... 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.