterious circumstances...

Egypt arrests two over missing pharaonic statues, Wanadoo Jordan, Jordan, October 09, 2005.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is taking legal steps to retrieve some antiquities, which, according to the Internet, are to be sold at auction halls.

SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass stated that 13 Web sites were advertising Egyptian antiquities for sale at auction this month, while the total for July was 22 Web sites.

The SCA's Archaeological Department has collected all the brochures of these auctions halls and forwarded them to Public Funds Prosecution, said Hawass, adding that an SCA committee has carefully compared the antiquities in the brochures with photos of Egypt's missing antiquities.

He added that some of the missing items belonged to an Egyptian trader, while others had gone missing from the museum at Cairo University's Faculty of Archaeology and the storehouses of the university's Faculty of Arts, as well as from an archaeological area at Marina, on Egypt's North Coast.

The committee has identified the items up for auction as antiquities that have gone missing from Egypt.

SCA to retrieve missing antiquities, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, October 11, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni okayed plan to renovate silver artefacts and antiques on display at the Egyptian Museum.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the renovation is part of a master plan by the Ministry of Culture to maintain the metal artefacts through a 75,000 euro grant from the European Union.

Some 1,400 ancient pieces, including sarcophaguses, jewellery, crowns, belts and statues will be renovated.

European grant to renovate silver artefacts at Egyptian Museum, State Information Service, Egypt, October 10, 2005.

Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni ordered a probe on Tuesday into reports about mysterious damage to a Pharaonic statue during restoration work at the Egyptian Museum.

He asked Attorney General Maher Abdel Wahid to investigate the matter, the official MENA news agency reported, only hours after the country's top antiquities official dismissed the reports as being unfounded.

The Egyptian press, quoting museum officials, had reported that a statue of Khafre (2576-2551 BC), the fourth dynasty king and builder of the second pyramid at Giza, had been found damaged in the basement...

Egyptians argue over reported damage to Pharaonic statue, Middle East Times, Cyprus, October 05, 2005.