More re decision to cover Manchester mummies

The decision by Manchester Museum to cover the ancient Egyptian mummies that it has on display has now come to the attention of the UK's national media. Here are a few of the reports that have come out.

BBC News

On its website, the museum said the covering was to ensure that the human remains were "treated with respect".

Museum bosses launched the public debate about the way it shows human remains following the controversy stirred up by the arrival of the Body Worlds 4 exhibition at another city museum.

They have been consulting academics and other groups on the issues surrounding exhibits which include remains and whether they should be on display in museums.

Nick Merriman, director of Manchester Museum, said: "We're responding to a significant minority of our visitors who question the public value and educational value of unwrapped mummies.

"We're asking the public what is the most respectful and appropriate way to display them. It's good practice rather than political correctness."

He said negative comments from the public had focused on the display of the unwrapped child mummy.

Mr Merriman added: "Is it appropriate to display them this way, given that they were originally wrapped, but then unwrapped in the 19th century to satisfy scientific and public curiosity? It's all part of the debate.

But he admitted: "The majority of the comments have been that we shouldn't cover them up."

Times Online

The museum's curators say that the cover-up follows more than 100 complaints. They decided to have a period of consultation on how to display the collection. The debate on the ethics of showing human remains comes while the museum is displaying the uncovered body of Lindow Man, from the Iron Age, who died a violent death and was discovered in a Cheshire peat bog.

The cover-up has upset some Egyptologists. Bob Partridge, editor of Ancient Egypt magazine, said: “We are shocked and amazed this has been done in advance of any results from the public consultation. The mummies have always been sensitively displayed and have been educational and informative to generations of visitors.”

The Telegraph

Nick Merriman, the museum's director, said: "We get a regular stream of feedback from people saying it is insensitive to display unwrapped mummies. We are trying to follow government guidelines about how they should be displayed with respect and sensitivity. If the overwhelming opinion of the public is that they want the mummies unwrapped, we would have to take that very seriously."

He added that the body of Lindow Man, the north west's iconic archaeological find, is displayed in the way it was found in Lindow Moss bog, near Wilmslow.

He said: "The mummies were not deposited unwrapped in the ground."

The museum has asked for feedback on its website, which has sparked a fierce debate.

See the above pages for full details.

Virtual Egypt - Archaeorama and the Amduat

Electric Archaeology (blog by Shawn Graham)

Thre have been a couple of articles reacently about attempts to creat virtual experiences of ancient Egypt. Shawn Graham reports on a work in progress:

I confess, I am not very aware of what’s going on in Egyptology - but visitors to Rossella Lorenzi’s new space in Second Life certainly will become so!

Rossella is a reporter for the Discovery Channel, and maintains a blog about the latest happenings in the world of archaeology. Recently, she’s been crafting a ‘Chamber of Secrets’ that recreates the passage from the world of the living to the world of the dead - or at least, how that was conceived in the ‘Amduat - the Book of the Secret Chamber’ and ‘the Book of Gates’. These funerary texts were thought to contain, according to Rossella, the secret to eternal life.

See the above page for more information and a link to a video by rossella Lorenzi.

Nubia museum head links Boston, Egypt

The Boston-Baystate Banner (Kenneth J. Cooper)

The Nubia Museum sits on a hill just up from the floating line of cruise ships moored on the Nile River.

Inside the museum’s yellow sandstone walls works an enthusiastic man with a Boston connection, some 6,000 miles away from this southern Egyptian city. His name is Ossama Abdel Meguid, the founding director of the world’s only museum devoted solely to Nubia.

Scholars now agree that this region — divided between modern Egypt and Sudan — was the homeland of several pharaohs in a late dynasty of ancient Egypt. Some Afrocentric theorists further argue that Nubia provided the foundation of the revered civilization that erected the pyramids, temples and monuments still standing in the Nile Valley.

Three years ago, Meguid, 45, came to Boston to research ancient Nubia. He pored over archival records at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from a Harvard professor’s archeological expeditions in the 20th century. He also toured the National Center for Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, including its permanent exhibit on a Nubian pharaoh, and chatted with director Edmund Barry Gaither about their common interests.

Meguid’s main mission as a Fulbright Scholar at the MFA for five months in 2005 and 2006 was to study the archives of George Reisner, a Harvard professor who conducted the first archeological survey of Nubia in 1907 and 1908 then spent four decades conducting digs in the main Nubian sites.

See the above page for the full story.

A mausoleum fit for a king

Egypt Daily Star News (David Stanford)

A good article about the restoration of the mausoleum of Khedive Tewfiq. The article gives background details to the Khedive, describes the construction of the mausoleum and then goes on to look at the restoration project headed by conservation architect Agnieszka Dobrowolska

His funeral took place the day after his death. The body was taken to the Eastern Cemetery of the City of the Dead, which contains the remains of several past rulers of Egypt, among them the descendents of the great 19th century ruler Mohamed Ali.

He was laid to rest beneath a cenotaph of ebony inlaid with mother of pearl and bronze, close by the white marble tomb of Bamba Qadin, wife of Tushun Pasha.

While the area was a green and peaceful spot, Tewfiq’s grieving family resolved to erect a mausoleum in his memory, enclosing his tomb and those nearby. They instructed the architect of the Khedival Palace, Fabricius Bay, to design something suitably grand, and he obliged with a splendid monument in the Neo-Mamluk style.

In 1894 the stone structure was erected, complete with elaborate stucco decorations and a graceful dome, the interior decorated with intricate paintings and gold leaf.

Despite its sturdy construction, the building suffered from damage of various sorts, both natural and man-made, in the following century. Like many other once great mausoleums in the cemetery, it was in danger of being ruined.

Thankfully, due to the intervention of Tewfiq’s great-grandson, Prince Abbas Hilmi III, the mausoleum has now been saved.

See the above page for the full story.

"Les sens des signes" lectures online as podcasts

Univeristy of Lyon

Four of the lectures delivered at Les sens des signes:panorama du déchiffrement d'écritures anciennes are now availabel online at the above address as podcasts.

• J. Oppert et le déchiffrement de l'akkadien (B. Lion and C. Michel)
• Le déchiffrement du cunéiforme vieux-perse (F. Joannès)
• Le déchiffrement des hiéroglyphes égyptiens (D. Warburton)
• Sur les traces de Darius et de ses prédécesseurs : le déchiffrement de l'élamite (F. Malbran-Labat)

The iTunes software that you will need to run the podcast is available free of charge as a download from Apple website.

Egyptian summer for Melton (UK)

Melton Times (Richard Bett)

Ancient Egypt is coming to Melton this summer with a series of activities and events to be held in the town.

On July 17 and 18 the town centre is to be transformed, bringing ancient Egypt to life.

A street trail around the town will allow children to gather clues to piece together the grisly secrets of mummification. They can also enjoy hearing stories about the ancient empire.

Other activities include a lesson in Egyptian hieroglyphics, building pyramids in the sand, hobby camel racing, Egyptian jewellery making and a fancy dress competition, while snake charmers, stilt walkers and belly dancers will be on hand to entertain visitors.

The Lecistershire County Council website has more details.

More re Akhenaten's unusual appearance

physorg.com

For those of you who may have missed the earlier postings on the subject here's another summary of Irwin Braverman's theories about why Akhenaten is depicted as he is:

ecause no mummy of Akhenaten exists, Braverman used only artwork of the ancient pharaoh to make his medical diagnosis. He presented his theories during the 14th annual Historical Clinicopathological Conference (CPC) at University of Maryland Medical School.

Akhenaten, a pharaoh during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty credited with starting the practice of worshipping one God, fathered six children. He was often portrayed in sculptures and carvings with a thin neck, elongated head, large buttocks, breasts, and even a prominent belly, suggesting pregnancy.

It may be possible to confirm his diagnoses, Braverman said, by conducting genetic tests on the five relevant mummies of Akhenaten’s relatives. “DNA taken from the bone marrow could reveal the presence of the gene defects,” he said.

Aromatose excess syndrome can lead to feminine features in men and advanced sexual development in girls. Akhenaten’s daughters are depicted with breasts at age three and seven in some carvings.

Braverman explains that Akhenaten’s elongated head could be due to the gene defect causing craniosynostosis, in which the fibrous joints of the head fuse at an early age and disrupt the process of skull formation. Braverman said that a number of Akhenaten’s relatives—including his daughters, and two other 18th-Dynasty rulers, Queen Hatshepsut and King Tut—all had cranial abnormalities that mimicked craniosynostosis.

See the above page for the full story.

Travel: Egyptian etiquette for eating

Wall Street Journal (Emily Flitter)

When it comes to table manners, the devil is in each culture's details. Eating with one's fingers may be considered slovenly in one place, but the norm in another. In Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, looking at a fellow diner's plate is considered to be rude.

Cairo native Amr Ragab explains that when someone stares at another person's food, he or she sends a signal of desire and envy. That act of acknowledging what another person owns can bring bad luck: the antidote is to offer to share. "I'm afraid if I don't give you any," says Mr. Ragab, "I'll get the evil eye."

See the above page for the full story.

Trivia: Marriage in Pharaonic style at Karnak

holidayhypermarket.co.uk

Couples are being invited to tie the knot in Pharaonic style later this year in Egypt.

The Pharaonic Wedding Festival will take place in Karnak during October this year, providing 40 engaged couples with the chance to say 'I do' the ancient Egyptian way.

By recreating the rituals and traditions that the Egyptian Pharaohs practiced more than 5,000 years ago, the newlyweds are given the opportunity to step back in time and enjoy a truly unique ceremony.

Brides will be encouraged to wear traditional dresses from the period and ancient dances will take place, which the Pharaohs believed brought eternal happiness for the couple.

Daily Photo - More from Karnak

Apologies for failing to update the blog yesterday - I was running around like a headless chicken yesterday and somehow I just didn't get around to it.

These photos of Karnak are all of the same pair of very fine granite columns showing the lotus (symbol of Upper Egypt) and papyrus (symbol of Lower Egypt), both of which retain some of the original colours.

Newly Redesigned Website for Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum

PR Web

Mediacurrent, an Atlanta based interactive firm, is proud to launch the newly redesigned website for Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum. Utilizing the Drupal content management system (CMS) the site will serve as a web portal for showcasing one of the Southeast's premier collections of Classical, Ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Ancient American, African, and Asian art, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present. The museum provides unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community and promotes interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. Annual participation from 100,000 visitors, 30,000 children, and almost 1 million internet users of Odyssey Online, Carlos Museum's interactive website accessed by classrooms around the world, reveals the Museum's commitment to making art and artifacts relevant and accessible to all.

Historic Haunts

Egypt Today (Ethar El-Katatney)

In a city that’s been home to a number of religions and cultures over the centuries, it’s not unusual to see a McDonalds jostling for space with a centuries-old mashrabeya, or a minaret leaning over a small alleyway.

We all fawn over the beautiful architectural marvels that have been left to us, but how many of us have actually taken the time to traverse even one of the old Cairo quarters and enjoy some quality culture time? In that vein, we ask you to put on your walking shoes, ditch the car for a day, take a deep breath, and go on our walking tour.

For the uninitiated, there’s no better place to start than El-Muez Lideen Allah Street, the historic axis of Fatimid Cairo and a maze of over 30 mosques and monuments that span some 800 years. Stretching across the northern gate of Bab El-Futuh to Bab El-Zewayla on the southern wall, the two-kilometer street is the most important commercial thoroughfare of the old city, and a walk down can take you as little as 20 minutes or as long as a day. A whole population of craftsmen, shopkeepers, tradesmen and the owners of restaurants and cafés inhabit El-Muez and its adjoining alleys; many are born, live, work and even die on the same neighborhood.

Fiction Interview: The Rosetta Key

TradingMarkets.com

Bill Dietrich, assistant professor of environmental studies at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment, shares "The Rosetta Key," the sequel to "Napoleon's Pyramids," continuing the adventures of Ethan Gage, who's now in the Holy Land in dogged pursuit of the magical "Book of Thoth" during Napoleon's 1799 invasion of Israel that will climax at the epic siege of Acre.

Question: For those who may not have read "Napoleon's Pyramids," what should readers know about Ethan Gage, the hero of these two novels, in particular his (seeming) attitude that life is a gamble, one "plays the cards" and "takes the risks." (I am also curious whether this is your attitude toward life?)

Answer: Ethan is my alter ego, not autobiographical! I don't gamble, I'm a family man instead of a womanizer, a writer instead of a warrior, and judicious instead of impulsive. Ethan and I are alike, however, in a belief in destiny and opportunity; that while we're responsible for our choices, our fate is not entirely in our own hands. Napoleon felt the same way.

Travel: Marsa Matrouh

Egyptian Gazette (temporary story)

It is a place of heritage, sea, sands, memories of war, temples and cemeteries. Marsa Matrouh is where the romance between Anthony and Queen Cleopatra blossomed.

In World War II, the British Army's Baggush Box (a fortification of the Western Desert Force) was located to the east of Marsa Matrouh, near Maarten Baggush, while Marsa Matrouh was the terminus for a single-track railway, which passed through el-Alamein. It was also where the late famous actress and singer Laila Murad sang her famous song, "I love two things, water and fresh air...", as she sat on a rock on the beach in the 1940s romantic flick Shatt El-Gharam (Shore of Love). Marsa Matrouh lies 290km west of Alexandria and about 220km east of el-Salloum on the Libyan border. The distance from Cairo to Matrouh is 525km. It lies on a bay on the Mediterranean and is distinguished by its 7km-long beach, which - as visitors testify - is one of the most beautiful in the world. The beach is famous for its soft, white sands and calm, transparent waters, as the bay is protected from the high seas by a series of rocks forming a natural wave-breaker, with a small opening to allow light vessels in. Marsa Matrouh offers a getaway to Cairenes eager to flee the capital in the sweltering summer months. One can easily go there by the bus which leaves Giza early every morning. The journey takes around eight hours. If you're feeling wealthy, you can always fly from Cairo International Airport.Matrouh Governorate stretches 400km south into the depths of the desert. Its area is 166,563km square, while its population is just over 278,000. Its beach dates back to the days of Alexander the Great, when it was known as 'Paraetonium' and also as 'Amunia'. It is said that Alexander stopped there during his epic expedition to pay tribute and sacrifice, to the god Amun at Siwa.This meant that he became Amun's son and his rule became a historical continuation of the Pharaohs. There are also the ruins of a temple from the time of Ramses II (1200 BC) in Matrouh.

Trivia: "Ancient Egypt" takes shape in Marsaxlokk

Times of Malta

This is a bit of fun - the photograph of a film set currently under construction. Here's the caption:

The film set constructed at Marsaxlokk for the shooting of the ancient Egyptian epic Agora, based in Roman Egypt in the fourth century AD, has come to life. Construction started in February and involved around 60 workers. The movie stars Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella. Oscar-winning director Alejandro Amenábar is trying to bring ancient Alexandria back to life, "allowing the audience to see, feel and smell a remote civilisation as if it were as real as today". Not only has an entire film on such a scale never been shot here before but many Maltese are being employed in roles and crew positions that are usually taken up by foreigners.

Charting the Holocene movements of the Nile at Karnak

The latest issue of Geoarchaeology includes the following article (available for purchase for 24 hours):

Stratigraphic landscape analysis: Charting the Holocene movements of the Nile at Karnak through ancient Egyptian time (Bunbury, JM; Graham, A; Hunter, MA Geoarchaeology 2008 23(3): 351-373)

Here's the abstract:

Geological analysis of 5-10-m-long sediment cores in the context of the anthropologically derived materials within them has allowed us to identify ancient landscape features in the Theban area around Luxor, Egypt. From these observations we propose a sequence of island formation and northwestward movement of the Nile from the Middle Kingdom onward in the area of the temple complexes of Karnak. The geoarchaeological techniques used appear to document the Holocene lateral migration and vertical aggradation of the Nile. Our method can be used to test postulated movements and is applicable to sites in river or coastal plains where sediments were being deposited during the occupation of the site. The sediments were sieved to retrieve sherds and numerous other small items (2 mm and larger), which included worked stone fragments, rootlet concretions (rhizocretions), desert polished sand grains, and occasionally beads. The small stone fragments can be correlated with buildings and sherds of known age within the site, while the rhizocretions and desert sand grains indicate environmental conditions prevailing at the time of deposition. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

I posted this previously, but forgot to add the abstract.

Daily Photo - More from Karnak

You may become a trifle bored with Karnak if you've seen lots of photographs before - I have nearly a week's worth to come! But for those of you who aren't terribly keen on the oases, the desert and rock art this may come as a pleasant change.

Pier - I don't include you in the above, now knowing that your passion for Karnak is only equalled by your passion for Angelina Jolie :-)

Oxyrhynchus - the dustbin of history

Guardian Unlimited (Khaled Diab)

Our collective memory of the past is mostly confined to grand figures and epic events, while the vast majority of humanity ends up in the wastelands of oblivion.

Thanks to nearly half a million papyrus fragments uncovered in Hellenic Egyptian rubbish dumps which are being gradually decoded, however, we are, quite literally, salvaging fragments of ordinary people's lives from the dustbin of history.

The rubbish dumps in question belonged to the provincial but thriving Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus (City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish), about 100 miles south of modern Cairo, which was established during the pharaonic New Kingdom and became Hellenised in Ptolemic times, but was eventually reduced to a single standing column.

Most of the unearthed documents, discovered by two Victorian archaeologists, date from the time when Egypt was part of the Roman empire, and include a treasure trove of lost classics and non-canonical gospels.

Peter Parsons, an archaeologist who spent two decades leading the team deciphering the papyri, has written a book that offers a fascinating reconstruction of life in Oxyrhynchus.

For me, the mundane aspects of ordinary life highlighted in correspondences and letters in the book are among the most enthralling of all the finds because they reveal both how familiar and how different that lost world is.

"... Write to me about your health and what you need from here," Achillion exhorts his brother, Hierakapollon. "If you do this, you will have done me a favour: for we shall have the impression, through our letters, of seeing one another face to face."

See the above page for the full story, which has attracted 19 comments so far. The book referred to, by Peter Parsons is City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish - Greek Papyri Beneath the Egyptian Sand Reveal a Long Lost World (2007). I've had it sitting on my book shelf for around a year - I'm glad that this post appeared because I had forgotten I had it and I've now excavated it and am looking forward to reading it. I posted links to a couple of reviews about the book last year, by William Dalrymple in New Statesman and Tom Holland on the Guardian.

Egypt asserts ownership of its past

Marketplace (Amy Scott)
(Slideshow - 2 images)

All the audio links appear to have moved on to other stories now, but here's an extract from the text page:

Thousands of ancient treasures have left Egypt over the centuries. Many were carted away by archeologists with official blessings. Others were smuggled out and sold on the black market.

To stem the trade, Zahi Hawass has proposed stiffer penalties for smugglers. He's also floated the idea of copyrighting Egyptian artifacts. The royalties would help pay for more than a dozen new museums under construction in Egypt.

HAWASS: I'm making big changes here, and I need money. And this money that I make of the replica, it's not for Egypt to be rich, no. It's to use in restoring these monuments that I believe . . . it does not belong to Egypt only, but belongs to everyone all over the world.

That's just the point, says James Cuno, who directs the Art Institute of Chicago. He's written a book: "Who Owns Antiquity?" Aside from sheer geography, Cuno says modern Egypt's link to the Pharaonic civilization is tenuous.

JAMES CUNO: You know, it's not in the religious practice, it's not in the language, it's not in the artistic practice, it's not in any political relationships.

And he says claiming otherwise is dangerous.

CUNO: Culture is something that always is a very fluid and mongrel thing that is made by people and not by nations. And to put political borders around culture is to falsify the history of culture as we know it.

Yet the past is one of Egypt's biggest money makers. Tourists who flocked to the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings brought in some $8 billion last season.

Hani El-Masri is an Egyptian artist. He'd like to see the Rosetta Stone stay right where it is.

LE 20 billion for developing tourism movement in Al-Fayoum

Egypt State Information Service

During his meeting in Tourism, Media and Culture Committee of People's Assembly on 17/5/2008, Tourism Minister Zoheir Grana announced that the plan of developing the tourism movement in Al-Fayoum governorate is based on establishing a world tourism zone at the north of Qaroun Lake. This plan was put forth for the investors who presented 60 demands for 20 pieces of land.

Grana added that the development plan in Al-Fayoum includes also establishing new rail and land roads to connect the new tourism zones with Cairo and the 6th of October to facilitate the tourists' movement to Al-Fayoum after establishing the new museum in Al-Haram area, and after operating the new 6th of October international airport.

Al-Fayoum Governor said that a great project is currently carried out by Arab and Egyptian investments to establish many factors for producing salt from Qaroun Lake which will contribute in reducing salt's percentage in it, increasing the fishery wealth and protecting it from pollution.

This plan escorted the tourist comprehensive development projects to return Al-Fayoum as it was a world tourism zone, especially for its closeness from Cairo and the neighboring governorates, and to encourage the internal tourism besides attracting this world tourism whether for entertainment, safari or natural world protectorate after the UNESCO listed Al-Fayoum as the most important and ancient cultural and natural museum in the world.

Travel: Taxi fares rise in Cairo

Egypt Daily Star News

Thanks to Tony Marson for this item, which I had missed.

Cairo expatriates have reported an alarmingly high rate of TSIs — Taxi Shouting Incidents — this week, as they come face to face with the frustration felt by Black ‘n’ White cab drivers over rising gas costs.

TSIs are on the rise across Cairo, already known for its traffic volatility and passionate drivers.

In a recent SMS survey, more than 85 percent of respondents said that taxi drivers were charging higher fares and that many journeys were ending in TSIs.

In the wake of reforms by the central Government and rising production costs; bread, cigarettes and fuel have all seen price increases that have hit Cairenes in the back pocket.

The most immediate impact on foreigners has been the hike in taxi fares.

The usual cause of a Taxi Shouting Incident is when a foreigner objects to the fare charged for a journey that he or she knows rather well. Add to this clash of cultures an indignant driver, who is only asking for a fare increase equivalent to a British first class postage stamp or two, and the expletives start flying.

For the expatriate, it is a matter of principal. Many foreigners pride themselves on their worldliness and are damned if they pay tourist prices in a taxi.

CAPMAS: Population reaches 78.7 million in May 2008

Egypt State Information Service

Egypt's population until May 1, 2008 reached 78.7 million according to final results of this year's census as announced Thursday by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Of the population 37.2 million are males, up 22.6 percent from the 30.4 million in 1996, and 35.6 million are females which is 22.9 percent more from their count in 1996 that was estimated at 29 million.

The number of families across Egypt stood at 17.3 million in 2006 from 12.7 million in 1996 with a 36.1 percent increase.

According to the 2006 census results, Cairo is Egypt's most populous governorate with 6.8 million at an increase rate of 9.28 percent, followed by Sharqiya governorate with 5.4 million, up 7.35 percent, then Dakahliya with 5 million at a rate of 6.85 percent.

The one just above it was El-Wadi El-Gadid, also known as the New Valley governorate, whose population count stood at 187,000 at an increase rate of 0.26 percent.

The population count was also carried out in the newly-established governorates of the Sixth of October whose population stood at 2.6 million, with an increase rate of 3.5 percent and Helwan whose population was 1.7 million with an increase of 2.4 percent.

Daily Photo - Karnak

I've posted several photographs of Karnak before, but this is a new bunch scanned from old photo albums. Karnak will be the featured site for the Daily Photo for the next few days. The site is vast and incredibly complex - and is still under excavation so more will doubtless be added to our knowlege about the site in the future. Although there are many good books describing the temple complex there are surprisingly few good resources for finding out about it online. The best are probably the following, but let me know if you know of any others:

• A good summary on Su Bayfield's Karnak page on her EgyptSites website
• A useful site plan on the Tour Egypt website
• Some good photographs, and another good plan, can be found on Jon Bodworth's Egypt Archive
• The Quarryscapes annotated GIS/satellite view of Karnak (have a look - it's rather good)
  

Mummies come to Birmingham (UK)

The Birmingham Post (George Kotschy)

With photograph. This is quite interesting in the context of the discussions currently fermenting gently over at the Manchester Museum, where there are now 53 comments in response to the issue of covering the mummies.

Birmingham's residents will be given a once in a lifetime opportunity on Saturday when the 'Meet the Mummies' exhibition calls at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

The museum is able to offer visitors the opportunity to see Egyptian mummies up close, because of the redevelopment of the gallery, due to be finished in September.

Simon Cane, Head of Conservation at the museum, said that it was the first the museum has offered visitors such a chance:

"We usually do the conservation every 10 or 20 years. We don't usually get this much time but, because we've been redeveloping the gallery with the mummies out, we thought we'd offer this chance while we can."

The conservation is done to prevent the mummies from deteriorating, which they do when taken away from the climate of the desert.

The exhibition, which is only on for one day, will open at 10:30am and will be free of charge.

Travel: Noise levels in Cairo

New York Times (Michael Slackman)

This isn't a travel article but I think that it will certainly be of interest to anyone who has visited or is planning to visit Cairo. I found it fascinating. Thanks very much to Rhio Barnhart for sending me the link.

This is not like London or New York, or even Tehran, another car-clogged Middle Eastern capital. It is literally like living day in and day out with a lawn mower running next to your head, according to scientists with the National Research Center. They spent five years studying noise levels across the city and concluded in a report issued this year that the average noise from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. is 85 decibels, a bit louder than a freight train 15 feet away, said Mustafa el Sayyid, an engineer who helped carry out the study.

But that 85 decibels, while “clearly unacceptable,” is only the average across the day and across the city. At other locations, it is far worse, he said. In Tahrir Square, or Ramsis Square, or the road leading to the pyramids, the noise often reaches 95 decibels, he said, which is only slightly quieter than standing next to a jackhammer.

“All of greater Cairo is in the range of unacceptable noise levels from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” Mr. Sayyid said.

By comparison, normal conversation ranges from 45 to 60 decibels, a chain saw registers 100 decibels and a gunshot 140. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, every 10 decibels equals a tenfold increase in intensity.

Noise at the levels commonly found in Cairo affects the body.

Ancient Egypt Games Online

Talking Pyramids (Vincent Brown)

Vincent has collected together a set of ancient Egypt-based games which can be played online. I had no idea how many were available. The first two games shown are online versions of genuine ancient Egyptian games and the rest are modern games based on ancient Egyptian themes. Good fun.

TV Review: The Artful Codgers, Channel 4, UK

The Independent (Robert Hanks)

From the inaccurately punning title on, The Artful Codgers played the story of the Greenhalgh family of Bolton for laughs: tee-hee, look at the uneducated working-class types putting one over on the snooty, silly art market. But by the end, the story was starting to look a lot less funny than the programme wanted to let on.

You'll remember the Greenhalghes: George and Olive and their son, Sean, who were convicted last year of making at least £850,000 from selling forged works of art. The stuff they sold covered an astonishing range – Assyrian reliefs, Egyptian statuary, a heavily decorated Roman plate, paintings by Lowry, modern sculptures – and the police expected to find a complicated operation involving several forgers. After all, most forgers specialise: they paint or they carve. Instead, they found that Sean had knocked it all up by himself in the garden shed, having done the necessary research in the local public library. George, 84, did most of the selling, and was evidently a charming and accomplished liar. He also span some impressive stories about his war record, and had the medals to back them up, but he had actually spent most of the Second World War in prison for desertion.

The high point of their success was the sale of the "Amarna Princess" to the Bolton Museum for more than £400,000. This was purportedly an Egyptian figurine depicting one of Tutankhamun's sisters – damaged, but still a graceful object.

See the above page for more details.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - gallery closures

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (U.K.)

The BM&AG website has a list of gallery enclosures, including the Egyptian gallery. The work started last year and carries on until 2009. I only saw the notice whilst looking for something else entirely:

Birmingham Museum & Art gallery has had to undergo roof works for the past five years, owing to structural instability of the roof trusses and flat roof sections. The 5th and penultimate phase of these roof works is about to start and will take place above the Great Charles Street elevation of the museum.

The roof works create heavy vibrations that can cause serious damage to museum objects and artefacts if left on display in areas close to where the contractors are working. In this fifth phase of the roof works the museum is consequently forced to close six of its galleries for 15 months. The six galleries that will have to close are:

Gallery 32 - Greeks, Romans & the Ancient Near East gallery
Gallery 33 - World Cultures and Vibes gallery
Gallery 34 - Egyptians gallery
Gallery 35 - Birmingham Archaeology gallery
Gallery 36 - Ways of Seeing gallery
Gallery 37 - The Wonderwall display

Gallery 32, Gallery 33, Gallery 34, Gallery 35 and Gallery 36 will reopen on 30th August 2008. Gallery 37 will remain closed at that time. It is scheduled to reopen on 28th March 2009.

Daily Photo - More from Denderah

The first of these photographs was taken from the roof of the Temple of Hathor. Unfortunately the was closed to tourists a few years ago for health and safety reasons after an American tourist leaned over too far and fell off. It's a great shame (and not only for that tourist!) because the views from the roof are very good - agriculture to the east and a line in the sand beyond which there is unending desert to the west.

Rare coins of Emperor Valens found in Egypt

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El Aref)

Archaeologists from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) carrying out a routine archaeological survey at Sail Al-Tofaha area, west of Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, have chanced upon two gold Byzantine coins bearing the head of Emperor Valens (364-378 AD). A number of grotto caves and fragments of clay and glass have already been found in the area.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, described this discovery as unique because it is the first time that objects linked to that emperor have been found in Egypt. "Coins of Valens were previously found in Lebanon and Syria," Hawass said, adding that remnants of walls along with fragments of clay, glass and porcelain dating to the same era were also unearthed.

See the above for more details, including crystal clear photographs of the obverse and reverse faces of the coin, which is remarkably well preserved.

Sacred Sina - Egyptian World Heritage Day celebrations

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

As well as announcing an injection of funding for the St Catherine's National Park(the Greek government had offered Egypt a grant of LE2 million to help restore St Catherine's Monastery and add up-to-date facilities for tourists.), this piece offers a fascinating look at the history of the management of the St Catherine's area.

In 2002 the site was described on the World Heritage List as "mixed property, cultural and natural", which means that the monastery and the area around it were on the list. The area encompasses almost some 601 sq km within the 5,750 sq km-area of the St Catherine's National Park. . . .

The first steps to conserve the natural and cultural features of South Sinai were taken back in 1996, when the St Catherine National Park was declared under the management of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) and the commission of the European Union. The aim then was to conserve the area by laying down certain rules for visitors. These included respecting the sanctity of the land; protecting its large variety of flora and fauna (some unique to Sinai); and prohibiting the removal or interference with wild animals, plants or rocks. The aims were prudent, but they could not be fully implemented because controversy arose on the question of responsibility.

All natural reserves in Egypt, which differ in kind, are run by the EEAA, which has voiced concerns about the advisability of privatisation. However, some newspapers at that time called for privatisation, claiming that the government could not control all the reserves and that i