The first public presentation on the earliest connected Semitic text ever deciphered has taken place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The presentation was made by Prof. Richard Steiner, professor of Semitic languages and literature at Yeshiva University in New York, in a lecture entitled "Proto-Canaanite Spells in the Pyramid Texts: a First Look at the History of Hebrew in the Third Millennium B.C.E." The lecture was sponsored by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in cooperation with the Hebrew University and the World Union of Jewish Studies.

Prof. Steiner, a past fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University and a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, has deciphered a number of Semitic texts in various Egyptian scripts over the past 25 years. In his lecture he interpreted Semitic passages in Egyptian texts that were discovered more than a century ago, inscribed on the subterranean walls of the pyramid of King Unas at Saqqara in Egypt. The pyramid dates from the 24th century B.C.E., but Egyptologists agree that the texts are older. The dates proposed for them range from the 25th to the 30th centuries B.C.E. No continuous Semitic texts from this period have ever been deciphered before...

Presentation made in lecture at Hebrew University, EurekAlert, USA, January 29, 2007.

Previously: Deciphering of earliest Semitic text reveals talk of snakes and spells, January 23, 2007.

"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" will open its doors February 3 [2007] at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia as the final of four venues scheduled during its current 27-month tour of the United States. The exhibition is organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Mellon Financial Corporation is the presenting sponsor and PECO is the associate sponsor in Philadelphia. The exhibition is supported by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation.

"Since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, Tutankhamun has captured the hearts of people around the world. Buried with him were treasures beyond the imagination, giving us a glittering glimpse into the past," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. "Philadelphia is an important city. I spent time working there and earned my doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. It's my time to tell the people of Philadelphia 'thank you.' It's my time to show to them the most beautiful and important exhibit that ever left Egypt; King Tut, the golden boy who has captured the hearts of everyone..."

'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' to Begin Its February 3 - September 30 Run at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Franklin Institute via Yahoo! Finance, USA, January 31, 2007.

... The University of Pennsylvania participated in excavations at Amarna during the early 20th century and its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has an extensive collection of artefacts from the site. These form the basis of a new exhibition, " Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun." (See "Excavating Amarna," our interview with Barry Kemp about current excavations at the site).

After a short, informative introductory video, the exhibition opens into four small galleries organized by the show's curators to tell the story of the Amarna period and not to merely highlight the artefacts. The first gallery examines life in polytheistic ancient Egypt prior to Akhenaten. The gallery includes a visual timeline of 18th Dynasty rulers featuring their portraits and busts (using pieces from the exhibit whenever possible) on a stunning backdrop of Queen Hatshepsut's temple. The next gallery features the royal family during the Amarna period. Because the sun disk or Aten had no physical manifestation to worship, art of the period focused on portraits and depictions of the royal family. Upon entering the gallery, one confronts a striking floor-to-ceiling representation of Akhenaten, statues of the family, and partial reliefs. The gallery also includes a comprehensive family tree displaying the relationships between Akhenaten, his daughters with Nefertiti, and his probable son Tutankhamun. This is very helpful in understanding the dynasty's complex genealogy...

Amarna at Penn, Tracy Spurrier, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, January 29, 2007.

Manchester has been chosen as the surprise location of Britain's first Las Vegas-style super-casino.

The decision is a blow for Blackpool and London's former Millennium Dome, which were the bookmakers' favourites...

I hope that this will please Zahi Hawass who had threatened not to allow the Tutankhamun exhibition to come to the Dome, London, if it won its casino bid. Unfortunately Philip Anschutz (the US billionaire behind AEG) had previously threatened to curtail investment if a casino license wasn't granted which may affect Tut! This could drag on for a while though as there are bound to be appeals.

Manchester wins super-casino race, BBC News, UK, January 30, 2007.

cf. The Dome misses out, Harry Wallop, The Telegraph, UK, January 30, 2007.

Previously: King Tut held to Ransom, August 31, 2006.

Previously: King Tut hit by the curse of the dome, December 27, 2006.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have teamed up with colleagues in Egypt in a bid to discover what medicines were used by the ancient Egyptians.

The KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Egyptian Medicinal Plant Conservation Project in St Katherine's, Sinai, have formed a partnership to research Egyptian pharmacy in the times of the pharaohs.

The 'Pharmacy in Ancient Egypt' collaboration, which is funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, will compare modern plant species common to the Sinai region with the remains of ancient plants found in tombs.

Researcher Ryan Metcalf said: "We know that the ancient Egyptians had extensive trade routes and it is entirely possible that both medicinal plants and the knowledge to use them effectively were traded between regions and countries...

Discovering the pharmacy of the pharaohs, Exduco, Italy, January 29, 2007.

Nearly 5,000 years old, a monument known today as the Shunet el-Zebib, the only surviving example of a series of monumental cultic buildings built by Egypt’s earliest kings at Abydos, has been ravaged by the elements, attacked by animals and insects, and structurally compromised by humans over the millennia; its present day survival seems almost miraculous. One of the most mysterious of ancient Egypt’s monuments was in danger of imminent collapse. In 2001, the experts all agreed that unless steps were taken immediately this massive mud-brick structure would not remain standing much longer.

A conservation and stabilization program was developed, sponsored by New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and surprisingly the most suitable methods recommended by the experts for saving the monument turned out not to be highly technical ones of modern construction, but rather those more traditional, and ancient, in nature. Work began soon after using many of the same techniques to save the monument that were employed to build it five millennia ago. The conservation of the monument, which occupies more than two acres, is now nearly fifty percent complete...

“At the start of the project, our primary goals were to record the current state of the monument, assess its structural problems, and design and implement a program of conservation measures,” said Dr. O’Connor. “We did not want to restore it to its original appearance, but rather to preserve the monument in a way that reflects its nearly 5,000 year history. The centuries of damage from the elements, animals, and later human activity are part of that history, and, while their most serious consequences are being repaired, their effects will continue to be a visible aspect of the monument...”

Ancient Techniques Employed to Rescue 5,000 Year Old Egyptian Monument by NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, Exduco, Italy, January 29, 2007.

For over 100 years, four blue-glazed jars bearing the nametag of Rameses II (1302-1213 B.C.) were believed to contain the Egyptian pharaoh’s bodily organs. But analysis of organic residues scraped from the jars has determined one actually contained an aromatic salve, while a second jar held the organs of an entirely different person who lived around 760 years later.

Now the question is, who was this individual?

“We do believe that the unknown person was of importance for at least two reasons,” said Jacques Connan, one of the study’s authors. “First, he or she had access to the famous jars and secondly, his or her organs were embalmed with pure Pistacia resin, which is uncommon according to our present chemical knowledge on balms of Egyptian mummies, especially during the Roman period.”

The mystery concerning the jars began in 1905, when they were brought to Paris’ Louvre Museum, where they are still housed. Shortly after that time, researchers cut into a packet inside one of the jars and plucked out a piece of heart. The packet is now lost, but from that point on, the containers were labelled as “the canopic jars of Rameses II...”

Human Remains in Ancient Jar a Mystery, Jennifer Viegas, Discovery Channel News, USA, January 23, 2007.

A cave cut in the rock has been discovered in the Pharaonic Port of Marsa Gawasis in Safaga.

In December-January, archaeologists found the timbers of sea-going vessels that were over 3,500 years old at Marsa Gawasis, which was a port on Egypt's Red Sea coast in Pharaonic times.

The cedar planks, which were imported from Syria, were found in two man-made caves. Among the other finds were rigging and inscriptions about expeditions to the Land of Punt...

In 2001, the University of Naples, the Italian African and Oriental Institute and Boston University began to examine the site under the direction of Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard...

Late December last year, after more than three metres of sand had been removed from the slope of the coral reef, the entrance of a large man-made cave was uncovered by the Italian and American archaeologists.

Stone anchors, two large cedar beams were found plus mud bricks and plaster that had been used to reinforce the entrance.

To the north of the entrance, the archaeologists found an antechamber leading to two rectangular rooms both 12 x 4 metres.

To the south is a smaller antechamber leading to yet another chamber hewn out of solid rock. Outside the cave entrance are small carved niches, four of which still contained limestone steles, which suggest that this cave was a temple...

Carved ... stele [with] the cartouche of King Amenemhat III... The hieroglyphic text below a scene of the King making an offering to the god Min concerns two expeditions led by officials Nebsu and Amenhotep to Punt and Bia-Punt...

Oldest maritime artefacts found, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 28, 2007.

Previously: Find Wadi Gawasis or Kathryn Bard on egyptologyblog.co.uk via Google.

Field reports linked below.

Joint Archaeological Expedition at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (Red Sea, Egypt) of the University of Naples "l'Orientale" (Naples, Italy), Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (Rome, Italy), and Boston University (Boston, USA) - 2005-2006 Field Season, Redazione Archaeogate, Italy, May 17, 2006.

Recent Excavations at the Pharaonic Port of Mersa Gawasis on the Red Sea, 2004-2005 Field Season, Redazione Archaeogate, Italy, September 23, 2005.

Mersa Gawasis (Red Sea - Egypt): UNO/IsIAO and BU 2003-2004 Field Season under direction of Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard, Redazione Archaeogate, Italy, October 10, 2004.

Archaeological Investigation at Wadi Gawasis (Red Sea - Egypt) of the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (Rome) and "L'Orientale" (Naples): December 2002 - January 2003 Field Season, Redazione Archaeogate, Italy, November 28, 2003.

In a bid to save hundreds of ancient tombs in Luxor, the Egyptian government has begun relocating 3200 families whose livelihoods depend on these burial sites. And while politicians claim the move will preserve an important part of Egypt's history and scientists say it will make excavations in the area easier, the residents of the village of Old Gurna believe they are being dealt a bad hand.

Old Gurna lies on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, 500 km south of Cairo. Directly in its backyard lies the grand Temple of Hatshepsut and on either side of the village lie the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, where pharaohs and their brides, sons and daughters were buried more than 3400 years ago.

But Old Gurna is not only known for its strategic location in the midst of ancient history, it lies directly above some of that history itself. For scattered between and directly below the homes of Old Gurna are 950 known tombs of nobles, governors, mayors, and scribes. And archaeologists believe there are still hundreds more to be discovered...

When Pharaohs lived among the ruins of Old Gurna, Nadia El-Awady, The Daily Star, Egypt, January 28, 2007.

Egypt is fuming over a competition to choose the world's "new seven wonders," deriding it as a marketing stunt that demeans the Pyramids of Giza, the only surviving ancient wonder. "They are the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that still exist. It's ridiculous. They don't need to be put to a vote," Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass was quoted as saying in local newspapers.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni echoed the complaint, describing the project as "absurd" and its creator, Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Bernard Weber, as a man "concerned primarily with self-promotion."

Weber, on a tour of the 21 short-listed sites, got a frosty reception in Egypt.

The hotel banquet hall near the Pyramids where Weber was due to hold a news conference Wednesday was closed down at the last minute "for maintenance" and an AFP television crew was prevented from filming "for security reasons..."

Egypt seethes at 'new seven wonders' competition for Pyramids, AFP via The Daily Star, Lebanon, January 26, 2007.

cf. Egypt says new seven wonders of the world competition 'demeans' the pyramids, AFP via The Daily Star, Egypt, January 25, 2007.

cf. Egyptians sneer at new '7 Wonders' contest, Anna Johnson, AP via The Miami Herald, Florida, USA, January 29, 2007.

The Greeks developed mathematics as a deductive science that reached its climax with Euclid of Alexandria in his masterpiece The Elements. Before that, during the ancient Egyptian era, mathematics was an inductive discipline of a utilitarian nature used to perform practical tasks such as flood control or land measurement using rope. It has been suggested that mathematics then amounted to no more than the two-times table and the ability to find two-thirds of any number. The whole structure of Egyptian mathematics was said to be based on these two simple rules, and indeed no evidence exists of a textual geometry with constructions and proofs.

Yet, looking at the Egyptians' stunning monuments, as well as a civilisation that spanned three millennia, one might expect to find a similar element of grandeur in their sciences — especially in mathematics and astronomy. How did they configure the manpower and materials needed to build more than 90 pyramids? It is obvious that to calculate the vast amount of computations they needed, the ancient Egyptians reached a fairly advanced mathematical knowledge.

Several eminent Greek mathematicians — Pythagoras, Thales and Archimedes, to name just a few — worked in Egypt, and it is likely that Egyptian mathematics was absorbed into the body of Greek mathematics. The Giza pyramids offer definitive evidence of the ancient accuracy of measuring...

Mathematics in Ancient Egypt, Assem Deif, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 829, January 25 - 31, 2007.

I have spent most of my life excavating so that I can reveal the secrets from the sand. I always feel magic and mystery at each discovery. I never thought that this passion would also include underwater excavations.

When I was visiting Hawaii, I tried underwater diving, but was not able to stay in the deep for more than a few minutes. However, I do enjoy watching divers, including Franck Goddio and others in Alexandria, swimming among hundreds of artefacts which have been discovered thus far. They are in two locations: the eastern harbour of Alexandria, where a number of royal palaces of Queen Cleopatra and Ptolemaic rulers were established, and at Abu Qir Bay where the lost cities of Canopus and Herakleion lie. Here evidence of the lost cities has been found, along with wrecks of Napoleon Bonaparte's fleet.

The problem with underwater archaeology is that the artefacts are encased with salt which takes a long time to clean off. When I became the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), I decided to leave these artefacts in situ, since many objects had been lifted off the sea bed and I thought we should leave the rest to the possible underwater museum, the only archaeological underwater museum in the world.

Recently, Goddio selected some 500 objects to be exhibited across Europe. The exhibition Egypt's sunken treasures went first to Berlin...

Last December the exhibition went to Paris, where it will be on display for three months at the Grand Palais...

Ägyptens versunkene Schätze, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin.

Trésors engloutis d'Égypte, Grand Palais, Paris.

I notice that a third venue has been announced for April 05, 2007 until January 28, 2008 as the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art and exhibition hall of the Federal Republic of Germany) in Bonn.

Dig Days: The Underwater Treasures of Egypt in Paris, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 829, January 25 - 31, 2007.

The Italian government had presented President Hosni Mubarak with a rare manuscript dating back to the third Hijra century.

The manuscript is a full text of a book written by Islamic Arab writer Ibn Dawoud Al-Asfahani.

A statement by the Italian Embassy said Ambassador Antonio Badini handed over the gift on the occasion marking the choice of Italy as the guest of honor of Cairo International Book Fair, that will kick off on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the book has been compiled in the year 300 and includes poems of romance showing the interaction between the Islamic and Christian civilizations at the time.

Italy presents Mubarak with rare manuscript dating back to 3rd Hijra century, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January, 23, 2007.

An art exhibition devoted to Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun opens at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia next week, and everybody expects lines out the doors, similar to its first three stops in the U.S.

The official name is "King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," but it has come to be known as Tut Two.

And it is nothing like Tut One, the famous 1976-79 seven-city tour of King Tut's tomb objects which sparked a Pop cultural fascination with the boy king...

Philly's got the magic Tut, as pharaoh returns to U.S., Dan Bischoff, The Philadelphia Star-Ledger, Pennsylvania, USA, January 24, 2007.

Chicago's 10 largest museums recorded a 6 percent overall attendance increase over 2005, to 8.07 million visitors, in 2006.

The big gainer was the Field Museum, up 60 percent to 2.13 million, thanks to its King Tut exhibit.

Field nudged out the Shedd Aquarium, with 2.07 million, as the top museum draw in Chicago.

The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry saw losses of 15 percent and 24 percent, respectively. The Art Institute decrease reflected the lack of blockbuster shows after a boost in 2005 from a Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition, a spokeswoman said.

The MSI drop was the result of an increase in 2005 attendance from the Body Worlds show, a spokeswoman said.

Tut leads Field to top museum attendance gain, Andrew Herrmann, Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois, USA, January 21, 2007.

... But Thomas Young "beats them all".

In physics, he had the temerity to contradict Newton and propose a wave theory of light. In physiology, he made significant advances in understanding the mechanisms of the eye, explaining how it focuses, defining astigmatism, and proposing the three-colour theory of how the retina detects the sensation of colour. The latter was finally confirmed in 1959 and was described by a modern scientist as "surely the most prescient work in all of psychophysics".

In the field of engineering, "Young's modulus" is a measure of elasticity that explains how different materials contract or expand. Egyptologists hail Young as one of the founders of their science. He provided key insights into deciphering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on the Rosetta stone. In medicine (the one subject in which he received formal training) he also distinguished himself. In music, "Young's temperament" is a technique for tuning keyboard instruments. From languages (he coined the term Indo-European after a comparative analysis of 400 languages) to carpentry and life insurance, Young's incisive intellect has left its mark on countless disciplines...

, Andrew Robinson, Oneworld Publications, 2006, pp. 304.

Reluctant polymath, PD Smith, The Guardian, UK, January 20, 2007.

Previously from The Times: Review: The Last Man Who Knew Everything, December 11, 2006.

Archaeology Magazine's Hierakonpolis dig is back online for another season. Field notes one and two are already online. Check it out here.

This season, our crew is excavating a site we have dubbed HK24B, which is located near the [beer] Vat Site, with the hope of obtaining more residue from an archaeologically sealed context, and of revealing a similar brewery feature. We call it the "Pink Rag" site, after the subtle marker left on the site after my February 2006 survey, when the site was identified, but we didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to it and risk it being disturbed. In the sea of broken vat fragments that cover the area, what caught our eye were several pottery fragments placed on edge and cemented into place with fire-reddened mud. Just a small portion of this was visible peaking out from the surface.

Excavation beginning on December 20, 2006, revealed a line of thick vat sherds running northeast-southwest cemented in fired mud and surrounded by charcoal, ashy soil and lots and lots of mud-coated potsherds--all evidence of an ad hoc superstructure...

Archaeology's Interactive Dig: Hierakonpolis, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, January 2007.

Iran on Friday lost a legal battle against an 85-year-old French widow over a piece of carved limestone from the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis.

London's High Court ruled in favour of Denyse Berend, who bought the artefact in 1974, in a case brought against her by the Iranian government which sought to reclaim the relief fragment.

After a week of legal argument, Mr Justice Eady decided Berend was the legal owner of the piece, originally part of a wall frieze from the Northern Facade of the Eastern Staircase of the Apadana, or audience hall, at Persepolis...

Iran loses court battle over ancient carving, Reuters, UK, January 19, 2007.

Previously: Museums face fallout in fight over Persian carving, January 16, 2007.

Qasr Al-Sagha, or rather the Golden Fortress, is one of Fayoum's mysterious marvels. Located north of Lake Qarun, the building once stood on the shore of the ancient Lake Moeris. Now the lake has shrunk and Qasr Al-Sagha is stranded amidst the barren desert.

So what makes this archaeological site peculiar? Several other reasons besides the location. Though it has been debatable for some time, scholars have agreed that it belongs to the Middle Kingdom. However, the purpose of the edifice is not known, or whether it is a temple or a palace. Containing a number of small rooms, perhaps shrines, as well as a blind room with no entrance, the whole of the building is left bare without a single inscription or decoration. Qasr Al-Sagha is a job never completed...

Snap Shots, Mohamed El-Hebeishy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 827, January 11 - 17, 2007.

A retired navy man's musings on riding a backyard swing as a young boy gave him the idea for an invention that he says can explain one of histories enduring mysteries — the construction of the great pyramids of Egypt.

James Murphy said his Apex Delivery and Lifting System — or Murphy Mover — is more than just an explanation. It's a nearly energy free way of lifting and moving large objects.

It doesn't take much power and doesn't need any major outside energy — just gravity.

The problem is getting it publicized...

He's trying to get a scientific paper on the Murphy Mover published to attract the attention that could lead to a grant to demonstrate his theory and models...

Ancient mystery solved? Taft man says 'Murphy Mover' explains pyramids, Doug Keeler, Taft Midway Driller, California, USA, January 19, 2007.

Last chance, last chance! That thought will run through a million minds as people from all 50 states make travel plans to Philadelphia to see Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, presented by Mellon Financial Corporation. And, ticketing for out-of-towners couldn't be easier. Two un-timed, VIP tickets come with every booking of the King Tut Hotel Package. (That means visitors can see the show at anytime during exhibition hours). Philly is the final (and only East Coast) stop of the pharaoh's current North American tour. The Franklin Institute will host the blockbuster show, on view February 3 through September 30, 2007.

The Centrepiece Exhibition: Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs includes more than 130 treasures belonging to King Tut and his royal relatives. Of the 130 pieces on view, 50 of the artefacts have been excavated from Tut's tomb, including his royal diadem — the gold crown discovered encircling the head of the king's mummified body that he likely wore while living — and one of the gold and inlaid canopic coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs. Only 11 of the pieces were in the Treasures of Tutankhamun seven-city tour in the 1970s. Individual tickets are available at 1 (877) TUT-TKTS or www.fi.edu. The museum is extending hours from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. to accommodate the million visitors expected to attend...

Sleep Like a King in Philadelphia, PRNewswire, USA, January 23, 2007.

cf. Philadelphia "GOES GOLDEN" with a King-Sized Celebration!

cf. Official Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs website.

A 5,000-year-old Semitic text dealing with magical spells and snakes has been deciphered from an ancient Egyptian pyramid inscription, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Monday.

The texts, which were first discovered a century ago in a 24th Century BCE Egyptian pyramid, are the earliest continuous Semitic texts ever to have been deciphered, said Semitic languages Prof. Richard Steiner of New York's Yeshiva University in a premiere presentation at the Hebrew University.

The passages, serpent spells written in hieroglyphic characters, are estimated to have been written between the 25th to the 30th centuries BCE.

Steiner, a former fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University and a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, has deciphered a number of Semitic texts in various Egyptian scripts over the past 25 years.

The passages, which were inscribed on the subterranean walls of the pyramid of King Unas at Saqqara, Egypt, had puzzled scholars who tried to read them as if they were ordinary Egyptian texts...

Although written in Egyptian characters, the texts turned out to be composed in the Semitic language spoken by the Canaanites in the third millennium BCE, a very archaic form of the languages later known as Phoenician and Hebrew...

Deciphering of earliest Semitic text reveals talk of snakes and spells, Etgar Lefkovits, Jerusalem Post, Israel, January 23, 2007.

The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, known for antiquities scholarship, is using mapping software and spy-satellite photos to unravel the mysteries of how people lived, travelled and built civilizations.

The results could reveal findings as diverse as an ancient Egyptian settlement flooded by a dam, the routes explorers took to settle in Chicago's Beverly neighbourhood, and why Iraq is considered the cradle of civilization...

The project, called the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes or CAMEL, uses geographical information systems (GIS), the same mapping technology as Google Earth, to pinpoint details of ancient sites and even date their origins. That's possible because GIS encompasses data and trends analysis, and the ability to look at the results on two- and three-dimensional maps...

James Henry Breasted, the institute's founder, was among early explorers who took photos from airplanes over sites in Egypt in 1920. In that era, cameras were also strapped onto kites and balloons to take aerial shots...

Institute takes a futuristic look at past, Sandra Guy, The Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois, USA, January 17, 2007.

Previously: CAMEL allows archaeologists to survey ancient cities without digging in the dirt, disturbing sites, October 20, 2005.

In our very first meeting, the tour guide for the Egypt trek nicknamed the participants "Habu." In Arabic, "Habu" means the "glory." After the trip, all agreed that it was a glorious journey indeed.

On the first night, the Habu gathered in Cairo and ate at Sequoia, a trendy Miami beach-style restaurant. As everyone would soon learn, the trek would proceed at lightening speed and this relaxed night on the Nile was a little misleading.

Early the next morning we boarded a coach and headed to the crystal-clear waters and colourful reefs of Sharm el-Sheikh. Taking in the starboard view of the picturesque coastline, some felt nirvana could be reached if Sharm were only 10 degrees warmer. Unfortunately, it was not 10 degrees warmer and snorkelling Habu emerged from the water desperately searching for towels and sunshine.

The next morning we travelled by chartered plane to Luxor, home to the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the two colossi of Memnon, and numerous other awe-inspiring tributes to the ancient Thebes...

The Habu Takes On Egypt, The Harbus Online, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, January 22, 2007.

... I wanted culture. Not just any old culture, mind. I desired immersion in the most astonishing civilisation the world has yet produced: that of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. All I had to do was go where the sun sets.

With so many people milling about, it can be difficult to appreciate just what a strange, woebegone place is the Valley of the Kings. For the people of ancient Thebes, on the site of modern-day Luxor, this lifeless desert across the Nile to the west, where the sun bled each evening, was the appropriate place to build a subterranean city of death.

Surrounded by limestone crags, it is bakingly hot and fiercely inhospitable. Sixty-three tombs have been discovered so far, the most recent last year, but only a handful are open. On organised tours such as I took — the easiest way of doing it — it can be pot-luck what kind of guide you get. Ours, Mohamed Hansanin, was first-class...

Luxor ghosts laid to rest, Nigel Richardson, The Telegraph, UK, January 20, 2007.

Samples of rock and fragments of pyramid walls brought from Egypt are being examined at the AGH University of Science and Technology. It is very likely that meteorites had dropped near the pyramids. The material was collected during the December expedition of geologists. Another aim of the expedition was to study some geoglyphics, i.e. gigantic pictures drawn on the ground.

According to “Dziennik Polski”, the scientists were intrigued by some unusual structures, which resembled craters formed after meteorites hit the ground. They noticed them when analysing satellite pictures of areas north of the great pyramids in Giza.

“We found very solid metallic fragments in this area. These are probably meteorite fragments” — says Prof. Maciej Pawlikowski from the Mineralogy, Petrography and Geochemistry department at AGH University, who was the supervisor and main organiser of the geological expedition. “We hope that further tests on the patina covering the rocks, which formed during the meteorites’ fall, will help us to establish the exact time of the event” — the scientists said.

The aim of the expedition was also to study the geoglyphics, i.e. gigantic pictures on the ground. Located east of Cairo, they form two several-kilometre-long curved lines, which almost meet in one point. On satellite pictures, they look like a huge drawing of a scarab...

Meteorites from under the pyramids, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, January 19, 2007.

A newly-announced nature reserve in Egypt will be one of the most important tourist attractions, Environment Minister Maged George said on Saturday.

In statements, George said the reserve in the New Valley area of al-Gilf al-Kebir enjoys a distinguished geographic position and teems with a wealth of cultural and environmental heritage...

There is a project aiming to protect bio-diversity in the area through development, the minister said...

Al-Gilf Al-Kebir new nature reserve in Egypt, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 21, 2007.

A comprehensive program will be carried out to renew the historic state-owned hotels, according to Minister of Investment Mahmoud Moheiddin.

Moheiddin said that the program will cost some LE 850 million funded by the Holding Company for Tourism.

Does anyone know what historic hotels they are talking about?

LE 850 million to renew historic hotels, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 20, 2007.

A new ancient Egyptian-themed kids' discovery room is opening at the Museum of the Rockies on Saturday, Jan. 20 [2007]. To celebrate the arrival of the exhibit, "King Tut: 'Wonderful Things' from the Pharaoh's Tomb" that will be on display from March 3 through Sept. 3 [2007], the Martin Discovery Room is being redesigned with an Egyptian theme.

Children will be able to excavate Egyptian treasures in a dig pit and learn about hieroglyphics. They can also try on costumes, play with toys and read books, all with an Egyptian theme.

An adult must accompany children using the discovery room. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and admission is included in the standard museum admission rate.

The Museum of the Rockies is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:30 to 5 p.m. in the winter and spring. Admission for museum members is free and for non-members is $8 for adults, $4 for children 5 through 18, and free for children 4 and under. Planetarium features are free for members and $3 for non-members...

New ancient Egyptian-themed kids' discovery room opening Saturday at museum, MSU Today, Montana State University, Montana, USA, January 16, 2007.

Pushy bazaar merchants and poor waiter service are a bigger threat to Egypt's tourism industry than the bombs of Islamic militants, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah told AFP in an interview. Garranah said figures released Sunday show that tourist arrivals held up in 2006 despite a devastating April suicide bombing in the Red Sea resort of Dahab that killed 20 people, including vacationing foreigners.

A record 9.81 million tourists contributed $7.6 billion to Egypt's economy last year, the minister told AFP...

The length of visits increased too, with each tourist staying an average 9.83 days...

Foreign tourists regularly complain of bazaar salesmen trying to push "authentic" Pharaonic perfumes, of slow and unresponsive waiters in restaurants and of over-eager camel guides harassing them into over-priced rides around the pyramids.

"People took it for granted that everybody would come to Egypt [and] it's true," Garranah said. "But the people are treating tourists badly, they are harassing them and are not providing proper services..."

Egyptian tourism minister bemoans pushy merchants, AFP via The Daily Star, Lebanon, January 15, 2007.

A note on display at a blockbuster exhibit of Egyptian antiquities in Canberra explains the importance the sun to the people of the pharaohs, who themselves were blighted by the Nile's cycles of flood and drought.

"Provider of life, its excessive force is also the cause of drought, the arid climate and the absence of life in the desert," the text advises about the sun, as visitors nod in understanding after having driven past sun-scorched land themselves.

Their trip may not be as harrowing as the passage to the underworld of Osiris, but up to 4,000 Australians are showing up each day at the exhibit, one of the world's most significant collections of ancient Egyptian art, which was sent south courtesy of Marc Etienne, curator of the Louvre museum in Paris...

Journey to the Afterlife: Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre is at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, until 25 February. It moves to the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, from March 21 to July 1, followed by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, from July 21 to October 28 [2007].

Parched Australians flood ancient Egypt exhibit, Rob Taylor, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, January 19, 2007.

Amazement Square in Lynchburg is featuring an exhibit called "Ancient Egypt Life & Afterlife on the Nile."

Beginning Saturday, children can visit the interactive exhibit and learn how to "Write Like an Egyptian." It runs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $6.

There are two videos on this page also.

Learn how to write like an Egyptian at Amazement Square, WDBJ7, Virginia, USA, January 19, 2007.

You'll have to pardon Tanet-Paheku if he's a bit late for the big show. He's been dead for 2,500 years, after all.

The mummy of Tanet-Paheku, a young child who died in ancient Egypt between 656 BC and 343 BC, will be installed at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens this morning. It should be available for public viewing by this afternoon, said Amy Laubach Chamberlin, manager of marketing at the Riverside Avenue museum.

The Cummer's big new show, Temples and Tombs, features ancient Egyptian artefacts on loan from the British Museum. But no mummy. Enter Tanet-Paheku, borrowed from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, [Massachusetts] The mummy won't actually be part of Temples and Tombs and will be in the museum's Millner Gallery...

The mummy is now in the building, The Florida, Times-Union, Florida, USA, January 19, 2007.

Nacalie Cooper and her cousin, Andre Booth, make their way down steps and over an image of King Tut yesterday at the Franklin Institute Science Museum. The Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit is scheduled to run from Feb. 3, to Sept. 30 [2007].

Tripping over pharaohs, AP via Worcester telegram & Gazette, Massachusetts, USA, January 18, 2007.

The Upper Egyptian city of Luxor caught this week's headlines as President Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a score of ministers embarked on a tour last Sunday to inspect the most recent development projects undertaken there, as well as inaugurating a number of historical, cultural, archaeological and tourist sites, as well as service zones for Luxor residents and tourists...

President Mubarak, known to have an interest in archaeology and culture, stopped in Luxor, the first stop of his official tour of Egyptian governorates and towns. Home to a third of Egypt's monuments, Luxor is the country's most important tourist destination.

President Mubarak began his visit with a tour of the town's east bank. He first inaugurated the Mubarak Historical Centre, which has been established ... to display Egypt's cultural and natural heritage from the ancient Egyptian times right through the Coptic and Islamic eras...

The president's second stop was at the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes that once connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak. A major excavation project is being carried out there by an archaeological team ... to reconstruct the avenue in Luxor and remove any encroachments on the important historical site...

Mansour Boreyak, director of the Luxor monuments, told Al-Ahram Weekly that since the project began two years ago, no fewer than 60 of the limestone sphinxes had been unearthed, along with a unique quartzite religious stelae of Bakenkhonsu, the high priest of Amun-Re...

... to Karnak Temple to show ... the latest developments on the east side of Luxor Temple, which was damaged by encroachments...

[And] to check on work being undertaken in the temple's front area and its surroundings. This project, which was launched in May last year, aims at protecting the monument from non-stop infringements as well as restoring the temple's ambiance to its former glory. It will remove all encroachment from the forefront of the temple in an attempt to allow excavation work to uncover the ancient harbour and a canal that was once connected to the Nile...

... a [new] visitor centre, [will be] built in similar colonial style to the house of the archaeologist George Legrain's, to provide visitors with the information they need about Karnak and its history. A memorabilia hall to commemorate the early French archaeologists who worked at Karnak, such as Auguste Mariette, Gaston Maspero, Legrain and others, will be established...

[From New Gurna] President Mubarak headed towards the Valley of the Kings to inaugurate the newly-established visitor centre. The-one-storey edifice has been built by the SCA in collaboration with the Japanese government...

... it [will] provide visitors with all the information necessary about the Valley of the Kings and its 27 royal tombs. Maps hang on the walls and there is a huge model of the valley and its causeways and corridors.

Two plasma screens show a unique film about the boy king Tutankhamun and the story behind its discovery and how its discoverer, Howard Carter, took the tomb's treasures from Luxor to the Egyptian Museum...

Viewing the treasure chest, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 828, January 18 - 24, 2007.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice no longer has time to breathe in the local culture...

When there wasn't enough time for a cultural visit, Rice's staff arranged for her to be greeted by a country's pop culture heroes, especially sports or music stars...

But as the months have passed, and the diplomatic headaches have grown, the cultural events have dropped off her schedule... But then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak invited Rice to meet him Monday at this ancient city on the Nile, the legendary Thebes and one of the prime tourist spots in the Middle East. For a brief moment, it looked as if Rice would actually take a brief tour of Luxor Temple, which was near the hotel where she would meet Mubarak...

Rice's Packed Schedule Leaves Little Room for Cultural Visits, Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, District of Columbia, USA, January 16, 2007.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and Director of excavations at the Giza Pyramids, Saqqara, and Bahariya Oasis, offers a special public talk, “The Riddle of the Pyramids and the Magic of King Tut,” Thursday, February 1 [2007] at 6:00 p.m. in the Harrison Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia...

In the news, University of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, USA, January 09, 2007.

On Feb. 14 [2007], Penn Staters will have a special viewing of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Before the 8 p.m. tour, Penn State’s internationally renowned Egyptologist Donald Redford will discuss ancient Egypt and King Tut at a dessert reception. This program already is at capacity, although those interested in attending can join a waiting list.

Alumni Association event to showcase student talent, Penn State Live, University of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, USA, January 15, 2007.

Egyptologist Betsy Bryan and her crew are once again sharing their work with the world through an online diary, a digital window into day-to-day life on an archaeological dig. Starting about Friday, Jan. 19 [2007], and running through late February, visitors to “Hopkins in Egypt Today” at www.jhu.edu/neareast/egypttoday.html will find photos of Bryan and her colleagues working on The Johns Hopkins University’s 12th annual expedition in Luxor. Bryan will continue to explore the Egyptian New Kingdom (1567 to 1085 B.C.E.), known as the “golden age” of Egyptian temple building.

According to Bryan, modern-day Luxor is rich in finds from the New Kingdom, like last year’s major discovery: a 3,400-year-old nearly intact statue of Queen Tiy, one of the queens of the powerful king Amenhotep III. In an audio slide show — accessible using Windows Media Player at www.jhu.edu/news_info/realmedia/egypt_2007.wmv — [2'33"] Bryan recalls the discovery of the statue, which she calls "one of the true masterpieces of Egyptian art..."

Archaeologists Bring Egyptian Excavation to the Web, Johns Hopkins University via Newswise, January 18, 2007.

Previously:

Archaeologists Bring Egyptian Excavation to the Web, January 05, 2006.

Egyptian excavation returns to the Web starting Jan. 15, January 12, 2005.

A retired Italian antiquities thief told a Rome court that tomb robbers provide an important service by saving ancient art and helping to preserve a historical record...

“I saved hundreds and hundreds of works that otherwise would have ended up buried under cement,” Casasanta said. “I found thousands of pieces of art that are considered part of Western civilization’s heritage...”

“For years we were art experts, then came a day when we became delinquents,” Casasanta said.

He described the trade’s hierarchy of clandestine antiquities diggers and merchants. The “excavators” sold pieces to “small local merchants,” who did business with “other more important local merchants” — dealers on the international market, he said...

Italian Art Thief Says Tomb Raiders Provide Important Service, Adam L. Freeman, Bloomberg, UK, January 17, 2007.

In a move that seemed to gratify prosecutors, lawyers for a former curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles who is on trial here asked on Wednesday that the court admit as evidence a letter in which the curator railed against her former employer.

In the Dec. 18 [2006] letter to three Getty officials, the former curator, Marion True, accused the Getty’s trust of having left her to “carry the burden” of the institution’s collecting practices, even though her superiors at the museum and the trust had “approved all of the acquisitions made during my tenure.”

Her letter — addressed to Deborah Marrow, then the Getty Trust’s acting chief executive; Michael Brand, the museum’s director; and Ron Hartwig, the trust’s spokesman — also faulted the museum for a “lack of courage and integrity...”

But the prosecutor leading Italy’s investigation, Paolo Ferri, said the letter presented in Ms. True’s defence worked against her by suggesting that she had knowingly taken part in acquisitions of illicit artefacts. “She accuses the Getty of having been aware of all her decisions,” he said, adding that she did not shun dubious purchases. “She didn’t pop out of nowhere,” he said, but was continuing an established practice...

Casting Blame for Looting in Trial of Getty Ex-Curator, Elisabetta Povoledo, The New York Times, New York, USA, January 18, 2007.

Previously: Ex-Getty curator says she's taking fall, January 02, 2007.

A mummified cat in the possession of the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery has been booked in for an appointment with a veterinarian today.

X-rays are expected to reveal what has been hidden beneath layers of linen cloth for thousands of years.

A snout and mouth poking out give a fair idea of what might be inside.

"The vets are really excited because it's something different," said Anne Rowland, registrar at the gallery.

"Hopefully we will know a little bit more, but we might not. It might just unearth more questions...

The Ballarat Fine Art Gallery has decided to have two mummified parcels — one a cat and the other an unknown object — tested in a bid to shed light on an enduring mystery...

Mummy, you're purr-fect, Simon Gladman, The Ballarat Courier, Australia, January 11, 2007.

Halved puss still a cat-egorical mystery

X-rays have revealed that the two mummified parcels, belonging to the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, contained the two halves of a cat.

The contents of one package had been unknown before yesterday's examination at a veterinary clinic, while those in the other were confirmed as a cat's upper portion.

But the art gallery's registrar Anne Rowland said the discovery of what was beneath the layers of linen cloth prompted more questions than answers...

Halved puss still a cat-egorical mystery, Simon Gladman, The Ballarat Courier, Australia, January 12, 2007.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is next on the list of American museums from which Italy will seek the return of ancient treasures it says were looted from Italian soil.

Maurizio Fiorilli, the Italian government lawyer leading negotiations with American museums, confirmed Friday that he has been trying to open discussions with the Cleveland museum as part of an international campaign to halt the trade in illegally excavated antiquities.

He said three e-mails to the museum have gone unanswered, although he acknowledged that the e-mails may not have been addressed properly and may be missing.

In the latest message, sent Dec. 20 [2006], Fiorilli said he proposed that the museum send representatives to Rome in February for a discussion about how the Cleveland museum could return ancient works in exchange for long-term loans from Italian museums...

Italy asks museum to return works, Steven Litt, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, January 13, 2007.

The North Texas Chapter ARCE present a lecture "Recent Activities at KV-63" by Roxanne Wilson on January 20, 2007.

North Texas Chapter ARCE: Activities, North Texas Chapter ARCE, Texas, USA.

An exhibition of vintage photographs celebrating one of the most memorable episodes in the history of archaeology — the discovery and exploration of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (Dynasty 18; ruled ca. 1336-1327 B.C.) — will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 29, 2007.

The photographs, documenting every stage in the process of the excavation, were taken by the renowned archaeological photographer Harry Burton, who was a staff member of the Metropolitan Museum Egyptian Expedition when he was “lent” to Howard Carter, the famed excavator of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton features his spectacular black-and-white images of the entrance passage to the tomb, the opening of the sealed chambers inside, the first view of the contents and removal of the objects, and the beautifully made and decorated treasures that were found. The four chambers of the tomb were crammed with objects such as gold-covered chariots; elaborately inlaid furniture and chests; a vast array of the king’s personal belongings, including jewellery; a series of shrines and coffins that protected the king; and the famous solid-gold mask that adorned his mummy — the last, among the most iconic examples of ancient Egyptian art ever to have come to light...

Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Metropolitan Museum Presents “Discovery Of Tutankhamun’s Tomb”, HULIQ Media, North Carolina, USA, January 17, 2007.

cf. Egyptian Art At Metropolitan Museum, HULIQ Media, North Carolina, USA, January 17, 2007.

A stone carving of the head of a guardsman from the ancient palace of Persian kings at Persepolis is at the centre of a High Court battle that could have worldwide repercussions for museums and art collections.

For more than 30 years, the 5th century BC relief has been in the possession of a Frenchwoman who bought it at an auction in New York in 1974 and displayed it on her living room wall.

When Denyse Berend, 85, tried to sell it through Christie's auction house in London in 2005, the Islamic Republic of Iran claimed it as stolen and launched a legal attempt to get it back.

Now Mr Justice Eady must decide who is the rightful owner in a case that one expert has described as having the potential to act like a "nuclear bomb" on the antiquities market...

"If the High Court goes the direction of Iran it will send shivers down the spines of art collectors and museums," he said. "It could set a precedent and Iran could claim many more pieces worldwide" said Michel van Rijn...

Museums face fallout in fight over carving, Stephanie Condron, The Telegraph, UK, January 16, 2007.

The trial of a former official of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles resumes today as Italian authorities campaign to retrieve antiquities they believe have been stolen and sold to some of the world's leading collections.

Marion True, 57, is charged in Rome with buying antiquities from Italy which she knew were stolen.

The outcome of her case may force art galleries and museums around the world to reconsider their exhibits. Already, the case has given the Italian government the confidence to demand the return of hundreds of statues, bronzes and plates from museums in New York, Boston, Cleveland and Japan. The Greek government has followed its cue, launching its own court case against Miss True and winning back prizes including a million-dollar golden funerary wreath...

Italy campaigns for antiquities in Getty trial, Malcolm Moore, The Telegraph, UK, January 17, 2007.

Believed extinct in Syria for more than 70 years, the northern bald ibis was rediscovered near the ancient city of Palmyra in 2002 (photo of Palmyra ruins). The species was once common across the Middle East and North Africa, but now fewer than 300 remain in the wild.

Relive the hunt for the elusive bird with team leader and National Geographic Society grantee Gianluca Serra, who said: "Discovering this bird was like finding the Arabian Phoenix regenerated from the ashes."

“Extinct” Ibis Found in Middle East, National Geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, January 04, 2007.

cf. “Bird of the Pharaohs” Stages Comeback, National Geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, October 03, 2003.

"The number of tourists visiting the country in 2006 stood at 9.82m, marking a 5.5 per cent increase, surpassing the rate expected by the International Monetary Fund," Egyptian Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana said at a press conference Tuesday 16/01/2007.

Garana noted that tourism revenues mushroomed by 11.8 per cent.

He noted that LE 53.9m was allocated to securing the movement of floating hotels, LE 72.8m to revamping Alexandria harbour, Luxor airport and the Salam road in Sharm el-Sheikh and LE 74m for charter flights...

Tourist's number increases by 5.5 percent in 2006, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 17, 2007.

On the second day of his visit to Luxor, President Hosni Mubarak on Monday inaugurated the new Qurna town located on the west bank of Luxor and built by the State for inhabitants of the old Qurna village.

The new Qurna town is the place to which inhabitants of the old village were moved to protect the archaeological sites they were living in.

The inauguration of the new town and the relocation of the Qurna villagers there ends a 50-year-old battle to evict squatters from one of Egypt's most renowned archaeological site where the nearly 10,000 inhabitants of the old village used to live in mud-brick houses erected over ancient Egyptian tombs on the Theban hills...

President Hosni Mubarak inaugurated on Monday morning in the Valley of the Kings and Queens on the west bank of Luxor the Visitor Centre, which is a museum and exhibition for tombs of Pharaonic dynasties.

The Visitor Centre includes large screens airing documentaries on all monuments and tombs in the West Valley to have tourists acquainted with such precious sites without the need to get into them.

Similar visitor centres will be established in other archaeological sites to give tourists a chance to see the various antiquities and tombs through films instead of entering the sites to protect them from any damage in the long run...

Mubarak visits new Qurna Town in Luxor, inaugurates visitors centre, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 16, 2007.

TravelVideo's monthly antiquities news round-up. Containing...

• Night visits to Temple of Horus allowed as of New Year.
• Egypt restores world's oldest wall made of mud bricks.
• Mummy dating back to 6th dynasty in Saqqara discovered.
• Restoration project of el Gurna tombs.
• 20th dynasty tablet unearthed.

Antiquity News from Egypt January 2007, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, January 11, 2007.

... as well as a promo reel of the animated "Princess of the Sun," the first adaptation of a book about the young Tutankhamun and Nefertiti.

Pic will get its world premiere at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids later this year, courtesy of distributor Good News Group...

Directed by Philippe Leclerc and with a release date of April 04, 2007.

Rendezvous offers wealth of French fare, Alison James, Variety International, Paris, January 11, 2007.

Not a trace remains of the Seven Wonders — with the exception of the Pyramids — of the ancient world.

Meanwhile, the New 7 Wonders Foundation, a privately funded organisation, carried out a survey and recently short listed 21 landmarks worldwide of which Seven Wonders of the Modern World will be nominated. The official declaration will be made in Lisbon, Portugal on July 7, 2007, i.e. on the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year of the millennium. The 21 landmarks include the Coliseum in Rome, the city of Petra in Jordan, Stonehenge in England, the Great Wall of China, the Acropolis in Athens, Alhambra in Spain, the Kremlin and the Taj Mahal. The Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and Sydney Opera House are among the modern candidates. Former UNESCO chief Fredrico Mayor has selected a committee to decide on the top seven. But there is controversy in the air as the Great Pyramids of Giza are on the list. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni told the Middle East News Agency (MENA) that the Pyramids needed no proof of its status as a wonder of the world. "This competition is only an attempt to snatch the spotlight," the minister said, adding no one had contacted any Egyptian official for a meeting on this issue. Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass told MENA that the vote had "no legal, scientific, or official capacity".

Pyramids one of wonders of modern world as well?, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, January 16, 2007.

When beauty, charm, power and influence are combined in one person, what you get is Nefertiti, the wife of the 18th Dynasty ruler Akhenaten. In hieroglyphics, her name meant 'The beauty coming'. Her name wasn't just beautiful; she too was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman in Ancient Egypt.

When beauty, charm, power and influence are combined in one person, what you get is Nefertiti, the wife of the 18th Dynasty ruler Akhenaten. In hieroglyphics, her name meant 'The beauty coming'. Her name wasn't just beautiful; she too was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman in Ancient Egypt. Her husband, the first monotheist in history, bestowed upon her the title of 'heiress' in a clear reference to his wish to have her on the throne. According to inscriptions on the walls of temples in Akhetaten (now known as Tel el-Amarna), the capital city which Akhenaten established for the cult of Aten, Nefertiti was a lady of charm, sweet love, grace and happiness. Her head, exhibited at the Berlin Museum, is a masterpiece that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. It is truly enchanting and aesthetically beautiful in a feminine way. The artist who carved that head achieved a delicate balance between the head itself, the crown, the neck and shoulders. Her almond-shaped eyes are warm, noble and full of grandeur, grace and serenity. A sweet smile play on those thin, delicate lips of hers. The sculpture must have been done when Nefertiti was about 30. Her characteristically long neck is graced by a painted collar, ornamented with coloured botanical designs. The bust is said to reflect the beauty and strength of a genuine Queen. According to a German Professor, her face has a look of spiritual power and intelligence. The bust was found by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose at el-Amarna. Nefertiti married Akhenaten when she was only 13. She bore him six daughters, three of whom were born when she was still in Thebes before they moved to Akhetaten. Her third daughter married Tutankhamun and later became Queen of Egypt. Nefertiti was of great support to her husband and helped him in his many official functions. Akhenaten was proud for his wife to be depicted in murals as the partner who assisted him in running the affairs of his kingdom. The idea of a woman being like the King's right hand was not quite acceptable at that time. But there is archaeological evidence to confirm this 'ruling partnership'. The experience Nefertiti gained in running the country enabled her to take over following the death of her husband. There is nothing to suggest that things went pear-shaped when Akhenaten passed away. Understandably, Nefertiti had to rely on the help of some of the best statesmen, especially the noble Ai. The sarcophagus of Akhenaten was destroyed in ancient times but the few fragments that have survived clearly indicate that Nefertiti was assigned to rule the country. She managed to maintain stability and to keep the throne within the family, by taking care of her stepson, Tutankhamun, who became her legitimate heir.

More than just a beautiful woman, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, January 16, 2007.

Egypt has had a new plan to preserve the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings on the western bank of the Nile River in the southern city of Luxor, the official MENA news agency reported on Saturday.

According to the plan by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, touring times and duration will be limited and tour revenues will be funnelled into restoration projects of the tombs.

Meanwhile, the council has recently opened a visitors' centre at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, over 700 kilometres south of Cairo.

According to local daily The Egyptian Gazette on Saturday, there had been no facility to provide visitors with the overall view of the Valley of the Kings and the expertise on individual tombs.

There was also concern that large number of visitors may damage the paintings and walls inside the tombs, which prompted the Egyptian government to formulated the project to address these problems.

The Valley of the Kings is house for 63 tombs, including 26 tombs belonging to Ancient Egyptian dynasties.

Having the tomb of Tutankhamun, the valley is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Egypt, attracting more than 2 million visitors annually.

Egypt increases efforts to preserve royal tombs in Luxor's Valley of the Kings, People's Daily, China, January 14, 2007.

A collection of rare maps of Africa, dating from 1530 to 1915, has been made freely available on the internet by Northwestern University in the US.

Curator David Easterbrook says the antique maps not only show the growing geographical knowledge of Africa but the progression of colonisation.

"Early cartographers had not visited or surveyed the land, so they had to do their best guesswork," he told the BBC.

All of the 113 maps can be examined in detail on the site or downloaded...

A quick search for ‘Egypt’ brings back twelve maps.

Web maps show old views of Africa, BBC News, UK, January 11, 2007.

cf. Northwestern University Library: 16th- Early 20th Century Maps of Africa, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.

We arrived in Cairo late at night — tired from flying, but excited to be in the land of pyramids and pharaohs. But it would be a few days before we would really get to appreciate the history here. First, we had to learn how to survive. Being a pedestrian in Cairo is a bit of a gamble. You're putting your life on the line just by trying to cross the street.

There's a video game I used to play called Frogger that reminds me of this city. This time, I'm the frog — holding my breath and trying not to be chicken as I dart from lane to lane to get to the other side.

The traffic is just part of the city's soundtrack. It's a duet of hyperactive honking and the muezzins, calls to prayer five times a day. Eventually, silence becomes foreign.

First on the agenda, a trip to the pyramids...

Jewels on the Nile, Sophie Lui, Canada.com, Canada, January 06, 2007.

President Hosni Mubarak yesterday 14/01/2007 opened several projects in Luxor, including the Mubarak Egyptian Heritage Centre, Luxor's modernized railway station and the airport road.

The President was briefed on restoration projects for a number of ancient temples.

Mubarak approved the allocation of LE7.5 million for the 600-room international youth hostel...

Mubarak inaugurates tourist & service projects in Luxor, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 15, 2007.

Siwa appears at first as a sweet and innocent place deep in the desert which has just opened its eyes to the modern world and still let itself be amazed. Which is not wrong, the asphalted road opened first in 1984.

But the history goes deep beyond the earliest civilisations, to Palaeolithic times. In the first millennium BC, Siwa was famous with the ancient Egyptians, thanks to its oracle. The oracle was thought to be so true and powerful that it generated fear. During these times, Siwa was a wealthy place, well illustrated by the Gebel al-Mawta and its rich tombs. In early Islamic times, Siwa went into decline and sometime in the 13th century was down as little as 200. Today the population is on the rise, and has since long passed 20,000. Most live in the town Siwa, the rest are spread across over 10 smaller villages. How to go there From Cairo by bus from the International Bus Station (El Torgman) Fares vary between LE85 and LE165. From Marsa Matrouh by bus from the bus station. Tickets vary between LE30and LE95.

Siwa: the sweetest oasis, Mohamed Salah Attia, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, January 15, 2007.

One day, while working in the workers’ cemetery, we discovered the beginnings of a ramp outlined with low walls of limestone rubble. This ramp led directly to the upper part of the escarpment, where we found more tombs, larger and more elaborate than those in the lower cemetery, looking out over the valley below.

Many were completely rock-out and had a stone façade in front of a low cliff face; others were freestanding mastabas of limestone and mud brick. The artefacts and statuary in these tombs was of higher quality than those from the lower cemetery, and the inscriptions told us that the people buried here were of higher status than those below, holding titles such as “Inspector of Dragging Stones,” “Inspector of the Craftsmen,” “Inspector of the Sculptors,” “Chief of the Estates,” “Overseer of the Linen,” “Overseer of the Tomb Makers,” “Overseer of the Harbor,” and even “Overseer of the Side of the Pyramid.” The most important title found here was “Director of the King’s Work.” I believe these are the tombs of the artisans who designed and decorated the pyramid complexes and the administrators who oversaw their construction. Based on the pottery, names, and titles found in this cemetery, my conclusion is that it was begun as early as the reign of Khufu and continued in use through the end of Dynasty 5, from about 2589 to 2345 BC. Some of the tombs were robbed in antiquity, and intrusive Late Period shafts have destroyed of damaged others. However, we still found many amazing artefacts. Many tombs contained false doors or stelae inscribed with requests for offerings and the name and titles of the tomb owner and his family, and other tombs contained statues, within a serdab. As in the lower cemetery, the majority of the tomb shafts still protected skeletons, many in wooden coffins, always lying so that the head faced north and the face was to the cast.

Cemetery of the Artisans, Zahi Hawass, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, January 15, 2007.

The title of this book [The Building Crafts of Cairo: A Living Tradition], adorned as it is with a photograph of an aged stonecutter, may not be very appealing, but do not be deceived. It is painstakingly researched, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully designed by the author herself.

Dobrowolska, a conservation architect who has been living and working in Cairo for going on 15 years, has succeeded in capturing what she considers an endangered way of life and work before it is too late. "My point of view was not that of a social anthropologist or ethnographer," she writes in her introduction, "but of a conservation architect dealing with the craftsmen on a day-to-day basis, making use of their skills or practical purposes. This approach has its limitations," she admits, "but working with the craftsmen of Cairo has been a fascinating and enriching experience." Fortunately for the rest of us, she has chosen to share some of the insights that she has gained from this knowledge. The result is a work at once intimate, well observed and written in lively prose.

"The philosophy behind architectural conservation has been never to chance the substance of historic buildings," Dobrowolska writes. "Wherever possible, repairs [have been] done using the same materials and techniques that were used for the original construction." This brought her into contact with a large number of people practicing traditional crafts in Cairo "in small workshops located in the same neighbourhoods since immemorial", whose professional skills have been passed down from father to son for generations...

, Agnieszka Dobrowolska, American University in Cairo Press, Egypt, 2006, pp. 128.

Endangered talents, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 827, January 11 - 17, 2007.

Located in the Eastern Desert, Saint Paul Monastery remains one of the most popular in Egypt, attracting a regular horde of visitors tempted as much by the desert journey as by the architectural and spiritual experience. In AD 250 — so the story goes — the saint fled Alexandria from the wrath of the heathen Emperor Decius; he was only 16. He found a place of hermitage in a cave flanked by a palm tree and a spring, where, nearly a century later in AD 343 he was eventually joined by Saint Anthony, who saw him come out of the cave in a dream and found his way to him.

Saint Paul had been provided for by a crow, who brought him half a loaf of bread every day, which grew to a whole loaf on the arrival of Saint Anthony. Soon after that Saint Paul confided in Saint Anthony that his death was near, and that he wanted his body to be covered in a cloak of Bishop Athanasius's; on his return from fetching the cloak Saint Anthony found Saint Paul's soul departed. He was at a loss how to bury him for lack of a spade; it is believed that two lions appeared, dug a hole with their paws, and left. Both saints were commemorated 30 years later by Saint Jerome, and later by Saint Athanasius: Saint Paul became known as the First Hermit, and Saint Anthony as the Father of Monasticism. For its part the cave became a place of pilgrimage, and the two monasteries grew around its site.

Not so long ago a visitor could only get to Saint Paul by hiring a camel in Beni Sueif; a separate, 25km journey was required to get to Saint Anthony. Today the Al-Sukhna Highway reduces the journey to a straightforward 120km drive. The monastery had been closed for restoration work until 2006, when it reopened: Qummous Daniel offers a complete tour of the premises, featuring the waterwheel and rock art of ancient monks, as well as a full historical account of the site.

Monastery of St. Paul, William Lyster, The American Research Center in Egypt, 1999, pp. 96.

, William Lyster, Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 304.

The saintliness of sand, Mohamed Wassim, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 827, January 11 - 17, 2007.

For more than three centuries, since historians and Egyptologists began to write the first history in modern times of the 20th dynasty of Ancient Egypt, compiled from hieroglyphic texts drawn on papyri or engraved on tombs and temple walls, the history of the dynasty has remained virtually unchanged. However, this is archaeology, and in archaeology nothing can be said to be fixed. A newly-unearthed stelae in the avenue lined with ram-headed sphinxes that once connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak, along which official and religious processions passed for centuries, has thrown further light on this ancient era.

The new information not only illustrates the growing power of the priesthood during the New Kingdom, but also changes some concepts of the 20th dynasty, especially the facts and figures relating to its founder, the Pharaoh Setnakhte.

The stelae is a quartzite religious relief engraved in two parts; the upper one featuring Setnakhte wearing the blue crown and kneeling before the god Amun-Re, who holds the key of life in his right hand and the waset symbol in his left hand. The pharaoh is offering the god the feather of justice, while the goddess Mut, standing in the background, raises her left hand as a symbol of protection and holds the key of life in her right. The lower part bears 17 lines of hieroglyphic text followed by a scene showing Bakenkhonsu, the High Priest of Amun-Re, wearing his religious robes and praying...

Dynasty revealed, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 827, January 11 - 17, 2007.

Previously: Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, December 28, 2006.

Greek authorities ordered Marion True, former antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to post about $19,000 bail, two sources familiar with the case confirmed.

True's appearance Wednesday before a Greek magistrate and prosecutors, first reported by the New York Times, was the latest step toward a criminal trial on charges that the former curator conspired to buy an ancient golden funerary wreath that Greek authorities say was illegally excavated.

The Getty returned the golden wreath to Greece in mid-December, days before True was formally charged with the crime. True's attorneys have denied that she is guilty of the charges.

Bail set for former Getty curator, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, January 12, 2007.

The international effort to recover “stolen” works of art from some of the world’s best museums gathered pace today with reports that Italy is seeking the return of Roman antiquities from Japan.

Authorities in Italy suspect that up to 100 treasures from ancient Rome were looted and have asked the Japanese government to help secure their return, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.

About 50 of the missing treasures, including a sculpture and fresco painting, are being kept at the Miho museum, a private museum in Shiga prefecture in western Japan known for its large collection of Asian and western antiques, the newspaper said, citing unnamed Italian prosecutors...

Italy to ask Japan for return of 'looted' = antiques, Justin McCurry, The Guardian, UK, January 11, 2007.

Ten years ago, during a visit to the tomb of Menna in the West Bank of Luxor, Queen Sofía of Spain caught sight of a child spinning wool on the cliff above. Intrigued, she asked permission to have a look around the area.

Peeking into the open door of a house, she saw an old man, Nassif, weaving kilims (handmade Egyptian carpets). The Queen was impressed by the whole atmosphere of Nassif’s home — the charm, the family, the simplicity of the house and studio, the skill and modesty of the weaver and the pictures of saints plastered on the wall. She chatted with the weaver for a while before making her way back down the cliffs. On the way down, she stopped and spoke with the Shahy brothers, who were carving the delicate features of Ramose on a bas-relief, while their mother sat on a dikka (a traditional wooden bench found in rural Egypt) adding beads to multi-coloured scarves.

Sofía ever returns to Gurna, she will probably ask, “Where have all the artisans gone?” As of last month, they are all earmarked for relocation to a new settlement, their houses marked for destruction as part of the Supreme Council for Antiquities’ drive to protect the priceless antiquities of the area. Indeed, one of the dwellings was ripped down by a front-end loader last month as part of a media spectacle to showcase the move of Gurna’s residents to a new “model” community...

Killing The Goose?, Nawal Hassan, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 28, Issue 01, January 2007.

The CUNY Graduate Center is hosting a sold-out first-ever gathering on Tuesday of the Athanasius Kircher Society in honour of 17th-century Jesuit polymath, an oddball natural scientist, historian, and rhetorician who explored Egyptology, Coptic grammar, the study of wind, and obelisks, and explored the connection between magnetism and love.

"Athanasius Kircher was the last of these great dinosaurs of erudition who can trample any fence between fields," a professor at Princeton University who will read a letter at the gathering about Kircher's descent into a volcano, Anthony Grafton, said.

Kircher lived just at the point when specialization in the university was commencing. Although the rationalist René Descartes helped eclipse his reputation, the once famous Kircher made contributions to Egyptology, volcanology, Sinology, ethnomusicology, and a dozen other eclectic subjects, writing 30 books and opening a public museum...

Exploring the Curious Mind of Kircher, Gary Shapiro, The New York Sun, New York, USA, January 11, 2007.

Two members of the Egyptological Society of Malta are promoting the theory that the many ancient Egyptian artefacts unearthed in Malta were brought over by the Egyptians themselves, and not, as commonly thought, by traders.

In an article titled Did The Ancient Egyptians Ever Reach Malta?, published in the Egyptian Egyptological journal, Anton Mifsud and Marta Farrugia analysed Egyptian artefacts found here and went through old and recently published material on which to base their conclusions.

Dr Mifsud and Ms Farrugia argue that because of their beliefs in afterlife, the ancient Egyptians were extremely reluctant to leave their country to live and possibly die miles away from home. However, war and trade with the Eastern Mediterranean nations and islands lured the Egyptians out of their homeland.

The authors note that though it has always been assumed that it was the Phoenicians who brought the earliest Egyptian artefacts to Malta, the items found here span a time frame that pre-dates the arrival of the Phoenicians in the eighth century BC...

I'm not sure what the "Egyptian Egyptological journal" is but the authors published an article with the title "Did The Ancient Egyptians Ever Reach Malta?" in the UK's Ancient Egypt Magazine, Volume 6, Number 5, Issue 35, April / May 2006.

'Ancient artefacts brought over by Egyptians, not by traders', Natalino Fenech, The Malta Times, Malta, January 11, 2007.

Remarkable discoveries on the fringes of the Sahara are forcing a rethink of the origins of ancient Egyptian civilisations

It was February 1999, and Carlo Bergmann had spent five days wandering through the desert with just his camels for company. His eyes were sore from the dust and from scanning the ground in front of him. Then he spotted them — two shards of pottery lying in the sand. They didn't look like much, but Bergmann knew at once what they meant. This one-time Ford motor company management trainee with no formal archaeological training had discovered an ancient trail that had eluded professional Egyptologists for almost a century. Here was a key piece in the puzzle surrounding the origins of the great civilisation of the pharaohs.

Eight years on, and amazing discoveries by Bergmann and a small band of researchers in the desert west of the river Nile are forcing Egyptologists to reconsider the origins of this ancient civilisation. In the 5th century BC, the historian Herodotus described pharaonic...

You'll need to be an online subscriber to see the whole article or nip down to your local newsagents and buy a printed copy for £2.70 as it is on the shelves now. Hurry as, if I remember correctly, when the cover published date says 13th then that is basically when the next issue hits the shelves.

Pharaohs from the stone age, Emma Young, New Scientist Magazine, UK, Issue 2586, January 13, 2007, pp. 5.

cf. Arid Climate, Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa (ACACIA).

Related:

Climate-Controlled Holocene Occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa's Evolution, August 11, 2006.

Cattle first kept in Sahara, archaeologist says, July 25, 2006.

Exodus From Drying Sahara Gave Rise to Pharaohs, Study Says, July 21, 2006.

Ancient humans 'followed rains', July 21, 2006.

On August 25, the giant statue of Rameses the Great began a 10-hour, 35-kilometer journey through Cairo. Estimates ranged from hundreds of thousands to millions of people who stayed up all night to watch and cheer the famous Pharaoh along to his new resting place at the site of the new Grand National Museum.

SCA Chief Dr. Zahi Hawass noted the importance of the move as a truly Egyptian operation from start to finish, whereas foreigners had traditionally “looked after our monuments.”

Because of the size of the monument, the new museum, scheduled to open in 2011, will have to be built around the statue of Rameses. The SCA is considering moving other antiquities to the site before construction starts, most notably the Solar Boat. [my emphasis]

It is interesting to see they are thinking of moving the solar boat to the site of the new museum. The existing solar boat museum situated just behind the pyramid of Khufu at Giza looks somewhat out of place where it is but it was built there on purpose. It is actually built over the boat-pit that the disassembled solar boat was found in. The pit is part of the exhibit and some of the covering stones are still in place.

Stone Man Walking, Cache Seel, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 28, Issue 01, January 2007.

The National Egyptian Book and Manuscript Organization (Dar Al-Kutub wal Watha’eq Al-Qawmiyya) has recently finished digitalizing a number of its maps and periodicals as well as most of its rare manuscripts, in addition to 50,000 books on Arab heritage.

Material will be available online, as part of the first online national library. Dar El-Kutub Chairman Mohamed Saber El-Arab announced last month that the library is a step toward joining the international digital library project, making Egypt the only Arab country to sign up for the project to date.

The development, he added, is only one in a number of innovations introduced to Dar El-Kutub, celebrating the centenary of the library this month. The celebrations will culminate in the opening of a new Dar El-Kutub in Bab El-Khoulq area.

Culture 101: Heritage Online, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 28, Issue 01, January 2007.

News of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s plan to set up a nuclear power plant in the North Coast Daba’a region has come as a shock to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), who identified the area as one recognized in antiquated maps as the site of the ancient city of Zefrium.

According to Hawass, the entire stretch between Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh, including Daba’a, is riddled with ruins covering the Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman eras. The SCA head was also quick to point out that when the Daba’a area was designated as the site for a nuclear power plant in 1980, the paperwork was never cleared with the SCA.

Hawass assures, however, that there is no rift between his council and the ministry, saying that representatives of the SCA had surveyed the area last August in cooperation with the ministry, finding some monuments dating back to the Greco-Roman era.

Culture 101: Chain Reaction, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 28, Issue 01, January 2007.

cf. Previously: Ancient Site to go nuclear, December 27, 2006.

More than 3,000 books on Africa which have been collected by a Tyneside-born traveller are to be sold at auction.

The collection has been put together by Rosemary Goode, 75, originally from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, who lives with her husband Barry in Kenya.

The books will be sold by Newcastle auctioneers Anderson & Garland on January 22 in a sale which has already attracted international interest. The collection is expected to fetch around £10,000...

Rosemary studied Egyptology and in 1953 became the first graduate of the new Oriental Studies department of Durham University, leaving with a first...

An African treasure-trove goes under the hammer, Tony Henderson, The Newcastle Journal, UK, January 10, 2007.

The Egyptologist discusses his time studying the pyramids.

Thursday, January 11, [2007]: 4 p.m.

Mark Lehner - Bowers Museum - Santa Ana, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, January 10, 2007.

An exhibition featuring ancient artefacts from Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun's tomb will come to Bahrain this March.

The exhibition will continue for four months before it moves to France, Information Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Culture and National Heritage Shaikha Mai bint Khalifa Al Khalifa confirmed yesterday.

"This is a big exhibition which normally stays in different places for several months to a year," she said.

"The exhibition will include lots of artefacts and the opening will most likely be March 3..." [my emphasis]

Is this the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibition or not? If it is then they cannot be talking about 'this' March 3rd as the exhibition will be at the Field Institute in Philadelphia from February 03 to September 30, 2007 after which it move to the Dome, London (casino wrangles allowing) in November 2007 for an unspecified period of time. Following that both Paris and Tokyo have been mentioned. Could Bahrain be March 2008 after London? Or could they be talking about a different exhibition altogether?

Chance to see King Tut's tomb treasure, Tariq Khonji, Gulf Daily News, Bahrain, Vol. XXIX, No. 294, January 08, 2007.

Previously:

Bahrain to host Tutankhamun exhibition, January 08, 2007.

'King Tut' coming to Bahrain, November 07, 2006.

'King Tut' set for Bahrain, September 27, 2006.

The Official Bahrain Nation Museum website appears to be down at the moment. Some information on the Bahrain Nation Museum can be found here.

In the late days of the 19th century and the early 20th, with the birth of the science of archaeology leading to the discovery of many treasures of the ancient world, including the 1922 revelation of King Tutankhamen's almost-intact tomb, the Anglo-American public went Egyptian-crazy, with various signs, symbols and visual images — pyramids, obelisks, mummies, sphinxes, pharaohs (especially Tut) and queens (Nefertiti in particular), chariots, winged mythological gods and goddesses, lotus blossoms, serpents, scarab beetles and hieroglyphs — found on everything from jewellery to tableware to fabric to dolls to advertising art.

This Egyptian revival material is still popular among collectors today.

A new book, "Egyptian Revival Jewellery & Design" by Dale Reeves Nicholls, with Shelly Foote and Robin Allison (Schiffer), provides a comprehensive picture and history of the phenomenon, displaying a wide selection of the objects themselves, each thoroughly described and given a current market value. Copiously illustrated in luminous colour, it deals with the meanings of the symbols — the various animals and plants, gods and goddesses, kings and queens represented — and their influence on the decorative arts, identifies the main makers and manufacturers, and devotes a useful chapter on what to look for in collecting Egyptian revival...

, Dale Reeves Nicholls, Shelly Foote, and Robin Allison, Schiffer Publishing, 2006.

Collect like an Egyptian, Linda Rosenkrantz, The Canton Repository, Ohio, USA, January 08, 2007.

This year the hospitality industry will revolve around King Tut.

"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," on view at The Franklin Institute from Feb. 3 to Sept. 30 [2007], is expected to be a blockbuster. Already, more than 303,000 tickets have been sold and up to 1 million are expected to be sold. Such a milestone would surpass past shows like "Body Worlds" and a retrospective of Salvador Dali works.

"The King Tut exhibition will be in Philadelphia for nine months and through three seasons, giving us a blockbuster show to promote throughout most of 2007," said Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., or GPTMC.

Philadelphia is Tut's only stop in the Northeast. The exhibit has been in Los Angeles; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Chicago, but this will be the only stop on the Boston-to-Washington corridor...

2007: The year of King Tut, Peter Van Allen, East Bay Business Times, Pennsylvania, USA, January 08, 2007.

King Tut Visits Philly

For the first time since the 1970s, Delawareans and other Philadelphia-area residents will have a chance to view some of the spectacular items found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Beginning Feb. 3 [2007], "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" opens at The Franklin Institute, the fourth and final U.S. stop on the tour. When the exhibit ends on Sept. 30, the collection travels to London.

Only a few of the 130 priceless treasures on display were part of the first Tut exhibit, which toured from 1976 to 1979. (Most noticeably missing is the death mask, now an icon for Ancient Egypt. It is considered too important to travel...)

2007: The year of King Tut, Pam George, The Delaware News Journal, Pennsylvania, USA, January 09, 2007.

Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni reasserted on Sunday that the Pyramids of Giza remained the greatest and most magnificent among the World's Seven Wonders, ruling out possibility of a re-vote on a new list of world wonders. "It is meaningless to re-vote on the Pyramids as a world wonder, as the Pyramids stand as a miracle in terms of architecture, engineering, astronomy, and astrology," Hosni told reporters here.

Over thousands of years, the Pyramids defied erosions and earthquakes, he underscored.

The minister deemed the proposed vote on a new list of the world's seven wonders as a pursuit for fame by sponsors of the idea who do not recognize the historical status and archaeological value of the Pyramids...

The Pyramids, the greatest of World Wonders, Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait, January 07, 2007.

cf. New 7 Wonders of the World Website where you can vote.

This write-up is taken from a lecture given by Robert K. Ritner at the inaugural dinner for University of Chicago president Robert J. Zimmer on October 26, 2006 and published in the University of Chicago Record.

Thirty years ago, an earlier Tut exhibit, of which I was a part, initiated the phenomenon of “blockbuster exhibits,” and our own presence here tonight is the direct result of the little diminished cultural sway of such installations and of Tutankhamun in particular. Yet why are we here? Media pundits have regularly derided these types of exhibits as pandering to the unsophisticated, a criticism — it could be argued — that is motivated perversely by their very popularity. Kevin Nance, art critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, has uncharitably characterized “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” as “glitter” for “the crowd who just want to see the shiny stuff.” If you are tempted by such anti-populist arguments, then you must augment tonight’s viewing with a visit to the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, which is the permanent repository for both the most imposing statue of Tutankhamun outside of Cairo and a large collection of the crockery used during the funeral banquet of the king, ceremonially buried and wrongly assumed when discovered in 1907 to be the full burial regalia of Tut. The statue is imposing and the pottery dishes humanizing, yet neither glitter and we have adequate crowd control. It is, however, a useful corrective to know that the “boy-king” buried with so much gold was fêted at death with little clay cups holding “7 grapes” and that the king’s monuments were posthumously usurped by his own former major general...

Tutankhamun for the Twenty-first Century: Modern Misreadings of an Ancient Culture, Robert K. Ritner, The University of Chicago Record, University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, Volume 41, Number 2, December 07, 2006, via Archaeologist at Large.

Before the great pyramids, ancient Egyptian kings left less grandiose monuments to themselves: fortress-like sanctuaries enclosed by mud-brick walls. Inside these mortuary complexes, people presumably gathered to worship and perpetuate the memory of their departed ruler.

The crumbling, almost vanished remains of such structures, archaeologists say, attest to the political hierarchy and religion of the newly unified Egyptian state, beginning more than 5,000 years ago. As symbols of the early power of kings and their roles in the cosmic order, these mysterious funerary centres are considered ancestral in purpose to the classic pyramids of Giza.

The last and largest of the cult centres — the only major one still standing in clearly recognizable form — was erected for King Khasekhemwy, who ruled in the second dynasty around 2780 B.C. Known today as Shunet el-Zebib, the two-acre enclosure stands on a desert plain at Abydos, 300 miles [480-kilometres] south of Cairo near the burial grounds of early Egyptian rulers.

Now, in an ambitious effort to preserve this ruin, archaeologists, engineers and teams of artisans and labourers are shoring up the walls and gates of Shunet el-Zebib, ravaged by time and the elements and in danger of imminent collapse...

Restoring a Mud-Brick Tribute to a Departed Egyptian King, John Noble Wilford, The New York Times, New York, USA, January 09, 2007.

cf. An ambitious effort to preserve an ancient Egyptian sanctuary, John Noble Wilford, International Herald Tribune, France, January 10, 2007.

cf. Previously: Egypt restores world's oldest wall made of mud bricks, January 08, 2007.

Michael H. Steinhardt believes there is money in antiquities. The legendary hedge-fund-manager-turned-full-time-philanthropist has quietly managed to assemble one of the largest and most important antiquities collections in the world. Now, he believes, its time has come.

"Ancient art has not appreciated much in value for a long time," says Steinhardt. "It has been under a certain cloud because there are issues of provenance, which have made headlines in the last five- to 10-years and continue to make headlines."

To be sure, shady characters and illegally obtained objects are lurking, but the antiquities market is not dominated by crooks. In fact, it is possible to build a world-class collection of legal, museum-quality pieces for a fraction of what it might cost to build a collection of similar quality in another field, such as Impressionist or contemporary art.

Still, the collection of antiquities (ancient objects from western civilizations including Italy, Greece, Turkey, Mesopotamia and Egypt) has been around nearly as long as the items themselves. Julius Caesar and Pompeii were avid collectors. Thomas Jefferson collected ancient Roman coins. Financial titans from J. Paul Getty to J.P. Morgan to William Randolph Hearst amassed large antiquities collections. Today, Steinhardt is counted among the most serious of collectors, along with Shelby White who built an impressive collection with her husband, the late financier, Leon Levy...

There is a slideshow with this article also: In Pictures: Ancient History For Collectors.

Ancient History For Sale, Carrie Coolidge, Forbes, USA, December 29, 2006.

“The original sanctuary of the god Amun in the temple of Hatshepsut in Deir-el-Bahari has been reconstructed” — says deputy head of the Polish archaeological mission in the temple — Dr Mirosław Barwik. The temple of Queen Hatshepsut from the 15th century B.C. has been under reconstruction by the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of Warsaw University since 1961. It contains among other things the main courtyard and portico with monumental images of Queen Hatshepsut in the form of god Osiris and the sanctuary of the god Amun-Re, which belongs to the temple.

In autumn 2006 Polish archaeologists ran work on the reconstruction, Egyptological analysis and documentation of the so-called Royal Cult Complex — one of the most important complexes where work is currently being run.

“As a side effect of this work, it was possible to establish an extremely interesting thing — it turned out that it is possible to make a theoretical reconstruction of the sanctuary of Amun” — said Dr Barwik. This, most important, element of the temple is located in its main axis on the Upper Terrace...

Polish archaeologists reconstruct the Sanctuary of Amun, Anna Zdolińska, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, January 03, 2007.

An Egyptian academic once took me on a tour of the British Museum, directing me around the galleries of antiquities and telling me what had been stolen from where. The histories of many of the best museum collections are filled with shameful episodes, and Stephanie Moser's fascinating study exposes to public view some very unedifying spectacles.

Wondrous Curiosities is the story of the early life of our national treasure-house and its relationship with some of its best-known exhibits. The British Museum opened its doors in 1759, and held initially just 160 items from ancient Egypt. Its early incarnation was as a vast cabinet of curiosities in which Egyptian mummies were displayed alongside other objects such as Oliver Cromwell's watch and a picture painted on a cobweb. Visitors had to apply in writing for tickets; 10 per hour were available, and only the well-connected would gain entry. There were few if any labels and visitors were hurried through by ill-informed guides. Nevertheless, the sights impressed. A 12-year-old visitor, John Coltman, wrote to his brother in 1780: "First we saw the Egyptians that had been dead 3,000 years ago. Next we saw the skull of an elephant, and the Queen of Otaheite's hat, the crown big enough to hold you, and the brim of it not much unlike the mat that lies at the bottom of our stairs."

Much of the collection was what Moser terms "serendipitous": it had been given to the museum by bequest — or conquest. Napoleon's looting of Egypt meant that the trophies of war from a British victory over the French in 1801 were unusually spectacular. Sadly, the trustees who received them seemed largely unimpressed. The museum authorities' lukewarm attitude is made clear by their dealings with one of the best-known collectors, the British consul, Henry Salt. Salt and his colourful co-collector, the Italian ex-circus strongman Belzoni, went to extraordinary lengths in recovering what are still some of the most iconic objects in the museum. The colossal bust of Rameses II was brought — badly mutilated — by Belzoni in 1818, from Thebes, where he claims to have found it with "its face upwards, and apparently smiling on me, at the thought of being taken to England"... These, and many other treasures, were offered to the museum at what Salt considered, and Moser seems to agree, was a knockdown rate. But the trustees wrangled over the costs for six years...

, Stephanie Moser, University of Chicago Press, USA, 2006, pp. 368.

Wondrous Curiosities: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum, by Stephanie Moser, Nicola Smyth, The Independent, UK, January 07, 2007.

Bahrain to host the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Bahrain national museum next March until June within cultural cooperation relations bonding the kingdom of Bahrain and Egypt. Assistant under — secretary for culture and national heritage Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa visited Egypt recently and met Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni and agreed that the kingdom will host this exhibition.

Bahrain to host Tutankhamun exhibition, UPI, Lebanon, January 07, 2007.

Official Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs website.

The pharaohs ruled their empire for hundreds of years, spreading culture, architecture and the arts before it collapsed into economic ruin [at the end of the Old Kingdom]. Why that happened is one of the great mysteries of history.

Now a team of scientists from Scotland and Wales believe the answer lies beneath the waters of Lake Tana, high in the Ethiopian Highlands, and the source of the all-important Blue Nile.

Samples taken over the past two years from sediments beneath Tana, which supplies the water which makes the lower Nile valley so fertile, reveal the lake may have almost dried up during the critical period around 4,200 years ago due to climate change.

According to the team's theory, the flow of water on which the farm-based ancient Egyptian economy thrived would have slowed to a trickle, causing a devastating famine that lasted for 200 years.

That would have been enough to destroy the Old Kingdom and its people, leaving only the pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza as their legacy to history...

Climate key to Sphinx's riddle, Jeremy Watson, Scotland on Sunday, Scotland, UK, January 07, 2007.

Dr Mike Marshall, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth.

Dr Richard Bates, St Andrews' School of Geography and Geosciences.

We are standing under a concrete awning in the Great Western Desert of Egypt. The temperature is 104 degrees in the shade. Out on the road in the sun our Brunton compass reads 119 degrees.

It is 11 a.m. We both feel strong, and would like to bicycle another two hours before our mid-day break when the sun is the fiercest. The problem is shade. We need to find shade again by 1 p.m. Actually 12:30 p.m. would be better.

My wife, Tass Thacker, and I are on a three-month bicycling trip through Egypt, Jordan, Greece and Turkey. We are starting in early May with a two-week, 500-mile [800-kilometre] loop from Cairo through four oases in the Great Western Desert down to the Nile Valley near Luxor.

As far as we can see the landscape is flat and sandy. Only two or three vehicles pass by each hour. We think there should be a communication tower in 15 or 20 kilometres [9 - 12 miles], which might have a small building that we can lay beside for shade. There might also be a police checkpoint ahead, a welcome sight as they always make us tea and give us water. And, the long shot; there could be a hill or rock formation somewhere up ahead that might make shade beside the road...

I've changed the title slightly. In British English there is no such term as 'bicyclers', we are cyclists which is an abbreviation of bicyclist (rarely used). There is also a slight confusion in usage as in the UK a cyclist is one who rides a bicycle and a motorcyclist rides a motorcycle. Whereas in the US the term cyclist can apply to either.

Bruce Junek and Tass Thacker have written and photographed a previous bicycle journey through Central and South America: , Bruce Junek and Tass Thacker, Images of World, USA, 1999, pp. 376.

‘Mummies & Mosques’: Local pair of bicyclers experience Muslim hospitality in Egyptian desert, Bruce Junek, Rapid City Journal, South Dakota, USA, January 08, 2007.

Of all the cities I have visited before, I think Cairo has the most number of interesting historical landmarks of varying eras and dynasties.

Cairo, the capital of the Arab Republic of Egypt, began 5,000 years ago when the pharaohs of old built the pyramids. Over the centuries, the land was conquered by Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks, leaving behind vestiges of culture procuring more tends. Besides ancient Egyptian attractions like the Sphinx, there are also monuments of a later date but in no way inferior to the earlier ones...

Of course, every tourist wants to see the mummified body of Rameses the Great, Egypt's most celebrated pharaoh, builder of mighty fortresses and monuments throughout Egypt for 66 years. To see it, I made my way through the congested Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Thousands of visitors go there each day to see the "King of Kings" as well as 26 other royal mummies.

Unfortunately, the bodies of Rameses and King Tutankhamen were not on display at the time of my visit, perhaps for security reasons. Nevertheless, the museum also contains the most valuable collection of Egyptian antiquates in existence together with some priceless articles found in the tombs of their ancient leaders...

Tutankhamun's mummy is in his sarcophagus in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV-62) so wouldn't be seen in Cairo. As far as I know Rameses II is on display in Cairo museum but it should be noted that there are now two mummy rooms in the Cairo museum and the one ticket gets you into both.

The wonders of Cairo, Manny Baldemor, ABS CBN News, Philippines, January 08, 2007.

Egyptian archaeologists have begun restoring the world's oldest wall made of mud bricks, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said Friday.

The 5,000-year-old wall is based in the southern Egyptian governorate of Sohag.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said the restoration is carried out in cooperation with the Fine Arts Institute in New York and the University of Pennsylvania.

Egypt restores world's oldest wall made of mud bricks, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 06, 2007.

The latest issue of the French language magazine “Toutankhamon” is out now.

Actualités :
Les trésors engloutis d'Alexandrie, interview de Franck Goddio

Dossier
NÉFERTITI, l'égérie amarnienne

Découvertes:
La Belle Maison d'Abydos 2e partie

Egyptologie
Le chaoubti meunier
Le pilier Djed

Aventurier
Sur les traces de Champollion

Voyager SPÉCIAL SOUDAN
Découvrir le Soudan

Which approximately says...

Current events:
Egyptian treasures of Alexandria, interview with Franck Goddio

File
NEFERTITI, the Amarnian muse

Discovered
The Beautiful House of Abydos 2nd left

Egyptology
The Meunier shabti
The Djed pillar

Adventurer
On the trail of Champollion

Travel - Sudan Special
Discover the Sudan

Toutankhamon Magazine, Editions Neptune Diffusion, France, Issue 30, December / January 2007.

With their sumptuous lighting, exquisite detail, and adroit compositions, Harry Burton's gelatin-silver prints of Tutankhamun's tomb easily surpass the gothic melodrama of Hollywood's various mummy franchises. Howard Carter made the sensational discovery of Tut's burial chambers in 1922; shortly afterward, Burton, a veteran archaeological photographer, began documenting the opulent clutter in situ, arranging mirrors and reflectors to bring light into the tomb for the first time in millennia. He eventually used 1,400 extremely fine-grained glass negatives to catalog the entire site and its individual objects. In one gorgeous shot, Anubis lies atop a shrine surrounded by walls roughly hewn from living rock; the regal god of the dead's enormous canine ears flare like a vengeful bat as it guards a heap of model boats designed to speed the boy-pharaoh on his journey to the afterlife. A close-up of the decayed mummy's chest and arms records elaborate jewels: These same 13 bracelets, seen in a shot after they have been cleaned, reveal magnificent workmanship. Look closely at Burton's keenly lit detail of Tut's face carved into a coffin. The dark eyes gaze directly into ours, and this uncanny naturalism represents, if not a true afterlife, a communion that has survived 3,300 years. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Through April 29 [2007].

Mummies Dearest, R.C. Baker, The Village Voice, New York, USA, January 04, 2007.

Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 19, 2006 - April 29, 2007.

The Franklin Institute ... said Wednesday its attendance topped 1 million last year...

From Feb. 3 [2007] to Sept. 30, it will host "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which is expected to draw at least 1 million visitors during its eight-month stay.

The Franklin Institute, founded to honour Benjamin Franklin, is devoted to the study of science, industry and technology.

Franklin Institute attendance tops 1 million, Philadelphia Business Journal, Pennsylvania, USA, January 01, 2007.

Visitors to the Segedunum Roman fort, baths and museum in Wallsend will be among the first people to see the face of Egyptian mummy Bakt Hor Nekht in more than 3,000 years.

The three-dimensional model was created by the Gateshead visualisation and animation company, Visual Impact. Using the results of a CT scan of the mummy at Newcastle's General Hospital in the summer, the firm's team were able to create an accurate, detailed model of her head.

Bakt Hor Nekht, on loan from the city's Hancock Museum while the museum is closed for redevelopment, is encased in an intricately-decorated coffin which can be seen in the Land of the Pharaohs exhibition at Segedunum. The coffin has never been opened, so as to preserve the mummy and also as a mark of respect.

Gill Scott, Egyptologist for the Hancock Museum, says: "We're extremely excited about seeing Bakt Hor Nekht's face for the first time as a three-dimensional reconstruction. Although we already have a forensic-style model of Bakt Hor Nekht as she would have appeared in life, it's interesting to see how the mummification process has affected her. Although the CT footage provides us with fantastic computerised images, seeing the physical reconstruction of the head is quite an eerie experience! ...

Secrets of Egyptian mummy revealed at last, The Newcastle Evening Chronicle, UK, January 04, 2007.

Zahi Hawass is one part celebrity, one part investigator. Egypt's lead sleuth in the country's hunt to reclaim ancient antiquities has gained a reputation for often strong-arming curators and bullying museum directors. But while he's attracted critics in his hunt for Egypt's mummies and pharaonic masks, his hard-nosed techniques are indeed paying off.

Mr. Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has recovered some 3,500 objects, including the Rameses I mummy from Atlanta's Michael C. Carlos Museum and an ancient sarcophagus from the chairperson of Chicago's electric utility, Exelon.

At home, his quest has broken up smuggling rings and will possibly increase punishments for illegal trading. Abroad, he's demanding that Boston's Museum of Fine Arts return the bust of Ankhaf, the Khafre pyramid builder, and the St. Louis Art Museum hand over a pharaonic mask.

In November, he warned France that if it didn't cooperate in the investigation of a Frenchman allegedly trying to sell hair from the Rameses II mummy, it would threaten bilateral relations with Egypt.

"If people are coming to Egypt, cutting inscriptions, and damaging our monuments, I have to fight them," Hawass says.

While there's certainly applause for Hawass's efforts, his campaign has sparked debate since many of the objects he seeks have been in museums long before a 1970 international convention tightened the ancient antiquities trade...

In hot pursuit of Egypt's lost mummies, Sarah Gauch, The Christian Science Monitor, Massachusetts, USA, January 04, 2007.

I CLIMBED on to my camel, Alaska, apprehensively. The last animal I rode was a pony that bolted from the riding school and miraculously jumped a few fences before eventually throwing me in the woodland, when I was just five. But the notoriously lazy and stubborn Alaska looked in no danger of doing that.

As the rest of our group rode off into the sand dunes, Alaska stood fast despite my guide throwing all his weight into pulling her reins forward.

When she gave in and set off, the pace was tediously slow and I realised the journey was going to be a battle of wills. Alaska wasn't going to let the guide win and keep moving to avoid his stick on the back of her legs, she had a better plan - to bolt and lose him. Why do I have this effect on animals? ...

Holidays to Egypt are full of such memorable moments - seeing the ancient pyramids alongside the vast hubbub of Cairo, exploring the magnificent sea life in the Red Sea and experiencing the serenity of sunrise at the summit of mount Sinai. I'd done the above on previous trips and this time was trying out a Nile cruise...

Nile cruising, icNorthLondon, UK, January 03, 2007.

Liberated from its shipping crates, the ancient statue drew a crowd of employees when it arrived in December 1987 at the J. Paul Getty Museum's antiquities conservation lab.

The 7 1/2 -foot figure had a placid marble face and delicately carved limestone gown. It was thought to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Some who came to see it believed that the sculpture would become the greatest piece in the museum's antiquities collection.

One man, however, saw trouble.

Luis Monreal, director of the Getty Conservation Institute, saw signs that the object had been looted. There was dirt in the folds of the gown, and the torso had what appeared to be new fractures, suggesting that the statue had been recently unearthed and broken apart for easy smuggling.

"Any museum professional looking at an archaeological piece in those conditions had to suspect it came from an illicit origin," Monreal recalled in a recent interview.

He said he warned the museum's director not to buy the statue and asked him to test the pollen in the dirt, which might indicate where the work had been found. The test was never done...

A lengthy article that details how the Getty museum came into possession of the Aphrodite statue alleged by Italy to have been illegally looted from Morgantina in Sicily. Worthy of spending some time reading it.

The Getty's troubled goddess, Ralph Frammolino and Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, January 03, 2007.

With "Temples and Tombs," the Cummer Museum of Art has the perfect exhibit to show off its new 4,800-square-foot gallery. Walls in the dimly lighted space soar to 18 feet, more than enough to showcase an installation that evokes an otherworldly, ancient Egyptian atmosphere.

Tall columns suggest the interior of a hypostyle temple at the gallery's entrance, where the magnificent Lion of Amenhotep III sits. Carved in a ruddy, richly textured granite around 1390 B.C., the lion was made for one pharaoh and, later, re-inscribed for another, the so-called "boy king," Tutankhamun.

Larger than life, the lion reclines in a natural pose that's worlds away from the rigid formalism used in typical Egyptian portrayals of kings and gods. Nearby, with his polished nose and chipped chin, the Head of Amenhotep III from his funerary temple in Thebes, is shown much as it originally appeared. Mounted high above the viewer's gaze, the monumental head was carved to look as if it were gazing downward at the tiny human worshipper. The eyes, like the broad lips that stretch in a slight, regal smile, speak volumes about the benevolent attitude of a king whose birthright was to talk with gods. That divine right dictated everything about how royal people could be depicted...

Egypt comes alive in 'Temples and Tombs' exhibit, Laura Stewart, The Daytona Beach News, Florida, USA, December 31, 2006.

Our Red Sea Magic cruise, aboard the Thomson Celebration liner, had begun with a flight from Gatwick to Hurghada in Egypt and a one-hour drive to the port of Safaga.

At dawn the following day we boarded a coach which this time became a time machine. We trundled along the route of an old camel caravan trail through rocky mountains and dried river beds, known as wadis, for four hours.

The green fields of the Nile flood plain then spread before us and led us to the splendour of Luxor, the world's biggest open-air museum where you step back more than 4,000 years into the land of the pharaohs.

In the Valley of the Kings we marvelled at the brightly coloured hieroglyphics covering the tomb walls. And — in an extraordinary clash of ages — I found I had a full signal on my mobile phone just outside the entrance to the incredible tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun. Nearby was the equally awesome temple of female pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut. Carved into the foot of a 300ft cliff, the shrine has a panoramic view over the lush Nile banks where farmers with hoes were bent over cabbages, carrots, sugar cane and potatoes...

Travel: Ooze a Pretty Boy Then!, Geoffrey Lakeman, The Daily Mirror, UK, December 30, 3006.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs ended its seven-month run in the Field Museum on Monday having drawn 1,044,743 paying customers, according to the museum's preliminary count.

That attendance was a record for a special-ticket show in the Field, easily surpassing the previous high of 362,484 for "Chocolate," which ran there for 10 1/2 months in 2002.

The first King Tut exhibition held in the Field, in 1977, still holds the museum's attendance record, attracting some 1.35 million people over four months. Admission to that show did not require a separate purchase.

The Field estimated its total attendance for 2006 at nearly 2.14 million, the highest level since 2.36 million in 2002, when the T. rex Sue was introduced there. The museum's record attendance for a year remains 3.27 million in 1933, when a World's Fair was held in Chicago.

... and 'Tut' wraps up record, Charles Storch, The Chicago Tribune, Illinois, USA, January 03, 3007.

Explorer Howard Carter finds the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, near Luxor, Egypt, in 1924.

DAY OF THE DAY, The Daily Mirror, UK, January 03, 2007.

cf. HISTORY, Tehran Times, Iran, January 03, 2007.

Starting today [01/01/2007] in Edfu, Upper Egypt, Horus Temple receives for the first time its visitors at night.

This came in the context of the integrated project by the Ministry of Culture to develop the temple according to the modern world systems of lighting.

Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni said that the project extended 3 years and in a cost of L.E 12 million to adjust the temple surrounding area, electronic security system, setting up a Nile special anchorage to receive the tourist ships...

Horus Temple in Edfu receives visitors at night, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, January 01, 2007.

Night visits to Temple of Horus allowed as of New Year

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that most sophisticated lightening systems have been installed to allow night visits to the temple.

Hawass added that allowing night visits to the temple would help solve the problem of crowded tourists at the temple...

Night visits to Temple of Horus allowed as of New Year, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, December 31, 2006.

Despite a biting cold, the Grand Palais in the heart of Paris was bustling with visitors during this holiday season who came to see Egypt's Sunken Treasure Exhibition that was opened here on December 9 [2006] by Egyptian and French Presidents Hosni Mubarak and Jacques Chirac, respectively.

People of all ages lined up in queues to explore the amazing treasures depicting artefacts coming from the lost city of Herakleion and parts of the city of Canopus.

The artifacts would help shed new light on the extent to which the Egyptian people, who were long ruled by foreign conquerors, were in contact with people and ideas from Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome.

The approximately 500 exhibits are from 1,200 to 2,700 years old and most of them have never been on public display before.

The exhibit is to last to the end of May [2007]. The Grand Palais set up a boutique on the sidelines of the exhibit to sell posters and photographs of displayed artifacts.

Unprecedented number of visitors flocks to Egypt's sunken treasures exhibition, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, December 30, 2006.

With millions of dollars in treasure and revenue, no one can dispute that King Tut's touch would put King Midas' to shame. Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art tallied 650,000 visitors who viewed the ancient and bejewelled artefacts from "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." General admission started at $30, and the show pumped about $150 million into Broward County during its four-month stay. While the museum did not report net profits from Tut (after the Egyptians' $5million take), it did acknowledge that ducats drawn from Tut would curate exhibitions for years to come.

Sharks, mummies and a whole lot of U.S. dollars, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, December 31, 2006.

"Sunken Treasures of Egypt", a touring exhibition of some 500 artefacts salvaged from the Eastern Harbour of Alexandria and Abu Qir Bay, drew thousands of visitors in Berlin where it opened in May before moving to Paris in early December (see Nevine El-Aref " Taking a plunge", Al-Ahram Weekly, 18-24 May 2006 and "Paris plunges into Egyptology", Weekly, 14-20 December 2006). The fruit of excavations led by the Institut Européen d'Archeologie Sous-Marine (IEASM), directed by Franck Goddio with funding from the Hilti Foundation, with the cooperation of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the exhibition highlighted vestiges of two ancient sunken cities, Herakleion and Canopus, as well as a host of later artefacts.

Reviewing the exhibition in Le Monde (see "Une Egypte sortie des eaux" , 10 December 2006), Pierre Barthélémy suggested that Goddio's success had brought with it strong enmity, "notably in the community of Egyptologists", before conceding that detractors — primarily another archaeologist working in Alexandria, Jean-Yves Empereur, who directs the Centre d'Etudes Alexandrines (CEA) — have discredited the man's work on the basis of his lacking qualifications in archaeology. Barthélémy goes on to demonstrate that Goddio works collaboratively with scholars in the field, such as Jean Yoyotte, an honorary professor at the College de France, whom he quotes as comparing their professional association as that between a blind man and a paralytic, in this case the one providing funding and technology, the other offering scholarly input and hypotheses about the findings...

A veil on the past, Hala Halim, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 826, December 28, 2006 - January 03, 2007.

When dentist Ng Tze-chuen is not picking at cavities at his Causeway Bay clinic, he may be dreaming about his forceps and the craters in a distant moon, wrecked titanic boats in the deep ocean and pharaohs' chambers hidden in the Egyptian pyramids.

It was back in the early 1970s when Ng tried to pick up an inlay with his surgical forceps to fill cavities, but dropped it on the floor. An idea flashed across when the apple, or the inlay in this case, dropped.

How nice it would be, he thought, to have surgical forceps — as flexible and gentle as the human fingers — to feel the object and adapt its grip according to the shapes of inlays...

... Ng cold-called on Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, to present his idea of sending a small robotic insect on a tether with a pinhole camera to explore the hidden shafts in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

He said the micro-gripper, drills and corer developed for the Mir Space Station and Beagle 2 could help retrieve samples from secret chambers.

Ng said it may help unlock the secret about the Pharaoh [Khufu], who built the Great Pyramid.

Ng's robotic insect is still being tested, and the results will be announced early next year...

Giant step for SAR in tiny inventions, Carol Chung, The Standard, Hong Kong, December 11, 2006.

Egypt's most important sites are experiencing major trouble, a new report suggests. All the three reviewed Egyptian World Heritage sites were in danger of losing the values that originally brought them into the prestigious Unesco list, and they were worst rated in the Middle East and North Africa region. The threatened sites include the Pyramids of Giza, the Islamic district of Cairo and the historic cities of Thebes and Luxor.

In a review of 94 major World Heritage sites made by the George Washington University in cooperation with the 'National Geographic' journal, the major historic and tourist attractions of Egypt are all among the bottom-25 of the list, receiving from 50 to 58 out of 100 possible points. In the Middle East and North Africa region, no heritage sites are equally poorly maintained, and on the African continent, only Ethiopia's rock-hewn churches at Lalibela get a poorer score.

And the review — which is published for its third time — spells trouble for both some of the world's major cultural heritage sites and for the backbone of Egypt's tourism industry. The world-famous pyramids are worst off, having degenerated into a tourist trap of vendors and its surroundings being flooded by Cairo's encroaching suburbs. Travellers are advised to see the worst-off sites on the list before it is too late...

Egypt's historic sites seriously threatened, Afrol News, Norway, December 11, 2006.

Roman and Anglo-Saxon jewellery and other artefacts are still being sold illegally on eBay, despite the website’s promise to clamp down on the trade.

The British Museum has told The Times that it is alarmed at the number of sellers offering gold and silver that has apparently been found on British soil but has not been reported...

Two years ago The Times reported that the number of potential treasure finds being offered for sale on eBay was so high that it was undermining the credibility of the Act...

In October eBay addressed the problem, signing a memorandum of understanding with the British Museum and The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the Government’s advisory body. The website promised to discourage the illegal trade in antiquities and agreed to allow the British Museum to contact sellers “to ascertain whether there is a reasonable cause for concern”...

Illicit artefacts sold as eBay turns blind eye, Dalya Alberge, The Times, UK, December 18, 2006.

The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum will open the exhibit Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College, London on February 17 and run through July 22, 2007. It's an exhibition with all the trappings of an historical novel. The dogged archaeologist. The lady adventurer. A dazzling collection of clues to a lost age.

Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology traces the development of Egyptian archaeology from its beginnings in the 1880s to the present day through spectacular artwork and rare archival materials amassed by the Petrie Museum and its namesake. On view are over 220 of the Petrie's most important objects from sites in the Nile River valley, including one of the world's earliest surviving dresses (circa 2400 BCE), royal art from the palace-city of the "heretic pharaoh" Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, a gold mummy mask, jewellery, stone sculpture, and objects of daily life ranging from copper tweezers to a ceramic rat trap.

The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum will be the only New England venue for Excavating Egypt, which was organized by the Carlos Museum. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with contributions by Dr. Lacovara, Carlos Museum curator of Egyptian art, Betsy Teasley Trope, former Carlos Museum associate curator of ancient art, and Stephen Quirke, Petrie Museum curator...

Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum , Art Daily, Mexico, January 01, 2007.

Marion True, former J. Paul Getty Museum curator, says the institution is letting her take the fall in a looted art case that has resulted in agreements to return 30 contested antiquities to both Greece and Italy, according to a published report.

True wrote in a letter to the J. Paul Getty Trust that her superiors were aware of the risks of buying antiquities and had approved the acquisitions. The Dec. 18 letter was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

True and art dealer Robert Hecht are on trial in Rome for allegedly receiving archaeological treasures stolen from private collections or dug up illicitly. They deny wrongdoing.

True said in the letter that the museum has left her to "carry the burden" for the purchases and complained that the Getty has not publicly defended her innocence or explained her role at the museum.

The Getty's "calculated silence ... has been acknowledged universally, especially in the archaeological countries, as a tacit acceptance of my guilt," True said in the two-page letter...

Ex-Getty curator says she's taking fall, AP via Yahoo! News, USA, December 29, 2006.

The Getty Museum, one of the world's leading repositories of antiquities, refused on Wednesday to hand over to Italy a 2,500-year-old Greek statue of a boy to end a bitter dispute over looted works of art.

Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli made the demand in Rome, saying Italy would break off ties with the wealthy Los Angeles museum, which funds several restoration projects in Italy, unless it quickly returned art works, including the bronze statue, that Rome says were looted.

"Either there is an agreement or there is a breakdown," Rutelli told reporters in Rome. "The time has passed when people could turn a blind eye to looting."

But the Getty said that extensive research had shown that the statue — known as the Getty Bronze — was found in international waters more than 40 years ago and was not part of the cultural heritage of Italy...

Getty museum says no to Italian demand for statue, Arthur Spiegelman, Reuters via Yahoo! News, USA, December 20, 2006.

TravelVideo's monthly roundup of the Egypt travel news contains.

• Cairo - Aswan to be re-operated [for] Nile cruise[s]
• British tourists increased by 40%
• UNDP: Egypt provides 100% pure drinking water, makes impressive development strides

Travel News from Egypt, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, December 07, 2006.

The latest issue of Current World Archaeology is out now and contains three article of interest to Egyptophiles.

• News: Ramesses moved
  Pharaoh's suffering statue now re-erected at Giza. (1 page)
• Diary: Cleo Uncovered
  Life and Legend of Cleopatra VII celebrated. A new exhibition at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg (Germany), is currently celebrating and investigating one of the world's most famous, or possibly notorious women, Cleopatra VII (69 - 30 BC) (2 pages)

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 8, Issue 20, December / January 2007.

Subscribe to Current World Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

The first museum devoted to Egyptian civilization, NMEC, will open in 2009 on the archaeological site of El Fustat, in Cairo. It will be the only museum in Egypt to present the full range of the richness and diversity of Egyptian civilization throughout the ages, from prehistoric times to the present day. Moreover, it will be the very first of its kind and on such a scale in the entire Arab world. Its exceptional holdings will be drawn from the Egyptian National Collections.

It is designed to enable future visitors to engage with the history of humankind in and around the Nile valley.

As a civilization museum, NMEC will display some of Egypt's most valuable treasures including, the Royal Mummies from the New Kingdom period, currently on display at the Cairo Museum. Artefacts and objects from all key periods of Egyptian history will be featured. NMEC will also host major temporary exhibitions related to Egypt's past and present culture.

A future leading national Egyptian institution, NMEC will function as a museum as well as a cultural, educational and research centre. Its main philosophy is to 'share knowledge', not only with Egyptian society but also with NMEC's national and international visitors, researchers and partners. This pioneering project reflects a novel approach to heritage that preserves, displays, safeguards and keeps alive material collections as well as intangible heritage with a particular focus on living traditions and arts and crafts...

National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) to open in Cairo in 2009, UNESCO, December, 2006.

A Jacksonville art museum is putting history on display with a new exhibit that will give visitors a look at how people lived thousands of years ago.

The Tombs and Temples exhibit at the Cummer Museum features works of art from Egypt, and it will be in Jacksonville for the next three months.

The Cummer Museum is only one of five stops in the United States for a rare look into Egyptian history the exhibit provides. It is the most expensive exhibit ever to come to the museum, and its scope is unlike any seen in Jacksonville since the opening of the Ramses II Exhibition in the late 1980s...

Tombs And Temples Exhibit On Display At Cummer Museum, News 4 Jax, Florida, USA, December 28, 2006.

Egyptian art specialist works on Cummer exhibit

For Dr. Neal Spencer of The British Museum, it took just one trip to Egypt to realize he wanted to work with Egyptian art for a living.

Spencer studied Egyptology at England’s University of Cambridge and later earned his Ph.D. at the same school, researching pharaonic temple buildings during the Late Period (664-332 B.C.).

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens has been preparing for “Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from The British Museum” for over a year. A lot of planning had to go into bringing an exhibit of such stature to Jacksonville. Then, the Cummer Museum had to ensure the construction of the new Central Gallery would be complete in time for the opening of the exhibit. Finally, staff from the Cummer and The British Museum, including Spencer, had to carve out two weeks to prepare the gallery for the museum members’ opening tonight...

cf. Egyptian art specialist works on Cummer exhibit, Caroline Gabsewics, Jacksonville Daily Record, Florida, USA, December 22, 2006.

I'll give you 10,000 camels for your daughter!" It's the first day of our vacation and my father toys with the idea of getting me off his hands permanently. But no. "Imagine the duty I'd have to pay on those camels," he says to the dodgy-looking man who has just accosted us in downtown Cairo.

It wasn't my stunning beauty that drove the man to propose that lavish exchange. Like most citizens of his country - or so it seems to tourists - Romeo's goal was to relieve us of some of our Egyptian pounds. Given its proximity to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, downtown Cairo is where the tourists are. Which means it's where you find the touts. Or rather, where the touts find you.

For Indians, Egypt is close to home. The Egyptians love Indians like brothers and worship Amitabh Bachchan as a god. And Cairo bears a strange resemblance to our own glorious country. It's hard to see Egypt as 'the cradle of civilisation' when its capital features battered, straight-from-the-junkyard cars, filth and pollution. Coming from Mumbai, I admit that this is rather like the pot calling the kettle black, but it is famously said that breathing the air in Cairo is akin to smoking 30 cigarettes a day.

However, the city has a definite buzz, with shops open late into the night and a floating population that never seems to sleep...

Time travel, The Hindustan Times, India, December 24, 2006.