by Zahi Hawass

As we continued to excavate Tomb 26, we found the most beautiful female mummy. She wore a gilded gypsum mask, and a band of yellow and red flowers crowned by the uraeus (protective cobra) was upon her head. Her eyes were framed in black, and on her chest was a cartonnage mask covered with painted funerary scenes. Resting on her chest was her child, buried with the mother for eternity.

In another niche we found three mummies. The first was in a wooden coffin, wrapped in linen and with a cartonnage chest shield with scenes of the Book of the Dead. The second was also in a wooden box. It seemed that the gods wanted to make up for the day before when we lost the beautiful wooden panel, because here we discovered a second panel.

I though that if I did not ask Salah to do the conservation, it would end his career. So I said to him, "Come Salah. You have to know that everyone makes mistakes. Do this work again and do it well." The mummy was that of a woman who had originally been buried in a coffin, but only the foot panel remained. This panel was more beautiful, exciting than the golden mummies. It depicted the gate of the afterlife, guarded by a cobra. The deceased, shown as a gypsum statue, is dressed in a green Roman Garment with short sleeves, long skirt, with back bands. Over this she wears a red cloak. The right leg is in stride as if she is leaving the coffin and walking through the gate into eternal life. I thanked god for letting us find a second panel and giving courage back to Salah.

But, I could not think of the golden lady, and I was upset that we had taken from her the special panel that was meant to insure her resurrection and I feel strongly that these ancient people have the right to be left in peace. However, as archaeologists, it is our job to preserve these artefacts and learn from them, and protect our heritage.

The second wooden panel, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, January 30, 2006.

Egyptologists have discovered two 3,400-year-old statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet and a rare statue depicting a king with Nubian features, an archaeological conservation director said on Monday.

War goddess Sekhmet embodied the cruel powers of the sun, and was also responsible for both curing and causing illness. The excavation team believe the statues were excavated from elsewhere, then hidden at a temple in Luxor either for later sale or to protect them from robbers.

One of the Sekhmet statues, made of granite and about 150 cm (five-feet) high, was holding a symbol representing life and a scroll of papyrus.

"It's extremely beautiful. Only the feet are missing and the base," said Hourig Sourouzian, the German-Armenian director of the international conservation team which found the statues.

The team, working under the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, found the statues at the temple of 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III in Luxor while working on a project to protect the temple from Nile water...

Egyptologists find war goddess and Nubian king, Reuters, UK, January 30, 2006.

cf. Archaeologists puzzle over statue find in Egypt, DPA via Monsters & Critics, UK, January 30, 2006. Includes a couple of pictures.

cf. Egyptologists find war goddess, AAP via Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, January 31, 2006.

cf. Icons of Egyptian goddess found in temple dig, The Scotsman, UK, January 31, 2006.

cf. Ancient Egyptian royal head puzzles archaeologists, SAPA-DPA via Mail & Guardian, South Africa, January 30, 2006.

It served first as a notebook for ancient painters and then as part of a mummy's wrapping. Now, a first century B.C. parchment believed to contain the earliest cartography of the Greek-Roman era will be on display next month in the northern city of Turin.

The Papyrus of Artemidorus tells a tale of more than 2,000 years of art and culture.

Egyptologist Alessandro Roccati, of the University of Turin, said the parchment was "extraordinary" in that it "conserves direct and ancient testimony that helps reconstruct history." Roccati was not involved in the project.

The parchment's story begins around the mid-first century B.C., when a copyist in Alexandria, Egypt, began working on a blank parchment to copy the second of 11 books by Greek geographer Artemidorus of Ephesus...

Ancient Papyrus Goes on Display in Turin, AP via WTOP, District of Columbia, USA, January 27, 2006.

cf. Palazzo Bricherasio di Torino.

cf. Museo Egizio di Torino.

... The statue, which dates to between 1391 and 1352 B.C., was found under the platform of a temple of the goddess Mut, which dates to about 700 B.C. It appears to have been tossed in with rubble used to fill in the floor during that temple's later expansion, said Betsy Bryan, a professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

"The reason for using the statue as construction material, however, remains unknown," Bryan said in an e-mail from Egypt...

Egyptian queen's statue discarded to fill under floor, AP via The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, USA, January 29, 2006.

cf. Egyptian Statue Met Undignified End, AP via PhillyBurbs, Pennsylvania, USA, January 28, 2006.

cf. Statue of King Tut's Grandmother Found, Discovery Channel News, USA, January 26, 2006.

Inspired by the legend of a Persian king and his lost army, Stefano Miglietti, an Italian adventurer, completed a 340-mile hike through the most isolated and arid part of the western Sahara yesterday.

The route that Signor Miglietti followed through the so-called Great Sand Sea — from the Farafra oasis in southern Egypt to the Siwa oasis in the north — has always been considered impossible for a man carrying his own food and water.

According to legend, Cambyses II, the Persian king, foolishly tried to take the same route in 523 BC, setting off with a 50,000-strong army.

Herodotus, the Greek author, writes that Cambyses and his men were swallowed up in sandstorms and never seen again...

Adventurer crosses sands that conquered a king, The Times, UK, January 28, 2006.

The Gifts of the Gods: Adornment in Antiquity is one of the [University of Saskatchewan’s] annual shifting exhibitions. These transitory exhibits are meant to highlight a certain aspect of the Museum’s collection and a certain theme drawn from the artworks and artefacts of history...

... Adornment is the Museum's specifically created collection of replicas and original pieces from the Near East, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Medieval and Renaissance Europe...

... Some replicas are drawn from the Museum’s already existing collection to suit the Adornment theme. For one, there’s a replica example of a gloriously decorated sword of the Knights Templar, but other pieces are of the “golly, it’s real!” variety. These include a selection of authentic Egyptian amulets, used in antiquity not only for personal adornment but for warding off evil...

All that glitters is not gold, The Sheaf, Saskatchewan, Canada, January 26, 2006.

Egypt has always been a place of wonder, mystery and exciting discoveries. Pyramids, mummies, and Pharaohs: all invoking passion and beauty.

Now, after 27 years, people are being given the chance to stand face-to-face with artefacts which lied in the hands of one of histories most infamous kings, King Tutankhamun.

The artefacts were brought to the United States previously in 1979 and now, for the first time, they have been brought to Florida.

Held at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, the exhibit traces the life of a nine-year-old boy who ruled Egypt between 1333-1323 B.C. and mysteriously died around the age of 19...

King Tutankhamun Exhibit displays Egyptian artefacts, The Beacon Newspaper, Florida International University, Florida, USA, January 26, 2006.

The remains of a ship used by ancient Egyptians for commercial trips to the fabled land of Punt have been discovered in five caves engraved in a port on the Red Sea.

The find, in the Marsa Gawasees area near the Red Sea resort of Safaga, dates back to the Middle Kingdom and was excavated by a joint American and Italian team from Boston University and East Naples working in the area for five years, it was reported Thursday.

Higher Antiquities Council Secretary-general Zahi Hawass called the find one of the most important marine excavations that confirms that Punt lay to the south of Egypt and not in Sinai as previously believed...

Ancient ship remains are unearthed at Egyptian Red Sea port, DPA via Monsters & Critics, UK, January 26, 2006.

A review of Christianity and Monasticism in the Fayoum Oasis, Gawdat Gabra, ed., Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005. pp322

This publication includes most, but not all, of the papers presented at the second International Seminar on Coptic Studies in the Fayoum in February 2004, and it provides the first comprehensive and up-to-date studies on Christian growth and development in the fertile depression southwest of Cairo. Here Christianity began in the third century, and its presence has endured to the present day.

The first seminar on Coptic studies took place at Wadi Al-Natrun in 2002, a monastic area west of the Delta which was already well known and documented: Hugh Evelyn- White's monumental 1933 study of the area, The History of the Monasteries of the Wadi'n Natrun, was reprinted in 1973 to include additional historical, archaeological, and philological data. The seminar, in other words, took place on familiar territory. It is only to be regretted that the papers given at that seminar, which cast additional light on the growth and development of monastic life in Wadi Al-Natrun in recent years, were not published.

However, this deficiency has been set right at the second seminar...

Monastic memories of Al-Fayoum, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 779, 26 January - 1 February 2006.

A beautiful black granite statue of Queen Tiye, mother of the monotheistic king Akhenaten, was unearthed last Monday in Luxor, reports Nevine El-Aref. At Karnak's Mut Temple, a John Hopkins University archaeological mission stumbled upon the statue while brushing sand off the temple's second hall.

"The statue is mostly intact," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), who added that although the 160cm tall statue has a broken arm and a missing leg, it was still considered very well preserved. It features a standing Queen Tiye wearing a wig and a cobra-decorated crown...

... In other archaeology-related news, the SCA and the Luxor Supreme Council agreed to enlarge the road around the two famous Memnon statues on Luxor's West Bank; they also discussed the possibility of constructing a visitors' centre — similar to the one at the Abu Simbel Temple — at the entrance of the Valley of the Kings.

Discovering Queen Tiye, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 779, 26 January - 1 February 2006.

For the third consecutive year, Egypt has registered a record number of international tourists and tourists nights. The year 2005 witnessed a record number of 8.6 million of international tourists visiting Egypt.

From 6 million in 2003 the number has jumped to 8.1 in 2004 to reach to a new height of 8.6 million with an increase of 6.2 percent over 2004.

The Canadian market surpassed the average figure with an increase of 8.2 percent, reaching to a total of 52000 tourists representing a new record high for Canada.

First come Germany with 980000 tourists preceding Italy with 820000 tourists who came third after Britain who recorded a spectacular increase of 53 percent with 840000 tourists.

Russia came fourth with 780000 tourists followed by France with half a million tourists...

New Record: 8.6 million tourists in Egypt, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, January 23, 2006.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has approved the holding of an exhibition for sunken antiquities in Berlin on May 11 [2006].

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said the exhibition is expected to net 1.6 million euros (LE12 million) during its tour in Berlin and Paris.

The exhibition will also receive half a million US dollars on a yearly basis from the European Institute for Archaeology for a 15-year period.

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that $42 million will be paid in insurance for the exhibited antiquities.

Meanwhile, Hawass said 85% of reparation works of the Royal Jewellery Museum project have been concluded. He added that the museum is due to open next June.

Sunken antiquities to be on display in Germany, France, State Information Service, Egypt, January 25, 2006.

cf. Ägyptens versunkene Schätze , Martin-Gropius-Bau.

cf. Exhibition of “Egypt's Sunken Treasures” premiers at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Franck Goddio Society.

The Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale has deemed the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibition its most popular exhibit, ever.

The museum said it has sold or reserved a record-breaking 380,000 tickets since they went on sale Oct. 18 [2005].

The Tutankhamun exhibition opened its doors Dec. 15 [2005]. The museum said it has already outsold its two most recent blockbuster exhibits combined — "Diana, A Celebration" and "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes."

"We knew Floridians were excited for the arrival of Tut, but the positive response has been truly overwhelming, and unlike any other exhibit, tickets already are selling for February, March and even April..."

Tutankhamun exhibit sets records, brings visitors, The South Florida Business Journal, Florida, USA, January 23, 2006.

cf. “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” Exhibition Sets Record Demand at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, Yahoo! Finance News, USA, January 25, 2006.

... At the top of the list of precious world cultural sites most at risk are the mountaintop city of Machu Picchu, Peru, one of the most magnificent relics of the lost Inca civilization, and the Valley of Kings near Luxor, Egypt, where a myriad of Egyptian pharaohs are buried in artistic splendour, the scientists said...

Landslides threaten Machu Picchu, Valley of Kings, DPA via Monsters & Critics, UK, January 17, 2006, via Nigel Hetherington at Archaeologist at Large which has more links. Nigel also says that the Valley of the Kings is not affected by landslides.

Landslides: Experts seek ways to mitigate losses, danger said growing due to climate change, EurekAlert!, January 17, 2006.

... Renowned Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass is scheduled to join Silversea's world cruise as an enrichment lecturer in 2007.

Over the past 30 years he has dedicated himself to the excavation and conservation of many of Egypt's most important monuments and antiquities. As Egypt's secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Hawass was responsible for bringing the King Tut exhibition to the United States this year.

He will host a series of presentations aboard Silver Shadow as the ship journeys from Dubai to Alexandria, April 12 to 27, 2007...

Loren, Matlin, Egyptian expert to wow cruise passengers, Naples Sun Times, Florida, USA, January 25, 2006.

Despite all the political intrigues he was embroiled in, Rameses II still found time to commission a temple in his own honour, Abu Simbel in southern Egypt. Even more impressive is the fact that the inner sanctum of this temple was designed to be lit by the sun on only two days of each year - the anniversary of his ascension to the throne and his birthday.

A festival has now sprung up around these two dates — February 22 and October 22 — and visitors come at sunrise to see the phenomenon. As dawn breaks, the figures of Rameses, Ra, the sun god, and Amun, the greatest god of all, emerge from the darkness one by one for a brief sojourn in the sun. Outside, musicians and food stalls vie for business...

Egypt: Abu Simbel Festival, The Herald, UK, January 26, 2006.

... As is my habit when viewing an exhibit, I gained insight from listening to comments of other visitors, especially observations by children. One little boy looked at the varied figurines found in the tombs and wanted to know why a pharaoh had "so many toys." Another youngster commented that a rigid, cushion-less gold chair symbolizing the power of high office didn't look like anything he would want to sit in. And still another youngster wondered how many people it took to make "all this stuff" for one dead man.

I suspect that the underlying religious rationale for the tomb's contents eventually will become known to those children. But, for a brief moment, I had reason to hope that when they learn more about the ancient culture, they will continue to question the logic of valuing some human beings more than others to the extent that it is considered acceptable to purchase privilege at the expense of the least powerful...

Too much in common with Tut, Palm Beach Post, Florida, January 21, 2006.

The Egyptian pharaonic exhibition touring 13 states of the US, will reach its ninth leg in Michigan, [at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids,] on January 27, 2006 through May 7, 2006.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said that the exhibition has scored major success. Hawass added that the exhibition has netted $13 million dollars. with one million per state. On display are 141 pieces.

The Pharaonic exhibition in its 9th leg in US, State Information Service, Egypt, January 24, 2006.

... About 20 miles away in Miami, contemporary glass artist Dale Chihuly works his magic in the 83 lush acres of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden through May 31 [2006], (305) 667-1651. The latest in Chihuly's series of indoor and outdoor installations, the installation of 200 hand-blown, brightly coloured glass flowers and plants nestles among the real flowers and plants fusing nature and art.

“As visitors stroll (or ride a tram) through Fairchild, there will be moments of disbelief and wonder as they try to determine if they are looking at glass or nature,” a brochure quotes director Mike Maunder, who calls the intertwining “magical...”

Tut, Chihuly exhibits add beauty to trip, The Galveston County Daily News, Texas, USA, January 22, 2006.

Ok, to the excitement of the day (and I'm writing this on Tuesday, although the discovery happened on Saturday - we awaited the announcement of the find by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and that occurred yesterday). The morning began with an inscription running up and down a back pillar. But what looked on Jan. 20 like a simple stelae inscription cleaned up to look like the rear of a statue, so we became more aware...

January 22, 2006 — Part 2, John Hopkins University, USA, January 24, 2006.

Also January 23, 2006 — Part 2, John Hopkins University, USA, January 24, 2006.

Egyptologists have discovered a statue of Queen Ti, wife of one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs and grandmother to the boy-king Tutankhamun, at an ancient temple in Luxor, an Egyptian antiquities official said on Tuesday.

The official said the roughly 3,400 year-old statue was uniquely well preserved. Ti's husband, Amenhotep III, presided over an era which saw a renaissance in Egyptian art...

... Cartouches of a later king also on the statue indicated it may have been re-used about 300 years later by a 21st dynasty ruler.

Egyptologists find statue of Tutankhamun's grandmother, Reuters via Yahoo! News, USA, January 24, 2006.

cf. Statue of wife of Amenhotep III found in Luxor, State Information Service, Egypt, January 24, 2006.

The Egyptian ambassador in the Hague Ahmed Fathallah will on Monday offer a statue representing the Pharaonic god of justice to the international Court of Justice (ICJ) on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its establishment, sources at the Egyptian embassy said on Sunday.

The head of the court will receive the statue in a ceremony to be attended by all members of the court including Egyptian judge Nabil al Arabi.

Egypt offers ICJ Pharaonic statue, State Information Service, Egypt, January 22, 2006.

It's been a few decades since a collection of relics from the dynasty of Egypt's King Tutankhamun first visited the United States. Tickets go on sale today for the latest appearance of the exhibit, now on its second tour of America, at The Field Museum in Chicago.

Opening May 26 [2006] and running through Jan. 1, 2007, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" includes more than 130 artefacts from Tut's tomb and other royals. Many of the items, estimated to be between 3,000 and 3,500 years old, have never been seen outside Egypt. The current exhibit, which made its debut last year in Los Angeles, will include a golden diadem that circled Tut's head in life and death, a miniature coffin that held his mummified liver, his child-size chair and footrest, recent CT images of Tut's mummy and a new forensic reconstruction of the boy king.

A record 1.3 million people toured the exhibit during its 1977 stop at the Chicago museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive. The current exhibit, which drew nearly one million people from June through November in Los Angeles, now is in Fort Lauderdale, [Florida], and heads to Philadelphia after Chicago.

Want to go? Ticket sales begin at 10 a.m. EST and are available by calling (312) 922-9410 or on the Web at www.fieldmuseum.org. Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors and students with ID, and $16 for children age 4 to 11 and include general museum admission.

Tickets for Tut exhibit on sale, Indianapolis Star, Indiana, USA, January 24, 2006.

Egyptian antiquity officials announced Monday the discovery near the southern city of Luxor of a statue believed to be of a queen who was the mother of the pharaoh that shifted the kingdom towards monotheism.

Queen Tiye, the wife of 18th dynasty (ca. 1539 – 1292 BC) King Amenhotep III and the mother of Akhenaten, was immortalized in a 1.6- metre black granite statue discovered during work just outside of Luxor at the Temple of Mut by an archaeological mission from Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore in the US.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass described the statue as being generally well-preserved although missing one arm and both lower legs...

Ancient 1.6-metre granite statue of Egyptian queen found in Luxor, Monster & Critics, UK, January 23, 2006.

A couple of good photos with this one.

A Johns Hopkins University archaeological team has unearthed a statue of Queen Ti, one of the most important women in ancient Egypt and wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced Monday.

The statue, mostly intact, was found under a statue of Amenhotep III in the sprawling Karnak Temple in Luxor, which was a royal city in ancient Egypt...

Temple gives up statue of ancient Egyptian queen, AP via CNN, USA, January 24, 2006.

cf. Team Unearths Statue of Egypt's Queen Ti, AP via Springfield News-Leader, Missouri, USA, January 24, 2006.

Yesterday's AFP article — US archaeologists find statue of Akhenaten's mother — has a picture.