Ancient Egypt Magazine December 2008 / January 2009

Thanks to Bob Partridge (Editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine for letting me know that the 51th issue of “Ancient Egypt” magazine, December 2008/January 2009, (published in the U.K.) is now available.

This issue is also available as an electronic version which can be found at the web site www.ancientegyptmagazine.com. This may be useful for anyone with a broadband connection who may have difficulty in getting hold of a paper copy of the magazine, or who might want to see a copy before subscribing.

Contents of this issue include:

• News from Egypt and the World of Egyptology: In an enlarged ‘From the Editor’ and our regular ‘From our Egypt Correspondent’ all the latest news and information including reports on the opening of the new visitor centre at Karnak, the CT scanning and testing of the foetuses from Tutankhamun’s tomb, new excavations on the east and west banks at Luxor and the latest special exhibition in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
• The Lost Sarcophagus: Paul Boughton tells the story of the removal of the sarcophagus of Menkaura from his pyramid at Giza and how it was lost at sea on the way to the U.K. Plans are apparently afoot to see if it can now be recovered from its watery resting place.
• The Stela of Bakenkhonsu: Discovered in the excavations in the avenue of sphinxes at Luxor, Mansour Boraik, General Director of Antiquities of Luxor and Upper Egypt, translates the inscription and reveals how the text is changing our knowledge of a particular period of ancient Egyptian history.
• Timekeeping in Ancient Egypt: Nicholas Wernick investigates how the ancient Egyptians kept track of time.
• The Tomb Paintings of Nebamun in the British Museum: Nebamun’s paintings are some of the great artistic treasures in the British Museum and, in advance of the opening of a new gallery to display them in January, Richard Parkinson tells how they have been conserved and studied. Illustrated with some great photos of the newly conserved paintings.
• Ur Sunu: A brief look at an exhibition on Egyptian medicine in Italy.
• Dr. Zahi Hawass’s Famous Hat: A look at how sales of exact copies of Dr. Hawass’s famous hat are helping a new Children’s Museum being built in Cairo.
• The Amarna Project: In the last of a series of articles on his work at Amarna, Professor Barry Kemp looks at why the city of Amarna died.
• PerMesut: in our regular feature for younger readers, Hilary Wilson looks at Jackal Gods.
• Net Fishing: our regular look at Egyptology on the Web. This issue Victor Blunden, in a series on the history of Egypt, looks at sites devoted to the sons of Rameses II and his successor, Merenptah.

New Books featured

• The Pyramids of Giza: Facts, Legends and Mysteries, by Jean-Paul Corteggiani.
• The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, by Helen Strudwick.
• The Cave Church of St. Paul the Hermit at the Monastery of St. Paul, Egypt, Edited by William Lyster.
• From Egypt to Babylon: The International Age, 1550-500 BC, by Paul Collins.
• Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, by Paul Collins.
• Egyptian Stories: a British Tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the Occasion of his Retirement, edited by Thomas Schneider and Kasia Szpakowska..
• Dictionaries of Civilisation: Egypt, Pharaonic Period, by Alessia Fassone and Enrico Ferraris.
• The Queens of Egypt, by Rosanna Pirelli.
• Zaiwat Um el Rakham I: The Temple and Chapels, by Steven Snape and Penelope Wilson.
• Crowns in Egyptian Funerary Literature: Royalty, Rebirth and Destruction, by Katja Goebs.
• Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom, by Janet Richards.
• The Egyptian Renaissance: The Afterlife of Ancient Egypt in Early Modern Italy, by Brian Curran.

Plus full Egyptology Society listings and UK lectures from December 2008 to February 2009 and listings of exhibitions and Egyptological events.