Juichi Takahara, the Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in Egypt, and Mutsuo Kawadoko, the Director, the Archaeological Mission of the Middle Eastern Culture Centre in Japan, sign today a contract of the Japanese Grant Assistance. Under this contract, the Embassy of Japan extends a grant amounting to 82,148 dollars for the construction of an exhibition hall with a storehouse for cultural properties excavated from ruins in Sinai Peninsula, according to a press release from the embassy in Cairo.

The Archaeological Mission of the Middle Eastern Culture Centre in Japan has been carrying out the Archaeological research of the cultural properties excavated from ruins in Sinai Peninsula such as Wadi al Tur, Mt Naqus, Raya and al Kilani from more than 20 years.

Among the objects unearthed at al Kilani were 4000 fragments of manuscripts. The work is throwing new light on early Islam, its development of social and commercial networks, and its relation with Christian, Coptic and Byzantine cultures. Through this grant aid, it is expected that these important cultural properties will be well exhibited in order to attract more visitors and enhance the understanding about the history of Sinai Peninsula and its importance.

Japanese grant for archaeological mission, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, March 16, 2006.

Pravda revisit various tomb opening curse myths.

Raiders of Egyptian pyramids die mysterious deaths as they shatter pharaohs’ peace, Pravda, Russia, March 16, 2006.

The Book of the Dead is not a book about death. It is a book about life that conquered death. Strangely enough but such effective title that has become as known as pyramids, mummies and papyrus does not coincide with the content and the idea of the book at all. Moreover, its meaning is opposite to its original title. The Book of the Dead is just a part of the problem...

It has been a long time since the Europeans started thinking of the Ancient Egypt as of the land of dead where living people worshiped death and prepared to die long beforehand. Unfortunately, this old deception is present even in the modern mass culture (consider, The Mummy movie, for instance). It can be partly explained by the sources of our knowledge — more than 95 percent of the monuments of the Ancient Egypt are found in tombs.

At the same time, a non-expert will not associate all the Egyptian monuments with the world of the dead. Thus, for instance, the walls of some civilians' tombs show different aspects of life on Nile: agriculture, crafts, hunting, fishing etc. And they are shown rather gaily! Humorous pictures are not an exception here...

Egyptian Book of the Dead tells amazing stories of life, Pravda, Russia, February 08, 2006.

The new issue of Minerva magazine is available now. It contains one article that may be of interest to Egyptophiles as follows.

• The Getty Villa Reopened
  Jerome M. Eisenberg

Minerva Magazine, London, UK, Volume 17, Number 2, March / April 2006.

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