Two articles of interest in the University of Pennsylvania latest Expedition magazine

• The Archaeology of South Abydos — Egypt's Late Middle Kingdom in Microcosm
  Josef Wegner
• David Randall-MacIver — Explorer of Abydos and Curator of the Egyptian Section
  Jennifer Houser Wegner

Expedition Magazine, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA, Volume 48, Number 2, Summer 2006.

The new issue of Minerva magazine is available now. It contains a couple of articles that may be of interest to Egyptophiles as follows.

• Egypt’s Sunken Treasures in Berlin
  Peter Clayton
• A Tale of Two Cities: The Coins from Herakleion and Canopus
  Andrew Meadows

Minerva Magazine, London, UK, Volume 17, Number 4, July / August 2006.

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The latest issue of Current World Archaeology is out now and contains three article of interest to Egyptophiles.

• The cemetery of Zoser
  The excavations at a fashionable Old Kingdom cemetery lying just behind the step pyramid of Zoser [Djoser], Saqqara, Egypt. (12 pages)
• View from the Field: In search of desert glass
  Egypt's green-yellow desert glass (2 pages)
• King Tut at Oxford
  The many and diverse records of the Tutankhamun tomb excavation are brought into the 21^st century. (4 pages)

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 6, Issue 18, August / September 2006.

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The latest issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine is out now. Below is a summary of its contents.

• Hedgehogs in ancient Egyptian art
  Magda van Ryneveld explains why the humble hedgehog features so often in ancient Egyptian art.
• Harvesting a pharaoh
  An unexpected discovery in the Eighteenth Dynasty tomb of Anen at Thebes brought a lost painting back to life. Lyla Pinch-Brock describes how.
• Clothing culture: dress in Egypt in the first millennium AD
  Frances Pritchard reports on a new exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.
• Menkaura’s anthropoid coffin
  A wooden coffin found in the pyramid of Menkaure bears the king’s name. But was it really his? Paul Boughton investigates.
• Vivant Denon’s “mysterious cache”
  Marianne Luban reports on the activities of one of the first collectors of Egyptian antiquities, at the end of the eighteenth century.
• The New Tomb in the Valley of the Kings
  Another update from Roxanne Wilson, a member of the excavation team, on the recent discovery and the progress made in clearing the small chamber.
• Friends of Nekhen News
  Renée Friedman looks at the decorated tombs at Hierakonpolis, whose inscriptions and decoration can tell us so much about life in the city in Dynastic times.
• Two Sphinxes of Amenhotep III in St Petersburg
  Robert Partridge.

Ancient Egypt Magazine, Empire Publications, Manchester, UK, Volume 7, No. 1, Issue 37, August / September 2006.

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World famous archaeologist, author and international television personality Dr Zahi Hawass, arrives in South Africa this month for a one week lecture tour. Hawass, renowned equally as head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities as for his regular appearances on DSTV’s National Geographic Channel, will present a series of illustrated talks on new discoveries in the Pyramids.

Scheduled to take place in Johannesburg (Monday 14 August) and Cape Town (Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 August), Hawass’s lectures will be compelling for all members of the public who are intrigued by the mysteries and marvels of Egypt.

Since ancient times the pyramids have engendered great fascination. This is particularly true of the pyramids of Giza, especially Khufu’s Great Pyramid with its enigmatic chambers, shafts and passages. As Director of the Giza Pyramids excavation, Dr Hawass is in a unique position to investigate these mysteries, and to share his insight and experiences with audiences around the world...

'King of Egyptology' visits SA, Iafrica.com, South Africa, August 11, 2006.

cf. WORLD RENOWNED EGYPTOLOGIST TO SPEAK AT WITS UNIVERSITY, lin2media, South Africa, August 11, 2006.

cf. University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg.

Radiocarbon data from 150 archaeological excavations in the now hyper-arid Eastern Sahara of Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and Chad reveal close links between climatic variations and prehistoric occupation during the past 12,000 years. Synoptic multiple-indicator views for major time slices demonstrate the transition from initial settlement after the sudden onset of humid conditions at 8500 B.C.E. to the exodus resulting from gradual desiccation since 5300 B.C.E. Southward shifting of the desert margin helped trigger the emergence of pharaonic civilization along the Nile, influenced the spread of pastoralism throughout the continent, and affects sub-Saharan Africa to the present day...

Climate-Controlled Holocene Occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa's Evolution, Rudolph Kuper and Stefan Kröpelin, Science, Vol. 313, no. 5788, pp. 803 - 807, August 11, 2006. Subscription required

cf. This post from last month Exodus From Drying Sahara Gave Rise to Pharaohs, Study Says.

El-Raghy, founder of Centamin Mining, had returned home to look at the Rosetta Mineral Sands Deposit, a valuable, if unglamorous, 37-metric-ton deposit of ilmenite and zircon located 60 kilometres east of Alexandria. While he was visiting the offices of the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA), he noticed an unusual wall hanging: a copy of the oldest geologic map in the world.

The 3,200-year-old papyrus map, discovered in Luxor in 1820, showed the locations of the Pharaonic mines in the Fawakhir district between present-day Edfu and Marsa Alam.

Intrigued, Sami quickly concluded his business in Rosetta and made his way to the Eastern Desert to seek out the long-dormant mines of the Pharaohs...

A Gold Mine Worth LE 23 Billion (and counting), Cache Seel, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 08, August 2006.

Centamin, I knew, was doing some interesting things down near Marsa Alam, where it has a concession that includes several old Pharaonic gold mines that have sat largely unworked for centuries. In fact, the Pharaohs mined more than 95 percent of all the gold that has ever been produced in Egypt, and the last to work the site were the British, who had barely started exploring the long-forgotten mines before they were booted out of the country in the run-up to the revolution...

Go for Gold, Patrick FitzPatrick, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 08, August 2006.