... The artefacts devoted to Senenmut, steward of Hatshepsut and tutor to her daughter, are among those that elicit the most curiosity and amazement. Senenmut’s origins were lowly, betokening little chance of gaining great influence. Yet he eventually became indispensable to Hatshepsut the King. Deemed the Great Steward of Amun during the seventh year of Hatshepsut’s rule, Senenmut oversaw the construction of the temples of Karnak, Luxor, the mortuary temple of the king herself and a massive funerary complex in Thebes.

He may also have had a significant impact on the development of sculpture, not least as it pertained to portrayals of himself. Writing in the catalog, Peter F. Dorman, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago, lists a number of “firsts” in the Senenmut corpus, many of which re-imagined traditional renderings of official functions. A raft of innovations specific to Senenmut’s tenure can't be mere coincidence; his influence is wide and deep...

Egyptian Queen Won Throne, But Her Steward Steals Show, The New York Observer, New York, USA, April 10, 2006.

... Among the many works on display at the Met are graceful statues of Hatshepsut as pharaoh, clad in the scarf and cobra symbolic of kingship, the short kilt worn by Egyptian men and the requisite false beard. Externals aside, there is no attempt to hide the pharaoh's gender: the body is slim, the face feminine, the eyes soft. The inscriptions refer to “king,”" but the linguistic references are feminine. Also on exhibit are sphinxes topped with the royal head that decorated her famous colonnaded temple Djeser-Djeseru in the Valley of the Kings; they are slender and feline, carved from various kinds of stone. One entire gallery is dedicated to the numerous — and innovative — statues of Senenmut, the royal tutor who cared for Hatshepsut’s daughter and who commissioned much of the art and architecture that defined Hatshepsut’s reign...

The Feminine Kingdom, Newsweek via MSNBC, USA, April 10 - 17, 2006.

It was a startling windfall, and one of the largest donations New York University had ever received: $200 million in cash and real estate for the founding of an ancient studies institute. The force behind the gift, the art collector Shelby White, described it as "the dream project of a lifetime" for her and her husband, the financier Leon Levy, who died in 2003. Yet while many greeted the gift last week as an exhilarating bonanza, it is stirring intense debate among archaeologists across the country, and even at N.Y.U.

By accepting the money, some argue, the university is tacitly approving Ms. White's practice of buying Greek and Roman antiquities, including some that experts believe were looted from archaeological sites. Some scholars point proudly to policies adopted by their own institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Cincinnati and Bryn Mawr College, to discourage or even ban the acceptance of Levy-White money.

To protest the donation, one professor has already resigned from N.Y.U.'s existing Centre for Ancient Studies...

$200 Million Gift Prompts a Debate Over Antiquities, The New York Times, New York, USA, April 01, 2006.

cf. Comment hereIndy Was Wrong — Sometimes It Doesn't Belong In A Museum, Plastic, April 05, 2006.

cf. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World to Be Created at NYU with $200 Million Gift, New York University, New York, USA, March 21, 2006.

... I have just enjoyed what is unquestionably the oddest — and most truly wonderful — experience yet. (If it were not for the fact that I'm in no hurry to go, I'd say I couldn't wait to see it in my obituary.) I have spent 10 days here in bustling, ebullient Cairo lecturing on the royal cat of the ancient Egyptians!

You may well wonder how and why I got into the royal and sacred cat business after interviewing Fidel, Yasser, Moammar and too many other scoundrels, renegades and scofflaws to mention. Then again, when you think about it, you may not wonder at all.

You see, 20 years ago I had a wonderful little street cat from Chicago who looked so much like the Egyptian god-cats — like the beautiful "Bastet" with her long, supple legs, her upright little ears and her Egyptian earrings and jewellery — that I gave him an Egyptian name, "Pasha." (He refused to wear the earrings.) But I was sure that he, too, was descended from the god-cats and was only lost in Chicago. When Pasha died, I got a lovely little Japanese Bobtail, a charming chap with a squirmy little bunny tail, whom I named "Nikko" after the beautiful Buddhist-Shinto shrine in Japan...

EGYPTIAN CAT SCHOLARSHIP WAS PURELY A LABOR OF LOVE, Yahoo! News, USA, April 04, 2006.

Considering her long life and even longer afterlife, it's not surprising that Westminster College's Egyptian mummy, [Pesed,] turns out to look more like a grandmummy.

In a newly constructed bust, Pesed, a 2,300-year-old mummy that was donated to the New Wilmington college in 1885 by a former student turned missionary, appears lined by age and the Egyptian sun. Researchers yesterday unveiled the results of their efforts to put a face to her name.

Reconstructed mummy busts are usually sculpted with a surface as smooth as a baby's bottom, noted Sam Farmerie, the college's curator of cultural artefacts...

Reconstruction reveals how Egyptian mummy may have looked in life, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania, USA, April 05, 2006.

cf. The mummy returns — Long-admired lady’s face revealed, The Sharon Herald, Pennsylvania, USA, April 04, 2006.

cf. Mummy's likeness comes of age, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pennsylvania, USA, April 05, 2006.

cf. Mummy's Likeness Displayed At Westminster College, CBS 3 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, April 05, 2006.

Most ancient Egyptian pillows were rather uncomfortable-looking headrests carved out of wood, ivory and stone, but scientists have just analyzed a 4,000-year-old Egyptian pillow made out of woven plant fibres that were encased in a wax coating.

The rare artefact, which dates to 2055-1985 B.C., suggests Cleopatra and other well-known ancient Egyptians may have snoozed on relatively fluffy pillows that perhaps biodegraded over time, leaving the hard headrests for modern archaeologists to find.

"If sleeping on fibre pillows and bedding occurred, it has not survived well or at all in the archaeological record of the ancient Near East," said Andy Gize, Judith Seath and Rosalie David...

Unusual Ancient Egyptian Pillow Analyzed, Discovery Channel News, USA, April 05, 2006.

by Hassan Saadallah

In cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Faculty of Music at Helwan University will offer a diploma course in Pharaonic music as of next September, an official said.

"The purpose of the new course is to encourage the nation's youth to take a keener interest in our Pharaonic heritage," added Professor Gawdat al-Malt of Helwan University. "The objective is also to prevent our wonderful Pharaonic civilisation from being consigned to oblivion."

Meanwhile, the SCA will be encouraging more students to visit museums and archaeological sites.

Registration for the Pharaonic music course will start in August at Helwan University's Faculty of Music, located in Zamalek.

Helwan Univ. to offer diploma in Pharaonic music, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 05, 2006.

From mummies to tomb artefacts to the rarest gold jewellery, ancient Egypt materializes in two months at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, but advance tickets already are on sale.

The highly anticipated Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt opens June 9 [2006] for a four-month run at 919 Broadway. It promises a unique glimpse at more than 100 artefacts dating from as early as 1550 B.C. through about 330 B.C.

Drawn from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Luxor Museum and the archaeological sites of Tanis and Deir el-Bahari, the show is described as the largest collection of artefacts ever loaned by the Egyptian government for display in North America.

Beyond the great age and rarity of the objects, organizers say, the thematic thrust of the show is ancient Egyptian thinking about the afterlife...

Anticipation builds for Frist's Quest for Immortality, The Tennessean, Tennessee, USA, April 04, 2006.