The North Texas chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt will present a free lecture, "The Tomb of Senwosret III at Abydos: New Discoveries," led by Egyptologist Dr. Josef Wegner at 7 p.m. Feb. 18 [2006] on the SMU campus, Fondren Science Building, Room 119, 3215 Daniel Ave, [Dallas, Texas]. In the evening, call 972-416-9482 or visit www.arce-ntexas.org.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR: EGYPTIAN LECTURE, The Dallas Morning News, Texas, USA, January 19, 2006.

Tutankhamun's curse is alive and well. As our party visited the boy king's tomb, a tourist posed by the entrance for a picture, but his new digital camera failed.

A thorough check found everything in order, even down to the batteries, but again nothing happened.

Yet an hour later in the nearby Valley of the Queens the camera worked perfectly - strange, but true.

Of course, common sense suggests that it being 40 degrees could have caused a temporary malfunction.

But such is the power of this place that everyone's thoughts turned to Egypt's most enduring mystery...

Nile be Back, Mark Ellis, The Daily Mirror, UK, January 07, 2006.

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, set a world record when it bought this ancient Egyptian limestone sculpture at auction Dec. 9 [2005]. Extraordinarily, earlier in the same sale, another statue, a granite figure, also set a record for an Egyptian antiquity, when it sold for $2,256,000 .

But the granite figure didn't hold that record for long. It was spectacularly overtaken by this "Group Statue of Ka-nefer and His Family," which sold for $2,816,000 . According to inscriptions, this tomb sculpture represents the "Overseer of Craftsmen, Priest of Ptah," "His wife, the Royal Confidant, Tjen-tety," and "His son, the Overseer of Craftsmen, Khuwy-ptah." Characteristically, the wife and son are shown smaller. Relative size indicates importance. These two smaller figures affectionately embrace the larger one's legs.

Timothy Potts, the director of the museum, explains the sculpture's remarkable quality by pointing "first and foremost" to "the extraordinary fineness of the carving. Then also the delicacy of the gestures of the son and wife, and the exceptional state of preservation." Some of the original pigment even remains...

Old Kingdom art: Rare Egyptian sculpture puts a human face on a remote civilization, The Christian Science Monitor, Massachusetts, USA, January 18, 2006.

... [Very Celebrated Man number] one is Jean-François Champollion who, with the help of the Rosetta stone, cracked Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822. Thus, as pop biographies say, he founded Egyptology.

Old Jean-François is a national hero, as a similar figure perhaps wouldn't be in Britain, and Figeac treats him with reverence. He has his bar and square, of course, but also, just off the square, a vast, black granite reproduction of the Rosetta stone forming the floor of a courtyard.

It's one of the more sober and fitting monuments in southern France — or it is until town youth gathers there of an evening. ("Going down the Rosetta" is the local phrase.) Then it's as lively and furtive as you like...

A perfect base, The Daily Telegraph, UK, January 14, 2006.