The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) Has recently heard that, in two years' time, it will lose its funding from the British Academy...

The British Academy is reorganising its grants to move away from the present Mediterranean and Near East bias, and to reflect more of a worldwide basis. They wish to move away from the traditional emphasis on archaeology so that the British Schools reflect more its overall remit to support the humanities and social sciences. They are therefore eliminating the grants to the EES and to the British School in Iraq, though both will receive reduced grants for the next two years as a transitional measure...

The EES is now facing up to the challenge of life after the British Academy grant ends. It will continue to concentrate on Ancient Egypt and Nubia and on multidisciplinary archaeological research, covering 5,000 years of Egyptian history from the earliest traces of human activity in Egypt to AD 1800. The EES recently launched an appeal for its 'Excavation Fund' and the Society is also raising its annual subscription rates to members for the first time sine 1999. Membership of the society is open to anyone with an interest in ancient Egypt and applications and donations can be made on-line (www.ees.ac.uk) as can donations to the Excavation Fund, which will help the society's exciting fieldwork and research programme to continue. For further information on how you might support the EES, please visit www.ees.ac.uk/supporting_ees.htm Or contact the Society on contact@ees.ac.uk...

Full membership to the Society gets you access to their library in London, lectures in London, Manchester and Cairo, two issues of the Bulletin of Egyptian Archaeology and a copy of The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology every year.

Funding British Archaeology abroad: The British Academy axes Egypt and Iraq, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 10, Issue 22, April / May 2007, pp. 48 - 49.

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

• Howard Carter: Tutankhamun's discoverer
  The life and times of Carter from the biography by H.V.F. Winstone 2006. (6 pages)
• Return of the King: Tutankhamun on Tour.
  
  Following the success of the 1970s tour of Tutankhamun, the boy-king is back on the road, currently wowing crowds in the US. (5 pages)
• Diary
  
  The British Academy axes support for the British archaeological institutions in Egypt and Iraq. (5 pages)
• Guiding Lights
  
  Michael Ackroyd lists tips and ideas for the archaeo-traveller. (1 page)
  
  Ackroyd is the Product Director of Ancient World Tours Ltd (AWT) and he mentions that his favourite place is Egypt's Gilf Kebir.

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 10, Issue 22, April / May 2007.

Subscribe to Current World Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

The mystery of how the pyramids were built has been claimed to be 'solved' by a French architect. However, his theories have now been categorically debunked by eye witnesses.

According to a number of Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, who were interviewed as reanimated mummies, the pyramids were in fact built upside-down.

"Yeah, we started by sticking the pointy bit in..." says Pharaoh Djedefre "...then we just stacked the rest on top. Keeping it from falling over was hard but the hardest part was turning it over once it was built. Fortunately we had hundreds of thousands of slaves and we didn't care how many we sacrificed during the 'great flip'."

'Solving' of Great Pyramids False, Truth Revealed, Tom Taylor, The Spoof, March 31, 2007.

... many prominent Egyptologists in Cairo refute the idea that the pyramids were built by slaves at all. The list of scholars who align themselves with this train of thought is headed by Egypt's Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass. In 2002, a team led by Hawass explored unopened chambers inside the pyramids using new technology, and at the end of the process a triumphant Hawass told the world press that his findings, particularly the skeleton of a fourth-century Egyptian, showed that the pyramids were "not built by slaves," but rather by the "great Egyptians..."

Following the exploration, which was broadcast worldwide by National Geographic, Dr. Hawass held an interview with the Arab daily El-Gomhoreya [al-Gomhuriya / al-Jumhuriyah], in which he said his findings "refute the allegations reiterated by Jews and some Western countries that the Jews built the pyramids."

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post at the Egypt Museum in Cairo, Dr. Nawab Shoeab, a prominent Egyptologist, argues that claims that the Israelites were coerced into building the pyramids are not held up by historical research. She points out that the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt during the 19th Dynasty, under the reign of Rameses II, around 1300 BCE. The pyramids, she notes, were built some 1,400 years earlier, during the Fourth Dynasty. This is clearly too large a space in time for claims of Israelite involvement to be plausible, she says...

War of the pyramid theorists, Yaniv Salama-Scheer and Jorg Luyken, The Jerusalem Post, Israel, April 01, 2007.

The Egyptian authorities have evicted hundreds of peasants from a small village in southern Egypt because their mud brick houses, which have sat on top of some of the world's most treasured tombs for centuries, were leaking sewage on to priceless antiquities.

The families have been resettled in a nearby new town with running water and telephones. But 80 are holding out, saying they want more from a government that has been reluctant to use brute force...

In Gurna — which sits on tombs that date back 3,500 years — much of the familiar tableau of village life has been razed into piles of mud brick rubble. Egyptian officials say that in Gurna they will finish the task because science and decency are on their side.

Under the plan, every married man receives a two-bedroom house in what is known as New Gurna. But opponents are pressing for one house for every son.

"Each family man is asking for a house for himself, and for one for his children," said Sabry Abdel Aziz, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector. "It is a problem of greed..."

Peasants living above treasured tombs defy eviction from mud homes, Michael Slackman, The Scotsman, UK, April 01, 2007.

The joint Egyptian-Australian expedition found 4 thousand year old tomb that was built of clay nearby Saqqara Pyramid after few weeks of finding the tomb of the royal seal holder "Pitah".

Dr. Zahi Hawass, the General Secretary of the Higher council for Antiquities, said that the tomb belongs to "Ka-Hay" the sacred archives writer and his wife.

The clay tomb dates back to the end of the fifth dynasty and the earliest of the sixth dynast, namely more than 4300 years B.C. The tomb contains private records and private royal property.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zahi Hawass will declare after tomorrow 02/04/2007 an important antique find from Al Kantara East location. The declaration includes 4 big finds which will trigger a great propaganda for Egypt in different world countries that will change some of the historical concepts.

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

Note also, the teaser about a forthcoming announcement regarding another big find.

Discovering of the writer of sacred archives tomb at Saqqara, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, March 31, 2007.

An Egyptian archaeological delegation returned home Monday from Paris after having retrieved locks of hair from the mummy of Rameses II, the official news agency MENA reported.

The French authorities handed over Rameses II's hair to the Egyptian embassy in Paris after arresting a French man who sought to sell them via the Internet for 2,500 euros.

The tress of Rameses II's hair has been lost for 32 years before appearing in France when it was offered for auction in the Internet last year...

Egyptian archaeological returns from France with mummy's hair, Xinhua via People's Daily, China, April 02, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt's team heads for France to retrieve mummy's hair, March 30, 2007.

France to return 'pharaoh's hair' to Egypt, February 26, 2007.

France Says 'Pharaoh's Hair' Scandal in Police's Hands, December 04, 2006.

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

Around 2,000 archaeologists from around the world will gather at Cairo University on April 10-12 [2007] for an international archaeological conference, reports.

Held under the Cairo University, Alexandria University and the Dutch Institute of Archaeology, the conference will discuss papers on aspects of the ancient Egyptian civilisation such as the language, architecture, arts and science. The conference will honour Abdel Halim Nour Eddin, an ex-Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the dean of the Cairo University's Faculty of Archaeology and an advisor to the Library of Alexandria. A book, entitled "Excavations in a Human Heart" on Nour Eddin's life will come out to mark the occasion.

Major archaeology meet at Cairo Univ, Hassan Saadallah, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 02, 2007.

After Berlin [and Paris] ... is Bonn Next Wednesday, Egyptian Sunken Antiquities will be exhibited in Bonn. The number of visitors is expected to hit one million. The first exhibition was in Berlin in May 2006-September 2006 when President Mubarak opened it with his German counterpart. The number of visitors reached half million. Egyptian Ambassador to Berlin Mohamed El Orabi expects this year's number of visitors to reach one million because the first exhibition timed with the World Cup games. In the first exhibition there were a number of splendid Egyptian activities. Wednesday's exhibition will witness a series of lectures for one month by PhD holder Wafaa Seddiq who is also fluent in Germany. Bonn will also receive in September an Egyptian band from the Academy of Arts in Cairo for one-week show. This exhibition will include 500 pieces of antiquities that were picked up from the Mediterranean Sea in front of Alexandria governorate. These antiquities represent 15 centuries, from 700 BC to 800 BC. The period includes the last days of Pharaohs, Alexander the Great, then the Roman invasion, the spread of Christianity and finally the introduction of Islam. The exhibition runs until January 2008 and then will be exhibited in Madrid in March 2008.

Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art and exhibition hall of the Federal Republic of Germany) in Bonn. Notice also above the announcement of a fourth date in Madrid.

Sunken treasures in Bonn Wed, Salah Attia, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 02, 2007.