Ancient Egypt developed over 3,000 years ago, and still today I'm fascinated by that historical period. And I'm even more fascinated by the Japanese company Solid Alliance's announcement of the new Hieroglyph Love USB Memory keys. What's special about these USB keys is that hieroglyphics are on them.

From left to right, the five USB Keys mean: Ankh (Always Together), Gentle Heart, Courtship, Love, and Joy.

According to the company, "In ancient Egypt, hieroglyphs carried a sacred power to chronicle events and protect beliefs. We have created USB keys containing the same powerful words as the hieroglyphic script of ancient times. A surge of "love", "joy" and the like can be drawn to you even as your data is protected."

Each Hieroglyph Love USB Memory key holds 256MB, supports USB 2.0, and sells for ¥3,680 Yen (˜$31.50 USD, [˜£16.50]).

That's quite expensive really for a 256MB USB flash drive as you can easily get a branded 1GB one from for the same price. For example the Sandisk Cruzer Crossfire 1GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive.

Hieroglyph Love USB Memory Keys: Spread the Love, Jennifer DeLeo, GearLog, August 30, 2006.

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will open its next major exhibition, Treasures of Ancient Egypt, on Oct. 5 [2006].

The exhibit will feature more than 200 Egyptian artefacts on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"After listening to our visitors and understanding that it was the Egyptian portion of Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World that was of most interest, we booked this exhibition from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," notes gallery director Jeffrey Spalding.

Treasures of Ancient Egypt presents a broad range of works from statuary and relief, to coffins, the funerary arts and everyday objects. Much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from the temples and tombs that housed the gods and served as eternal resting places for the dead. These tombs were filled with statuary, clothing, jewellery, furniture, pottery, tools and weapons.

Egyptian treasures coming to AGNS, The Halifax Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 30, 2006.

Andrew Dalby, author of , argues that the attribution of the poems to Homer was founded on a falsehood.

Homer’s link to the poems, Dalby writes, stems from an “ill- informed postclassical text, the anonymous Life of Homer, fraudulently ascribed to Herodotus,” a respected Greek historian who lived from around 484-425 B.C.

Herodotus does mention Homer in his work Histories, but by then the legend of the mysterious, blind, male poet had already taken root, Dalby says.

Dalby explained to Discovery News that the earliest references to Homer by writers such as Herodotus and the Greek poet Pindar indicate the poet lived around 800 B.C.

But based on geographical references in the poems, Dalby believes the Iliad was composed in 650 B.C., while the Odyssey was written in 630 B.C., well after Homer’s supposed lifetime...

Scholar: Iliad, Odyssey Penned by Woman, Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, USA, August 28, 2006.

The US billionaire Philip Anschutz will rein back investment at the Millennium Dome, scrapping plans to build two luxury hotels, a Cirque du Soleil-style theatre and exhibition centre, if the licence to build Britain's first mega-casino is not granted to the Greenwich site, an inquiry heard yesterday...

But the government last year cut the number of mega-casino licences to one. Since then, AEG has made clear it will scrap a string of investments if casino plans are thwarted. Vulnerable proposals include that of making London the European stop for its Tutankhamun exhibition. AEG will also withdraw its involvement in film promotions at the dome's proposed cinema complex...

Dome hotels will be axed if casino is refused, inquiry told, Simon Bowers, The Guardian, UK, August 31, 2006.

Before the Kimbell Art Museum opens “Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh” on Sunday, bone up on your mummy myths and facts [with this quiz]...

I expect nothing less than 100%!

Trivia: Ancient Egypt 101, Shannon Sutlief, The Dallas Morning News, Texas, USA, August 25, 2006.

See how the former King of Egypt lived when you browse about the Egyptian Museum, located in Cairo, Egypt. More than 120,000 items can be found at this museum, ranging from ancient sculptures to alluring artefacts hailing from the tomb of King Tut. With a collection boasting intriguing items from around the world, the British Museum in London is a great alternative for the Egyptian Museum, which offers the largest ancient Egyptian art outside of Cairo. Although this museum is home to roughly 7 million artefacts, you will have the opportunity to visit 4 million of these highly regarded gems...

The Most Visited Worldwide Museums, Yona Williams, Associated Content, Colorado, USA, August 29, 2006.

Archaeologists moving graves in an old cemetery discovered something that looks like it came straight out of ancient Egypt.

Dan Allen, an archaeologist hired by developers, has seen it all over the years while clearing coffins and bodies.

But, a discovery made Tuesday is rare. Allen and other archaeologists found a pre-Civil War cast-iron coffin shaped like an Egyptian mummy while moving a cemetery for developers at a site on Whites Creek Pike in North Nashville.

“I've only seen three of these in my life,” Allen said...

Mummy-Shaped Coffin Found While Moving Cemetery, News Channel 5, Tennessee, USA, August 29, 2006.

cf. Video footage: Mummy-Shaped Coffin Found While Moving Cemetery, News Channel 5, Tennessee, USA, August 29, 2006.

The key issue for scholars in evaluating the volcano's effect is in resolving a dispute over the exact time of the eruption, Cline says. Some archaeologists, based on pottery and ancient Egyptian inscriptions, put the date at 1500 B.C. Experts in radiocarbon dating put it further back, to at least 1600 B.C. In April, a pair of new radiocarbon reports in Science magazine, one based on leaves and twigs buried in the eruption, overlapped to pin the date to between 1613 to 1627 B.C. Egyptologists such as Manfred Bietak of Austria's University of Vienna told Science they were unimpressed with the new dates however, so the debate continues...

Ye gods! Ancient volcano could have blasted Atlantis myth, Dan Vergano, USA Today, New York, USA, August 27, 2006.

cf. New Carbon Dates Support Revised History of Ancient Mediterranean, Michael Balter, Science, USA, Vol. 312. no. 5773, pp. 508 - 509, April 28, 2006.

cf. Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600 B.C., Walter L. Friedrich, Bernd Kromer, Michael Friedrich, Jan Heinemeier, Tom Pfeiffer, Sahra Talamo, Science, USA, Vol. 312. no. 5773, p. 548, April 28, 2006.

cf. Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C., Sturt W. Manning, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Walter Kutschera, Thomas Higham, Bernd Kromer, Peter Steier, Eva M. Wild, Science, USA, Vol. 312. no. 5773, pp. 565 - 569, April 28, 2006.

She's not as famous as Cleopatra, but Hatshepsut's rise to power in ancient Egypt has the makings of a movie. Add the fact that her name was effectively erased from history after a prosperous reign of 20 years, and this compelling saga takes on the aura of mystery.

The timing couldn't be better. The actual mummy of the world's first great female ruler was found [Hatshepsut's mummy found] during preparations for "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh," a blockbuster show that opens today at the Kimbell Art Museum.

Hatshepsut ascended the throne about 1473 B.C., in a manner that would hardly be approved of nowadays. As the eldest daughter of King Thutmose I, she married her younger half brother, Thutmose II, serving first as queen and then, following his death, as regent to her young nephew and stepson Thutmose III...

She Who Must Be Obeyed, Janet Kutner, WFAA-TV, Texas, USA, August 27, 2006.

As well as savouring an array of artistic and architectural delights, visitors to Siena can now learn how to make the cosmetics of the Pharaohs.

The Tuscan city's Santa Maria della Scala complex is holding workshops on preparing ancient Egyptian make-up, skin creams and beauty potions.

The initiative is accompanying an exhibition at the complex entitled 'Igiene e bellezza nell' antico Egitto' (Hygiene and Beauty in Ancient Egypt).

"Oils, perfumes and beauty products were used daily in ancient Egypt for aesthetic and hygienic reasons, but also to protect people from the sun, sand and wind," organizers said...

Ancient Egyptian beauty lessons, ANSA, Italy, August 29, 2006.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART

Old-fashioned museological Egyptology meets state-of-the-art, user-friendly installation in the permanent exhibition “Egypt Reborn.” The sunny, spacious galleries present thousands of objects, tracing an evolution from the pre-dynastic period in 3500 B.C. to the era of Roman influence. Wonders include a lavishly painted cartonnage with matching interior coffin lid, a frog-shaped childbirth amulet in brilliant blue faience, and a mummified crocodile from the crocodile cemetery at Kahun. An almost infinite listing of favourites is possible — just don’t miss the bird-headed terra-cotta figure thought to be a fertility goddess, one of the oldest, most renowned, and most beautiful artefacts in the world. A new section of the exhibition, a set of thirty old and rare books assembled under the heading “Egypt Through Other Eyes,” documents Western fascination with ancient Egypt over the last couple of centuries. Through Nov. 12 [2006]...

Art: Museums and Libraries: Brooklyn Museum of Art, The New Yorker, New York, USA, August 28, 2006.

Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to bid farewell to the 3,200-year-old red granite statue, which weighs 83 tonnes and was wrapped in plastic and thick padding for the painstakingly slow 35km journey, which took 10 hours.

Only the face was visible.

"We are going to miss you. Cairo will never be the same again," shouted 23-year-old Ahmad Sami as the statue started moving...

Thousands bid adieu to 3,200-year-old statue, Reuters via Gulf News, UAE, August 26, 2006.

Along with the Suez Canal and oil and gas revenues, tourism is one of Egypt’s main sources of foreign currency and, as the number of tourists increase every year, so does the importance of the money they pump into the national economy.

Patterns, however, are shifting, with tourists looking for something more than just the traditional tour of the monuments or cold drinks on a hot beach. With a little bit of development and forethought, Egypt has the potential to meet the new demands of worldwide tourists.

The scale of the industry is impressive. Last year, the number of visitors to Egypt increased from 8.1 million to 8.6 million, with Germany provided the largest number of visitors, 979,000, more than any other European country.

Egypt has always been famous as the land of the Pharaohs, and has relied on this for its tourism for a long time. But Egypt has much more to offer than the Valley of the Kings and the Giza Plateau...

Egypt more than just the land of Pharaohs, African News Dimension, August 27, 2006.

The red granite statue of Ramses II now stands before Babul Hadid Train Station in downtown Cairo. It is one of the most splendid statues carved for this renowned pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, who lived for 90 years and ruled Egypt for 67 years. The statue was discovered in 1882, broken into six pieces, in a palm jungle at Mit Rahina village in Saqqara, almost 30km away from the Giza Plateau. All attempts to restore the statue in situ failed until 1954, when it was transported to its current location at Babul Hadid where it was restored and reassembled by inserting iron bars inside the body. The statue of Ramses II soon became one of Cairo's most famous landmarks and a symbol of the ancient Egyptian civilization in the capital city of Cairo — the square bears his name.

But throughout the decades, urban development, housing expansion, traffic congestion, and the increasing rate of pollution in the square has affected the statue. To protect such a great colossus from decay, a decision was made by the minister of Culture and approved by the Supreme Council of Antiquities' Permanent Committee to relocate the statue to the location of the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau...

Good Move for Ramses II in Egypt, Hazel Heyer, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, August 29. 2006.

The red granite statue of Ramses II now stands before Babul Hadid Train Station down- town Cairo. It is one of the most splendid statues carved for this renowned pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, who lived for 90 years and ruled Egypt for 67 years.

This statue was discovered in 1882, broken into six pieces, in a palm jungle at Mit Rahina village in Saqqara, almost 30km away from the Giza Plateau. All attempts to restore the statue in situ failed until 1954, when it was transported to its current location at Babul Hadid where it was restored and reassembled by inserting iron bars inside the body. The statue of Ramses II soon became one of Cairo's most famous landmarks and a symbol of the ancient Egyptian civilization in the capital city of Egypt, even the square bears his name. But through out the decades, urban development, housing expansion, traffic congestion, and the increasing rate of pollution in the square has affected the statue. To protect such a great colossus from decay, a decision was made by the Minister of Culture and approved by the Supreme Council of Antiquities' Permanent Committee to relocate the statue to the location of the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau...

The removal of Ramses II Statue, Zahi Hawass, The Plateau, Guardians.net, August 27, 2006.

Tourist artistic "Charming Egypt" exhibition was opened in the Chinese capital Beijing on Sunday 27/08/2006 as part of Egyptian tourist promotion efforts.

The exhibition houses 150 artistic paintings depicting the history of Egypt and the way of life of Egyptians over the various historical eras.

The exhibition was held on the occasion marking the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Cairo and Beijing.

Attending the exhibition were Egyptian ambassador in China Mahmoud Allam along with other Egyptian embassy staffers and representatives of Arab and diplomatic missions.

Egyptian exhibition opens in Beijing, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 28, 2006.

The BBC have a picture slideshow and a video of the Rameses statue move.

Slideshow: Cairo moves 3,200-year-old Pharaoh, BBC News, UK, August 25, 2006.

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

cf. Video: Giant Ramses statue moved, BBC News, UK, August 25, 2006.

cf. Ramses statue moved to new home, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 26, 2006.

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.