The British architect David Chipperfield is either blazing a restoration trail or sabotaging old buildings, depending on which Berliner you listen to.

He is rebuilding a part of Germany's equivalent of the Louvre — the war-damaged Museum Island complex. Chipperfield's project, the Neues Museum, is the third of five museums to be renovated, and will house Berlin's Egyptian collection, including the 14th century B.C. bust of Queen Nefertiti. It will cost 233 million euros ($329 million) to complete and won't open until 2009. Berliners got a preview in an open house from Sept. 22-24 [2007].

The Neues Museum was left to decay after suffering bomb damage in World War II. Chipperfield, 53, is conserving everything that remained without replicating what was destroyed. He is filling in the gaps with a sparse, contemporary style and modern materials — a blend that has won both friends and foes...

Nefertiti's New Berlin Home Wins British Architect Fans, Foes, Catherine Hickley, Bloomberg, UK, September 27, 2007.

Freud was a collector of antiquities — Roman, Greek, and especially Egyptian. He had assembled several thousand, mostly small sculptures, by the time he was forced to flee Vienna for London and was pleased that he was able to take them with him. They filled his consultation room, covered his desk, accompanied him on his summer vacations, and he loved to handle them. As a small boy, he collected toy soldiers, and Burke speculates that their size, easy to fit in the hand, determined the size of the objects he later collected (p. 182).

He lived in the era of great archaeological exploration — Schliemann unearthed Troy when Freud was 15; Evans excavated Minos at Knossos on Crete when he was in his forties, and Carter discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb when he was in his sixties. He compared psychoanalysis with archaeology in a series of metaphors that evolved and became more sophisticated over the years — from uncovering a concealed past to constructing a plausible model of what might have been, consistent with the fragments that had been preserved to recognizing the way in which remnants of varying epochs can become intermixed and the record difficult to dissect.

This would seem to provide an opportunity for an interesting perspective on Freud’s thinking, the way in which his passionate avocation influenced his ideas, and the subtitle of this book’ Sigmund Freud’s Art Collection and the Development of Psychoanalysis, promises just that. Unfortunately, the book itself misses the mark...

, Janine Burke, Walker & Company, 2006, pp. 284.

The Sphinx on the Table: Sigmund Freud’s Art Collection and the Development of Psychoanalysis, Janine Burke, The American Journal of Psychiatry, New York, USA, 164:1620, doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07081291, October 2007.

Our teacher is Dr Karin Sowada. Dr Sowada is a former curator of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney and has worked on archaeological projects in Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Australia. She holds a PhD in Egyptian archaeology and is widely published on topics as diverse as mummification, Egyptian burial practices, ancient ceramics and Egyptian foreign relations.

Recommended reading
Richard Parkinson,
John Ray,
Alan K. Bowman,

Lesson 74: The Rosetta Stone, Dr Karin Sowada, 702 ABC Sydney, Australia, September 26, 2007. MP3 or ReadMedia.

The 136 miles between the capital and Alexandria is one of the busiest routes in the country, plied by buses, trains and despite the relatively short distance - and flights too.

However, the most sensible and comfortable way to enjoy the journey is by train. There are more than a dozen trains per day in each direction, but you should plumb for one of the three Turbini services. These French built trains are reliable and take just over two hours. A ticket costs just £5 each way in first class air-conditioned carriages.

The Espani (Spanish) trains cost the same as the Turbini, but stop at three stations en route, or there are the slower Francese (French) services, which are suburban-type trains that make a lot of stops. For the extra punishment on the slower trains, you'll save about £1 on the fare...

How to get from Cairo to Alexandria, Richard Green, The Times, UK, September 25, 2007.

Pacific Lutheran University faculty member Don Ryan will speak at 7 p.m. today about his team’s discovery of a missing Egyptian queen, Hatshepsut. The talk will be in the Scandinavian Cultural Centre at the Parkland university.

The team’s work has been chronicled by the Discovery Channel. Ryan will discuss finding the tomb and the process used to identify the mummy.

Ryan directs the Pacific Lutheran University Valley of the Kings Project, which focuses on obscure tombs in Egypt. The tomb and the mummy were discovered by Ryan’s team in 1989.

Queen Hatshepsut ruled during the 18th dynasty, between 1502 to 1482 B.C.

Professor to discuss mummy discovery, Debbie Cafazzo, The Tacoma News Tribune, Washington, USA, September 26, 2007.

Ancient Mexicans and Egyptians who never met and lived centuries and thousands of miles apart both worshiped feathered-serpent deities, built pyramids and developed a 365-day calendar, a new exhibition shows.

Billed as the world's largest temporary archaeological showcase, Mexican archaeologists have brought treasures from ancient Egypt to display alongside the great indigenous civilizations of Mexico for the first time.

The exhibition, which boasts a five-tonne, 3,000-year-old sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and stone carvings from Mexican pyramid Chichen Itza, aims to show many of the similarities of two complex worlds both conquered by Europeans in invasions 1,500 years apart.

"There are huge cultural parallels between ancient Egypt and Mexico in religion, astronomy, architecture and the arts. They deserve to be appreciated together," said exhibition organizer Gina Ulloa, who spent almost three years preparing the 35,520 square-feet (3,300 meter-square) display.

The exhibition, which opened at the weekend in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, shows how Mexican civilizations worshiped the feathered snake god Quetzalcoatl from about 1,200 BC to 1521, when the Spanish conquered the Aztecs...

It should, of course, be noted that they are talking, here, of similarities but not suggesting that the ancient Egyptians had any contact with the ancient Olmec or Maya cultures. And certainly not the Aztec culture which postdates the Egyptian culture by over 1,500-years.

Snake-bird gods fascinated both Aztecs and pharaohs, Reuters, Africa, September 24, 2007.

Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognize the boy king's dark skin colour.

"Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilization as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters.

"Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.

Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory...

Tutankhamun was not black — Egypt antiquities chief, AFP via The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines, September 25, 2007.

Eight baskets filled with fruits preserved for more than 3,000 years have been discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in Tutankhamun's tomb, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Monday.

A team of Egyptian archaeologists, led by antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass, made the discovery in the Valley of the Kings in the ancient city of Thebes, the modern-day Luxor, in southern Egypt.

"The eight baskets contained large quantities of doum fruits, which have been well preserved," Hawass said in a statement.

The fruit baskets are each 50cm (nearly 20 inches) high, the antiquities department said.

The sweet orange-red fruit, also known as the gingerbread fruit, comes from the Doum Palm, a native of southern Egypt, and was traditionally offered at funerals...

Ancient Egyptian fruit hamper found in King Tut's tomb, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, September 24, 2007.

cf. Fruit hamper found in King Tut's tomb, AFP via ABC News, Australia, September 25, 2007.

cf. New discovery found in Egypt's Tutankhamun tomb, Xinhua via People's Daily, China, September 25, 2007.

Previously:

Baskets, pots found abandoned in Tutankhamun tomb, September 24, 2007

Just as the wheels of progress were turning in the Roaring Twenties, so too were they turning up in all the grand new buildings — along with other highly stylized images of gears, planes and other symbols of the Machine Age.

Art Deco's eclectic, geometric style also incorporated stepped forms and sweeping curves, chevron patterns, flowers and sunbursts. Thanks in part to the discovery of King Tut's tomb, designers of the time were under the sway of ancient Egypt — a touch ironic considering the style's futuristic ambitions.

The term Art Deco itself was derived from the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, held in Paris in 1925, but it wasn't popularized until the late 1960s, by art historian Bevis Hillier...

A Touch of Ancient Egypt That Still Says 'Modern', The Washington Post, District of Columbia, USA, September 23, 2007.

Egypt's Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced Thursday the discovery of a collection of pillars, reliefs and lintels in the town of Luxor, south of Cairo. The discovery was an accident, as the Egyptian restoration workers were investigating a fire in a mosque and found the antiquities present dated back to the new kingdom and the nineteenth Dynasty (1,304 B.C. to 1,237 B.C).

"This all came by accident as our restorers went to work on the mosque Abou Al Hagag Al Luxory that suffered from a fire recently, and we discovered that the mosque is partially built on the Luxor temple," Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities told reporters.

"We found a large number of pillars and reliefs that were part of the interior walls of the mosque and they belong to the new kingdom. They show very important scenes which will help us understand better the history of the temple." Hawass, who was excited about the new discovery, called it "a rediscovery of the Luxor temple as a whole."

Mansour Boriak, supervisor of Luxor antiquities told reporters that among the reliefs found is one featuring Ramses II while offering the god Amun two obelisks. The others consist of three statues of King Ramses II wearing his royal suit and his white crown.

Important New Ancient Egyptian Discovery Comes By Chance, Manar Ammar, All News headlines, USA, September 21, 2007.

Egyptian archaeologists working in the tomb of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun have found baskets and intact clay pots apparently overlooked when the tomb was cleared out in the 1920s, the government said on Monday.

The 20 clay pots, sealed with Tutankhamun's name, probably contain seeds and the remains of drinks, a government statement said, quoting chief government archaeologist Zahi Hawass.

One of the baskets contains dried fruit and eight others hold almost 60 small limestone plaques also inscribed with Tutankhamun's name in the traditional cartouche format.

They were found in the treasure room next to the burial chamber where British archaeologist Howard Carter found Tutankhamun's mummy wrapped in its golden covers in 1922.

"Carter didn't mention these things in his report but it looks as though his people put them aside and left them in the treasury room," an official at the Supreme Council for Antiquities said, asking not to be named...

Baskets, pots found abandoned in Tutankhamun tomb, Reuters, Africa, September 24, 2007.

Previously:

Tut's tomb yields more surprises, September 03, 2007.

Long before the world had ever heard of Rome or Greece, Egypt was building a civilisation that astounds us to this day. Using only a few simple tools, the Egyptians engineered giant pyramids, fortresses, dams, irrigation canals and temples in the desert sands, laying much groundwork for future architectural work. But the road was not easy, with each of the nation's rulers making his peculiar contributions for better or for worse.

Viewers can now watch the splendour of the ancient empire on The History Channel (Astro Channel 54). This Sunday, catch the premiere of Engineering an Empire: Egypt at 9pm for a closer look at one of the world's most advanced civilisations with its engineering accomplishments.

Using cutting-edge computer-generated images (CGI), the show examines the personalities of the various pharaohs and how they supervised the empire's construction feats for over 3,000 years. From their greatest achievements to their most spectacular disasters, the show looks at both the ingenuity and recklessness of the leaders and builders who engineered the oldest empire in history...

Egyptian wonders, Sharifah Arfah, The New Straits Times, Malaysia, September 20, 2007.

It's saying something when, after decades of National Geographic, PBS, History Channel and giant screen movies on ancient Egypt, the pharaohs and mummies that any new film has any new information.

But Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, the new large format film opening Sept. 21 [2007] at the Orlando Science Centre's Cinedome, breaks new ground in a couple of areas.

The film, the usual mix of splendid ruins, sand dunes and recreations of life in ancient Egypt, gives us tips on how tomb robbers were able to find burial places packed with riches in those centuries before the first mummies came to light.

If you've seen the PBS Secrets of the Dead instalments on pharaohs, or any of the recent TV documentaries on ancient Egypt, Secrets of the Pharaohs doesn't break enough new ground to warrant the price of admission. But if you can't get enough mummies, and can get too close to one, these Pharaohs come across larger than life, even after death.

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel, Florida, USA, September 21, 2007.

UNESCO may not be happy with the planned Cairo Financial and Tourist Centre, overlooking the Salaheddin Citadel, but it has approved continued construction as long as its recommendations are met.

After four months of wrangling, plans for the 26,000 square metre Cairo Financial and Tourist Centre (CFTC), located next to the citadel, will now be redrawn. Since plans for the CFTC were first unveiled in February 2006 the development has been the focus of controversy, with the Ministry of Culture, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and archaeologists ranged against the developers, ALKAN Holding Company (AHC), and its Chairman Mohamed Nosseir.

Work on CFTC began in 2006 without the permission of the SCA's Permanent Committee for Islamic and Coptic Antiquities, which had twice refused to license development of the site, first in 2001 and again in 2005. The proposed scheme, said the SCA, constituted an encroachment on the citadel complex and violated Antiquities Law 117/1983.

Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir froze construction at the site in July 2006 following SCA complaints. Two weeks later the SCA's Secretary-General Zahi Hawass called for a UNESCO inspection mission to arbitrate. After touring the site UNESCO officials said construction was so advanced that the point of no return had been passed. Work could therefore continue, it said, but only if AHC abided by a strict building code that aimed to contain the damage already done...

Cut down to size, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 863, September 20 - 26, 2007.

The Egyptian civilisation has long been admired and imitated, since the Ancient times, but it seems that there is much more to be known, as the show [Ägyptens versunkene Schätze] hosted at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland proves. This time, curators have focused on several pieces, most of them real treasures, found underwater by the French archaeologist Franck Goddio. Over the years, Goddio explored the seabed near the coast of modern day Alexandria and the Bay of Abukir. In ten years the passionate researcher managed to recover an impressive number of artefacts, from 700 - 800 AD, important testimonies of Egyptian culture. Some of these pieces have been carefully prepared and exhibited in the show at the museum in Bonn.

Most of this artworks and objects have sank into the sea due to several natural disasters, and range from monumental statues to coins, jewellery, cult items. Despite being in the water for centuries, some of these have miraculously survived very well. The explorations of Franck Goddio also led to the rediscovery and re-evaluation of important historical places, such as the ancient port of Alexandria with it's quarters, the city of Herakleion or the city of Canopus. In whole, around 500 artefacts have been chosen for the Bonn exhibition, a huge number for such rare and beautiful pieces, covering over 1500 years of Egyptian history, from the last of the Pharaohs to the times of Alexander the Great and the Greek and Roman eras. The quality of the craftsmanship, the uniqueness of the works are representative for the level achieved in the past by the three cities, which were major cultural, trade and religious centres, influential throughout the region. Also, the ancient Egyptian culture and art were deeply influenced by the Greeks and the Romans, so the result was a new and interesting way of living and creating, that in it's turn will change the history and evolution of the region.

The show hosted by the museum in Bonn is a chance of discovering an important and rather mysterious chapter in the history of Egypt, and so far the number of visitors has proven it to be a success.

Egyptian Sunken Treasures, ArtLine, Romania, September 20, 2007.

The King Tut exhibit at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute is to be open around the clock on its final weekend.

The exhibit is to open at 8:30 a.m. a week from Friday and stay open till 11 p.m. the following Sunday.

The Franklin Institute says it's doing this to accommodate increasing demand during the final weeks of the exhibit, called "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs."

King Tut exhibit to run round the clock over final weekend, AP via 21 WHP CBS, Pennsylvania, USA, September 19, 2007.

A collection of new kingdom pillars, lintels and reliefs were accidentally found by Egyptian restorers from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said Thursday.

The monuments were discovered within the internal walls of Abul Haggag El Loxory mosque, built on top of the open court of Luxor temple during restoration operations, Farouk added.

SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass said the collection dated back to the reign of King Ramses II...

New monuments discovered near Luxor temple, Dpa via Monsters & Critics, UK, September 20, 2007.

Kellogg's is offering the chance for ten families to win a fantastic trip to Egypt with an on-pack promotion to support the London 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' exhibition.

The competition, which will appear on family and kids brands, will offer ten top prizes of a family trip to Cairo where they will embark on a private tour with expert Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Cairo Museum as well as a visit to the Valley of the Kings and exclusive access to the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Ten runners up will win a trip for four to the London exhibition. All consumers buying a promotional pack will qualify for a £5 discount on a family ticket...

Kellogg's in on-pack Tutankhamun trip promotion, Kellogg's, Talking Retail, UK, September 07, 2007...

Egyptian archaeologists have found rare medical and astronomical manuscripts at the country's National Library (also known as Dar al-Kotob).

A senior official at Alexandria Library said the ancient documents were just laying forgotten in the Dar al-Kotob archives for many years, but were then "technically rediscovered" due to the efforts of the Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT).

"They are really priceless," Egyptian State Information Service quoted the official as saying.

CULTNAT chief Fathi Saleh said the medical papers give prescription of the treatment of some chronic diseases, bone fractures and bruises and lessons in body and eye anatomy...

Rare medical, astronomical manuscripts 'rediscovered' in Egypt's National Library, ANI via WebIndia123.com, September 17, 2007.

Previously:

Rare medical, astronomical manuscripts found at Dar al-Kotob, September 17, 2007.

The 4th annual "Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge" (CPAK 2007), sponsored by the Binary Research Institute, is likely the largest meeting of "alternative historians" in the world and one that is sure to raise questions about our past. Many of the authors, researchers and scientists scheduled to present hold unusual theories about history, such as the belief that history may be cyclical with alternating Dark and Golden Ages, a cycle Plato called: The Great Year. This was a belief common to over thirty ancient civilizations but most of us were taught this is just a fairytale; there was no Golden Age. However, , author of Lost Star of Myth and Time will present evidence that it may have a basis in fact, indirectly due to solar system motion. Another presenting scientist, , author of Seed of Knowledge Stone of Plenty, will release a new study showing that the polarity of the stones at Avebury are aligned uni-directionally, indicating ancient peoples had a knowledge of magnetic forces.

Other presenters this year include , the Boston University Geologist famed for re-dating the Sphinx (much older than heretofore believed), , Explorer and best selling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, and other books suggesting our ancient ancestors were more intelligent than most anthropologists infer, , engineer and author of The Orion Mystery, and Emmy Award winning rebel Egyptologist , who suspects ancient Egypt might have its roots in an earlier culture — possibly Atlantis. These are a few of the provocative scientists, authors and researchers presenting at CPAK 2007, an event that offers a new way to look at ancient cultures and their wisdom.

In addition to the private academic meetings, CPAK offers two days of presentations open to the general public. They will take place at Peterson Hall on the UCSD campus this October 6-7...

Authors and Scientists Meet to Rewrite History, Business Wire, USA, September 10, 2007.

The United Nations has objected to plans to build a hotel and offices overlooking Cairo's historic citadel, and recommends the planners scale back by five or six floors, the Egyptian government said on Monday.

UNESCO (the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) said in a report that the high buildings would damage the appearance of the citadel, the mediaeval fortress which for centuries was the seat of the government in Egypt.

"These (the upper floors) would constitute a major infringement on the visual integrity of the citadel," the ministry quoted UNESCO as saying...

The development, known as the Cairo Financial Centre, would include shops, offices, a five-star hotel, an exhibition and conference centre and an entertainment centre, according to the Web site of the developers, Alkan Holdings.

The office of the director of the project, Khaled Nassar, said the company was meeting to discuss the UNESCO recommendations and might make a statement on Tuesday.

UNESCO recommended that the height of the buildings be reduced to 31.55 metres (104 feet) from 59.50 metres so that they do not protrude above the enclosing wall of the citadel...

UN objects to plans for Cairo's mediaeval citadel, Reuters, Africa, September 17, 2007.

Unesco objects to high-rise overlooking Cairo's citadel, Reuters via Gulfnews, UAE, September 17, 2007.

Cairo citadel plans rapped , Gulf Daily News, Bahrain, Vol. XXX, NO. 182, September 18, 2007.

A top official in the Egyptian authority for antiquities has been arrested as part of an investigation into bribes for restoration contracts.

The head of the technical department, Abdul Hamid Qutb, was arrested on Saturday and his office was searched.

The contracts, worth tens of millions of dollars, cover some of Egypt's best known monuments, local media say.

Mr Qutb's boss, Zahi Hawass, defended his department and said Mr Qutb was not in a position to award contracts...

Egypt antiquities official held, BBC News, UK, September 17, 2007.

Traverce Harrison (pronounced "TRAVers") crossed the Atlantic and northern Africa this past March to participate in a photography workshop in Egypt.

He met 30-some other photographers in Cairo, as well as two professional photographers — the teachers, who were an Egyptologist and a translator.

The group flew to Aswan, saw sights on a charter bus, took a two-day cruise getting to Luxor, and then retraced their modes of transport back.

All seen, Harrison took over 500 photos. Each night, the group uploaded photos onto their respective laptops and showed choice ones to the instructors for critique. He learned about Egypt in the meantime and shared a few of his photos with the MP News. At the pyramids in Cairo, Harrison photographed an Egyptian family. The woman's head is covered, but not her face. Harrison noted that though most women in Egypt wear the head scarf, many do not wear the facial veil associated with more socially conservative Islamic nations.

The group dined in numerous establishments including a restaurant that baked its bread and fried its fish in outdoor ovens, of which he got pictures, and in a Bedouin café where they drank real, thick-as-mud Bedouin coffee. "You could put a stick in it and it would stand up," Harrison joked...

MP man's photo shoot: Harrison traverses, shoots Egypt, Mira Cash-Davis, Mount Pleasant News, Iowa, USA, September 14, 2007.

A number of rare and invaluable medical and astronomical manuscripts have been found at the National Library of Egypt (also known as Dar al-Kotob).

A senior official at Alexandria Library said Saturday that the ancient documents were just laying there in the forgotten Dar al-Kotob archives for many years but thanks to his Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) they were "technically rediscovered".

"They are really priceless," he reiterated. The medical papers give prescription of the treatment of some chronic diseases, bone fractures and bruises and lessons in body and eye anatomy, CULTNAT chief Fathi Saleh said...

Rare medical, astronomical manuscripts found at Dar al-Kotob, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 16, 2007.

"Egyptologists are now secretly admitting, but only amongst themselves in their inner cabals (colloquiums), that the chronology framework for ancient Egypt between 2000 and 500 BC is chaotic and that a 'new political history for ancient Egypt will take another hundred years to establish'". Mr Don Stewart, currently auditing the Egyptology Profession, and a former economist for the United States Department of Agriculture's FAS, also former analyst for New Zealand Science Ministry 'MoRST', today announced these findings from an Egyptology colloquium he attended in 2002. He added, "Egyptologists at the Colloquium raised the possibility of considering a new process whereby they will in future ignore any evidence which is not found 'in situ' in archaeological investigations or anything that is not either pottery-, statue- or building- or any other physical object-based." Mr Stewart is the author of 'Memphis, Merenptah and Rameses and the Winged Disk of Judah'. The book, currently deposited at the British Library and Ashmolean Museum Library, analyses William Flinders Petrie's excavations at Memphis between 1908 and 1914. Mr Stewart said, "my book proves, as far as anything can be proven, that Pithom and Rameses, two cities the ancient Israelites built in Egypt, were actually the City of Memphis or Mem-phit, Phit-mem - 'Pithom', referred to in Exodus 1:11..."

Egyptologists Know Egyptology's Chronology is False, Don Stewart, PR-GB.com, UK, September 14, 2007.

In the same vein today we also have...

Redating the Egyptian Dynasties serves as Proof for Moses, David Down, via ProgressiveU.org, September 14, 2007.

Back in 1972 I was among the teeming crowds snaking in front of the British Museum to shuffle past cabinets showcasing Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.

The darkened room in which a single downlight revealed a solitary treasure — the young king's jewel-encrusted death mask, banded in blue and gold — will be stamped forever in the memories of those who entered it.

Which is fortunate for us because the mask was subsequently deemed too fragile to travel, so now we must make do with 50 objects which tell the fuller story. Many of these are also dazzling artworks in their own right.

Otherwise there are new riches in store, for although the British Museum is advising on a show which drew 1.2 million visitors on a recent American tour, it will be hosted by what will soon be the most all-embracing cultural venue in Britain. Three cheers for what we used to call the Dome...

Lifting the coffin lids, Ian Collins, EDP24, UK, September 15, 2007.

Step into King Tut’s on North Main Street in Mansfield, and you step into another world.

The unique jewellery and antiques store had its grand opening in August. Before that, the store’s owner, Magdy Nawar painstakingly transformed the store’s space so its ambiance matches the goods available for sale there.

Nawar, a Mansfield resident, also owns MGN Painting, which specializes in murals and other unique interior and exterior work. The interior and exterior of King Tut’s reflect his talent in that area.

Nawar was born in Egypt, and about half of the merchandise for sale at the store is Egyptian.

Before coming to the United States, Nawar lived in France so the other half of the merchandise reflects more of a European flavour.

Nawar buys antiques and restores them, creating one-of-a-kind pieces...

An example of an Egyptian treasure is a hookah, a traditional Egyptian water pipe...

Lovely hand-painted plates, designed to be hung on walls, imported from Europe and from Egypt also grace the glass cases at King Tut’s. The European plates are signed by the artists, Nawar said, and the Egyptian plates are handmade and engraved.

Egyptian dresses and accessories for ladies are also available, as are several different types of Egyptian statues...

Egyptian touch downtown, Deborah Knight Snyder, Mansfield News, Massachusetts, USA, September 14, 2007.

Some lands are so ancient, it's like they're forever new. Libya's like that - from Neolithic times before the dawn of history, down through Egyptians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, and Muslims, the ancient peoples of Libya's coasts and deserts assimilated new ideas and made trade worthy accommodation (eventually) with all comers. The political entity we think of as a somewhat-misshapen box on Africa's Mediterranean shore only came into existence in 1951; prior to that, Libya had, like so many other lands in regions of overlapping imperial interests, changed hands many times as the powerful waxed and waned...

Neolithic culture was alive and well in Libya by the 7th millennium BCE, flourishing on a broad, well-watered savanna that stretched far to the south - petroglyphs of elephants, giraffes, and other non-desert dwelling beasts show that the area wasn't always a desert. Sometime around 2000 BCE, the process of desiccation accelerated, the beasts moved away, and the Sahara inched northward and southward a little each year, on its way to becoming the broad swath of un-inhabitability we know and love today. The people of the savanna migrated toward the more fertile fields of the Sudan, or stayed put and melded into the tribes of Berbers, who'd been arriving from the east for the past few hundred years...

Things didn't go quite as well for the Berbers during the Middle Kingdom BCE), as the pharaohs were able to extend their dominance over them and begin exacting tribute. As is so often the case with over-loaded peoples, Berbers began serving in the Egyptian army in large numbers, and eventually started making their way up the pharaonic social ladder. Around 950 BCE, a Berber officer usurped the reigning pharaoh, installed himself as Shishonk I, and established the Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Dynasties (the so-called "Libyan Dynasties"), which lasted from 945-730 BCE...

Culture: Libya Through the Ages Part I: Ancient Libya, R. Scott Peoples, Bits of News, September 10, 2007.

The new issue of Minerva magazine is available now. It contains several articles of interest to Egyptophiles.

• The Return of Tutankhamun
  Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D. and Dr Sean Kingsley. Full text online.
• Chariots, Horses or Hippos: What killed Tutankhamun?
  W. Benson Harer
• The Tomb of Ptahemwia: Akhenaten’s ‘Royal Butler, Clean of Hands’
  Maarten J. Raven
• Heracleion & Canopus Arise from the Waves
  Sean Kingsley
• The Sphinx Revealed: A Forgotten Record of Pioneering Excavations
  Patricia Usick
• Online Book Reviews
• 
  by Thomas E. Levy and Thomas Higham

Minerva Magazine, London, UK, Volume 18, Number 5, September / October 2007.

Subscribe to Minerva Magazine via Amazon.com.

More than a million Britons journeyed to Egypt last year. Almost all of them either battled the regimented coach parties to glimpse ancient Pharaonic monuments, or flocked to the beach resorts that offer world-class diving and windsurfing, and which sadly are also devastating the ecology of the Red Sea coast. But there are many other Egypts.

One of the country's neglected places is Alexandria, immodestly named by its founder, Alexander the Great. This Mediterranean port is also famous as the home of Queen Cleopatra, from the days when it vied with Rome as the world's greatest city, trading every ancient commodity and boasting 700,000 scrolls in its library. A second era of celebrity came in the century up until the 1950s, when Alexandria's commercial prowess came again to the fore, allowing a cosmopolitan hedonism captured in the novels of Lawrence Durrell and others.

Now the foreigners are gone (though its 30km of beachfront draws Egyptians in the summer) and it has something of the taste of old Havana. Once-imperious early 20th-century buildings stand in glorious dilapidation along the waterfront Corniche and twisting backstreets. Overstaffed, high-ceilinged coffee houses like the Trianon regret the passing of the Armenian cotton traders, Greek shipping agents and European aristocrats who were once their patrons...

The city that fell into the sea, Dan Whitaker, The Observer, UK, July 29, 2007.

The British Museum’s touring exhibition of 270 of some of its best artefacts opens in Hong Kong today, including a Leonardo da Vinci drawing, an Egyptian mummy and two of the world’s oldest tools.

“Treasures of the World’s Cultures from the British Museum” has exhibits from stone-age Europe, ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Americas, Africa and Asia on show until Dec. 2 [2007] at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in Kowloon.

“The museum aims to reach a broader worldwide audience,” Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Director Thomas Chow said at a packed preview of the event late yesterday.

Highlights include 2 million-year-old “chopping stones” from Africa, a drawing of a nude man by Da Vinci, an Egyptian mummy board from 945 BC called the “Unlucky Mummy” because of a supposed curse; and a Nordic walrus-ivory chess piece found in Scotland...

British Museum Show Spanning 2 Million Years Opens in Hong Kong, Tom Kohn, Bloomberg, UK, September 14, 2007.

The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee will host Dr. , Egyptologist and research associate at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, who will present "Belzoni to UNESCO: A History of Collecting Egyptian Antiquities" at 7 p.m. Friday [September 14, 2007]. This lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.

Teeter received a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1990. Her area of specialization includes the history and religion of second millennium B.C. Egypt with emphasis upon popular religion and cult ritual. She has participated in expeditions at Giza, Luxor and Alexandria.

Teeter is the author of a wide range of scholarly and popular articles that have been published in journals in the United States and abroad as well as the monographs " "; " "; and " ." She also is a frequent contributor to archaeology magazines for young readers...

Egyptian expert to lecture at Mabee-Gerrer, Shawnee News-Star, Oklahoma, September 12, 2007.

It has been some time since my last update as many administrative issues necessitated my attention this summer.

As of June 30th, our contractual agreement with the University of Memphis (UM) expired hence requiring a search for a new affiliate.

Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the Amenmesse Project [KV-10 and KV-63] is now affiliated with the prestigious, Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) ˜ The Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

The SCA, as ‘Guardians of the Monuments’ in Egypt require all missions to report directly to them for their approval and sanction. This amiable relationship has been the case during past seasons with KV-10 and during the clearance of KV-63, so this closer affiliation with the SCA should be beneficial to all concerned.

With the exception of transferring the name of our affiliation, no other changes are expected. I will continue as Director of the mission and Earl Ertman as Associate Director.

Our mission will now be identified as:
Amenmesse Project [KV-10 and KV-63]
A Supreme Council of Antiquities Mission

A few issues still remain unresolved but we are planning to resume our work in the King’s Valley this coming winter.

KV63: Otto's Dig Diary, Dr. Otto Schaden, Amenmesse Project [KV-10 and KV-63], A Supreme Council of Antiquities Mission, Egypt, September 12, 2007

Since ancient times, men and women have searched for ways to look young. Eye and face cosmetics were used by the ancient Egyptians, the most famous of whom is Cleopatra. She used lactic acid to peel her skin to look beautiful. Archaeologists have found formulas, written on papyrus, of facials made from plants and honey that early women used. Many of these products, including anti-wrinkle creams, also contained aloe that was commonly used in ancient Egypt.

The Egyptian fascination with wrinkle creams and other beauty products was prevalent regardless of one's class or status. Records indicate, for example, that even unskilled lower class workers were given, as part of their wages, anti-wrinkle and moisturizing products like body oil for daily use. Skin care and cosmetics were important to Egyptians the same way we value our appearance today.

Egyptian anti-wrinkle and body care concerns were important to both men and women. Under the hot and arid climate, men as well as women needed protection for their skin. Men and women both used body oils as well as cosmetic products.

The standard anti-wrinkle cream recipe in ancient Egypt included a teaspoon of sweet almond oil and two drops of frankincense oil. This was gently massaged into freshly cleansed skin each night...

This is really just an advert for a particular anti-wrinkle cream, disguised as a press release, by wrapping it in a story about Ancient Egypt and Cleopatra which always gets people's attention. Well I've posted it anyway.

Egyptian Anti-wrinkle Secrets, PR-GB.com, UK, September 13, 2007.

About 270 artefacts selected from the British Museum will be put on display at the Hong Kong Museum of Art from Sept. 14 [2007].

The exhibition, entitled Treasures of the World's Cultures from the British Museum, will feature about 270 artefacts covering a vast span of time from two million years ago to the present day...

The exhibits include sculptures, ceramics, wood carvings, jewellery, drawings and prints selected to give visitors a glimpse of the diversified arts and cultures of ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Africa, India, Japan, America and Oceania.

Highlight items include an Egyptian wooden mummy-board "The Unlucky Mummy" of early 22nd Dynasty dated about 945 BC; a 13th century Egyptian brass "Astrolabe" with silver inlay, a marble Roman statue of Dionysos of 2nd century; a "Queen's lyre" of about 2600-2400 BC found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur; a walrus ivory chess-piece made in about 1150-1200 and found in Scotland, a portrait-head of Euripides, the leading playwright of Classical Athens, and a nude man drawing by Leonardo da Vinci...

About 270 treasures from British Museum to display in HK, People's Daily, China, September 13, 2007.

When I was growing up, a Nile cruise visiting the temples and tombs of the Pharaohs was something out of the financial reach of many, but nonetheless something to aspire to.

Actually, I thought it still was, until last week when I discovered it is just another cheap holiday option for sun-seeking tourists with no more interest in seeing ancient Egypt than I have for flying to the moon.

Each to their own, but I have not booked to fly to the moon, and have no intention of doing so, whereas these people are going to Egypt, but simply because it's hot and cheap.

The alarm bells started to ring when Amro, my guide on a cruise last week, told me he had found seven-night holidays on the internet for £139 per person. For that you got a cabin and food but excursions — surely the main reason for cruising down the Nile — all cost extra.

A fellow passenger asked what people expect for that price. Amro’s answer? The world.

“And then they complain because they don’t get it,” he added...

Nile cruising for sun-seekers, Jane Archer, The Telegraph, UK, September 12, 2007.

There's a chance to explore the art of ancient Egypt on Warwick University's Open Studies programme.

Those taking part in a weekly evening class spread over 10 weeks will be able to fund out about Egyptian painting, sculptures and relief art.

Tutor Chris Kirby said: "This class is ideal for those planning to visit Egypt or Egyptian collections in museums or who simply have a love of dynamic, surprising and technically accomplished art..."

There's actually three Egyptology courses, two by Chris Kirby and one by Angela Torpey, my lecturer. The link above will take you to the course list and registration forms.

Course will help you to go Egyptian, Coventry Evening Telegraph, England, UK, September 13, 2007.

A conservation day will lift the lid on how experts care for the Bolton Museum collection.

The free event takes place from 9.30am to 3pm on Saturday [September 15, 2007] at the museum in Le Mans Crescent.

From 9.30am to noon and between 1pm and 3pm demonstrations of conservation techniques will take place with conservator Pierrette Squires.

Visitors are welcome to bring in objects from home and advice will be given on how best to care for them.

Tom Hardwick, curator of Egyptology and archaeology will give talks including a slide show on Cartonnage, the Egyptian papier mâché used for mummy cases.

The museum is also looking for ideas on how the Egyptology display can be improved and what people would like to see in it.

And from 10.30am to 12.30pm and between 1.30pm and 3.30pm there will be a hands-on 'colour matching' activity for all the family.

Hands on event - conservation. At Bolton Museum, Bolton Museum, UK.

Conservation event puts spotlight on museum collection, Rob Devey, The Bolton News, England, UK, September 13, 2007.

Examination of Egyptian mummies has shown that animals such as cats and crocodiles were given a far more careful and expensive trip to the afterlife than previously thought.

The mummification process, which was crucial to the ancient Egyptians so their bodies survived and they could become immortal, is being investigated by Dr Stephen Buckley at the University of York. He was speaking on September 11, 2007 at the BA Festival of Science.

His work uses modern chemistry techniques to look at exactly what was used to mummify humans and animals.

The technique involves taking a very small sample of the mummy and examining it for traces of chemicals using equipment commonly used in forensic studies.

The compounds that Dr Buckley finds act as the chemical fingerprints for the materials used by the Egyptian embalmers. These included animal fats, beeswax, plant oils and resins, and more exotic materials such as marjoram and cinnamon.

Following examination of over 100 samples it is clear that different animals were treated with different mummification materials...

Ancient Egyptians Mummified Their Cats With Utmost Care, Science Daily, USA, September 13, 2007.

cf. Mummified moggies: How ancient Egyptians preserved their animals, The University of York, England, UK, September 16, 2004.

Egypt's strategic location as well as its political ties with Great Britain resulted in the country being a great Commonwealth base in both world wars. During WWI, Egypt played a crucial role in withstanding Turkish offences from the east. Subsequently it was the springboard from which military campaigns aiming at the conquest of Sinai, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria were launched. Egypt was also the base for the Commonwealth Expeditionary Forces dispatched to Gallipoli, Turkey. Continuing to play a decisive strategic role during WWII, Egypt hosted the General Headquarters for the Middle East Command in 1941 in Heliopolis. During October of the same year a war cemetery was opened.

In addition to the 1,830 graves Heliopolis War Cemetery contains, now it is also home to the memorials of Port Tawfiq and Aden. The original Port Tawfiq Memorial was built in 1925 honouring the casualties the Indian Army suffered during WWI in Egypt and Palestine. It was irreparably damaged during the Egyptian-Israeli hostilities of 1967 and 1973. The Aden Memorial commemorates 618 casualties of WWI who lost their lives defending Yemen's Aden. Likewise, the original place of commemoration was destroyed in 1967 during the Yemeni civil war.

The Heliopolis War Cemetery and the memorials are among 2,500 worldwide war cemeteries constructed and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In 1917, based on a memorandum submitted by a former commander of a mobile unit of the British Red Cross, Sir Fabian Ware, the Imperial War Graves Commission, as it was called at the time, was established by Royal Charter. Thanks to the original idea of Sir Ware and the continuous efforts of his establishment, the commission now pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars.

For more on Egypt's hidden treasures, see Egypt Rediscovered available in Cairo's major bookstores. [I cannot find the book anywhere online but the book appears to be published by Kotob Khan Book Shop.]

Snap Shots, Mohamed El-Hebeishy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 861, September 06 - 12, 2007.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said he hopes to become the next UNESCO Secretary-General.

Addressing a meeting of the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs under Ambassador Rauf el-Ridi, Hosni said he set up a working team of Egyptian experts to run his UNESCO bid.

The team of dignitaries and intellectuals comprises Mohammed Salmawi, Mostafa el-Fiki, and El-Sayed Yassin and El-Ridi.

Hosni said Arab countries should be united on one candidate...

International support for Farouk Hosni UNESCO nomination, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 05, 2007.

When Charles Lang Freer was scouring the shops of Cairo's antiquities dealers a century ago, two falcon sculptures, pictured above, caught his eye. The "two great stone Hawks," he wrote at the time, "would nobly defend my little group of Egyptian art when permanently housed."

While amassing 1,400 items might seem a gigantic feat, Freer's Egyptian collection is fairly modest, with some of the best on display in a tiny room on the east side of the Smithsonian museum that bears the art collector's name. While most internationally regarded museums with Egyptian collections will show off a giant sarcophagus or two, or a golden funerary mask, the Freer has a fascinating showcase of small glass objects, including vessels, beads and amulets, which you could easily miss when strolling through its galleries. But if the Freer's Egyptian gems catch your eye, you could easily spend an hour surveying the array of diminutive but fascinating objects.

The collection should be a required stop at the Smithsonian museum, especially since there aren't too many Egyptian treasures in the museum collections in the nation's capital. It's also a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of the Mall and the mind-numbing nature of the thousands of federal offices adjacent to the Smithsonian campus, perfect for a lunchtime or late afternoon visit, when you can have the place all to yourself...

"Small glass vessels and sculpture collected by Charles Lang Freer", Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

Escape the Office: Egyptian Gems at the Freer, Michael Grass, The Washington Post, District of Columbia, USA, September 11, 2007.

The Egyptian government wants to borrow Nefertiti for three months so it can be displayed at the opening of the $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids.

In April, German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said there were "serious conservational and restorative concerns" about transporting the bust of Nefertiti. He stressed that his country's procurement of the work was lawful and said Egypt had no grounds to demand its return.

That position hasn't changed after months of lobbying by the Egyptians. "It's up to the owner of a work of art to decide whether it is fit to travel or not," says Mechtild Kronenberg, director of the German Museums Association.

Hawass, who has recovered about 4,000 artefacts from countries including Spain, France and Mexico since 2002, is also asking the British Museum to lend the Rosetta Stone to Egypt...

The British Museum's Board of Trustees is reviewing the request, says spokeswoman Hannah Boulton.

Egypt asked to borrow the works as part of a project to fill 19 new museums, of which the Grand Egyptian Museum will be the largest. The museum is under construction and is scheduled to open in 2012.

The country may need that long to bring Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone back to Cairo, even temporarily...

Queen Nefertiti Boils Cairo Blood as Germans Reject Bust Loan, Abeer Allam, Bloomberg, UK, September 11, 2007.

Niagara Falls might seem to be a strange place for a large and important collection of Egyptian mummies. But it was not quite so strange in the late 1850’s, when Colonel Sydney Barnett, the son of the Museum’s founder, Thomas Barnett ... went to Egypt to purchase the Egyptian antiquities that would begin the collection. The Niagara Falls Museum, Canada’s oldest museum, opened in 1827.

Since Napoleon’s attempt to conquer Egypt in 1798, Egyptian mummies, coffins, statues and jewellery had been entering Europe and North America, inspiring artists and architects. Many cemeteries in the first half of the nineteenth century were built with Egyptian style gates. The decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean François Champollion in 1836 excited the Western world. American writers and philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Edgar Allen Poe, wrote on Egyptian themes. The Crystal Palace display in London in 1851 had whetted the public’s appetite for even more Egyptian materials. In Niagara Falls, two monuments had already been constructed in Ancient Style.

First, between 1850 and 1851, E.W. Serrell built a suspension bridge over the gorge at Lewiston, with Egyptian style pylons. Then, between 1852 and 1853, J.A.. Roebling (whose son, Washington Roebling, would later build the Brooklyn Bridge) spanned the Niagara River below the falls with a double-level suspension bridge built in Egyptian style. What could have been more reasonable than to create a dazzling display of Ancient Egyptian materials in the beautiful Niagara Falls Museum on Table Rock overlooking the Falls, in sight of the Egyptian pylons of the bridge?

During the late 1850s, negotiations began, and by 1861, Colonel Barnett, with the help of Canadian doctor, James A. Douglas, was able to bring the first six mummies from Egypt...

Niagara Falls: Repository of Egyptian mummies, Daily Trust, Africa, August 31, 2007.

Although some people wonder if he inspired Steven Spielberg’s daring archaeologist Indiana Jones, the “colorful character” and “adventurer” labels used to describe Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie in press releases are just marketing exaggeration. “He was more like an anti-Indiana Jones,” said Peter Lacovara of Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta. “He was a real scholar, a very serious man.”

Of course, there is an account of Petrie swinging down to a pyramid doorway on a rope ladder to examine a flooded burial chamber by candlelight while wading through foul water littered with coffins and skulls. “Well, yes, you sort of had to do that,” Lacovara said.

But the man’s professional accomplishments are far more important than any of the more audacious means of exploration he may have found necessary, he added...

Excavating Egypt Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at the New Mexico Museum of Art.

Keeping pharaohs out of the fire since the 1880s, Paul Weideman, The New Mexican, New Mexico, USA, August 30, 2007.

The earliest possible description of the plague that is known of is found in the Hebrew Bible in Samuel. The event has been dated to around the second half of the 11th century B.C. The Hebrew description of tumours in the Bible is interpreted as the 'swelling in the secret parts.' The Philistine city was said to have been stricken with mice which brought death to large segments of the population.

New evidence has been uncovered that leads some experts to believe that the plague's origins may come from Egypt. Eva Panagiotakopulu, who is an archaeologist and fossil-insect expert at the University of Sheffield, England, is the woman responsible for science's latest discovery. Eva has found archaeological evidence to back up the plague's possible origins in Egypt, and that evidence has recently just been published in the Journal of Biogeography.

Eva Panagiotakopulu fell onto evidence that the plague may have started in Egypt completely by accident. Eva had been looking at the remains of fossilized insects to learn about life in Egypt thousands of years ago. Since Egyptians lived so close to domestic animals, and thus pests, Panagiotakopulu decided to look at the different diseases that animals and people may have once had...

Did the Bubonic Plague Originate in Egypt?, Lily Eve, Associated Content, September 07, 2007.

How they died is still a mystery, but examinations of the two mummies at the Putnam Museum have revealed some of their secrets.

The mummies, long-time attractions at the Davenport museum, were CT scanned and X-rayed Aug. 21 [2007] at Genesis Medical Centre's west campus to find out more about them.

It is unlikely a cause of death will be discovered, said Eunice Schlichting and Christina Kastell, Putnam curators...

But the scans at Genesis did show the female, possibly named Isis Neferit, may still have her heart, while showing her male counterpart, whose name is not known, was not pillaged by thieves.

There is dried tissue in Isis Neferit's chest cavity that could be her heart, Ms. Schlichting and Ms. Kastell said...

Three more CT-scan pictures accompany this story.

Putnam's mummies continue to give up their secrets, Anthony Watt, Quad-City Times, Iowa, USA, September 07, 2007.

Previously:

CT scans show how Putnam's mummies were preserved, August 29, 2007.

Putnam Mummies' exodus to Genesis goes well, August 24, 2007.

Iowa museum mummies to undergo CT scans, August 20, 2007.

Explore ancient Egypt on a Nile cruise, the capital city of Cairo and other country highlights with G.A.P. Adventures. The company will appeal to those seeking tours with smaller groups.

For instance, G.A.P's 12-day Egypt Explorer package, with no more than 15 participants (tours average 10) and is set to begin Oct. 13 [2007] in Cairo. Highlights include guided tours of Cairo, the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. From Cairo you'll travel to Egypt's second largest city, Alexandria, to visit Pompey's pillar, the catacombs and the Royal Library, founded in the third century B.C. A day to visit the Aswan Dam along the Nile has enough free time to allow for a camel ride to St. Simeon's Monastery. Soak up the sights of life along the Nile aboard a cruise to Luxor, among the most ancient of Egypt's cities...

Egypt's treasures: The Nile and beyond, Clara Bosonetto Maerz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia, USA, September 09, 2007.

Cyprus is to launch sea surveys in an area where dozens of vessels led by warring successors to Alexander the Great are believed to have sunk in battle for control over the island in 306 BC.

Encouraged by the discovery of one wreck from a later Roman era, the survey slated for the summer of 2008 will extend into deep waters from the south-east tip of the island, known as Cape Greco, the island's Antiquities Department said...

Historical accounts suggest that the Cape Greco region — a rocky outcrop between the now popular tourist resorts of Agia Napa and Protaras, saw one of the biggest naval battles of the ancient world.

According to the ancient Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily, in 306 BC Demetrios the Poliorketes (Besieger) triumphed over Ptolemy I of Egypt in a naval engagement off Cyprus, with dozens of vessels sunk as the result of combat...

Cyprus to seek ancient shipwrecks off its coast, Michele Kambas, Reuters, Africa, September 06, 2007.

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

• The Scientific Search for Hatshepsut's Mummy
  by Zahi Hawass. CT-Scans & DNA Analysis.
• Egypt in Milan
  by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli.
• Given Life Forever
  by George B. Johnson & Dennis Forbes. The Funerary Monuments of Amenhotep III.
• Combined Arms, Egyptian Style
  by Omar Zuhdi. Thutmose III's 8th Campaign, Across the Euphrates.
• The Egyptian Court of London's Crystal Palace
  by Clair Ossian. A Record in Old Photography.
• Ancient Egypt on Stage
  by Donald P. Ryan. A Brief Introduction to Two Splendid Operas: Aida & Akhnaton.
• Book Briefs: Review of
  by Duncan Sprott (fiction).
• Book Briefs: Review of
  by Nick Drake (fiction).
• Book Briefs: Review of
  by Alice Carocci & Gloria Rosati.

KMT, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 18, Number 3, Fall 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: Lascaux on the Nile
  
  Archaeologists trace 15,000 year old rock art sites at Qurta. (3 pages)
• Diary: Tut vs Qin
  
  Tow mighty exhibitions to hit London. (4 pages)
• Books: Off the shelf
  
  Review of by Peter Parsons. (2 pages)

Current World Archaeology, Think Publishing, London, UK, Volume 2, No. 12, Issue 24, August / September 2007.

Subscribe to Current World Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

Derek’s mission in Paranormal Egypt was to “investigate” the death of Rameses III. The pharaoh had expired after an attempt on his life led to a trial of conspirators whose number included one of his wives and one of his sons. His death has foxed historians for three millennia, but not Derek, who had the advantage of being able to interrogate the dead man himself. Derek’s spirit guide, a medieval Ethiopian curiously named Sam was excited. “He is way excited,” Derek confided to his co-presenter, the “historian” Tessa Dunlop, “absolutely over-the-top excited.”

The pair — trio if you count Sam — made a promising start at the pharaoh’s tomb in Cairo. Derek felt the “presence of greatness” flitting among the shadows. “Rameses, Rameses,” he cajoled, “please don’t move about.” Tessa gamely declared that Derek was freaking her out. But it was in the temple in Luxor that Derek’s gift came into its own. “Rameses is HERE, bless,” he announced. “He is showing me the Eiffel Tower in France. Why is he doing that?” And why was Derek shouting the name “Giovanni”, going on about being robbed and making stabbing gestures? Fortunately Mansour Boraik, the local director of antiquities, was on hand to explain that an archaeologist, Giovanni Belzoni, had in the 19th century transported the king’s sarcophagus to the Louvre. I felt the spectral presence of Wikipedia.

But what of his death? The Egyptian monarch, whose grasp of modern-day idiomatic Scouse [dialect] was commendable, told Derek he had survived the attack for some months. “He died here of the affliction of injuries that caused a breakdown in his metabolisms which cause haemorrhage here,” explained Dr Derek, pointing to his own head, which was having difficulty forming sentences. It was more serious than that. Next thing, Derek collapsed and needed to be dragged to a stone slab where a member of the crew pleaded: “Stay with me, mate.” I fear he will. This series has seven more episodes to run.

It is Acorah’s relative success not his “gift” that spooks me. If you judge him as an actor, he is a bad one, with a limited repertoire of jerks, whoops and “serious” voices. His attempts at archaic language are just sad: “I have come to help you in such a manner and such a way as Rameses would have it be done.” Tessa, playing the easily frightened companion, is the better actor, although I fear for her credibility as a historian and pray Oxford does not rescind her degree. The show was a hoot...

Last Night’s TV, Andrew Billen, The Times, UK, September 05, 2007.

Previously:

If you Sphinx this is spooky..., September 05, 2007.

Interview: Derek Acorah's Paranormal Egypt, September 03, 2007.

Last Wednesday, like DON QUIXOTE, the hero of Miguel de Cervantes' famous book on chivalry, I once again mounted my own ROSINANTE, that hobby horse of travel, to do another trip out of Nigeria. I write these lines in Room 354 of Cairo's INFANTRY HOTEL. The truth is that I have stopped trying to rationalise my love of travel, but wired into my subconscious, or my DNA, is the gene of my nomadic ancestors! The passion to travel is of course very much at the heart of being human, and as Doctor Karl Sagan said in his remarkable television series of the nineteen eighties, COSMOS, directly related to travel is also the urge to tell travellers' tales...

In that sense, it is always an imperative to visit Egypt, because of its place as a source of African history; of human civilization; the land of the gods; the home of the Pharaohs; the place of the splendour of the great River Nile (the longest river in the world) and in much later centuries, the location of superb examples of Islamic civilization. Let's not forget that Ibn Khaldun, one of the greatest thinkers that ever lived, and the scholar whose work, MUQADDIMA, is universally recognised as having given birth to the science of sociology, lived and died in Cairo. He loved the city and once described Cairo as "the metropolis of the universe, the beacon of Islam, a city of fountains and gardens, lit by the moon and stars of erudition"...

Egypt: Travel in the Land of the Pharaohs, Is'haq Modibbo Kawu, Daily Trust via AllAfrica.com, Nigeria, September 06, 2007.

The Hong Kong Museum of Art announced here Wednesday that it will hold an exhibition which provide the public with a rare opportunity to view some 270 artefacts selected from the British Museum.

Running from Sept. 14 to Dec. 2 [2007], the exhibition entitled Treasures of the World's Cultures from the British Museum, will feature about 270 artefacts covering a vast span of time from two million years ago to the present day.

The exhibits include sculptures, ceramics, wood carvings, jewellery, drawings and prints selected to give visitors a glimpse of the diversified arts and cultures of ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Africa, India, Japan, Korea, America and Oceania...

HK to display treasures from British Museum, People's Daily, China, September 05, 2007.

Three weeks ago, Dr. Hawass said he, “got lucky,” when he made a new discovery inside King Tut’s tomb.

“I found 20 big pottery jars completely sealed,” he said. “I always say that the mystery of King Tut will never stop, it will always continue.”

Dr. Hawass will be discussing his latest discovery at the University of Pennsylvania Thursday, September 6 [2007] at 7:00 p.m. Click here for ticket information...

Egyptian Expert To Discuss New King Tut Discovery, Angela Russell, CBS 3 News, USA, September 05, 2007.

Cf. Video: Egyptian Expert To Discuss New King Tut Discovery, Angela Russell, CBS 3 News, USA, September 05, 2007.

German entrepreneurs are planning to outstrip the ancient Egyptians by building the world's largest pyramid on a derelict site in eastern Germany — which they claim will eventually contain the remains of millions of people in concrete burial blocks.

Many have dismissed the idea as a harebrained and improbable but the scheme has already received a €89,000 (£60,000) state grant to assess its feasibility. It envisages a pyramid some 60ft taller than the 432-ft high Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt on a site near the city of Dessau.

The project's initiators include the writer Ingo Niemann and Jens Thiel an economist who have joined other entrepreneurs to form a "Friends of the Pyramid" association. They argue that their scheme will be one up on the Pharaohs who only interred a few in the Egyptian pyramids.

"In future the chance to be buried in a pyramid will be open to all," they say on their website, "Our great pyramid will be the first internationally advertised burial and remembrance site to link the peoples, religions and cultures of the world," they add...

On the drawing board: the great pyramid of...Germany, Tony Paterson, The Independent, UK, September 03, 2007.

cf. 'Great Pyramid' would hold millions, UPI, September 02, 2007.

With its long run in Philadelphia, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Franklin Institute is "on pace" to break the U.S. travelling-exhibition attendance record for a single city, the Franklin says.

The show has sold 1.18 million tickets — 1.13 million of which have been used — and has a month to go in its eight-month Philadelphia visit, prompting museum officials to predict yesterday that it will break the previous record of 1.3 million visitors set in 1977 when Treasures of Tutankhamun visited the Field Museum in Chicago.

That would mean the museum would host 195,000 visitors more between now and the end of the show's run here Sept. 30 [2007].

"I think we can do it," said Karen Corbin, the museum's marketing chief. "In August we had 166,390, and I am assuming we'll do better in September because people are actually in the city..."

Tut exhibit eyes record for visitors, Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, USA, September 05, 2007.

According to his Scots co-presenter Tessa Dunlop, the flamboyant medium amazed local experts and seasoned Egyptologists alike when they spent a month visiting ancient tombs and pyramids all over the ancient north African country.

Popular historian Tessa joined Derek on a month-long expedition to bring his particular style of psychic tomb raiding to the ruins and temples for a new Living TV series, Paranormal Egypt.

And she said that in their short time exploring the catacombs and sarcophaguses of Egypt, the Most Haunted star's psychic skills and uncanny charisma not only converted her from being a paranormal cynic but also wowed teams of seasoned historians and experts with his insights ... from beyond the grave.

Tessa, best-known for her appearances on programmes such as Time Team, also admitted she was genuinely terrified at some of the spooky goings on...

Watched it last night. Utter tosh! But I'll probably still watch the rest of the series out of morbid fascination and to see the tombs and Egyptian scenery.

IF YOU SPHINX THIS IS SPOOKY..., Brian Mciver, The Glasgow Daily Record, Scotland, UK, September 04, 2007.

Previously:

Interview: Derek Acorah's Paranormal Egypt, September 03, 2007.

Egypt: the land of the Pharaohs — the very name of the country conjures up images of lost temples and tombs, mysterious mummies, and towering pyramids. But there is something even more important and inextricably linked to the history of this ancient country — the Nile River.

At more than 4,150 miles, the Nile is the longest river in the world, and its fertile banks have been used for agriculture since ancient times. It is the Nile that made the rise of civilization in Egypt possible. Without her, there would have been no Pharaohs, no pyramids – indeed, no life at all in the otherwise barren deserts of Northeast Africa.

It is with this in mind that many tourists make a Nile cruise one of the "must-do" activities in Egypt. We certainly had it on our list. As we researched our options online, however, we became increasingly sceptical.

Almost all of the Nile cruises travel from Luxor to Aswan or vice versa. With more than 300 cruise boats plying this short stretch of water, the river is swarming with boats and people.

Tourists reported that cruise boats were rarely (if ever) alone on the water, and they often had to wait in line for hours to pass through locks. When the boats docked at port, they were often parked three or four deep...

Off the beaten Nile, Daniel Hartmann, The News & Observer, North Carolina, USA, September 02, 2007.

The history and future of Egypt, for all intents and purposes, rests in his hands. But Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, is up to the challenge. To put it simply, he's "The Man," according to Time Magazine ["Zahi Hawass", , Time Magazine, USA, April 30, 2006], which deemed him one of the most influential people of 2005.

With 36,000 employees and thousands of archaeological excavations to manage (nobody explores without his permission and oversight), it's miraculous the 60-year-old Hawass has time for anything else. But last week he stopped at the University of Hawaii on a whirlwind business trip to lecture to a packed campus ballroom. In addition to his speaking engagements and numerous articles and books (four published in 2006 alone), Hawass appears regularly on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Nova, "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," BBC and CNN. Yet he still manages to find time for his own discoveries, which always make headlines.

"He's a master at multi-tasking," said F. DeWolfe Miller, professor of epidemiology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, and a Hawass friend for 30 years. "He's a passionate advocate for global heritage. He believes Egyptian antiquities belong to the world."

Long-time friend and Lahaina resident Gary Smith agreed. "He throws his heart, soul and body into presenting Egypt to the rest of the world. He makes sure everything gets done the right way so the antiquities are saved. And Egypt needs to be protected. It's one of the world's treasures..."

Digging into life, Katherine Nichols, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Hawaii, USA, Vol. 12, Issue 245, September 02, 2007.

The popular [lecture] series begins its 71st season October 17 [2007]. The lectures are presented in the Saroyan Theatre in downtown Fresno. All programs begin at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday dates. The basic cost is $75 for the entire series, or $20 for individual speakers (single lecture tickets must be purchased day of the event).

There also is a post-lecture lunch and a chance to meet the speaker. Lunch tickets cost $110 for the series, or $23 per lunch event...

February 20 [2007]: . He is a noted Egyptologist and philosophy professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. He's appeared on television and has earned the nickname "Mr. Mummy" for his expertise. His topic: "The Murder of King Tutankhamen..."

We have lots to talk about, Felicia Cousart Matlosz, The Fresno Bee, California, USA, September 01, 2007.

Sunday Mirror: You’re back with your new show, Paranormal Egypt. Tell us about it.

Derek Acorah: The energy and adrenalin in Egypt was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I’m still tingling. Even Sam (Derek’s spirit guide) was taken aback. He said he felt at home. He’s Ethiopian and lived 2,000 years ago, but he knew there were a lot of Ethiopians in Ancient Egypt, and he was telling me the spirits were thrilled I was there.

SM: What sort of investigations did you do there?

DA: Well, I communicated with the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, the greatest ever female Pharaoh. And I conversed with Tutankhamun and was told how he really died...

Paranormal Egypt is on LivingTV, UK, on Tuesday September 4, 2007, at 10PM.

Egypt's top antiquities official was down in the fabled tomb of Tutankhamen a few weeks ago — doing a television interview, of all things — when he noticed something curious he had never seen before.

In a back room closed to public view, Zahi Hawass spotted a cluster of reed boxes crammed with plaster fragments and limestone seals used to stamp hieroglyphs. Intrigued, the scholar took a closer look and saw that both were marked with a trio of icons — sun, scarab and basket — whose meaning he recognized instantly:

Neb-kheperu-re, the throne name of the boy pharaoh.

Eighty-five years after his tomb was discovered, and after his treasures have been ogled by millions of museumgoers, King Tut is still revealing surprises. Besides the seals, apparently left behind by the original excavators in the early 1920s, Egyptian workers recently found 20 sealed jars with the pharaoh's name in an old storage facility nearby. Neither group of items is part of the Tut inventory at Cairo's Egyptian antiquities museum.

On Thursday, Hawass visits Philadelphia to speak about these surprises and another: For the first time, Tut's mummified body will go on public display, protected in a climate-controlled case in his tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings...

Tut's tomb yields more surprises, The Arizona Daily Star, Arizona, USA, September 02, 2007.

cf. Tut still revealing secrets, Tom Avril, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, USA, September 01, 2007.

A high ambition to exert power paved the way for the Egyptians to emerge as one of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world, according to a new study by an Uruguayan Egyptologist.

Professor Juan José Castillos of the Uruguayan Institute of Egyptology, said in his study that the roots of the Egyptian civilisation lay in the attitude of those individuals, who are called "aggrandisers" by some specialists — including anthropologists, social scientists, historians, and sociologists.

He said "aggrandisers" have appeared in many different moments of the Human history and pre-history. Among these characters, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Stalin are people who had a great power thirst, probably due to a genetic predisposition, who were usually unhappy, and who sometimes caused tragedies.

"In many different periods, though, they have somehow contributed for the advancement of their societies," he said...

Egyptian civilization's greatness due to their high ambition to exert power, ANI via Daily India, India, September 03, 2007.

cf. Uruguayan has theory on the evolution of Egypt, ANBA, Brazil, August 31, 2007.