A review of Jonathan Tokeley's .

His proposal to free us from this belief system is to argue that objects from ancient Egypt are a commodity or resource like any other. Like such things, they can be bought and sold, and they can also be privatized. Western dealers and auction houses should be free to operate within Egypt. This would force prices up to international levels, and eliminate corruption and secretive dealing. (More money might well put an end to the improvised cutting of corners which the author detects everywhere in Egypt, but it would also introduce other forms of behaviour, some of them less than desirable, and probably less than legal.) Because the market would be freed, objects of art would find their way into the hands of the latter-day equivalent of Plato’s Guardians, people of sensibility and wisdom who are fit to be entrusted with the benefits of civilization.

Presumably there is a difference between stealing to order and buying to order, but one still wonders how brave this proposed new world would turn out to be in practice. In recent years the economy of Egypt has been liberalized to some degree, and the beginnings of a freer market in antiquities have made themselves felt. But if there is progress of a sort being made here, one can only conclude that it will come in spite of a book like this, and not because of it...

How to own an artefact, John Ray, Times Literary Supplement, UK, August 16, 2006.

The exhibit [the Field Museum] in Chicago, titled "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," has 130 treasures from the tombs of Tut and his royal ancestors loaned by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.

The exhibit includes about 50 major artefacts from Tut's tomb, including one of the gold and inlaid canopic coffinettes that held internal organs. This one held his liver.

The other artefacts, including statues and jewellery of gold and semiprecious stones, are from other royal graves of the 18th Dynasty (1555-1305 BC)...

FIVE THINGS: About King Tut's return, Patricia Schroth, Detroit Free Press, Michigan, USA, August 25, 2006.

Nothing looks better in the Kimbell Art Museum than extremely large pieces of stone sculpture. Though the building was designed to hold a collection of European portraits and Asian art, when an ancient Egyptian show is installed, it seems as if the building were designed specifically for that purpose, and the works look like they were made for this particular space. No other period of art strikes such a resonant chord with the Kimbell.

Such is the case with "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh," an exhibit organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The large pink granite sphinxes of Hatshepsut; the black diorite figure of Senenmut holding Neferure, Hatshepsut's daughter; and the giant sandstone head of Thutmose I, Hatshepsut's father, look like they were made to reside for eternity in the marble halls of the Kimbell. The textural surfaces of rough stone polished to a sheen then pitted by time play against the similar surface of the Kimbell's cement and marble walls.

And the scale of gallery height to larger-than-life statue is quite flattering. Paintings hug the walls and leave the middle space a void, but these large statues fill the barrel vaults and command the gallery centre. They project like actors on a stage, becoming larger and more heroic...

A majestic use of Kimbell's space, Gaile Robinson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, USA, August 25, 2006.

With her scandalous back story of incest, usurpation and disappearance, you'd think that Hatshepsut would be one of the best-known Egyptian monarchs. Instead, she was lost for more than 3,000 years. Her stepson Thutmose III saw to that — he struck her name from official records, destroyed her temples and defaced her statues. Her cultural achievements that influenced successive dynasties were smashed into rubble, and the sands of millennia eventually buried all traces that she or they had ever existed...

The lost pharaoh, Gaile Robinson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, USA, August 25, 2006.

The hieroglyphics that cover the columns and walls of Egyptian temples are in danger of washing away. Groundwater constantly seeps into the stone on which they are engraved, depositing a corrosive layer of salt on the surface as it evaporates. Yet despite the danger that the precious inscriptions could soon be lost, Egyptologists still trace them by hand — a laborious and time consuming process. “It can take years to produce a final drawing,” says Peter Brand of the University of Memphis in Tennessee, who directs the Hypostyle Hall project at the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, near Luxor.

Now researchers working at Amun-Re are hoping a simple software tool developed by a team led by Élise Meyer of the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Strasbourg, France, will speed up the process. “The history of the Egyptian people is engraved on these walls and columns,” says Meyer. “If these inscriptions disappear, that history is lost.”

To transcribe the engravings, the system first transforms photographs of the object taken from different angles into a flattened, head-on image of its surface, using a technique commonly used to turn aerial images into maps. The Egyptologist then uses an adapted version of the AutoCAD 3D drawing program to record the hieroglyphic...

Egyptian inscriptions saved by a mouse, Celeste Biever, AlphaGalileo, August 23, 2006.

cf. Egyptian inscriptions saved by software, Celeste Biever, New Scientist, Issue 2566, August 26, 2006.

Last Tuesday Ramses Square was a hive of activity as engineers and technicians surrounded the 83-tonne red granite colossus of Ramses II while the massive vehicle which will be used to transport the statue to its new home approached to rest beneath the statue, which was already suspended in its stainless steel cage. On the other side Egyptian and foreign photographers, journalists and TV crews gathered to record the unique event. A sense of tension prevailed over the square, but everything went according to the planned schedule. The statue will remain in its cage on the vehicles until tomorrow at 1:00 am, when it will begin its overnight journey to the site of the planned Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau.

The move comes after three trial runs implemented by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Arab Contractors Company. The first and second runs took place using limestone blocks to test the weight of the colossus on the vehicles, the Monib Bridge and the roads, while the third was made with a replica statue to prepare the engineers and workmen sociologically and technically for handling the real statue, as well as checking any obstacle that might obstruct the smooth flow of the "royal" cavalcade.

Ramses II's journey from Cairo's main train station to the museum is expected to take from eight to 10 hours with a speed varying between five and seven kilometres per hour...

The pharaoh stirs, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 809, August 24 - 30, 2006.

cf. Massive statue of pharaoh to be moved from central Cairo, CBC, Canada, August 24, 2006.

cf. Giant Ramses statue gets new home, BBC News, UK, August 25, 2006.

Fascinated with ancient Egypt and the engineering marvels that this ancient civilization was able to pull off? Now imagine seeing a pyramid, a life-sized sarcophagus, a re-creation of Tutankhamen’s mask, plus much more all made entirely from hundreds of thousands of LEGO® bricks! Come discover the beauty and wonder of this lost world or challenge yourself to build your own version of Egypt. But don’t forget to take your picture as the face of an intricate Egyptian sarcophagus!

Until September 04, 2006.

LEGO®: Secrets of the Pharaohs, ScienceWorld, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2006.