After spending nearly two hours moving awestruck through gallery after gallery filled with wondrous artifacts from ancient Egypt and the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, I pause in a darkened corridor to read a quotation illuminated on the wall:

"The mystery of his life still eludes us — the shadows move, but the dark is never quite dispersed."

These words of archaeologist Howard Carter, the man who found the tomb of King Tut in 1922, eloquently sum up our fascination with the young pharaoh — and the reason that millions will flock to Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs in Philadelphia and three other U.S. cities.

More than 937,000 saw the exhibition in Los Angeles [County Museum of Art] last year. Through April 23 [2006], it is at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, where more than 400,000 tickets have been sold to see the more than 130 items on display. The show will shift to [the Field Museum] Chicago from May 16 [2006] to Jan. 1 [2007], and will conclude its U.S. visit in Philadelphia [at the Franklin Institute] from Feb. 3 [2007] to Sept. 30, 2007...

Even after more than 3,000 years, King Tut artifacts bring an age alive, The Philadelphia Daily News, Pennsylvania, USA, February 19, 2006.

He was a kid from a disgraced family, possibly assassinated and buried just off the beaten path in a tomb that, in pharaonic terms, is a broom closet.

But Tut's tomb is among the most-visited holes in the ground of the Valley of the Kings, where the humidity down below makes the 105-degree September morning seem cool and refreshing when I re-emerge into the present.

The tomb is empty except for the boy king himself, tucked back into his sarcophagus in the wake of his most recent trip topside, for CT scans in January 2005. Gazing at the most famous teenager in history — and the images of gods painted on the surrounding walls to guide him (and his two also-mummified children) to the netherworld — my mind reels at the tiny size of the burial chamber. How could all those coffins, shrines and relics possibly have been squeezed in here? ...

In Tut's valley, The Philadelphia Daily News, Pennsylvania, USA, February 19, 2006.

by Hassan Saadallah

As has been widely reported in the local dailies, five mummies were discovered a few days ago in a catacomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of the Nile. But now the number has risen to eight, as three more have since been found in the same cache.

The discovery of the catacomb, very near to Tutankhamun's tomb, was announced almost a fortnight ago. At first, it was found to contain five mummies with coloured funerary masks enclosed in sarcophagi. A number of large sealed storage jars were also discovered. The head of the Upper Egyptian Antiquities Department, Atef Abul Dahab told this newspaper that his staff have started work on investigating the first intact cache to have been located since 1922.

"There are various indications that the catacomb dates back to the 18th Dynasty [1570-1320 BC], but still we are trying to find something that helps us establish the exact date," said Abul Dahab, adding that they will eventually remove the 21 jars found in the cache and then the mummies, some of which are in poor condition.

More mummies found in Luxor cache, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 22, 2006.

I heard that Malqata-ware blue pottery had been found...

ECKERT, DONALD H., 77, of St. Petersburg, died Thursday (Feb. 16, 2006) at St. Anthony's Hospital. He came here in 1969 from his native Allentown, [Pennsylvania] He retired as senior minister of Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church in 1991. An archaeologist and Egyptologist, he taught archaeology at Eckerd College, was an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College and lectured and displayed his archaeological collection at Upham Art Gallery in St. Pete Beach...

ECKERT, DONALD H., 77, of St. Petersburg, died Thursday (Feb. 16, 2006), St. Petersburg Times, Florida, USA, February 18, 2006.

The recent discovery of an untouched burial chamber in Egypt is a sweet success for a Tacoma man.

After years of research and writing checks to help pay for archaeological digs,75-year-old Paul Leroy hit pay dirt in Egypt's fabled "Valley of the Kings."

Leroy's dream now is that these secrets of the past will soon be available to all...

Tacoma man shares in Egypt tomb find, KING 5, Washington, USA, February 19, 2006. Includes video also.

cf. Former CWU prof helped fund discovery of tomb, MSNBC, Washington, USA, February 19, 2006.

Heather Alexander was squirming on her belly in a shaft 15 feet beneath the Egyptian desert when her flashlight beam created a glint on the round lid of a 10-foot burial urn.

Alexander, a photographer from Bedford, was the first member of an American team of archaeologists to make a stunning discovery: A 3,000-year-old Egyptian tomb, the first unearthed in the Valley of the Kings since Howard Carter, a British Egyptologist, discovered King Tutankhamun's in 1922.

Alexander, 34, is part of a team of American archaeologists from the University of Memphis that also includes Earl Ertman of Tallmadge, a retired University of Akron art professor.

She has been the official photographer for the mission since 1994, but she is more than willing to get her hands dirty...

Bedford woman gets first peek into Egyptian tomb, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, USA, February 22, 2006.

Sharon Nichols, a University of Memphis graduate student who is pursing a master's degree in Egyptian art, has started a blog documenting here time on the KV10 / KV63 dig in the Valley of the Kings.

Egyptomania.

Thanks again to Jane Akshar for bringing that one to my attention.