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.