King Tut's case is closed, top Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass has told Discovery News. Other, new exciting findings are waiting to be uncovered from the Egyptian sands.

In an exclusive interview with Discovery News, Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and one of the most famous Egyptologists in the world, said some shadows surrounding King Tut have now totally disappeared. Yet, he said, the dark will never be quite dispersed.

"We have carried out the deepest investigation on King Tut. We have to accept that some questions will never be answered," Hawass told Discovery News...

Egypt's Hawass Calls King Tut Case Closed, Discovery Channel News, New York, USA, march 07, 2006.

Ancient tombs in the Valley of Queens on the west bank of Luxor, 700 kilometres south of Cairo, are set to be renovated by a team of Egyptian and US experts, an Egyptian antiquities official said Tuesday.

Head of the Supreme Antiquities Council Zahi Hawass said that the council would coordinate with the US-based Getty Conservation Institute to renovate sites in the valley over a six-year period.

Getty Conservation Institute director Deborah Marrow said that the US team has been working on the restoration of Egyptian heritage since 1985.

Marrow said that the joint project would see a combined team document and assess 80 tombs using maps and photos. In addition, the team would also provide geographical and environmental information on the site and evaluate any potential dangers to the valley, she said...

It sounds very similar to what the Theban Mapping Project has done for the Valley of the Kings.

Ancient tombs to be renovated in southern Egypt, dpa via Monster & Critics, UK, March 07, 2006.

cf. Valley of the Queens gets a Getty assist, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, March 08, 2006.

cf. Joint mission will see Luxor tombs renovated, Sapa-dpa via Independent Online, South Africa, March 08, 2006.

Professor Betsy Bryan is studying sex and the single pharaoh.

She teaches a course at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore called "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll in Ancient Egypt."

Her students analyze things like dirty hieroglyphics and love poems. Bryan says ancient Egyptians were a lot more fun than scholars may have thought.

She's discovered a spot where some of the partying took place. It was called the porch of drunkenness near the pyramids.

Bryan has an ulterior motive in teaching about partying like an Egyptian. She says it may interest more freshmen in majoring in Near Eastern studies.

Parties at the Pyramids, 6abc Action News, ???, USA, March 08, 2006.

Mobile's newest visitor is also the oldest, and he is definitely not a snowbird.

His name is Nesperennub, and he is 3,000 years old, give or take a few years, and he has come to share many of his innermost secrets — quite literally.

Nesperennub takes centre stage Thursday when the Gulf Coast Exploreum opens its new international exhibit, "Mummy: the inside story," which runs through July 31 [2006] at the museum in downtown Mobile...

Exploreum presents mummy exhibit, Mobile Register, Alabama, USA, March 08, 2006.

Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art has ushered its 500,000th visitor into "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." A London couple, Aidan and Maria Coletta, received an exhibition companion book penned by Egypt's secretary general of antiquities, Zahi Hawass; a King Tut pharaoh's hat; a Tut T-shirt; a box of See's chocolates and a sterling silver cartouche with the words "I love you" inscribed in hieroglyphs.

"It's a nice celebration for all involved," said Alexia Davis, promotions and public relations manager for the museum. "We all anticipated hitting this mark, but I don't know if we knew we'd hit it this early. It's a big number."

The spike in ticket sales is accompanied by unwavering media interest. Museum officials cite a flurry of Hispanic networks, which have filmed Tut's trove in recent weeks, including Univision, Telemundo and CNN en Español. "On a Sunday, you can be in the lobby and hear more Spanish being spoken than English," said communications manager Michael Mills...

King Ka-ching, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, march 08, 2006.

Whilst checking for the new issue of Minerva magazine I noticed that I hadn't posted that last one! It contains two articles of interest as follows.

• From Pharaohs to Emperors: Egyptian, Near Eastern & Classical Antiquities at Emory
  Peter Lacovara and Jasper Gaunt
• Egypt, Greece, Rome: Rejection & Contact
  Beatrix Gessler-Löhr

Minerva Magazine, London, UK, Volume 17, Number 1, January / February 2006.

Subscribe to Minerva Magazine via Amazon.com.

“Some people put on perfume in the morning,” he says. “My perfume is the sand. If I don’t smell the sand every day, I will die. Egypt is still so rich. I made a discovery recently in Saqqara. I haven’t announced it yet, but it will show that you can still discover cachets and” He pauses, and it’s the long, dramatic pause for which he is famous on international television. “and even whole pyramids in Egypt.”

This snippet comes from the end of the Egypt Today article posted yesterday. Thanks to Archaeologica for brining it to my attention.

Kings or Cooks?, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 03, March 2006.

The oldest known remains of seafaring ships have been identified in a series of cave stores on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Built of cedar and acacia wood, the ships had been attacked by marine worms, and the site seems to have been a shipbreaker’s yard dating to the middle of the second millennium BC.

The discovery, at Wadi Gawasis near the modern port of Safaga, also yielded boxes which give vital clues on Egyptian contact with the mysterious kingdom of Punt. The ship timbers there suggest that parts of pharaonic seagoing vessels were fabricated in the Nile Valley and transported overland for assembly on the coast, according to Cheryl Ward of Florida State University.

River vessels for use on the Nile have long been known, including the ceremonial boats from the Great Pyramid at Giza, dating to around 2,500BC, and four others of the reign of Senwosret III from Dashur not far to the south...

Red Sea timbers provide a raft of knowledge, The Times, UK, March 06, 2006.