You don't have to look hard around Southern Illinois to come across something "Egyptian."

And to learn about the ancient civilization, one need not go farther than the Science Center.

From now until May, the [Carbondale] Science Center in University Mall is hosting "Ancient Egypt in Little Egypt."

Pamela Madden, director of the Science Center, said the exhibit will give children and adults an opportunity to play Egyptian games, view real artifacts and get hands-on with the mummification process...

Science Center goes Egyptian: New exhibit displays real artifacts, hands on projects centered around ancient civilization, The Southern, Illinois, USA, December 24, 2005.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from Mark at EgyptologyBlog!

Not disappointed with the accomplishment of this year’s target, Egypt’s tourism officials are hopeful that next year it will be able to lure 9.5 million tourists. Despite of the bombings, the land of Pharaohs saw a 5 percent increase in tourist arrivals up to this year. The target of a higher growth could not be achieved because of a stronger currency, weaker European economies and bombings in news agencies quoted Sharm el Sheikh, the tourism minister.

Ahmad Al Maghrabi said the government had aimed for nine million tourists in 2005 as part of its strategy to create more jobs in an industry that already employs 10 percent of Egypt’s work force. But by the end of the year, the number of visitors will stand at 8.5 million. “It’s the currency, the slowing down of the main exporting markets to us and the situation in Sharm,” Maghrabi said to explain the shortfall...

Egypt aims for 9.5m tourists in 2006, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, December 20, 2005.

Forget all those newfangled video games this Christmas. Forget the enemy armies and drooling zombies. Block your ears to the . Go back to the future of a far more profound adventure. Enter the tomb of Thutmose III.

In his day (1479-26 BC), Thutmose was a great and glorious pharaoh. The Napoleon of the New Kingdom, he was a military genius, a judicious administrator and a wise statesman to boot.

While his body was being mummified, the walls of his tomb were painted with a complete depiction of the Amduat: a key Egyptian text that chronicles the passage of the Sun god, hour by hour, through the darkness of night. His journey — made on a barque through a land of solar baboons, scarabs and serpents — is beset by dangers that must be overcome by incantatory magic if he is to be reborn the next day...

Immortal Pharaoh, a show that combines original artefacts with a full-scale replica of the burial chamber, is open at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh. This stereo-optical adventure is far more enthralling than any stocking-filler video game...

You'd better hurry though as this exhibition finishes on the 8th January 2006 and is closed on 25th and 26th of December and the 2nd January.

Step into the world of the pharaohs through this 21st-century tomb, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times, UK, December 22, 2005.

By Zahi Hawass

The tomb of the great 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep I, which could be supposed to lie in the Valley of the Kings, has never been found. Amenhotep I was a very important member of this dynasty, and his tomb is one of the few undiscovered so far. Up to know all the evidence suggests that he is not buried with other royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and Daniel Polz, who represents the German Institute in Cairo, believes that he is buried in the cemetery of Draa Abu Al-Naga. Polz has been excavating in this area for a long time.

Three years ago, when I became secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Polish scholar Niwinski came to see me and asked what my plans were for the following week. When I asked him why, he replied that he was going to find an intact tomb and would like me to accompany him. He was convinced that the tomb of Amenhotep I was in the cliff of Deir Al-Bahri.

A year ago, I was visiting the Deir Al-Bahri area and entered the cache where the mummies were discovered by the Abdel-Rasoul family in 1871. These mummies were transferred to the Cairo Museum in 1881. While I was there, I noticed workmen removing huge stones from the cliff. I was worried because this was very dangerous work that could threaten the temple of Hatshepsut, which was directly underneath them. I learnt that this excavation was under the Polish scholar, Niwinski. The SCA permanent committee immediately stopped the work at this site to ensure the protection of the temple of Hatshepsut. Niwinski came to see me and I told him that the work above was dangerous and could ruin the first level of the temple. He said he was about to find the tomb, and we had just stopped him...

Dig days: Quest for the tomb of Amenhotep I, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 774, December 22 - 28, 2005.

Why do so few Egyptian and foreign tourists visit the Nubia Museum in Aswan, asks Jill Kamil.

In his press release on the occasion of the opening of the Nubia Museum in Aswan in 1997, Ahmed Nawar, head of the museum sector of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), wrote that the setting up of new museums in the provinces was based on sound research into the singular identity of each chosen area "because museums are expected to play a cultural role and contribute to the tourist industry".

Today, while Nubians regularly flock to the museum, singly or in groups, on family or school outings, they outnumber by far foreign and Egyptian tourists and sightseers. It is worth looking into the reason why the museum is failing to fulfil its role as an income-generating destination for tourism.

The loss of Nubia was one of the world's great tragedies. Not only did it mean the inundation of an entire land and the loss of its ancient monuments, but it uprooted an entire population from its native soil. Nubia was one of the few places remaining on earth that was unspoiled by humanity...

Misplaced museum, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 774, December 22 - 28, 2005.

by Zahi Hawass

I received this week a proposal for collection of the pins and debris sampling inside the shafts leading from the so-called Queen's Chamber inside the Great Pyramid from Dr. Tc Ng, an independent researcher from Hong Kong.

As many know, we received a proposal for a robotic exploration of the shafts from National University in Singapore (NUS). But this proposal described devices that can developed that could be added to the NUS robot with resistible impact, that will significantly enhance the upcoming robotic exploration, by reliably collecting the pins as well as other small artefacts.

The Honk Kong robots are totally self-contained and require no resources. Their umbilical wires will add negligible mass to the Singapore robot. The Honk Kong expert said to me: "they added in their robots devices that are carefully designed to protect the pyramid's shafts." He added that all of the robots have been tested on slopes up to 45 degrees, on a variety of materials, including polished limestone. However, it is known that the floor of the shafts is the region of the pins and debris is rough and as such are ideal for maximizing the grip of our miniature rovers.

Now that the two robots have been studied we will make a decision soon...

News on the Robot and the Secret Doors inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu, The Plateau: Official Website of Dr. Zahi Hawass, December 2005.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and his wife are to witness the cultural evening held by Culture Ministry on the occasion of the opening of Mohamed Ali Pasha Palace in Shubra, Cairo due in next Monday, the government noted.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni was reported saying that Mubarak will tour the palace the restoration of which has lasted for four years at a cost of LE 50 million "which will be turned into an international centre to host festivals, conferences and high-ranking guests."

Mohamed Ali Pasha Palace to open Monday, Arabic News, December 21, 2005.

The King Tut show is shamelessly overpriced, but — Holy Osiris! — the art is terrific!

When I told a neighbour last week that I was going to the King Tut exhibition, a look of relief came over her face. "Oh, gosh, I thought I missed it," she said. "I thought it had come and gone." This was the day before the show opened.

That overbearing drumbeat announcing the imminent arrival of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," now at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, has been so insistent recently — from newspaper supplements and posters to whimsical little features on local television news — that a lot of people probably think Tut has been in town for months.

Well, finally, here's the real deal. The Boy King has arrived — in a manner of speaking. Of course, the mummy of Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922 in a burial chamber near Luxor, Egypt, remains in its home country, as does Tut's elaborate gold-plated sarcophagus (three "nested" coffins within four "nested" shrines, each element fitting snugly within a larger version of itself). But 50 burial objects are now on display at the museum, as well as 70 objects from other tombs and a nifty video reproduction of the grimacing mummy...

Chip Off the Old Blockbuster, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Florida, December 22, 2005.

The wonders of Ancient Egypt have arrived in Madrid, with an exhibition of more than 120 pieces from Cairo Museum on show at the Isabel II Exhibition Centre until 14th May [2006].

All of the exhibits have incalculable archaeological value, and some of them have never been seen in Spain before. Many of the pieces are more than 4,500 years old.

The exhibition, called ‘Faraón’ or Pharaoh, is actually two exhibitions in one. The other part is a three dimensional journey, produced by the British Museum, through the inside of a mummy.

The documentary shows how the mummy of Nesperennub was put through a scanning machine in a London hospital, producing more than 1,500 transversal sections at one minute intervals. The projection is shown inside an specially-constructed 18 metre high pyramid.

Ancient Egypt arrives in Spain, TypicallySpanish.com, Spain, December 20, 2005.

The official title is “Faraón. El enigma en Madrid”.

cf. Spain Culture Review - Wed Dec 21st 2005, TypicallySpanish.com, Spain, December 21, 2005.

cf. Spain Culture Review - Wed Dec 21st 2005, TypicallySpanish.com, Spain, December 21, 2005.

cf. Lots of Spanish language coverage via Google News España.

Some 64 centuries ago, a prehistoric people of obscure origins farmed an area along Egypt’s Nile River.

Barely out of the Stone Age, they produced simple but well-made pottery, jewellery and stone tools, and carefully buried their dead with ritual objects in apparent preparation for an afterlife. These items often included doll-like female figurines with exaggerated sexual features, thought to possibly symbolize rebirth.

Despite the simplicity of their possessions, a new study suggests these people, the Badarians, may have ultimately given rise to one of the world’s first major civilizations some 14 centuries later: the glittering culture of Egypt.

Indeed, the Egyptians seem to have been basically the same people from the end of the Stone Age through late Roman times...

Study traces Egyptians’ stone-age roots, World Science, December 17, 2005.

A Dutch chemist has claimed the fabled Mahogany Ship could be evidence that ancient Egyptians discovered Australia more than 4000 years ago.

Dr Reinoud de Jonge is the co-author of the controversial book , which postulates that various megalithic structures and caves around the world hold clues to Egyptian fleets being the first to visit every continent except Antarctica.

Mr de Jonge said he knew little about the Mahogany Ship but such stories about ancient ships of discovery were interesting.

“I read about the findings of 3500-year-old wood in the neighbourhood of the ship ... it does not surprise me at all,” Mr de Jonge said...

Egyptians the 'first', Warrnambool Standard, Australia, December 14, 2005.

cf. How the SunGod Reached America official website.

When Egyptologists entered the tomb for the first time more than four decades ago, they expected to be surprised. Explorers of newly exposed tombs always expect that, and this time they were not disappointed – they were confounded.

It was back in 1964, outside Cairo, near the famous Step Pyramid in the necropolis of Saqqara and a short drive from the Sphinx and the breathtaking pyramids at Giza. The newfound tomb yielded no royal mummies or dazzling jewels. But the explorers stopped in their tracks when the light of their kerosene lamp shined on the wall art in the most sacred chamber.

There, carved in stone, were the images of two men embracing. Their names were inscribed above: Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Though not of the nobility, they were highly esteemed in the palace as the chief manicurists of the king, sometime from 2380 to 2320 B.C., in the time known as the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Grooming the king was an honoured occupation.

Archaeologists were taken aback. It was extremely rare in ancient Egypt for an elite tomb to be shared by two men of apparently equal standing...

... David O'Connor, a professor of ancient Egyptian art at the [New York University] Institute of Fine Arts, said: "My suggestion is that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were indeed twins, but of a very special sort. They were conjoined twins, and it was this physical peculiarity that prompted the many depictions of them hand-holding or embracing in their tomb-chapel."

Dr. O'Connor elaborated on his hypothesis in a recent lecture and in an interview in New York. He is describing and defending the idea before scholarly peers at a conference, "Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt," this week at the University of Wales in Swansea...

A Mystery, Locked in Timeless Embrace, John Noble Wilford, The New York Times, New York, USA, December 20, 2005.

Plans have been announced for the $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum, to be established near the Pyramids near Cairo. It will be among the world’s largest museums, and is by far the biggest to be built from scratch. The venture is expected to attract up to five million visitors a year, slightly more than the British Museum in London, which is the world leader. There will be some 100,000 Egyptian artefacts on show (compared with the British Museum’s 80,000 displayed objects, covering all major cultures).

Project director Dr Yasser Mansour told The Art Newspaper that the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will open in 2010. He was in London, for the Museums Association conference last month, to unveil the plans. The new museum will become the home for most of the huge collection housed at the present Egyptian Museum, in the centre of Cairo, in Tahrir Square.

The existing Cairo museum was opened in 1902, for 10,000 antiquities, but it rapidly filled up, as discoveries were made, and there are now 120,000 objects on display, with many tens of thousands in the basement store...

Plans unveiled for $550 million museum near the Pyramids, The Art Newspaper, London, UK, December 19, 2005.

The latest scientific technologies were employed to re-examine Tutankhamen's wine goblets which had been found in his graveyard. The Spanish nutrition and Egyptology team discovered that the goblets had a residue of poison in them, leading them to conclude that Tutankhamen was poisoned while drinking his red wine. (From Al Ahram)

Hmmm. Either this is new or refers back to the Red Wine articles from last month which do not mention poison.

Only in Egypt! King Tut poisoned, Middle East Times, Cyprus, December 19, 2005.

The exhibition's official image is the face on a small coffin discovered in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, the famed boy-pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

The unofficial symbol might be found in the museum gift shop: A tissue box in the shape of a pharaoh's head, with the paper dispensed through its nose. Price: $24.99.

After drawing nearly a million visitors in Los Angeles, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" opened Thursday at Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art. From the start, the exhibition was designed to be a profit-making "blockbuster."

After all, the King Tut show that toured the U.S. from 1976 to 1979 was an eye-popping success. It pioneered the age of the blockbuster exhibition — heavily marketed spectacles devoted to popular artists or subject matter and featuring well-stocked gift shops.

After Tut, instead of offering dry, what-you-see-is-what-you-get exhibitions, some museum officials took off their tweeds and got into the entertainment business.

Tut-mania is a proven psychosis...

Exhibit Sells Tut as the Boy King of Bling, The Ledger, Florida, USA, December 18, 2005.

Assembling “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” must have been much like recording a favourite mix tape: The first few tracks should feel like a warm-up, an invitation to search further for the jewels tucked within. You might start by throwing on a bit of ambient lounge; then take it up a notch with some swirling, dark guitar work. Slowly, you coax your audience deeper into the realm you've imagined.

The Tut exhibit at Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art follows this tack: Visitors enter a small foyer for a quick 90-second mini-flick introducing them to the show. A soundtrack of soft chanting and bells is heard. The initial gallery, "Egypt Before Tut," offers statues of lioness and serpent goddesses, ancient model boats set against a wallpapered backdrop of dunes and rivers and the green scrub that fringes Egypt's deserts. The spell is cast, but its force doesn't take hold until one arrives at the entrance to the underworld.

Yes, it sounds dramatic, and it most certainly is. Shaded in Hades black and ghostly hieroglyphs, The "Death, Burial & Afterlife" gallery is described as a "miniature universe for the deceased." Its contents were excavated from the tombs of Yuya and Thuya...

The king and I, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 17, 2005.

The new issue of Archaeology Magazine is out now and contains a review of Hatshepsut The Female Pharaoh at the de Young Museum.

After the death of Hatshepsut, Egypt's most famous female pharaoh, her stepson and successor, Thutmose III, looking for a return to tradition, set out to erase the identity of this aberrant ruler by defacing her monuments and omitting her from an official record of kings.

"Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh," at San Francisco's rebuilt M.H. de Young Memorial Museum (through February 5), celebrates this singular ruler and the richness of her time. A collaboration of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the exhibition features some 250 objects, from tiny ornaments to colossal statuary, loaned from museums in the United States, Europe, and Egypt...

The Female Pharaoh, Blake Edgar, Archaeology Magazine, New York, USA, Volume 59, Number 1, January / February 2006.

The latest issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine arrived on my doorstep on Saturday. Here is a rundown of its contents.

• Replicating and Egyptian Relief
  Annemarie La Pensée describes how an important artefact from the World Museum Liverpool was replicated, at the request of Egypt’s SCA, using the latest technology.
• Ancient Egyptian Medicine
  Ancient Egyptian literature contains some surprisingly modern diagnoses and treatments for illnesses, as Dr. George M. Burden discovered.
• Made in Egypt
  Zaghloul Ibrahim is interviewed by Ayman Wahby Taher about his work re-creating replicas of Egyptian masterpieces.
• A Lion of Amenhotep III
  AE investigates a lion at the Citadel in Cairo, and compares it with other well-known sculptures carved in the reign of the great pharaoh.
• Black Athena
  Who is or was “Black Athena”? Janet Robinson gives some answers and sees the concept as opening up the world of ancient Egypt to many who felt excluded in the past.
• Ancient Egypt on the Small Screen
  The BBC’s new series on ancient Egypt reviewed by AE’s Editor, who finds a great deal to criticise.
• The Temple of Ptah at Karnak
  Charlotte Booth gives readers a guided tour of this rarely-visited corner of the Karnak site.
• Mummies at the Movies
  Mark Walker examines the influence of ancient Egypt, especially the modern fascination with mummies, on the fantasy world of the Big Screen.
• The Baron’s Palace
  AE tells the story of one of Cairo’s most unusual landmarks.
• Sphinx
  Bob Partridge looks at some of the many examples of sphinxes in Egypt.

Ancient Egypt Magazine, Empire Publications, Manchester, UK, Volume 6, No. 3, Issue 33, December 2005 / January 2006.

... This was hardly a Seabourn cruise. We'd met Ali in a dusty Nubian village on Elephantine Island, near the river's First Cataract at Aswan, and hired him to sail us down the Nile to Luxor on his felucca.

These graceful, lateen-rigged boats have been scudding up and down the river since the days of the pharaohs, and their technology hasn't evolved a whole lot over the millennia. Ali's felucca, the Reiko — named for his Japanese girlfriend — was 22 feet long, and what little space there was below deck was used for storage.

The six of us — Ali, my wife, Jeri, and me, plus Gayle and two British backpackers we'd met in Aswan — slept beneath the stars on the wooden deck and dined on boiled eggs and rice prepared on a smoky little Primus stove. In four days on the river we never bathed, and whenever we wanted to use the facilities we had to ask Ali to pull over to the bank...

Travel misers love company more than just travel misery, San Francisco Chronicle, California, December 11, 2005, via Nigel Hetherington at Archaeologist at Large.

The first ever virtual museum on Islamic art and architecture in the Mediterranean, launched last week, gives navigators an opportunity to explore the splendid Islamic monuments of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Nevine El-Aref navigates.

The second phase of Museum with no Frontiers project (MWNF) — aimed at developing cultural relations between countries north and south of the Mediterranean by enhancing the landmarks of a shared history — has been a year in the making. It finally saw the light last Friday.

"The Discover Islamic Art Virtual Museum" gives instant access to 850 artefacts and 385 monuments, linking every Islamic item exhibited to sites on the MWNF itineraries, which was created between 1999 and 2004.

The electronic display was achieved through the installation of a special network through 17 European and Mediterranean museums in 14 countries — Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom — as a gateway to a veritable museum-with-no-frontiers on Islamic art and architecture in the Mediterranean.

www.discoverislamicart.org, which is available in English, French and Arabic in addition to the local language of each participating country, creates an innovative exhibition style showing the Islamic heritage of the Mediterranean basin, alongside the collections of Islamic art held by the participating museums...

Surfing Islamic art, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 773, December 15 - 21, 2005.

Aten the Egyptian sun god had just painted the skyline gold when Jack and Beverly McDermott arrived at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. They were astounded to be first in line to see the new, highly hyped show "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs."

"I can't believe there aren't more people," said Jack McDermott, looking around as if to make sure he was in the right place. It was 7:30 a.m. and the McDermotts, who live in Hollywood, were entitled as museum members to enter the first day of the Tut show at 8 a.m.

Above them, not obelisks but a thicket of transmission towers on television trucks reached for the sun. Inside the trucks, cameramen dozed.

The Tutankhamun show, which will stay in Fort Lauderdale until April 16, will move on to Chicago, Philadelphia and London.

That the show began in January in Los Angeles, home of artful ballyhoo, is highly appropriate. Tut has been preceded by wave upon wave of pre-publicity, as skilfully choreographed as a Rolling Stones tour, if somewhat more dignified in style...

Crowd awed as King Tut show opens, Palm Beach Post, Florida, USA, December 15, 2005.

cf. Museum-goers flock to King Tut exhibit, Times Leader, Pennsylvania, USA, December 15, 2005.

cf. An audience with King Tut, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 15, 2005.

cf. King Tut exhibit opens to fanfare in Florida, The Mercury News, California, USA, December 15, 2005.

cf. Museum-goers flock to King Tut exhibit, Contra Costa Times, California, USA, December 15, 2005.

cf. King Tut reigns, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 16, 2005.

cf. Show resurrects Tut fans' passion, Palm Beach Post, Florida, USA, December 16, 2005.

cf. The return of King Tut, The Southwest Florida News-Press, Florida, USA, December 16, 2005.

cf. King Tut exhibition brings treasures of the pharaohs to the U.S., The Winston-Salem Journal, North Carolina, USA, December 16, 2005.

cf. Mummy Dearest, The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, December 16, 2005.

cf. Mummy Dearest, The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, December 16, 2005.

The hair is of biblical proportions, long and silvery, straight out of The Ten Commandments; the famous eyes scanning the script are Dr. Zhivago's. But the voice, softly evoking Egypt in a Beverly Hills hotel lobby, is unmistakably Omar Sharif's, and his new role is entirely off-screen.

Sharif lent his voice to a countryman, recording the English-language version of the exhibit audio guide for "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs."

But first: Does Mr. Sharif know that when Tut's treasures last came to the U.S., in the 1970s, the now-deceased Orson Welles recorded an audio guide for that show? ...

'Tut' is a feast for the ears as well, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 14, 2005.

When Howard Carter cracked open that "condo made of stone-a," Tutankhamun's tomb, in November 1922 and started bringing out the boy king's fabulous funerary relics, he launched a craze that has waxed and waned but lasted in some form to this day. Schooled on revivals of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, the West got its first long look at the real interior splendour of ancient Egypt with Carter's discovery, and the impression of all that royal afterlife expenditure would stick: Tut-mania has inspired novelty songs, horror movies, delusional architecture and a few blockbuster museum exhibitions. So thanks, Howard, for turning Tut loose. It's been pharaoh a go go ever since...

Tut unplugged, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 15, 2005.

We landed in Cairo, Egypt's capital, which has 17 million inhabitants. At once we were awed by the Giza pyramids of [Khufu], [Khafre] and [Menkaure]. For truly awesome scenes with pyramids and temples, this surely is the place. Get it on your to-do travel list.

The scale of pyramids is amazing — each block of stone is taller than a person, and the largest pyramid is more than 40 stories tall and occupies 13 acres.

To carry [Khufu's] body into the afterlife, a 142-foot wooden "solar boat" was buried beside his pyramid. This ornate boat has recently been reassembled in a nearby grand museum. Of the several sound-and-light shows presented at temples and monuments, none are better than the one at Giza, which has the giant sphinx glowing right in front of you...

Awed and inspired in Egypt, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, California, USA, December 15, 2005.

For all the hype about Tutankhamun, his tomb is quite a letdown. It's another hole in the scrabbly hill peppered with the burial places of ancient Egypt's pharaohs, the Valley of the Kings. Somehow I expected more.

If the exterior wasn't disappointing enough, the guide tells us it's really not worth the extra admission to go inside. There are better tombs, he says, with much more lavishly decorated wall frescoes, some still resplendent in their original blue and ochre pigments. The boy pharaoh's grave, it turns out, is one of the more ordinary.

What really caused the sensation back in 1922, when American archaeologist Howard Carter at last stumbled across Tutankhamun's final resting place, wasn't the tomb but the treasure trove inside it.

The elaborately worked artefacts still cause a stir today, whether among throngs who flock to view them at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, or the thousands who are seeing some of the priceless items on their second U.S. tour. South Floridians get their turn starting Thursday, when a portion of the treasure arrives at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art for a five-month exhibit...

World of the Pharaohs, The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, December 11, 2005.

A group of Egyptian and foreign archaeologists and university professors reviewed 30 archaeological researches on the history of Sinai and the Red Sea, at the 6th Egyptian-Italian conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh over the past three days.

The conference is part of a series of Egyptian-Italian conferences organized every three years by the Egyptian Society of Graeco-Roman Studies, in cooperation with the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo.

The conference was attended by Mostafa Afifi, Governor of South Sinai, Antonio Badini, Italian Ambassador in Cairo, and Marcia Kazini, Chief of Archaeology Department at the Italian Cultural Institute.

Dr. Ahmed Osman, Chief of the Egyptian Society of Graeco-Roman Studies said that the society has chosen the title "Culture of Sinai and the Red Sea from Old Times till Today" for the conference.

He added that Egypt will soon see the opening of important cultural projects including the opening of El-Arish Museum in April 2006, with a cost of LE100 million , and the Regional Sharm El-Sheikh Museum in 2007.

30 scientific researches on history of Sinai & Red Sea, State Information Service, Egypt, December 13, 2005.

Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass opens on Wednesday "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs Exhibition" in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Hawass will hold a press conference following the opening ceremony in which he will highlight the recent scientific findings by a team of Egyptian experts after inspecting the mummy of the young Pharaoh, using developed Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scanning.

He said that holding the Tutankhamen exhibition in a number of US cities had scored record revenues ($9 million so far).

Hawass opens Tutankhamen exhibition, State Information Service, Egypt, December 14, 2005.

Seeking to rediscover the "avenue of sphinxes", an Egyptian mission found the first Luxor . Secretary-General of the Higher Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass said that the carries several carvings together with a royal "Cartouche".

On his part, Samir Farag, Head of the City of Luxor, described the discovery as a turning point for Luxor.

First “sphinx” found, State Information Service, Egypt, December 13, 2005.

Watching a local television program recently, I heard Spike Lee express his belief that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was Black. The African American hostess of the TV show agreed with Mr. Lee saying “Cleopatra certainly looked nothing like Elizabeth Taylor”. But the historical facts contradict Spike Lee’s belief. Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt [for indeed that was who Spike Lee was referring to] was definitely not Black. And since I have dared to follow in the footsteps of that literary genius, Frank Yerby who was known as ‘debunker of historical myth’, I realized that I had to marshal the proofs of Queen Cleopatra’s ancestry that would satisfy any reasonable person that she was a white European.

Though not proof of her ancestry, Queen Cleopatra VII’s [questionable] conduct cannot be admired by anyone interested in heralding the achievements of Black culture. Cleopatra behaved shamefully in the furtherance of her ambitions. Her sole interest was to control the affairs of Rome from her bedchamber. She married both her younger and elder brothers and quickly arranged for their early deaths to consolidate her hold on the throne of Alexandria.

She became the mistress of Pompey, Julius Caesar as well as Mark Antony, giving birth to a number of illegitimate Roman [children]. But in the end, her faithlessness to her Roman lovers caused her own demise...

Why Queen Cleopatra was definitely not Black!, The Westside Gazette, ????, USA, December 14, 2005.

Sex, drugs and music, cosmetic surgery, gay hairdressers, desperate housewives and a mysterious sex manual ... is it a new TV offering aimed at overshadowing the BBC's sex and swords drama Rome?

No; welcome to the world of the ancient Egyptians – and their music, sex lives and cosmetic foibles are just some of the topics to be debated at Swansea University's Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt conference at the campus' Egypt Centre this month.

The conference, the third the centre has organised, will welcome leading Egyptologists and experts in gender from academic institutions across the world...

Sex experts head to Wales to talk Egyptian, icWales, UK, December 10, 2005.

The recent BBC series Egypt revealed some of the real life dramas that led to our modern understanding of this very ancient civilisation - and the discovery of some of the fabulous treasures.

It told the stories of three very different men, beginning with Howard Carter, who, in 1922, with Lord Carnarvon, made what is still considered archaeology's greatest ever find, the tomb of Tutankhamun.

It revealed not only the battles he faced with the French-influenced Egyptian authorities, but how his own abrasive character often led to conflict with others...

Rival collectors in ruins of an ancient civilisation, icWales, UK, December 10, 2005.

At a reception Wednesday night, archaeologist Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told a crowd of VIPs that “Egypt is the oldest civilization in the world and America is one of the youngest, so we hope this union of art will bring us closer.”

The reception was followed by fireworks that filled the sky over Fort Lauderdale -- a spectacle grand enough for royalty.

Tut, of course, is the young Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from 1333 B.C. to 1323 B.C., dying of mysterious circumstances at the age of 19.

Carter's discovery led to an exhibition that took the world by storm in the 1970s, spawning films, books and even songs...

King Tut exhibit opens to fanfare, The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, December 15, 2005.

cf. “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” Exhibition Debuts December 15 at Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale; Tickets Still Available for Visits Through April 23, Business Wire, USA, December 14, 2005.

Tutmania has officially begun in Chicago. Field Museum members snapped up 4,000 discount tickets to next year's "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" by 4 p.m. Tuesday, the opening day for individual sales, the museum said.

Including prior group sales, the museum has sold 33,000 tickets so far to the exhibition, which is to open a seven-month run May 26. The general public has to wait until Jan. 24 to buy tickets, at $25 each. Members pay $10.

The museum recently established two premium membership levels for this exhibition, the Royal Tut ($125) and the Tut at Twilight ($250), which add such kingly touches as a priority admission line and special "connoisseur" viewing nights...

Tutmania grips Chicago early, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 14, 2005.

If all goes as planned, anyone with tickets to Thursday's opening of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs will enter the exhibit through the dramatic new staircase at Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art.

A crew of construction workers was the only sore spot at an otherwise seamless preview held Wednesday to welcome King Tut, this winter's most important snowbird.

"Absolutely, it's going to be done," said Irvin Lippman, the museum's executive director, as a crew of welders laboured outside.

Overnight construction was scheduled for the third night in a row in all-out effort to complete the staircase...

Construction crews work overnight to prepare for King Tut exhibit's opening, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 14, 2005.

The highly anticipated King Tut exhibit at the Museum of Art [Fort Lauderdale] is scheduled to open Thursday, but there is a lot more work to be done.

The eyes of the museum world are on Fort Lauderdale while the eyes of everyone at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale are on the clock. The big King Tut exhibit will open to the public on Thursday, and the museum is still missing a key feature of that exhibit: the staircase to get into the museum...

There are several links to images in this article including one showing exhibits being brought in.

Museum Works To Finish Staircase Before King Tut Opening, NBC6.net, Florida, USA, December 13, 2005.

... The Museo Egizio [di Torino] claims the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside of Cairo, built upon treasures amassed by a Piedmont man who did well by doing good as a diplomat in Egypt during Napoleon's time. There are some first-rate mummies and objects from the tomb of Queen Nefertiti. The space could use a little sprucing up, though, and few of the descriptors are in English...

Turin, beyond bronze, Chicago Tribune, Illinois, December 11, 2005.

The Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale will light up Saturday for the annual Winterfest Boat Parade as the “Jewel of the Nile.”

The Broward tradition, in its 34th year, will celebrate the King Tut exhibit that opens Thursday at Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art.

“With the King Tut exhibit coming in, we are all ready for that king of bling, that excitement,” said Kathy Keleher, marketing and parade director for the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade...

Winterfest Boat Parade will tout Tut exhibit here, The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, December 13, 2005.

... Researchers hired by the National Geographic Society, one of the sponsors of the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit opening Thursday, used forensic data and CAT scans that made computer generated portraits of the boy king look more European, according to some black scholars.

The new images show him with a straighter nose and lighter skin than earlier renderings, some of which will also be on exhibit, the scholars say. He looks like a white Egyptian, not a black one, despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa.

As a consumer of history, I really don't care what the pictures of King Tut look like, so long as they tell the truth. But with all of this controversy I don't know what to believe. And I have reason to be suspicious...

Reasons to be suspicious about King Tut's image, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 13, 2005.

A rare limestone Egyptian antiquity sold for a record price of almost three million dollars at an auction held in New York on Friday at the venerable auction house Christie's. The limestone group statue of Ka-nefer and his family, dating back to the Old Kingdom, Dynasty V, 2465-2323 BC, sold on the auction bloc for $2.8 million , Christie's said, adding that the sale "set a new world auction record for an Egyptian antiquity."

The statue was purchased for the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, from a private U.S. collection. It easily exceeded its presale estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million.

The valuable antiquity represents Ka-nefer seated on a high bench with a hieroglyphic inscription by his feet reading "Overseer of the Craftsmen, Priest of Ptah, Ka-Nefer..."

Egyptian antiquities sell for record prices at New York auction, AFP via The Daily Star, Lebanon, December 12, 2005.

It's difficult to imagine Tutankhamun as the child he was during his short but heady reign. Born during the Golden Age of Egypt, crowned in the ancient city of Amarna, Tut commanded the army of a 200-year-old superpower and restored his realm to its traditional worship of many gods. But Tutankhamun ascended to the throne at 9 years old, with a boy's taste for board games and bows and arrows. He liked to hunt ducks. He preferred fruit juice to beer, and picnicked with his queen in papyrus marshes.

Some of this is couched in a modest-sized "perhaps" because Tut and his court lived more than 3,000 years ago. Yet since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, scholars have pieced together the details of the Egyptian king's nine-year reign, and on Thursday some of what they've literally unearthed arrives at Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs is the second stop on a four-city, 27-month U.S. tour that began at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in June. It tallied 900,000 visitors in its five months there, but the critical reaction was mixed. David Pagel, writing in the Los Angeles Times, compared it to "a high-end theme park..."

Tutankhamun show is fit for, well, a king, Orlando Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 11, 2005.

December 7th, 2005 was the official opening of the tomb of Petamenophis (Padiamenope, Xry.y-Hb Hrj-tp) (TT33) by Dr Sabry Abd El Aziz, the deputy of Dr Zahi Hawass. It is located next to the tomb of Harwa (TT39). The tomb is hugely significant, being, well huge. At this point, it is the largest tomb in Egypt and yet we really do not know why the owner of it was so blessed, but perhaps future work may reveal this secret.

Indeed, he was a high official, describing himself as "Sealbearer and Sole Beloved Friend, Lector and Scribe of the Records in the Sight of the King". In this inscription the king is not named, but there is an inscription in the northern part of the great outer courtyard, discovered by Lepsius, with a cartouche containing the name of a King Haremhab (Horemheb?), next to the name of Petamenophis. However, stylistically, many scholars believe that Pteamenophis' tomb could not be dated as early as the 18th or early 19th dynasty. In this regard, the tomb appears to date no earlier than the Ethiopian Period (when Nubians ruled Egypt)...

Opening the Tomb of Petamenophis in Luxor. A First Look, Jane Akshar, Tour Egypt, Texas, USA, December 07, 2005.

... King Tut has staying power. Nearly 85 years after the discovery of his tomb in Egypt, the story of the boy king continues to captivate the public. An exhibit of his treasures is currently touring our nation, with its next stop at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, [Florida]. (Thursday through April 23).

"" (National Geographic Books, $35) is a gorgeous companion book, looking back over millenniums to showcase the splendours of Egyptian civilization at its pinnacle.

Photos by Kenneth Garrett include life-size statues, golden jewellery inlaid with precious gems, furniture and funerary urns. The text by Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Council of Antiquities, chronicles daily life during Tut's time, gods and goddesses, royal death rituals, Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the tomb and King Tut's curse.

A riveting section on Tut's mummy shows how contemporary archaeologists use modern technology to advance our understanding of ancient life.

"" ($17.95) is a smaller book, geared to young readers...

Twain, Tut and singles: books to go, Asbury Park Press, New Jersey, USA, December 11, 2005.

Amazon UK are selling the new Joyce Tyldesley book “Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered” for £8.98 — a massive 50% reduction. The book was written to accompany the recent BBC TV series. In fact it was contracted to be written and actually completed before the TV series started filming, so the book contains chapters on Petrie that were eventually dropped as episode ideas for the TV dramatisation.

It is available from Amazon Canada under a different title “Egypt Discovering Secrets of a Lost Past” for CDN$28.93 which isn't discounted currently. The book does not appear to be available from Amazon US at the moment.

Book review linked below.

Egyptologist brings lost civilisation to life for television series, 50 Connect, UK, December 04, 2005.

Also please check out my eBay auctions for some more Joyce Tyldesley books.

Three years ago, the directors of some of the world's top museums, meeting in Munich, commiserated over a major annoyance: the growing demands from countries such as Greece and Italy that they return ancient artefacts.

What emerged was a defiant statement defending their collecting practices. Signed by the directors of 18 museums — from the Louvre in Paris to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles — the document argued that encyclopaedic museums have a special mission as treasure houses of world culture, and that today's ethical standards cannot be applied to yesterday's acquisitions.

That philosophy is under siege as never before. The long-time director of the Metropolitan Museum, Philippe de Montebello, recently met in Rome a lawyer for the Italian Culture Ministry to discuss works in the museum's collection that the Italians say were looted. Also in Rome, the former Getty curator Marion True has gone on trial for conspiring to import illegally excavated antiquities for the museum...

Winds change in the battle over ancient artefacts, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, December 06, 2005.

Egyptian Nobel laureate is best known for "The Cairo Trilogy," his saga about a modern Egyptian family living under British colonial rule between the two world wars. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that his first three novels — published in Arabic in 1939, 1943 and 1944 — were set in Ancient Egypt.

In their pages, Mahfouz moves deftly between grand spectacle and behind-the-scenes intrigue, between lofty rhetoric and deflating remark, as he immerses you in a world where Egypt was the only reality and everything else was mere rumour. All three books are now available in a uniform Anchor edition. Yet each is quite different in character.

"Khufu's Wisdom" portrays the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, but it focuses only partly on the building of that landmark. Instead, the book is about a king trying to outwit fate — and, in doing so, making exactly the moves that play into fate's hands...

Ancient Egypt shrouded in intrigue, passion, Seattle Times, Washington, USA, December 09, 2005.

By Zahi Hawass

I have met Queen Sofia of Spain four times, three times in Giza and once in Spain. I first met her majesty when she was accompanying an important group from Spain to the Pyramids.

At that time I was a young archaeologist and had just started excavating at Giza. No one told me that the queen was joining this group. I was very surprised when I met her because she had heard of me and called me by name. I took the group to visit the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx and the Solar Boat Museum.

On our second meeting, she came with the king. This visit was incredible. I found out that she was knowledgeable about the site and very interested in ancient Egyptian history. When we went down to the Sphinx, I took the king and queen to the secret tunnel we had found in the back of the Sphinx. I explained the mystery that surrounds the Sphinx and how some people believe that a record of a lost civilisation is hidden under the right paw of the Sphinx...

Dig days: Queen Sofia of Spain, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 772, December 8 - 14, 2005.

As Egypt celebrates the 83rd anniversary of the discovery of the boy king's tomb, the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition has arrived to Florida on the second leg of its American tour. Nevine El-Aref looks at how the young king is acclaimed at home and abroad.

As 2005 drew towards a close, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square celebrated the 83rd anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb with a gala party. This featured the opening of a landmark exhibition of 50 black and white photographs portraying the legendary discovery in 1922. The photographs, which are courtesy of the [Griffiths] Institute, Oxford, show British explorer Howard Carter at various stages of the discovery; entering the intact tomb, brushing the sand of Tut's golden sarcophagus, examining the golden mask and precious amulets decorating the mummy while a young Nubian child listens to his explanations, and walking through the Valley of the Kings with Lord Carnarvon, who funded Carter's excavations in Egypt. Portraits of Carnarvon and Carter are also on show in the exhibition, along with copies of Carter's birth and death certificates. Photographs of Tutankhamun's collection of treasures, seen piled on one side of the tomb on the day of the discovery, were also on show...

Celebrating Tut's birthday, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 772, December 8 - 14, 2005.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass is to open the Sixth International Conference entitled “The Sinai and the Red Sea from Ancient Times until the Present”, which will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh from 9th to 12th December [2005]. The opening ceremony will be attended by Italian Ambassador Antonio Badini and South Sinai Governor Mustafa Afifi, as well as a number of Egyptian archaeologists. The conference will witness a number of lectures to be delivered by archaeologists from the SCA, as well as from Egyptian, Italian and British universities.

Sinai and Red Sea conf., The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, December 08, 2005.

Debates over King Tut’s image and identity are not new. In 1922, Howard Carter, an English archaeologist, “discovered” the tomb of this young king who had ruled Egypt about 3300 years ago, from 1336 to 1327 B.C. As soon as his reconstructed images began to appear, they sparked decades of debate over his identity. Most European and Euro-American scholars and others persuaded by their point of view claimed that King Tut was essentially a “caucasoid” ancestor of present day Europeans (referring to “whites” generally).

Scholars of African origin and descent, along with those of their European colleagues and other scholars who disavow the Eurocentric worldview, argue that King Tut was an African, physically and culturally akin to the other dark-skinned people who populated the African continent at the time he lived.

The current controversy surrounding the exhibition coming soon to the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art is a continuation of earlier debates over King Tut’s identity. The mummy has been given a new face, created by “forensic reconstruction” that makes him look as European as possible, so that the average person could not possibly consider him to be an African...

King Tut: African or European?, Pacific News Service, USA, December 07, 2005.

Normally, the skin colour of a young man who died nearly 3,330 years ago wouldn't be a hot political topic, but we live in strange, quarrelsome times.

The boy-king of Egypt, Tutankhamun, is back in the United States after nearly three decades. It took an act of parliament in Egypt to authorize his trip.

But this time, the upcoming King Tut exhibit, which is scheduled to open at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art on Dec. 15 and run through April 23, has travelled around the U.S. trailed by a cloud of controversy over whether the young pharaoh was white or black.

There were street protests on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles over this issue when the show, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," opened there June 16 [2005].

"King Tut's back, and he's still black!" the protesters chanted...

Pharaoh furore, Palm Beach Post, Florida, USA, December 04, 2005.

Archaeological and geological specialists from Algeria, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia presented the results of their work during the first year of the project, and their plans for the future.

The Euro-Mediterranean programme “Desert Patina” was initiated by the European Commission. Conscious of the gravity of the climate change in process, leading to increased drought and distress in many parts of the world, the Commission, through its various international research networks, decided it was urgent to do something concrete. Meetings were held in Kyoto, The Hague, Marrakech, Johannesburg and elsewhere. Climate and agricultural experts, astronomers, physicians, geologists, economists and ecologists all agreed that global solutions had to be proposed...

Might be interesting to some I hope? Remember that climate / drought has been implicated in the downfall of the Old Kingdom.

Scientists study Saharan rocks to determine reactions to past climate change, Morocco Times, Morocco, December 06, 2005.

It's hardly surprising that the Sphinx's huge shattered face seems to smile enigmatically. The gateway to one of the world's most famous monuments is marked by a hand printed cardboard sign proclaiming: Entrance.

The millions of tourists who make the pilgrimage here every year must pass under that sign, and through a gap in the rickety metal and wire fence, to come face to face with the giant figure of a lion with a man's face. Inside the fence, souvenir sellers fight over positions, tourist police drag children off by the ears for trying to sell carved camels to tourists, and rubbish lies in the corners.

It's hard to think of a less appropriate setting for the figure the Arabs call the Father of Terror. No wonder he is amused.

But it doesn't seem to matter...

Enigma of the smile on the Nile, The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand, December 06, 2005.

Nothing can dispel the wonder of the majestic pyramids at Giza, outside of Cairo — but the KFC and Pizza Hut across the street come pretty close. Then there are the hawkers trying to sell head scarves and rides on camels named Michael Jackson. Inside the Great Pyramid, what should be an impressive view of the pharaoh's final resting place is usually obstructed by hordes of sweaty, noisy tourists.

Fifteen miles south, however, at the other end of the Egyptian pyramid field, is Dahshur. It's where the ancient king Sneferu built two pyramids, both of which are as intact as those raised at Giza by Sneferu's son Cheops, the famous second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. One, the Red Pyramid, is the second largest in Egypt — just 120 feet shorter than Cheops's Great Pyramid. It's the only Dahshur pyramid open to visitors. Inside, there's not much to it: A ramp leads down to an antechamber, from which a modern staircase ascends to an empty burial chamber. As with many other pyramids, its contents were looted by grave robbers, and anything that remained was removed by archaeologists for studying...

Why Haven't You Heard of ... Dahshur?, Budget Travel Online, New York, USA, December 2005 / January 2006.

Cheapest Places on Earth: Cairo, Budget Travel Online, New York, USA, November / December 2000.

Last week, I wrote about my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, where I enjoyed examining the Edwin Smith Papyrus. This papyrus, as you may recall, is one of the earliest surviving medical texts, and what is remarkable about it is that the knowledge is presented as a series of case reports not all that much unlike the way we sometimes present cases today. What I discussed last time was mostly the management of head wounds, and I picked a couple of cases from the papyrus to illustrate that the practical management of these head wounds is not all that different today in some ways. I also rather like the way that the Egyptian physicians divided diseases and wounds into "an ailment I will handle" (a problem for which there was a treatment), "an ailment I will fight with" (a problem for which the treatment was less certain), or "an ailment for which nothing is done."

I had been planning on moving on to a different type of injury for the second part of my series, but then I looked at the very first case again and noticed something that perhaps I should have talked about last week...

The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, Part 2, Respectful Insolence (a.k.a. "Orac Knows"), USA, November 16, 2005.

by Zahi Hawass
The ancient Egyptians developed remarkably sophisticated medical treatments for disease using both surgery and natural remedies. They understood chemistry and the effects of mixing several substances together. Some of these formulas have been passed down to us through surviving papyri. The Egyptians also devised a highly effective method to preserve their dead. Mummification is a combination between magic and medicine and we know only a small portion of the vast information available about its methods, tools and materials. As for the ancient rituals and spells, we have much to learn.

The mummies that were produced in the Graeco-Roman Period do not reflect the same meticulous care taken by the ancient Egyptians. Specialists working in groups took charge of the operations; priests no longer conducted the entire operation.

Preservation techniques were greatly simplified during this period, outer casing became extremely ornate and the linen wrappings became more sophisticated. Wrappings were crisscrossed in intricate patterns and sometime decorated with gold. Cartonnage cases and masks were moulded over the body and lavishly painted. Facial features were represented realistically; the ears and head were covered wigs that reached to the shoulders and chest. For the first time in Egypt, we see women's breasts painted on the outside of the mummies or articulated in breast plates.

Featured on the masks were religious scenes, patterned lines, and gods such as Anubis, Horus, Isis, Osiris, Nepthys, Maat, Thoth and the four sons of Horus. A fascinating mix of Egyptian mythological beings painted in Hellenistic style.

Graeco-Roman mummies saw resurgence in the use of much gold and gilding. I estimate that during the Graeco-Roman Period, one mummy would have cost the equivalent to a family's income for one year.

Mummies and mummification of Bahariya, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, December 05, 2005.

There are over 5,000 institutions of higher education in the United States. But just one — Brown — boasts a free-standing Egyptology department. Almost 60 years after its founding, Brown's Department of Egyptology remains the only one of its kind in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Like the invention of the microwave and artificial sweetener, the creation of the department was somewhat serendipitous.

When Theodora Wilbour died in 1947, she left the University $750,000 to establish the department and endow a chair in Egyptology in memory of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, who entered Brown with the Class of 1854 but left without graduating and did not maintain any connection with the University, according to the Encyclopedia Brunoniana.

Wilbour made his fortune as a journalist in New York and had connections to William Macy Tweed, the boss of the Tammany Hall political machine. When the Tweed ring was smashed in 1871 Wilbour and his family sailed for France, where he began studying Egyptology. Wilbour went on to become the first trained American Egyptologist...

Nation's only Egyptology dept. set to expand, but details not set in stone, The Brown Daily Herald, Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, November 09, 2005.

On a cloudless morning in northern Sudan, the first rays of the sun cast a glow on Jebel Barkal, a small tabletop mountain perched near the Nile River. Jebel Barkal rises barely 320 feet above the surrounding desert but is distinguished by one prominent feature: a pinnacle jutting out from its southwestern cliff face. If your imagination is keen enough, the isolated butte might resemble a crown or an altar, and the pinnacle an unfinished colossal statue-perhaps a rearing serpent, its body poised to strike.

Striding toward an excavation near the base of the pinnacle, archaeologist Tim Kendall pauses momentarily to admire what he calls the "little mountain with big secrets." Thousands of years ago, Jebel Barkal and Napata, the town that grew up around it, served as the spiritual centre of ancient Nubia, one of Africa's earliest civilizations. The mountain was also considered a holy site by neighbouring Egypt, whose pharaohs plundered and tyrannized Nubia for 400 years.

But in the eighth century B.C., Nubia turned the tables on its former colonizers. Its armies marched 700 miles north from Jebel Barkal to Thebes, the spiritual capital of Egypt. There the Nubian king Piye became the first of a succession of five "black pharaohs" who ruled Egypt for six decades with the blessing of the Egyptian priesthood. What happened? asks Kendall. How did the Nubians, overrun by Egypt for centuries, crush their colonizers? And why did the priests of Thebes decide the black pharaohs had a mandate from heaven? Kendall has been searching for those answers for 20 years. They can be revealed, he believes, by cracking a code of geomorphological symbols at Jebel Barkal and by parsing hieroglyphic texts that refer to the mountain as Dju-wa'ab, or "Pure Mountain." "I feel as if I'm deciphering a mythological puzzle," Kendall says. "It's a real mystery story..."

Nubia's Black Pharaohs, Discover Magazine, USA, Vol. 26, No. 12, December 2005. Requires subscription.

The largest exhibit in the Museum of Arts and Sciences' 50-year history, a collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts that includes three mummies and spans 4,200 years, opens today.

Museum officials said they have waited two years to play host to "Glories of Ancient Egypt" because the exhibit is in such demand. Brown & Brown Inc., a national insurance company with headquarters in Daytona Beach, has sponsored the entire $250,000 exhibit.

The artefacts, many taken from the excavated burial sites of pharaohs, minor officials and ordinary citizens, are on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Its ancient Egypt collection is the oldest in the United States and considered one of the best in the world.

This is the first time most, if not all, of the artefacts have been seen in Florida, museum officials said...

Egypt reveals its secrets, Orlando Sentinel, Florida, USA, November 18, 2005.

The story of Hatshepsut is a remarkable one. She led armies and trade expeditions, built one of the greatest monuments in Egypt, and switched her appearance from female to male in order to rule as pharaoh. In a fundamentally patriarchal society, she ruled for nearly twenty years.

After her death, someone tried to erase the memory of Hatshepsut as king. She was left off lists of rulers; her statuary was demolished; her image was systematically erased; and her name on monuments and reliefs was covered over by the names of other kings. For nearly two thousand years, she was forgotten, and she may have remained that way except for the discovery of her mortuary temple.

In 1828, Jean Francois Champollion, famous for deciphering the Rosetta Stone, made his one and only trip to Egypt. Among the places he visited was Deir al-Bahri, where a nearby temple had been buried under centuries of desert sand and piles of rocks fallen from the cliffs above. There he noticed a curious inconsistency. He discovered the partially erased name of a king, Amenenthe, accompanied by feminine titles and forms. Pictorially, the king was shown as male, bearded and dressed as a pharaoh, but hieroglyphically, he seemed to be a she...

The Woman Who Would Be King, Caroline Kim-Brown, Humanities Magazine, National Endowment for the Humanities, USA, Volume 26, Number 6, November / December, 2005.

Egyptologists are again looking to converge on Egypt in order to continue excavating one of the most important archaeological sites in recent, years. The Helwan necropolis, 15 miles south of Cairo, is home to over 10,000 tombs that date from pre-dynasty Egypt to the third dynasty (5,000 years ago).

According to Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist and professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, Helwan is the flagship site in Lower Egypt.

"It is one of the most important sites in the north due to the necropolis' sheer size," said Ikram.

Under the direction of the Australian Centre for Egyptology at Sydney's Macquarie University, teams of archaeologists have unearthed thousands of tombs over the years at Helwan – this year is sure to bring more of the same...

Helwan necropolis attracts Egyptologists, The Daily Star, Lebanon, December 05, 2005.

Ancient Thebes, a ghost of the centuries, lives on in colourfully painted tombs deep beneath the dry desert and towering columns of ruined temples.

This city, built on and around Thebes' treasures along Upper Egypt's life-giving Nile, holds the grandeur of the finest Egyptian monuments dating to 2000 B.C.

The vast site has lured travellers for centuries.

Greek historian Herodotus described the "hundred gates of Thebes" after his visit around 450-440 B.C. During Thebes' twilight in 19 B.C., Roman emperor Germanicus found one of the last Theban priests to explain the mysteries of hieroglyphics gracing temple columns, obelisks and walls.

More recently, French writer Gustave Flaubert, sailing down the Nile in 1850, described the sensations of a visit in a letter to his mother...

Tombs, temples and a bustling market draw travellers to the ancient city along the Nile, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Kansas, USA, December 04, 2005.

Nine-year-old Stacy Wolfe once waited five hours to see King Tutankhamun. After flying from Ohio to Washington, D.C., in a small plane piloted by her father, the two took their place in a winding line at the Smithsonian. To pass the time, the girl wandered about the Museum of Natural History, marvelling at the jigsaw puzzle of dinosaur fossils and how her father could calmly read the paper when the "Boy Pharaoh's" jewelled and gold riches lay only steps away.

The year was 1976, and Tut had begun his seven-city tour in the United States, one that would run three years and draw about 8 million viewers. Today Wolfe, 38, is a biology teacher at the Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale, but she still recalls what most dazzled her young eyes: an ornate gold throne and the alabaster jars that house the internal organs of ancient Egyptian royalty.

"The way these artefacts have been preserved, and the technology of the time — it's amazing," Wolfe says, her interest in Egyptology still keen...

King Tut show excites South Florida business owners and fans, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 05, 2005.

The latest issue of KMT magazine is out now. (Actually it arrived on my doormat last Thursday and it's taken me until now to blog it!)

A summary of its contents is detailed blow.

• Thutmose III: Warrior-Pharaoh & Master Builder by Dennis Forbes
  A Review of His Monuments at Waset
• An Eternal Harem: Tombs of the Royal Families of Ancient Egypt by Aidan Dodson
  Part III: The New Kingdom
• Pyramids from on High by Miroslav Bárta & Vladimír Brůna
  Satellite Photography, Remote Sensing & Egyptology
• Egypt on the Adriatic by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli
  The Egyptian Collection in Trieste, Italy
• Karnak Before the French Arrived by Claire Russell Osian
  A Photographic Record
• Re Shining by Dennis Forbes
  Egypt's Sun God, No. 8 in the Egyptian Pantheon Series
• The Pharao & the Poet by Donald P. Ryan
  Seeking the Source of Shelley's Poem "Ozymandias"

The link below doesn't appear to be working as yet.

KMT Magazine, KMT, A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 16, Number 4, Winter 2005-06.

Warwick University, UK, are running an Ancient Egyptian Day School with Joyce Tyldesley as the guest speaker. This is to be held on Saturday 10th December 2005.

The lectures are chaired by Angela Torpey and the itinerary is as follows.

• 10:15 - 10:30 Registration
• 10:30 - 11:30 General introduction to Egyptian queenship including the Old Kingdom queens
• 11:30 - 11:45 Tea & Coffee
• 11:45 - 12:45 Hatshepsut
• 12:45 - 13:30 Lunch (not provided)
• 13:30 - 14:30 Nefertiti
• 14:30 - 14:45 Tea & Coffee
• 14:45 - 15:45 Ramesside Queens and harem plots

The Location is Room WCE10, Institute of Lifelong Learning, Westwood Campus, Warwick University, Coventry, UK.

Price is £21.00

Course reference 5081/AU05

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The Berlin state prosecutor has opened an inquiry into the origin of an Egyptian sarcophagus from the Pharaonic period, recently seized in Germany and which Cairo wants returned, his spokesman said on Thursday.

"We will check whether these items were brought into Germany illegally," said spokesman Michael Grunwald.

The 2.2-meter (7-foot) sarcophagus, dating from the fourth century BC, as well as various funereal objects and jewels, were picked up in late October by German police.

The antiquities were due to be delivered from Switzerland to the United States, where they were to be sold for $2 million (EUR1.9 million)...

Germany launches probe into sarcophagus claimed by Egypt, Middle East Times, Cyprus, December 02, 2005.

Cambridge academics have scored a £1m grant to find out how much the Victorians reinvented history.

[There] were two principal discoveries of ancient Egyptian remains, in 1880 and then 1920. Each led to completely different interpretations about what life in ancient Egypt was like.

In 1880 when the Victorians discovered Tutankhamun's predecessor Akhenaten, they interpreted their findings to show that the Egyptians were conservative — they emphasised how they rejected the old gods and discovered one god, as well as values of truth and beauty, respectability and honour. It was some contrast to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the 1920s which led to a glamorous reinvention of Egypt as glittery and exotic and brutal, like something out of a Hollywood film...

Researchers to look into Victorian historical 'truths', The Guardian, UK, November 25, 2005.

St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai is famed for its unique collection of manuscripts. Jill Kamil looks into the wealth of the scriptorium and the plan to update its literary wealth.

Deep in South Sinai, snuggled amidst dry gorges and naked valleys, 17 centuries of uninterrupted asceticism in an orthodox monastic centre trace back to the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. Never in its long history has St Catherine's Monastery been conquered, damaged, or destroyed. It is famous for its icons and manuscripts, and it is the latter that is about to receive attention.

The Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the custodians of the monastery, have announced a three-phase project, the first of which includes comprehensive documentation of all the manuscripts — one of the richest monastic collections in the world and second in importance only to the Vatican.

The holy fathers of St Catherine's exercise much secrecy and reserve regarding their heritage, especially their sacred manuscripts. This is largely owing to their unfortunate experience with Konstantin von Tischendorf, a German scholar from the vicinity of Leipzig. He took a precious codex, the oldest translation of the Bible into any language, to old St Petersburg and gave the monks a handwritten note saying that he was taking the work on loan in order to copy it and promising to return it undamaged. The monks counted on the return of the precious codex, but they never saw it again...

The importance of the written word, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 771, December 01 - 07, 2005.

A spirit of religious tolerance, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 771, December 01 - 07, 2005.

The Citadel, or Fortress of Qusseir, was built by order of the Ottoman sovereign, Sultan Selim at the end of the 16th century. Qusseir at the time was a vital trading port, in addition to being one of the main Red Sea ports that served Muslim pilgrims bound for Mecca. Hence, a fortress to protect Qusseir was very much needed.

The strategic location of Qusseir on the Red Sea and its proximity to the Nile heightened the curiosity of many invaders. During the French invasion of Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte managed to occupy the city in May 1799. In August of the same year, British warships pounded the fortress, causing considerable damage to its structure. Mohamed Ali Pasha restored much of the fortress while using it as a base for operation against the Wahabis in Hegaz...

Snap Shots: The Citadel of Qusseir, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 771, December 01 - 07, 2005.

Using forensics to make King Tutankhamun appear to be white is a move to remake him, like all things Egyptian, to fit a non-African image, according to Maulana Karenga, a popular Afrocentric scholar.

"This new initiative can easily be called a forensic fantasy born of the continuing need to de-Africanize ancient Egypt," Karenga said in a telephone interview Thursday from Terre Haute, Ind., where he is travelling.

Karenga, the creator of Kwanzaa, is coming to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday to deliver a lecture on King Tut and the character of ancient Egypt.

It will be at 7 p.m. at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale...

Facing up to the real King Tut, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 02, 2005.

Lying down in the stone sarcophagus in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid is like trying eternity on for size. It turns out the granite is neither too warm nor too cold, there's plenty of foot room and an unexpected feeling of peace as I stare up at the flat granite monoliths holding millions of tons of stone overhead.

Our small tour group has been granted a rare two hours alone in this last of the ancient world's seven wonders, time enough to repose like a pharaoh — except that no mummy was ever found here.

The missing mummy is just one of countless mysteries surrounding this ancient structure, built across the Nile from Cairo. Why are its dimensions so precise? Why does its shape seem so perfect? Why the odd slopes of its passageways? And why does one feel benign focus, instead of terror, in its dark chambers? ...

Egypt : 5,000 years of mystery, The Seattle Times, Washington, USA, December 02, 2005.

Berlin Police have seized dozens of artefacts from ancient Egypt at a freight depot here after a tip off from Egyptian diplomats.

The treasures were being consigned from Switzerland to the US after being sold for two million dollars. They were seized at the end of October but this was not made public at the time.

Prosecutors have since established that the artefacts left Egypt in the 1970s.

Egyptology treasures seized at freight depot, newKerala.com, India, December 01, 2005.