Some of the oldest and most precious scrolls unearthed from an ancient Egyptian crypt by UC Berkeley archaeologists over a century ago have been acquired by the university after decades of intrigue and delay.

Scholars said Wednesday that the four large rolls of papyrus record a wealth of detail about administrative affairs in Egypt's Middle Kingdom as early as 4,000 years ago.

UC Berkeley's Centre for the Tebtunis Papyri in the Bancroft Library took possession of the largely intact scrolls — taken from atop a stone coffin in an Upper Nile tomb — from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. The Boston museum agreed to return all known papyri from Cal's 1901-04 dig at the Naga ed-Deir necropolis in exchange for a $10,000 payment for conservation work and the costs of shipping the scrolls to Boston from Europe in the 1930s and the 1960s...

Egyptian scrolls finally head for Cal home, Rick DelVecchio, San Francisco Chronicle, California, USA, November 02, 2006.

cf. Egyptian papyri arrive on campus, Kathleen Maclay, UC Berkeley News, UC Berkeley, California, USA, November 01, 2006.

cf. Documents Contain 4,000 Years Of History, Wayne Freedman, ABC San Francisco News, California, USA, November 01, 2006.

Booming tourism, a key part of Egypt's economy, is having a catastrophic effect on the country's unique cultural heritage, experts said on Wednesday.

So large were the numbers of people now visiting Egypt's famed ancient sites like the Valley of the Kings that they were causing serious damage in a way that even centuries of weather had failed to do, they said at a meeting in London.

"Tourists are scuffing walls with bags and bodies, wearing away paintings and colour," Michael Jones, of the American Research Centre in Egypt, said during the meeting of the British Egyptian Society and the London Middle East Institute.

"The humidity caused by the crowds' breathing and perspiration is also taking a terrible toll on the fabric," he added...

Tourism damaging Egyptian heritage, Reuters via The Scotsman, Scotland, UK, November 01, 2006.

Tourism damaging Egyptian heritage, Reuters via AlArab Online, UK, November 02, 2006.