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.

Head of Egyptian antiquity council files complaint against high school: 'Ancient Egyptians built pyramids. Why do they teach otherwise?'

"It is well known that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids; they regarded these structures as a national project for ancient Egypt," said Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Hawass filed an official complaint to the Egyptian attorney general of Egypt against a Cairo high school for teaching the students that it was the Israelites who built the pyramids.

Hawass, prominent figure in Egyptian culture and around the Arab world, criticized the school curriculum for "insisting that the Jews built the pyramids and highlighting the fact that those who refused to partake in the building were physically tortured..."

'Israelites didn't build the pyramids', Yedioth Internet News, Israel, February 27, 2007.

France is to hand over to Egypt a lock of hair said to belong to the mummy of Rameses II that was put on sale on the Internet last year, French officials said Monday.

Egyptian diplomats made a formal request last week to recover the hair, which was seized by French police after going on sale in November, according to the prosecutor's office in the eastern city of Grenoble.

Tiny fragments of hair, embalming resin and bandages allegedly taken from the mummy of Rameses II came to light after they were put on sale in an Internet ad — provoking outrage among the authorities in Egypt...

France to return 'pharaoh's hair' to Egypt, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, February 26, 2007.

Previously: Frenchman arrested for trying to sell lock of pharaoh's hair, November 29, 2006.

A 5-year-old with a passion for ancient Egypt opened her piggy bank at the University of Memphis' Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology.

Geni Gallant's contribution — $6.75 in loose change — wasn't enough to buy the new mummy cases the museum is looking for, but it was much appreciated, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

"Geni's donation was so touching," museum Director Mariam Ayad told the Commercial Appeal. "The fact that she's so little and saved money for the entire year shows a lot of dedication and commitment to our cause..."

Art Museum of the University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Child donates $6.75 to mummy's cause, UPI, USA, February 25, 2007.

Tut famously toured America 30 years ago, drawing 8 million visitors and influencing fashion, dress and popular culture (and inspiring Steve Martin to write the song "King Tut"). But today's exhibit is a "fundamentally different" show, according to Dennis Wint, president and chief executive of the Franklin Institute.

Mainly, there's a lot more to see. It's 2 1/2 times the size of the show from the 1970s and displays not only Tut's treasures but also those of other 18th-dynasty royals who ruled in that turmoil-filled period of Egyptian history.

"You're not just talking about the boy king but about the 18th dynasty, and it provides a much more comprehensive story," Wint said.

Why did Philly make the cut for the tour, which has included stops in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Chicago? Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and the man responsible for bringing the show to the United States, has connections to the city: He received his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. As for the Franklin Institute, the museum's recent expansion gave it enough room to hold the exhibit...

Philadelphia offers bigger, better King Tut show, John Maynard, Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii, USA, February 25, 2007.

cf. King Tut Exhibit Opens In Philly, Geoff Gehman, Hartford Courant, Connecticut, USA, February 25, 2007.

Of all the cold cases in the art world thrillers, none beats the story of Tutankhamun's funerary chamber and the saga of the art treasures it held, recovered in what turned out to be the most important excavation ever relating to the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.

Yet it took more than 80 years for the visual evidence to go on display under the title "Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton," first at the Oriental Institute Museum (at the University of Chicago) and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until April 29. The book that comes with it, "Tutankhamun's Tomb: The Thrill of Discovery" should give food for thought to those who think that breaking up funerary caches to satisfy the appetites of commerce and of those for whom it caters is perfectly all right.

The photographs reveal a hidden aspect of the archaeological venture. The images show the finds as they were when first seen in their raw, unedited condition, immensely different from the polished appearance that the world famous treasures later acquired after cleaning and restoration...

Reopening an Ancient Egyptian case, Souren Melikian, International Herald Tribune, France, February 23, 2007.

The University of Hawai'i-Manoa has received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to translate, edit and publish the writings of an Egyptian author who chronicled the life and thought of Christians in 4th- and 5th-century Egypt.

Associate religion professor Andrew Crislip will lead a team of scholars of Coptic language and literature to create a comprehensive edition of the works of Shenoute of Atripe, who headed a federation of Christian monasteries in Egypt.

The grant is among the largest awards this year from NEH.

Grant allows UH to publish historic Egyptian writings, The Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii, USA, February 20, 2007.

An interview with Egyptologist Tracy Musacchio.

Q: Okay, you're an Egyptologist. Have you been to Egypt?

A: I lived in Cairo for a year, working at the Egyptian Museum Cairo. It's mind-blowing, there's so much stuff it's overwhelming.

Q: If you could take something from the museum and display it in your house, what would you take?

A: A mummy would be really cool...

Tracy Musacchio: Think Like an Egyptian, Kelly Housen, Delaware Online, Delaware, USA, February 14, 2007.

The Saqqara necropolis has always drawn world attention, not only for the unique archaeological treasures on its surface but for the unexpected finds that come to light from time to time in the sand.

Over the month of February, Saqqara has caught press headlines with the finds of ancient Egyptian funerary collections in different areas of the necropolis.

A Japanese mission from Waseda University working to the west of the Serapeum has unexpectedly come upon five hitherto unknown Middle Kingdom shaft-tombs, one of which contains four splendid painted wooden sarcophagi. The first of these is a "black type" anthropoid sarcophagus with yellow lines on the head and a scene featuring the four sons of Horus decorating both sides. The other three are typical Middle Kingdom rectangular painted sarcophagi with eye-panels and false doors.

Further into the necropolis, exactly east of the tomb of Meryneith, the lector priest of the god Neith, a mission from Leiden Museum and University has discovered the tomb of Pathemwia, seal-bearer of Pharaoh Akhenaten. The tomb contains some unique wall paintings showing agricultural scenes, Ptahemwia in different positions and actions, and a vivid depiction of two pet monkeys frolicking under the chair of the tomb owner's wife.

Then two days ago an Australian mission from Macquarie University working at the northwest corner of the Fifth-Dynasty pyramid of King Teti unearthed a tomb, also dating from the Fifth-Dynasty, of a top official named Kahai who was "the scribe of the divine records house".

This mud-brick tomb has a corridor-style chapel and four niches; the two northern niches belonging to the tomb's owner wife, Seperiankh, and the two on the south, which are larger and more imposing, to Kahai. On opening the tomb the archaeologists found...

Buried treasure, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 833, February 22 - 28, 2007.

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

• From our Egypt Correspondent
  Ayman Wahby Taher with the latest news from Egypt, including changes in the Luxor Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
• Don't forget to pack the Piano!
  AE looks at how the early visitors to Egypt travelled the river Nile in style, on board sailing boats known as dahabeeyahs, and how you can still do so today.
• A Woman of the Gilf
  Janet Robinson travels to the Gilf Kebir in the south of Egypt and visits a newly-discovered cave full of ancient rock art.
• A Tomb with Latitude?
  John Wall asks if the ancient Egyptians knew the size of the earth and sited their buildings accordingly (and gives us his answer).
• Egypt and the Bible
  The ancient history of Egypt and the Holy Land are closely intertwined. Michael Tunnicliffe looks to see if there is archaeological proof for Biblical events.
• The Ancient Stones Speak
  Pam Scott explains how to read royal names, in the second of her articles on Hieroglyphs.
• The Dakhleh Oasis Project
  In the first in a series of articles, Professor Anthony Mills introduces the Oasis and the work of the Dakhleh Oasis Project.
• A figure from the Rider Haggard Collection
  Fiona Sheales re-discovers a forgotten wooden figure that once belonged to the great writer.
• Inspired by Egypt
  Painting like an Egyptian, by Tony North.
• Per Mesut: for younger readers
  This issue Hilary Wilson looks at scarabs.

Ancient Egypt Magazine, Empire Publications, Manchester, UK, Volume 7, No. 4, Issue 40, February / March 2007.

Subscribe to Ancient Egypt Magazine via Amazon.com.

Up to 5,000 tourists witnessed here on Thursday 22/02/2007 the celebration of the perpendicular sun fall on the face of Pharaoh Rameses II statue in Abu Simbel Temple in Luxor.

The captivating event happens twice per year, namely February 22, the day he ascended to the throne and October 12, his birthday.

Director of Abu Simbel Antiquities Mohamed Hamed said the sun falling perpendicular on Rameses II's face lasted for 24 minutes, starting at 06.17 local time...

5,000 tourists witness sunlight falling perpendicular on Rameses II's face, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, February 22, 2007.

Interestingly this figure has now grown to 6,000.

6,000 tourists witness sunlight falling perpendicular on Rameses II's face, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, February 23, 2007.

On our Nile cruise we were told to put a tip in an envelope and leave it with reception at trip's end. Of course, that did not stop the housekeeper, who folded our towels to make wonderful animals, from expecting another handout.

At an alabaster factory on the West Bank, young, handsome staff pressed alabaster good luck scarab beetles into our hands and we paid outrageous prices for pottery "exactly" like that found in Tutankhamen's tomb.

Amani Talaat Kamel, our guide in Cairo, said tips should be given only to people who serve you.

"It is bad for Egypt's reputation, but some people make their living out of it," she said. "In the 1970s and '80s, some even made fortunes out of it. Some guests encourage them, so they will keep doing it..."

Baksheesh, miss?, Diana Plater, Sunday Herald Sun, Australia, February 18, 2007.

Tutankhamun And The Golden Age Of The Pharaohs will open in a new, 60,000 sq ft exhibition centre at O2, the £500 million venue inside what used to be the Millennium Dome, in November.

It will showcase 130 Egyptian treasures, all between 3,000 and 3,500 years old and including 50 from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

There had been fears the exhibition would be canned after the Greenwich site lost out to Manchester in the race for the first supercasino.

But Anschutz Entertainment Group, the company behind the O2, confirmed today that it is pressing ahead with the display...

The Millennium Dome: Tutankhamun Exhibition.

The official Tutankhamun And The Golden Age Of The Pharaohs website.

King Tut swaps pyramids for the Dome, Tom Teodorczuk, This is London, UK, February 21, 2007.

Superbreak Offers Breaks to London's Tutankhamun Exhibition

Superbreak, the UK's online holiday specialists in short breaks, offers budding Egyptologists breaks to London for the launch of the 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' exhibit in November [2007].

'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' (www.superbreak.com/tutankhamun-exhibition/) will be the largest exhibition ever hosted in Britain, and Superbreak offers visitors the chance to book tickets and accommodation early through both its website and a promotion that will reach over 3.2 million homes via a pullout in Saturday's Daily Mail. The exhibition begins on 22nd November 2007 and will (subject to confirmation) be held at The 02 (formerly the millennium dome) in Greenwich over the following 10 months...

My emphasis. Nice to see an actual date being given in November at last but strange that the venue is still 'subject to confirmation'.

Superbreak Offers Breaks to London's Tutankhamun Exhibition, PRWeb, USA, February 21, 2007.

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

• KV63: An update
  by Otto J. Schaden. Final stages of the cache-tomb's clearance.
• Sakkara's New Imhotep Museum
  by Zahi Hawass. With exclusive photos by Gustavo Camps.
• Seti I & the Ghosts of what had been
  by Philippe Martinez. A reappraisal of Qurna Temple & its history.
• Tutankhamun's Missing Ribs
  by Dennis Forbes, Salima Ikram & Janice Kamrin. A proposed solution to the problem.
• Collection of the Birmingham Museum
  by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli. Ancient Egypt in the Midlands of the U.K.
• The Pharaohs' Apiaries
  by Gene Kritsky. Beekeeping along the Nile in antiquity.
• Cleopatra had a Jazz Band
  by Donald P. Ryan. Egypt in early 20th Century sheet music.

KMT, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2007.

Subscribe to KMT Magazine via Amazon.com.

French archaeologists have found a temple dating from the middle of the 1st millennium BC in Kharga oasis in Egypt's Western Desert, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said on Wednesday.

The temple is at Dush in the southernmost edge of the oasis and dates from the Persian period, it said...

The MENA report gave no details of the condition of the new temple and officials were not available at the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology, which sent the team to Kharga...

MENA quoted the local director of antiquities as saying the irrigation works dated back to about 500 BC and that the French mission has also found statues and gold coins from the period...

French team finds Persian-era oasis temple in Egypt, Reuters, India, February 21, 2007.

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

• Dakhleh: Exploring an Oasis
  The environmental study includes work at the Old Kingdom site at Ain el-Gazareen, temples at Deir el Haggar and Ain Birbiya, the Roman period town of Kellis, and the Moslem town at el-Qasr. (11 pages)
• Books:
  By Joyce Tyldesley, Thames and Hudson, 2006, pp. 224. (1 page)
  
  

  Queens of Egypt provides a beautiful yet handy reference book that spans from Early Dynastic times to the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC and includes special features such as ‘Personal Hygiene’ and ‘Sexual Etiquette’ as well as genealogical trees and time-lines.

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 9, Issue 21, February / March 2007.

Subscribe to Current World Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

Archaeologists unveiled Tuesday the tombs of a Pharaonic butler and scribe that had been buried in the sand for more than 3,000 years.

The tombs, along with the painted coffins of a priest and his girlfriend, were discovered early this year at Saqqara near the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser — the oldest of Egypt's more than 90 pyramids.

"The sands of Saqqara reveal lots of secrets," said Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, as he showed reporters around a 4,000-year-old tomb of mud bricks that belonged to a scribe of divine records, Ka-Hay, and his wife.

"It doesn't look great because it was built from mud brick and not built of limestone, but I really believe that this tomb is very important," said Hawass...

"This is a very, very lively scene," said Maarten Raven, the excavation's director and a curator at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands...

Click the picture above for six shots from Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

Pair of 3,000-year-old tombs are found in Egypt, Anna Johnson, AP via USA Today, New York, USA, February 20, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists unveil more than 3,000-year-old tombs of Pharaonic officials, Anna Johnson, AP via The Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Picture: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Dutch excavations at Saqqara, February 15, 2007.

Previously: Tomb from Akhenaton era discovered, February 15, 2007.

Previously: Dutch team's Saqqara dig diary updated, February 20, 2007.

Week three of the Dutch team's dig diary has been added to the Saqqara Online website. Select What's New and click Digging Diaries. The team is from Leiden University and is led by Maarten J. Raven

Finally, finally we are allowed to tell you what you wanted to hear: the name of the tomb-owner of the new funerary monument we discovered this season! The Egyptians have now sent out a press release and therefore it is okay for us to talk about it. The news has already been published in all Egyptian newspapers and has been shown on the Egyptian television. This is because it is a really nice find: another tomb dating to the time of Akhenaten!

Previously: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Picture: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously:

Dutch excavations at Saqqara, February 15, 2007.

Tomb from Akhenaton era discovered, February 15, 2007.

Egypt's chief archaeologist displayed on Tuesday the latest discoveries from the Saqqara cemetery south of Cairo and said many more treasures clearly lay hidden beneath the sands.

The new finds, outlined in statements over the past week, also show that Saqqara remained a necropolis, from the Greek "City of the Dead", for Egypt's elite long after the Old Kingdom period for which it is famous, said Zahi Hawass of the Supreme Antiquities Council.

The finds include the tomb of a royal cupbearer from the time of the "rebel" pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favour of the Aten sun disk and brought in a new and more expressive style of art...

Maarten Raven, the field director of the Dutch mission which has excavated the tomb over the past two months, said he expected more tombs from the period to turn up in Saqqara, which is most famous for pyramids and tombs from 1,000 years earlier...

One of the other new discoveries, by a Japanese team of archaeologists, is a set of Middle Kingdom sarcophaguses typical of the 12th dynasty, who lasted from 1991 to 1786 BC.

The sarcophaguses are of a priest called Sobek Hat and his female companion, both made of wood coated with painted plaster and then inscribed with hieroglyphic writing.

Both have anthropoid coffins inside, fitting closely around mummies, which have not yet been opened...

A third discovery, announced by the Supreme Antiquities Council on Monday, was of a cache of wooden statues dating back to about 2200 BC, the heyday of the Saqqara necropolis.

The council said in a statement that the cache contained five statues, including a rare double wooden statue of the scribe Ka-Hay and his wife.

But Hawass said there were only three wooden statues, two of the scribe and a separate one of his wife...

Check out the pictures of these discoveries on Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow. Eighteen pictures at the time of writing.

Finds show longevity of Egyptian necropolis, Jonathan Wright, Reuters, UK, February 20, 2007.

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

Dossier Special - Ramsès II
Ramsès II : un architecte pour la Nubie

Dossier
Ramsès II le guerrer

Voyager
Le désert blanc : les plus beaux paysages d'Égypte

Égyptologie
Ramsès XI : le dernier des Ramsès
Akhenaton et ses petites-filles

Découverte:
Les trésors du musée Égyptien de Turin

Which approximately says...

Special File - Rameses II
Rameses II: an architect for Nubia

File
Rameses II the warrior

Travel
The white desert: most beautiful landscapes of Egypt

Egyptology
Rameses XI: the last of the Rameses'
Akhenaton and his small daughters

Discovered
Treasures of the Egyptian museum of Turin

Toutankhamon Magazine, Editions Neptune Diffusion, France, Issue 31, February / March 2007.

A mud brick tomb dating back more than 4,000 years has been discovered near Egypt's most ancient pyramid in the Saqqara complex south of Cairo, according to an antiquities official. The tomb was located by an Egyptian-Australian mission, Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, announced Monday.

Excavators found five wooden statues depicting the tomb's owner and his wife in a niche at the tomb's forefront. Among the wooden figures was a unique double statue of a seated Ka-Hay and his wife, Hawass said.

It also featured two offering tables and a wooden false door, which ancient Egyptians said the souls of the dead would use to leave their tombs...

Mud Tomb Found Near Oldest Egypt Pyramid, AP via PhillBurbs, Pennsylvania, USA, February 20, 2007.

cf. Mud Tomb Found Near Oldest Egypt Pyramid, AP via PhsOrg, USA, February 20, 2007.

cf. Mud brick tomb discovered near Egypt's most ancient pyramid, AP via International Herald Tribune, France, February 20, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists discover bench grave of Old Empire couple in Saqqara, dpa via Monster & Critics, UK, February 20, 2007.

cf. Rare wooden statue of ancient scribe found in Egypt, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Aussie archaeologists find rare wooden statue, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt, February 19, 2007.

The double statue, dating from around 2300 BC, was among a total of five wooden statues found at the tomb in Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, said Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The official was Ka-Hay, who kept divine records, and his wife, Spri-Ankh. They lived late in the 5th dynasty or early in the 6th and were buried in the part of the necropolis associated with the pharaoh Teti.

"It is a unique statue. In general double seated statues are made of limestone and are rarely carved in wood," Mr Hawass said...

Click on the photograph above for eight shots from Reuters on Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

Aussie archaeologists find rare wooden statue, Adelaide Now, Australia, February 20, 2007.

cf. Rare wooden statue has archaeologists beaming, Independent Online, South Africa, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt, February 19, 2007.

Antiquities police arrested a police guard in the Egyptian governorate of Qena who attempted to sell four pharaonic statues to a rich Arab for 4 million US dollars, a police source said Friday.

A criminal confessed after he was arrested in Suez that he met the guard frequently and that he was mediating between him and a wealthy man from the Gulf who wanted to buy the statues.

The police stormed the guard's house in Negada village in Qena and found four small pharaonic statues in his possession.

One of the statues is ebony and the three others are golden. One is in the shape of a bird, another is a statue of a 16th dynasty (about 1600 BC) king, the third is of a pharaonic fighter and the fourth is of a noble...

Egyptian policeman arrested for trying to sell four ancient statues, dpa via Monster & Critics, UK, February 09, 2007, via EEF News.

A team of Latvian specialists exploring Egypt's ancient pyramids have rediscovered a forgotten column from the Djoser Pyramid in Saqqara, Egypt. The column had been taken to a Berlin Museum, but went missing from its collection during World War II bombing.

A team of Latvian specialists exploring Egypt's ancient pyramids have rediscovered a forgotten column from the Djoser Pyramid in Saqqara, Egypt.

The column had been taken to a Berlin Museum, but went missing from its collection during World War II bombing.

Bruno Deslandes, head of a Latvian team of scientists, said they discovered the forgotten column in museum archives in Berlin and returned it to Egypt...

Latvian specialists find forgotten Egyptian pyramid column, The Baltic Times, Latvia, February 19, 2007.

A rare double wooden statue of an ancient Egyptian scribe and his wife has been found in their tomb south of Cairo, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Monday.

The double statue, dating from around 2300 BC, was among a total of five wooden statues found at the tomb in Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, said Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The official was Ka-Hay, who kept divine records, and his wife, Spri-Ankh. They lived late in the 5th dynasty or early in the 6th and were buried in the part of the necropolis associated with the pharaoh Teti, he said in a statement.

"It is a unique statue... In general double seated statues are made of limestone and are rarely carved in wood," he said.

The find was uncovered by an Egyptian-Australian team ... led by Naguib Kanawati of Macquarie University in Sydney...

The Australian Centre for Egyptology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt, Reuters, UK, February 19, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists find rare wooden statue, Reuters via The Australian, Australia, February 20, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists Find Rare Wooden Statue in Egypt, Reuters via ABC News, USA, February 19, 2007.

cf. Rare wooden statue dating from around 2300 BC found in Egypt tomb, eitb 24, Spain, February 19, 2007.

When Amy Jackman learned of an opportunity to go to Egypt and get college credit, she jumped at the chance.

Jackman, a sophomore at Dana College and 2005 Seward High graduate, visited Egypt as part of a Discovery Term class called The Legacies of Egypt, offered in January through Dana. She and 16 other people spent three weeks overseas.

"It was awesome. It was amazing," Jackman said.

Although the trip was for credit, the students didn't attend any actual classes, she said. Instead they chronicled their experiences-what they learned and reflections on what they did-in journals, which were graded...

Aloha from Egypt, Stephanie Croston, Seward County Independent, Kansas, USA, February 14, 2007.

Join us on our journey through the ancient and not so ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

The us in question is an American family with three children taking a seven month sabbatical. Some people have all the luck!

Journey to Ancient Civilizations, Marty Robertson, 2006 - 2007.

Greece and the J. Paul Getty museum have signed an agreement for the return of two ancient treasures that Athens claims were illegally excavated and smuggled out of the country, officials said on Wednesday.

The artefacts — a 4th century B.C. gold wreath and a 6th century B.C. marble statue of a young woman — are the last of four antiquities successfully reclaimed by Greece from the Getty.

They will be handed over to Greek officials by the end of next month, under the deal signed in Athens late Monday by Greek Culture Ministry Secretary-General Christos Zachopoulos and Michael Brand, director of the private Los Angeles museum.

"This signing confirms the climate of trust and mutual understanding (between Greece and the Getty), and creates new prospects in their relations," the Culture Ministry and the museum said in a joint statement...

Getty Museum signs deal to return 2 ancient treasures to Greece, AP via The San Jose Mercury News, California, USA, February 07, 2007.

Brooklyn Museum has an online dig diary for their MUT Temple Precinct excavation works here: Brooklyn Museum: Dig Diary. This is not to be confused with John Hopkins University's Hopkins in Egypt Today dig diary for the same site as the two teams have shared the site for several years now.

I notice also that Brooklyn Museum has a Flikr channel containing many photosets from the MUT excavation: Brooklyn Museum on Flikr.

To the west of the Serapeum, during routine excavations, the Japanese mission from Wasida University discovered five Middle Kingdom shaft-tombs. Removing the sand from one of them they uncovered four splendid painted wooden sarcophagi, the first a "black type" anthropoid sarcophagus with yellow lines and scenes featuring the four sons of Horus decorating two sides.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said early studies suggest the sarcophagus belonged to Wiai, a New kingdom craftsmen's chief of the house of Amun. "It probably dates from the 18th or early 19th Dynasty..."

Meanwhile, deeper in the desert of Saqqara necropolis, on the eastern side of Meryneith's tomb, a mission from Leiden Museum and University has unearthed an Amarna tomb decorated with wall paintings. The tomb consists of an open courtyard surrounded by pillars and, to the west, three cult chapels. Limestone revetment has been preserved along both the courtyard's north and east walls.

According to Maarten J Raven, head of the mission, more relief panels may be hidden under the sand still covering the base of the other walls. The bases of three limestone papyrus columns and one fluted half-column already jut from the sand...

There's a nice relief featuring two monkeys playing beneath the chair of the tomb owner's wife here. And another one of the sarcophagi unearthed in the Saqqara necropolis by a Japanese excavation mission this week.

Secrets unearthed, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 832, February 15 - 21, 2007.

Three BYU professors have uncovered mysteries in ancient Egyptian writings aided by new technology that allows people to see inscriptions invisible to the naked eye.

The professors Roger Macfarlane, Stephen Bay and Thomas Wayment, have been working on deciphering these writings on papyrus found in an Egyptian dump where an ancient city known as Oxyrhynchus previously existed. The papyri are now housed at the University of Oxford in England and studied by various scholars around the globe.

The technology developed by BYU called multispectral imaging, can penetrate through dirt, stains and other material on the papyri, making it possible to expose obscured lettering.

"BYU has made the most substantial advance in reading these papyri in over 100 years," said Macfarlane, associate professor of classics at BYU. "We are beginning to learn where the BYU technology makes given problems go away..."

Mysteries of Ancient Egyptian Papyri Revealed, Jared Preusz, BYU NewsNet, Brigham Young University, UTAH, USA, February 14, 2007.

1923 — King Tutankhamen’s tomb was unsealed by Howard Carter.

Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation, The Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK.

Today in History Site, Tammy Cordani, Bella Online, February 16, 2007.

UPDATE cf. The original New York Times article from 1923: Tut-ankh-Amen's Inner Tomb is Opened Revealing Undreamed of Splendors, Still Untouched After 3,400 Years, The New York Times, New York, USA, February 16, 1923.

Was Cleopatra just a sex kitten whose love affairs rocked the Roman world or a canny politician whose wily schemes saved Egypt? ...

"She was a very calculating queen, using her femininity to gain the privileges of men," said the exhibition's curator, Susan Walker of the British Museum in London.

When Cleopatra became queen in 51 BC at the age of 18, Egypt was ripe for a takeover by Rome.

Seducing Rome's rising stars, bearing their children, Cleopatra clung to power for nearly two decades, until Octavian (the future Augustus) conquered Egypt in 30 BC...

The exhibit [was] at Palazzo Ruspoli through February 25, the British Museum from April to August 2001, and the Field Museum from October 2001 to March 2002...

Cleopatra: sex kitten or catty politician?, Sapa-AP via The Independent Online, South Africa, October 11, 2000.

"A tomb dating back to the era of King Akhenaten in Pharaonic Egypt had been discovered" Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni carried the good news Wednesday.

The tomb belongs to the holder of the divine seal, "Ptah Em Waya", said Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass, noting that it was the most important discovery in the area of Saqqara...

A Dutch mission unearthed the tomb in excavations around Saqqara, Dr. Hawass added.

... the adobe tomb has an open yard and is surrounded by columns.

It has three compartments and limestone walls with scenes representing the deceased and the offerings presented to him.

Tomb from Akhenaton era discovered, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, February 15, 2007.

Previously:

Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Picture: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Dutch excavations at Saqqara, February 15, 2007.

Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni here Thursday dismissed as baseless reports that UNESCO had warned [that it would] strike off some Egyptian monuments from world heritage [list]...

Echoing Hosni's remarks, Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said there was complete cooperation between his council and UNESCO in the archaeological domain.

He denied that UNESCO might have warned [that it would] remove some Egyptian monuments from the global heritage list, noting that the SCA and the Ministry of Culture were taking all necessary arrangements to safeguard Egypt's archaeological sites...

Egypt dismisses UNESCO warning against its relics, Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait, February 15, 2007.

I just remembered that the Dutch team have a digging diary online which can be found here.

Saqqara Online: Digging Diary 2007, select What's New and click Digging Diaries.

Previously:

Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Picture: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Many thanks to Jo Cogan for sending me these two commentaries on the Cleopatra was ugly debate from The Times.

Was Cleopatra beautiful?

When classicists get their teeth into these coins they usually have more interesting questions to ask than simply "was she really pretty or not?" . One question is how far such tiny images are life-like anyway (compare our own queen — she never ever looked like the chocolate-box teenager which was until recently her standard coin portrait). Another is how far even full-sized Roman portraits can be taken as "drawn from life". Another is what kind of conventions were at play in the ancient world for representing the anomaly of the "powerful woman". As points out in the catalogue [to the 2001 British Museum exhibition Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth], the earliest representation of Cleopatra (in Pharaonic style) shows her as a man...

Was Cleopatra beautiful?, Mary Beard, The Times, UK, February 14, 2007.

Carry on and on, Cleo

'Well, Cleopatra VII's surviving coins are really quite consistent on the nose issue. Not quite a night club bouncer's. More a Greek poisoner's. Not a broken conk — but definitely bloody ugly. Nice clear image though. 'Ancient Tetradrachms Weekly will love it'.

Carry on and on, Cleo, Peter Stothard, The Times Literary Supplement, UK, February 14, 2007.

Previously:

Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth, February 14, 2007.

Was the famous Egyptian Queen and ruler Cleopatra a black woman? And what evidence exists to decide the issue one way or another?

First of all, we could find no definitive evidence from the ancient texts which clearly state Cleopatra's race or colour. Further, the camp of scholars who say she was definitely white as well as the camp which says she was without a doubt black both rely on assumptions and anecdotal information which by themselves do not and cannot definitively decide the issue.

Thus, let us state what we know. Ancient Egypt was a predominantly black nation owning its origin more so to African peoples from the areas of ancient Ethiopia and Nubia (roughly modern day Sudan) than to the peoples of the Middle East...

As for Cleopatra, the foundation of her family lineage was Macedonian Greek. Alexander the Great died shortly after conquering Egypt. After his death, control of Egypt fell around 305 BC to one of his generals named Ptolemy. He established the Ptolemy line of Pharaohs who ruled Egypt for the next 200 years. Cleopatra was the last pharaoh in the Ptolemy line.

Now, for those who would have us believe that Cleopatra was white, the above fact settles the issue. They say she was Macedonian Greek and that's the end of it. However, to accept their position requires that one believe that for over 200 years there was no intermarriage or even intercourse between the Ptolemy line and members of the native Egyptian population...

If Cleopatra VII had any black blood, it would have come from her father's [Ptolemy XII's] side of the family. There is some reason to believe that Auletes' mother — Cleopatra's grand mother — was a black woman...

Shouldn't that be a question mark on the title rather an exclamation? Cleopatra's lineage can be found here on Chris Bennett's site: Ptolemaic Dynasty: Genealogy. Chris goes into great detail about who Ptolemy XII's mother may have been on this page.

Was Cleopatra A Black Woman!, Robert N. Taylor, The Louisiana Weekly, Louisiana, USA February 12, 2007.

"The discovery confirms the existence of tombs from important men of state during the time of pharaoh Akhenaton after the same delegation found another tomb from this period several years before," said SCA head Zahi Hawass, who described it as one of the "most important" discoveries in the area...

The tomb, which bears the royal cartouche for "Ptah Am Waya" is covered with wall paintings done in the realistic style of the period when classic artistic conventions were abandoned.

The wall paintings include those of "Ptah" going to the afterlife as well scenes of daily life, such as monkeys eating dates...

I'm not sure whether this is a picture of the new find or not as the picture is referred to as the 'Scribe of the Treasure' but nowhere in the articles is the new tomb's owner referred to having this epithet and the tag on the picture says 'File' which may indicate that it is just a photo that they dug out of the archives. Can anyone confirm this?

Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt.

It was one of the Culture Ministry’s grandest plans for the Olympics — but was never implemented. Highlighting the Egyptian temple at Brexiza as part of an archaeological and tourist itinerary that would have included the site of Rhamnus, the Marathon Museum, Tymbos and the Tsepi cemetery would have been an interesting project for an archaeological site in Attica that is significant both for its size and the finds that have been unearthed there.

That was the theory, but in practice the prefecture rejected the project. Now it has been saved at the last minute at the initiative of Culture Ministry General Secretary Christos Zachopoulos, who has found a way to include it as a sub-project to technical work on the Lavrion mines, thus securing the sum of 400,000 euros, which will come from Third and Fourth Community Support Framework funds.

Iphigenia Dekoulakou, excavator of the Egyptian temple and an archaeologist with 35 years in the field, sounded the alarm. “The walls must be stabilized or the temple will collapse. Fragile materials and damp are the temple’s basic problems...”

Excavating works at Brexiza.

Isis and Osiris in Attica, Iota Sykka, Kathimerini, Greece, February 14, 2007.

Dutch archaeologists have discovered a tomb in the Saqqara necropolis from the time of Egypt's monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaton some 3,300 years ago, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday.

The discovery shows that notables contemporary with Akhenaton continued to be buried in Saqqara, just outside the modern day capital of Cairo, indicating the enduring importance of old religious orthodoxy under "the heretic Pharaoh."

"The discovery confirms the existence of tombs from important men of state during the time of Pharaoh Akhenaton after the same delegation found another tomb from this period several years before," said SCA head Zahi Hawass, who described it as one of the "most important" discoveries in the area...

Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, AFP via Middle East Times, Cyprus, February 14, 2007.

Archaeologists find Akhenaten-era tomb

Dutch archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Akhenaten's seal bearer, decorated with paintings including scenes of monkeys picking and eating fruit, Egyptian antiquities officials said on Wednesday.

The tomb belonged to the official named Ptahemwi and was discovered during a Dutch team's excavation in the Sakkara area, the burial ground for the city of Memphis...

cf. Archaeologists find Akhenaten-era tomb, Reuters, USA, February 14, 2007.

Adam Hart-Davies, author and presenter of What the Ancients did for us etc, advocates teaching of the three Rs over teaching of history.

I am dubious about the projects thrust upon schoolkids — Romans, Victorians, the second world war, ancient Egypt. Treating each of these as separate things prevents children from getting any grasp of the whole flow of history...

If I had to teach history — and I pity any pupils of mine — I would try to convey the broad sweep through single people or events with which pupils could identify: Brunel could provide the backbone for a canter through the Industrial Revolution, or Victorian England, while the atom bomb could be the culmination in a study of weapons of war throughout the ages.

Are pupils missing out? I doubt it. If they are keen, they will stay with the history, unless the ridiculous league tables force the school to persuade them to take up cake decoration or Kylie Minogue studies. There is plenty of time to study history later in life. What really matter at school are English, maths, and science.

Find books by .

Does it really matter if history lessons are history?, Adam Hart-Davis, The Guardian, UK, February 14, 2007.

A study of a 2,000-year-old silver coin found the Egyptian queen, famously portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor, had a pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose.

Her Roman lover, played by Richard Burton, had bulging eyes, thick neck and a hook nose.

The tiny coin was studied by experts at Newcastle University.

The size of a modern 5p piece, the artefact from 32BC was in a collection belonging to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, which is being researched in preparation for the opening of a new Great North Museum...

Coin shows Cleopatra's ugly truth, BBC News, UK, February 14, 2007.

cf. Antony and Cleopatra: coin find changes the faces of history, Martin Wainwright, The Guardian, UK, February 14, 2007.

And on the slightly less tactful note from the tabloids we have from The Mirror "Cleopatra was a minger" and from The Sun "Queen Cleopatra... the minger".

This is not actually new as I have seen these coins before but the only post that fits the bill is "Hollywood brightens up Cleopatra's looks to conceal her true ugliness", August 25, 2005.

The exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia through Sept. 30, is bringing a passion for all things Egyptian to the City of Brotherly Love (along with an estimated 1.3 million visitors and millions of tourism dollars). After being featured at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Tutankhamun is making its final U.S. stop in Philadelphia.

During the 1976-1979 U.S. tour, The Treasures of Tutankhamun, Philadelphia wasn't included. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, wasn't about to let the city get bypassed again.

"I said, 'If King Tut goes to the States, it has to go to Philadelphia,'" said Mr. Hawass at a press conference previewing the exhibition. "I lived at 43rd and Walnut for seven years" while a doctoral student in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania "and it was the worst part of town." Now, he says, "The town became wonderful, and I saw how it changed..."

That Midas Touch, Jillian Kalonick, Princeton and Central New Jersey Online, New Jersey, USA, February 09, 2007.

By day, Chris Dunn runs the human resources department at Danville Metal Stamping.

By night, the British-born Danville man strives to solve mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids.

"His enthusiasm for Egyptian technology is just infectious," said Dunn's boss, Judd Peck, president and CEO at Danville Metal Stamping.

Dunn's theories about how — and why — the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids debunk status-quo beliefs that thousands of labourers used primitive methods to construct the massive manmade structures as tombs for kings.

Applying his more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing and engineering to the pyramids, Dunn asserts that the Egyptians used mechanical means and advanced engineering concepts to build the pyramids not as tombs but for industrial purposes, such as generating energy...

, Christopher Dunn, Bear & Company, 1998, pp. 288.

Danville man has a passion for the pyramids, Tracy Moss, Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette, Illinois, USA, February 11, 2007.

The mysteries of ancient Egypt have tempted John Sarr ever since he was 10 years old, when, as he remembers it, a glossy magazine spread revealed to him the richly carved walls of Nefertari's tomb. As he studied the beautiful — but mute — inscriptions that covered nearly every surface of the tomb, he vowed that one day he would make those walls talk.

And in that moment he joined so many of us who fall headlong into love with something without completely understanding why. Sometimes things just speak to us, even when we can't understand exactly what they're saying.

Today, Sarr is perhaps the city's most enthusiastic scholar of ancient Egyptian culture and language. By his count, he's been to Egypt 10 times. Museums have called on him to help translate the Egyptian antiquities in their collections. And he has done all this without a degree in Egyptology or archaeology. Sarr is, in fact, self-taught, one of those fabulous Portland examples of someone who has figured out how to carve a fully formed second life from his spare time...

So, it should come as no surprise that the arrival of "The Quest for Immortality" at the Portland Art Museum, with its 107 Egyptian artefacts was cause for some excitement in Sarr's household. "To know that these treasures are just downtown . . .," he said, "in some ways it's like seeing old friends..."

Whispers of the past, Inara Verzemnieks, The Oregonian, Oregon, USA, February 02, 2007.

The child gods of ancient Egypt are depicted in a surprisingly real-world way on a stunningly well-preserved, gilded beam recently found at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut in South Karnak, Egypt.

The structure once crowned the doorway of a birthing house inside the temple more than 2,000 years ago. Rituals associated with royal childbirths — perhaps even including "honeymoon nights" — likely took place there.

The beam is significant because of "the quality of its carving and its gilding," said Brooklyn Museum archaeologist Richard Fazzini, who is leading the excavation, in a press release...

Egypt's Child Gods Shown on Artifact, Jennifer Viegas, Discovery Channel News, USA, February 08, 2007.

Previously: Lintel unearthed at the Temple of Mut, February 02, 2007.

The sarcophagi were found in tomb shafts in the vast Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, Zahi Hawass, the director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Saturday.

"It is significant because of the discovery of two sarcophagi from the Middle Kingdom," said Japanese team leader Sakuji Yoshimori...

One of the Middle Kingdom coffins, inlaid with black glass, was found inside a brilliantly painted outer box and dedicated to a man called Sabak Hatab. The other sarcophagus was for a woman named Sint Ayt Ess.

The third, which dated back to the New Kingdom's 18th dynasty of around 1,500 BC and contained a mummy, was coloured black and decorated with images of the four sons of the god Horus...

Japanese team finds ancient Egyptian coffins, AFP via Middle East Times, Cyprus, February 10, 2007.

A village in central Italy is demanding that the Metropolitan Museum of Art return an Etruscan chariot more than a century after it was allegedly smuggled out of the country, according to a new book published in Italy.

In “La Biga Rapita,” or “The Stolen Chariot,” Italian reporter Mario La Ferla writes that financier John Pierpont Morgan had the 2,600-year-old chariot illegally transported from Italy to France, where it was kept in a basement of the Credit Lyonnais bank. The artefact was then shipped to the U.S., where it became the Metropolitan Museum’s property in 1903, the year before Morgan became president of the Met, the book says...

According to La Ferla’s account, in 1902, a local farmer in the town of Monteleone di Spoleto, near Perugia in Umbria, found the chariot buried on his land. He sold it for 950 Italian lire (64 U.S. cents in today’s money), enough to buy tiles for his roof.

The chariot was stored in Rome, where, according to the book, J.P. Morgan acquired it and transported it to the U.S. In 1903 it became the property of the Met...

Italian Village Claims Etruscan Chariot From Met, Book Says, Bloomberg, New York, USA, February 09, 2007.

[Japanese] Archaeologists have uncovered three wooden pharaonic sarcophagi, dating back to the 20th century B.C., the chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Saturday.

"The three sarcophagi were found in a very well preserved condition inside three burial shafts," Zahi Hawass, the council chief, told The Associated Press.

He described the discovery as "very unique and very important."

The find took place early this week at a site south of the Saqqara pyramids, about 16 miles south of Cairo, he said.

The first sarcophagi dates back to Egypt's 1500 B.C.-1000 B.C. New Kingdom and is a black anthropoid. It carries paintings portraying the four sons of the falcon-headed god Horus and its inscription says it to belongs to a person called "Waya-ly..."

Three ancient Egyptian sarcophagi unearthed, AP via USA Today, New York, USA, February 10, 2007.

cf. Three ancient coffins discovered in Saqqara, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, February 11, 2007.

cf. Find may reveal secrets of the dead, 4000 years on, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, February 11, 2007. Includes picture.

cf. Ancient Egyptian sarcophagi discovered, icWales, UK, February 10, 2007.

Dr. Frank McClanahan wasn't exactly the superstitious type.

As a medical missionary in Egypt, he was one of the first men inside King Tutankhamen's tomb following its discovery in 1922. Over several months, he returned five more times to gaze in awe at its golden treasures.

McClanahan served as personal physician of Lord Carnarvon, the British earl who backed the archaeological expedition. The nobleman's untimely demise — four months after the tomb's discovery — spawned rumours of a 3,000-year-old curse on those who disturbed the pharaoh's resting place.

Accidents, illnesses and mysterious deaths seemed to befall the archaeological party. A legend spread as newspapers reported the strange tales.

McClanahan didn't set out to disprove the curse of King Tut, but he did it anyway. All he had to do was enjoy a good, long life...

Curse of the mummy, Mark J. Price, Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio, USA, February 05, 2007.

"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," an exhibition of 130 objects from the final resting places of King Tut and other royal relatives in the 18th Dynasty (1555 B.C. to 1305 B.C.), opened Saturday at the Franklin Institute Science Museum, the fourth and final stop of a show that has drawn 2.8 million viewers across the nation.

Nearly 400,000 advance tickets have been ordered for the exhibit.

The show is softly lit and fairly low-key, entertaining and scholarly, plain and fancy. A shiny dog collar made of leather and gilded copper is given the same weight as a lotus-blossom cup made of glowing calcite. One room resembles a burial corridor; another simulates a temple entrance.

The exhibit is also a Tut tease. It begins with six galleries of domestic and ceremonial artefacts interred with Tut's reputed relations, rather than the boy king himself...

Tutankhamun artefacts make final U.S. stop in Philadelphia, Geoff Gehman, The Mercury News, Pennsylvania, USA, February 05, 2007.

Ron and Susan Willis recently completed a trip of a lifetime. They visited Egypt and Jordan.

In Cairo, Ron and Susan visited the great Cairo Museum and saw the relics of King Tut's tomb. They visited a Coptic church where Joseph, Mary and Jesus supposedly slept.

A highlight for the Willis' was the great pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. They were built between 4000 and 2000 B.C.E. during the fourth dynasty.

They also visited the city of Luxor, formerly the great city of Thebes and the Aswan Dam. Of course, they cruised the Nile. Everything they saw from the Karnak and Luxor Temples at Luxor to Hymonos at Aswan were "awesome..."

Highland couple makes an A+ visit to Egypt and Jordan, G.W. Abersold, Highland Community News, California, USA, February 08, 2007.

Excavators from the Brooklyn Museum stumbled upon the unique lintel painted with five gilded deities during routine cleaning of the precinct enclosure wall of the temple. Topped with a cavetto cornice embellished with painted stripes, the lintel is well preserved. It is framed by rounded moulding and the decoration includes raised relief figures. The five gilded solar deities appear sitting on lotus blossoms against a blue backdrop, representing the sky, each with a finger in its mouth...

Oldest maritime artefacts found.

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. Marsa Gawasis is located on a coral reef at the northern end of the Wadi Gawasis, 23 kilometres south of the port of Safaga...

Antiquity News from Egypt Magazine - February/March 2007, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, February 06, 2007.

David P. Silverman was a young Egyptologist labouring at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute when he was approached one day in 1976 by the director, Gustavus F. Swift 3d.

"He said, 'You know, we're thinking about joining with the Field Museum and doing the Tut exhibit' " then being organized under the auspices of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Silverman recalled the other day. " 'Do you want to do it?'

"I said: 'What do you mean, do it? Never mind! Yes!'

"And that's basically how it happened."

From such matter-of-fact beginnings sprang his association with the legendary Tut exhibit of the 1970s - "Treasures of Tutankhamun" - that drew eight million visitors to seven cities, launched the era of the blockbuster, tied exhibitions to museum-shop sales and revenue generation, and brought marketing razzle-dazzle front and centre to the museum world...

Tut strikes twice for Pa. curator, Stephan Salisbury, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, USA, February 01, 2007.

Police officers hear every excuse imaginable when they pull drivers over. Still, "I'm rushing to see the Tut exhibit" would have had to be a first for the policeman who stopped Colleen Murphy on Saturday.

Murphy, a Langhorne psychologist who put her name on a waiting list more than two years ago to see "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute on opening day, was pulled over for making an illegal U-turn while rushing to make her time-stamped appointment.

Not even a traffic violation could keep her from her objective, and a ticket certainly didn't ruin the day.

"I just had to be there on opening day. I see it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said...

King Tut exhibit opens to rush of admirers, Gabrielle Salerno, The Allentown Morning Call, Pennsylvania, USA, February 04, 2007.

Tourism to Egypt witnessed a boost in 2006, recording 9.082 million tourists who spent 89.3 million nights resulting in revenues of $7.6 billion. Meanwhile, new potential markets emerged, such as China and India, while traditional markets such as France and Italy retreated. But others, such as Russia, maintained their position. Arab markets also advanced last year with new promotional plans to attract more Arab travellers. Marketing campaigns, according to tourist officials, depend on the position of each market, its strength and Egypt's share in it.

"Our business plan is very basic," according to Ahmed El-Khadem, head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA). "It doesn't change very much from year to year, but essentially builds on whatever result we have attained in each market and we look for some degree of growth in the following year." The plan in 2007 is to increase Egypt's share of each market by an average of about 10 to 12 per cent. "This would be a very acceptable rate for us," asserted El-Khadem.

The budget for tourism promotion in 2007 is $30 million for international promotional campaigns, $10 million for Egypt's joint advertiser tour operator and $8 for tourism fairs all over the world. The Slogan of Egypt's new campaign abroad is "Nothing Compares to Egypt" and the name of the campaign is "The Gift of the Sun"...

'The gift of the sun', Rehab Saad, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

The desert of Egypt, or Sahara, plays a big role in promoting peace education and cross-cultural friendship. Mohamed El-Hebeishy joined the Children's International Summer Village during their winter activity at Farafra.

Among Siwa, Bahariya, Dakhla and Kharga, Farafra is the smallest and oldest of the big five oases occupying the vast Western Desert between the Nile Valley and Libyan border. Ta-iht, or The Land of the Cow, is the name by which the Pharaohs called it. The ancient scripts of the Fifth Dynasty represent the very first historical appearance of Farafra; in addition to being mentioned in the Pharaonic classic The Eloquent Peasant, it is named the third oasis in the primordial text of The Seven Oases in the Temple of Edfu. Stranded in the middle of the Western Desert, accessibility is indeed a barrier.

Farafra suffered periods when it sank into complete oblivion. One such period commenced after the Byzantine Period when Farafra — along with the oases of Siwa and Kharga — was a place of banishment for faithful Christians. Once again it emerged in the ninth century, this time in the pages of Al-Yaqubi's Kitab Al-Buldan (Book of Countries)...

Teaming for success, Mohamed El-Hebeishy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

Luxor may be home to some of the world's most amazing archaeological sites, and yet it is an undervalued city. Hordes of tourists are run in and out of Luxor International Airport, their itineraries barely giving them enough time to visit the most important tombs and temples, let alone the nooks and crannies of the archaeological treasure trove that was ancient Thebes, and the many people that also make this city worth visiting. "One day on the East Bank and one day on the West Bank, a traditional Egyptian food buffet at their five-star hotel and perhaps a galabiya party or a belly-dancer and their off," explains a tour operator early in the morning, as he pulls his party together and I wait for our luggage. Other than the Japanese, it seems that most visitors prefer to spend more time enjoying the Red Sea beaches and considering perceived security concerns, the arrangement seems to suit all involved.

This would be fine if it did not so horribly misrepresent the city. Our taxi ferries take us down the road towards our hotel: lush green palms stand out against the clear blue sky, men in white galabiyas perched on donkeys slow down our progress and we take in the façade of newly painted traditional mud homes — a recent, much-debated decision of the head of the Luxor City Council towards revamping the city. Soon, we arrive at the long, one-car bridge that will take us onto Crocodile Island and the Mövenpick Resort.

Now, I would also be dissatisfied to reduce Luxor to any of the many five-star hotels that string its East Bank, but I will have to start here. My parents brought me almost every year for as long as I can — or would like — to remember. And today, every year I pack up my girls and bring them here too...

Enlightened by its people, Fatemah Farag, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

Egypt will participate in the 49th round of The Holiday, Tourism and Leisure Fair to open in Brussels Exhibition Centre Thursday.

In statements to MENA Wednesday, Riham Waheed, the Egyptian Tourist Attaché here, said Egypt takes part every year in the Brussels holiday fair, with a view to enhancing contact with tourist agents and encouraging tourism inflow to the country.

A number of Arab states will participate in the five-day gathering, including Tunisia, Algeria, Syria and Morocco, Waheed added.

Some 700 exhibitors from 65 states will take part, she added.

Egypt to participate in tourist expo in Brussels, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, February 08, 2008.

The passages, inscribed on the subterranean walls of the pyramid of King Unas at Saqqara, reveal that the Egyptians enlisted the magical assistance of Semitic Canaanites from the ancient city of Byblos, located in what is now Lebanon.

The Canaanite spells were invoked to help protect mummified kings against poisonous snakes, one of ancient Egypt's most dreaded nemeses.

According to the incantations, female snakes — acting as mediators for Canaanite magicians — used their multiple mouths and sexual organs to prevent other snakes from entering the mummified rulers' remains...

Ancient Semitic Snake Spells Deciphered in Egyptian Pyramid, Mati Milstein, National Geographic News, USA, February 05, 2007.

Previously:

Spell May Comprise Oldest Semitic Text, February 02, 2007.

Earliest Semitic text revealed in Egyptian pyramid inscription, January 31, 2007.

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

If you can't get enough of Tutankhamun and the stories of the pharaohs of Egypt, there are two notable exhibitions you might want to visit.

Winterthur looks at rare books about ancient Egypt where visitors can present their Franklin Institute ticket stubs from the Tut exhibit and get $3 off the admission.

The exhibition at the Delaware museum, "Ancient Egypt and the Egyptian Revival, 1725-1825," highlights books rarely seen by the public. It will run Saturday to May 13 [2007].

An ongoing exhibition, "Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun" is showing at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The Penn exhibit runs to November and offers a rare look at the boyhood home of Tut, the royal city of Amarna...

Tut too: Some things to do to ease the fever, The Delco Times, Pennsylvania, USA, February 02, 2007.

Excitement is building for the highly-anticipated exhibit, "Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of Pharaohs," that opens Saturday at the Franklin Institute. Already more than 380,000 tickets have been sold making it the largest pre-sale in the Institute's history. CBS 3's Mary Stoker Smith went behind the scenes...

Behind The Scenes Of Tutankhamun, Mary Stoker Smith, CBS 3 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, January 31, 2007.

All hail King Tut

When the treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb were last in the United States 30 years ago, Philadelphia got passed over in favour of New York and Washington.

However, it will have been worth the wait because "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" reportedly is more than double the size of the 1970s exhibition...

All hail King Tut, Brian Bingham, The Philadelphia Reporter, Pennsylvania, USA, February 01, 2007.

Franklin Institute exhibit brings King Tut fever to Philadelphia

A display of his treasures set travelling show attendance records when it went on nationwide tour in the '70s. Starting Saturday, The Franklin Institute will try to rival that fanfare when it hosts an updated and upgraded Tut exhibit that more than doubles the size of the previous blockbuster...

Franklin Institute exhibit brings King Tut fever to Philadelphia, Alison Lapp, AP via NEPA News, Pennsylvania, USA, February 01, 2007.

Walking through the life of King Tutankhamun

Allow the sinuous music to envelop you and don't be ashamed of goose bumps. Let yourself be wowed. These are perfectly appropriate reactions to The Franklin Institute's exhibit, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs..."

Walking through the life of King Tutankhamun, Elizabeth Fisher, Bucks County Courier Times, Pennsylvania, USA, February 02, 2007.

Spanish police have arrested 52 people in one of the world's biggest swoops against archaeological pillaging, seizing 300,000 objects, police said on Wednesday.

The objects included bronze statues, shafts of columns, coins and amphorae measuring up to one metre, among others. They ranged from prehistoric to medieval ones.

The objects had been pilfered from 31 sites. Some were museum standard and would have fetched tens of thousands of euros on the market...

Archaeological object seized in biggest swoop, Sapa-dpa via Independent Online, South Africa, February 07, 2007.

Howard Carter was a man who had a talent for being in the right place at the right time.

The name may not ring a bell, but Carter was the man who discovered, uncovered, recorded and preserved the tomb of King Tutankhamun, says Jennifer Wegner, a research scientist in the Egypt section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

In his late teens, the London-born Carter was a talented artist who came to the attention of Flinders Petrie, a noted turn-of-the-century anthropologist. He was still a teen when he began to accompany Petrie on Egyptian digs, recording the discoveries in sketches and watercolours.

"Even though we have cameras and digital technology, we still take an artist on a dig with us today to record inscriptions and to get detail that is otherwise undetected," says Wegner, who is also a co-curator of "Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun," at Penn, an exhibit about the city of Tut's childhood running simultaneously with "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaoh" at the Franklin Institute...

Tomb-finder Howard Carter was the right archaeologist at the right time, Mariella Savidge, The Morning Call, Pennsylvania, USA, February 04, 2007.

... St. Catherine's is entering the Age of Technology — with the help of Father Justin Sinaites, a 57-year-old American monk from El Paso, and Hemeid, the 23-year-old son of a Bedouin camel driver. They are implementing a digital photography project that will make high-resolution images of the library's closely guarded manuscripts available to scholars all over the world.

Consisting of 3,300 manuscripts in 11 languages — many of them richly illuminated in gold leaf and bright, jewel-like colours — the library's collection is second in number and importance only to the trove at the Vatican. With manuscripts made as early as the 6th century, the Sinai cache consists mainly of scriptures, sermons and texts for religious services, but it includes classical Greek literature and a few medical texts with herbal remedies for various afflictions.

Today the object awaiting its close-up is a rare Arabic manuscript of Christian gospels, written on parchment in 897. A vacuum hose attached to the cradle gently pulls back the open page. A narrow piece of bone placed on the front of the page, near the binding, helps to flatten the rumpled parchment...

Saving a treasured trove, ever so slowly, Suzanne Muchnic, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, February 05, 2007.

Birds fly over the great pyramid in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007. 12 deaths have been recorded in Egypt from the avian flu strain since was first detected in February 2006 and has spread to at least 19 of the country's 26 provinces. The H5N1 strain has hit at least 45 countries and killed more than 150 people worldwide.

Yahoo! News Anthropology & Archaeology slideshow, AP via Yahoo News!, USA, February 07, 2007.

Denver entrepreneur Phil Anschutz's The O2 entertainment venue in London is axing projects in the wake of losing a license for a Las Vegas-style super-casino...

The $1.1 billion O2 project, which is being built around the Millennium Dome on London's Greenwich Peninsula, has "postponed" a major exhibition of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen artefacts, according to British news stories...

Anschutz scales back in U.K., Paula Moore, Denver Business Journal, Colorado, USA, February 05, 2007.

Conversely, from a UK newspaper we have:

Regeneration setback after failed casino bid

... Despite the failed bid, an exhibition on Tutankhamun's tomb and treasures will still take place in November...

Anschutz scales back in U.K., Samantha Payne, News Shopper, UK, February 07, 2007.

Previously: Dome loses UK super-casino race, January 30, 2007.

Defining directions

Sir — In 'Mathematics in Ancient Egypt' (Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31, January 2007) Assem Deif emphasises the alignment with true north of the Great Pyramid, even contrasting it with a famous astronomical site in Paris. But because of precession and the angle of the axis of Earth to the plane of the ecliptic, over time "true north" changes, and is surely now just a few thousand years later, not precisely where it was at the time the Pyramid was built. How do you define directions for determinations of alignment in a situation like this?

Ronald Edge
Chicago
USA

Mr Edge,

As you said, true north changes due to the precession. Now Polaris is our north star and in 13,000 years (half the precession period) it will be Vega. At the time when the GP was built (around 2570 BC) it was Alpha Dacronis (Thuban in Arabic) according to different astronomers, so it seemed the AE knew it. How I don't know. But there has been work done in this respect (Bauval's The Orion Mystery for example)...

Letters: Defining directions, Ronald Edge, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

Dr. Zahi Hawass came to Florida on the 8th of January 2007 because he found out that has a condition of his eye called macular holes. Due to the nature of this condition doctors in Egypt decided it best to send Dr. Hawass to an esteemed medical facility in the U.S. called the Bascom Palmer Institute. An eye operation was performed by Dr. William Smitty. Dr. Smitty will follow up to find out whether the surgery was successful for the next 2 - 2 1/2 weeks.

Although the doctors are not precisely sure why this condition occurred, they suggest that it may possibly be due to a stone that fell on Dr. Hawass' head during a recent excavation...

I'm a bit late with this one as Dr. Hawass has been giving lectures this week.

Dr. Hawass in U.S. For Eye Surgery, Zahi Hawass, Guardian's Egypt, January 2007.

There are probably more pyramids in Sudan than can be found in all of Egypt. Yet the wonders of ancient Egypt are known worldwide, while those of its southern neighbour stand forgotten on the banks of the Nile. The chequered political history of Sudan, combined with the country's rugged terrain and lack of modern conveniences, has kept tourists away from some of the most romantic archaeological sites in the world, among them several whole fields of pyramids.

The oldest Sudanese pyramids, dating back to the eighth century BC, stand near the modern city of Karima, downriver from the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. They were built for the kings of Kush, as the land was known in antiquity, who — after conquering Egypt around 730 BC — adopted the old pharaonic tradition of erecting monumental tombs for themselves and members of their families. These pyramids were smaller than the Egyptian ones, and were located near the Kushite capital city of Napata, which once existed in the neighbourhood of Karima.

These Napatan conquerors of Egypt, despite their adherence to Egyptian customs and religious beliefs, preferred to be buried not in the land they won but near their home town; after their eventual expulsion from Egypt by the Assyrians, around 660 BC, they really had no other choice, and the burials continued...

Sudan: The Land of Pyramids, Krzysztof Grzymski, Kenya London News, UK, January 31, 2007.

No contest: The Pyramids of Giza are one of the great wonders of the world. That’s the view of both Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni and Supreme Council of Antiquities head Zahi Hawass, who have rejected the notion of the New7Wonders Foundation's voting campaign to determine the “New Seven Wonders of the World.”

The Giza monuments are one of 21 finalists announced in June 2006; the seven with the most votes will be crowned the wonders later this year. In a media blitz, the foundation exhorts, “People of Egypt, it is now your turn to make a difference! Support the Pyramids, the only remaining Ancient Wonder, to become one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.”

The campaign is billed by organizers as “a cultural initiative to recognize, preserve and promote our common global cultural heritage.”

Hosni was unimpressed...

Pyramid Scheme, Manal el-Jesri and Kate Durham, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 28, Issue 02, February 2007.

PERHAPS the largest crowd ever to visit the village of Gurna on Luxor's West Bank assembled early last December to watch an over-elaborate ceremony taking place on a hill opposite the village. Local officials brought in two busloads of journalists to witness the proceedings, which began with groups of school children in Pharaonic dress performing to the beat of drums. Once the children were done, visiting mayors, governors and council heads gave speech after speech to the attentive television cameras.

The occasion: The ceremonial destruction of the village of Gurna in what officials promised would be the next-to-last step toward the relocation of its residents to a new, government-built settlement.

While most of the assembled dignitaries made mention of the need to improve the lives of Gurna residents, all focused on the long-awaited razing of Gurna village, the second such attempt in the last decade and part of a bid to conserve antiquities beneath local houses. Between the dignitaries and the village was a row of brightly painted construction vehicles. Across the road in Gurna itself, a different group was on a different hill: These were the villagers themselves, separated from the dignitaries by rows of police...

It’s Settled, Then, Cache Seel, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 28, Issue 02, February 2007.

About 30,000 Tut enthusiasts visited the ["Tutankhamun: Wonderful Things from the Pharaoh's Tomb"] exhibit, said Garland Courts, centre manager. The exhibit, which featured more than 100 replicated artefacts from the famous Boy King's tomb, opened Oct. 13 and closed Wednesday.

"I guess a lot of people waited until the last minute. Saturday was our biggest day. We had over 3,000 visitors. Were very happy. We've had a great response," Courts said.

And there's another piece of good news: "We don't have all the figures yet, but it looks like we'll be in the black. We'll make a slight profit," Courts said...

30,000 saw ancient Egypt in Cruces, S. Derrickson Moore, Las Cruces Sun-News, New Mexico, USA, February 02, 2007.

Zahi Hawass, a larger-than-life character who stands at the helm of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), has authored and co-authored several hefty publications on various aspects of ancient Egypt. Mountains of the Pharaohs is different — not only because it is a conventionally sized book, a mere 24 x 16cms and only half a kilogramme in weight — but also because it is written in narrative form and geared to the general public.

Hawass has used a literary device to grasp the attention of an unprofessional audience. He has begun each chapter with an engaging imaginary scene written in italics...

This is an important book. Hawass reveals that the Pyramid projects were important unifying forces for the country as a whole. He shows that the workshops attached to them were in fact schools to teach arts and crafts, and that the workmen came from all over the country to participate in Pyramid building, bringing with them local customs and picking up the habits and styles of the capital and thus creating "a national culture". He points out that the vast royal estates were tools for redistribution in a land where the population was dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry, and that all those involved in the Pyramids or royal cults rites were paid from the products of these estates — the men and women of the court were rewarded for their loyalty and excellent service from these public treasuries.

What led to the collapse of one of the most powerful royal houses in the history of the world? Hawass covers this too, in his Conclusion. No more convincing theory has yet been presented.

, Zahi Hawass, Doubleday Books, 2006, pp. 213.

The Pyramids revealed, Jill Kamill, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

On the eve of our One Year Anniversary on the discovery of KV-63 I would like to take this opportunity to bring everyone up to date on recent events and our plans for 2007.

After directing the daily operations of KV-63 for seven continuous months in 2006 (without one sick day) I suffered a heart attack in late November, which laid me up in the hospital for a few weeks. I am well, now, but as a result, it has taken time for me to regain my strength and catch up on necessary administrative paperwork concerning our impending KV-63 season.

Along with my heart attack, a variety of others factors have led to our decision to delay our 2007 season until thus summer. The very long season of 2005-2006 made it practical to shift our normal schedule back a month or so. In addition, both myself and Earl Ertman plan to lecture at the 2007 American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) Annual meeting in Toledo, Ohio in April 20-22.

Currently, the SCA proposal, all reports and necessary paperwork have been completed. We anticipate starting our season in early May and running through August. The late start for 2007 means we will have to work during the hot months, but to our advantage, the bulk of the tasks awaiting us can be carried out inside the relatively cool back rooms of the tomb of Amenmesse (KV-10).

The coming season will emphasize restorations and conservation work, plus the examination of the remaining unopened storage jars. Several more seasons will ultimately be needed due to the variety and quantity of the materials from the tomb chamber.

Be sure to watch for the most recent "KV63 Update" in the Spring 2007 issue of KMT magazine!

Otto Schaden

Otto's Dig Diary, Dr. Otto Schaden, Amenmesse Project, University of Memphis, Tennessee, February 05, 2007.

A magic spell to keep snakes away from the tombs of Egyptian kings, adopted from the Canaanites almost 5,000 years ago, could be the oldest Semitic text yet discovered, experts said Tuesday.

The phrases, interspersed throughout religious texts in Egyptian characters in the underground chambers of a pyramid south of Cairo, stumped Egyptian experts for about a century, until the Semitic connection was found.

In 2002 one of the Egyptologists e-mailed the undeciphered part of the inscription to Richard Steiner, a professor of Semitic languages at Yeshiva University in New York. Steiner discovered that the phrases are the transcription of a language used by Canaanites at some point in the period from 25th to the 30th centuries B.C...

Spell May Comprise Oldest Semitic Text, Laurie Copans, AP via Discovery Channel News, USA, January 25, 2007.

Previously: Earliest Semitic text revealed in Egyptian pyramid inscription, January 31, 2007.

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

Egypt succeeded in attracting 9,082,000 visitors in 2006, a 5.5% increase over the 8.7 million visitors of the previous year, announced Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah. These are strong results given that the global growth rate for tourism worldwide is 4.5%, according to the World Trade Organization.

For the first time ever, England now ranks as the top country for visitors to Egypt, having broken the one million mark with 1,033,000 visitors. This is a phenomenal 23.4% increase over 2005.

Russia held its second-place spot for the second year in a row, with 998,000 visitors to Egypt in 2006. This is a particularly significant result given that Russia is a relatively new market with a strong performance in the last two years. At third place is Germany with 966,000 visitors, a slight 1.4% decrease from last year when it held the top spot. Italy ranked fourth, the same as last year, with 786,000. Others ranked in the top ten include France, with 372,000, and the United States, with 210,500 visitors. Visitors from Canada in 2006 were 52,000...

Egypt's visitors up 5.5% in 2006 to 9.1 million, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, February 01, 2007.

Police from Attica’s illegal antiquities unit were yesterday questioning a 72-year-old woman following the discovery of dozens of ancient Egyptian artefacts in her sons’ homes in the central town of Lamia. Officers said they were seeking the two sons, aged 42 and 45, who live in London. The artefact haul included an alabaster chamber pot with a cap in the form of the Egyptian hawk god Horus, several necklaces with precious stones, an inscribed scarab stone and a church incensory. The woman said she had inherited the artefacts from her father who grew up in Egypt. Meanwhile yesterday, two men, aged 28 and 68, faced a Thessaloniki prosecutor on charges of illegal antiquities trading after allegedly trying to sell two undercover policemen three artefacts for 30,000 euros. Officers confiscated a Roman-era bust of a woman and two statuettes.

Mother questioned on artefacts found in sons’ Lamia homes, Kathimerini, Greece, February 02, 2007.

Mummy experts from Manchester are searching for the forgotten medicines of the Pharaohs.

A team from the university is comparing modern plant species common to the Sinai region of Egypt with the remains of ancient plants found in the country's tombs.

The scientists, from the Centre of Biomedical Egyptology, led by Prof Rosalie David, have teamed up with colleagues at the Egyptian Medicinal Plant Conservation Project in Sinai, to research pharmacy in the time of the Pharaohs...

Mummies unravel the Pharaohs' secrets, Paul R Taylor, Manchester Evening News, UK, February 02, 2007.

Previously: Discovering the pharmacy of the pharaohs, January 30, 2007.

While not drawing quite the crowds making their way to the Grand Palais for Trésors engloutis d'Égypte, an exhibition of mostly Ptolemaic artefacts ... Afghanistan, les trésors retrouvés across Paris at the Musée Guimet should nevertheless be on the itinerary of every visitor to the French capital.

This exhibition features discoveries of international importance made by French archaeological missions in Afghanistan over the course of the last century, most of which have never been seen before outside the country. In what is being seen as quite a coup both for the Musée Guimet, an institution specialising in south and south-east Asian art, and for the French capital, the exhibition allows visitors to gain their first glimpses of material that not only has never been lent before by the Afghan National Museum in Kabul, but that was also considered lost during the decade of civil war that wracked Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989, destroying much of the country as it did so.

The material includes the famous "Bactrian gold" discovered by joint French and Afghan archaeologists in northern Afghanistan shortly before Soviet forces moved into the country in 1979. This material, long thought lost, survived the later civil war locked in the vaults of the National Bank in Kabul, where it was "rediscovered" following the US-led invasion in October 2001...

Alexander's Afghan gold, David Tresilian, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

Excavators from the Brooklyn Museum stumbled upon the unique lintel painted with five gilded deities during routine cleaning of the precinct enclosure wall of the temple. Topped with a cavetto cornice embellished with painted stripes, the lintel is well preserved. It is framed by rounded moulding and the decoration includes raised relief figures. The five gilded solar deities appear sitting on lotus blossoms against a blue backdrop, representing the sky, each with a finger in its mouth. The first and last are crowned with the sun disk, the second wears a double crown, the third a hem-hem crown and the fourth a two-plumed crown. The golden child gods sit before an offering table to the right of which are two figures, the first an ape, whose face still bears some gilding, wearing a modius and feather with his arms raised in a gesture of worship. Apes are often shown in connection with the sun. The second figure is of the goddess Taweret, crowned with cow's horns, a sun disk and two feathers.

Sabri Abdel-Aziz, head of the Ancient Egyptian Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, says early studies suggest the lintel may date from the late Intermediate Period. The newly discovered artefact is now being cleaned and restored.

Gilded youth, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 830, February 01 - 07, 2007.

This is a good time to remind you that John Hopkins University has daily updates on the excavation online here: John Hopkins University Mut Temple Precinct Excavation. No details are online from this week which is possibly due to a press embargo awaiting the release of the information about the above discovery - this certainly happened last year.

UPDATEI have just realised that I have linked the John Hopkins MUT Temple Precinct excavation above rather than the Brooklyn Museum MUT Temple excavation. Easy to get them confused! Brookly Museum: Dig Diary.

Italian police arrested 52 people and recovered several hundred smuggled archaeological artefacts as part of their “tomb raider” investigation into international art theft.

More than 300 carabinieri of the finance police and paramilitary art squad searched suspects’ homes in eight Italian provinces early today and found smuggled goods of “considerable worth,” Italy’s Culture Ministry said in an e-mail.

Three years of investigations into a group of Sicilian “tomb raiders” led to the searches, arrests and uncovering of a wider international network, with contacts in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the U.K. and U.S., the statement said. The investigation and raids were coordinated by the magistrates from the Sicilian province of Gela, the e-mail said...

Italian Police Arrest 52 People in 'Tomb Raider' Smuggling Case, Alessandra Migliaccio, Bloomberg, New York, USA, January 31, 2007.

"Egypt was keen on attracting the French tourist, who is known for his fascination with ancient Egypt," said Egypt's Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana at a reception held at the Grand Ballet Museum in Paris, that has been hosting since December Egypt's Sunken Treasures Exhibit.

He said that the French stand out of many other tourists with their well-known passion to Egypt, antiquities. The exhibit is to run until March.

Egypt keen on receiving French tourist, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, February 01, 2007.