Sara Orel, associate professor of Art at Truman State University, spoke at Passport to Egypt programs "Kings and Commoners: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt" Oct. 6 in Pegasus Theatre at 11 a.m. At 2 p.m. the same day, UCO's legal counsel, Dr Brad Morelli talked on the subject of illicit traffic in antiquities.

Orel, art historian and anthropologist, outlined the basic geography of Egypt tracing the development of the ancient civilization.

"Egypt wouldn't last a day without the Nile," she said. "But it was essentially a very stable civilization. Even the Roman emperors are shown wearing the same costume as ancient Egyptians."

In ancient Egypt, the dead were buried in pits in the dessert, surrounded with grave goods. These earliest mummies are the best-preserved bodies, said Orel.

"A lot of the Egyptian paintings are focused on alleviating death," said Orel. "Egyptians couldn't predict death but they did not consider it as a definite border. They had an incredibly complicated belief about life after death and sought to preserve the soul too..."

Tomb robbing at its finest, Abha Eli Phoboo, The Vista Online, University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma, USA, October 10, 2006.

Tutankhamun, ancient Egypt's famous boy pharaoh, grew up 3,300 years ago in the royal court at Amarna, the ancient city of Akhetaten, whose name meant the "Horizon of the Aten." This extraordinary royal city grew, flourished — and vanished — in hardly more than a generation's time.

Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun, a new exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, offers a rare look at the meteoric rise and fall of this unique royal city during one of Egypt's most intriguing times.

The exhibition, centrepiece of Penn Museum's event-filled "Year of Egypt," opens with a free celebration Sunday afternoon, November 12, 2006, and runs through October 2007. Talks, tours, Saturday "crash courses" on ancient Egypt, theatre in the galleries, family workshops, even a "Hollywood on the Nile" film series, are all part of the "Year of Egypt."

Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun will feature more than 100 ancient artefacts, some never before on display — including statuary of gods, goddesses and royalty, monumental reliefs, golden jewellery, as well as personal items from the royal family, and artists' materials from the royal workshops of Amarna...

Royal City of Tutankhamun's Childhood Is Focus of New Exhibition, PRNewswire via Yahoo! News, USA, October 11, 2006.