On July 1, 1798, Bonaparte, just 29 years old, arrived off the coast of Egypt. With the young general were some 55,000 troops and another, much smaller group of scholars, engineers, and scientists, collectively known as the savants. As a military expedition, it was a disaster, and Napoleon himself secretly sailed back to France little more than a year later, abandoning his army, which was stranded when Nelson annihilated the French fleet. The expedition's saving grace and enduring legacy was the contribution of the 160 or so savants, whose research and investigations were published in the monumental Description de l'Égypte. This 23-volume compendium is the focus of Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt, a new exhibition at the Dahesh Museum of Art in New York.

There were ten volumes of illustrations in the Description de l'Égypte, with five devoted to ancient Egypt, three to Egyptian flora and fauna, and two to the "Modern State" (the country and culture as it was in 1798-1799). In all there were 837 copperplate engravings and more than 3,000 individual images. A selection of 80 of the plates, on loan from a private collection, forms the core of Napoleon on the Nile Rediscovery of Egypt. Complementing these are paintings and sculptures from the Dahesh Museum of Art's collections and a range of works and objects from a private collection. This includes decorative pieces (from commemorative medallions to Egyptian-inspired Wedgwood pottery), prints and other illustrations (notably anti-Napoleonic cartoons by James Gillray), and a number of letters and official documents signed by Napoleon and some of his most important generals. Lisa Small, associate curator at the Dahesh, has arranged this varied material in five sections: Napoleon and the Egyptian Campaign, The Savants and the Institut de l'Égypte, Ancient Egypt, Natural History, and Modern Egypt...

Napoleon on Madison, Mark Rose, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, June 09 2006.

From 1998 to 2002, the Amarna Royal Tombs Project (ARTP), led by Nicholas Reeves, undertook controlled stratigraphic excavation and geophysical surveying in the central area of the supposedly worked-out Valley of the Kings. Its impetus was both theoretical and practical, according to the project's website (www.valleyofthekings.org). It was influenced by a study of the immediate post-Amarna burials Tomb KV55 and Tomb KV62 (Tutankhamun) and what these two tombs seemed to reveal about other possible burials of the period in the immediate vicinity. And it was driven by a physical threat that the rubble fill of the Valley, and along with it most of the archaeology, might be removed wholesale to combat the seriously damaging effects of flash-flooding on the open tombs. "My particular quarry was the burial place of Nefertiti, Akhenaten's wife and coregent (who, I concluded, had been buried in the Valley as and when she died)," says Reeves. Also of interest were the "whereabouts of Akhenaten's secondary consort Kiya, his second daughter Meketaten and other lesser members of the royal family who had originally been interred at El-Amarna." As the work progressed, however, Reeves discovered that extensive key areas in the Valley were archaeologically intact, and priorities necessarily changed.

But the project was brought to a halt in 2002. Reeves was falsely accused of involvement in antiquities smuggling and his permit was revoked. In August 2005, he was officially cleared of any wrongdoing by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), though not allowed to return to his work in the Valley. In the interim, the area under investigation by ARTP had begun to be excavated by Otto Schaden and a team from the University of Memphis, which had been at work on KV10, the nearby tomb of Amenmesse. In 2005, Schaden found the top of the shaft leading to KV63, not knowing that it had been detected during geophysical prospecting by ARTP in 2000...

Another New Tomb in the Valley of the Kings?, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, August 03 2006.

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

• Pyramid Scheme
  by Beth Kampschror.
  Has a Houston contractor discovered the world's oldest pyramid in Bosnia?
• Raiding the Tomb Raiders
  by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini.
  How Italy cracked the network of looters, smugglers, and dealers supplying American Museums.
• Untold Stories
  by Jane C. Waldbaum president of the Archaeological Institute of America.
  Looted objects are robbed of meaning.
• Conversations: Redeeming Archaeology
  by Dorothy Lippert of the Smithsonian Institute.
  Dorothy Lippert on why repatriation is a good thing.

Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, Volume 59, Number 4, July / August 2006.

Subscribe to Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

The latest issue of the French language magazine “Toutankhamon” is out now.

Actualités :
Le Musée Imhotep de Saqqarah

Les dernières fouilles de Karnak, avec l'interview du directeur de la mission franco-ègyptienne de Karnak, Emmanuel Laroze

Dossier spécial pharaons
Narmer, Djoser, Khéops, Pépi II, Montouhotep II, les Sésostris, le roi Hor, Kamosis, Amosis, Thoutmosis I, Hatshepsout, Thoutmosis III, Aménophis III, Akhenaton, Toutankhamon, Horemheb, Séthy I, Ramsès II, Ramsès III, les Psousennés, les Psammétique, les Nectanébo, Ptolémée I, Cléopâtre VII!

Voyager
Gizeh : les pyramides servies sur un plateau !

Which approximately says...

Current events:
The Imhotep Museum at Saqqara

Last excavations at Karnak, an interview with the director of the French-Egyptian mission at Karnak, Emmanuel Laroze

Special on the Pharaohs
Narmer, Djoser, Khufu, Pepi II, Mentuhotep II, Senusret, king Hor, Kamose, Ahmose, Thutmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Horemheb, Seti I, Ramses II, Ramses III, Psusennes, Psamtik, Nectanebo, Ptolemy I, Cleopatra VII!

Travel
Giza: The Pyramids on the plateau!

Toutankhamon Magazine, Editions Neptune Diffusion, France, Issue 28, August / September 2006.