The massive collection of illegal antiquities uncovered by authorities on the tiny Aegean island of Schinoussa is unique and probably the largest ever seen in Greece, police told Kathimerini yesterday.

Policemen and archaeologists were still combing through artefacts at the villa of an unnamed woman from a wealthy shipping family. The raid came after a search of her home in Athens, where more antiquities were found.

“I have never seen such unique items before in my life. I do not think I will ever handle such a big case again during my career,” an officer from the Antiquities Department of the Attica Police, who preferred not to be named, told Kathimerini...

Experts in awe of antiquity stash, Kathimerini, Greece, April 15, 2006.

The latest issue of Archaeology magazine is out now and contains the following articles of interest.

• City of the Dead
  by Andrew Lawler.
  
  The vast Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara is now emerging from the shadow of Giza and the Valley of the Kings.
  
  Pilgrim, priest, or pharaoh, each made the same sacred journey. Starting at dawn from the sprawling capital of Memphis along the west bank of the Nile River, they first crossed a shallow lake by boat to reach the great necropolis--a symbolic journey to the land of death. Stepping ashore, they began the climb up from the floodplain to the forbidding desert plateau. Silhouetted tombs of nobles from the 1st Dynasty appeared on the left, and, as the path curved south, ahead loomed the celebrated Step Pyramid, tomb of King Djoser, founder of the 3rd Dynasty (2662-2597 B.C.) and builder of Egypt's first pyramids. In the early morning sun, the massive 200-foot-high tomb with its six limestone-encased steps sparkled brightly. A dozen other royal pyramids, each at the centre of its own collection of temples and tombs, some enclosed by elaborate porticos and most filled with hand-carved reliefs in dim rooms, rose above the dusty plain. Smoke from offerings drifted over the site, day and night, blowing in the dry desert wind over the capital in the lush valley below.
• Reviews: Egypt's Missing King
  by Mark Rose.
  
  Egyptian bagpipers playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" outside the Cairo Museum? It sounds improbable, but it did happen. The mummy of Rameses I, ruler of Egypt circa 1298-1296 ("Mystery Mummy," March/April 2003, and "New Life for the Dead," September/October 2001) found in a museum in Niagara Falls, Canada, along with a two-headed calf and pig? Where it was viewed by Abe Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, and P.T. Barnum? Yes, that, too, might have happened.
• News: From the Trenches
  
  Exceptional discoveries seem to be the rule of the day in Egypt...

Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, Volume 59, Number 3, May / June 2006.

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An exhibition titled "The Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai," is on view through Friday, July 28, in the first floor lounge of the Department of Art and Archaeology in McCormick Hall.

The exhibition of 24 photographs was organized to commemorate Kurt Weitzmann (1904-93) and the Princeton-Michigan expeditions to Mount Sinai. Weitzmann, a professor of art and archaeology at Princeton from 1945 to 1972, and his colleague George Howard Forsyth Jr., a member of Princeton's class of 1923 and a professor at the University of Michigan, organized a series of expeditions between 1956 and 1965 to Egypt, with the aim of studying the Monastery of St. Catherine and its treasures...

Exhibition commemorates Sinai expeditions, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, April 15, 2006.

A provocative $4-million documentary by Toronto filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici claims to have found archaeological evidence verifying the story of the biblical Exodus from Egypt, 3,500 years ago...

... in Exodus Decoded, Mr. Jacobovici says he has found almost a dozen overlooked relics that confirm the biblical story...

... What experts will make of the high-tech documentary, with 45 minutes of computer graphic enhancement, is not clear. Mr. Jacobovici includes interviews with more than a dozen historians, archaeologists, geologists and writers that support key parts of his argument. These include the distinguished Egyptologist Donald Redford, now teaching at Penn State University. But no single scholar endorses the entire thesis...

Director posits proof of biblical Exodus, Globe and Mail, Ontario, Canada, April 14, 2006.

Farouk Geweida in the daily business El-Alam el-Yom referred to a letter from a tour guide warning that underground water is threatening the foundations of the ancient temple at Esna in Upper Egypt.

"The letter said that attempts to pump the water out from under the temple have been in vain. Experts say the only solution is to raise the temple on a platform of insulating material.

"Is there any way to avoid putting the lives of visitors at risk and save the temple?"

Save Esna Temple, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 17, 2006.

My Trip To Ancient Egypt: An Exhibition of Artefacts of a Pharaoh in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Spring break is the one week off from school in the middle of the semester where U.S. college students are free to do whatever they please. While the majority of students flock to the beaches of South Florida to enjoy their one week of freedom from anything scholastic, my friends and I went to Ft. Lauderdale to see the Tutankhamun Exhibit at the museum of art there. This exhibit started in Los Angeles, moved to Ft. Lauderdale, will move on to Chicago and Philadelphia as a part of its tour of the United States, then move to London before making its way home to Egypt. The popularity of this show was immense as tickets had to be purchased a month in advance for a specific time and date...

The Mummy Will Return, RP Online, Germany, April 18, 2006.

by Zahi Hawass

Most of our work during the third, fourth and fifth seasons was focused on preservation and conservation. We have treated all the mummies in situ to protect them from deterioration and infestation by insects, and we have carefully recorded all the artefacts we have found at both sites.

We have also constructed ceilings and doors for the tombs we have excavated. We have opened several tombs, from the 26th, Dynasty to the public. This was an immense job, which required installation of electricity, ventilation inside the tomb and landscaping outside.

One day I hope to have a major site museum at Bahariya; it will be the first of its kind built for a major discovery such as the Valley of the Golden Mummies.

I will never forget the first day of our excavation.

That evening, the team went to a café to discuss the excavation. The owner, Sheikh Rashed, came to me and said, "Sir, our town is so neglected. Next time you are on TV, will you talk about us?" Neither of us realised that I would soon be mentioning their little town in publications and programmes worldwide. Bahariya has become one of the most famous archaeological areas in the world. About ten thousand tourists travel there each year, and the region is finally entering the twenty-first century. There are hotels, cafés, markets and cars, and it is now possible to dial directly from Bahariya to anywhere in the world. Sheikh Rashed still has his café but now he has opened an internet café so that everyone can check their e-mail from Bahariya. I never thought anything like this would happen in an oasis deep in the Western Desert of Egypt.

My best estimate is that the valley holds about ten thousand mummies, but I feel we should let them rest undisturbed. The 253 mummies we have uncovered have given us an enormous amount of information to sift through. We have only scratched the surface of this site and the adventures will continue for many years to come.

The future of Bahariya, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 17, 2006.

The Egyptian Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which has been closed for refurbishment since September 2004, is due to re-open on May 27 2006.

Comprising three rooms, the revamped gallery will now explore the lives of Egyptian kings and the ordinary people of Ancient Egypt, as well as the fascinating process of death, burial and the other funerary rituals of the Ancient Egyptians.

With the earliest pieces in the Fitzwilliam collection dating from about 3100 BC, the original remit was to improve its display. However the refurbishment has also given staff at the museum a valuable chance to look at the conservation issues that needed to be dealt with...

New Egyptian gallery nears completion at Fitzwilliam museum, 24 Hour Museum, UK, April 18, 2006.

On April 20 the Fitzwilliam Museum will play host to the famous Liverpool poet, dramatist and storyteller Adrian Mitchell, who will be launching a competition for 14-17 year olds and over-18s.

The task will be for the young writers to construct a fairytale or write the ending to an ancient Egyptian tale. The beginning of the original story, about a prince doomed to die in one of three ways, is recorded on a piece of papyrus in the British Museum.

This will soon be on show at The Fitzwilliam, but the ending of the story has never been found - which is where the public and the competition come in...

Cambridge Wordfest comes to the Fitzwilliam's Egyptian gallery, 24 Hour Museum, UK, April 18, 2006.