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.