Until the discovery, Hawass and others had believed that the smaller mummy — with long, wavy, white hair and its fingers individually bandaged — was more likely Hatshepsut.

"I think the face is quite royal," Hawass wrote of the smaller mummy in a recent issue of the Egyptology quarterly journal KMT.

But today, smiling in front of a horde of journalists at the Egyptian Museum, Hawass admitted, "I was wrong..."

This is a repeat of previous stories but I have posted it because it has a good video attached.

Egypt's Female Pharaoh Revealed by Chipped Tooth, Experts Say, Dan Morrison, National geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, June 27, 2007.

When Marty Johnson started his bioscience career, he never dreamed he would travel to Cairo and train Egyptian scientists to perform DNA tests on mummies of the country’s most powerful and mysterious pharaohs.

Johnson, a senior application scientist who has worked with Applied Biosystems in Foster City for 21 years, found himself holding a vial of powdered bone from the body of pharaoh Hatshepsut, arguably Egypt’s most powerful female leader of all time.

“I looked at the microscopic amount of fluid and thought, ‘This is the most important piece of DNA I’ve ever worked with,’” Johnson said.

Scientists weren’t even certain they had positively identified Hatshepsut until Wednesday, when a missing tooth confirmed they had the legendary queen’s mummy...

Foster City scientists test DNA of Queen Mummy, Beth Winegarner, The San Francisco Examiner, California, USA, June 28, 2007.

The following is a selection of three books to give you more of a background to Hatshepsut. Joyce Tyldesley's "Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh" and "Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt" and "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh" by Catharine Roehrig which accompanied the recent Metropolitan Museum of New York exhibition.

, Joyce Tyldesley, Penguin Books, UK, 1998, pp. 304.

Tyldesley presents a highly balanced discussion of King Hatshepsut, with a full presentation of the previous assessments of her character and reign, as well as the more current ones. The definitive biography to date. A must read! ...

Dennis Forbes, KMT Magazine, USA, Summer 1997.

, Joyce Tyldesley, Thames & Hudson, UK, 2006, pp. 224.

Following the same format as the Chronicle of the Pharaohs mentioned above, this new publication looks at the lives and times of the Queens of Egypt and female members of the royal family...

Both “Chronicle” books are really recommended as a good and sound introduction to ancient Egypt...

Ancient Egypt Magazine, UK, Issue 39, December 2006 / January 2007.

, Catharine H. Roehrig, Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, USA, 2005, pp. 356.

I have always extolled the virtues of the catalogues that accompany major Egyptian exhibitions, and this volume is no exception.

It is much more than just a catalogue of the current exhibition now showing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which features objects loaned from Egyptian collections all around the world as well as many objects from the Metropolitan's own substantial collection.

The objects, ranging from small faience figures to huge granite statues, are all superbly illustrated and described in detail. This catalogue of the exhibits forms the core of the book, as would be expected, but they are put into their historical and artistic perspective...

Ancient Egypt Magazine, UK, Issue 37, August / September 2006.

More than 300 foreign and Egyptian journalists, TV crews, photographers, Egyptologists and scientists gathered in front of the Egyptian Museum hoping for a glimpse of the mummy of Egypt's best known female ruler, Hatshepsut.

The object of their interest lay in a sandstone sarcophagus, one arm folded across her chest, a face frozen in the mask of death: thus it is that Queen Hatshepsut silently greets her visitors after spending 3,500 years unattended inside the modest undecorated tomb of her Wet Nurse Sittre-In (KV60), located in the Valley of the Kings on Luxor's West Bank...

With the launch two years ago of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) five-year mummy project, involving CT-scans of a large number of mummies, it was decided the obese woman of KV60 should be among them.

"Last year, when Discovery Channel approached me about searching for the mummy of Hatshepsut, I did not think I would be able to make a definite identification but it would give me an opportunity to examine unidentified female mummies from the 18th Dynasty, which no one has studied as a group," SCA Secretary- General Zahi Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly. He pointed out that although there were many theories about the identities of these mummies none of them had been tested against the latest scientific technology.

"I had to depend on a team of skilled Egyptologists, radiologists, anatomists, pathologists and forensic expert," Hawass continues...

Mummies believed to be most closely related to Hatshepsut were also scanned, including those thought to be of Thutmose II and III. The first was Hatshepsut's husband, and probably her half- brother, the second her stepson. The result of the scans, reveals Hawass, shows that Thutmose II was suffering from heart disease which led to his early death. The mummies thought to be those of Hatshepsut's father and her grandmother, Thutmose I and Ahmose- Nefertari, were also scanned.

Hawass said that CT-scans indicate that the mummy which was once believed to be that of King Thutmose I, Hatshepsut's father, is not actually his. The scans show that the mummy belongs to a young man who was not placed in the royal pose of mummification, and had the remains of an arrow embedded in his chest, implying that he had been killed, whereas Thutmose I died of natural causes. The mummy is that of a man who died at the age of 40, making it impossible for him to be Hatshepsut's father...

Following the mummy scans, Hawass ordered a re-examination of funerary objects associated with Hatshepsut, including Canopic jars found in tomb KV20 and a small wooden box bearing her cartouches found with the DB320 cache.

"The box eventually held the key to the riddle," says Hawass...

Ancient mystery resolved, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 851, June 28 - July 04, 2007.

cf. Ancient mystery resolved, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 851, June 28 - July 04, 2007.

Previously:

Zahi Hawass on NPR Radio speaking about the Hatshepsut Discovery, June 27, 2007.

Tooth leads Egypt to Hatshepsut mummy, June 27, 2007.

Tooth clinches identification of Egyptian queen, June 27, 2007.

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, June 27, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

Ancient Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut, has been identified Egyptian archaeologists said Wednesday. A monumental builder, she wielded more power than two other famous ancient Egyptian women, Cleopatra and Nefertiti.

Guest:

Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo.

In response to a listener question Hawass also reveals that Queen Tiye will be CT Scanned and DNA tested in September.

Egypt Says Mummy of Ancient Queen Identified, NPR Radio, USA, June 27, 2007. Ten minutes and thirty-one seconds in total.

cf. 'Find of century' for Egyptology, BBC News, UK, June 27, 2007. Includes video footage linked on the right-hand side.

cf. Discovery of authentic mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 27, 2007.

Previously:

Tooth leads Egypt to Hatshepsut mummy, June 27, 2007.

Tooth clinches identification of Egyptian queen, June 27, 2007.

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, June 27, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

Applied Biosystems Group on Wednesday said it is establishing the first laboratory in Egypt dedicated to testing ancient DNA samples.

The Foster City subsidiary of Applera Corp. said it is collaborating on the lab with the Discovery Channel and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The laboratory, which is located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, began testing samples from ancient royal mummies from the 18th Dynasty in April as part of a project to identify the mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt's most famous female pharaoh.

The primary purpose of the new DNA laboratory is to assist in the identification of this and other mummies that have been removed from their original tombs, and to clarify familial relationships within and between Egypt's ancient dynasties.

This is the first time DNA testing has been used to try to identify an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

"By providing this technology to Egypt, Applied Biosystems is helping to advance science and bring our dead pharaohs back to life," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities...

Applied Biosystems plans DNA lab in Egypt to study mummies, Biz Journals via MSN Money, USA, June 27, 2007.

Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass announced and unveiled today, in an international press conference at Cairo's Egyptian Museum, a 3,500-year-old mummy now positively identified as Hatshepsut, one of history's few female pharaohs. Using computed tomography (CT) scanning and ongoing DNA testing, Dr. Hawass solved the mystery of what happened to one of ancient Egypt's most powerful and successful rulers. Dr. Hawass's odyssey of archaeological and scientific adventure has been documented in Discovery Channel's SECRETS OF EGYPT'S LOST QUEEN, which premieres worldwide Sunday, July 15, 2007, at 9 PM (ET/PT).

The investigative journey of Dr. Hawass and his team leads them through the massive crypts beneath Egypt and into the depths of the Egyptian Museum. Using knowledge of royal Egyptian mummification and clues from two known tombs linked to Hatshepsut, the team narrows their search for Hatshepsut to just four mummies from thousands of unidentified corpses.

CT scanning allows the scientists to link distinct physical traits of the four mummies to those of Hatshepsut's known relatives. The search further narrows to two possibilities — both from the tomb of Hatshepsut's wet nurse — but the final clue lies within a canopic box inscribed with the female pharaoh's name. A scan of the box finds a tooth that, when measured, perfectly matches a missing upper molar in one of the two mummies.

"SECRETS OF EGYPT'S LOST QUEEN brings archaeology alive for viewers. Only Discovery Channel can provide a context for and continually immerse viewers in these important moments of scientific discovery," said Jane Root, president and general manager, Discovery Channel and The Science Channel. "We are proud to be part of this significant find, and commend Dr. Hawass and his team for their hard work and dedication..."

Discovery Channel's SECRETS OF EGYPT'S LOST QUEEN, Discovery Channel via Newswire, Canada, June 27, 2007.

A single tooth has clinched the identification of an ancient mummy as that of Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt about 3,500 years ago, the country's chief archaeologist said on Wednesday.

The right mummy turned out to be that of a fat woman in her 50s who had rotten teeth and died of bone cancer, Zahi Hawass told a news conference to announce the identification...

But the decisive evidence was a molar in a wooden box inscribed with the queen's name...

Orthodontics professor Yehya Zakariya checked all the mummies which might be Hatshepsut's and found that the tooth was a perfect fit in a gap in the upper jaw of the fat woman.

"The identification of the tooth with the jaw can show this is Hatshepsut," Hawass said. "A tooth is like a fingerprint."

"It is 100 percent definitive...

The team examining the mummy are also doing DNA tests and preliminary results show similarities between its DNA and that of Ahmose Nefertari, the wife of the founder of the 18th dynasty and a probable ancestor of Hatshepsut's...

Asked why he would not wait for more complete DNA analysis, Hawass said: "You do not need anything else (other than the tooth) ... And we do have a definite answer now on the similarity between Hatshepsut and the grandmother, Ahmose Nefertari."

One Egyptologist, who asked not to be named, said not all archaeologists were confident the identification was watertight...

The New York Times quoted Kathryn Bard, an Egyptologist at Boston University, as saying: "You have to be so careful in reaching conclusions from such data..."

Click on the image above for more pictures on the Yahoo! News Anthropology & Archaeology slideshow.

Tooth clinches identification of Egyptian queen, Jonathan Wright, Reuters AlertNet, USA, June 27, 2007.

Egypt Unveils Mummy Discovery

DNA bone samples taken from the mummy's pelvic bone and femur are being compared to the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut's grandmother, Ahmose Nefertari, said Egyptian molecular geneticist Yehia Zakaria Gad, who was part of Hawass' team.

While scientists are still matching those mitochondrial DNA sequences, Gad said Wednesday that preliminary results were "very encouraging."

Hawass also said that a molar tooth found in a jar with some of the queen's embalmed organs perfectly matched the mummy.

"We are 100 percent certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut, Hawass [said]...

Tooth clinches identification of Egyptian queen, Katarina Kratovac, AP via Time, New York, USA, June 27, 2007.

Previously:

Tooth leads Egypt to Hatshepsut mummy, June 27, 2007.

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, June 27, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told a packed press conference in Cairo that one of two mummies found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor about a century ago had been identified as Hatshepsut.

In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter ... had discovered two sarcophagi in a tomb known as KV60 in the Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

One apparently contained the mummy of Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre-In and the other of an unknown female...

Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find next month, said Hawass was able to narrow the search for Hatshepsut down to the two mummies discovered by Carter in 1903.

He used CT scans to produce detailed 3D images and link distinct physical traits of one of the mummies to that of her ancestors.

According to the channel, a box that contained the tooth was inscribed with the female pharaoh's name and a scan of the box found that the tooth "matched within a fraction of a millimetre the space of the missing molar in the mouth of the mummy."

American Egyptologist Elizabeth Thomas had first suggested years ago that the second mummy in the tomb belonged to the Hatshepsut, because her hand was resting on her chest, a position reserved for monarchs.

Discovery said a team of archaeologists would now carry out DNA testing on the 3,000 year-old mummy to confirm her identity...

Click on the image above for more pictures on the Yahoo! News Anthropology & Archaeology slideshow.

Tooth leads Egypt to Hatshepsut mummy, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, June 27, 2007.

cf. Unravelling a mummy from inside out, Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, June 27, 2007.

cf. Pharaoh Queen's remains identified, AAP via The West Australian, Australia, USA, June 27, 2007.

cf. Hatshepsut's mummy identified, Egypt's culture minister says, DPA via Earth Times, June 27, 2007.

Previously:

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, June 27, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

A single tooth and some DNA clues appear to have solved the mystery of the lost mummy of Hatshepsut, one of the great queens of ancient Egypt, who reigned in the 15th century B.C.

Hawass said the identification of the well-preserved mummy as Hatshepsut was made a few weeks ago when a CT scan of a wooden box associated with the queen revealed a tooth. The tooth, he said, "fits exactly" into the jaw socket and broken root of the mummy of an obese woman originally found in Tomb 60 at the Valley of the Kings, the necropolis for royalty in the New Kingdom before and after Hatshepsut's reign.

"We therefore have scientific proof that this is the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut," Hawass concluded, citing primarily the tooth but also current DNA analysis suggesting a family relationship between the obese woman and Ahmose Nefertari, the matriarch of 18th dynasty royalty...

The last of these examined objects was a wooden box bearing the name Hatshepsut. The box had been recovered from yet another tomb.

The container held some of the viscera removed from the body during embalming. Everything associated with a royal body or its mummification was carefully and ritually preserved. Late one night recently, the box was subjected to the CT scan.

"It turned out that this box held the key to the riddle," Hawass said.

The images revealed a well-preserved liver and the tooth. A dentist, Dr. Galal el-Beheri of Cairo University, was called in. He studied the images of the mummy collection, and the tooth seemed to belong to the obese mummy...

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, John Noble Wilford, International Herald Tribune, France, June 27, 2007...

Queen Hatshepsut saga deepens

Hawass, who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, led the search for Hatshepsut, setting up a DNA lab in the process with an international team of scientists.

The study was funded by the US Discovery cable television channel which is to broadcast an exclusive documentary on it in July...

US molecular biologist Scott Woodward was cautious ahead of the announcement.

"It's a very difficult process to obtain DNA from a mummy," said Woodward, who has done DNA research on mummies. "To make a claim as to a relationship, you need other individuals from which you have obtained DNA, to make a comparison between the DNA sequences."

Such DNA material would typically come from parents or grandparents. With female mummies, the most common type of DNA to look for is the mitochondrial DNA that reveals maternal lineage, said Woodward...

Both of these article pre-date the announcement. As you can see the second article assumes the DNA comparison would have to come from another mummy and appears unaware of the tooth found 'in context'.

More on the announcement next...

cf. Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, Katarina Kratovac, Independent Online, South Africa, June 27, 2007...

Previously:

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have identified with certainty the mummy of Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to rule ancient Egypt, found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings, an archaeologist said on Monday.

Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, will hold a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday. The Discovery Channel said he would announce what it called the most important find in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of King Tutankhamun.

The archaeologist, who asked not to be named, said the candidate for identification as the mummy of Hatshepsut was one of two females found in 1903 in a small tomb believed to be that of Hatshepsut's wet-nurse, Sitre In...

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, Jonathan Wright, Reuters, UK, June 25, 2007.

cf. Has the mummy of ancient Egypt's best-known queen been identified at last?, Jonathan Wright, Reuters via The Scotsman, UK, June 26, 2007.

cf. Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, Jonathan Wright, Reuters via China Daily, China, June 26, 2007.

Discovery Channel: Mummy of Hatshepsut identified

According to US-based Discovery Channel, Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass will announce at a media conference in Cairo on Wednesday "the most important find in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since the discovery of Tutankhamun" in 1922.

Hawass last year revealed at a lecture in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York that the true mummy of Hatshepsut was discovered on the third floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo lying among thousands of other artefacts.

Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find, said Hawass had now confirmed the identity of Hatshepsut through sophisticated DNA analysis.

It added that forensic scientists had used latest cutting-edge CT-scans to produce detailed 3D images of the mummy...

Mummy of Hatshepsut identified: TV channel, Discovery Channel, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, June 26, 2007.

UPDATE: Thanks to Nicole Hansen for this one.

Mummy of Hatshepsut 'identified'

A broken tooth was the latest clue that led archaeologists to explore the possibility that they had indeed found Hatshepsut...

According to the channel, a box that contained the tooth was inscribed with the female Pharaoh's name and a scan of the box found that the tooth "matched within a fraction of a millimetre the space of the missing molar in the mouth of the mummy..."

Mummy of Hatshepsut 'identified', Alain Navarro, AFP via Middle East Times, Cyprus, June 26, 2007.

Previously:

Hatshepsut's mummy found, March 28, 2006.

Located at the heart of [Lincoln’s Inn Fields] is the remarkable Sir John Soane’s Museum, the brainchild of one of England’s most imaginative architects. The museum was originally Soane’s home. John Soane (1753-1837) was the son of a bricklayer near Reading in Berkshire. He was appointed architect and surveyor to the Bank of England in 1788. The Bank was his main pre-occupation until his retirement in 1833 but his other masterpieces, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Pitzhanger Manor at Ealing (his country house), are also noteworthy.

Soane designed and built his first house at No.12, Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1792-94, which is now part of the museum. Needing more space for his collections, he purchased and rebuilt No.13 next door, where he lived until his death. In 1824, he also rebuilt No.14 using the back of its site as an extension to his museum.

The Sepulchral Chamber contains the sarcophagus of King Seti I (1303-1290 BC), one of the most important Egyptian antiquities ever to be discovered. Egyptologist Giovanni Belzoni discovered the sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings and Soane purchased it in 1824 after the British Museum refused the price of £2,000. Soane celebrated its arrival with three evening parties. He invited nearly 1000 people and hired more than 300 oil lamps to illuminate the building...

Art in the midst of law, The Hindu, India, June 17, 2007.

Queen Nefertiti's bust has been the jewel of Berlin's Egyptian Museum since 1913. It is also one of the iconic artefacts Egyptian authorities would like to borrow for the 2011 opening of their new museum now under construction near Giza. But when they recently asked to have the 3,300-year-old artefact for a three-month loan, German authorities turned them down cold.

The Egyptian response was immediate — and outraged. "We will make the lives of these museums miserable," threatened Zahi Hawass, director of the Supreme Council for Antiquities. "It will be a scientific war."

The Germans say a loan is out of the question. According to Egyptian Museum curator Dietrich Wildung, recent tests show the bust, once thought to be painted limestone, is actually a limestone core covered with a thin layer of plaster. "It's much too delicate for [the] journey," he says.

"With all the technology and means of transportation available now, the queen can travel anywhere in the world," says Egyptian Ambassador to Berlin Mohamed al-Orabi. "Nefertiti has spent 95 years [in Berlin], and we expect some appreciation. It's unacceptable to receive this denial."

If a compromise can not be found soon, German Egyptology might suffer — and a scientific war is something scholars in both countries can ill afford.

The Face That Launched an International Incident, Andrew Curry, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, Volume 60, Number 4, July / August 2007.

Archaeologists have discovered the 3,000-year-old mummy of a high priest to the god Amun in the southern city of Luxor, antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass told the official MENA news agency today.

The 18th Dynasty mummy of Senneferi was unearthed in a tomb in the Valley of the [Nobles] — one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world — by a team from Britain's Cambridge University.

"The mummy was found in tomb 99 in the Valley of the [Nobles] on the west bank of Luxor," Hawass said...

Other mummies were found during the excavation, including one with a brain tumour, a foetus, a female mummy wrapped in plaster and others which appeared to have suffered from arthritis, Hawass said...

The AFP article claims it is Tomb 99 in the 'Valley of the Kings' which is obviously incorrect. The tomb in questions is in fact TT99 the tomb of Senneferi in the Valley of the Nobles being excavated by of Cambridge University, UK.

Three thousand year old mummy discovered, AFP via The Age, Australia, June 24, 2007.

cf. 3,000-year-old mummy found, AFP via News 24, South Africa, June 23, 2007.

Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, which is hosting "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," now predicts that 1.14 million people will see the exhibit before it closes Sept. 30, [2007,] which represents a 10 percent increase over the museum's original estimate. The show has been on display since Feb. 3...

King Tut exhibitors raise their ticket sale expectations, Peter Van Allen, Philadelphia Business Journal, Pennsylvania, USA, June 22, 2007.

Xaar, one of the world's leading suppliers of inkjet technology and an example of ultra modern printing technology, is proud to sponsor an exhibition of one of the finest examples of an ancient coloured document in the world: The Book of the Dead of Ramose at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The 3,000 year old document made up of papyrus sheets originally forming a 20m roll, was unveiled on Tuesday 19 June [2007] and will be displayed until Sunday 21 September. Visitors will have the rare opportunity to view one of the finest and most recently restored Egyptian Books of the Dead in existence.

'One of the most striking features of the Ramose papyrus is the vibrancy of colours used in the painted scenes. It feels particularly appropriate that a company whose primary concern is with colour printing should be involved with this project.' said Julie Dawson, co-curator of the exhibition and senior assistant keeper (Conservation) in the Antiquities Department. 'The technical expertise of the Egyptian artists who worked on this papyrus is outstandingly high. Xaar has provided invaluable sponsorship towards an exhibition that allows us to bring this beautiful document before the public after two years of conservation work,' added Helen Strudwick, co-curator and Outreach Officer (Ancient Egypt).

The Book of the Dead of Ramose, a high official who lived in the 12th century BC, was discovered in 1921 by the eminent archaeologist Flinders Petrie in the entrance to a tomb at Sedment in Egypt. Its frail and fragmentary condition has prevented it from being seen ever since it was excavated more than 80 years ago. Thanks to a major conservation and investigation project at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the papyrus will now be on display for a short time only, in order to preserve the vivid colours, allowing visitors a rare insight into the Egyptian world of the dead.

'Xaar's sponsorship of this exhibition nicely illustrates the juxtaposition of Xaar's extraordinary high-speed inkjet printing innovation in the 21st century with the lengthy, manual dexterity that was required to produce the stunning hieroglyphs in the 12th century BC...

Xaar travels back to Ancient Egypt, Graphic Repro On-line, South Africa, June 20, 2007.

I recently returned from a two-week trip to Egypt. While the Pyramids, tombs and temples were incredible, I will forever be haunted by the images of the poor work animals that are severely uncared for and mistreated, particularly in Luxor and Aswan.

The horses who are left hitched to the buggies 24 hours a day for days or weeks at a time, unable to stretch or lay down, are pathetic. Being a horse owner, I know what a healthy, well-cared for horse looks like. These animals were atrociously mistreated with sores, and much worse, that go undoctored. Many are listless and lethargic due to the lack of basic needs.

Many are woefully underfed having to eat with the bit in their mouths from a feedbag when they eat at all. The skin hung over their ribs like tissue paper. In a week along the Nile, never once did I see a person give a horse a drink of water, and this was in 90-100 degree heat...

Letters: Horses in horror, Kathleen Silver, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 850, June 21 - 27, 2007.

Precious amulets that once decorated the mummy of the boy king Tutankhamun are on special display at the Egyptian museum, [Cairo].

The three-month exhibition hall on the ground floor of Cairo's Egyptian Museum is currently hosting the collection of splendid amulets once concealed within the cloth wrappings of the mummy of Tutankhamun.

The 12 layers of cloth wrapped around Tutankhamun's mummy originally enveloped 143 objects. On the neck alone were 20 amulets arranged in six groups, each separated from the next by several layers of wrappings...

Among Tutankhamun's mummy amulets are the chased gold falcon collar with small counterpoise, and the fine dagger and sheath which lay on top of the abdomen. There is also a beautiful cobra amulet. Among the objects on show at the exhibition are chains, necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, anklets, sheaths for fingers and toes, pectorals and a large piece of jewellery worn on the chest...

Tut — it's a wrap, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 850, June 21 - 27, 2007.

Archaeologists from the Katholicke Universiteit Leuven working at the Middle-Kingdom (2066-1650 BC) tomb of Uky, a top government official, have discovered an intact tomb chamber, complete with funerary goods.

While removing the debris out of a rock-cut shaft found inside the chamber of Uky's tomb, the archaeologists came across a huge limestone block indicating that a major find was imminent, in line with the ancient Egyptian custom of blocking their burial chambers with such a barrier. Through a hole in the block, they could see what they described as a beautifully-carved wooden statue of a man with large, staring eyes. After only an hour the block had been removed, and the team discovered a small but intact chamber richly stuffed with well-preserved wooden objects and containing a decorated sarcophagus.

"Even though the burial took place more than 4,000 years ago, the colours on the painted objects are very fresh, and there was even no dust covering them," mission director Harco Williams said.

The tomb lies on the southern slope of the hill of Deir Al-Barsha, near the Upper Egyptian town of Minya. Here the Leuven team members are nearing the completion of the excavations they began two years ago at Uky's tomb. After clearing the debris, they are restoring and documenting the objects they have found...

Of bricks and boats, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 850, June 21 - 27, 2007.

There are two strands to this intriguing documentary about the famous bust of the Egyptian queen, which was discovered in 1912 by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt. The first is about Borchardt and how he pulled a bit of a swiftie on the Egyptians to get the thing back to Berlin, while the second is about what Nefertiti has been up to lately — being X-rayed and so on in a bid to dispel doubts about her authenticity.

The man who connects the strands is Adolf Hitler, who fell in love with the spectacular limestone bust, left, and wanted it to be the centrepiece of a new Egyptian museum in Berlin. The Egyptian government, having realised what it had lost, had been clamouring for the piece's return but Hitler refused, eventually having it hidden away in a salt mine for protection from Allied bombing raids.

Rumours have persisted, however, that the bust was swapped for a fake en route to the mine — hence the high-tech examinations. Under the X-ray everything looks OK, but curiously the face beneath the colourful make-up looks older and more wrinkled than the glamorous beauty the world has come to know. Looks like somebody got a makeover.

Nefertiti's Odyssey, Brad Newsome, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, June 23, 2007.

The Spanish archaeological team working in the Beni Suef governorate has discovered a Pharaonic tomb in the district of Ahnsia.

The 3,500-year-old tomb is multi-layer and contains bones and human remains of 190 people, including 96 children, 55 men and 39 women.

Researchers found that the dead died of diseases like fever, syphilis and TB.

Pharaonic tomb discovered in Beni Suef, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 22, 2007.

Previously:

3500 year old cemetery discovered in Beni Suef, June 18, 2007.

Peter John Ucko, archaeologist: born London 27 July 1938; Lecturer in Anthropology, University College London 1962-72, Director, Institute of Archaeology and Professor of Comparative Archaeology 1996-2006 (Emeritus); Principal, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies 1972-81; Professor of Archaeology, Southampton University 1981-96; died London 14 June 2007.

Peter Ucko was the most influential archaeologist of his time. Almost single-handed, he brought about a revolution which irrevocably changed the whole structure and outlook of international archaeology.

This upheaval began in 1986, when — in scenes of frantic drama and controversy — the profession's international body exploded at its congress at Southampton University. Out of the smoke and debris there emerged the World Archaeological Congress, dedicated to new and radical principles which included the notion that archaeology was profoundly political and that the archaeology of indigenous peoples in post-colonial continents — societies for whom the relics of a distant past were still components of a living culture — was more significant than the academic and Eurocentric studies of "prehistory"...

was born in 1938, the son of intellectual Jewish emigrants from Germany. From his father, a doctor, he inherited a lasting delight in music, especially opera. After the "progressive" public school of Bryanston, he began an anthropology degree at University College London in 1956, but always — so he later said — hoped to get into Egyptology, a lifelong craze which began when he collected figurines off antique stalls as a boy. After a PhD on Egyptian figurines, he spent 10 more years at UCL lecturing with increasing brilliance and originality in anthropology...

Professor Peter Ucko, The Independent, UK, June 21, 2007.

Beer is an ancient and important beverage, enjoyed by everyone from the ancient Egyptians to medieval Europeans to modern people worldwide. Since prohibition, however, American beer has been so traditionally homogeneous that most Americans had only a vague awareness that there was an entire beer world outside of the standard rice- and corn-based brews of companies like Annhauser-Busch, Miller, and Schlitz. Imports were really the only way to try unfamiliar ales or lagers, but they were often prohibitively expensive or had slogans too imposing for the average American beer drinker (Tuborg Gold: The Golden Beer of Danish Kings!).

Since the mid 1990s, however, the microbrew revolution has been in full swing, and you can find fantastic American and Canadian-made beers in any style you could choose, and many American breweries successfully compete with their European counterparts in international competitions. Beer is once again reasserting itself as a beverage that can be savoured and appreciated rather than simply guzzled to enhance one's sexual appeal. To really understand beer, one has to understand the four basic ingredients that make beer...

Two chances in one week to post about beer! Woo-hoo!

Beer: A Primer, Nick Jurkowski, BlogCritics Magazine, June 20, 2007.

Previously:

Make mine a beer, November 07, 2007.

Three years after best buddies Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman completed a 20,000 mile-round-the-world trip by motorbike [The Long Way Round], the pair are doing it again. Their journey, which is being filmed for the BBC and is being dubbed Long Way Down, kicked off from John O'Groats in May and they are due to visit 20 countries in three months — expecting to cross the equator this week as they make their way to Cape Town, South Africa. "It was a good excuse to ride motorcycles for a very, very long time," said the Trainspotting star at the outset.

But negotiating the rough Egypt terrain in searing 45 degree heat is proving a challenge. "The heat is something else, you can't really prepare for it," says Ewan — who on this journey has decided to forgo a beard like the one he grew on his last trip. "This is the hottest place I've ever been to in my life!" added Charlie on their log. But their spirits were lifted by the sight of Cairo's magnificent pyramids. "It was beautiful being there, it was really moving being by the pyramids, it was lovely, just lovely," he said in a call to radio DJ

Chris Moyles.

Their bikes have certainly taken a pounding, especially in the sand. "I come off all the time," admits Ewan, whose French wife Eve is due to join him for a fortnight when they hit Malawi after taking motorcycling lessons. "I'm off more than anybody else, when it comes to falling off I am the team faller." That's not the only problem they're facing as this journey is considered more hazardous than their last. The friends have completed hostile environment training, including scenario-based exercises like conduct after capture as well as medical training, the same as BBC foreign correspondents before they go on risky assignments...

They've left Egypt now, have ridden through Sudan and are currently in Ethiopia. Keep up with their exploits on the BBC Long Way Down website. The journal entry for 12th June has a good video taken in the Valley of the Kings.

Ewan and Charlie feel the heat on epic African bike trip, Hello Magazine, USA, June 19, 2007.

Previously:

The Long Way Down in Cairo , June 07, 2007.

Buy the Book from Amazon or
buy the DVD from Amazon.

The Egyptian government has made a formal request to borrow the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum (BM). A letter was sent last month by Dr Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Art Newspaper can reveal that the request is for a three-month loan in 2012, for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is being built near the Pyramids. Until now, the BM has been able to fend off questions about the return of the Rosetta Stone, since there had been no formal request.

Whether the loan is eventually granted is expected to depend on three main factors. First, conservation, and whether the 1,680 pound stone could be at risk.

Secondly, if the Rosetta Stone can be lent in view of its iconic importance. It is probably the single most-visited object in the BM’s entire collection, attracting even more visitors than the Parthenon Marbles. The Rosetta Stone has been at the museum since 1802, and has only left the building twice — when it was evacuated during World War I and when it was lent to the Louvre for one month in 1972.

Finally, there will concerns over whether it would be prudent to lend to Cairo, because of possible pressure in Egypt to retain the stone or request its permanent return. After receiving advice on these points, the request will be considered by the BM trustees...

Egypt asks British Museum for Rosetta Stone, Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, UK, June 21, 2007.

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

• Anticipating Tutankhamun
  An update on information about the forthcoming “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” Exhibition in London later in the year.
• Cairo a Century Ago
  Sigrid M. van Roode looks at how the city of Cairo became oriented towards Europe in the nineteenth century, and at surviving buildings from that time.
• The Great Royal Wives from Akhmim
  Marta Farrugia and Anton Mifsud ask how a small town in Middle Egypt produced some of the greatest Great Royal Wives of the New Kingdom.
• The Ancient Stones Speak: Part Three
  Pam Scott, in her third and final article on hieroglyphs, explains how to read inscriptions found on funerary objects.
• A Woman of Old Akhmim
  Jonathan Elias, Carter Lupton and Heather Gill-Robinson investigate a mummy from Akhmim.
• A Visit to Serabit el Khadim
  Stewart White visits an important site in the Sinai Peninsula, sacred to the goddess Hathor.
• From our Egypt Correspondent
  Ayman Wahby Taher with the latest news from around Egypt, including exciting discoveries in the necropolis of Saqqara.
• The Dakhleh Oasis Project
  In the third of a series of articles on the Project, Jennifer Smith shows how the geology of the Oasis reflects huge climate changes over the millennia.
• Per Mesut: For younger readers
  This issue Hilary Wilson looks at bread.

Ancient Egypt Magazine, Empire Publications, Manchester, UK, Volume 7, No. 6, Issue 42, June / July 2007.

Subscribe to Ancient Egypt Magazine via Amazon.com.

Humankind has been enjoying beer for the past 10,000 years. The first beer was created, discovered, produced or received from aliens (depending on who's telling the story and their level of sobriety) by Sumerians. Whether this was an accidental discovery by a careless housekeeper who allowed a piece of soggy bread to sit around long enough to ferment, or one that came about through a more intentional act, will forever be fodder for speculation. Which came first, beer or bread, is an equally hot debate. What is not in question, however, is the fact that beer is the earliest known beverage to remain in existence — possibly enjoying even greater popularity at present than in ancient times.

Some historians believe that even if bread preceded beer, bread may have originally been derived from wild plants and grains, allowing our wandering ancestors to continue their itinerant lifestyle while also enjoying bread. But with the discovery of beer — and the subsequent thirst caused by this discovery — tribes opted to hang up their tents, park their goats and end their rambling ways. Then quickly settling into small communities, these former nomads began cultivating barley and other grains, unwilling to rely on unpredictable wild barley for such an important food source as beer...

In Egypt, 1600 B.C., there were 100 documented medical prescriptions calling for beer as one of their ingredients. The data is inconclusive as to whether these prescriptions actually cured illnesses, simply made the patients more fun to be around or contributed to the growing popularity of the medical profession. Another morsel of ancient Egyptian beer trivia: if a gentleman offered a lady a sip of his beer, they were betrothed. The outcome of men sharing a beer is not documented...

I'm sure this article is tongue-in-cheek. I certainly not heard of the beer equals betrothal rule before.

Beer: A contemporary legal buzz or a testament to human ingenuity?,

Holly Morrison, The Baltic Times, Latvia, June 20, 2007.

Evidence of large-scale gold extraction in the ancient Nubian kingdom of Kush has been found along the Nile River, archaeologists will announce today.

The discovery is part of a race to save as many antiquities as possible before a dam inundates a hundred-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of the Nile in northern Sudan.

The presence of gold in the African region "may have been one of the main reasons for the colonization of Sudan by the ancient Egyptians," said Salah Mohammed Ahmed, the head of Sudan's antiquities agency.

Spreading out from the Nile, ancient Nubia followed the river from southern Egypt deep into what is now northern Sudan. In the time of the pharaohs, Nubian lands were the subject of numerous incursions from the north by the Egyptians.

Archaeologists from the University of Chicago found more than 55 grinding stones at Hosh el-Geruf, about 225 miles (362 kilometres) north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum...

Four photos can be found here.

Ancient Gold Centre Discovered on the Nile, Dan Morrison, National Geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, June 18, 2007.

cf. Ancient gold unearthed in Sudan, BBC News, UK, June 19, 2007.

Archaeologists from the University of Chicago have discovered a gold processing centre along the middle Nile, an installation that produced the precious metal sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C. The centre, along with a cemetery they discovered, documents extensive control by the first sub-Saharan kingdom, the kingdom of Kush.

The team from the University’s Oriental Institute found more than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss along the Nile at the site of Hosh el-Geruf, about 225 miles north of Khartoum, Sudan. The region was also known also known as Nubia in ancient times.

Groups of similar grinding stones have been found on desert sites, mostly in Egypt, where they were used to grind ore to recover the precious metal. The ground ore was likely washed with water nearby to separate the gold flakes.

“This large number of grinding stones and other tools used to crush and grind ore shows that the site was a centre for organized gold production,” said Geoff Emberling, Director of the Oriental Institute Museum and a co-leader of the expedition...

Archaeologists rescue clues to ancient kingdom from the rising Nile, William Harms, University of Chicago via EurekAlert, USA, June 19, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists Rescue Ancient Civilization from Rising Nile, William Harms, University of Chicago via NewsWise, USA, June 19, 2007.

Archaeologists have unearthed a 4,000-year-old gold-processing centre along the middle Nile in Sudan that suggests the ancient kingdom of Kush was much larger than scholars previously believed and would have rivalled the domain of the Egyptians to the north.

Kush, which was called Nubia by the Greeks, was the first urban civilization in sub-Saharan Africa. The discovery of the gold centre and a related graveyard is providing new information about the relationship between rulers in the capital city, Kerma, and its peripheral subjects, said archaeologist Geoff Emberling of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, who is announcing the find today.

Believed to have flourished from about 2400 BC until the 2nd century AD, Kush "is gradually coming out of the shadow of Egypt," said archaeologist Derek A. Welsby of the British Museum, who was not involved in the excavation.

"We didn't know that Kush extended into the 4th Cataract zone" of the Nile, Welsby said, referring to the region where Emberling excavated...

Ancient Kush rivalled Egypt, experts say, Thomas H. Maugh II, The Los Angeles Times, California, USA, June 19, 2007.

Over the last few years, archaeological teams from Britain, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Sudan and the United States have raced to dig at sites that will soon be underwater. The teams were surprised to find hundreds of settlement ruins, cemeteries and examples of rock art that had never been studied. One of the most comprehensive salvage operations has been conducted by groups headed by Henryk Paner of the Gdansk Archaeological Museum in Poland, which surveyed 711 ancient sites in 2003 alone.

“This area is so incredibly rich in archaeology,” Derek Welsby of the British Museum said in a report last winter in Archaeology magazine.

The scale of the salvage effort hardly compares to the response in the 1960s to the Aswan High Dam, which flooded a part of Nubia that then reached into what is southern Egypt. Imposing temples that the pharaohs erected at Abu Simbel and Philae were dismantled and restored on higher ground.

The Kushites, however, left no such grand architecture to be rescued. Their kingdom declined and eventually disappeared by the end of the 16th century B.C., as Egypt grew more powerful and expansive under rulers of the period known as the New Kingdom.

In Sudan, the Merowe Dam, built by Chinese engineers with French and German subcontractors, stands at the downstream end of the fourth cataract, a narrow passage of rapids and islands. The rising Nile waters will create a lake 2 miles wide and 100 miles long, displacing more than 50,000 people...

Scholars Race to Recover a Lost Kingdom on the Nile, John Noble Wilford, The New York Times, New York, USA, June 19, 2007.

Egypt has a new museum to tell its millennial history. Early this month, the Egyptian city of Al-Arich, located in the Sinai Peninsula, opened a museum that brings together 2,000 items from the Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic, Byzantine, and Muslim periods. The official inauguration will take place in the following weeks. The Al-Arich Museum took three years to build, and its premises cost 45 million Egyptian pounds, the equivalent of US$ 8 million. Statues, busts, icons, coins, lanterns, and manuscripts from all periods of Egyptian history are now showcased at the site.

In the museum, modern techniques were adopted in order to highlight the value of the objects. "Our goal is not only to make a simple exhibit of the pieces. We want visitors to understand the culture linked to our heritage," says the director general at the Egyptian Authority for Regional Museums, Ahmed Charaf. The museum spans an area of 19,000 square metres, with indoor and outdoor sections. In the open air, in an arch-shaped garden, there is also an amphitheatre. The indoor section of the museum is divided into several halls.

"This is not a simple museum. The idea, in fact, is to create a cultural centre, in which visitors may have access to historical information and entertainment at the same time. This is the reason why the amphitheatre and the garden occupy most of the area of the museum," says Charaf. Upon arrival at the museum, visitors watch a 15-minute long series of documentary films, translated into various languages, about the history of the Sinai Peninsula. The productions show not only the pieces in the museum, but also famous archaeological vestiges from the Sinai, such as those of ancient churches and monasteries located along the path travelled by the Holy Family...

Egypt opens museum at Sinai Peninsula, Gabriel Pomerancblum, ANBA, Brazil, June 18, 2007.

Around 15,000 people have already visited the Treasures of Ancient Egypt Exhibition at the Bahrain National Museum, officials have revealed. Acting director Fuad Noor declared the event a huge success and said it was one of the highest attendance figures the museum has achieved.

He said nearly all public and private schools in Bahrain had visited the exhibition and the display had also attracted people from across the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Bahrain became the first country in the Arab world and North Africa to hold an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities when the event was launched by Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa in April [2007]...

"The summer vacation is coming up and we should have a lot of visitors from the Gulf, so considering that and the number we have had already, I think we will probably reach 20,000..."

Treasures of ancient Egypt draw 15,000, Geoffrey Bew, Gulf Daily Times, Kuwait, Vol. XXX, No. 88, June 16, 2007.

Previously:

Treasures of Egypt on show, April 12, 2007.

Walter James “Doc” Daugherty, a Santa Maria man known for his love of King Tut, died Thursday in his sleep at the age of 90.

Daugherty was born Dec. 18, 1916, in Oklahoma City to silent film actors Lilly Mae and “Two-Gun” Monte Williams, who were touring with their latest film. Williams died while Daugherty was still a baby, and he was adopted by his stepfather, Jessie M. Daugherty.

Daugherty had been studying Egypt and the tomb of King Tut since 1933. He gave his first talk on the subject when he was in junior high school.

“From there on, it just blossomed,” he told the Santa Maria Times in a 2005 interview. Daugherty eventually earned a Ph.D. in anthropology, but he never worked professionally in the field.

Still, he gave countless lectures and presentations at institutions including UCLA, USC, Long Beach State and various Los Angeles museums, along with Central Coast schools and organizations...

Walter Daugherty, King Tut expert, dies at 90, Emily Welly, Santa Maria Times, California, USA, June 16, 2007.

With a click of his computer mouse, Peter Janosi, a lecturer at the Institute of Egyptology in Vienna, analyzes ancient statues and decodes hieroglyphs unearthed in the distant Giza Necropolis.

From the comfort of his study in Norwich, England, Colin Newton, a retired television repairman, explores rare Giza maps and expedition diaries in an effort to catalog all Old Kingdom tombs.

Meanwhile, Laurel Flentye, an Egyptologist who specializes in art and archaeology, downloads excavation photos and roams inside subterranean chambers, zooming in on relief decorations in tombs around the Sphinx and Great Pyramid from her Cairo home.

They are virtual explorers, travelling through time and space via an online, interactive collection of one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world — the Old Kingdom Giza Necropolis, with its royal tombs, pyramids, temples, and other Egyptian monuments circa 2500 BC.

The Giza Archives Project, established by Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in January 2005, aims to become the world's central online repository for all archaeological activity at the necropolis, beginning with the major 20th-century excavations that were jointly funded by the museum and Harvard University...

Virtual explorers comb Egypt's ruins, Pamela Ferdinand, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, June 18, 2007.

In an ideal world everyone would get to take month long holidays, but in the real world often 7 days is the most we can do. So is 7 days enough to make an impact on a destination like Egypt ? Stuart Cheese, UK Director of Operations for One World Tours says yes it is and tells you how to best spend your time.

Day 1. Depending upon where you have flown in from, it may be a good idea to just take the rest of the day to acclimatise you to the pace of things in Cairo.

Day 2 Cairo — The Pyramids are a must. You have to stand next to the pyramids to really appreciate the enormity of them. It is mind boggling to try and imagine how such craftsmanship was achieved so long ago and with such little resources. The sphinx is also an awesome masterpiece to behold. Books and TV images cannot capture the pure magnitude of the stunning structure that has endured the elements and time.

That night we suggest taking an overnight train to Aswan. Waking early in the morning, if you can, and peering from the train, you will more than likely be welcomed by a beautiful sunrise, mist swirling from the river and locals harvesting their humble crops. A most magical experience and one that will stay with you for a lifetime...

Is a week long enough for a holiday in Egypt ?, Stuart Cheese, One World Tours, UK via Article Warehouse, Japan, June 17, 2007.

The French Ministry of Defence has agreed to translate the Napoleon messages into Arabic.

A ministry spokesman said the cultural project comes in cooperation with the Egyptian National Centre for Translation.

France to translate into Arabic Napoleon messages, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 17, 2007.

"Close to 1.31 million tourists from all over the world visited Egypt last April, up by 12% compared to the same month a year earlier," said chairman of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics Abu-Bakr al-Gindi.

European tourists to Egypt during last April hit 75.6% of total number of tourists followed by Middle Eastern tourists 12% and African tourist 3.6%.

Some 149,000 Arab tourists visited Egypt during last April, with 15.6% increase versus April of 2006, al-Gindi noted.

Tourist nights spent by Arab tourists accounted for 1.7 million nights, up by 35.5% against April 2006.

One million tourists visited Egypt last April, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 17, 2007.

An ancient cemetery was discovered in the governorate of Beni Suef.

The cemetery, discovered by a Spanish mission in the Ahnasia district [Variant transliterations: Ihnasya, Ehnasya, Ahnasiya. Ancient Greek: Heracleopolis Magna. Ancient Egyptian: Henen-Nisut], includes a cabin, votive room and grave.

Sources said that the cemetery was engraved with red inscriptions portraying the owner of the cemetery while standing with the vessels of the seven holy oils behind.

The sources added that the cabin had two fake doors and a table. The votive room is located at the eastern part of the cemetery with two tableaux inside, the sources added.

A report was drawn up and would be submitted to Culture Minister Farouk Hosni for allocating funds for completing the excavations in the area and restoring the discovered pieces.

The excavation appears to be run by the Museo Arqueológico Nacional Madrid [National Archaeological Museum, Madrid].

3500 year old cemetery discovered in Beni Suef, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 16, 2007.

Previously:

Spanish mission excavates 11 ancient tombs in Ahansia, January 31, 2005.

few weeks ago my husband and I spent a delightful afternoon at the British Museum during a visit to London. Among its fabulous riches is the world's largest collection of ancient Egyptian art outside of Egypt.

As we headed in the direction of that wing, we had second thoughts. "Let's wait," I suggested, "because we can see many of the same treasures in Raleigh."

I was referring to a wonderful special exhibition at the N.C. Museum of Art on loan from the British Museum. It will be on display through July 8 and is well worth a drive to Raleigh. Besides, the museum is partly funded by your tax dollars.

The special exhibition is titled "Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from the British Museum." It features 85 masterpieces that seldom travel outside the British Museum...

Ancient Egypt lies just down I-40, Rosemary Roberts, Greensboro News Record, North Carolina, USA< June 08, 2007.

Sudanese authorities have arrested 12 people accused of smuggling ancient antiquities including two entire mummies, a state news agency said on Saturday.

"The police authorities in Nile state have thwarted an attempt to smuggle ancient artefacts," the state Sudanese Media Centre said.

It gave no details of the age of the mummies...

For some bizarre reason Reuters have released an image of South American Chachapoya mummies with this story.

Sudan arrests 12 trying to smuggle ancient mummies, Reuters, UK, June 16, 2007.

cf. Sudan arrests 12 trying to smuggle ancient mummies, Reuters via The Sudan Tribune, Sudan, June 17, 2007.

cf. Sudan arrests 12 trying to smuggle ancient mummies, Reuters via Scoop, New Zealand, June 16, 2007.

cf. Sudan arrests 12 trying to smuggle ancient mummies, Reuters via Scoop, New Zealand, June 16, 2007.

cf. Sudan arrests 12 mummy-smugglers, Reuters via The Australian, Australia, June 16, 2007.

Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni decided the travel of an Egyptology archaeology delegation under chairmanship of Chairman of Egyptian Archaeology Sector Sabry Abdul Aziz and Upper Egypt Monuments Director Mansour Boriak to U.S.A. for inspecting and examining a set of Pharaonic antiquities that were seized by the American Security bodies at San Francisco city.

The Minister of Culture, who left Cairo earlier today Thursday in a medical treatment trip in France, said that the Egyptian delegation will carry out all procedures for verifying that seized pieces are of monumental value and the illegal means of transferring these pieces from Egypt, in preparation for returning them to homeland, as it is a huge diversified collection that are regarded as a monumental treasure.

On his part the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass stated that he received a letter from the Egyptian embassy in Washington informed him that they received notification from the American Security Bodies at the city of San Francisco concerning the seizing a collection of the rare pharaonic pieces displayed in one of auction halls...

Egypt verify a "Pharaonic Treasure" seized by U.S. Police in San Francisco city, Ayman El-Kady, Egypt ICT, Egypt, June 16, 2007.

Carrying out a routine spot of garden maintenance, Matthew McClelland was horrified to see a skull staring back at him from the hole he had just created with his spade.

Before he knew what was happening to him, police had sealed off the site and were maintaining a 24-hour watch over his home.

His worst nightmare then began to unfold in front of his eyes as police pulled a second human head from the garden - and he began to fear that he could become the chief suspect...

Further investigation by police revealed that the skulls were in fact Egyptian artefacts. They discovered that the previous owner of the house, a doctor...

‘I was worried neighbours might think I was Fred West’, Susannah Wright, The South Manchester Reporter, UK, June 14, 2007.

Greece [on] Thursday presented a Hellenistic-era torso of the ancient Greek god Apollo discovered in Switzerland more than 15 years after it was stolen from an excavation site on Crete.

The headless torso was in the possession of art dealer David Cahn in Basel, and the Greek authorities intervened just before it was delivered to a private buyer, culture minister George Voulgarakis told a news conference.

"This is the first result of cooperation between our two countries on cultural heritage protection," the minister said. "You will see more [examples] in the coming period..."

Greece reclaims stolen Apollo statue, Middle East Times, Cyprus, June 14, 2007.

Italian police have recovered an ancient Greek temple dug up in southern Italy by a construction crew who had dumped or looted the prized artefacts and begun to pour cement over the ruins, authorities said Tuesday.

After receiving information about the discovery during construction work on a tourist resort on the coast of southern Calabria, police used helicopters to locate the site near the town of Crotone, said art squad officials from the Carabinieri paramilitary police.

More than 50 artefacts, including columns and mosaics, had been excavated from the site and used to decorate another hotel complex nearby, while other pieces had been placed in a dump to be reused as construction material.

When police located the site last week, workers were preparing to lay the foundations of the resort hotel on the remaining ruins, said Gen. Giovanni Nistri, the head of the art squad...

Italy is full of archaeological treasures — many undiscovered — and developers are required to report any finds. Countless public and private works have been scrapped or delayed over the years as state archaeologists descended on building sites, and it is not uncommon for developers to fail to report a discovery and plough through ancient treasures...

Italian Police Recover Ancient Temple, Ariel David, AP via Newsday, New York, USA, June 12, 2007.

Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, has a problem that won’t go away: a dispute with the Italian government over ancient artworks in the museum’s collection. Once-promising negotiations have completely broken down.

In the 18 months that Brand has led the museum, he’s strengthened its acquisition policy, hired several key staff members and helped organize new shows. He also helped repair the museum’s reputation and that of the parent Getty Trust, the world’s richest art institution with a $5.6 billion endowment.

The trust last year settled an investigation by the California attorney general into the Getty’s governance. Brand struck an agreement with the Greek government over disputed antiquities, returning four objects this year, and was making progress in talks with Italy’s Ministry of Culture over 52 disputed works.

“Everything was going along fine — which isn’t to say it was easy, but we knew what we agreed on and what we had yet to reach agreement on,” Brand recalled in an interview. “And then last November they placed a new condition on the table, that without the Getty Bronze there would be no agreement at all...”

Getty Museum's Brand Faces Impasse in Italian Artefacts Dispute, Stephen West, Bloomberg, USA, June 14, 2007.

Palaeolithic rock art depicting animal illustrations similar to those found in the Lascaux caves in France have been discovered in the Upper Egyptian town of Kom Ombo.

The discovery of huge rocks decorated with Palaeolithic illustrations at the village of Qurta on the northern edge of Kom Ombo has caused excitement among the scientific community. The art was found by a team of Belgian archaeologists and restorers and features groups of cattle similar to those drawn on the walls of the French Lascaux caves. They are drawn and painted in a naturalistic style which is quite different from those shown in cattle representations of the well-known classical, pre-dynastic iconography of the fourth millennium BC. Illustrations of hippopotami, fish, birds and human figures can also be seen on the surface of some of the rocks.

The first examination of the patination and weathering suggests that these bovid representations are extremely old, most probably predating the fish-trap representations and associated rock scenes previously found at several locations in the Al-Hosh area. They are also similar to cattle representations discovered in 1962-63 by a Canadian archaeological mission as part of an attempt to reserve land for habitation and cultivation by Nubians who had been displaced from their homes by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The Belgian mission relocated the rock in 2004 to the area near the modern village of Qurta. This newly-discovered site is still in pristine condition since they have not been visited by archaeologists since the Canadian team in 1963...

Lascaux on the Nile, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 849, June 14 - 20, 2007.

cf. Lots of pictures here: ‘Lascaux along the Nile’: Late Pleistocene rock art in Egypt, Dirk Huyge, Maxime Aubert, Hans Barnard, Wouter Claes, John Coleman Darnell, Morgan De Dapper, Elyssa Figari, Salima Ikram, Anne Lebrun-Nélis & Isabelle Therasse, Antiquity, UK, Vol. 81, No. 313, September 2007.

Though not the only female ruler of Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC), which means "united with Amun in front of the nobles", is one of the best known.

In ancient Egypt women often held high status, and could own and inherit property. Yet female rulers remained rare: only Khentkawes, Sobeknefru and, possibly, Nitocris, preceded Hatshepsut. Pharaoh was an exclusively male title and in early Egyptian history there was no word for a Queen regent, unlike Queen consort.

Hatshepsut slowly assumed the regalia and symbols of Pharaonic office, including the Khat head cloth topped with an uraeus, the traditional false beard, and the shendyt kilt.

She created a myth about her own divine birth in which Amun goes to Ahmose in the form of Thutmose I and awakens her with pleasant odours. When Amun places the ankh, a symbol of life, beneath Ahmose's nose, Hatshepsut is conceived. Khnum, the god who forms the bodies of human children, is then instructed to create a body and ka, or corporal presence/life force, for Hatshepsut. Khnum and Heket, goddess of life and fertility, leads Ahmose to a lion bed where she gives birth to Hatshepsut...

Queen for a day, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 849, June 14 - 20, 2007.

I recently wrote to Bernd Neumann, deputy minister of culture in Berlin, to ask for the return of the bust of Nefertiti to Egypt so that it could be exhibited for three months on the occasion of the opening of the Akhenaten Museum in 2010. The museum is now being built in Minya, near to where the bust of Nefertiti was found. The bust was discovered at Tel Al-Amarna, the site of Akhetaten (Akhenaten's capital city), which lies south of Minya.

I am waiting for a response from Germany to my request. Egypt has never pressed for the return of the bust of Nefertiti to Egypt. Only once, in 1986, was such a request made.

Mohamed Abdel-Qader, former chairman of the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation (EAO), asked the German ambassador at that time to meet him in his office in Zamalek. At the meeting, Abdel-Qader asked him to return the bust to Egypt. However, the German ambassador did not like this idea, and he complained about it to the Egyptian authorities. Abdel-Qader was subsequently fired.

I am sure that our request will also be refused. Then we will have to pursue another strategy. I am writing this column to warn the Germans that a refusal by the Berlin Museum will damage the scientific relationship between Egypt and Berlin. As a result, it will be announced that we are cutting scientific relations with the Berlin Museum and will never send exhibitions to Berlin. I am also sure that they will say that they do not care...

Dig days: Nefertiti should come back home, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 849, June 14 - 20, 2007.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni will send an archaeological team to the US to authenticate a collection of pharaonic antiquities that were traced to an auction hall in San Francisco.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass said if the collection is genuine, efforts will be made to have it returned to Egypt.

"If the party in possession of the antiquities refuses to part with them amicably, court action may be deemed necessary," Hawass added.

Hawass pointed out that he had received a message from the Egyptian embassy in Washington telling him that a rare pharaonic treasure was put for sale in an auction hall in San Francisco.

Pharaonic treasure returned to Egypt, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 14, 2007.

Last year, a team of Polish archaeologists from the Mediterranean Archaeology Department at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), lead by Prof. Karol Myśliwiec, discovered a rock ramp, near Pharaoh Djoser’s Pyramid in Saqqara, south of Cairo, which turned out to be a false entrance to the tomb built to fool thieves.

Prof. Myśliwiec has no doubt that a tomb of a very important personage (dating back to 2650-2900 BC) is hidden somewhere on the site. Building false entrances was common practice, while the monumental proportions of the entrance and ramp as well as the fact that even 300 years later it served as a place for holding offerings indicates the importance of the person in question.

The fact that a platform built of dried brick, presumably erected by one of the sons of Rameses II on the site, is further confirmation of the importance of the person.

In the coming digs, Prof. Myśliwiec not only wants to continue searching for the real entrance to the tomb, but also wants to explore countless grave-shafts discovered during this year’s digs. With his team, he plans to explore two shafts found inside the tomb of Ni-ankh-Nefertum, the priest at the pyramids of Unas and Teti. They most probably belonged to his wife and eldest son. Moreover, as their original floors are intact, it appears they were never subject to theft — a unique find in itself...

Royal tomb still waiting to be discovered, Bogusława Szumiec-Presch, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, May 04, 2007.

Archaeologists from the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, the Institute of Archaeology at Jagiellonian University, Krakow and the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at Warsaw University have been running joint excavations in Tell el-Farcha over the past ten years. Prof. Ciałowicz, jointly with Dr Marek Chłodnicki from Poznań are heading the research.

The site, which is translated as Chicken Hill, is located on the remains of a settlement dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. — the very beginning of the kingdom of the pharaohs.

“This is one of the most important sites from the beginning of the Egyptian state. It continues to surprise us” — said Prof. Ciałowicz. 2006 witnessed the sensational discovery of two approximately half-metre tall figures of the ruler and his son, as well as a deposit of wooden figure.

This year, archaeologists continued work in the dwelling area and the cemetery in Tell el-Farcha. “We came across a further part of the deposit” — said. Prof. Ciałowicz...

Polish archaeologists have discovered a richly furnished Egyptian tomb dating back 5,000 years, Anna Ślązak, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, June 05, 2007.

Prime Minister Dr. Nazif approved Egypt's participation in the Pharaonic Archaeological Artefacts Exhibition ["Gifts for the Gods"] due to be held in the USA and Switzerland. The Exhibition starts its tour in New York in October 2007, and then in the Swiss city "Martini" in March 2008.

Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, announced that the exhibit will contain 150 artefacts displaying the Pharaonic civilization development. These pieces are from the Egyptian Museum's property and the rest from the museums of Europe and the USA, and they display the Ancient Egyptian Temple's treasures and which are made of bronze, silver and gold. The monuments will be insured at $7 million.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary-General of the Higher Council of Antiquities, said that the Metropolitan Museum [of Art] will pay all the costs of holding the exhibit...

Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 16, 2007 – February 18, 2008.

150 rare artefacts exhibited in New York and Switzerland, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 12, 2007.

Minister of Tourism Zuhair Garana said in a meeting with members of the Egyptian-Lebanese Friendship Society on Tuesday 12/06/2007 a plan was prepared to promote tourism industry in Egypt.

Zuhair Garana pointed out 9.1 million visited Egypt, making a total income which hit $9 billion and 8000 million in 2006. He added that Egypt seeks to increase the number of tourists to 14 million in 2011.

Garana said that the government is carrying out a program to upgrade sea and road ports...

Tourists' number to reach 14 million in 2011, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 13, 2007.

The British Museum's "Mummy: The Inside Story" has given me an insight into the long and often controversial history that shrouds the collection. As a popular exhibit, it has attracted thousands of visitors in its run in the U.K. and U.S. It finally made its first visit in Asia at The National Science Museum of Tokyo (Oct. 7, 2006 to Feb. 2, 2007) and is now drawing to a close at the Kobe City Museum (March 3 to June 17, 2007). In Kobe alone, the exhibit has already attracted more than 10,000 viewers.

Thematically, the 125 artefacts are divided into five sections: "Introduction to the World of Ancient Egypt", "Serving the Gods", "Nesperennub the Priest", "Desire for Rebirth and Eternal Life" and "Departure to the Afterlife." The Rosetta Stone leads the entire collection...

I left the exhibit thrilled at the discovery of technology in making the past so alive for the individual nowadays. I have never thought that the wonders of antiquity can be stored in bits and images and played over and over again just like another song. Never before has it been so accessible...

'Mummy: The Inside Story', Sianturi Dinah Roma, OhmyNews, Japan, June 11, 2007.

The Berkshire Museum's mummy was placed under wraps yesterday to take a trip to the hospital.

The 2,300-year-old Pahat and the lower half of his sarcophagus were wrapped in a clear plastic sheet, loaded into a medical transport van and brought through the back door of Berkshire Medical Centre for a CT scan.

With an entourage of an Egyptologist, more than a dozen museum and medical staff, and some camera-wielding folks, the mummy was placed on a stretcher and ushered into a CT scanning suite.

"I just touched a mummy," gushed Betty Pelletier, a CT technician. "It was very cool. It's probably the only time that'll happen in my life."

The purpose of Pahat's scan — a high-tech X-ray imaging process — is to collect forensic data and to use it to replicate his face and reconstruct his life.

The mummy was chosen to be a participant in the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium (AMSC) research project.

Led by Dr. Jonathan Elias, an Egyptologist and physical anthropologist...

History goes high-tech, Jenn Smith, The Berkshire Eagle, Massachusetts, USA, June 05, 2007.

Previously:

Berkshire Museum's mummy will undergo CT scan, May 24, 2007.

Rameses II is what you might call a hunk. That commanding stare, those square shoulders, that taut torso and that copper-toned body all scream male machismo. And it helps that he's nearly 66 feet tall — sitting down.

The statues of the famous pharaoh at Abu Simbel, a popular day trip for passengers cruising the Nile, take your breath away. Built to give fair warning of his power to the Nubians, and anyone entering Egypt from the south, Rameses' temple continues to wow foreigners some 3,000 years later.

Pharaonic sights in Upper Egypt, from Abu Simbel in the south to King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the north, rank among the most well-known attractions for visitors, particularly those cruising the Nile.

"There is so much to see and learn," says Cindy Cooper of Lake Zurich, who cruised the famous river last February. It's fascinating to "go in the tombs and see the hieroglyphics and hear the stories that are told there," she says.

The view from the deck of her Sonesta boat gave her an unusual perspective of Egypt, she says. "I saw so much life on the Nile.

"One side of the river would be lush and green and the other side just sand and rock...

In the footsteps of the pharaohs, Kathy Rodeghier, Chicago Daily Herald, Illinois, June 08, 2007.

Previously:

Tut tourism: A boy king inspires resurgence in travel to Egypt, June 04, 2007.

When Michelle Moran finished her debut novel , she had no idea of the controversy that would soon be surrounding the three-thousand-year-old statue which inspired her to begin writing about the ancient Egyptian queen. "A few years ago on a trip to Berlin, I was visiting the Altes Museum and saw the bust of Nefertiti. Looking into her mysterious gaze, it was impossible not to wonder who she was and what kind of woman she had been."

In life, Nefertiti had possessed the kind of power that had never before been granted to a woman in ancient Egypt. She had also been a stunning beauty. Her bust in Berlin depicts a woman with a long neck, elegant brows and cheekbones that would have made Angelina Jolie envious ... all of which makes her that much more valuable to Egypt, whose head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities has demanded the immediate return of Nefertiti's bust by Germany...

No it doesn't. Just a good excuse for a press release knowing the power they wield on Google News. Cf. How to spam Google News and How to spam Google News part 2.

Controversy Over Nefertiti Statue Fuels Interest in Novel, eReleases, Maryland, USA, June 12, 2007.

An immense subterranean vault was found beneath the Citadel in Cairo on 07/06/2007, said the Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni.

The vault dates back to the era of King Al-Nasser Mohamed Ben Qalawun in the 8th century of Hejira, said the Minister.

The vault extends along 200 meters between Al-Ablaq Palace and the sideline palaces of the Citadel.

Subterranean vault dating back to 8th Hejira century found beneath the Citadel, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 09, 2007.

More of the treasures of King Tutankhamun, the most well-known of famous Egyptian pharaohs will be on display at the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo Sunday 10/06/2007.

The Museum curator, Wafaa Al-Sediq, said the treasures will be shown on section 44 of the museum.

She said a gallery will be held for three months at the museum to show pictures of the tomb of the king when it was discovered back in 1922.

Since his tomb was first discovered, the life of King Tut has continued to mystify and enthral both historians and amateurs alike.

Egyptian museum starts showing more of King Tut's treasures Sunday,

Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 10, 2007.

Protecting Egyptian treasures from tomb theft and retrieving what has been smuggled out of the country is no mean feat. It is a long process that requires patience, persistence and a strong belief in the priceless value of Egyptian antiquities.

Whether they are made of gold, alabaster, black granite, or even traditional sandstone, the tombs of the pharaohs are not merely a collage of rare stones, but represent a whole civilization.

Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told The Daily Star Egypt that documenting antiquities all over Egypt should be the first step to avoid such thefts.

“Why are antiquities stolen? Because our home is not organized. If you want to protect your home from theft, don’t leave the door open. You have to close the door and arrange your home first,” said Hawass...

Egyptian antiquities: theft, retrieval and protection, Ethar Shalaby, Daily Star, Egypt, June 08, 2007.

The expert archaeologists huddled together. They exchanged nervous glances and tried to decipher their mission from the crackling voice of Director Cavendish.

They had three tasks: Enter the ancient Egyptian tomb, reconnect with a long-lost professor and find the Pharaoh's mummy.

These archaeologists, students from Boston-area colleges, were about to embark on 5-WITS' Tomb, a 45-minute journey through three chamber-like rooms where their vision, hearing, strength, courage and problem-solving skills would be challenged.

They were participating in last Thursday's College Night, an event organized by middlers Matt Collette and Stephanie Turmelle and junior Brittany Blackmon...

Ancient Egyptian expedition attracts students, Julie Balise, The Northeastern News, Massachusetts, USA, June 06, 2007.

“How could I have been so foolish as to have missed this until now?” I said to myself over and over one day while 785 miles south of Cairo visiting Abu Simbel, near the Egypt-Sudan border in an area where the ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs once stood looking out toward the ancient Kingdom of Nubia.

I was on an Abercrombie & Kent trip to this fascinating land. As I looked up at four colossal sandstone statutes of the great Egyptian King Rameses II seated upon his throne wearing his huge double crown signifying reign over both Upper and Lower Egypt, I felt the same way I felt the first time I gazed upon such wonders as the pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal or the effigies of Easter Island.

I had been to Egypt twice before, but only to Cairo to see the pyramids and tour the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. Now I realize that is just not enough. To truly appreciate Egypt you have to look beyond the pyramids...

Egypt: Look beyond the pyramids, Fred J. Eckert, The Eureka Reporter, California, USA, June 07, 2007.

I think this is a recycled story from March. See here and here.

Ancient colours of Egyptian wall paintings are being recreated in a modern lab in Italy, where art restorers say that they have learned how to preserve the artefacts.

Trapani, Italy-based conservation lab ISAD gained permission from Egyptian authorities to examine bits of the wall paintings to learn more about their origins and perhaps develop an answer about why their colours were fading, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Thursday.

"Up till now people thought the frescoes were made from earth colours, which is why the results [of conservation efforts] have been so disappointing," said ISAD's Giuseppe Claudio Infranca.

They found, however, that the paintings' pigments were from a variety of minerals that restorers are trying to recreate...

Modern lab recreating ancient pigments, UPI via Middle East Times, Cyprus, June 08, 2007.

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

L'énigme des pyramides
Thoutmosis IV et le dieu Aton
Le char de guerre égyptien

Aventurier
La naissance de l'égyptienne

Découverte
La tombe de Kherouef

Voyager
Le Nil en felouque

Which approximately says...

The enigma of the pyramids
Tuthmosis IV and the god Aten
The Egyptian war chariot

Adventurer
Birth of the Egyptian woman

Discovered
The tomb of Kheruef

Traveller
The Nile on a felucca

Toutankhamon Magazine , Editions Neptune Diffusion, France, Issue 33, June / July 2007.

I have created a KML file to link you to the satellite image in Amarna from yesterday's article.

Google Earth: Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space.

Google Maps: Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space.

The Google Earth link wasn't working, although the Google Maps one did and they both use the same file. It was because my server did not have the correct MIME type configuration for .kml files so I had to set them up in a .htaccess file.

Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space, June 07, 2007.

Situated on a plateau between the modern city of Cairo and the ancient Pyramids of Giza, the Egyptian Grand Museum (EGM) will be home to over 150,000 artefacts. Amongst these are the treasures of King Tutankhamun, many of which will be on public display for the first time, having spent years in storage since their discovery by Howard Carter in 1922. The 480,000sqm museum will consist of a high-tech complex of facilities, providing visitors with access to a broad range of information. Mohamed Ghoneim, general coordinator of the project, says that "the EGM is expected to open in 2011, having cost US$550 million, including a US$300 million long-term loan from Japan, US$100 million from the Egyptian Fund for Development and Financing Antiquities and Museums, and US$150 million in donations." The purpose is to create a state-of-the-art museum which tells the story of ancient Egypt and provides access to information and future knowledge. "With the support of new technologies, more information can be obtained in the most up-to-date ways, enabling the EGM to be an enjoyable, entertaining, educational and cultural experience for all visitors," says Farouk Abdel Salam, the general director of the project. Uniquely, the Egyptian Grand Museum allows its visitors to go back in time and navigate through the story of ancient Egypt over the past 7,000 years, enjoying a voyage through one of the world's richest cultural heritage. The master plan and landscape of the Grand Museum are perceived through light and vision. The harsh sunlight of Egypt is mediated to create a story of light modulating in quality and intensity between the sun and shade, exterior and interior, day and night. Ghoneim says that, when the Egyptian Museum in el-Tahrir Square was inaugurated on 15th November, 1902, the building met with contemporary air circulation and natural lighting standards. Approximately, 500 persons originally visited the museum daily and there were 35,000 artefacts exhibited in halls with an area of about 15,000sqm. As there were more and more exciting finds in the first half of the 20th Century, the number of artefacts in the collection grew and grew to more than 160,000. The exhibition halls have become very crowded and the exhibits are at risk from the increasing air pollution. "The EGM, which lies at the intersection of modernity and antiquity, with its updated facilities will solve the problem, while the present Cairo Egyptian Museum will retain its function as an archaeological museum reflecting the ideas of the early 20th century," he explains, adding that it will also accommodate nearly 7,000 artistic masterpieces. Yasser Mansour, head of the EGM's Technical Committee, says 4 million tourists are expected to visit the museum every year and an average of 150,000 visitors per day. Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass has announced that the Statue of Rameses II will stand at the entrance to the museum.

At the intersection of modernity and antiquity, Hassan Saadallah, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, June 08, 2007.

A Spanish archaeological team in Ihnasia, Beni Sueif Governorate, yesterday unearthed a cemetery dating back to the 1st Intermediate Period (2200-2040 BC). It is here that Miro-Hor-Aib, who is said to have held the post of royal secretary, is buried. The walls of the cemetery are decorated with funeral scenes in red. On the lower part of the western wall is a painting of a harpist. People with funereal offerings, such as oxen and birds, are featured on the rest of the wall. The remains of 94 adults of both sexes and 96 children have been found in graves on the site.

Ancient cemetery unearthed in Beni Sueif, Hassan Saadallah, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, June 08, 2007.

The High Dam flooded much of Lower Nubia, and this mandated a resettlement of more than 90,000 Nubians whose land was simply gone. Their history was at stake. Though UNESCO led a rescue operation to save Nubia's archaeological sites, no less than 24 major monuments were relocated to higher grounds, including Abu Simbel and the Temple of Philae, or granted to countries that participated in the work, such as the Debod Temple in Madrid and the Temple of Dendur in New York.

Travel: Snap Shots, Mohamed El-Hebeishy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 848, June 07 - 13, 2007.

Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say.

Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D.

The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.

"It is the biggest site discovered so far," said project leader Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Based on the coins and pottery we found, it appears to be a massive regional centre that traded with Greece, Turkey and Libya..."

Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space, Heather Whipps, LiveScience, USA, June 05, 2007.

cf. Satellites find ancient Egyptian metropolis, Heather Whipps, LiveScience via MSNBC, USA, June 06, 2007.

Previously:

Scientist Races to Save Ancient Egypt, May 24, 2007.

Little did I know what I was in for when I entered a practically empty Cairo International Airport shortly before dawn on May 22 for the return trip to Florida.

The Air France agent was pleasant. She checked my e-ticket, issued my boarding passes and nodded when I asked to have my bag checked through to Gainesville.

But when I went through security, the fun not began. A guard sitting in front of a computer terminal said, “Scissors.”

“Scissors?”

“Scissors,” he repeated...

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Final part: The return to the US was the trip from hell, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 07, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 3: People, politics and economics, June 06, 2007.

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 2: Cairo and Alexandria, June 05, 2007.

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 1: Getting there, June 05, 2007.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman have embarked on another motorcycle journey after their round the world trip in 'Long Way Round'. This time they are travelling from John O'Groats in Scotland to Cape Town South Africa on BMW motorcycles. Their journey is being documented and will air in the autumn (fall) of this year as Long Way Down.

Yesterday they were in Cairo and were also interviewed for the Chris Moyles BBC Radio 1 breakfast show.

The site contains a daily blog of their journey - the Cairo one is linked below which also includes a video and the Radio 1 interview.

Long Way Down - Cairo, Egypt, Charley Boorman, BBC TV, UK, June 06, 2007.

Buy the Book from Amazon or
buy the DVD from Amazon.

The Supreme Council for Antiquities started construction works on the first ever museum on Egyptian deserts sciences and prehistoric monuments in Al-Dakhleh oasis of the New Valley.

Farouk Hosni Culture Minister said the museum is to be built with the aid of the German government.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said the museum will be named after late archaeologist Ahmad Fakhri.

The museum will contain guidelines for monuments in the western desert such locations are situated in the Al-Gilf Al-Kebir area and that they lacked protection as it is difficult to reach them.

One of the tourist expeditions in the area destroyed rare wall paintings of King Khufu, that is why we have to issue guidelines in the new museum for tourists to avoid destruction of such antiquities, he added.

First museum on prehistoric monuments in al-Dakhleh oasis, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 05, 2007.

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

• 'NEFER: The Woman in Ancient Egypt'
  by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli. Blockbuster show in Milan & Turin.
• 125 & Still Counting
  by Aidan Dodson. Work of the Egypt Exploration Society.
• Embalming Caches in the Valley of the Kings
  by Dylan Bickerstaffe. KV63 Is Not Unique, After All.
• Karnak's Vanishing Monument
  by Dennis Forbes. Reliefs of the 3rd Intermediate / Late Period Chapel of Osiris Heqadjet Are Melting Away.
• 'Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs'
  by Bob Brier. Behind the Scenes of the Making of an IMAX Film.
• Mystery of a Sphinx & Four Pyramids in Ohio
  by Earl L. Ertman. Analysing an Egyptianising "Modern" Relic.

KMT, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 18, Number 2, Summer 2007.

Subscribe to KMT Magazine via Amazon.com.

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

• News: All made-up
  
  Canopic Jars of Rameses II neither Canopic nor Rameses' but ordinary cosmetic containers. (1 page)
• News: All Change
  
  Coin shows Cleopatra was no beauty. (1 page)
• Gurob: The key to unlocking a royal harem?
  
  Ian Shaw reports on his excavations at the ‘harem’ site of Gurob in the Fayoum, Egypt. (8 pages)
• Books: Off the shelf
  
  Review of by John Ray. (1 page)

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 11, Issue 23, June / July 2007.

Subscribe to Current World Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

Egyptians are warm, hospitable people. They invite you into their homes, either kiss you on both cheeks or shake your hand and immediately offer you refreshments. Contrary to what we’re told in the US, Egyptians and people from many other Arab countries don’t hate or want to harm Americans; they abhor the Bush regime, in particular, and the Washington imperialists, in general...

The piece then goes on through 9/11, President Anwar Sadat, President Hosni Mubarak, Hosni's son Gamal, baksheesh, all the way to how much a maid earns a month.

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 3: People, politics and economics, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 05, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 2: Cairo and Alexandria, June 05, 2007.

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 1: Getting there, June 05, 2007.

Cairo, a city that never sleeps, is a sprawling metropolis with a population of more than 16 million, making it the largest city on the African continent and the seventh largest in the world. By contrast, Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, has a population of approximately 5 million.

Of the two cities, Cairo, on the Nile, is very cosmopolitan and Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, is more conservative.

While feluccas, barges and small fishing boats ply the Nile day and night, the river truly comes alive at night with boats decorated with coloured lights, many blaring music, offering dinner cruises or just rides until the wee hours of the morning.

Time seems to have little meaning in either city. You breakfast at lunch time, lunch at dinnertime and dine anywhere from 8 p.m. to midnight or later...

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 2: Cairo and Alexandria, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 05, 2007.

cf. Egypt photo gallery, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 04, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 1: Getting there, June 05, 2007.

Little did I realize I that over the next 20-plus hours I would be climbing into and out of planes, from the Aerospatiale/Alenia ATR72 to Atlanta, the Boeing 747-400 to Paris and the Airbus A330 to Cairo.

I hadn’t been to Charles De Gaul airport in Paris since May 2000, when it was a comfortable, civilized place. So I had no knowledge of the construction project underway that caused us to disembark on the tarmac and board shuttle buses that seemed to be giving us a tour of the whole facility before depositing me at the terminal from which to make the connection to Cairo. Interestingly, while I had not left the secure area, I had to go through security again. No shoes off this time, but the silly little plastic bag had to be put through X-ray, along with my carry-on and camera bag...

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 1: Getting there, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 04, 2007.

More royal pyramids stand in the deserts of northern Sudan than in all of Egypt.

For 3,000 years, a succession of African civilizations rose and fell along the Nile River in ancient Nubia, at one point expanding north to the Mediterranean Sea.

Relatively little is known about these peoples. While Egypt hosts up to 200 foreign archaeological teams a year, Sudan until recently has averaged 10 to 12.

Among the pioneers is , head of world cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum, and known to local villagers as simply "Chris."

For 25 years of annual field seasons, he has represented a friendly Canadian presence...

His work centres at Meroe (pronounced MARE-oh-way), capital of one of Africa's greatest ancient civilizations, the Kingdom of Kush. It is one of the country's key archaeological showcases and one of its most photographed sites...

Krzysztof Grzymski, Senior Curator, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada.

Where ancient gods and royalty walked, John Goddard, The Toronto Star, Ontario, Canada, May 31, 2007.

"And this," said the guide who was showing us around the tombs and pyramids at Saqqara, near Cairo, "is the earliest surviving curved stone wall ever built by man. It is over 4,500 years old." "But surely," I ventured, "it has been rebuilt since then?" "No, no, it is the original wall."

I didn't query Mohammed's assertion further. Earlier I had already unintentionally offended his faith by suggesting that the story of the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus was myth rather than history. But clearly, to my eye, nearly all the sandstone blocks that formed most of the 15ft-high structure he was referring to were cut by modern machines.

I doubted they were more than a decade old and I wasn't convinced that any of the wall above ground level even approached the age he was suggesting. I am sure the archaeological evidence for the shape of the wall was there, but not the wall itself.

I have no objection in principle to reconstruction at archaeological sites. Done well, such projects can be highly evocative...

I'm not entirely sure what monument the author is referring to in Saqqara but if he is talking about the enclosure wall around Djoser's Step Pyramid complex then he is correct – it has been extensively rebuilt.

It looks authentic but is it real?, The Telegraph, UK, June 02, 2007.

According to [Abir] Enany, many of the kitchen and food preparation habits [seen in the culinary scenes on the walls of tombs and temples] are still used in modern Egypt.

“For example,” explained Enany, “the type of bread known as ‘Eish Shamsi’ (sun bread) that is baked for a while in an oven then left to dry in the sun on pottery bread platters, is one of the major items that remain to date part of the Egyptian villagers’ diet.”

“Eating onions and fresh vegetables, placing the fresh bread loaves on a ‘matraha,’ (table bread); boiling and roasting meat and duck are all habits that have been handed over to modern Egyptians by their ancestors.”

But for Enany the most interesting of these habits is the production of “fesiekh” (rotten fish)...

The significance of kitchens for ancient Egyptians, Ahmed Maged, The Daily Star, Egypt, June 02, 2007.

, Hilary Wilson, Shire Publications Ltd, 1998, pp. 64.

, Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, British Museum Press, 1999, pp. 64.

Egypt has refused to allow images of its Pyramids to be used on a Portuguese postal stamp featuring sites in a competition to name the new seven wonders of the world, the state-run news agency said on Sunday.

The Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief, as saying the pyramids at Giza should not be used on stamps issued for commercial purposes or included in a competition that is not based on scientific standards...

Egypt says no pyramids photo on Portuguese stamps, Reuters, UK, June 03, 2007.

A Dutch mission from [National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden] has just come across a huge tomb that dates back to the era of King Akhenaten, the 19th dynasty, some 3,500 years ago.

Located in Giza's Saqqara area, the tomb belongs to a priest called Meri Neet [Meryneith], who had become known as the chief superintendent of god Aten at the time.

A source with the mission said they also found the burial chamber, but were not that lucky with the mummy.

But the tomb contained canopic utensils on which the names of the four sons of god Horus are engraved, he said.

Not just that, the Dutch mission also discovered a rare stone slab bearing the image of a woman holding a bunch of flowers, he said, noting that the design followed ancient Egyptian art known in Minya at the time.

Also found was a cartouche belonging to King Senwosret III, an indication that the tomb had been re-sued later on...

Saqqara Online, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities) at Leiden, The Netherlands. Their dig diary finished at the start of March? So this is in fact old news – see the link below. I think the only new bit that has warranted this press release is this paragraph.

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities has prepared a detailed report on the new discovery to refer it to Culture Minister Farouk Hosni to endorse the finances needed to complete the digging operations around the area and touch up discovered items.

Egyptian tomb discovered in Saqqara, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, June 02, 2007.

Previously:

Pair of 3,000-year-old tombs are found in Egypt, February 20, 2007.

Bent at the waist, with legs in squat position, I duck-walked down the narrow shaft descending into the bowels of one of the Pyramids of Giza.

A stream of faces, shiny with exertion and the high humidity inside the pyramid, approached me from the opposite direction. As we squeezed by each other in the tight passage, I took note of their features and caught bits of conversation. Most seemed to be from Europe, some from Asia and yes, a few from America.

Seeing the Pyramids of Giza, the only surviving monuments of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, might be a desire of many Americans, but until recently few chanced realizing their dream. Of all the tourists visiting Egypt in 2005, U.S. visitors ranked in ninth place, behind tourists from the U.K., Russia, Germany and other European and Middle Eastern countries.

In 2006, however, their rank rose to the No. 6 position. The number of Americans travelling to Egypt soared 16.5 percent over 2005, a remarkable figure given the global growth rate for tourism worldwide stood at just 4.5 percent.

Why are more Americans going to Egypt now? ...

Tut tourism: A boy king inspires resurgence in travel to Egypt, Kathy Rodeghier, Chicago Daily Herald, Illinois, June 03, 2007.

Franklin Institute officials are boosting their attendance forecast for the King Tut show halfway through its run at the science museum.

The number of visitors now expected to see Tut before it packs up Sept. 30 [2007] is 1,140,000, up slightly from the initial forecast of a million.

That would make Tut the most popular show to be hosted by the Franklin Institute, and would make Philadelphia the highest-drawing venue of the show's four U.S. stops (though the Philadelphia run, at nearly eight months, is also the longest on the tour, which also included Chicago, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale).

As of yesterday, 640,000 had come to the Franklin Institute to view the collection of 130 artefacts from the tombs of the boy king and his predecessors...

New estimate has Tut drawing even more, Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, USA, May 31, 2007.

It all started with a question: Where were the tens of thousands of workers who built the monumental structures at Giza housed? A massive ancient gateway, which came to be known by early travellers as the Wall of the Crow, drew the attention of two figures instrumental in research on the Giza plateau. These were Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and former director of the Giza Plateau who, in 1989-90, discovered the cemetery of the pyramid-builders, and Mark Lehner, director of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP), who in 1991 had found ancient bakeries due south of the Sphinx. Few had previously questioned the purpose of this enigmatic structure, the Wall of the Crow, which has been visible for thousands of years and through which horse-riders from Neslet Al-Siman regularly passed. Whether it was a causeway, a bridge or a tunnel was not clear. However it did pose another question: a gateway to what? It seemed certain that something really big lay to the south, and in 2001 Lehner set workmen to clear a deep layer of sand and debris to the north side of the structure.

It was no easy task. Sand bags were used to hold back the rubble that had accumulated along the sides of the wall, and only when cleared was it realised what an impressive structure it really was. The gate was more than 2.5 metres wide and about seven metres high, and the wall itself was more than 10 metres thick. It is one of the largest gateways of its kind in the world. The roadway passing through it was carefully paved with what appeared to be abraded ceramic fragments, well trampled and worn. It sloped down several metres under the sand to what Lehner suspected might be a buried harbour to the north.

It seemed certain that the fourth-dynasty Egyptians who built the pyramids between 2613 and 2494BC constructed both the wall and the gateway, and that the purpose was to control the flow of people and material from a harbour into what, on further excavation, proved to be a pre- planned settlement area for seasonal workers. The Wall of the Crow was, in fact, an integral part of a production facility. It might also have served a secondary purpose: to protect the site from periodic flash floods. Lehner speculated that the design of the massive wall might have incorporated a symbolic function — to demarcate the sacred pyramid-temple precinct from the production zone...

Who built the pyramids?, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 847, May 31 - June 06, 2007.

A search for the lost city

Mark Lehner, director of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP), realised that the excavation of the vast ancient settlement site at Giza offered him "an opportunity to give back to Egypt something in return for all the years I have enjoyed excavating here." He envisioned running a rigorous training programme for Egyptian inspectors to guide them in the basics of standard archaeological practice around the world, and today, all over the country, selected SCA inspectors are being trained in the standard practices that are now used for stratigraphic excavation and recording in Britain, France, other European countries, and the United States.

Lehner's aim harmonised with the objective of SCA director Zahi Hawass to train Egyptian inspectors in advanced techniques of field archaeology in order, eventually, to make prior training at one of the professional field schools a condition for appointment to join foreign missions...

A search for the lost city, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 847, May 31 - June 06, 2007.

cf. Photo Caption: Jill Kamil interviews Mark Lehner, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 847, May 31 - June 06, 2007.

cf. Mark Lehner's website: Ancient Egypt Research Associates.