... But in a wide-ranging interview last week ... Mr. [Philippe] de Montebello made it clear that his philosophy about collecting — and even the cultural value of an international market in illicit antiquities — has changed little in 29 years at the museum's helm.

He offered no apologies for the way the Met has built one of the world's greatest Classical collections, often by acquiring works with little knowledge of their origins, to the dismay of archaeologists. And while he stressed that museums should abide by the law, he questioned the wisdom of some cultural-property laws and recent American court decisions that have exposed museums to greater liability for their collecting...

Met Chief, Unbowed, Defends Museum's Role, New York Times, New York, USA, February 28, 2006.

A copy of the agreement between the Met and Italy, and some commentary, can be found here: Suzan Mazur: The Italy-Met Euphronios Accord?, Suzan Mazur, Scoop, New Zealand, February 23, 2006.

The Hyksos would be fundamentally proto-Greek or Mycenaeans, according to recent linguistic discoveries.

Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, scriptologist and Egyptologist amateur, has been able to identify the names of the Hyksos kings like pertaining to the group of languages and proto-Greek or Mycenaean's dialects.

The true ethnic origin of the mysterious Hyksos that were able to take control of the power of a considerable part of [Ancient] Egypt, during centuries XVII to the XVI before Christ, has been always a true challenge for the Egyptologists. However, the generalized opinion more for a long time has been that the Hyksos would be Semitic towns, fundamentally coastal inhabitants of the strip Syrian-Palestine, that is, Canaanites or proto-Phoenicians. Nevertheless, as it indicates Diaz-Montexano, to date an identification had not been made signs or solid of each one of the names of the Hyksos kings according to the data contributed by Manetho in its chronicle of Egypt; in fact, as soon as only two of the six names of Hyksos kings mentioned by this Egyptian amanuenses have been able to relate approximately — to other two names of Semitic origin.

Diaz-Montexano now has been able to identify with a greater degree of approach the six names of the Hyksos kings...

Old Egypt investigator identifies mysterious kings Hyksos..., The World Forum, February 27, 2006.

This has obviously been translated from a Spanish original which I have found here.

Estudioso del Antiguo Egipto identifica a los misteriosos reyes Hicsos, Egiptologia Noticias Descubrimientos Jeroglificos, February 24, 2006.

Hmmm. A quick search on amateur Spanish-Cuban scriptologist and Egyptologist Georgeos Diaz-Montexano turns up a lot of Atlantis references. Make of that what you will.

A team of archaeologists from Boston University and the University of Naples l’Orientale recently uncovered the oldest remains of sea-faring ships in the world and cargo boxes containing goods from the lost-land of Punt — a fabled southern Red Sea trading centre. The discoveries were made during a round of excavations inside two man-made caves previously found by the team at Wadi Gawasis on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

In remarkable condition, the unique artefacts of cedar planks and decking timber — some with the mortises and tenons, and copper fastenings still in place — demonstrate that the Ancient Egyptians were excellent ship builders and provide further evidence that they reached Punt by sea. The findings may also help researchers determine the location of Punt, a long-time source of debate among scholars.

In addition to the ship timber and cargo boxes, the archaeologists discovered five parallel rock-cut rooms that served as storage areas for ship equipment.

“One of the rooms contained coils of ship rope, all neatly tied and knotted — just as the sailors left them almost 4,000 years ago,” said Kathryn Bard, associate professor of archaeology at BU and co-director of the excavations. “The view into this cave is truly astonishing...”

Archaeology Team Discovers Oldest Remains of Sea-faring Ships in the World, PhysOrg.com, USA, February 27, 2006.

cf. ARCHAEOLOGY TEAM DISCOVERS OLDEST REMAINS OF SEA-FARING SHIPS IN THE WORLD, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, February 27, 2006.

by Hassan Saadallah

An ancient Egyptian temple has been discovered in the Cairo district of Ain Shams, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced yesterday.

For his part, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawass said in a statement that the temple, discovered in Souq el-Khamis in Ain Shams, is one of many sun temples in the area.

The floor of the temple was covered in red granite, Hawass said, adding that a statue similar to that of Ramses II was also found on the site.

"Many parts of red granite statues were found, the most important of which had features close to Ramses II ... The statue needs some restoration and weighs between four and five tonnes," the statement quoted the Hawass as saying.

The region known in ancient times for sun worship and where the Council says a calendar based on the solar year was invented.

Sun Temple discovered in Cairo district, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 27, 2006.

The Queensland Museum launched its show Life and Death in Ancient Egypt yesterday, cashing in on the enduring fascination with Egyptian mummies.

It follows the story of Keku, a rich young woman who died in Thebes 2700 years ago.

It took about 70 days to prepare her body for the afterlife, and every step of the way, from mummification to the spells adorning her sarcophagi, was aimed at helping her transition through the treacherous underworld to the afterlife.

Opening the exhibition, University of Queensland historian Jennifer Tunny, an expert in the process, said the rituals of death in ancient Egypt were amazing...

Roll up for inside story on mummy mania, The Courier-Mail, Queensland, Australia, February 28, 2006.

An ancient Egyptian mummy has reached Queensland.

The 2,700-year-old mummy of Keku will go on display at the Queensland Museum from tomorrow.

Exhibition curator Greg Czechura says there are 200 ancient artefacts including mummified heads, a foot and a hand.

"We've had ancient Egyptian exhibitions in the past which have been sort of artefact-based, so you get a cluster of particular type there and another type over there," he said.

"What this display does is pulls it all together, so you can see where each lot fits in the story of her life."

Qld Museum to display 2,700-year-old mummy, Yahoo! News, Australia, February 27, 2006.

cf. Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Keku's Story, Queensland Museum South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, February 28, 2006 – May 21, 2006.

by Zahi Hawass

We know about the governor Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh from the temples of Ain-El-Meftella where he built chapels with his brothers to the kings Apries and Ahmose II of the 26th Dynasty.

During the sixth century B.C., a power struggle between King Apries and Ahmose, the head of the Egyptian army, sent troops to the Western Desert, where he victoriously defended Egyptian interests against the Greeks and Libyans. Ahmose was crowned Ahmose II. He understood the importance of Bahariya as a gateway to Egypt from the west and protected it vigilantly.

To honour him, two temples and many chapels near Ain el-Muftella (an ancient site near El-Bawiti) were erected in his name by the second priest of Bahariya. Wahibranefer, the son of Arknakht, under the supervision of Prince Soteckh-erdies, who appears on the temple walls with a feather on his head. His grandson, Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh would later make addition to this temple.

These chapels were discovered in 1900 by the German scholar George Steindorff. In one of three chapels, Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh is shown as the second priest and the third priest of Amun.

The governor is depicted equal in size to the king, showing he is an important man and could be second to the king. The name of his father, Ped-Isis, and his brother, Shepen-Khonsu, who was also a governor of Bahariya, were also mentioned. Therefore, the whole family lived in Bahariya, and should be buried there. I never thought that the tomb of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh would be found.

A week after, we demolished the house of the old women, and the tombs were consolidated. I entered inside. As I entered the burial chamber, I saw a very large anthropoid sarcophagus. I shall never forget that moment...

Discovery of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh Governor of Bahariya (Part 3), The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 27, 2006.

by Hassan Saadallah

The recently discovered catacomb in Luxor is the first intact tomb to be discovered in over 80 years. The tomb, unearthed by an American team of archaeologists, lies very close to the tomb of King Tutankhamun, making experts wonder why the Ancient Egyptians collected so many mummies in one place, known as a catacomb.

The stunning discovery was made in Luxor's Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of the Nile. The tomb lies to the northeast of King Amenmesse's tomb.

A rectangular chamber cut into the mountain side, 1.3m wide and 1.95m long, the tomb contains five mummies dating back to the 18th Dynasty (1767-1320 BC), lying in wooden sarcophagi bearing coloured human faces and funerary masks. The archaeologists also found 20 sealed pots there.

Asked why the Ancient Egyptians used to gather lots of mummies in one place, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawass attributed this to the many robberies of mummies and their treasures in the past. "This was because the kings had little power. They could neither protect the country nor even the mummies and tombs of their forefathers," he explained.

Much has been revealed about these robberies and the trials of the thieves from ancient papyri. Priests would wrap the mummies in their sarcophagi and rebury them in secret places, so secret in fact that so far only four have been found.

As for the other three catacombs, a senior archaeologist called Mohamed Megahed says the first was discovered in AD 1881 inside the tomb of a woman called In-Habi, south of Deir el-Bahari. This catacomb is thought to date to one of the Intermediate Period dynasties.

"It was the biggest catacomb discovered in the 19th century," adds Megahed, head of the Technical Office for Scientific Research at the SCA General Secretariat.

The catacomb contained 40 mummies, most of which were in good condition, and they are now in the Egyptian Museum. Among the mummies were those of Ahmose; Thutmose I; Thutmose II; Thutmose III; Ramses I, II, III and IV; Seti I; King Ahmose's wife, Nefertari; Sand Merit Amun and wife of King Amenhotep I.

It was later found that members of an influential local family had explored the catacomb three times before it was officially discovered and announced that they had royal antiquities for sale. Investigations soon led to the family and the catacomb. "Happily, the same member of the influential family who guided the authorities to the first one, reported the second cache in January 1891.

"He led director of the [Egyptian] Antiquities Authority at the time to the cache located at the foot of the mountain near Queen Nefro's tomb, very near Deir el-Bahari Temple," Megahed explains.

"At a depth of about 35 feet, they reached the bottom of a well that took them to a hole leading to a little corridor where many wooden sarcophagi were found. The way the sarcophagi were made show they date to the 21st Dynasty. The mummies belonged to ordinary priests of the god Amun."

The catacomb contained 153 sarcophagi, 110 funerary statues and 77 other statues, as well as eight wooden placards, a wooden bed and 16 pots containing the intestines from the mummified bodies. As for the third cache, it was also found in the Valley of the Kings in 1898, in one of the side rooms of the tomb of Amenhotep II. It contained 13 mummies, nine of them ancient Egyptian kings, which are now all in the Egyptian Museum.

Exciting discovery near King Tut's tomb, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 24, 2006.

Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday.

The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis — the centre of pharaonic sun worship — was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press.

Among the artefacts was a pink granite statue weighing 4 to 5 tons whose features "resemble those of Ramses II," said Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities...

Ancient sun temple uncovered in Cairo, AP via Mobile Register, Alabama, USA, February 26, 2006.

cf. Egypt announces discovery of Ramses II statues, Reuters via Tiscali, UK, February 27, 2006.

cf. Ancient sun temple with statues of Ramses II uncovered beneath a Cairo marketplace, AP via Sioux City Journal, Iowa, USA, February 27, 2006.

cf. Ancient temple found beneath Cairo market, Sapa-AP via Independent Online, South Africa, February 27, 2006.

For more than a century, people have wondered what kind of girl Pesed was.

"Was she old, young, good-looking — what was her life like and how did she die?" said Samuel Farmerie, curator of cultural artefacts at Westminster College in New Wilmington, where Pesed has resided since 1885.

One of a handful of people who have seen Pesed's just delivered and painstakingly built facial reconstruction, Farmerie now knows what the 2,300-year-old Egyptian mummy looked like in the last days of her life.

So will the rest of the world in about six weeks, when Pesed's facial reconstruction is unveiled at the small Lawrence County college...

Peeling back time, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pennsylvania, USA, February 17, 2006.

cf. Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium.

My blog has just received an entry in ABZU.

ABZU, A Guide to information related to the study of the Ancient Near East on the Web, ETANA, February 24, 2006.

For those who do not know what ABZU is, here is a ‘definition’ from their website.

Abzu is a guide to the rapidly increasing, and widely distributed data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East via the Internet.

You can keep up with what's new in ABZU by subscribing to their news feed at Bloglines: What's New in Abzu or add the Bloglines RSS feed to your favourite news aggregator. PS. Don't forget to add my blog's RRS feed to your news aggregator as well. EgyptologyBlog RSS Feed

The Autumn 2005 issue of the bulletin of Egyptian Archaeology the Egyptian Exploration Society, number 27, is available now. A short summary of its contents follows.

• UNESCO and Qasr Ibrim
  During the 2005 excavation season at Qasr Ibrim, a delegation from UNESCO made a brief visit to the site as part of a wider assessment of Nubia and Egypt. The aim of the inspection was to identify key sites at which UNESCO might become involved in conservation, restoration, the development of site management programmes, and the training of those involved in these projects.Pamela Rose reports.
• Mut el-Kharab: Seth's city in Dakhleh Oasis
  Mut el-Kharab preserves the remains of the local cult centre of the god Seth and an Adjacent cemetery. Colin Hope summarizes the results of the excavations at this site in Dakhleh Oasis which have revealed activity from the early Old Kingdom to the Mamluk Period.
• Satellites and survey in Middle Egypt
  Since 2004 a British mission [from Cambridge University] has been using satellite remote sensing to survey an area on the west bank opposite Tell-el-Amarna. Sarah Parcak reports on the project’s work.
• Egypt’s earliest granaries: evidence from the Fayum
  The Fayum Project of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands (RUG), worked in autumn 2004 in the region north of Lake Qarun, in the Fayum. Willeke Wendrich and René Cappers describe the results of the project’s work.
• ‘Origines 2005’, Toulouse
  In September 2005, The Second International Conference on the Origins of the Egyptian State took place in Toulouse. Joanne Rowland summaries the event.
• The ancient landscapes and waterscapes of Karnak
  In spring 2002 a programme of augering and cartographic studies to study past landscapes at Karnak was begun. Angus Graham and Judith Bunbury report on the first three seasons of work, which reveal a migrating Nile and temple development on newly found land.
• The Middle Kingdom temple of Amun at Karnak
  Since 2002 renewed excavations in the central area of the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak have uncovered well-organized, massive mud-brick foundations. Thanks to this discovery, Guillaume Charloux presents here a new proposed reconstruction of the religious complex in the Middle Kingdom.
• In search of Cleopatra’s temple
  Statue fragments found in Alexandria may be from one of the city’s largest temples. In 2004 Sally-Ann Ashton led a University of Cambridge / EES team trying to locate the temple site.
• New research in the Abu Bakr cemetery at Giza
  Between 1949 and 1976 Abdel-Moneim Abu Bakr excavated at Giza, on behalf of Cairo University, in the far north-west corner of the western mastaba-tombs. In March 2000 a joint expedition of Cairo University and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, = directed by Tohfa Handoussa and Edward Brovarski, resumed work there for the purpose of recording and publishing the tombs.
• Ancient Egypt at the Manchester Museum
  The University of Manchester’s collection of Egyptian antiquities numbers more than 15,000 objects, and still counting. Christina Riggs takes readers behind the scenes and explains how the collection is being made accessible for public engagement as well as academic research.

Egyptian Archaeology, EES, London, UK, No. 27, Autumn 2005.

You can buy the EES' Egyptian Archaeology Magazine via Oxbow Books.

The Third Symposium on Coptic Studies that took place at the White Monastery of St Shenoude west of Sohag early this month cast light on the life and times of an extraordinary Upper Egyptian monk, says Jill Kamil.

Who would have thought that a symposium on Coptic studies would draw so much attention outside the narrow field of specialists in the discipline? The organisers of the international gathering on "Christianity and Monasticism in the Region of Sohag" certainly did not expect it, even though they did, in a sense, set the ball rolling.

Preparations for the convention had been ongoing for much longer than usual — mainly because the area has seen so little tourist activity for many years now — and more than the groundbreaking spadework was needed. Apart from accommodation, catering, transport and appropriate technology at the White Monastery, the chosen venue of the symposium, there was the question of security. Sohag's residents soon became aware that something unusual was going on and wanted to know what the activity was all about...

Desert fathers in the limelight, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 783, February 23 - March 01, 2006.

Developing the panoramic surroundings of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat is on the government's priority list now that Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has given the go ahead, says Nevine El-Aref.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif called the planned National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation "one of the country's mega projects" when he spoke to reporters last Saturday after touring the museum site together with the Cairo governor and the ministers of construction, tourism and environment. The tour to check on the museum's progress came at the invitation of the Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni.

Nazif went on to say that the museum would not only help preserve Egypt's cultural heritage but would also encourage tourism by focussing on Egypt's diverse civilisation from the pre-dynastic to the modern eras. This would satisfy the taste of all visitors, he said...

View to a museum, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 783, February 23 - March 01, 2006.

Egypt has asked the Saint Louis Art Museum to return a 3,000-year-old funerary mask of a mummy depicting a woman, which it said disappeared from the Egyptian Museum decades ago, antiquities officials said Thursday.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities said it formally requested the return of the piece, known as the mask of Ka Nefer Nefer, which the museum says dates back to the 19th Dynasty, 1307-1196 BC.

"The mask is in a very well preserved condition and it features the bust of a young lady called Ka Nefer Nefer ... It has a combination of glass inlaid eyes, a face covered with gold and a wig," Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, said...

Egypt asks Saint Louis Art Museum to return mummy mask, AP via Kansas City Star, Missouri, USA, February 23, 2006.

cf. Egypt seeks return of ancient mask, AP via Al Jazeera, Qatar, February 24, 2006.

cf. Egypt asks a U.S. museum to return a mummy mask disappeared 45 years ago, Pravda, Russia, February 24, 2006.

With bountiful gold mines, powerful kings and fabulous cities, ancient Nubia was a great black African civilization that sprouted and grew 5,000 years ago alongside Pharaonic Egypt, two empires that were sometimes friends and often enemies.

Few places in the world are more important to the preservation of Nubian history, still relatively little studied, than the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, 1155 E. 58th St. On Saturday, the museum will open only the second permanent museum gallery in the U.S. devoted to the Nubians; the other is at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

The opening marks the end of the final phase of the institute's 11-year remodelling project, which began in 1995 when the museum closed completely to allow construction of a major addition housing offices, workrooms, storage spaces and vital climate control equipment. Each of the museum's permanent galleries has been stripped and completely reconfigured...

Artefacts get a new home, Chicago Tribune, Illinois, USA, February 22, 2006.

The new issue of KMT is out now. A summary of its contents appears below.

• Dancing with Pharaohs
  The New Royal Mummies Halls at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo by Zahi Hawass. A Kmt Exclusive
• Ancient Egypt in Vatican City
  by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli Rameses II’s Mother, Egyptianised Antinous & Other Papal Treasures
• An Eternal Harem
  Tombs of the Royal Families of Ancient Egypt by Aidan Dodson Part IV: The 3rd Intermediate / Late Period
• The Cripple, the Queen & the Man from the North
  by Gae Callender The End of the 19th Dynasty Reconsidered
• The Lion Temples
  Of Naqa & Musawwarat es Sufra in Nubia by F.J. Albers In the Realm of Apedemak & Company
• Imagining Egypt
  A Portfolio of Recent Artwork by Eduardo Vilela

KMT, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 17, Number 1, Spring 2006.

Subscribe to KMT Magazine via Amazon.com.

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.

by Zahi Hawass

After the re-discovery of the three tombs, we searched everything that Fakhry referred to in his work on the oasis; I felt that there had to be another room on the other side. If so, it was an area that had never been excavated. Could it be the missing tomb of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh for which Fakhry had searched?

April 20, 2000 I went to bed and dreamed of what would happen in the morning. In my dream I saw a room with end. It was full of smoke and I could not see anything. I was afraid and I called for help but no one came. Suddenly, I saw a face coming toward me. I was ready to fight but I could not move my arms or legs. The face came closer, and then I screamed, screamed again ... at that moment, I woke up-my face and body were sweating... I could not understand the meaning of this dream.

At 5:30am, I took part of my team to Sheikh Soby, the town built over the archaeological remains. I decided we would work on the consolidation and restoration of this tomb. Before we could open the burial chamber I first had to meet with the old lady who owned the house above the tomb. She agreed to demolish her house and we told her we would build her a new house made of stone, not mud brick, and that we would electrify it. All this would be done at our expense. I oversaw the construction and made sure it was everything that I had promised. She was pleased with her new house and we did the demolition and started excavating the site.

During the work, I kept thinking of Ahmed Fakhry's work written in his book about Bahariya. He said he hoped that the tomb of the governor of Bahariya, Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh, would be discovered. We were close...

Discovery of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh — Governor of Bahariya (Part 2), The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 20,2006.

cf. Part 1 can be found here Discovery of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh - Governor of Bahariya (Part 1).

The latest issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine is out now. Below is a summary of its contents.

• Featured Pharaoh: Neferhotep I
  Following the recent discovery of a statue of Neferhotep I at Karnak, Wolfram Grajetzki examines the reign of this little-known ruler.
• The Friends of Nekhen
  The first of AE’s regular articles in support of excavations at Hierakonpolis. This report covers Pre-dynastic houses and temples.
• Past Articles and News Revisited
  AE looks again at some of the articles from recent issues, with updates covering the latest news and developments.
• Ancient Egypt in Madrid
  Cathy Brian reviews the Egyptian collection in the National Archaeological Museum and a complete Nubian Temple, both in the Spanish capital.
• Ancient Egypt on the Small Screen
  A review of recent British TV programmes about ancient Egypt.
• Granite? Gneiss? Greywacke? ... What stone is that?
  Geologist Birgit Schoer identifies some of the types of rock used in Egyptian sculpture and building.
• Archive Image: Egypt Then and Now
  The Colossi of Memnon in the last inundation of the Nile.
• The Cleaning of "Cleopatra’s Needle" in London
  A report on the cleaning and current condition of the obelisk of Thutmose III, written by Iain McLean, the Director of the specialist cleaning company, Antique Bronze Ltd.

Ancient Egypt Magazine, Empire Publications, Manchester, UK, Volume 6, No. 4, Issue 34, February / March 2006.

Subscribe to Ancient Egypt Magazine via Amazon.com.

A top Egyptian antiquities official is demanding the St. Louis Art Museum return the museum's mummy mask amid allegations that the mask (one of the museum's most prized antiquities) was stolen from Egypt in the late 1980s.

In a letter dated Feb. 14, Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, writes that the 3,000-year-old mask was "clearly stolen" from a storage room near the site where it was excavated in 1952. He charges that the mask is "legally the property of the Supreme Council of Antiquities'' and that it "must be returned immediately."

"I know that you have been aware of this for some time now, and am both surprised and disappointed that you did not contact me right away to set this matter straight," Hawass wrote to the museum...

Egyptian official demands return of the Art Museum's mummy mask, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, USA, February 16, 2006.

cf. Antiquities: Egypt, Phoenix, & SLAM, ArtsJournal.com, USA, February 16, 2006.

A couple of sites have been updated recently. Firstly a KV63 article has appeared on Zahi Hawass' website...

BREAKING NEWS: A Concealed Cachet in Luxor!!, Zahi Hawass, The Plateau, Guardians Egypt, Egypt, February 2006.

The Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology at the University of Memphis have put up some information about the discovery.

New Tomb Discovered in the Valley of the Kings, The Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology, University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, February 2006.

Finally, the KV63 website has been updated with some pictures by Jane Akshar.

An Egyptologist from Ohio is among those helping unearth a tomb that's thousands of years old and the first discovered in eight decades in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

Earl Ertman, 73, of Tallmadge, is an associate director on the project.

The retired University of Akron art professor has the job of identifying objects the researchers uncover.

"I'm dead tired," he said last week. "I haven't had any time off for a while..."

Ohio art professor has part in Egyptian tomb discovery, Ohio News Now, Ohio, USA, February 21, 2006.

Traditional Egyptologists date the mammoth monument — with the head of a man and the body of a lion — to about 2,500 B.C.

But Boston University geologist Robert Schoch, who spoke to a group of ancient-Egypt enthusiasts Saturday at the Wichita Museum of World Treasures, says his analysis shows the Sphinx got started at least two millennia earlier.

Schoch's theory spurred a controversy as big as the pyramids when he and author John Anthony West unveiled it in 1993 in an NBC documentary called "Mystery of the Sphinx..."

Geologist's eye on Sphinx's face, The Wichita Eagle, Kansas, USA, February 19, 2006.

Buy Pyramid Quest: Secrets of the Great Pyramid and the Dawn of Civilization by Robert M. Schoch from

It appears that Dr. Hawass mentioned the KV63 discovery in a lecture in January 2006 before the official announcement and speculated that it may be Nefertiti. He also also passes comment on an ‘English expedition’ and based on the previous post I thought this may be of interest.

Here is the transcript of the announcement Zahi made:

Zahi Hawass lecture from the morning of 26/01/2006, Cairo time

Zahi Hawass: Some good news. I was in Luxor two days ago and I did go to the Valley of the Kings to see this shaft that has been excavated by Memphis State University. And they believe that this shaft is intact and the excavators believe that it's the tomb of Nefertiti. I think that they're going to open it two days from now. But the bad news is that I don't think that it's intact. When I looked at it, I found out that it has a Dynasty 19 deposit. Means that, uh, if Dynasty 19 exists in the area means, that the shaft was stolen in Dynasty 19. But it's going to be very exciting.

And at the same time in Luxor I saw the American expedition working also from Johns Hopkins University. And they found this beautiful statue. It's a life size statue, made of granite and it's for a lady. And it has no name except the name of Amenhotep the third which means that this statue should be for queen TI, the wife of Amenhotep III.

This is just to tell you what's happening in the field of excavations, what we are doing.

(Went into the slideshow)

Q and A following slide show.

(Several questions unrelated to the find in Luxor)

Q: This shaft you said they found that might be Nefertiti's tomb, is this a newly found shaft?

Zahi Hawass: Yes. They found it last year. And they did cover it. And they wanted to announce it and I said you can't announce that you found that shaft. You have to excavate the shaft and after that, we can announce that you found something.

Uh, there was an English expedition working on the other side by some one, his name is (I couldn't make it out). And we stopped this man for many reasons. But he came this year to claim that this is his concession. But, then, this is an expedition from Memphis University and they began, for the last month, to clean the deposit above that shaft. It's at the entrance of the Valley of the Kings exactly. And when I went two days ago, I found they are opening today or tomorrow. But I, I can feel it's not really intact. They think it's intact. Then we'll see who's wrong and who's right tomorrow.

(further questions, unrelated)

Thanks to Barb Krause who posted this over at Glyphdoctors.

Many thanks to Dr. Nicolas Reeves for sending me this email which I quote in full here.

Dear friends and colleagues

Because of various rumours now circulating I think it's best I respond to events formally on the Valley of the Kings Foundation / Amarna Royal Tombs Project website: www.valleyofthekings.org. The site will continue to be updated over the course of the next few weeks and months.

With all good wishes

Nicholas Reeves

There has been much talk on the internet about the recent University of Memphis discovery on KV63 by Otto Schaden's team speculating that the team were digging in exactly the same area that Reeves and Martin's Amarna Royal Tombs Project were previously digging before their dig licence was suspended.

The team were suspended from working in the valley after allegations of Reeve's involvement in antiquities smuggling. Whilst the internet has scant details of the charges [Bringing home, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 639, May 22 - 28, 2003] there was no website giving details of any further progress in the case. Dr. Reeves has posted details on the ARTP website, linked above, confirming that he was cleared of all charges at a meeting of the SCA in Cairo on 7 August 2005.

Coming right up to date, last week details of an article published in the January 2006 edition of the Swiss magazine Mysteries Magazin [, a copy of the text can be found on the Legendary Times website,] began circulating claiming that the ARTP team had found the tomb using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) in 2000 and passed on their results to the Memphis team in mid-2005. Dr. Reeves has confirmed in his post on the ARTP website, linked above, that this is indeed the case and that they passed on the details to Dr. Schaden's team once rumours of the find — the top of the shaft was first uncovered on March 10, 2005 by team member Alistair Dickey — surfaced.

With the discovery by archaeologists earlier this month of the first truly "new" tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since Howard Carter found King Tutankhamen's in 1922, the question arises of who's still missing in the Valley of the Kings.

Within the newly discovered tomb are five wooden coffins believed to contain mummies. Although the identities of the presumed occupants are not known, the excavators think they are more likely to be members of the royal court than pharaohs or their queens.

Nevertheless, when ancient Egypt buffs hear about such a discovery, they hope that a "royal cache," a stash of lost pharaohs, has been found...

New mummies may point the way to lost pharaohs, Detroit News, Michigan, USA, February 19, 2006.

cf. In Egypt, hoping for a royal cache, Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky, USA, February 20, 2006.

Earl Ertman brought a pair of swimming trunks with him to Egypt but, sadly, he won't have time to use them.

While the uproar from last week's announcement of a newfound tomb has subsided, the Tallmadge Egyptologist is working long days unravelling the mysteries that lay within it.

"I'm dead tired," he said last week. "I haven't had any time off for a while."

After years of being thrilled finding mere pottery shards, the retired art professor at the University of Akron is part of an epochal find — the first tomb to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings since King Tutankhamen's in 1922.

It's almost impossible to overstate the importance of the discovery to Egyptologists, said Patricia Podzorski, curator at the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis in Tennessee...

Ancient secrets studied at tomb in Egypt, Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio, February 20, 2006.

A request from the Department of Ancient Egypt at the British Museum has resulted in a 4,000-year-old discovery at Hawick Museum.

A box of pottery, long-untouched and undocumented, turned out to contain numbered items, many of them from the Middle Kingdom of 2040-1750 BC.

The items were collected by the Egyptologist John Garstang at Esna, Upper Egypt, in the early 20th Century...

Ancient Egypt pottery discovery, BBC News, UK, February 20, 2006.

By Zahi Hawass

We always say that we do not have many American tourists in Egypt because they think it is dangerous to travel here. Whenever there is a terrorist incident it receives a good deal of coverage in the American media, making Americans more and more afraid. They believe that Egypt is not safe. Once, during the question and answer session at the end of my lecture at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, a man stood up and asked why he should travel to Egypt, because he was always hearing about Egyptians killing tourists. I explained that terrorists do bad things everywhere — in the main squares of famous European cities, in the streets of Los Angeles, and in New York. People are killed all the time. I told him that last New Year's Eve I had invited my friend Betsy Bryan from Johns Hopkins University to a party at the Capital Club in downtown Cairo. When Betsy wanted to leave and go back to her hotel, which was about a mile away from the club, I told her to wait and said I would take her, but she insisted on going alone. She told me that she often walked through the streets of Cairo after midnight, and felt absolutely safe. But in the end I told the questioner at the lecture that when he died and went to heaven, he would never go to paradise because he hadn't visited Egypt. Everyone in the audience laughed a lot.

I always tell people that the best thing in Egypt is not the Pyramids or the Valley of the Kings or the famous temples, or even the magic of the sunrise and sunset over the River Nile, but the Egyptians. They are very kind and honest, and always protect and respect foreigners...

Dig days: King Tut and the American tourist, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 782, February 16 - 22, 2006.

Well-preserved wrecks of Pharaonic seafaring vessels unearthed last week on the Red Sea coast reveal that the Ancient Egyptians enjoyed advanced maritime technology, Nevine El-Aref reports.

The long-held belief that the Ancient Egyptians did not tend to travel long distances by sea because of poor naval technology proved fallacious last week when timbers, rigging and cedar planks were unearthed in the ancient Red Sea port of Marsa Gawasis, 23 kilometres south of Port Safaga.

The remains of seafaring vessels were found in four large, hand-hewn caves which were probably used as storage or boat houses from the Middle Kingdom to the early New Kingdom periods. Early examination revealed that each cave measured 60 square metres and had an entrance constructed of reused anchors, limestone blocks and wooden beams. Other stone anchors were located outside the entrances...

Sailing to Punt, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 782, February 16 - 22, 2006.

The discovery of a red granite head of a king with Nubian features in the precinct of Amenhotep III's temple on Luxor's West Bank has puzzled Egyptologists, writes Nevine El-Aref.

"This really is a very surprising discovery," Hourig Sourouzian, director of the German conservation project for the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III's temple, told Al-Ahram Weekly. She explained that since excavation of the site began in 1998 the mission had consistently stumbled upon homogenous New Kingdom statuaries until last week, when a well-preserved red granite royal head with Kushite features — full cheeks and bulging lips — was unearthed.

The 50-cm-tall head was found among several decaying granite block on a sandstone slab at the north end of the temple. Its top and right side were damaged, the nose was lightly chipped and the chin was broken. "It is a very beautiful head wearing a nemes (regal headdress)," says Sourouzian, who asserts that it does not belong to the area where it lay buried.

"If this head belongs to the Kushite period of the 25th dynasty, which is seven dynasties later than the reign of Amenhotep III, why is it deposited here?" Sourouzian asks...

Enigmatic discovery, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 782, February 16 - 22, 2006.

The first intact tomb since Tutankhamun's has been found in the Valley of the Kings. Nevine El-Aref witnessed the discovery.

Last Friday was a hot, sunny day in the Valley of the Kings, and no less than 50 journalists, photographers, TV anchors and directors were waiting with heightened expectations near a large pit located just across the pathway to Tutankhamun's tomb. They were following the progress being made by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and his Memphis University colleague Otto Shaden as they uncovered the first intact tomb to be found in the Valley of the Kings in 84 years.

As the two Egyptologists entered the pit for a preliminary view of its contents, the journalists were barred from following. Anxious to see what lay beneath, they reacted angrily, but a few minutes later they were permitted to enter the pit one by one to allow for the shortage of space. To access the tomb's entrance, everyone had to leap over a dozen huge stone blocks and then negotiate a five- metre-long wooden ladder. I found it hard to contend with these obstacles, but coming face to face with the royal mummies quickly caused my sufferings to melt away.

Through a 30-centimetre large hole it was possible to see five wooden anthropoid sarcophagi with painted faces resting undisturbed in a plain, rectangular rock-hewn tomb...

Face to face with ancient royals, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 782, February 16 - 22, 2006.

KV-63 ˜ Newly Discovered Tomb

Update information on KV-63 will be delayed until my return to the United States. Further information and photos will be posted pending evaluation.

Please see below for instructions regarding donations to our mission and contact information. All emails will be graciously forwarded to me in a timely manner.

We appreciate your support and well wishes.

Sincerely,

Dr. Otto J. Schaden

Director of the Amenmesse Project and KV-63...

There is very little on the site at the moment other than this one page with details of making a donation to the mission.

KV-63, Amenmesse Project, University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, February 12, 2006, via Jane Akshar at Luxor News

Although the Greeks invented the Olympics, the ancient Egyptians were no couch potatoes in athletic feats.

Pharaoh Amenhotep II — an accomplished horse rider, runner and archer — bragged that he was the greatest sportsman of all time and made sure royal sculptors captured his massive biceps and pecs.

The granite colossus of the 15th century B.C. ruler is just one of the ancient marvels that Turin's Egyptian Museum offers to visitors looking for a break from the Winter Games hosted by this northern city and the surrounding Alpine slopes.

The Museo Egizio claims one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities outside Cairo...

TUT IN TURIN: Ancient Egyptians at home in Olympic city, ESPN, USA, February 16, 2006.

The March / April 2006 issue of Archaeology Magazine is out now. It contains an article by Bob Brier entitled The Mystery of Unknown Man E.

Was a mummy found in less-than-royal wrappings a disgraced prince who plotted to murder his father, Ramesses III?

On a day at the end of June 1886, Gaston Maspero, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, was unwrapping the mummies of kings and queens found in a cache at Deir el-Bahri, near the Valley of the Kings. Inside a plain, undecorated coffin that offered no clues to the deceased's identity, Maspero found something that shocked him. There, wrapped in a sheepskin — a ritually unclean object for ancient Egyptians —was a young man, hands and feet bound, who seemed to be screaming. There was no incision on the left abdomen, through which the embalmers normally removed the internal organs; the man had not been afforded the traditional mummification. Maspero was convinced there had been foul play...

Daniel Fouquet, the physician who examined the mummy at the time, agreed that he had been poisoned and said, "the last convulsions of horrid agony can, after thousands of years, still be seen." A chemist named Mathey, who did some analyses on the mummy, felt that "the wretched man must have been deliberately asphyxiated —most likely by being buried alive..."

An abstract is online here The Mystery of Unknown Man E, Bob Brier, Archaeology Magazine, New York, USA, Volume 59 Number 2, March / April 2006.

Subscribe to Archaeology Magazine now at Amazon.com.

Archaeology magazine has a review of Antiquity & Photography: Early Views of Ancient Mediterranean Sites.

In 1839, the scientist François Arago introduced Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre's new way of capturing images to an excited audience in Paris. Arago himself was enthusiastic about it: "To copy the millions of hieroglyphs that cover even the exterior of the great monuments of Thebes, Memphis, Karnak, and others would require decades of time and legions of draftsmen. By daguerreotype, one person would suffice to accomplish this immense work successfully." That dream was never achieved, but the recording of archaeological monuments began almost as soon as Daguerre's and other photographic techniques were devised. More than 100 such images, made between 1840 and 1880, appear in Antiquity & Photography. Early Views of Ancient Mediterranean Sites (2005: J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, $65.00 / Thames and Hudson, London, £36.00 hardcover).

The volume consists of four long essays — an overview, assessments of early practitioners Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey and William James Stillman, and an in-depth look at Athens. An additional two "portfolios" complement the essays, presenting many images with basic information rather than a detailed discussion. The first portfolio is a sample of works by early French photographers and Briton Francis Frith in Egypt. The second has images by various photographers in Rome and Pompeii, as well as a number produced by the French firm of Braun, Clément, and Cie at various sites...

Photograph as Artifact, Mark Rose, Archaeology Magazine, New York, USA, Volume 59, Number 1, January / February 2006.

Buy the book now from .

The only map provided on the web so far is on the BBC website and it is actually incorrect.

Aayko Eyma of the EEF Forum has forwarded me the following maps for comparison KV63 - where it is NOT and KV63 - where it IS.

cf. Pharaonic tomb find stuns Egypt, BBC News, UK, February 10, 2006.

Someone has been rather fleet of foot and posted a KV63 page on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: KV63

The discovery of this Egyptian tomb is so big you can't even put a price tag on it. Nothing like this has been found since King Tut's tomb was uncovered in 1922. Yet, the University of Memphis sponsored archaeology team who made the discovery is scraping by on a shoe string budget.

There are five mummies in the tomb that have remained untouched and unseen for over three thousand years. Now for the rest of time they will be linked to the University of Memphis. Dr. Mariam Ayad, with the University, says the archaeological team actually made the discovery by accident when they were clearing out some workman huts. "Underneath the floor of one of the huts they discovered the shaft," says Ayad. After removing centuries worth of sand they found an unknown tomb in an area archaeologists have been digging in for decades. "For eighty-four years people have assumed there are no more tombs there. So, the combination of the intact find and where it was found is incredible," says Ayad. Ayad says you can't put a price tag on the publicity the University of Memphis has made from this discovery. But, you can put one on what the archaeology team will need to stay and continue their work. "It's all privately funded donations that are administered by the University of Memphis," says Ayad. Donations are what allows the team to work in Egypt. The country has asked them to stay and catalog the artefacts, but that will take more money.

They have received some funds from an out of sate donor. If you would like to give money call the University of Memphis at 901 678-2555 for more information.

Memphis Archaeologists Make Priceless Find But Still Need Funds, WREG-TV, Tennessee, February 15, 2006.

cf. Video version U of M Tomb Money, WREG-TV, Tennessee, February 15, 2006.

It seems that Tutankhamen, the teenage king of ancient Egypt, sloped off to the afterlife with a good supply of fine white wine. It's a surprising discovery, considering there is no record of white wine in Egypt until the 3rd century AD, 1600 years after the young pharaoh died.

Rosa Lamuela-Raventós and her colleagues from the University of Barcelona, Spain, used liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyse the residue from six of the jars in Tutankhamen's tomb. All contained tartaric acid, a chemical characteristic of grapes, but only one contained syringic acid, found in the skin of red grapes. It's this skin that gives red wine its colour.

The absence of the chemical in the other five jars suggests the wine in them was white. Because it is unlikely Egyptian wine makers would have removed red grape skins to create white wines as modern wine makers do, white grapes probably did exist in Tutankhamen's time...

Tutankhamen liked his wine white, New Scientist, UK, Issue 2539, p. 22, February 16, 2006.

cf. White wine was Tutankhamen's afterlife tipple, Sapa-AFP via IOL, South Africa, February 16, 2006.

cf. King Tut's taste, Yahoo! News, USA, February 16, 2006.

Previous stories have all been of the ‘King Tut liked red wine’ variety.

On February 16th 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb, the sixty-second in the valley, was unsealed in Egypt’ Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter.

The New York Times have the full text of their original 1923 article here: Tut-ankh-Amen's Inner Tomb is Opened Revealing Undreamed of Splendors, Still Untouched After 3,400 Years, New York Times, New York, USA, February 16, 1923.

[Mohammed Zakaria] Goneim assembled a crew "from the peasant class" and began to excavate just east of the Djoser pyramid. It was a dig that would come to define his life.

"To our delight, on the first day a massive wall of rubble-coursed masonry appeared," Goneim would write. The excavation crew quickly assembled a narrow-gauge railway, or decauville, to cart away sand and rock. Unearthed, the wall proved to be a buttressing device for a structure that had been built on a depression in the desert floor. Goneim soon concluded he was excavating a site "several times the size of Trafalgar Square in London."

Unlike the smooth-sided pyramids of later dynasties, Djoser's is built of smaller stone blocks that incline toward a central core of rubble. As Goneim's excavation progressed, the new site's structural similarity to Djoser led the archaeologist to believe he might have uncovered the "buried" pyramid of a hitherto-unknown pharaoh of the Third Dynasty...

This article is ten pages long!

Out of Egypt. From a long-buried pyramid to the Saint Louis Art Museum: The mysterious voyage of the Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask, Riverfront Times, Missouri, February 15, 2006.

cf. Previous post: This mask belongs to Egypt.

Archaeologists and officials meeting in Cairo on Wednesday deplored the deterioration of the country's ancient sites, which they attributed both to government agencies and to private individuals.

The assault, they said, runs from illegal construction activities to farming.

Zahi Hawass, director general of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, said that there were 6,000 such cases in 2003 but gave no more recent figures.

The governor of Cairo, Abdel Azim Wazir, said "certain government agencies degrade archaeological sites...

For his part, Hawass said that as many of 90 percent of the caretakers of sites allow improper activities in exchange for bribes...

Deterioration of Egypt archaeological sites deplored, Middle East Times, Cyprus, February 16, 2006.

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, is asking the St Louis Museum of Art to return an antiquity he says was looted from Saqqara.

The St Louis Art Museum is facing allegations that an ancient Egyptian mask in its collection was stolen from a warehouse in Saqqara, Egypt in the 1980s.

Dr Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told The Art Newspaper that he believes the so-called Mask of Ka-nefer-nefer was removed from Egypt illegally and that the SCA is now taking steps to launch an official restitution request...

“This mask belongs to Egypt”, The Art Newspaper, UK, February 15, 2006.

"The Library of Alexandria has digitized the contemporary and modern Egyptian history from the 19th century till now" Library Director Ismail Serag Eddin said Tuesday.

He added that the digital form has been undertaken by a host of IT experts from Egypt and other countries.

"Now we have up to 35,000 rare reference books and manuscripts on CDs," Magdy Nagi, the head of the library's IT department, said.

Egyptian contemporary modern history digitized, State Information Service, Egypt, February 15, 2006.

Now they just need to put the lot online and get Google to index them!

Archaeology have a review of The Archaeology Channel website.

The Archaeology Channel (archaeologychannel.org) is a moderately sized but content-rich website offering a small but growing collection of some 65 free videos. The selection is quite diverse geographically and thematically, and is designed for viewing by a wide audience, from children to professionals...

Channelling Archaeology, Beebe Bahrami, Archaeology, New York, USA, Volume 59, Number 2, March/April 2006.

The Archaeology Channel website have a couple of 22 minute videos of interest to Egyptophiles: Egypt: Gift of the Nile and Magic in ancient Egypt: Sacred things and secret places.

Marion True, former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and art dealer Robert Hecht are on trial in Italy and facing possible jail time, charged with conspiring to traffic in looted antiquities. Their partner Giacomo Medici, convicted in 2004 on similar charges, is currently appealing his 10-year sentence. Ellen Herscher, former director of international programs for the American Association of Museums and past chair of the AIA's cultural property legislation and policy committee, spoke to ARCHAEOLOGY about what ramifications the case may have on the future acquisition practices of America's most powerful museums...

Conversations: Museums on Trial, Archaeology Magazine, Volume 59, Number 2, March/April 2006.

cf. The Trial in Rome, Andrew L. Slayman, Archaeology Magazine, USA, February 06, 2006.

Lots of interesting stuff about the Euphronios Krater affair on the Scoop website by Suzan Mazur.

An editorial piece wondering how Memphis and the University of Memphis can capitalise on the discovery of KV63 by the U of M team.

... Now, how to capitalize on this monumental archaeological discovery just 15 feet from the spot where Howard Carter unearthed King Tut's tomb in 1922?

As quickly as possible, however, attention must turn to the question of how to exploit the find to the best advantage of the city and the university.

Would an exhibit in Memphis be possible? Not in the immediate future, according to Dr. Patricia Podzorski, the institute's curator of Egyptian art. It will take months to make sure the items are structurally sound enough to move and then to extract them...

Editorial 02/11: A big dig for Memphis, Commercial Appeal, Tennessee, February 11, 2006.

Hundreds of rare and unique items usually sequestered from public view in climate-controlled storage at University of California, Berkeley's, Bancroft Library went on display last weekend at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

The exhibit, which is scheduled to run through Dec. 10 [2006], includes treasures from the library's Western Americana collection, such as the original nugget that sparked the Gold Rush, unpublished notebooks of Mark Twain and Dorothea Lange photos of Japanese relocation during World War II.

Other items to be displayed include first editions of William Shakespeare, ancient Egyptian papyri and Aztec manuscripts that are among the library's oldest items.

The exhibit marks the 100th anniversary of the library, which is one of the most important archival collections in the nation.

Cal library shows off treasures, Inside Bay Area, California, USA, February 15, 2006.

cf. Previous post: UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library to reveal hundreds of historical relics.

Jane Akshar has posted further information and pictures from the press circus at the Valley of the Kings last Friday where she was present.

KV63 the new Tomb in the Valley of Kings - Photos, Jane Akshar, Luxor News, Egypt, February 11, 2006.

Jane has also penned a ‘feature story’ for Tour Egypt on the KV63 discovery The Discovery in West Thebes (KV 63): A New Tomb on the West Bank at Luxor, Jane Akshar, Tour Egypt, Texas, USA, February 13, 2006.

Lost in the avalanche of press reports about the KV63 discovery, Queen Tiye statues, Sekhmet statues, Amenhotep III statues and 25th dynasty pharaonic statues, Francesco Tiradritti's Harwa excavation team have discovered a new tomb.

It is said to lie between the temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari and the Valley of the Kings.

I have only seen this Italian press report and nothing in English so you'll have to wade through the tosh the machine translators turn out.

Scoperto nuovo sepolcro nella Valle dei Re , Avvenire, Italy, January 06, 2006.

See the update here: Update on new tomb discovered near Deir el Bahari.

A blind couple is suing the organizers of the King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale.

Tom and Debbie Ryan claim the exhibit fails to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The Ryans claim they were unable to locate overhead descriptive signs and found the museum's restrooms, parking and aisles to be inaccessible. Other disabled patrons have also supported their claim.

Organizers have not yet responded to the allegations.

Blind Couple Sues Organizers Of King Tut Exhibit, Local10, Florida, USA, February 13, 2006.

Finding this article reminded me that I had missed posting a similar one a few days ago.

Several disabled museum patrons have sued the organizers of the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit for allegedly failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

All Disabled Americans Inc. and five of its members allege in a complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court that the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale provides "inadequate access to people with mobility and visual disabilities" at the Tut exhibit.

Some of the members of the Indiana-based group use wheelchairs or power motor scooters, while others are blind. During a visit to the exhibit, they were unable to read overhead descriptive signs and found the museum's restrooms, parking and access aisles to be inaccessible, according to the complaint...

Fort Lauderdale museum sued over disabled access to Tut exhibit, Bradenton Herald Today, Florida, USA, February 10, 2006.

Satellite technology has more than doubled the number of ancient sites known in part of the Nile valley, a new study shows. Although most of the sites date from Roman times rather than from the Pharaonic period, the dramatic increase suggests reasons why earlier sites have remained undetected. The survey was carried out on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the famous abandoned city of Tell el-Amarna or Akhetaten, the short-lived capital of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th century BC. A sample area of 30km by 15km was chosen: Napoleon’s survey of 1798 had noted 12 sites in the area, and by 2004 the number had risen to only 23. Some recorded earlier may have been lost, Sarah Parcak explains in Egyptian Archaeology: “Sites that existed as distinct tells in Middle Egypt during the early 19th century may have been either levelled or built over.”

Dr Parcak used a combination of different satellite images, including high-resolution photographs taken in the 1960s and 1970s, when there was somewhat less building development, and multispectral electronic images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite in 2002. In addition the Quickbird satellite, which has a pixel size of only 60cm (2ft) and allows very detailed images to be constructed, was used on some sites, including Akhetaten itself...

Stone Age artists are getting older, The Times, UK, February 13, 2006.

cf. Sarah Parcak received her PhD from Cambridge University, and is the director of the Middle Egypt Survey Project.

Hassan Saadallah

Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary-General Zahi Hawass is to open the First Conference on Encroachments on Archaeological Sites tomorrow.

"The conference will tackle the problem of encroachments and their impact on antiquities," said Hawass, stressing the need for the concerned bodies to play an active role in this.

Hawass noted that the conference will also discuss the possibility of introducing new laws and legislation to stop the encroachments, which are increasing all the time.

"The conference aims to decide on a plan to deal with the problem," added Hawass, who is expected to suggest that participants adopt a bilateral protocol between the SCA and the concerned bodies — different governorates, the Antiquities and Tourist Police and local councils — in a bid to expedite the removal of the encroachments and preserve the country's archaeological heritage.

The conference will also focus on enhancing archaeological and the cultural awareness of public and non-governmental organisations, as well as the role the media can play in preventing encroachments.

Preventing archaeological encroachments, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 14, 2006.

A County Antrim man who helped discover an intact Egyptian tomb has said he was privileged to be involved in the find.

Alistair Dickey, 26, from Broughshane, was part of the University of Memphis-led team which found the tomb and five mummies.

"It is a dream come true, I'm very privileged to have been involved — it doesn't happen to many archaeologists — you could go your whole career and not find anything like this at all..."

Archaeologist 'privileged' at role, BBC News, UK, February 14, 2006.

cf. Archaeologist Digs A Path For Home, Northern Ireland News Letter, UK, February 13, 2006.

No new information really, but a few items of interest.

They got sidetracked after a team member, Irish archeologist Alistair Dickey, unearthed a precisely cut corner stone. He cleared more earth away and found the start of a vertical shaft.

Other team members gathered around. They watched the shaft get deeper as more earth was cleared.

Their wary expectations deepened, as well.

"How far would it go? How deep would it be? Would there be a door? Would there be stairs? All these thoughts were running through our minds — until finally we noticed the top of the door," Corcoran said.

The door, about 20 feet below ground level, was blocked by limestone chips. The diggers cleared an opening about 6 inches high.

Dickey and team photographer Heather Alexander peered inside. In the darkness, they saw forms.

Alexander, flat on her stomach, aimed her flashlight inside.

"They saw a face, a really beautiful painted face. Painted yellow," Corcoran said. "Then they called up and said, 'We see pottery!' That was really the exciting moment."

University of Memphis scientists 'on air' after Egyptian tomb discovery, The Tennessean, Tennessee, USA, February 13, 2006.

Paul LeRoy of Tacoma got hooked on the study of mummies, pharaohs and ancient Egypt as a 10-year-old when he saw Boris Karloff in the movie “The Mummy.”

LeRoy also has donated money to the search for tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, outside Luxor.

His investment paid off this week with the discovery of the first tomb — containing five coffins with mummies — since King Tut’s tomb in 1922.

Tomb hound hits pay dirt, Tacoma News Tribune, Washington, USA, February 11, 2006.

The following from NPR is audio.

Dr. Lorelei Corcoran discusses with Robert Siegel the recent findings from the archeological dig at Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The Egyptologist and the director of the Institute for Egyptian Art and Archeology was at the site today and is the academic sponsor of the dig.

New Discoveries at Egyptian Tomb, NPR, District of Columbia, USA, February 10, 2006.

Another audio story from the BBC world service.

Tomb find stuns Egypt, BBC News, UK, February 10, 2006.

Yahoo News have set up a slideshow for the tomb find itself rather than adding them to the Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

New Tomb Discovered in Egypt, Yahoo! News, USA, February 13, 2006.

by Zahi Hawass

The story of the governor's tomb began in 1947 when Ahmed Fakhry, an Egyptian archaeologist, excavated three tombs, dating to 26th Dynasty. These tombs belonged to Ta-Nefert-Bastet, Thaty, and Bedashtar.

When Fakhry discovered these tombs he was more interested in exploring as much as possible. So, they were briefly described and left unexcavated. Over time, desert sand reburies sites as it had done for thousands of years. I realised there was more to this particular group of tombs.

Before I excavated Bahariya, it was my dream to discover the tomb of its most powerful governor during the 26th Dynasty, Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh. This had also been Fakhry's dream. When I was a young man I felt a special connection with Fakhry, whose books I read while I was in college. When I read about the "Lost Tomb," something captured my imagination. I was determined to discover this tomb as a dedication to him.

At the end of our 1999 season, two young men came to me and told me that they could tell me something very important that would help me make a huge discovery and they would lead me personally to the location. I asked them what they wanted from me, and they wanted jobs in the Inspectorate, perhaps as security officers.

They said that five men were going to dig under houses near the cenotaph of Sheikh Soby for artefacts to sell. There were many tombs there. I asked, "are you sure of this information?" The young men swore they were telling the truth. I told them that if we found the tombs, we would give them both jobs at the Antiquities office in Bahariya.

One night Ashry and I went to Sheikh Soby to watch, but nothing happened. The next day, we went into one of the houses and saw a hole in the floor. When we looked inside we were amazed to see painted scenes of a tomb chapel about fifteen to twenty feet underground. At the bottom of this shaft there was a maze of rounded rooms forming chambers and corridors of the three tombs Ahmed Fakhry had discovered in 1947.

Discovery of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh - Governor of Bahariya (Part 1), The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, February 13, 2006.

cf. More Egyptian Mummies Keep Telling Their Secrets, The New York Times, New York, USA, September 11, 2000.

cf. Finding the Tomb of the Pharaoh's Vizier in the 'Valley of the Mummies', egyptvoyager.com, undated.

cf. Dig Days: Treasures under the modern houses, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 761, September 22 - 28, 2005.

"No-one can be buried in the Valley of the Kings except kings and important people related to the kings. Therefore these mummies have to be kings or queens or important people like nobles or the father or the mother of a king." [said Hawass]

"It could be the gardener," Otto Schaden, the head of the US team, joked to Hawass at the site. "But it's somebody who had the favour of the king."

Valley of the Kings unveils new secrets, The Scotsman, UK, February 11, 2006.

Bob Partridge, of the Ancient Egypt Society, said it could possibly be the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, who co-ruled Egypt between 1379 and 1358 BC. Her tomb has never been found. *** Clarification: Bob is misquoted here, he was asked the question "Could this be Nefertiti?" and his answer was that it could be, but that it could also be a number of other individuals. The last part ended up on the cutting room floor as it were. Also Bob is editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine and there is no such beast as the Ancient Egypt Society.

New Pharaonic Tomb Found in Egypt, Periódico, Cuba, February 11, 2006.

The tomb contains five mummies from the 18th dynasty era (about 1567 BC to 1320 BC) in wooden sarcophagi with lids carved in human shapes and colored funerary masks. The tomb also contains 20 sealed clay storage jars used for offerings and as vessels for beer, the director of Luxor monuments, Mansour Borraiyk, said in a telephone interview from Luxor.

"This cache is important because it will tell us what the Valley of the Kings was really like," Mr. Borraiyk said. "It also proves that the Valley of the Kings is not exhausted. It has a lot to offer to us just waiting to be discovered."

U.S. Archaeologists Find New Tomb Close to King Tut, The New York Times, New York, USA, February 10, 2006.

A Long-Buried Tomb Is Opened in Egypt, The New York Times, New York, USA, February 11, 2006.

Earl Ertman, 73, helped find the burial site that has five sarcophagi with mummies and several pottery vessels. It's the first intact tomb to be found since King Tutankhamen's in 1922.

Details of the find were disclosed Friday by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Ertman is elated, his wife, Judy, said Friday. "It's the greatest find of his career."

[Patricia] Podzorski said the new tomb probably contains friends and family of royalty. No one could be buried in the valley without royal permission, and a tomb with a king or queen would not have so many bodies.

Summit man part of find, Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio, USA, February 11, 2006.

And a couple of videos.

Egypt Tomb: Bill Lunn, Bill Lunn, WMCTV, USA, February 10, 2006.

Another Valley of Kings Tomb, Ben Wedeman, CNN, USA, February 10, 2006.

Jane Akshar has posted a write up of today's media event in the Valley of the Kings on her blog.

KV63 the new Tomb in the Valley of Kings, Jane Akshar, Luxor News, Egypt, February 10, 2006.

Italian researchers have recovered part of a lost ancient Greek treatise, the earliest cartography of the Greek-Roman era, and a sketchbook for ancient painters — all by piecing together 50 fragments of a first- century B.C. parchment used in a mummy's wrapping.

Known as the papyrus of Artemidorus, the 2.5-meter- (eight-foot-) long and 32.5-centimeter- (13-inch-) wide parchment will go on display for the first time this week in Turin at the exhibition "The three lives of the papyrus of Artemidorus," which is part of the cultural events accompanying the Winter Olympics.

The papyrus "helps write new pages of Greek literature, cartography and art history," according to Claudio Gallazzi, a professor of Papyrology at the University of Milan and the exhibition's curator...

Papyrus Reveals Ancient Stories, Discovery Channel News, USA, February 08, 2006.

Eminent Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, the charismatic head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has told reporters his views on what has been dubbed the world’s first gay kiss. According to author Greg Reeder, speaking at a recent conference, a 4,000-year-old tomb in the necropolis at Saqqara, south of Cairo, decorated with images of two men holding hands and locked nose to nose could be art’s first homoerotic embrace. The tomb, which contains two men, was discovered in 1964 by the archaeologist Ahmed Moussa. And what is Mr Hawass’s take on the ancient paramours? He believes that the couple in question were brothers or even conjoined twins. The tomb is the burial place of the Fifth Dynasty King Niuserre’s manicurists and has become known as the “tomb of the hairdressers”...

Hawass disputes gay tomb, The Art Newspaper, UK, February 09, 2006.

Archaeologists have discovered an intact, ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

It is the first such discovery since the tomb of King Tutankhamun was found in 1922. Ian Pannell reports from Cairo.

Pharaonic tomb find stuns Egypt, BBC News, UK, February 10, 2006.

Through a partially opened underground door, Egyptian authorities gave a peek Friday into the first new tomb uncovered in the Valley of the Kings since that of King Tutankhamun in 1922. U.S. archaeologists said they discovered the tomb by accident while working on a nearby site.

On Friday, Egyptian antiquities authorities allowed journalists a first look into the tomb through the opening in the door, located at the bottom of a 30-foot shaft.

"It's ironic. A century ago, people said, 'The Valley of the Kings is exhausted, there's nothing left,'" [Kent Weeks] said. "Suddenly Carter found Tutankhamun. So then they said, 'Now there's nothing to find.' Then we found KV5. Now we have KV63."

Is this the first official use of KV63 as a number for the tomb? Click the picture above for nine new pictures from Reuters via Yahoo! News.

Journalists Get Peek Into Egyptian Tomb, AP via FOX News, USA, February 10, 2006.

Chicago is abuzz with excitement for The Field Museum's highly anticipated exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. The Field Museum announces it has sold 100,000 tickets to this blockbuster exhibition! More than 3,000 years after his reign, Tutankhamun, the celebrated "boy-king," has proven to be a cultural phenomenon in Chicago and around the world.

The 100,000 tickets sold to Tut include more than 565 groups of people from 32 different states. Visitors will travel to see Tut from as far away as Alaska, California, Florida and Pennsylvania. Memberships have also been selling at a record rate. The Museum has sold 17,461 memberships, including its popular premium memberships, Tut at Twilight and Royal Tut. Both Tut at Twilight and Royal Tut memberships include benefits such as discounted tickets, priority admission and exclusive member viewings...

100,000 Tut Tickets Sold!, WKYT 27, Kentucky, USA, February 09, 2006.

Nine new photographs from today's press on Getty Images.

New Tomb Discovered In Valley Of The Kings, Getty Images, USA, February 10, 2006.

Looking at the following image there definitely appears to be six sarcophagi.

Thanks to C Wayne Taylor at the HallOfMaat for the image.

“It was a wonderful thing. It was just so amazing to find an intact tomb here after all the work that’s been done before. This was totally unexpected,” [Edwin] Brock [the co-director of the University of Memphis team] said.

The new tomb did not appear to be that of a pharaoh, he said. “I don't think it’s a royal tomb, maybe members of the court.”

“Contemporaries of Tutankhamun are possible — or of Amenhotep III or even Horemheb,” he said. Based on their style, the jars appear to date to the late 18th Dynasty.

The coffins appear to have some damage from termites, Brock said. “Its going to take a lot of conservation work to consolidate these things before we can take them out,” he said of the sarcophagi.

Egyptian tomb 'probably of Pharaoh's court', icWales, UK, February 10, 2006.

Also there is confusion about the number of sarcophagi — CNN are suggesting six.

Photos released by the Supreme Council of Antiquities showed the interior of the tomb — the bare stone walls undecorated — with at least five sarcophagi of blackened wood amid white jars, some apparently broken. What appeared to be a sixth sarcophagus was set on top of two of the other coffins, though the council's statement mentioned only five.

Five mummies found at famed Egyptian site, CNN, USA, February 09, 2006.

"It's very, very exciting," said Patricia Podvorzski, curator of Egyptian Art at the University of Memphis. "It was completely unexpected, so long after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. Many archaeologists said the valley was done 100 years ago." Dr Schaden's find is the 63rd tomb to be opened in the valley...

Although the discovery came as a huge surprise, there had been a suspicion that something else might be found. "Some time ago a British team did remote sensing around the tomb and said they thought there might be something down there," said Dr Podvorzski...

Whatever the new tomb may contain, its fate is certain: Egypt's policy on undisturbed tombs is clear. "This stuff will stay in Egypt," said Dr Podvorzski.

Mummies found just yards from Tutankhamun's tomb, The Independent, UK, February 10, 2006.

cf. U of M-sponsored Find in Egypt Promises More "Wonderful Things", U of M News, University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, February 09, 2006.

Thanks to Nicole B. Hansen at Glyphdoctors for a couple of those links.

Some photos of the new tomb found in the Valley of the Kings by Otto Schaden's University of Memphis team. Photographs taken from Yahoo! News.

Anthropology & Archaeology Slideshow, Yahoo! News, USA, February 09, 2006.

cf. Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of Kings, AP via MSNBC, USA, February 09, 2006.

... Still unknown is who the tomb belonged to. U.S. archaeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the discovery but has seen photographs of the tomb's interior, said its appearance suggested it did not belong to a king. "It could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

No matter who is in the new tomb, its discovery shatters the nearly century-old perception that there was nothing left to discover in the Valley of the Kings, where it had long been believed that the 62 previously known tombs were all there was, said Weeks, who made the last major discovery in the valley. "It clearly proves that the Valley of the Kings is still not exhausted," he said. "There are probably more tombs to be found in it..."

New tomb discovered in Valley by American archaeologists, Pravda, Russia, February 09, 2006.

cf. New Tomb Found in Valley of Kings, AP via Yahoo! News, USA, February 09, 2006.

cf. More ancient mummies found in Egypt, UPI, USA, February 09, 2006.

American archaeologists have uncovered a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first new tomb to be uncovered there since King Tutankhamun's in 1922, Egypt's antiquities chief announced.

The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with coloured funerary masks along with more than 20 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement.

The statement, issued Wednesday, did not specify whether the tomb was believed to be that of a pharaoh. The 18th Dynasty ruled from around 1560 BC to 1085 BC, and Tutankhamun was among its kings.

A Memphis University team of archaeologists led by Otto Schaden found the tomb four meters below the ground, buried under rubble and stones five metres away from Tut's tomb.

Inside the rectangular tomb, the five wooden sarcophagi were surrounded by the jars, which appeared placed haphazardly, suggesting the burial was completed quickly, the statement by Hawass said...

New tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, AP via Jerusalem Post, Israel, February 09, 2006.

cf. EGYPT : FIRST DISCOVERY OF NEW TOMB IN VALLEY OF KINGS SINCE KING TUT'S, SAPA via African News Dimension, South Africa, February 09, 2006.

cf. ANCIENT MUMMIES DISCOVERED IN EGYPT, The Media Line, February 09, 2006.

An American team has found what appears to be an intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first found in the valley since that of Tutankhamun in 1922, one of the archaeologists said on Thursday.

The tomb contains five or six mummies in intact sarcophagi from the late 18th dynasty, about the same period as Tutankhamun, but the archaeologists have not yet had the time or the access to identify them, the archaeologist added...

These articles are saying five kilometres from Tutankhamun's tomb whereas it should read five metres. The tomb is being excavated by the team from University of Memphis, Tennessee and their website can be found here Amenmesse Project. Thanks to Bob Wickland over at HallOfMaat for the link..

Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Reuters via ABC News, USA, February 09, 2006.

cf. Intact tomb found in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, Reuters via Pierceland Herald, Saskatchewan, Canada, February 09, 2006.

cf. Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Reuters, USA, February 09, 2006.

Philadelphia's exhibit next year featuring the treasures of King Tut will be sponsored by Mellon Financial Corp., the company said Tuesday.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs will be held at the Franklin Institute from Feb. 3, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2007...

Mellon sponsoring Tut tour, Philadelphia Business Journal, Pennsylvania, USA, February 06, 2006.

cf. Mellon Financial Corporation Becomes Sponsor of 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' Exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Business Wire, USA, February 07, 2006.

Archaeologists who have been digging for more than a year at the villa of Roman Emperor Hadrian in Tivoli have unearthed a monumental staircase, a statue of an athlete and what appears to be a headless sphinx.

The findings were presented Tuesday by government officials who described the discoveries as extremely important for understanding the layout of the ruins. The staircase is believed to be the original entrance to the villa, which was built for Hadrian in the 2nd century A.D.

So far, 15 steps, each 27 feet wide, have been identified and archaeologists did not rule out uncovering more.

Officials said that the newly uncovered area of the site, northeast of Rome, would be open to the public within a year.

Archaeologists Unearth Headless Sphinx, AP via Yahoo! News, USA, February 07, 2006.

Yahoo! have a slideshow containing twelve pictures from the dig Anthropology & Archaeology Slideshow.

That famous golden face is on signs hanging along Fort Lauderdale's Broward Boulevard and the gigantic banner at the museum's entrance. It's on pamphlets advertising a special kid's adventure at Sawgrass Mills — "Be the Boy King at Wannado City!" — whatever that scarily entails. What you think is Tut's coffin is everywhere. Yet, it isn't really what you think it is. But more on this later.

The show is like Disney World, in more ways than one, filled with high expectations, some manipulation, and ultimately a well-stocked gift shop.

Just like in the Magic Kingdom, the first thing you'll do is queue up. You'll start your tour locked in a crowd-control room watching a portentous 90-second video with cameo narration by actor Omar Sharif — "A young boy, just 9 years old, ascended the throne. His name was Tutankhamun," Omar says — before you pass along into the exhibit...

Where's the Mummy?, Broward New Times, Florida, USA, February 09, 2006.

Two more articles found via the HallOfMaat in German.

There is more information in these two articles. There are five sarcophagi decorated with colourful masks. Some ceramics have been found – 20 large clay pots.

Erstmals seit 1922 Grab im Tal der Könige entdeckt , Handelsblatt, Germany, February 08, 2006.

cf. Ägypten: Grab im Tal der Könige entdeckt , Die Presse, Germany, February 08, 2006.

A French expedition unearthed two Middle and Old Kingdom anchors made of stones and parts of ships dating back to over 4,000 B.C.

The findings are located at Ain Sukhna in a copper mine at Al-Jalala Mountain where a group of furnaces have been found.

Monuments unearthed at Ain Sukhna, State Information Service, Egypt, February 08, 2006.

An American archaeological mission discovered a tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings next to the burial place of King Tut, Egyptian antiquities authorities announced Wednesday.

An excavation team from the University of Memphis made the find Tuesday 5 metres from Tutankhamun's tomb while the mission was doing routine excavation work, said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Some three metres beneath the ground, the tomb contained five human mummies with coloured funerary masks enclosed in sarcophagi and several large storage jars. The mummies date to the 18th dynasty (circa 1539-1292 BC).

Five mummies! Another 18th dynasty cache tomb perhaps?

Tomb discovered next to King Tut's Valley of the Kings burial site, DPA via Monster & Critics, UK, February 08, 2006.

cf. US dig uncovers King Tut's neighbours, Reuters via The Age, Australia, February 09, 2006.

As Chinese tourists flock to Egypt, the Egyptian government is taking steps to make sure the economic powerhouse and soon-to-be political heavyweight becomes one of our best friends.

A series of terrorist attacks at home and abroad, economic slumps in Europe and North America and spiralling airline prices propelled by the rising cost of fuel caused Egypt to fall short of the anticipated 9 million tourists by a half a million in 2005. European and American markets were the worst hit, and the effect on Egypt's tourist economy could have been much worse if someone hadn't picked up the slack.

That someone turned out to be China, which produced 10 percent of Egypt's visitors last year...

Out of the Red, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 02, February 2006.

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.

Subscribe now at Amazon.com.

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.

Focusing on three of the most important discoveries from the world of the ancient Egyptians, this series journeys back in time to explore Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, the Great Belzoni's finds from the reign of Rameses II and Champollion's deciphering of the hieroglyphs. Join Carter, Belzoni and Champollion as they overcome immense obstacles to unlock the secrets of an as-yet undiscovered world and reveal their seminal finds. Then travel even further back, to the amazing period of history unveiled by their astounding work.

The cover also states that it includes a bonus disc "Pyramid" which I assume is the BBC production "Pyramid Beyond Imagination"?

Buy the DVD from

... The countries on the Danish foreign ministry's travel advice list are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates...

Danes issue travel warning list, BBC News, UK, February 06, 2006.

With an enthralling past, Cairo, the oldest and most populous city in the Middle East, is full to the brim with historic buildings, each with their own spot in history. One of the most interesting newly restored sights is Manzel Zainab Khatoun or Zainab Khatoun's house, and the district surrounding it, Al-Darb al-Ahmar.

Al-Darb al-Ahmar, contains more than 100 major Islamic monuments and antiquities, and was built as an extension to Old Cairo to house society's elite. It is centred in an area that represents Cairo's Islamic historic identity and is next door to the Khan al-Khalili, the merchant quarter, and Al-Azhar, the worlds oldest university and perhaps the most influential centre of Sunni Islam.

Al-Darb al-Ahmar and Islamic Cairo, as a whole, were ignored in the late 19th century by the Khedives, the descendants of Mohammad Ali, who moved the seat of government to a new Italianate palace in Abdeen. This gave the public the chance to move to Al-Darb al-Ahmar, which in consequence gradually changed from a locale for the elite to a home for the poorer classes...

Historic Cairo offers visitors more sights than ever before, The Daily Star, Lebanon, February 06, 2006.

Some of the world's most precious archaeological treasures — the ancient Egyptian tombs and temples at Luxor — are being devastated by salt water that is eating their foundations, scientists have discovered.

The temples of Amun, Luxor and Karnak, designated World Heritage Sites, have survived 4,000 years of arid desert heat but are now being destroyed by rising ground water.

The threat has been uncovered by American Egyptologists, who have warned that urgent action is now needed. Their view has been backed by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. 'When I found out the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak were going to completely fall apart because of the rising water table, I was shocked,' Hawass said in an interview in Science...

Rising water threatens great temples of Egypt, The Observer, UK, February 05, 2006.

cf. Rising Water Poses Threat to Egypt's Antiquities, Andrew Lawler, Science, USA, Vol. 311, No. 5759, pp. 326 – 327, January 20, 2006. Subscription required.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni has approved carrying out an urgent project to renovate and develop the biggest tomb at the Luxor Pharaonic cemetery in Thebes'.

The project will be implemented in cooperation with the French Strasbourg University and the French Institute for Oriental Studies.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said the project aims at reaching deep areas inside the tomb. Hawass said the tomb dates back to the 26th Dynasty.

Biggest tomb at pharaonic Thebes's cemetery renovated, State Information Service, Egypt, January 29, 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.

Initial examinations revealed that the back of the statue is engraved with two columns of hieroglyphic text bearing different titles of king Amenhotep III, who ruled for 38 years during the 18th Dynasty. According to Sabri Abdel-Aziz, head of the SCA's Ancient Egypt Department, the inscriptions written on the statue also include a cartouche of a 21st Dynasty queen called Henutaw, which reveals that the same statue was used in a subsequent era...

Discovering Queen Tiye, Zahi Hawass, The Plateau, Guardian's Egypt, February 2006.

cf. Statue of King Tut's Grandmother Found, Discovery Channel News, USA, January 26, 2006. This article is longer than most that were around last week.

cf. Johns Hopkins Team Discovers Statue of Egyptian Queen, The JHU Gazette, John Hopkins University, Maryland, USA, Vol. 35, No. 19, January 30, 2006.

Roman palaces were adorned by the precious emerald stone, while Cleopatra declared Egyptian emerald mines her personal property. Join Mohamed El-Hebeishy as he digs up the story behind one of the oldest emerald mines in the world.

The Emerald Mountain — or rather Mons Smaragdus as the Romans used to call it — is a complex of around 180 square kilometres located in the central Egyptian Eastern Desert. Marsa Alam and the village of Sheikh Al-Shazli are the nearest urban centres to the site. Mons Smaragdus is composed of around nine small mining communities, with the one in Wadi Sikeit representing the most important archaeological site, due to the large temple carved into the body of the mountain.

The temple of Sikeit was first built during the Ptolemaic times...

Snap Shots, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 780, February 02 - 08, 2006.

A week-long symposium on Christianity and monasticism opens today at Sohag's White Monastery, reports Jill Kamil.

The community in Sohag has been showing such immense interest in the activities going on in and around their city for months now, in preparation for the third International Symposium on Coptic studies, said Coptologist Gawdat Gabra, that Fawzi Estephanos, president of the St Mark Foundation for Coptic Studies, along with members of the organising committee, decided to stage a public presentation on the event at the Coptic Cathedral.

"It was an opportunity to inform the residents of Sohag of the rich Christian heritage of the area," said Gabra.

The presentation was scheduled immediately before the reception and dinner for participants hosted by Bishop Pachom of Sohag.

The third symposium, which follows those convened in monasteries in Wadi Al-Natrun and Al-Fayoum, will continue until 7 February. Sohag has two monasteries, popularly known as the White and the Red, in reference to their construction in limestone and red brick respectively, and both are associated with St Shenoute, a local saint born in a village near Akhmim in the 4th century...

Sohag's heritage in focus, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 780, February 02 - 08, 2006.

Fourth-graders and their families travelled back in time to ancient Egypt Friday for the school's annual Egyptian Feast, celebrating a three-month integrated study of the Middle Eastern country that has become a class tradition.

Fourth-grade teacher Chris Gestay said the students have been studying Egypt since October, and the unit incorporates not only social studies, but geography, math, reading and writing. The feast is the highlight of the unit, she said.

"It really represents what Lincoln is all about, when it comes to delving deeper into material," she said.

Fourth-grade team leader Nancy Pollock said students also took a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's Egypt collection...

A feast fit for King Tut, Lincoln Journal, Massachusetts, USA, February 02, 2006.

The head of the Nicholson Museum has been pushed out and a longstanding staff member faces financial ruin as part of the controversial restructure of Sydney University's museums and art collections.

Dr Karin Sowada left the museum last year. An Egyptologist with nine years' experience at the museum and 14 archaeological excavations to her résumé, she was on maternity leave when she was informed her job was being revised and she would have to reapply for it. She applied but was passed over for her maternity-leave replacement, Michael Turner, a postgraduate student.

Although Sowada didn't want to comment on the restructure, which was conducted to bring the three museums into line and create positions that spanned them all, she said she was angered that the process was begun when she wasn't at work...

Pushed out of top job, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, February 03, 2006.

cf. New order: dust them down, show them off, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, February 03, 2006.

Tutankhamun was killed by a sword blow to the knee, Italian experts claim.

Two doctors from Bolzano University, long-time researchers into Italy's famed Iceman, were part of an international team that recently took another look at Egypt's most famous mummy.

The group found traces of gold leaf bearing animal symbols in the late pharaoh's right kneecap, leading them to surmise that it had fallen off Tutankhamun's raiment and lodged in a hole during mummification.

The hole in question appears to have been caused by a sword, they say...

King Tut slain by sword in the knee, ANSA, Italy, February 02, 2006.

The transcript for the NOVA program The Mummy Who Would Be King has been put online at the address below.

There are also transcripts available for Secrets of Lost Empires: This Old Pyramid, February 04, 1997; Secrets of Lost Empires: Obelisk, February 12, 1997; and Secrets of Lost Empires II: Pharaoh's Obelisk, February 08, 2000.

The Mummy Who Would Be King, NOVA, USA, January 03, 2006.

Creating Egyptian art was just part of a day's fun for Year 3 and 4 pupils at Shalfleet Primary School.

Painting was one of the activities with each pupil creating their own interpretations of Egyptian art using inks and specially-made reed pens.

The paintings will be put together to create a huge frieze to hang in the school.

As part of their half-term topic, the children also donned robes and bandages to look like mummies, peasants, slaves and gods for their Egyptian Day...

Putting the Inks in Sphinx, Isle of Wight Today, UK, February 01, 2006.

While attracting large numbers of museum visitors, the South Florida arm of the travelling King Tut exhibit also has attracted a large group of local volunteers, according to Leslie Bell, volunteer coordinator for the Museum of Art.

Roughly 300 volunteers help the museum by offering ticket information, greeting museum visitors and regulating the traffic flow inside and outside the museum. The volunteer team includes an additional group of 70 docents, who have each gone through extensive training in order to serve as tour guides for the King Tut exhibit.

"They trained all summer to be able to know and answer questions about the artefacts and ancient Egyptian culture," Bell said.

Many greeters and guides are local retirees, such as Brenda Wilburn, who used to work as an executive secretary and now employs the clerical and organizational skills she learned on the job to her volunteer work in the museum office. She also serves as a roaming docent...

Guiding visitors through King Tut's world, Miami Herald, Florida, USA, January 30, 2006.

Rameses: Death Of The First-Born is on channel five in the UK tonight at 8:00PM.

Updated to add the Christianity Today review below. 2nd edit to add a review from Biblical Apologetics.

In the Valley of the Kings, world-renowned Egyptologist Kent Weeks believes he has found the skull of Rameses II's first-born son. The Bible says he was struck down by God in the tenth plague, but using the latest forensic techniques, Weeks has found evidence of a violent death — casting fascinating new light on the story of the Exodus.

Previously shown in the states as Rameses: Wrath of God or Man.

cf. review at Archaeology magazine Mummies & Bones as Television Stars, Archaeology Magazine, New York, USA, December 02, 2004.

cf. review at DVD Verdict Rameses: Wrath Of God Or Man?, DVD Verdict, USA, April 27, 2005.

cf. review at Christianity Today Pharaoh's Firstborn, Proof of the Plagues?, Christianity Today, Illinois, USA, November 29, 2004.

cf. review at Biblical Apologetcs Discovery Channel Special on Ramses & Exodus, Biblical Apologetcs, USA, not dated.

cf. Discovery Channel's official site Rameses: Wrath Of God Or Man?, Discovery Channel, USA, 2004.

Check out this rather damning message from Nicole B. Hansen (one of Kent Weeks' team on the TMP) on the Forum of Amun Re: Ramesses show-trash-Kent Weeks agrees. Membership required.

American director John Heyman has nominated young Egyptian actress Mona Zaki for a leading role in the upcoming film "Nefertiti", which was written by Egyptian archaeological researcher Ahmed Osman, who resides in England.

The events of the film revolve around the time of Nefertiti’s reign over Egypt and after the death of her husband the Pharaoh Akhenaten.

The scenario of the film has faced many criticism because it discusses the point of view of the writer who published a thesis entitled "" stating that he is certain Akhenaten is the holy prophet Moses, reported the Egyptian daily Al Akhbar...

Mona Zaki Egypt’s Nefertiti, Al Bawaba, Jordan, January 25, 2006.

By the way, there is another Nefertiti film in the offing staring Halle Berry and directed by Marc Forster. See my earlier post Two Nefertiti movies? from last June.