The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens’ “Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from The British Museum” exhibit is leaving Jacksonville in five days, and the Director of the Museum Maarten van de Guchte said the exhibit was a big success.

“The exhibit has been a tremendous success,” said van de Guchte. “We made projections based on earlier exhibitions and I think we will break the 50,000 visitor mark.”

The revenue the exhibit has generated was not the only positive outcome.

“Not only were the ticket sales a success, but so was the museum store and there was an increase in membership,” he said. “All in all it was a tremendous success for us...”

‘Temples and Tombs’ a success for Cummer Museum, Caroline Gabsewics, Jacksonville Daily Record, Tennessee, USA, March 14, 2007.

Last week, [Iraq antiquities director Abbas Ali al-] Hussainy was in Cairo for a meeting of Arab antiquities departments over Israeli excavations near Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, but he also took the opportunity to request help from his Egyptian counterpart Zahi Hawass.

"He asked for many things. We can ask people to come for training and help in the documentation, but inside Iraq, the situation is very difficult," said Mohammed Abdel Maqsud, number two at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"He wanted to sign a protocol between Egypt and Iraq to get help for antiquities," he added. "We will study what we can do..."

Weighing up losses to Iraq's heritage, Paul Schemm, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, March 15, 2007.

The hat given to me by Ptti Rabbit has rescued me from death. It really did save my life. How was this? Well, the story began little over a month ago, two weeks before I travelled to the US for my eye surgery. I was excavating a site at Taposiris Magna 45km west of Alexandria to search for the tomb of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. To spruce up the excavation work, I appointed an Egyptian team to work there in collaboration with Katherine Martinez from the University of the Dominican Republic. While we were digging there, cleaning an area near a wall, a huge stone weighing approximately 20kg suddenly fell on my head. I am grateful to God that the stone was only about 30cm higher than my head because it did not have to fall very far. After the stone fell, I felt that my head was about to crack open, but I said thank you to my hat because it had saved my life. I hope that people will now stop criticising me and my hat and realise that it has its uses.

A few days after this incident I went to see an ophthalmic surgeon, as I realised I could not really see too well. At the doctor's clinic I learnt that I had a macular hole in my right eye. I went to several doctors, and they all had the same opinion. The eye doctors did not know the exact cause of this hole, but when I told them the story about the stone they suggested that it might have been caused by that. They called it the Curse of the Pharaohs...

Dig Days: Lucky rabbit's hat (2), Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 836, March 15 - 21, 2007.

Previously:

Dig Days: Lucky rabbit's hat, March 02, 2007.

Dr. Hawass in U.S. For Eye Surgery, February 02, 2007.

The familiar golden head of Tut's sarcophagus covers the hundreds of steps leading into the Franklin Institute — a powerful metaphor for the boy king's larger-than-life legacy displayed inside. The collection of objects assembled range from the religious to the regal to the everyday. Each is presented in context since artefacts, no matter how old or how well-preserved, can't tell their own stories. The Tut collection weaves an eloquent tale thanks to the work of designer Mark Lote, the artist responsible for the blockbuster 2004 Titanic exhibit.

Eleven galleries showcase 130 treasures from the tombs of Tut and other royalty — all are between 3,000-3,500 years old.

From Tut's spectacular diadem or gold crown, to the shimmering coffinettes that held his mummified internal organs, the tiny, elegant shabti (pottery figurines buried with Tut to serve as his eternal servants), to enormous carved stone heads and statues, many of these artefacts have never before left Egypt...

Serious fans of Egyptology will want to continue their ancient adventures in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania.

There they'll find the prequel to the Tut story, showcased in the remarkable Amarna exhibit, named after the home of King Akhenaten, the man thought most likely to be Tut's father...

The mummy of all Tut shows, Liz Fleming, The Toronto Star, Ontario, Canada, March 15, 2007.

Egyptian obelisks have been swiped for centuries: They are rare and precious things. Only 22 remain in the world. Egypt still possesses five and Rome has 13. The Romans originally looted the obelisks, but the 16th-century Pope Sixtus V directed their present locations in the Eternal City. Istanbul, London, Paris, and New York each have one obelisk.

The obelisk behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in Central Park, is the only ancient Egyptian obelisk in the Americas. How many people are aware of how immensely more important it is than the Met's Temple of Dendur? At least most New Yorkers have stopped calling the obelisk " Cleopatra's Needle," in a silly attempt to "sex it up" by association with the actress Claudette Colbert.

Cleopatra had nothing to do with it. It was commissioned by the pharaoh Thutmose — the third Thutmose, to be exact. The obelisk is roughly three-and-a-half millennia old. For its first millennium and a half, it stood in Heliopolis. In the year 12 before the common era, it made its way to Alexandria, but not until Cleopatra was gone. In 1869, the khedive of Egypt (who was not Egyptian but Turkish) gave the obelisk to America in commemoration of the opening of the Suez Canal. Napoleon reportedly admired this obelisk, but his Orientalists thought it was too deteriorated and steered him to the Luxor obelisk that he brought back to Paris.

Getting the 69-foot, 200-ton granite obelisk to New York from Egypt wasn't easy...

A Sliver of Ancient Egypt in Central Park, Francis Morrone, The New York Sun, New York, USA, March 16, 2007.

The baby mummy had a European mom, and likely came from a wealthy family. But where he lived and why he died — and at such a young age — remain a mystery. The mummy, exhibited for the first time Thursday at the Saint Louis Science Centre, has been the year-long focus of an international team of investigators. The museum said it may be the most extensive research project ever undertaken on a child mummy.

Acquired by a Hermann, Mo., dentist at the turn of the century in the Middle East, the mummy ended up in an attic of some of his relatives, before being donated to the Science Centre in 1985.

It sat in a museum warehouse until Al Wiman joined the Science Centre as vice president two years ago and suggested that modern medical technology could unlock its secrets.

He spearheaded efforts to get medical, science and art institutions in St. Louis, the U.S., and Egypt to discover the mummy's past...

Modern Technology Reveals Mummy's Past, Cheryl Wittenauer, AP via Newsday, New York, USA, March 15, 2007.

cf. Mummy's past revealed, Cheryl Wittenauer, AP via USA Today, New York, USA, March 16, 2007.

cf. Baby mummy had a European mom: Study, Cheryl Wittenauer, AP via Sify, India, March 16, 2007.