By Jill Kamil.

Treasures from the Roman period have been transported for exhibition at the Egyptian Museum in conjunction with the fifth conference of the Dakhla Oasis Project (DOP), which opened last Saturday. It was fitting introduction to an international gathering, at which presentations related to current fieldwork revealed how dramatically our knowledge of life in the oasis has increased in recent years.

Although the DOP, under the directorship of Anthony Mills of the Royal Ontario Museum, has been ongoing since 1977, Dakhla is the least known oasis of the Western Desert — or it was until this week. The conference organised by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Egyptian Museum has remedied that. Fred Leemhuis and Olaf Kaper of the NVIC invited scholars who have excavated and studied in Dakhla and the surrounding desert, as well as in neighbouring oases, to talk about their fields of specialisation, and the response was exceptional.

In addition to members of the DOP, Dutch, French, German and Egyptian experts presented papers on subjects that ranged from Palaeolithic and Neolithic activities to relatively recent 19th-century houses; from rock art and graffiti to Greek texts; and from pottery to temples to burial grounds. Papers were given on such diverse subjects as children and childhood as revealed in studies at a Kellis cemetery, infant weaning and feeding, evidence of arthritis within the Dakhla community, and magic...

Distant Dakhla, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 798, June 08 - 14, 2006.

By Jill Kamil.

To appreciate the significance of this African kingdom, which once controlled important trade routes from central Africa to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and in the third century BC held sway over the Nile to within reach of Aswan, it is important to note that Egyptologists tend to regard Lower Nubia as Egyptian territory, virtually an extension of Egypt.

This is not surprising, since it was their colony as far as the Second Cataract, where the powerful Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom constructed huge fortresses around 2000 BC. This frontier was later pushed further south when, in the New Kingdom (1567-1080 BC), Egypt controlled areas that Thutmose I claimed were "not known to my ancestors". Fine Pharaonic temples were built at Semna, Soleb and Sesibi, and Egyptian viceroys were appointed to govern all of Lower Nubia. For nearly 500 years it remained in the hands of high-ranking officials whose titles included "son of Kush". Egyptians were encouraged to take up residence in Nubia and Egypt's technological capabilities were introduced to the region.

A change came in the status of Nubia and Kush following a period of decline in Egypt when it became an ecclesiastical state under the High Priest Hrihor in about 1000 BC. Liberated from Egyptian domination, the Kushites set up an independent kingdom at Napata below the Fourth Cataract. This was African in origin but Egyptian in tradition and religious belief. That is to say, there was a Pharaonic-style court with its assembly of officials, Pharaonic titles, and a temple to the Egyptian god Amun-Re near Gebel Barkal...

An African kingdom on the Nile, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 798, June 08 - 14, 2006.

Sudan's fabled city on the Lower Nile is being excavated, conserved, and prepared for tourism, reports Jill Kamil.

In a lecture at the Canadian Institute of Archaeology in Cairo last month, Krzys Grzymski of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) described the use of modern technology to uncover the origins and topography, history and development of Meroe, an African kingdom which developed along the upper reaches of the Nile about 200km north of Khartoum between 800 BC and 350 AD.

"We began our operations in October 1999, and ancient Meroe is slowly coming to light," Grzymski said. "We first carried out a comprehensive survey of the area, and we are doing our work slowly and thoroughly. There is probably no greater danger to the preservation of an ancient site than hasty excavations, and much of our first season was spent walking over the entire area and recording surface material."

This exercise produced a number of surprises which included errors in earlier published plans of various buildings, numerous unrecorded inscriptions, some graffiti, and many beautifully carved blocks. "Perhaps the most exciting discovery was a stone block bearing the name of King Anlamani (c. 620-600 BC), one of the earliest datable objects ever found at Meroe," Grzymski said...

An African kingdom on the Nile, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 798, June 08 - 14, 2006.

At a gala on Tuesday evening in the enchanting Mohamed Ali Shubra Palace, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak witnessed the launching of a fund-raising campaign for the construction of the planned Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau, writes Nevine El-Aref. The campaign aims at collecting $250 million from Egyptian and international businessmen and banks as part of a total approximate budget projected at $550 million. Early last month, the Japanese government granted Egypt a $300 million loan on easy terms, due after a 10-year grace period, to be settled in instalments in another 30 years with an interest rate of 1.5 per cent.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said the dinner was "a great opportunity to encourage every Egyptian to contribute even a brick to build such an awe-inspiring cultural, archaeological and touristic institute." He announced that the Federation of Egyptian Banks had promised to contribute LE7.5 million.

Farouk Abdel-Salam, first undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture, listed several options when contributing. "It could be via financing the cultivation of a garden like Egypt's Land or Nile Garden or by providing a kids museum and one for scientists and a lab."

Newsreel: Museum funds, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 798, June 08 - 14, 2006.

Rumours surrounding the Karnak Development Project have finally been scotched, reports Nevine El-Aref.

Rumours of the environmental disaster that would be wreaked by the Karnak Development Project, approved by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and Luxor City Council (LCC), began to circulate early in May. The project would, said its detractors, destroy the context of Karnak Temple, and in its attempts to prevent further encroachment had opted for cosmetic solutions. A two-metres wide concrete wall to be built around the temple, violating archaeological layers and creating a ring over the remains of five temples from the time of Akhenaten, almost dividing them in two areas, came in for special criticism, as did uprooting trees planted on the temple's northern side.

It was also reported that both the SCA and LCC had agreed that a marina be established, and that a 129 000-square-metre space between the temple and the Nile Bank be cleared, involving the demolition of bazaars, residential houses, the French mission's dig house and the wooden house built for French Egyptologist George Legrain. There were also rumours that the development project included a commercial centre comprising restaurants, a shopping mall and a parking area.

Shahira Mehrez, a specialist in Islamic Art, led a counter campaign against both SCA and LCC, sending a four-page report to UNESCO, accompanied with photos, criticising the project. In the report Mehrez argued that the isometric views of the project were misleading, since they ignored the differences in the level of the temple and the projected road. Nor, she said, had the project considered what the view would be like once the buildings had been demolished. "They want to demolish a charming mud brick village and thus expose five-storey high concrete buildings painted in an array of garish colours and covered in commercial advertising hoardings," Mehrez told Al-Ahram Weekly...

Karnak facelift approved, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 798, June 08 - 14, 2006.