Czech archaeologists have an impressive reputation around the world, working in many different countries. This week they all came together in Prague to swap notes, report on progress made and outline prospects for the future.

Czechs are now involved in excavation work in Egypt, Syria, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria and Kuwait. All have come up with some important finds, but it is the Egyptologists who have really made an international impact. After more than a century of research and 40 years of excavation work in the land of the Pharaohs, Czech archaeologists have many important finds to their name. Ladislav Bareš is head of the Czech Institute of Egyptology:

"Our work in Egypt definitely belongs to the most prestigious Czech archaeological work abroad. Out institute has been working in Egypt since 1960 and we have done quite a lot over that time..."

Czech Egyptologists report on rewarding work in the Land of the Pharaohs, Radio Praha, Czech Republic, April 27, 2006.

The British Museum's touring exhibit "Treasures of the World's Cultures" has attracted over 80,000 visitors in its first month.

"It is amazing that such an exhibit on foreign cultures has become so popular in Beijing," said Yao An, deputy curator of the Capital Museum of Beijing...

... The exhibit displays 272 artefacts including a 3,000-year-old mummy, an ancient statue of Dionysus, son of Zeus, a 2,100-year-old gold pendant featuring Aphrodite and Eros, and Leonardo da Vinci's works.

Treasures on show also include ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts, Roman sculptures and the world's oldest tool...

Touring exhibit of British Museum popular among Beijingers, People's Daily, China, April 28, 2006.

On a deserted green hill above the Aegean Sea, archaeologists have unearthed what may be the palace of Ajax, one of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology...

... Among the finds are tools, Cypriot pottery and bronzes, proof of relations with the eastern Mediterranean. But the most stunning discovery is a single bronze scale from an armour breastplate that bears the stamp of a famous Egyptian pharaoh.

Translated by professors Jacke Phillips and John Ray at Cambridge, it is the name of Rameses II who ruled Egypt during the 13th century BC. Lolos said it was possible that Salamina men had fought as mercenaries in the army of Rameses.

"The piece is ... unique," Phillips said. "I know of no other armour scale with a hieroglyphic inscription..."

Ajax's long-lost palace discovered on Greek island, Reuters via The Scotsman, UK, April 28, 2006.

Frustrated with the poor quality of many Web sites dealing with ancient Egypt, a professor at the University of California has decided to create an online encyclopaedia devoted to Egyptology.

Willemina Wendrich, a professor of Egyptian archaeology, had watched in dismay as the best resource for her subject, a seven-volume encyclopaedia in German, got more and more out of date because of the prohibitive cost of updating it.

Meanwhile, her students at UCLA were doing research for papers on the Internet, and being led astray. "The Web has a lot of wonderful information, and a lot of horrible information," she told Reuters in a telephone interview Thursday.

The UCLA Encyclopaedia of Egyptology, which will go online in 2008, will be peer-reviewed and will update when there are new discoveries, Wendrich said...

A single completely unrelated photo of the Psusennes gold mask was released with the story by Reuters and can be found here on Yahoo's Anthropology & Archaeology slideshow.

Egyptologists launching online encyclopaedia, Reuters via CNN, USA, April 28, 2006.

cf. Egyptologists launching online encyclopaedia, Reuters via CNN, USA, April 28, 2006.

A burnt olive tree has helped to resolve a controversy over dating key events in the Mediterranean that took place more than three millennia ago.

The new dates would change the chronology of the Minoans, Greeks, Cypriots and others by a century, realign history and raise questions about the Egyptian chronology and the genesis of Classical civilisation.

The rewriting of the history of the Aegean has come in part from an elaborate study of charcoal and seed samples from a number of sites dated to between 1700BC and 1400BC, and partly from a single olive tree. The gnarled stump was found in a volcanic rock layer on the Greek island of Santorini (Thera).

During the second millennium BC, it was the site of a massive eruption that blasted ash and rock for many miles around, burying many thriving civilisations in the Mediterranean, including Crete's famed Minoans...

Olive tree rewrites classical history, The Telegraph, UK, April 28, 2006.

cf. Olive Branch Buried by Volcano Revises History, Live Science, USA, April 27, 2006.

cf. Cultural recalibration, Science Magazine, AAAS, District of Columbia, USA, Vol. 312, no. 5773, April 28, 2006, p. 496. This is the Science article summary, a subscription is required to obtain the full version in PDF format.

It's the end of an era as one of the North East's most famous museum is emptied, in advance of a £26m revamp.

The Hancock Museum in Newcastle is to be converted into a Great North Museum with cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

And the 122-year-old museum will close its doors for good on Sunday, with the natural history and archaeological treasures housed there being packed up and moved out in preparation for the three-year closure.

Over the years, visitors to the Hancock have enjoyed a host of exhibitions, exploring dinosaurs, creepy-crawlies, Ancient Egypt and cult TV and films, to name but a few...

The Hancock museum was recently the home of an Egyptian exhibition called "Egypt Revealed – Life & Death in Ancient Egypt".

Making history, Newcastle Evening Chronicle, UK, April 21, 2006.

Czech archaeologists have a chance to uncover a royal palace and a royal government seat from the Pharaohs' era in Abusir, Egypt.

Miroslav Verner, long-term head of the Czech archaeological expedition in Egypt, told the Czech Archaeology Abroad conference that the royal buildings were probably situated at the border between the Nile valley and large burial grounds.

Czech archaeologists have also uncovered a number of shaft graves in Abusir dating back to 530-525 B.C.

One of the large tombs they have studied belonged to admiral Wedjahor-Resne, labelled as "the traitor of Egypt" over his collaboration with the Persians, said Czech Egyptologist Ladislav Bareš...

Czech archaeologists may uncover royal palace in Egypt, CTK via Prague Daily Monitor, Czech Republic, April 26, 2006.

cf. Czech Institute of Egyptology.

cf. Czech National Centre of Egyptology.

The new issue of National Geographic Magazine is out now and contains a feature on the Gospel of Judas.

National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Society, Washington, District of Columbia, USA, April 2006.

Subscribe to National Geographic Magazine via Amazon.com.

Polish archaeologists and conservationists working in Sudan will found a museum devoted to early Christianity in Nubia in the town Banganarti, where they will display their finds in the area.

The museum, scheduled to open in 2 years' time, will feature fragments of three early-Christian churches unearthed by Polish teams, the earliest dating from the time of Nubia's reversal to Christianity in the 6th-7th century, as well as portraits of Nubian kings.

Among the displayed relics will be parts of the onetime Archangel Raphael Church, one of the medieval world's main pilgrimage sites, whose basement contains tombs of Nubian rulers.

Poland builds archaeological museum in Sudan, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, April 24, 2006.

Blind visitors are now able to feel the magic of the Egyptian Museum, thanks to a special new gallery which will let them discover by touch the historic treasures.

The museum provides cards written with Braille, a system of touch reading for the blind, that explain all the information regarding antiques shown.

As one of the museums' educational role, the project aims to enable everyone to benefit and learn, especially blind people, Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said to reporters Sunday.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said that a group of blind people and people endowed with eyesight participate in the project by training and explaining to the blind from all ages...

New ways to teach blind about civilization, AlArab Online, UK, April 23, 2006.

A discovery by a group of French and Egyptian archaeologists Tuesday revealed that Egyptians enjoyed a public cooking service 3,200 years ago.

The traces of that ancient civilization were found in the city of Luxor, where Egyptians prepared meals for workers of the Pharaoh tombs, and where remains of a school for workers' children, a butcher and vegetable stores.

Expert Sabri Abdelaziz confirmed they served the workers bread, meat and vegetables.

According to Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, the kitchens were built in western Luxor, near the "Ramesseum", funerary temple erected in honour of Pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE)...

Egypt, Thousand-Year-Old Legacy Found, Prensa Latina, Cuba, April 25, 2006.

I first visited the Red Sea by taxi from Luxor to Hurghada 20 years ago. There was a tiny Sheraton hotel there, where I had the best Tom Collins I've ever tasted. But as myself and my girlfriend didn't dive, and there was little else to do in Hurghada, we caught the taxi back in the evening.

Hurghada went on to grow organically and become Egypt's first Red Sea resort, an alternative to the Valley of the Kings and overloads of Egyptology. It didn't take long for the Sheraton to be joined by a dozen other international hotels, German dive instructors and windsurf schools.

And it also didn't take long for the Egyptians to recognise this new tourism potential. Within five years, Hurghada had been overtaken in popularity on The Sinai by Sharm-el-Sheikh - and as both burgeoned into über-resorts in the 1990s, so other sleepy villages were zoned for development...

Another Sinai bombing: where now for Egypt?, Steve Keenan, The Times, UK, April 25, 2006.

cf. 30 arrested in terrorist attacks in Egypt, AP via Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois, USA, April 26, 2006.

These days, we are less and less comfortable about having the monuments of other countries in our museums. When we go to the British Museum, or drive alongside the Thames and notice Cleopatra's Needle, the immediate response is not what it used to be. Fifty years ago, we might have thought: "How wonderful to live in a country with all these wonderful treasures." Now, we are just as likely to speculate as to who stole them, and how long it is going to be before they are handed back...

National sentiment often runs high in these matters. I remember once going round a temple in Egypt with some Italian friends, and the Egyptian guide remarked of a sarcophagus that its pair had long ago been "stolen" and was now "nel Sir John Soane Museo a Londra", giving me a very accusing glare...

Last week, I was on holiday in Sudan. The territories now lying within Sudan form a minor but fascinating part of the ancient Egyptian story, and I wanted to see what treasures were still there. Of course, it was difficult. Until recently, to visit historical sites outside Khartoum, you had to go to various ministries, asking civil servants to stamp your letter of request to see the pyramids at Meroe or the temples of Naqa. It is only in the past month or so that you have been able to just turn up and pay the price of admission...

Honour amongst thieves, Philip Hensher, The Guardian, UK, April 24, 2006.

The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale (MoA | FL) today announced that 707,534 people visited Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs during its run at the museum from December 15, 2005 to April 23, 2006. Sponsored by Northern Trust, the exhibition broke all previous attendance records at the museum and increased the membership base by 150 percent. The exhibit is organized by National Geographic, AEG Exhibitions and Arts and Exhibitions International, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and is sponsored locally by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida.

Roughly a month after opening, attendance numbers to the King Tut exhibition surpassed the two previous MoA | FL blockbuster exhibitions combined. "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes" touted more than 150,000 visitors in 2003-2004 and "Diana: A Celebration" drew more than 130,000 patrons in 2004-2005.

"It has been a tremendous honour for Florida to host the 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' exhibit over the past four months," said Governor Jeb Bush. "More than 700,000 visitors have seen this awe-inspiring collection, which has made a positive impact on our state's economy. As one of the top travel destinations in the world, we thank those who have come from far and wide to view this historic exhibition..."

'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' Breaks Attendance Records Drawing 707,534 Visitors to The Museum Of Art Fort Lauderdale, PR Newswire, USA, April 24, 2006.

cf. King Tut frenzy reigns right till closing time, Miami Herald, Florida, USA, April 25, 2006.

Aside from its mind bogglingly comprehensive permanent exhibits, the Met’s “Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh” amasses a once-in-a-lifetime collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts and art from the time of Hatshepsut’s reign.

The Hatshepsut exhibit, displaying a massive collection of art and sculpture, becomes a strange partner to the Walker exhibit; Walker, simply will not let the history of slavery rest, while the Hatshepsut exhibit makes no mention of the cost of ancient art.

One wonders whether slave labour had a hand in the glorious remnants of ancient Egypt. Amidst the praise for and objectification of the objects within the exhibit, one cannot hear mention of a producer, the forgotten labourer who had originally quarried the stone bearing Hatshepsut’s face...

Cross-dressing pharaohs and Hurricane Katrina, The Daily Colonial, The George Washington University, District of Columbia, USA, April 24, 2006

There is also a 12 minute audio special feature, where actor Sam Waterston narrates the story of Hatshepsut, that can be downloaded from The Metropolitan Museum of Art website as a podcast, an MP3 or a RealAudio stream.

by Hassan Saadallah

The Egyptian Museum will soon open a hall to display the four mummies of high priests. The mummies were found in sarcophagi dating back to the XX Dynasty (1188-1069 BC).

The hall, on the second floor of the museum, has been equipped with glass showcases and ventilation system costing LE6 million .

Eleven mummies of kings and princesses, dating back to the XXI and XXII Dynasties (1069-715 BC), will also be on display.

New hall for mummies, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 23, 2006.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni has given the go-ahead for the creation of Egypt's first judicial museum to document the judicial history of the country.

The museum will be registered as the first of its kind in the Arab world. It will display rare manuscripts and books in three pavilions at an estimated cost of LE450,000 .

First Egyptian judicial museum to be established, State Information Service, Egypt, April 16, 2006.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak and Mrs. Bernadette Chirac, Thursday co-inaugurated Imhotep Museum at Saqqara area, situated on the West Bank of the River Nile, about 30 km south of Cairo.

The Ministry of Culture has modernized the museum in tribute to Imhotep, who was the chief architect to the Third Dynasty King Djoser (2687-2668 BC).

Mrs. Mubarak and the French first lady toured the museum's various halls and watched a film about the history of Saqqara area.

They also made a tour of the Step Pyramid plateau, the causeway, the Serapeum: a gallery of tombs, Saqqara North and Saqqara South.

In addition to Djoser's, there are another 16 pyramids on the site, in various states of preservation or dilapidation.

Mrs. Mubarak, Mrs. Chirac Inaugurate Imhotep Museum in Saqqara, State Information Service, Egypt, April, 21, 2006.

The Egyptian people mark today [Monday] Sham el Naseem feast, Spring Festival. Families went out to gardens and national parks since the early morning to celebrate this day.

The feast of Sham al-Naseem is one of the Pharaonic feasts. It is celebrated by all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians.

Pharaonic feasts were related to the astrological phenomena and their relation to nature and life. They celebrated the Spring Feast on a date determined by the Spring equinox. On that day, night and day are equal when the sun rises over Aries. It is on the 25th of Barmehat. It says in their holy book that they thought that this day marked the beginning of creation...

Egypt marks Sham el Naseem, State Information Service, Egypt, April 24, 2006.

cf. Welcoming the spring, The Egyptian Mail, Egypt, April 22, 2006.

Three blasts tore through Dahab, a crowded resort town on the Sinai Peninsula, on Monday night, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 115.

The attack, the third at a popular Sinai resort in two years, once again raised the spectre of one of the United States' closest allies in the Arab world facing a home-grown terrorist threat trying to destabilize the government.

There was confusion in the hours after the blasts, but what was clear was that this resort town on the Gulf of Aqaba, a quaint tourist spot frequented by back-packers and scuba divers, was awash in blood on one of the most popular holiday weekends of the Egyptian calendar.

It was the third time that terrorists struck near a national holiday. It is on this day that Egypt celebrates the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Sinai in 1982...

30 Are Killed in Sinai as Bombs Rock Egyptian Resort City, The New York Times, New York, USA, April 25, 2006.

cf. 30 killed, 115 hurt as blasts again rip an Egyptian resort, Houston Chronicle, Texas, USA, April 24, 2006.

cf. Triple explosion spoils Easter for Egyptian resort, dpa via Monsters & Critics, UK, April 25, 2006.

cf. PM condemns Egypt terrorist bombings, AAP via The Age, Australia, April 25, 2006.

cf. Deadly blasts at Sinai resort town coincide with busy holiday, The Seattle Times, District of Columbia, April 25, 2006.

Lines wound around the block as the Museum of Art in downtown Fort Lauderdale offered its last showing of the exhibit Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs on Sunday.

The record-breaking exhibit, which opened Dec. 15, included 50 artefacts from the famous pharaoh's tomb, including his royal diadem and one of the inlaid coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs.

Another 80 objects from other tombs and temples in Egypt's Valley of the Kings were part of the display.

The exhibit drew about 5,000 to 8,000 visitors a day. It was the museum's most popular to date...

It's a wrap for King Tut exhibit in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, April 24, 2006.

"It's like having great in-laws staying with you," director Irv Lippman said. "You're sad they're leaving, but there's a time for them to go."

"And they're leaving a pot of jam for you," he said with a laugh.

Lippman's good spirits are well-founded. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" set an astonishing record for attendance. About 650,000 visitors flocking to gaze at gold and jewelled artefacts from the royal graves of Egypt's 18th Dynasty...

Tut leaves museum forever changed, Orlando Sentinel, Florida, USA, April 24, 2006.

cf. Tut bids farewell to South Florida, but his fascination stays on, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, April 23, 2006.

The discovery of gold cartouches dating back to 1400 BC sheds new light on the relationship between two ancient Egyptian rulers, Egypt's antiquities department said Friday.

A team of French and Egyptian archaeologists have discovered two sets of nine solid gold cartouches bearing the name of Tuthmose III (who ruled from 1479-1425 BC) near the pharaoh's stepmother Queen Hatshepsut's temple in Luxor, 700km south of Cairo.

"These cartouches... which have the names of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III have been found near Hatshepsut's obelisk which proves that the obelisk was erected by both rulers," said Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities...

Ancient gold cartouches found in Egypt, Independent Online, South Africa, April 23, 2006.

cf. Ancient objects found in Egypt, News 24, South Africa, April 21, 2006.

cf. Ancient gold cartouches unearthed in Egypt, Middle East Online, Cyprus, April 21, 2006.

cf. New treasure uncovered in Karnak Temple, State Information Service, Egypt, April 22, 2006.

In mid-June, noted archaeologist Zahi Hawass will present a lecture here titled “Recent Discoveries in Egypt.”

The talk — set for June 15 [2006] in TPAC’s Polk Theater — will cover such topics as recent finds near the pyramids and in the Valley of the Golden Mummies and the discovery of a new pyramid at Saqqara.

This one-night-only event featuring Hawass, an Egypt specialist familiar to TV viewers of National Geographic Channel and the Discovery Channel, is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. It’s being held in connection with the Frist’s upcoming exhibition, "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt," which is billed as featuring the largest group of antiquities ever offered on loan from Egypt for exhibit in North America...

Archaeologist to lecture on recent finds in Egypt, The Tennessean, Tennessee, USA, April 20, 2006.

Egypt's first site museum is to be opened today by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak and Bernadette Chirac, wife of French President Jacque Chirac, during their two-day visit to Egypt by invitation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Nevine El-Aref previewed the Imhotep Museum built at Saqqara in commemoration of the ancient Egyptian architect Imhotep and the renowned French Egyptologist Jean Philip Lauer.

The museum complex, with its gleaming white marble façade, stands at the foot of the Saqqara Plateau. The complex, three years in the building on a budget of LE20 million , offers a new perspective on site museums and could set an example for others planned by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) at other archaeological sites.

According to the site management programme launched by the SCA four years ago, such complexes will offer highly efficient storage space and will replace the haphazard storehouses which were regularly subject to theft. The artefacts will be housed in a suitable atmosphere to prevent deterioration.

The idea of such museum was floated in 1990, but the location chosen would have distorted the landscape and was considered inappropriate. The project was kept under wraps until 1997, when construction began on a new site...

Museum for a demi-god, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 791, April 20 - 26, 2006.