A colourful, interesting, but much too little-known magazine in the MagSampler.com newsstand is Archaeological Diggings, a bimonthly from Australia that reports on recent archaeological finds in the Middle East. We've been looking through the new January/February issue, which carries well-illustrated accounts of digs from across that region, as well as descriptions of relevant museum exhibitions from around the world.

In the latter category is a report from an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities from the Louvre now open in Canberra, Australia. Assistant editor Marie Carter fills the reader in on the history of the artifacts on display.

For instance, we learn that some of the rituals of the Egyptians — they were into ritual as much as we are — turned a bit empty over time. When an Egyptian of note was buried, his embalmed corpse was initially accompanied by canopic jars, filled with the deceased's also embalmed lungs, liver, stomach and intestines. For some reason, later on in Egyptian history the viscera were returned to the body before burial. But the canopic jars remained part of the ritual, and continued to be interred with the deceased, even though they were now made of solid wood! The magazine shows some of these gorgeously painted "dummy" canopic jars from the Louvre...

Periodically Speaking: Archaeological Diggings, Ed Rust, Blog Critics, USA, February 21, 2007.

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It's our first night on the Nile and most of this cruise ship crowd is walking — and dressing — like Egyptians. Some of the men look a touch like King Tut with their full-length galabias and gold lamé headdresses. A handful of women are Cleopatra knockoffs.

It's the weekly get-acquainted night on the Mojito, an unusual ritual that's part dance party and part weekly windfall for the ship's gift shop where passengers who didn't think to pack their own Pharaonic fashions can rent them right off the rack.

There's a certain European flair to this evening's festivities, given that most of the 130 passengers on board are French. But most seem to be up for a period-appropriate good time as they bound toward the dance floor to the disco beat of "Born to Be Alive..."

Ebb and flow of life on the Nile, Susan Pigg, The Toronto Star, Ontario, Canada, February 22, 2007.

The King Tut Museum at the 2007 Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show will give visitors a taste of that luxury, with more than 250 replicas of items from the boy king's tomb.

During the 10-day show, full-sized reproductions ranging from King Tut's gold burial mask to his full sarcophagus will be displayed in an 8,000-square-foot gallery on the second floor of the David L. Lawrence Convention Centre.

Egyptian artisans and sculptors have spent five years meticulously crafting the museum-quality replicas under the direction of Dr. Tarek Ragab for the Egyptian Art Centre of Cairo...

2007 Home & Garden Guide: King Tut display to show opulence of ancient Egypt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Kansas, USA, February 25, 2007.