The BBC have update their Egypt timeline page.

Timeline: Egypt, BBC News, UK, November 21, 2006.

The mention of ancient papyrus conjures images of profound proclamations carefully preserved through generations. In reality, though, most document shreds that have survived the last few thousand years are what Duke classics professor Joshua Sosin calls "grubby documentation of daily life."

Yet, Sosin said the findings are extremely profound because they represent our only link with ancient civilizations.

Sosin is among the experts consulted in a new PBS special on efforts to unlock the secrets written on a collection of ancient and hitherto indecipherable papyrus — a plant native to the Nile valley used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to create the earliest form of paper...

Duke professor will appear on PBS special, Gregory Phillips, Durham Herald-Sun, North Carolina, USA, November 18, 2006.

cf. PBS: NOVA ScienceNow: Papyrus.

An environmental drama played out on the world stage in the late 18th century when a volcano killed 9,000 Icelanders and brought a famine to Egypt that reduced the population of the Nile valley by a sixth.

A study by three scientists from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and a collaborator from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, demonstrates a connection between these two widely separated events. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The investigators used a computer model developed by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies to trace atmospheric changes that followed the 1783 eruption of Laki in southern Iceland back to their point of origin. The study is the first to conclusively establish the linkage between high-latitude eruptions and the water supply in North Africa...

Icelandic Volcano Caused Historic Famine In Egypt, Study Shows, Science Daily, Maryland, USA, November 22, 2006.

cf. NASA link added: Historic Volcanic Eruption Shrunk the Mighty Nile River, NASA, USA, November 21, 2006.