Egypt threatened Tuesday to take legal action against a US museum unless it returns an ancient mask in its collection that the authorities claim was stolen from a warehouse years ago.

The St Louis Art Museum has a week to turn over the 19th dynasty (1307-1196 BC) mask of Ka-nefer-nefer or face legal action, according to Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

"I have informed the American side in a letter that if they do no respond to our request we will take the necessary legal measures and file a case in a US court and inform Interpol," the antiquities chief said in a statement...

Egypt threatens to sue US museum over ancient mask, AFP via The Nation, Thailand, March 28, 2006.

Egypt is one of Africa's richest countries in terms of history. Egypt's history goes back to the ancient times before the Bible. The biblical and cultural history of Egypt is as diverse and intriguing as the undiscovered tombs and cities lying underneath the desert sand in Upper and Lower Egypt.

Cairo is a city full of life. One aspect I quickly noticed when I set foot in Cairo is the traffic. Cairo is home to over 16 million inhabitants of which an additional 2 million people commute into the city in the morning and depart at sunset. In spite of the city having huge multiple-lane spaghetti highways, the traffic is extremely heavy. As you approach the city centre, a highway of 3 lanes is tuned into 5. The most notorious motorists are the taxis. As one drives in the city, one of your hands will permanently remain on the horn. I thought Nairobi had the worst traffic congestion in Africa, but Egypt for sure makes Nairobi's traffic child-play...

The Great Pyramid Of Giza - A Monumental Structure, DailyIndia.com, India, March 27, 2006.

The Egyptian Tourist Authority has today launched its new official website www.egypt.travel.

The new portal provides information on everything from Egypt's historical and cultural attractions through to its beautiful beaches and activity based holidays including diving, safaris, yachting and golfing.

In addition, www.egypt.travel contains a news section with all the latest information on Egypt, a monthly events section highlighting all the main festivals and events taking place across the country through to the latest archaeological discoveries, such as the 3500 year old mummies found in Luxor.

www.egypt.travel also provides visitors with travel information such as visa requirements and useful phone numbers ensuring each visitor has all the necessary information to plan an enjoyable stay in Egypt...

Egyptian Tourist Authority Launches New Website, Travel Industry Wire, USA, March 28, 2006.

cf. Egyptian Tourist Authority Launches New Website, PR Newswire, USA, March 28, 2006.

History does not overflow with the names of composers and scientists who are women, but there is one arena in which women have done relatively well, says Met Egyptologist Dorothea Arnold, and that is national leadership.

Arnold ticks off just a few of the names — Elizabeth I of England, Maria Theresa of Austria, Catherine the Great of Russia. And, of course, Hatshepsut.

Hat Who?

The subject of an elegant and enlightening exhibit opening today at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for two decades (circa 1479-1458 B.C.) during the 18th Dynasty. She wasn't Egypt's first female ruler, nor was she most famously the last. That distinction belongs to the accomplished Cleopatra, who nonetheless drove Egypt into the controlling arms of Rome...

When Egypt was a woman, The Journal News, New York, USA, March 28, 2006.

This big, sumptuous block buster is our generation's answer to the famous — or infamous — King Tut blockbuster assembled at the Met back in 1976.

Or, if you want, it is the response of the present director, Philippe de Montebello, to Thomas Hoving, his predecessor and the man largely responsible for bringing King Tut to our shores.

The differences between the two exhibitions are quite clear. The earlier one lingers in the collective memory of the art world as a gaudy crowd-pleaser, intended to hike attendance figures with an abundance of gold jewellery. It also seemed to be utterly typical of Hoving's boisterous, bull-in-the-china shop tenure at the Met.

By contrast, Hatshepsut, which opens today, is an exercise in scholarship and restraint. The gold does not gleam as brightly as it did 30 years ago, and in its place you are apt to find sober gray granite, which, despite its supreme artistry, does not entice quite like the gleam of gold...

SHE'S NO TUT, New York Post, New York, USA, March 28, 2006.

Archaeologists claim to have unearthed the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax, the warrior-king who according to Homer's Iliad was one of the most revered fighters in the Trojan War.

Classicists hailed the discovery, made on a small Greek island, as evidence that the myths recounted by Homer in his epic poem were based on historical fact...

... Several relics of oriental and Cypriot origin were found at the site at Kanakia, such as bronze armour strips stamped with the emblem of Pharaoh Rameses II of Egypt, indicating trade or possible war in the 13th century BC...

Palace of Homer's hero rises out of the myths, The Times, UK, March 28, 2006.

cf. Palace of Trojan War hero found in Athens, AFP via Independent Online, South Africa, March 28, 2006.

cf. 'Palace of Ajax' found in Greece, BBC News, UK, March 28, 2006.

Dr. Nicholas Reeves has posted a five part article detailing the work done by the Amarna Royal Tombs Project in the Valley of the Kings. This includes pictures of the ground penetrating radar results from directly above KV63.

Unlike most excavations which have worked in Egypt the Amarna Royal Tombs Project is not a national enterprise but a determinedly international collaboration. Between 1998 and 2002 ARTP fielded annually for several months a uniquely qualified team of some thirty archaeologists and technical staff drawn from Egypt and Africa, the United States, Japan and a range of European countries. Because of this international character the project was able to draw freely upon the immense goodwill of several countries, in particular Japan where generous financial and material support from a number of major companies — including Kajima, Pasco, Sony and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) — was ably coordinated by our Associate Project Director Yumiko Ueno (formerly Institute of Silk Road Studies, Kamakura; currently Ancient Orient Museum, Tokyo)...

Amarna Royal Tombs Project, Dr. Nicholas Reeves, Valley of the Kings Foundation, UK, March 16 - 23, 2006.

by Hassan Saadallah

Tutankhamun's death at the age of 19, only 10 years into his reign, didn't give him the chance to achieve anything remarkable. He can therefore be described as one of the least of Ancient Egypt's kings. Nevertheless, he is also the greatest, if his enduring worldwide popularity is anything to go by.

"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 why millions will flock to the exhibition called 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs', being held in Philadelphia and three other US cities.

Wonderful treasures have been found in Tut's tomb and the tombs of other royalty in Egypt's Valley of the Kings and at other ancient Egyptian sites.

We're talking about priceless artefacts — exquisite works of art in stone, wood, earthenware, gold and jewels - beautifully preserved, even after around 3,500 years.

More importantly, these objects have helped us piece together the story of a civilisation: how the people lived, how they worshipped and how they prepared for the afterlife.

The hieroglyphs in the catacombs of King Tut have enabled us to reveal the truth behind the mysterious death of King Tut, a stunning puzzle fit to perplex the most experienced detective.

And by the way, the curse of Tutankhamun lives on. Why else was there a violent storm when a tomb was recently opened in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor? What else would account for the fact that the expensive, high-tech X-ray machine suddenly broke down for no good reason, while specialists were still examining the tomb?

"The project to examine the ancient mummies consists of four stages," says Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"The first stage involves examining the photographs of the five mummies discovered in the Valley of the Kings. Then the second stage in September will witness 10,000 'ordinary' [i.e. non-royal] mummies being transferred to el-Fostat [in Old Cairo] for treatment.

"In the third stage, we're going to study the golden mummies discovered in Bahariya Oasis. The fourth stage of this exclusively Egyptian project will involve further study of the royal mummies," Hawass adds.

Clearly, the local authorities are taking great care of these priceless treasures, an irreplaceable part of Egypt's rich heritage. But be assured of one thing: sooner or later, the curse of King Tut is sure to strike again.

The curse returns, The Egyptian Mail, Egypt, March 25, 2006.

by Zahi Hawass

The next area we began to clear was northeast of the tomb of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh. To our surprise, this work revealed the tomb of Ped-Isis, father of Djed-Khonsu-ef-ankh.

This is one of the oldest tombs here. It was built in the same style as the tomb of Naesa, with the burial chamber continuing an anthropoid sarcophagus and an inner chamber. Unfortunately, the entrance to the tomb had been completely destroyed because it was used as sewer by one of the houses above. We even found sewage inside the sarcophagus.

The water from the houses above has also destroyed the beautiful scenes that had once adorned the walls. Most of them had come away from the walls and we found pieces on the ground. However, these fragments do give us a small glimpse of how beautiful these scenes must have been. Fakhry believed that Ped-Isis had also been the governor of Bahariya after his father, Ped-Amun.

The anthropoid sarcophagus found in the tomb was crafted from local sandstone, and measured seven feet three inches long. Depicted on the sarcophagus is Ped-Isis with a priestly beard. This tells us that he was also a high priest of Amun-Re. The lid of the sarcophagus had been broken into three pieces and the mummy was almost completely deteriorated. When he cleaned the sarcophagus we found six wadjet-eyes of varying sizes, an amethyst scarab, four turquoise djed-pillar amulets and five carnelian amulets in different shapes.

But the biggest surprise was that we found approximately thirty shawabtis to the right of the sarcophagus that had been incorrectly carved. Each measured an inch high and inscribed on them it read: "The Osiris, Ped-Isis, born of Amun-Itieb." This is a mistake in the carving, for it should read: "The Osiris, Ped-Isis, born of Ped-Amun and not Amun-Itieb.

The tomb of Ped-Isis, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, March 27, 2006.

Egyptian sunken monuments recently retrieved will tour a number of European cities according to an agreement signed between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the European Institute for Sunken Archaeology in Alexandria.

Berlin and Paris will receive the Egyptian monuments between May 2006 and March 2007. Head of the institute Franck Goddio told MENA he requested an extension of the exhibition to visit two other European cities. The artefacts to be on display were selected by a joint Egyptian-European committee of specialists, he added.

For his part, SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass said that the project for retrieving sunken monuments has so far succeeded in reclaiming some 400 antiquities dating back to the reign of Cleopatra VII.

Egyptian sunken monuments on EU tour, State Information Service, Egypt, March 25, 2006.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has allocated $ 40 million to restore and develop Luxor's Western Bank. The project will be carried out in cooperation with the (SCA) Supreme Council for Antiquities, SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass told reporters on the sidelines of the Hatshepsut Exhibition in the New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Arts said that the aid will be mainly used to restore the Valley of Kings and Queens. Hawass said that an international centre for tourists will be set up to brief them on the ancient history of Egypt.

"It will be established outside the monuments area," he noted. The USAID has allocated $ 5 million to restore and develop Luxor's Eastern Bank.

USAID to restore, develop Luxor's Western Bank, State Information Service, Egypt, March 25, 2006.

The true mummy of ancient Egyptian queen Hatshepsut was discovered in the third floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Secretary General of Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawass revealed on Thursday.

The mummy was missing among thousands of artefacts lying in the museum, he said during his lecture at the New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Arts.

He said for decades archaeologists believed that a mummy found in Luxor was that of the Egyptian queen. It was a streak of luck, he said, to find this mummy...

Hatshepsut mummy found, State Information Service, Egypt, March 24, 2006.

They must have thought they had a bargain: a £1 million artefact carved 3,300 years ago by Ancient Egyptian artisans for just £440,000.

Inspected by the British Museum and sold through Christie’s, the Amarna Princess was one of only three known examples of the period. The reason for the knock-down price? Its mysterious owners wanted the piece to remain in Bolton.

But a police inquiry now suggests that the alabaster sculpture has less to do with Ancient Egypt and more to do with Bolton circa 2003.

Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques squad began an investigation two weeks ago when the British Museum reported the arrival of a suspicious Syrian relief. Curators who had been asked to inspect the relief for a private client observed that it had come from a similar source to the Amarna Princess. Police seized the relief and two other objects in London and impounded the Princess...

The ancient Egypt statue from Bolton (circa 2003), The Times, UK, March 27, 2006.

Due to a blog crash yesterday, four of my posts have disappeared down a black hole! I'll repost them straight after this post.