Jane Akshar has posted some photographs of the new visitor centre in the Valley of the Kings on her blog.

photos from the new Valley of Kings visitors centre, Jane Akshar, Luxor News, Luxor, Egypt, December 24, 2006.

Strange specimens of natural glass found in the Egyptian desert are products of a meteorite slamming into Earth between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, scientists have concluded.

The glass — known locally as Dakhla glass — represents the first clear evidence of a meteorite striking an area populated by humans.

At the time of the impact, the Dakhla Oasis, located in the western part of modern-day Egypt, resembled the African savanna and was inhabited by early humans, according to archaeological evidence...

"This meteorite event would have been catastrophic for all living things," said Maxine Kleindienst, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto in Canada.

"Even a relatively small impact would have exterminated all life for [several] miles..."

Mysterious Egyptian Glass Formed by Meteorite Strike, Study Says, Stefan Lovgren, National Geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, December 21, 2006.

Previously:

More on Meteorite Crash Helped Form King Tut Necklace, June 30, 2006.

King Tut’s glass beetle came from outer space, June 27, 2006.

“I’m no Indiana Jones,” says Franck Goddio, the French economist-turned-archaeologist who curated “Egypt’s Sunken Treasures” at the Grand Palais in Paris.

The slow-talking 59-year-old heads the team that has spent 14 years recovering the artefacts on show. Goddio graduated in statistics and learned archaeology on the job, prompting some scepticism in the small world of archaeologists and Egyptologists.

“My job is to avoid adventure, it’s the last thing I want,” he said in an interview at the Grand Palais, where almost 500 of his underwater discoveries are on show through Jan. 7 [2007]. “Things must happen as planned. I don't let chance drive my work...”

Finder of 'Egypt's Sunken Treasures' Says He's No Swashbuckler, Helene Fouquet, Bloomberg, New York, USA, December 28, 2006.

In a few weeks, beginning in February, King Tut will debut at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. ARCHAEOLOGY's Tracy Spurrier spoke to Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, and curator David Silverman of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology about how the exhibition was brought together.

How and why did you choose these particular artefacts out of the hundreds collected from the tomb? Why did you decide to include pieces from the 18th Dynasty before Tutankhamun?

We thought from the beginning that it's not good to send just Tutankhamun, because we want people to known about 18th Dynasty before his reign, so that they can understand the history. It is important to see him in his proper context, not just as a treasure. These pieces belonged to the ancestors of Tut. Some artefacts from Tut's tomb cannot travel, like the mask and the coffin, but these other pieces fit with the scenario of this exhibition and people can appreciate them...

Tut Talk , Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, USA, December 11, 2006.

How do you know it's been an extraordinary year in archaeology? When the discovery of the earliest Maya writing and a 2,500-year-old sarcophagus decorated with scenes from the Iliad don't crack ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 list:

• 1. Valley of the Kings Tomb
  KV63 was the first tomb to be excavated in the Valley of the Kings since Tutankhamun's in 1922. The chamber held seven 18th Dynasty coffins.
• ...

Top 10 Discoveries of 2006, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, USA, Volume 60, Number 1, January / February 2007.

Money in Egypt is confusing! It shouldn't be but it is. Because I ended up dealing in four currencies and having to know roughly the translation from each to Egyptian and Sterling. English Sterling (GBP), US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR) and Egyptian Pounds (EGP - locally written as LE).

The rates at the moment are approximately 1 GBP = 11 EGP, 1 EUR = 7.5 EGP, and 1 USD = 5.7 EGP. So to make it easy on the mental arithmetic use 10, 7.5, and 5 for reasonable approximations.

One problem I faced was that my hotel, the Holiday Inn Safaga Palace, was mainly a German resort so the bureau de change in the hotel refused to accept my sterling travellers cheques! The guy sat there for ten minutes leafing back-and-forth through huge volumes on spotting forged travellers cheques before asking if I had a euro or dollar cheques. Luckily there was a cash machine in the hotel as well.

Previously:

Back from Egypt - I, December 27, 2006.

The latest issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine is out now. Below is a summary of its contents.

• The Writing is on the Wall ...
  ... but should it be? AE reveals the growing problem of modern graffiti at some of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.
• From our Egypt Correspondent
  Ayman Wahby Taher with the latest news from Egypt, including the moving of the Rameses II statue.
• Photo Feature: more on the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara
  AE presents unique photographs of some of the stunning exhibits at the new museum at Saqqara.
• Dying to be Egyptian
  Elisabeth Kerner looks at some of the lesser-known cemeteries in London, with their “Egyptianising” architecture.
• The Tomb of Harwa at Thebes
  Chris Naunton writes about the excavations and finds in one of the largest private tombs (dating to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty) in the Theban Necropolis.
• Mary Chubb: Writer and Archaeologist
  A brief biography by Elizabeth Griesman.
• Ancient Egyptian Technology
  Denys Stocks, in the first of three articles, reveals how the ancient Egyptians cut and carved the hardest of stones for their monuments and statues.
• Friends of Nekhen News
  Renée Friedman looks at the many and varied finds from the ancient city of Hierakonpolis and what they reveal about the inhabitants.
• Per Mesut: for younger readers
  In this edition, Hilary Wilson looks at baskets.

Ancient Egypt Magazine, Empire Publications, Manchester, UK, Volume 7, No. 3, Issue 39, December / January 2007.

Subscribe to Ancient Egypt Magazine via Amazon.com.

The new issue of KMT is out now. A summary of its contents appears below.

• Amarna, Egypt's Place in the Sun
  The University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology Showcase the Amarna Period.
• Examining the Mystery of the Niagara Falls Mummy
  by Dylan Bickerstaff. The Case Against Rameses I.
• Egypt on Merseyside
  by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli. A Visit to the Egyptian Collection in Liverpool.
• The Obelisks of Rome
  by Aidan Dodson. A Guide to the Eternal City's Many Needles of the Sun.
• New York's Obelisk
  Cleopatra's Needle: How It Got There A Pictorial Essay.
• Smiting: A Family Affair
  by Earl L. Ertman. Like Everything Else in His Reign, Akhenaten Changed an Ancient Ritual.
• Djehuty, Moon-God & Divine Scribe
  Ninth in the Series: The Egyptian Pantheon.
• Vladimir S. Golenischev
  by Victor M. Solkin. 150th Anniversary of the Egyptologist You Probably Have Never heard Of.

KMT, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 17, Number 4, Winter 2006 - 07.

Subscribe to KMT Magazine via Amazon.com.

With its temples and the nearby Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings, Egypt’s Luxor is one of the richest archaeological zones in the world.

But, says Burnham: “Luxor is one of the great catastrophe areas in the world with the convergence of environmental factors, man-made factors and unmanaged tourism.”

The most disastrous problems are rising water tables and the farming of sugar cane, a crop that introduces fertilisers and other chemicals into the ground water.

Burnham said archaeologists are trying to pull antiquities out of the ground before they’re destroyed by the ground water and pollutants.

Adding to the problem are thousands of tourists who arrive by bus from Sinai resorts all at the same time.

“Egypt,” she said, “has a very specific tourism goal for Luxor — to reach 10 million visitors a year by 2010.”

World treasures under attack, The Age, Australia, December 26, 2006.

British police are investigating the role of one of the country’s biggest construction firms in what was originally a £71m contract to rebuild the Great Library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has interviewed several employees of Balfour Beatty over their role in the contract in Egypt to build one of the architectural jewels of the Middle East.

A Unesco world heritage site, the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, on the shores of the Mediterranean, was completed in 2001. The library and cultural centre was designed to commemorate the original library, whose loss in antiquity was said to have changed the course of western civilisation.

Sources close to the inquiry said detectives were focusing on why the fixed-price contract issued by the Egyptian education ministry apparently rose by more than £50m after the work was commissioned...

Fraud probe over a wonder of the world, David Leppard, The Times, UK, December 10, 2006.

“The Step Pyramid is collapsing,” Zahi Hawass, Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) says. “The substructure of the Pyramid of Djoser (another name for the Step Pyramid) is a series of tunnels about seven kilometres long. These have been collapsing for the last 50 years and unfortunately no one has done anything about it until now.”

Tour buses are the main culprits, according to SCA studies. In peak season large groups of buses sit just outside the site idling their engines and creating vibrations that reach all the way to the Step Pyramid. In October, Hawass announced that doing so now constitutes a crime.

“There is a new criminal charge called damaging antiquities. It will fall under the same law as stealing them, and we are going to have much harsher penalties,” he states. Because it is still new, no one is sure what kinds of difficulties will be encountered with pressing charges. For emphasis he adds, “If you run your motor on the site, you will go to jail.”

Even while acknowledging potential problems, Hawass is pleased with the new law. “I’m sure that the prospect of jail, for however long it is, will make people think twice about these things...”

Bad Vibrations, Cache Seel, Egypt Today, Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2006.

The ninth Conference of Arab Archaeologists took place in Egypt last month, under the auspices of Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League. The conference looked at over 100 research papers focusing mainly on ways to protect and restore Lebanese and Palestinian antiquities from Israeli aggression. The conference also looked at the havoc the American occupation has wreaked on Iraqi antiquities. The conference honoured Sheikha Hussa Al-Sabah, the curator of the House of Islamic Antiquities in Kuwait. The participants’ recommendations highlighted the need for a database to connect Arab antiquarians and make their work accessible to each other.

Culture 101: Preserving Arab Antiquities, MJ, Egypt Today, Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2006.

Since the 1960s and ’70s, libraries in the West have been digitizing their catalogues and even the contents of their shelves, but a lack of resources has kept all but the most well funded Middle Eastern libraries from doing the same. The Yale University Library hopes to correct this situation, bringing the fruits of Middle Eastern scholars’ labours into the digital age.

Although the ivy-league university based in Connecticut has received $1.3 million in funding from the US’ Department of Education (DOE) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) since the digitizing efforts began five years ago, the continuing success of their two projects depends as much on the enthusiasm of the participants as on their continued funding.

The first project, Online Access for Consolidated Information about Serials (OACIS), is a searchable list of catalogue information compiled from the 20 participating libraries around the world, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) and that of the American University in Cairo. The OACIS list is composed entirely of catalogue data of scholarly journals from and about the Middle East.

“The catalogue records are information about the journals, they are not the stuff itself,” explains Ann Okerson, Yale’s associate university librarian for collections and international programs. “The ‘sexy’ word is ‘metadata’...”

Go Digital, Dan Reese, Egypt Today, Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2006.

Egypt announced the discovery of a carving dating back to the 12th century BC which could hold the key to valuable information on Karnak temple, the largest ancient religious site in the world.

The large quartzite stone, carved with 17 lines of hieroglyphics, highlights the achievements of high priest Bak En Khonsu and his contributions to the grand hall at Karnak.

The 170 cm by 80 cm carving (5.5 by 2.5 feet), unearthed by a team of archaeologists in the southern Nile city of Luxor, also depicts the high priest's family tree.

"This is very important because we never knew anything about Bak En Khonsu," the second most important man after the king, said Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"This is going to reconstruct history and will enrich our understanding of Karnak," he told AFP. The stone was found by a team of Egyptian archaeologists...

Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, AFP via PhysOrg, USA, December 18, 2006.

cf. Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, December 17, 2006.

cf. Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, AFP via Middle East Times, Cyprus, December 18, 2006.

Egyptian archaeologists discover significant carving

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced the find to the press and said that the carving dates back to the 12th century BC and the reign of King Setnakht, founder of the [20th] dynasty and father of Ramses III...

cf. Egyptian archaeologists discover significant carving, UKTV History, UK, December, 2006.

20th dynasty tablet unearthed

“The hieroglyphic text on the tablet says that the [high] priest [of Amun, Bak En Khonsu,] supervised the construction of the main hall of the Karnak Temple,” Hawass added...

cf. 20th dynasty tablet unearthed, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, December 18, 2006.

12th century BC carving may hold the secret of Karnak Temple

Dr Zahi Hawass ... explained that the large quartzite stone, carved with 17 lines of hieroglyphics, highlights the achievements of high priest Bak En Khonsu and his contributions to the grand hall at Karnak.

Hawass told reporters that the stone consists of two parts: the upper part depicts King Setnakht lying prostrate with the blue crown on his head. He offers the symbol of justice to the supreme deity Amun Ra, that appears sitting on his throne while holding with his left hand Alwast — emblem of the city of Thebes — and in his right, the key of life.

Behind Amun Ra Goddess Mut — one of Thebes’ Trinity that consists of Amun, Mut and son Khonsu — is depicted raising her left hand, a gesture meant to bestow protection on the king, Hawass added.

Seventeen lines of hieroglyphic text are carved on the lower part of the stone, followed by an illustration of chief Amun priest Bak En Khonsu, seen in a worshipping posture and in full official priest attire...

cf. 12th century BC carving may hold the secret of Karnak Temple, Ahmed Maged, Daily Star Egypt, Egypt, December 19, 2006.

The National Democratic Party's announcement a month ago that Egypt is seeking to revive its nuclear programme and means to build a large power station neighbouring the Graeco-Roman site of Tel Al-Dabaa on the Alexandria-Marsa-Matrouh road caught the headlines of newspapers and sparked uproar among archaeologists who feared the construction would destroy a major archaeological site.

Conflict also arose between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Ministry of Electricity which will lead the construction process. The press has weighed in daily to offer a plethora of contradictory opinions, leaving the public confused as to the genuine issues. Rumours have spread that the conflict has been deliberately created by the SCA and the ministries of tourism and construction in an attempt to ensure another location is found for the nuclear station and Tel Al-Dabaa is left free for abuse by a mega tourist project like the huge complex at Marina Al-Alamein.

Last Monday, however, a committee of SCA experts and Ministry of Electricity officials embarked on an inspection tour of the 70 sq km site of Tel Al-Dabaa and finally came up with concrete ideas to suit all parties...

I believe Tel Al-Dabaa = Tell el-Dab'a = Tel Ed-Daba = Tel el-Daba = Tell el-Daba'a etc. Which is ancient Avaris excavated by Manfred Bietak from the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo. Many thanks to Aayko Eyma for clarifying that I was mistaken in my belief that this article referred to Avaris, as the site in question is on the Western side of the Nile..

Ancient site to go nuclear, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 825, December 21 - 27, 2006.

Don't judge this book by its faded cover. It is rich in content and casts fascinating revelations on the reign of Abbas Hilmi II the last khedive of Egypt before the 1919 Revolution. It is an era which has been largely neglected, merely alluded to by Western historians from the imperialist point of view, and by Egyptians from a nationalist, Nasserist perspective.

Here, at last, is a fascinating insight into a period of renewal during his reign (1892-1914). Egypt's economic debt had been paid off. The price of cotton was good. Industrialisation had begun. The stock exchange was being created, and there was a revival of political awareness with some 30 magazine and newspaper titles running off the press. This was a lively time in the nation's history both economically and culturally for Egyptians and the large foreign community, with first class singers and entertainers, fine arts and architecture, and an interest in Egyptology.

It was Abbas Hilmi II who unveiled the statue of the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, the celebrated founder and preserver of Egypt's monuments, in the garden of the newly constructed Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square in 1904, where newly discovered objects on display included the ceremonial palette of Narmer, discovered by Quibell in 1894, and a horde of royal mummies excavated by Loret from the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings between 1897 and 1899...

, Abbas Hilmi II translated by Amira Sonbol, Ithaca Press, 1998, pp. 352, hardback.

The Last Khedive of Egypt: Memoirs of Abbas Hilmi II, Abbas Hilmi II translated by Amira Sonbol, American University in Cairo Press, 2006, pp. 404, paperback, ISBN-13: 9789774249945.

A royal perspective, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 824, December 14 - 20, 2006.

The Coptic monastery known as Deir Al-Surian, or the Monastery of the Syrians, contains more than 3,000 books as well as a vast number of texts in Syriac, Aramaic (the language of Christ), Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic. They date upwards from the fifth century and today, as a result of the revival in Coptic monasticism in recent years, a new generation of educated monks are anxious to safeguard this heritage. Both Syrian and Coptic monks are engaged in their conservation, as well as restoration of the monastery itself.

Collaborating with them on what is known as the Deir Al-Surian Library Project is the Levantine Foundation. The aim is twofold: to salvage old manuscripts which, after surviving a century and a half in a living community, are in danger of being lost, and to conserve the remaining literary inheritance of more than 1,000 Syriac manuscripts for future generations.

The project is moving ahead and members of the conservation team, with the help of volunteers and on a shoe-string budget, are surveying, restoring, cataloguing and storing the Syriac texts in a suitable environment. A digital photographic record of each manuscript will eventually be made to facilitate access for scholars, and appropriate storage for the manuscripts and facilities for visiting scholars is also planned...

Troves of scholarship, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 824, December 14 - 20, 2006.

Plans for a grand exhibition of the teenage pharaoh’s treasures at the venue have been thrown into doubt because Egyptian officials will not allow the artefacts to be displayed next to a proposed casino.

The dome’s owner is hoping to be granted a licence for Britain’s first Las Vegas-style gambling venue next month.

However, Cairo’s most senior antiquities official has described such a move as a “disaster”, claiming this weekend that it would “insult the dignity” of Tutankhamun.

“If there is a casino in the dome, I will not send the exhibits to London,” declared Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities...

King Tut hit by the curse of the dome, Dipesh Gadher, The Times, UK, December 24, 2006.

I have just come back from spending Christmas in Egypt. Flew out on Tuesday 19th and returned Yesterday Tuesday 26th. Actually we arrived after midnight at Gatwick (London) airport in the UK and then faced a two-and-a-half hour drive home, finally getting in at 3AM GMT (this morning) which I'm sure you know is 5AM Egyptian time! Not much sleep on the aeroplane either!

My wife wanted a holiday somewhere hot for Christmas and we 'killed two birds with one stone' by going to the Red Sea resort of Safaga and stayed at the Holiday Inn Safaga Palace.

I managed to arrange a day trip to Luxor to see some of the sights and sites. This was my wife and children's first trip to Egypt and the second one for me as I had been to Cairo and Luxor in '97.

Anyway, more of this later. I shall attempt to catch up with the posts from last week over the coming days.

Merry Christmas!

Mark.

Comprising four interconnected nogou' (hamlets) — Al-Hurubat, Atiyat, Al-Ghabat, Al-Hasasna — the village conglomerate of Gurna is the most densely populated part of the west bank of the Nile in Luxor — the site of the Theban necropolis. And evacuating it has proved to be a major undertaking, second only to evacuating Nubia prior to its submersion in Lake Nasser in the course of building the Aswan High Dam. Two weeks after the "celebrations" broadcast on satellite television — pretty girls in ancient Egyptian outfits dancing around while the mud brick houses were being bulldozed into oblivion — villagers like Mohamed El-Tayib, a tour guide, are voicing discontent: "you think these girls are from Gurna? Well, they're from Luxor. The celebration a show put on by others — nothing to do with Gurna or its people..."

While the move was being planned, indeed, incipient meetings had excluded all but the most affluent villagers, as El-Tayib explained, who could afford houses bigger than the 150 sq m units provided to each family in Al-Taref (or New Gurna, five kilometres away). This was the main complaint: in Upper Egypt large, often extended, families will normally occupy a single space, and Gurna villagers are concerned that, with up to seven children (not to mention grandchildren) in each family, a 150 sq m space would not be enough for comfortable living. Nabawiya El-Garani, a member of one of the first four families to be moved on the occasion of the "celebration", has been told by City Council officials that she should expect to be moved again. "Why make me leave my home if they are going to move me again," she asked rhetorically. "I like it here. But without a contract I live in fear of what will come next." Unreliable as it remains, running water has spared her the uphill journey, undertaken every other day, to fill troughs carried on a donkey-pulled cart; and with furniture (donated), her new home is an improvement on the last. Yet she cannot fully enjoy any of it knowing she must move again...

A place to stay, Pierre Loza, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 824, December 14 - 20, 2006.

"Egypt's Sunken Treasure" will be Paris's blockbuster exhibition this winter following its successful première last summer in Berlin, where it attracted a total of 450,000 visitors. For the next three months, Parisians can take a virtual dive to the bottom of the Mediterranean sea and explore the lost treasures of Ancient Egypt.

"Egypt's Sunken Treasures" at the Grand Palais was opened early this week by President Hosni Mubarak and President Jacques Chirac of France. The exhibition features some 500 spectacular objects that sank when geomorphic changes caused Egypt's North Coast to submerge between 600 and 800 AD. They have been rediscovered over the past decade by an underwater team led by French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio.

The Grand Palais, which was built early in the last century and houses art exhibitions from all over the world, combines an imposing classical limestone façade with a riot of Art Nouveau glass and ironwork. In 1993 one of the glass ceiling panels fell and the building was closed for 12 years so extensive restoration could be carried out...

Paris plunges into Egyptology, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 824, December 14 - 20, 2006.

Coffee table books — solid, extravagant, oddly comforting — make fine gifts but can be difficult to choose. Serious or funny? Sober journalism or up-close views of nightmarish insects? And is bigger better?

Sometimes, as noted here, bigger is quite, quite good...

, Zahi Hawass, Photographs by Sandro Vannini, Thames & Hudson, 2006, pp. 316, $65 / £40.

Hawass, co-organizer of the touring King Tut exhibit and director of excavations at the Giza pyramids, provides armchair Egyptologists — and, frankly, anyone with a passing interest in history — with an absorbing, comprehensive guide to the wall paintings and murals discovered in the Valley of the Kings. With more than 300 illustrations and intriguing, in-depth explanations of ancient Egyptian society and customs, The Royal Tombs resurrects history with skill and flair...

Coffee table books look at rockers, rainforests and royal tombs, Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, December 05, 2006.

With its 300 colour illustrations — including 30 huge foldouts — The Royal Tombs of Egypt: The Art of Thebes Revealed (Thames & Hudson, 315 pages, $65) is a kingly achievement itself. According to the publisher, the book is the first to reproduce in full the murals lining the walls of the royal resting places in the Valley of the Kings. With text by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass.

cf. Give a page-turner, Fritz Lanham, The Orlando Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 10, 2006.

cf. What's in that big box? Maybe a big book!, AP via The Brandon Sun, Manitoba, Canada, December 09, 2006.

Join Pacific University [on Feb. 11, 2007] for a self-guided tour of the Portland Art Museum's exhibit The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt. Afterward, come to a lecture featuring the museum's collection of scarabs.

The Portland Art Museum features the largest selection of antiquities ever loaned by Egypt for exhibition in North America. It includes objects that have never been on public display and many that have never been seen outside of Egypt. Ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices based on the afterlife journey of pharaohs will be dramatically illustrated through 115 magnificent objects from Egypt and a life-sized reconstruction of the burial chamber of the New Kingdom pharaoh Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC). The exhibition is organized by United Exhibits Group, Copenhagen, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Cairo...

View Egyptian Exhibit at Portland Art Museum, Brian Hess, Pacific University, Oregon, USA, December 08, 2006.

Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre is a major new international exhibition opening at the Art Gallery of South Australia in March [2007].

More than 200 precious objects will be on show in the first exhibition to come to Australia from the Louvre in almost two decades.

Art Gallery director Christopher Menz is delighted Adelaide is one of just three cities in Australia — Canberra and Perth are the others — to host the exhibition.

“It’s a great coup for us to have it here,” he said.

“I’ve seen it in Canberra and it is strikingly beautiful and great art. We don’t get to see works of this standard very often and as the bedrock for later European art, it is very significant...”

Includes a video: Journey to the Afterlife, Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre.

Journey to the Afterlife, Adelaide Now, Australia, December 10, 2006.

On Monday the Los Angeles-based J. Paul Getty Museum announced it would return a sixth century B.C. marble statue of a young woman to Greece following claims by the Greek government that the artwork was illegally excavated and taken out of the country without proper authority...

So valuable is the trade in stolen artworks — which includes, but is not limited to ancient pieces — that it is now estimated to be worth almost as much as the drug trafficking industry.

And while the academic association of these objects lends the trade a vague air of greater respectability than many other illegal activities, law enforcement agencies and antiquities experts are unequivocal in labelling it every bit as damaging and criminal as the smuggling of narcotics, weapons or human beings.

"It (the illegal antiquities trade) is tawdry, degrading and immoral," leading British archaeologist Professor Colin Renfrew has declared.

"Antiquities without provenance, lacking an archaeological history or context, have almost certainly been looted, wrenched from their sites by explosives which have destroyed their surrounds. This is a crime against humanity..."

Antiquities smuggling: 'A crime against humanity', Paul Sussman, CNN, USA, December 12, 2006.

An update on Italy's unprecedented stand against museums, collectors, and an international smuggling ring.

In Italy's ongoing pursuit of stolen artefacts — reported here last February with "The Trial in Rome" and followed up in the July / August issue of ARCHAEOLOGY with "Raiding the Tomb Raiders," — American museums are giving back works of art, court cases are plodding along, and at least one private collection has come under scrutiny. As 2006 comes to an end, Italy appears to be on the path to victory, though not without at least one setback, and Greece is following their example...

Italy versus the Illicit Trade, Kirsten Vala, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, December 8, 2006.

No other woman in history has stimulated the imagination of following generations as much as Cleopatra VII: statesmanlike ruler, mother of royal children and femme fatale. She was the lover of both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony; Augustus viewed her as a threat to the Roman Empire and drove her to her death. He attempted to erase all recollection of her, but instead the opposite occurred and the myth of Cleopatra was born. Even today, she remains an object of fascination for painters, writers, musicians and directors.

Kleopatra und die Caesaren , Epoch Times International, Germany, December 11, 2006.