King Tutankhamun died of an infection set in by a wound in the left knee, according reports in the Italian press which disclose the conclusions of new research on the 3,300-year-old boy pharaoh.

Eduard Egarter Vigl, the caretaker of Ötzi the Iceman, and Paul Gostner, head of radiology at Bolzano General Hospital were both members of the Egyptian-led research team that last year begun examining King Tut's CT scan images.

They found compelling new evidence for a deadly infection after examining three-dimensional images of the left knee and foot, the local daily Alto Adige reported...

Infection Killed King Tut, Discovery Channel News, USA, February 03, 2006.

Meanwhile, in the fresh air above, Egyptologists and other would-be experts are waving the tourist crowds away from Tutankhamun's tomb, describing it as an extra-cost disappointment.

Many of us make the trip anyway for bragging rights — and it's the only tomb with a body in it. Sam Guy, an experienced traveller among our group, says that back home near Atlanta, neighbours will be more interested in his tale of Tut's tomb than the huge and more renowned Seti I caverns we just climbed through. We make a final visual scan and huff our way back up to the surface, where humidity is only 15 percent and the sweat dries off our bodies and clothes in minutes.

It's midmorning and the daily tour bus crowds, including ours, are reaching peak population. Guides like our Attia — he chafes at the label, being an accredited Egyptologist — deliver full-blown historical treatises to their impatient groups before pointing them toward the most interesting crypts...

Egyptian excursion, The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah, USA, February 04, 2006.

Ancient Egypt will be the focus of the Russellville Heritage Preservation Society's February meeting.

Topics to be discussed at the meeting will be the history of the pyramids, Sphinx and Giza Tower, along with other Egyptian customs such as marriage, burial, the after life and Hieroglyphic writings.

Irene Emile Samy, born in Cairo, Egypt, will be the guest speaker for the meeting, set for Febr. 7, at 6 p.m., at the Russellville City Hall...

Ancient Egypt to be focus of meeting, Franklin County Times, Arkansas, USA, February 05, 2006.

Hadrian's Villa has unveiled its latest secret, a monumental staircase complete with huge columns and a giant sphinx.

"The coloured marble on the columns is simply superb while the sphinx is an amazing work." Mari said the 8.5m wide staircase and the statuary were probably made around the end of the villa's construction, towards 130 AD, but the 2.5m long sphinx might be even older.

"We think it came from one of the imperial workshops but there's a chance it might have been brought back from Egypt," he said...

Hadrian's Villa unveils new secrets, ANSA, Italy, February 03, 2006.

Two photographs from Yahoo! News A view of the dig where new findings were presented to the press and Italian Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione stands next to what appears to be a headless sphinx.

A German expedition has unearthed part of a colossal statue of an XVIII dynasty pharaoh. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said that "the red granite head and shoulders of Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC) were unearthed in the pharaoh's temple area at Kom el-Hetan on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor."

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass said that "The one-metre, high bust is in good condition' except for a slight crack on the right side." For her part, the leader of the German team described the bust as "the best portrait of King Amenhotep III that has over been found.

This is the same team who found the Sekhmet statue and 25th dynasty statue-head last week: Egyptologists find war goddess and Nubian king.

Part of colossus found near Luxor, State Information Service, Egypt, February 07, 2006.

The Culture of Egypt has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations. For millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that had a profound influence on later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, for a time Christianity, and later, Arab and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in Ancient Egypt.

Egypt's vast and rich literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of the country and in the Arab world as a whole. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated.

Ancient Egyptian literature dates back to the Old Kingdom, in the third millennium BC. Religious literature is best known for its hymns to various gods and its mortuary texts. The oldest extant Egyptian literature are the Pyramid Texts...

Global influence of Egyptian culture, State Information Service, Egypt, February 04, 2006.

An Albanian with Macedonian origin, Muhammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, Syria and Arabia in 19th century, had ordered his French engineer Linan to pull down the Cheops [Khufu] Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid of Cheops had been rescued with two piastres, the then Egyptian currency.

This information was documented in archive paperwork kept in Revolution Museum depots...

Egypt ruler moved to pull down Cheops Pyramid of noble motives, Makfax, Macedonia, February, 01, 2006.

The Hatshepsut exhibition, on view at the de Young until Feb. 5 [2006], was organized by FAM and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it will be on display March 28 to July 9 [2006], before moving to the show’s final venue, Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum, from Aug. 27 to Dec. 31, 2006. FAM's Renee Dreyfus co-curated the awesome exhibition with the Metropolitan Museum’s Catharine H. Roehrig, and Cathleen A. Keller of the University of California at Berkeley. The trio also produced the comprehensive exhibition catalog...

Hatshepsut–Egypt’s Female Pharaoh-Reigns Supreme at New de Young Museum, WRMEA, District of Columbia, USA, January / February 2006.

Danish tour operators are cancelling all trips to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco after the foreign ministry warned Danish nationals against travelling to Muslim countries.

The Danish tour operator association (RiD), whose members run 90 pct of all charter flights from Denmark, said flights would be grounded for at least two weeks...

Danish tour operators cancel trips to Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, AFX via Forbes, USA, February 06, 2006.

With a safari-style field hat on his head and a trowel and knife dangling from holsters on his belt, National-Louis University social studies Professor Roger LaRaus appeared ready to excavate an ancient tomb as he took his audience on a “journey across time and space with King Tutankhamen.”

LaRaus told the story of the legendary young king of Ancient Egypt Saturday at the Evanston Public Library to a group of about 50 adults and children. The half-hour presentation featured a slideshow and replicas of Egyptian artefacts found in King Tutankhamen’s tomb.

“The story of King Tut fascinates people because in the Egyptians we see ourselves,” LaRaus said. “They had a language, political and economic institutions and a sense of history. In short, they had culture...”

Lecturer brings King Tut story to life at Evanston Library, The Daily Northwestern, Illinois, USA, February 06, 2006.

Hundreds of the state's historical relics that have been tucked away in storage and available only to curators and scholars are going on public view as part of a celebration of the University of California, Berkeley's Bancroft Library's 100th year on campus.

... a collection of ancient Egyptian papyri...

UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library to reveal hundreds of historical relics, The San Diego Union-Tribune, California, USA, February 06, 2006.

cf. The Bancroft Library at 100: A Celebration, 1906–2006, The University of California, Berkeley, Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, California, USA.

The latest issue of Current World Archaeology arrived on my doormat yesterday and contains an article by Nigel Strudwick on his excavations of TT99 the tomb of Senneferi.

Egypt is most famous for its elite tombs. But how did such structures really work? Egyptologist Nigel Strudwick, formerly at Cambridge, now at the British Museum, has been addressing this question by looking at some of the tombs of high officials who served the kings of Egypt. Here, he draws special attention to the tomb of Senneferi.

Senneferi's tomb, labelled TT99 (Theban Tomb 99), was first taken into state ownership in 1907, but since 1992, it has been carefully recorded and excavated by a team led by Nigel Strudwick. Senneferi was buried at Luxor on the West Bank. This is in the hill of Sheikh Abdel Qurna, to the west of the great temple known as the Ramesseum. This is not Luxor's famous Valley of the Kings — for Senneferi was not a king but a high official...

Current World Archaeology, London, UK, Volume 2, = No. 3, Issue 15, February / March 2006.

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by Hassan Saadallah

As part of the international campaign to rescue Nubia's monuments, a large project that includes the rebuilding of the Temple of Thutmose III in Suboe' Valley, is being carried out by the Fund for Nubian Archaeology, affiliated to the Ministry of Culture. The project also includes using solar energy to light up the temples at Suboe'.

The Permanent Committee for Egyptian Antiquities is to photocopy all the documents about Nubia and its archaeology before the building of the Aswan High Dam, to be displayed in the Documents Centre at the Nubia Museum.

"They include documents in Arabic, English and French, dating from 1900 to 1970," said Mohamed Abdel Fatah, head of the Museums Sector, adding that the documents are also about the Nubian people, not just the area's ancient monuments.

Abdel Fatah noted that the documents included maps of Aswan printed in 1927 and a map of Al-Kubania Valley, where the remains of a prehistoric man was found.

Some 50,000 maps have been borrowed from the storehouses at Aswan and Abu Simbel, as well as archive photographs, books and manuscripts, said Hussein A. Hussein, head of the Fund for Nubian Archaeology.

Restoring Nubia's monuments, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 06, 2006.

by Zahi Hawass

During the third excavation season, I decided to spend four days in Bahariya and three days in Giza, running the excavations at the tombs of the pyramid builders. I left Tarek el-Awady in charge of Bahariya and I returned to Cairo. When I returned I found that Tarek had discovered one of the best tombs at the site. I also realised that Tarek was beginning to understand archaeology is not just about explaining the past, it is about letting people see you passion. He has the same passion for archaeology that I have.

The day of the discovery Tarek came to the site at 8:00am to take photographs before the sun got to strong. He began talking to one of the guards, Sheikh Saber. Sheikh Saber told Tarek that there was a place in the desert that was filled with holes and the donkeys would not go near it. Tarek went to this site to examine the terrain. He found a hole in the rocks and began to clear away the sand. He described what he saw in his dairy "To my surprise, I saw faces full of life looking at me and smiling as if they were welcoming me. It seemed they were happy to see the light after living in the dark for two thousand years. I left the niche and ran to bring workmen to this place." Tarek labelled the new tomb N.

I arrived at the site early the next morning. Inside this tomb were thirteen mummies, distributed into family groups. Some of the most beautiful mummies from the entire site were found here. One is a four year old child. His mask depicts a long nose, and his mouth looks sad. The artist added dots under his eyes which depict tears. We nicknamed him the Crying Child. We are not sure why he is crying. Perhaps he suffered from a horrible disease.

The crying child, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 06, 2006.