Museum of Turin Egyptology collections go online

Museo Egizio, Torino

The Museo Egizio di Torino (now governed by a Foundation) is striving to modernise itself. The works in progress include:

1. researching, documenting and conserving the collections;
2. improving information and services for the public;
3. updating the tired displays; and
4. refurbishing the palace.

In a digital age, all museums must face the often all-too-meagre state of their documentation and decide whether to delay or to make everything accessible and constantly to update the entries on line. We have chosen to go on line and to continue upgrading the information, especially bibliographic references and dating/chronology. We hope our collections prove a useful contribution to Egyptology and to your individual research. The Museum is grateful for all user input (info@museoegizio.it), but cannot be expected to respond to individual comments.

In order to confer progressively the collections to the Foundation, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte e del Museo Antichità Egizie has produced index card information of the objects in the magazines, along with photographs. This project, financed by MiBAC for € 185.000, has also included various institutions promoting formative internships (project page).

Protest at Abydos Temple suspended

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

Following almost two days of blocking the entrance gate of Abydos Temple in El-Balyana village near the upper Egyptian town of Sohag, protestors suspended their demonstration, left the site and allowed visitors to enter the temple.

The suspension came after Sohag Governorate’s secretary general met the protestors and promised them to meet all their demands.

Exhibition: 19th Century Photographs of Egypt, Florida

Art Daily

With a magnificent sepia photograph of the Sphinx, Great Pyramid and an unlikely group of visitors to the area on camel-back - check out the beard of the chap on the left. Oh to be in Florida right now!

Egypt was an exotic land to nineteenth-century European artists. Painters, writers, and photographers traveled to Egypt to explore, document, and interpret this great country, its civilization, and its newly discovered antiquities. Technical advances in the young medium of photography encouraged direct observation and the advancement of knowledge.

The more than 40 images in Forever in a Moment capture this wonderful sense of discovery. The exhibition is the third in a series unveiling the magnanimous gifts of photography from Ludmila and Bruce Dandrew and Chitranee and Dr. Robert L. Drapkin. Additional works have been lent by The Drapkin Collection, Timothy Welsh, and another private collector.

Forever in a Moment beautifully complements Ancient Egypt—Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva, Switzerland, an American premiere opening at the Museum of Fine Arts December 17.

The majority of the photographs in Forever in a Moment are European. They capture some of the world’s most imposing archeological sites. Many are now on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

New Book: Photography and Archaeology

Reaktion Books

Not exactly Egyptology, but potentially of some interest to some readers.

Photography and Archaeology
Frederick N. Bohrer

Through photographs we preserve the past, and looking for the past is the very job of the archaeologist. But what are we looking at in an archaeological photograph? Archaeological photography is often largely deserted, to be scanned with a forensic gaze, towards finding evidence of what once took place. At the same time, photographs of excavated sites and artefacts have revealed stunning ancient works, shot as works of art. In Photography and Archaeology, Frederick Bohrer examines some of history’s most famous archaeological excavations, as well as lesser-known and previously unpublished finds, from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and the ways these sites have been represented in photographs. Bohrer shows how the development of photography in the nineteenth century made archaeology available to a much wider audience, and he discusses how these images revealed the material traces of the past, as well as their meaning and use today.

Frederick N. Bohrer is Professor of Art at Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, and author of Orientalism and Visual Culture: Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-century Europe (2003)

Photo for Today - Amenhotep III temple at El Kab

Protestors block tourist access to Temple of Abydos

Youm7

Tourism movement stopped in Abydos Temple in Sohag. Two tourist groups cancelled their visit to the temple due to insecure developments that may arise as a result of protests there.

Resident of the village of Oraba Abydos organized a protest before the entrance of the temple, angry at the shortage of gas canisters in their village.

The story began when Abdoul Aziz al-Nahas received information about 300 people gathering in front of Abydos tourist Temple protesting against the shortage of gas canisters in their village.

Princess Samiha's former palace undergoes restoration

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Overlooking Zamalek's Nile Corniche stands the three-storey building that once hosted Khedive Ismail’s granddaughter, princess Samiha Kamel, with a distinguished architectural style that combines the Mamluk, Ottoman, European, Andalusian and Moroccan styles. The awe-inspiring edifice has four facades crowned by a tower similar to those found atop Mamluk fortresses. Its front is decorated with foliage elements and its gates and widows lined with geometrical ornamentation. . . .

Two years after her death, the palace was declared state property. In 1990, it was converted into the Great Cairo Library. . . .

Routine monitoring carried out by the SCA has revealed that the palace was improperly restored, its granite columns and front having been covered with fake painting. The SCA has carried out a restoration project to rescue the landmark building and restore its original look, said Mohsen Sayed Ali, head of the SCA’s Islamic and Coptic antiquities department.

Penn Museum Launches Online Collections Database

Penn Museum (Gabrielle Niu)

Just this week, the Penn Museum launched its Online Collections Database. This brand new resource currently encompasses over 314,000 object records and is illustrated with 46,000 images, stats that are expected to increase as the project moves forward. A keyword as well as an advanced search allow users to casually browse or specifically search for objects.

Experpted from About page:

Images may not be used for print publication or commercial purposes without written approval from the Penn Museum. To request licensing of an image for print publication or commercial use, or to request publication-quality photography of an object, please email photos@pennmuseum.org.

All information (data, images, and text) on the Penn Museum's website are made available for limited non-commercial, educational, and personal use only, or for fair use as defined in the United States copyright laws:

teaching
scholarship
research
critique
commentary
personal communication
news reporting

Website users may link to, embed, or download these files for use motivated by private interest only. You are free to copy and adapt the images as long as you credit the Museum: "Object [insert object number(s)]. Courtesy of the Penn Museum." and in no way suggest an endorsement of you or your use of the image or content.

Unwrapping the ancient Egyptian animal mummy industry

BBC News (Jane O'Brien)

With video.

The ancient Egyptian animal mummification industry was so large it put some species in danger of extinction. But as a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC shows, the Egyptians believed they were doing the animals a great honour.

Egypt in the 7th Century BC was not a healthy place to be if you were a cat or a dog.

Puppy farms and other animal breeding programmes were a huge industry - not to produce pets, but to provide a stock of animals to be killed and mummified.

The Egyptians believed that animals held a unique position in the afterlife. They could keep the dead company, they represented the gods, and they were well received as offerings by the gods, Egyptologists say.

A recurring theme in museum shows

examiner.com (Joan Altabe)

With some kind of magnetic pull, ancient Egypt is a constant draw in museum shows worldwide. This year alone, a Cleopatra exhibit came to the Milwaukee Public Museum, A Pharoah exhibit came to the British Museum, and Egyptian art came to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Even Egyptian fakes showed up at the Brooklyn Museum.Now an Egyptian double feature comes to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg: “Forever in a Moment: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt,” through April 10, 2012 and “Ancient Egypt—Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art/Geneva,” opening December 17 through April 29.

This isn’t even the first time that the Old Nile got featured at MFA. “The Lure of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs Revisited'' was mounted back in 1998.

Our fascination with Egypt is as old as its pyramids and was already far along in the time that Moses saw it.

Exhibition: Grave Secrets - Tales of the Ancient Nubians

Culture 24

Exhibition: Grave Secrets: Tales of the Ancient Nubians, The Manchester Museum, Manchester, until March 4 2012

If you crave a real warrior in your life, the man known simply as 15A in the Manchester Museum’s mummy-heavy display of early 20th century archaeological discoveries just south of Egypt is a superhuman specimen.

Examinations have revealed that he survived multiple wounds from both blunt and sharp objects, including one to his forehead which simultaneously damaged his skull and brain, but his wounds healed and he survived them all.

More re prostate cancer in an Egyptian mummy

The Portugal News

An Egyptian mummy, more than 2,000 years-old, belonging to the National Archaeology Museum (MNA), is a unique specimen after having been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to researcher Carlos Prates.

Following three dimensional tomography exams throughout the entire body, the mummy, which is around 2,300 years old, was diagnosed with a tumour in the prostate with bone extensions.

“It is a unique case, probably the second oldest known. There is a find with a similar hypothesis in some very degraded bones found in Sibeira, analysis results which presume the cause of death was prostate cancer, but there is no radiography, nor images, and it is dated to 2,700 years; whereas the Lisbon mummy is 2,300 years old,” Mr Prates, radiologist and leader of the clinical team that made the discovery told Lusa News Agency.

Travel : Siwa Oasis

Al Ahram Weekly (Ameera Fouad)

Once upon a time, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus said he knew a fountain of the sun that ran coldest in the noontide heat. Once upon a time, Queen Cleopatra made herself a bath and a spring in which to bathe in the middle of the Western Desert. Once upon a time, a temple was built in Siwa to honour the ram-headed god Amon-Ra, housing an oracle whose fame had spread by about 700 BCE. Once upon a time, the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who lived between 522 and 443 BCE, wrote a poem about the oracle at Siwa and carved it on a stone stele.

Once upon a time, Egyptian egyptologist Zahi Hawass, former secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, made headlines when he announced that archaeologists had discovered the world's oldest human footprint while exploring a prehistoric site in Siwa. Once upon a timeÒê¦ many figures could be cited at this juncture in connection with Egypt's Siwa Oasis, though it is the "fountain of the sun" at Siwa that is perhaps the most celebrated.

Siwa is like no other oasis in Egypt.

'The Ceremony of Love' and the Giza Plateau

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

Nevine El-Aref sums up what happened on Friday 11 November on the Giza Plateau, and the loss for Egypt on that day

The "Ceremony of Love" that was scheduled to be held on the footsteps of the Great Pyramid of Khufu on 11 November, and the furore it created among Egyptologists, the public and the media, has raised questions over private functions on the Giza Plateau and meditation sessions inside the Great Pyramid, as well as the roots of misoneism -- a resistance to anything new -- in Egypt and the importance of the Khufu pyramid in New Age rituals.

It all began on 5 November when a Polish numerologist group posted on its website a call for people from all over the globe to come to the Great Pyramid of Khufu on 11 November for its so-called "Ceremony of Love".

Photo for Today: Temple of Amenhotep III, El Kab

Coptic Christian city found in Dakhleh Oasis

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

Council of Antiquities (SCA) stumbled on what it believes to be a Coptic settlement dating back to the 4th century AD.

Mostafa Amin, the Secretary General of the SCA, made the announcement, explaining that the newly discovered settlement consists of remains of residential houses and service buildings as well as a large Basilica with distinguished columns and a wooden alter adorned with foliage decoration and icons showing Jesus, the Virgin Mary, angels and saints.

“I am very happy with what the mission has found; because it is the first time this area was explored,” Amin told Ahram Online. He continued that this new discovery not only forms another another archaeological attraction but “will lead us to other settlements that can be dated to different eras as well.”

Gadling (Sean McLachlan)

An ancient Christian city dating to the fourth century AD has been discovered in Egypt.

Archaeologists digging at the Ain al-Sabil area of the New Valley Governorate have discovered the remains of a basilica and buildings to serve the priests. This is the first excavation at the site and researchers hope more discoveries will be made under the Egyptian sands.

Antiquities ministry replaces deposed supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum

Ahram Online (Nevine El aref)

After protests removed the previous supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Amin appointed Egyptologist Hussein Abdel Bassir to the post.

Abdel Bassir replaces Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, who was resuffhled to head the Ancient Egyptian Department.

Ministry of Antiquities reinstated?

Youm 7

New ministers in Prime Minister designate Kamal el-Ganzouri’s government have started arriving at the Ministry of Planning’s headquarters in Nasr City, as a prelude to the final announcement of all the ministers.

Six new ministers arrived at the headquarters, including Deputy Minister of Education for Secondary Education Gamal el-Araby who is nominated for Minister of Education, Hussein Khaled who is nominated for Minister of Higher Education, Mohamed Ibrahim Ali nominated for Minister of Antiquities, Adel el-Adawy for Minister of Health, Adel Abdel Hamid for Minister of Justice and Abdallah Ghorab as Minister of Petroleum.

A Rare Isotope Helps Track an Ancient Water Source

New York Times

The Nubian Aquifer, the font of fabled oases in Egypt and Libya, stretches languidly across 770,000 square miles of northern Africa, a pointillist collection of underground pools of water migrating, ever so slowly, through rock and sand toward the Mediterranean Sea.

The aquifer is one of the world’s oldest. But its workings — how it flows and how quickly surface water replenishes it — have been hard to understand, in part because the tools available to study it have provided, at best, a blurry image.

Now, to solve some of the puzzles, physicists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois have turned to one of the rarest particles on earth: an elusive radioactive isotope usually ricocheting around in the atmosphere at hundreds of miles an hour.

Rare Egyptian coffin identified in Torquay Museum

BBC News

With photos.

A coffin on display at a museum in Devon is a rare 3,500-year-old Egyptian sarcophagus, it has emerged.

Torquay Museum were unaware of the coffin's significance until an expert from Bristol University identified it as one of only two in the country.

Dr Aidan Dodson, who is cataloguing the country's Egyptian artefacts, believes the coffin pre-dates the mummified boy's body it contains by 1,000 years.

He said: "It's very significant as very few coffins of that period survive."

The highly decorated sarcophagus and the mummified remains of a boy, aged between three and four, were donated to the museum in the 1950s.

But the artefacts were kept in storage for years and rarely displayed until 2007 when they were selected as the centrepiece of an Egyptian exhibition.

Colossi of Memnon to be restored

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

In collaboration with the European archaeological mission, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is undertaking a comprehensive project to restore the colossi of Memnon on Luxor’s west bank.

The project aims to return the 19.5 meters tall colossi to their original appearance when the New Kingdom’s King Amenhotep III built them to decorate the façade of his mortuary temple.

SCA secretary-general Mostafa Amin told Ahram Online that the restoration would also return all the missing pieces of the colossi, collapsed during the Roman period, to their original positions.

3-D scans recreate face of mummified child

MarketWatch

Egyptian mummies have fascinated mankind for centuries, and now modern-day 3D design software is helping Egyptologists to better see what two small mummies looked like in life, and from that, advance their understanding of ancient cultures.

Sensable announced that its Freeform(R) 3D-modeling and organic design solution helped put a face on two high-profile Egyptian mummies in displays that just opened this month. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History exhibition, "External Life in Ancient Egypt," displays a new 3D-printed bust of a Freeform-designed facial reconstruction performed from the computed tomography (CT) scans of a 3-year old mummified boy.

Statue of Egyptian king Amenhotep III found

Egypt State Information Service

A huge statue of King Amenhotep III has been discovered in the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor.

The 13-meter-high quartzite statue was unearthed during excavations carried out by the mission of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) in the area of King Amenhotep III Temple in Luxor’s western bank.

SCA Chief, Dr. Mustafa Ameen said the 100-ton colored statue is one of two statues that had been erected at the entrance of the temple in the area of Qurna in Luxor’s western bank.

The State

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed a large statue of king Amenhotep III who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago and who was the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities says the latest find was made at the king's funerary temple in the southern city of Luxor.

Thursday's statement says the 44 feet (13.5 meter) tall statue is made of colored quartzite. It is composed of several large pieces that once put together will depict the king as standing.

Archaeology meets politics: Spring comes to ancient Egypt

Nature (Jo Marchant)

In a secluded stretch of desert about 300 kilometres south of Cairo, hundreds of bodies lie buried in the sand. Wrapped in linen and rolled up in stiff mats made of sticks, they are little more than bones. But their ornate plaited hair styles and simple personal possessions help to reveal details about the individuals in each grave. The bodies date from around 3,300 years ago, when the Pharaoh Akhenaten renounced Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion and moved his capital to remote Amarna, to worship just one god: the Sun disc Aten.

The cemetery offers a window on a unique episode in Egyptian history, a revolution that some see as the birth of monotheism. Barry Kemp, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, and director of the Amarna Project, has been working with his colleagues to excavate the skeletons, and says that they are starting to reveal “an alarming picture of a stressful life”. Many Amarnans died young, with retarded growth and signs of multiple injuries. Some young men had marks where their shoulder blades had been pierced, perhaps as part of a brutal ritual.

Ashmolean Egyptian galleries re-open, refurbished

ArtInfo

Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum has just opened a new chapter in the distant past, unveiling its new galleries dedicated to Ancient Egypt and Nubia. This £5 million ($7.7 million) refurbishment has allowed the re-housing of 40,000 artifacts collected over the last 300 years, including coffins and mummies that haven't been displayed since the Second World War.

Designed by Rick Mather Architects, the six new galleries lead visitors from Egypt's origins in the Paleolithic period to the annexation of the country by the Roman Empire after the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BC. Liam McNamara, lead curator for the redevelopment of the new galleries, told ARTINFO UK: "We hope that by presenting the galleries in a chronological sequence we will enable our visitors to understand the great length of time that the Egyptian civilization covers — three millennia — but also the aspects of continuity and change that occurred during those 3,000 years."

Art Daily

On Saturday 26 November 2011, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford opened six new galleries for the collections of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan). Building on the success of the Museum’s extension, which opened in 2009, this second phase of major redevelopment redisplays the world-renowned Egyptian collections to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of mummies and coffins on display. The galleries take visitors on a chronological journey covering more than 5000 years of human occupation of the Nile Valley.

The £5 million project has received lead support from Lord Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust, along with the Selz Foundation and other trusts, foundations and individuals. Rick Mather Architects have led the redesign and redisplay of the pre-existing Egypt galleries and the extension into the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the Museum Shop. The contractor Beard has completed the construction work in the historic building. New openings link the rooms, presenting the collections under the broad themes of Egypt at its Origins; Dynastic Egypt and Nubia; Life after Death in Ancient Egypt; The Amarna ‘Revolution’; Egypt in the Age of Empires; and Egypt meets Greece and Rome.

The Ashmolean is home to some of the finest Egyptian and Nubian collections in the country, with Predynastic and Protodynastic material which ranks amongst the most significant in the world.

And at BBC News there is a rather nice slideshow.

Book Review: Living through the Dead

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Kristina Killgrove)

Maureen Carroll, Jane Rempel (ed.), Living through the Dead: Burial and Commemoration in the Classical World. Studies in funerary archaeology, 5. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2011.

This volume is the result of a conference on death and commemoration held in 2006 at the University of Sheffield. The nine papers range in period from Old Kingdom Egypt to 17th century Italy and geographically from the circum-Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Foregrounded in every contribution is the relationship between the living and the dead; this volume represents an attempt to highlight the similarities in burial practice among the diverse peoples of the classical world.

Egyptian Museum In Midst Of The Protests

India TV News

A few metres away from Tahrir Square, where protesters are gathering for the eighth day, calling for Egypt's military rulers to hand over power to civilian leaders, tourists are still flocking to Cairo Museum despite the recent unrest.

The museum remains open and tourists from around the world are continuing to visit. Maryoun Etche, a tourist from Germany said she was not afraid of being in Cairo.

Security measures taken at archaeological sites during Egyptian election

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

To guard against any incidents at archaeological sites and museums in Egypt during the election, Mustafa Amin, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), has commissioned heads of sectors of Ancient Egyptian, Islamic and Coptic antiquities to tighten security measures. This is in collaboration with the Antiquties and Tourism Police.

Book Review: Belzoni - The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate

New York Times (Alida Becker)

His introduction to the wonders of the ancient world could hardly have been less auspicious. While in Cairo in the summer of 1815, awaiting an audience with Mohammed Ali Pasha, Turkish viceroy of Egypt, the Italian monk-turned-peddler-turned-hydrologist-turned-circus impresario Giovanni Belzoni paid a visit to the Great Pyramid and became so tightly wedged in one of its internal passages that his guides had to forcibly extract him. It was merely the first of many indignities endured by this 6-foot-6 “giant,” whose adventures in the Nile Valley would yield some of the most imposing treasures in the British Museum. They would also earn him the undying enmity of his successors in a field that only later acquired the polish of a professional discipline — archaeology.

While granting that Belzoni may be what a colleague has called “the most notorious tomb robber Egypt has ever known,” Ivor Noël Hume, the former director of Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeological research program, also admits to a fondness for this indefatigable entrepreneur.

Online: Ancient Egyptian chariot trappings rediscovered

Nature (Jo Marchant)

Excellent five page article, with photos. Many thanks to David Krueger for the link.

The beautifully preserved leather trappings of an ancient Egyptian chariot have been rediscovered in a storeroom of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Researchers say that the find, which includes intact harnesses, gauntlets and a bow case, is unique, and will help them to reconstruct how such chariots were made and used.

The ancient Egyptians used chariots — typically with one or two riders and pulled by two horses — for hunting and warfare as well as in processions. They are frequently shown in ancient Egyptian art, and several examples of the wooden frames survive, including six dismantled chariots found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb, dating to around 3,300 years ago.

But researchers knew little about the leather trappings and harnesses used with such chariots, as leather decomposes quickly if any moisture is present. Barely any leather survives on the chariots from Tutankhamun’s tomb, though some fragments are known from chariots found in other tombs, such as that of Yuya and Thuya, Tutankhamun’s great-grandparents.

Exhibition: Phoenix Ancient Art to Show Early Faience

The Sacramento Bee

A spectacular exhibition of ancient art works of faience from the private collection of the Aboutaam family will be on view at Phoenix Ancient Art in New York (47 East 66th Street) from December 6th-30th, 2011. The exhibition will then be traveling to BRAFA, (57th Brussels Antiques & Fine Arts Fair, Tour & Taxis), January 21st –29th 2012. Followed by a wonderful display at Phoenix Ancient Art in Geneva (6, rue Verdaine, Geneva), Spring 2012. This private collection was originally formed by Sleiman Aboutaam and continued by his sons, Ali and Hicham.

Fans of "William," the well-loved Egyptian faience hippopotamus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will be pleased to see that there are three other examples of blue-green hippopotami in the show that are among the stars of the exhibition. Two date from the Middle Kingdom (dynasty 11-13); one is from the Late Period (6th-4th century B.C.), which is known as the Persian Period because it was truly international with similar works appearing from Egypt to Iran and the Levant. The hippopotamus, which looks so benign and lovable, was, in fact, a force of nature to be reckoned with, both in this life and in the next.

Exhibition: Mummy - Secrets of the Tomb

Mysunshinecoast

Queenslanders are one step closer to unlocking the secrets of ancient Egypt with tickets now on sale for Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb exhibition at Queensland Museum South Bank, announced Arts Minister Rachel Nolan.

"Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb, opening 19 April 2012 and exclusive to Brisbane, is the first and only time some of the British Museum's most precious Egyptian mummies will visit Australia," Ms Nolan said.

"This spectacular multimedia exhibition uses cutting edge medical scanning and 3D imaging to provide an insight into the once hidden mysteries of ancient Egyptian mummies.

"The exhibition features four exceptionally preserved mummies and more than 100 ancient objects.

Photo for Today - Temple of Amenhotep III, El Kab

More re Qurta rock art

Thanks very much to Dirk Huyge for sending me a copy of his upcoming press release about the Qurta rock art in the journal Antiquity. The two page PDF has been stored as two separate JPEGs on this page. Click on each to load them and then again to magnify them.

Egypt's four year membership of the UNESCO committee expired

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

During the eighteenth session of the General Assembly the World Heritage Convention, which took place during the General Conference of UNESCO from 7- 9 November, Egypt and Jordan concluded their four-year-long membership of the World Heritage Committee (WHC). Algeria and Qatar, meanwhile, have taken become members.

This piece of news has created brouhaha in public opinion in Egypt, as many wrongly thought that Egypt was removed from the Committee for its deficiency in protecting its heritage.

“This is totally wrong,” said Mustafa Amin, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). He told Ahram Online that, in fact, Egypt and Jordan ended their membership according to UNESCO’s convention and not because of their inefficiency in protecting their heritage sites.

Excavations at Tell Edfu

Tell Edfu blog

For those who haven't been following the Tell Edfu blog, things are going very well. There are some great photographs of the excavations of the silo area, including one of an eighteenth century footprint, where work is coming to an end. Work will now start at the small step pyramid situated 4 km south of Tell Edfu near the village of el-Ghonameya.

Survey states Museum collections no better off in developed countries

Safe Corner

Thanks to the Safe Corner blog for this item.

According to 1490 respondents from 136 countries, a survey conducted between June and September by ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) reveals that museum collections the world over suffer from “major” or “drastic” lack of space, bad management, theft, pest infestation, etc. A note at the bottom of the report says: "As a little over 25% of the replies came from North America, these results were analyzed individually and compared to the rest of the world. There was found to be no significant difference in the numbers. This confirms that the results shown here represent the situation of the museums surveyed in all countries.” “Most importantly, we have confirmation that this is not a developed vs. developing country issue: all countries find themselves in the same situation.” Mr. Gaël de Guichen, Special Advisor to the Director General of ICCROM, concludes.

Interruption to tourism at Abu Simbel

Youm7

Not a very clear translation, but it appears that thre have been problems at Abu Simbel which have interrupted normal tourism.

General Director of the Temple of Abu Simbel Ahmed Saleh said the tourism movement to the temple returned to normal after two days of discomfiture today November 15.

It should be mentioned the governorate of Aswan witnessed trouble the past few days. The temple therefore did not receive any tourists before 4:00 P.M. during that time.

Relaunch of open access JCMS

Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies

The Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies is fully peer reviewed and Open Access. It contains research on conservation science, artefact studies, restoration, museum studies, environment studies, collection management and curation. Published from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London from 1992 to 2002, the journal is to be relaunched in 2011 in collaboration with the British Library, with a newly constituted international editorial board.

The new editorial team will be announced shortly. If you are interested in submitting a paper before then, please contact the Journal Manager.

Photo for Today - Temple of Amenhotep III, El Kab

More trouble at t'mill

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Under the title, “The revolution’s decisiveness at the Supreme Council of Antiquities" (SCA) a small group of the SCA’s staff protested today in front of the SCA building in Zamalek asking for the resignation of the newly appointed secretary general Mostafa Amin.

The protest comes but a month after Amin took the post. Protestors asked not only for the resignation of Amin but the SCA to be returned to being the Ministry of State for Antiquites (MSA), and the appointment of the SCA’s temporary staff according to a scheduled timetable.

Egyptian Archaeology 39

Egypt Exploration Society

Egyptian Archaeology 39

EA 39 (Autumn 2011) was published in early November 2011. In addition to regular features such as ‘Digging Diary’, ‘Bookshelf’ and items of EES news, the issue includes the second in the series of short interviews with leading Egyptologists, Five minutes with Salima Ikram, and the following articles:

Joanne Rowland and Jeffrey Spencer, The EES Delta Survey in spring 2011

Eva Lange, The EES Amelia Edwards Projects Fund: Tell Basta

Alice Williams, An Egyptological friendship

Hiroko Kariya and Ray Johnson, Luxor temple: conservation and site-management

Faye Kalloniatis, The shroud of Ipu at Norwich Castle Museum

Steven E Sidebotham and Iwona Zych, Berenike: Egypt’s Red Sea gateway to the east

Dirk Huyge and Dimitri A G Vandenberghe, Confirming the Pleistocene age of the Qurta rock art

Hourig Sourouzian, Investigating the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III

Campbell Price and Gina Criscenzo-Laycock, ACCES-ing Egyptian and Sudanese collections in the UK

Gianluca Miniaci, Re-excavating rishi coffins in museums and archives

Tamás Bács and Richard Parkinson, Wall paintings from the tomb of Kynebu at Luxor

Bookshelf has reviews by Aidan Dodson (Glenn Janes, The Shabti Collections, 1; West Park Museum, Macclesfield), Richard Bussmann (Christopher Woods (ed.), Visible Language. Inventions of writing in the ancient Middle East and beyond), Eva Lange (Mohamed I Bakr, Helmut Brandl and Faye Kalloniatis, Egyptian Antiquities from Kufur Nigm and Bubastis) and Gianluca Miniaci (Bill Manley and Aidan Dodson, Life Everlasting. National Museums Scotland Collection of Ancient Egyptian Coffins). There is also a review by David Jeffreys of the BBC DVD Egypt's Lost Cities.

Digging Diary has brief reports on recent fieldwork in Egypt.

Exhibition: Frankfurt's 'Festival of Egyptian Culture'

Daily News Egypt (Maha ElNabawi)

A sensational discovery 89 years ago by archaeologist Howard Carter turned the unknown pharaoh Tutankhamun into an international superstar. For years, Tutankhamun, his treasures and his tomb have been touring the globe with an ambassador-like presence in each city he visits.

Starting on Nov. 19 and running through April 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany, Tutankhamun takes center stage in an inaugural exhibition titled, “A Festival of Egyptian Culture,” organized by Germany’s leading concert promoter, Semmel Concerts.

A replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb chambers, true to scale and detail of the originals, will make the moment of discovery an attainable, three-dimensional experience for visitors. The replica tour began in 2008 and has successfully attracted nearly 2.5 million visitors from all over Europe including, Zurich, Brussels and Seoul.

Exhibited in a 4,000 square meter custom built gallery space, Tutankhamun will serve as the headline act of the festival — and for the first time, a rich, diverse program of contemporary Egyptian literature, music, visual arts and stand-up comedy in Frankfurt will accompany him.

“We see our exhibitions, always a little bit, as an ambassador for Egyptian culture. This exhibition is formed from a very serious scientific foundation and that’s why it is important to organize an interesting and rich program combining lectures with book readings, music and so on,” said Project Manager Christoph Scholz.

Exhibition: Mummy - Secrets of the Tomb

Richmond Times Dispatch (Roy Proctor)

"Mummy" presents 111 ancient Egyptian objects from London's British Museum, which houses what is generally considered the most comprehensive collection of Egyptian art outside Cairo.

Just as important, it details the results of state-of-the-art scanning and other techniques that permit a complete examination of the mummy without disturbing the case or body.

About 30 percent of the objects are on permanent display at the British Museum, said John Taylor, the assistant keeper of the British Museum's Egyptian collection who is doubling as curator of the show here.

Egypt to Reopen Lower Nile for Two-Week River Cruises

Cruise Critic

This has been announced before, without happening, but this article seems convincing enough.

Egypt's tourism authority has announced that the river Nile will be opened up for the resumption of the "long Nile cruise," the full 14-day voyage all the way from Cairo to Aswan.

Egypt's new minister of tourism, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, said at a press conference in London yesterday that the cruises on the Lower Nile (confusingly, the northerly stretch of the river between Cairo and Luxor), would resume after a 16-year break. This is part of a plan by the Egyptian government to boost tourism numbers, which plummeted by 80 percent in February this year following the uprisings of the Arab Spring.

Currently, Nile cruises only operate between Luxor and the southerly city of Aswan; this stretch is known as the Upper Nile. There are virtually no licenses for operators to sail north of Luxor, so a typical visit to Egypt includes a few days in Cairo -- to visit the pyramids, the Museum of Antiquities and the Sphinx -- followed by a flight south to cruise the Upper Nile for up to a week.

The longer cruises, which take between 11 and 14 days, were stopped in 1994 for various reasons, including security concerns and the fact that the river was becoming severely silted up.

Photo for Today: El Kab - Temple of Amenhotep III

Lascaux along the Nile revisited

Yale News (Dorie Baker)

Using a new technology known as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), a team of Belgian scientists and Professor John Coleman Darnell of Yale have determined that Egyptian petroglyphs found at the east bank of the Nile are about 15,000 years old, making them the oldest rock art in Egypt and possibly the earliest known graphic record in North Africa.

The dating results will be published in the December issue of Antiquity (Vol. 85 Issue 330, pp. 1184–1193).

The site of the rock art panels is near the modern village of Qurta, about 40km south of the Upper-Egyptian town of Edfu. First seen by Canadian archaeologists in the early 1960s, they were subsequently forgotten and relocated by the Belgian mission in 2005. The rediscovery was announced in the Project Gallery of Antiquity in 2007.

One of the 2007 articles was in Antiquity and is freely available to view, with photographs:
www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/huyge313

University of Richmond mummy on display

Richmond times Dispatch

With photo.

Ancient Egyptian mummies come and go in Richmond, but Ti Ameny Net and Tjeby the Younger are here to stay.

Ti Ameny Net and her elaborately painted coffin, housed in the University of Richmond's Ancient World Gallery, are surely UR's best-kept archaeological secret.

That will change Feb. 24 when "Ti Ameny Net: An Ancient Mummy, An Egyptian Woman and Modern Science" opens at UR's Lora Robins Gallery of Design From Nature. This small show will remain on view through June 29.

Tjeby the Younger is no stranger to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts visitors with long memories. Until his coffin was closed in 1984, he fired the imaginations of schoolchildren for two decades as they peered down a shaft to see his dimly lighted form in his partly open coffin.

Libya update - satellite imagery uncovers new evidence

University of Leicester

With photos.

Satellite imagery has uncovered new evidence of a lost civilisation of the Sahara in Libya’s south-western desert wastes that will help re-write the history of the country.

The fall of Gaddafi has opened the way for archaeologists to explore the country’s pre-Islamic heritage, so long ignored under his regime.

Using satellites and air-photographs to identify the remains in one of the most inhospitable parts of the desert, a British team has discovered more than 100 fortified farms and villages with castle-like structures and several towns, most dating between AD 1-500.

These “lost cities” were built by a little-known ancient civilisation called the Garamantes, whose lifestyle and culture was far more advanced and historically significant than the ancient sources suggested.

The team from the University of Leicester has identified the mud brick remains of the castle-like complexes, with walls still standing up to four metres high, along with traces of dwellings, cairn cemeteries, associated field systems, wells and sophisticated irrigation systems. Follow-up ground survey earlier this year confirmed the pre-Islamic date and remarkable preservation.

Also copied on:
Science Daily

Funding issues threaten preservation of Christian sanctuary

Al Masry Al Youm (Ragab Ramadan)

The archaeological site of Abu Mena, an early Christian sanctuary south of Alexandria, might be added back to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, warned Mohamed Reda, head of the Engineering and Technical Unit for the Museums and Monuments in Delta and Sinai, at the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The site, which includes a complex of churches and Saint Mar Mena al-Agaiby’s Monastery, is among the most important destinations for Christian pilgrims around the world. In 2001, the site was put on the UNESCO list due to a significant rise in groundwater levels, a common problem in the Mediterranean region, where the local soil becomes semi-liquid with excess water resulting from urban growth and agricultural development.

Egypt pyramid closed ahead of 11/11/11

Huffington Post (Ben Hubbard)

Egypt's antiquities authority closed the largest of the Giza pyramids Friday following rumors that groups would try to hold spiritual ceremonies on the site at 11:11 A.M. on Nov. 11, 2011.

The authority's head Mustafa Amin said in a statement Friday that the pyramid of Khufu, also known as Cheops, would be closed to visitors until Saturday morning for "necessary maintenance."

The closure follows a string of unconfirmed reports in local media that unidentified groups would try to hold "Jewish" or "Masonic" rites on the site to take advantage of mysterious powers coming from the pyramid on the rare date.

Amin called all reports of planned ceremonies at the site "completely lacking in truth."

The complex's director, Ali al-Asfar, said Friday that an Egyptian company requested permission last month to hold an event called "hug the pyramid," in which 120 people would join hands around the ancient burial structure.

The authority declined the request a week ago, al-Asfar said, but that did not stop concerned Egyptians from starting internet campaigns to prevent the event from taking place.

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Controversy surrounded not only the meditation ceremony slated for Friday, but the fact that SCA initially approved it. People from all over the world were due to hold a "ceremony of love" to strengthen the power of the pyramid on the day 11-11-2011, to save the earth from cosmic threats. According to the programme published by the polish foundation DAR SWATOWIDA, which was sponsoring the event, a crystal pyramid would be installed inside Khufu’s sarcophagus for 24 hours in order to harness the energy of all sacred sites around the world and create a shield between the earth and cosmic forces. They believe the world will end on 12/12/2012.

Online: Nubian prehistory websites

For those of you who are interested in Nubian archaeology, here are a couple more links:

International Society for Nubian Studies

Mission Archaeologique Suisse Au Sudan

The ACACIA project in Wadi Howar

Polish Archaeological Mission in Sudan

Book Review: Ancient Egyptian Tombs

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (William H. Peck)

Steven Snape, Ancient Egyptian Tombs: the Culture of Life and Death. Blackwell ancient religions. Malden, MA; Oxford; Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

This work is a rather ambitious attempt to summarize not only the development of the burial place in ancient Egypt and its architecture, but also the complex religious significance of the tomb, the attendant rituals and ritual objects as well as funerary texts. Admittedly, there is a great deal to be said about each of these aspects of the burial rite in ancient Egypt and the author has essayed a survey that includes a good deal of significant information as well as observation.

The time span of the investigation of over three thousand years begins in the late Predynastic Period and continues through the entire history of pharaonic Egypt. The emphasis is on private rather than royal burials (although these are not completely ignored). Among the topics discussed is an examination of the meaning and function of the tomb as a “machine” or a “vehicle”, in the words of the author, to enable the spirit of the deceased to enter the afterlife.

Book Review: Life Everlasting. National Museums Scotland Collection of Ancient Egyptian Coffins

PalArch (Review by René van Walsem)

B. & A. Dodson. 2010. Life Everlasting. National Museums Scotland Collection of Ancient Egyptian Coffins. – Edinburgh, National Museums Scotland.

After an overview (without title, pp. 1-10) of the history of the conglomerate of the National Museums Scotland – with special attention to the Egyptian collections and the individuals who were most closely related to their development, among whom Rhind was the most prominent – the Egyptian coffin collection is divided into seven ‘parts’.

The introduction sketches the archaeological and culture historical context. Part 1 (Cat. 1-2, pp. 12-19) describes two Middle Kingdom coffins of two men, both of whom were called Khnumhotep (no family relation), with the coffins respectively rectangular and anthropoid in shape. The main text is followed by notes, a pattern repeated for the remaining six parts.

The ongoing curse of the curse

Daily Mail

Please don't shoot the messenger!

More than 20 people linked to the opening of Tutankhamun's burial chamber in Luxor in 1923 died in bizarre circumstances, six of them in London.

A frenzied public blamed the 'Curse of Tutankhamun' and speculated on the supernatural powers of the ancient Egyptians.

But a historian now claims the deaths in Britain were the work of a notorious satanist, Aleister Crowley.

Mark Beynon has drawn on previously unpublished evidence to conclude the occultist – dubbed the wickedest man in the world – masterminded a series of ritualistic killings in 'revenge' for the British archaeologist Howard Carter's opening of the boy-king's tomb.

Also on The Telegraph.

Photo for Today - Temple of Luxor

Newsletter: The Resumption of Work at Amarna by Barry Kemp

Sent by email by Barry Kemp of the Amarna Project and Amarna Trust:

The Resumption of Work, Autumn 2011

I am writing this on a fine, warm morning, at a table set beneath a group of palm trees that occupy the centre of the North Palace at Amarna. Six months have passed since I last sent out an email report. I have delayed writing another until I could see a path through the uncertainties. Our permit from the SCA runs until the end of the year, and my hope has been that it would be possible to carry out, during the last months of 2011, the fieldwork that had been planned for the spring. I can now report that this is happening.

Two separate projects are involved, and they are taking place one after the other, on either side of the middle of November. The first is the repair schedule at the North Palace. The second is the resumption of excavation at the South Tombs Cemetery. That these are taking place is a sign that, bit by bit, post-revolution Egypt is settling down to its new order.

The idea of carrying out remedial work at the North Palace goes back to the late 1990s. By that time, after seventy years of exposure to the elements and, for much of that time, being used by farmers and their animals as a short cut to their fields (it was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence only in 1984), the brickwork had suffered severely. The rear part, standing higher than the rest, looked close to major collapse. The three days of heavy rain during January of this year illustrate the seriousness of the assault that the weather can bring on.

Our first steps in consolidation were taken in September 1997. Our subsequent seasons have not been annual, sometimes being replaced by similar work at the Small Aten Temple. Our team of brickmakers and three teams of builders have, over the years, developed a good style of work that is sensitive to the materials they use and to the requirements of an ancient building. For the supervision of much of the repairs, we have been fortunate to have the services of conservation architect Suresh Dhargalkar who formerly was responsible for conservation at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. This year he was unable to come. I have done my best to stand in for him, with the assistance of SCA conservator Atef Nagi and inspector Ahmed Fathi.

In the rear parts of the palace, the aims of the work have been to preserve as much as possible of the original brickwork and to leave it visible, adding significant brickwork only where the original has all but disappeared. We have thus added a patchwork of new bricks, sometimes in the sides of walls, to fill undercutting, sometimes to define the jambs of doorways, and sometimes on top as capping. We have also marked out missing stone elements, casting replacement column bases and laying, at ground level, the outlines of stone features in limestone blocks. Over a very large part of the palace, however, the walls have preserved less well.

Weathering has reduced them to low dusty ridges covered with gravel with perhaps only a single course of original bricks underneath. In this condition, they have all but stabilised, and are beyond the kind of consolidation we have applied to standing brickwork.

The part of the palace on the north side that lies adjacent to the better-preserved rear was of unusual design, a row of three similar buildings that were intended for the keeping of animals and birds. One part had been provided with rows of stone mangers carved with pictures of feeding animals. Traces of painted decoration, and the closeness of the buildings to the royal residential area together suggest that their purpose was something almost theatrical, namely, the creation in solid form of the idyllic landscape of papyrus marsh and animal life that so enchanted the ancient Egyptians and which was a recurrent theme in the art and architecture of Amarna.

Thus it seemed desirable to clarify the layout of this part on the ground.
The only feasible way to do this is to brush down the remaining wall stumps and to lay fresh courses of bricks over the top. The final stage of this is the work that is currently proceeding. In order to reflect the increasing degree of erosion as one moves westwards, towards the present cultivated fields, the height of the rebuilt walls also generally decreases, down to one or two courses at the lowest point.

Access to each section of the three animal houses was through doorways that were up to 2 m wide. The original thresholds were long ago removed, leaving only broken pieces behind. It clarifies the appearance of buildings if doorways have thresholds. In two of the animal houses they had been slabs of sandstone, brought from quarries far to the south, quarries that are no longer used. This year we are creating mock-sandstone thresholds to replace them, by casting them as slabs in wooden moulds, using local desert clay for colour. For this, Simon Bradley has returned, the sculptor who made the full-size column that stands conspicuously in the Small Aten Temple.

It has also been possible to make further observations and measurements that contribute to the major publication of the North Palace that is well under way. To this end, the third member of the team, Miriam Bertram, is drawing a series of elevations of walls from the rear part of the palace to which she is adding elements that, although now lost, can be, to some extent, reconstructed from the notes, sketches and photographs made in the 1920s, when the building was first exposed. This includes walls with windows, complete with stone window sills, and a wall in the animal houses where parts of most of the decorated stone mangers were still in place in 1923.

The work at the palace will end on November 12th. By then, the laying out of wall lines for the three animal houses should be finished, although some small touches might remain for next year. What I hope we have achieved in the L-shaped area that we have paid attention to since we began in 1997 is to prolong the life of the best-preserved brickwork at the rear and, in the part where we have laid out new walls, to reveal more clearly to the visitor an unusual architectural layout and to help the imagination extend itself over the very large areas that remain untouched.

Our own contributions to the fabric of the North Palace are themselves exposed to the elements and gradually degrade. It makes sense to think of returning in five years' time to give the building a 'service', a mixture of cleaning and repair. In the meantime, the plan for next year is to transfer the building teams to the Central City and to undertake a work of reclamation at the site of the Great Aten Temple, a task that will take several years to accomplish.

The final official confirmation that we can undertake the planned excavation at the South Tombs Cemetery came just over a week ago. On November 13th, Anna Stevens, the deputy director, will arrive with a small team of archaeologists with the intention of continuing the excavation until very near the end of the year. At the same time, the magazine at the expedition house will be opened. One task to be undertaken is conservation of the fragments of decorated coffins recovered in previous seasons.

I would like to thank all who take an interest in our work, and especially those who have continued to support us through this difficult period.
Pictures of the current work are mounted on the Amarna Facebook site, and I have attached a few here.

Our Justgiving site includes a special appeal to assist in the completion of a publication project (the painted wall plaster from an early Christian church that had been constructed over the remains of one of Akhenaten's buildings at Amarna, the place called Kom el-Nana). See:

www.justgiving.com/amarna-project0

It is close to reaching its target. Can I appeal to your generosity again to accomplish this?

And any who receive this report but not our free, printed twice-yearly newsletter, Horizon, and who would like to be added to the mailing list, need only send me their name and postal address.

Barry Kemp, 31 October 2011.



The work at Amarna is supported directly by two institutions: in the UK by the Amarna Trust, and in the USA by the Amarna Research Foundation. In both cases, donations are tax deductible. Amarna Trust: Donations can be made directly to the treasurer: Dr Alison L. Gascoigne Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology University of Southampton Avenue Campus Highfield Southampton SO17 1BF +44 (0)2380 599636 or to the Trust's bank account: Bank: Nat West Address: High Wycombe branch, 33 High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP11 2AJ Account name: The Amarna Trust Account number: 15626229 Branch sort code: 60-11-01 BIC: NWBK GB 2L IBAN: GB66 NWBK 6011 0115 6262 29 or by electronic transfer through Paypal or Justgiving, available on the website www.amarnatrust.com (where a Gift Aid form is downloadable) The Trust sends out a free newsletter twice a year, Horizon, to anyone who sends me a postal address. It is also available as a downloadable pdf file from our two web sites. Amarna Research Foundation The Amarna Research Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Colorado. It has been approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a charitable organization, and contributions to the Foundation are tax exempt. The Foundation receives donations and runs a membership list. See www.museum-tours.com/amarna/ where a membership form can be downloaded. The Foundation publishes a regular newsletter, The Akhetaten Sun, available to members.

Workmen’s Huts in the Theban Mountains (WHTM) Project

Finnish Egyptology Society

Thanks to Jane Akshar for pointing to this link of of the Finnish project's excavations at the Workmen's huts in the Theban mountains, which are planned to continue until 2013.

With two photo galleries (2009 and 2010)

The Workmen’s Huts in the Theban Mountains (WHTM) Project forms part of a research project called People and Environment. A multidisciplinary study on human agency, housing constructions, and social and ritual space in Egypt 1550-1069 BC with special focus on the Station de Repos area.

This is a five-year project taking place 1.8.2008–31.7.2013 directed by Dr. Jaana Toivari-Viitala. The project is funded by the Academy of Finland and undertaken at the University of Helsinki in association with the Finnish Egyptological Society. The international partners of the project are The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Egypt and the University of Basel in Switzerland as well as the Náprstek Museum in the Czech Republic.

The main objectives of the project are:

1. The conservation, consolidation and documentation of the Station de Repos area on the West Bank of Luxor which forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis in Egypt (= Workmen’s Huts in The Theban Mountains (WHTM) Project).

2. Conducting multidisciplinary in-depth research on the ancient Egyptian royal
tomb-builders’ various modes of housing, building types and functions, lay-out of
road/path networks, mobility and other types of human interaction with the environment and landscape as part of human life, experience, agency, social taxonomies, and the conceptual world at large in ancient Egypt during the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC) with special focus on the Station de Repos area on the West Bank of Luxor.

3. Providing a research frame work and environment for young Finnish doctoral students of
egyptology.

4. A continuation of Finnish co-operation in the international preservation work of
UNESCO-listed World Heritage sites.

5. To make the progress and results of the research project known and available throughproper and on-going reporting in various types of national and international media targeting the scientific and the lay audience.

Due to constantly increasing subsoil water levels, environmental change and increasing pollution, and damage caused by growing numbers of tourists, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has launched an appeal to the international scientific community to take part in the conservation, consolidation, and documentation work of endangered sites and monuments which form part of our world heritage. One location in the Theban area under threat to disappear forever without having been properly studied or documented is the Station de Repos area situated on the cliff slope of the Valley of Kings. It consists of clusters of the Deir el-Medina based royal tomb builders temporary accommodation huts dating to the 19.–20. dynasties (1295–1069 BC).

NATO raids spared Libyan antiquities

The Associated Press

Libya's famed ancient Roman sites, including the sprawling seaside ruins of Leptis Magna, were spared damage by NATO during the recent airstrikes, says a London-based Libyan archaeologist .

Hafed Walda, a research fellow at Kings College, said Friday that he wants to "say thank you to NATO for achieving precision strikes" during its campaign to protect civilians from late dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime

Libya boasts many ancient Roman structures, along with a wealth of ancient artifacts in its major museum in the capital Tripoli and in other museums countrywide.

During the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq's major museum in Baghdad was looted. Fears were raised on the outbreak of violence in Libya that a similar fate may befall its antiquities and ancient ruins.

Walda, speaking at the American Academy in Rome at a conference on saving cultural heritage in crisis areas, said he had visited sites in the country's west in late September, and all had "so far seen no visible loss."

More information re return of items from Australia

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El Aref)

A collection of ancient Egyptian and Graeco-Roman figurines and miniature amulets are on their way home from Australia, reports Nevine El-Aref.

This week Egypt is celebrating the restitution of 122 ancient Egyptian and Graeco-Roman artefacts that have been recovered from Australia. All the items, which vary from miniature amulets to larger bronze statues from the Neolithic to the Graeco-Roman eras, were stolen several years ago from archaeological sites in Egypt. The handover ceremony was hosted by Egyptian Ambassador to Australia Omar Metwalli at the embassy premises in Canberra.

Mustafa Amin, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told a press conference that the objects were hidden for almost a decade inside the storehouses of the Mossgreen Auction hall.

When the SCA learnt about plans to sell off these objects from the auctioneer's catalogue, officers contacted the Egyptian Embassy in Canberra, which on its turn contacted the Australian authorities with a request that the sale be stopped.

Hospital tests reveal the secrets of an Egyptian mummy

R&D

An ancient Egyptian mummy has had quite an afterlife, traveling more than 6,000 miles, spending six decades in private hands, and finally, in 1989, finding a home at the World Heritage Museum (now the Spurlock Museum) at the University of Illinois. The mummy's travels did not end there, however. It has made two trips to a local hospital—once in 1990 and again this year—for some not-so-routine medical exams.

Egyptologists, a radiologist, a pathologist, a physical anthropologist, and a mummy expert are using the best diagnostic tools available to learn about the mummy without unwrapping its red linen shroud or cutting into it. The team discussed its findings during a symposium at the museum in Urbana, Ill.

The first round of tests in 1990 included X-rays and CT scans, as well as an analysis of tiny fragments of cloth, insects, and hardened resins collected from the fraying base of the mummy. Joseph Barkmeier, MD, medical director of diagnostic services and regional outreach at Carle Foundation Hospital and Physician Group in Urbana, conducted the CT scans at the hospital. He repeated the scans this year at Carle with much-improved CT technology.

"Medical diagnostic technology has experienced tremendous advancements in the past two decades," Barkmeier says. "Image resolution is nearly 10 times greater than it was when we first imaged the mummy in 1990, and we can reconstruct images faster and view them from multiple vantage points."

The scans and an analysis of the materials used in embalming (including carbon-14 dating of a wooden plank that supports the body) found that the mummy was a child of a wealthy family from the Roman period of ancient Egypt.

SCA Chief Mustafa Amin tours Giza Plateau

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mustafa Amin embarked today on an inspection tour of the Giza plateau to check on the development of the new museum’s construction and discuss any obstacles that might stand in the way of the project’s completion.

During the tour, Amin asserted that the SCA would soon provide all required funds to complete the construction of the wall surrounding the plateau as well as the new building for the Giza Inspectorate. He also agreed to provide the solar boat museum with monitoring devices that would control the humidity and temperature levels inside the museum.

Amin also inspected the plateau’s visitor path, lighting and security systems as well as the administrative building which is still under construction.

Uncovering the history of dighouses

Uncovering the history of dighouses

With photos.

All over Egypt, you can find these “homes away from home”. The places, where all those famous names of the past have spent their professional life, during excavation seasons, and their free time. Some of these houses have already disappeared, some are on the verge of being demolished and some (Like Castle Carter) will probably still be there long after we are gone.

Nevertheless, they do have a history of their own and are, in our opinion, worth of being surveyed, their history recorded for future generations.

And that’s exactly what we will try to do! Locate as many of these houses (or the location where they once stood) as possible and write articles about their history.

Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections Vol 3, No.4

Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections

Vol 3, No 4: JAEI August 2011
Access restricted to subscribers

Articles
Campaign of Ramesses III against Philistia
Dan'el Kahn
Egypt and the Chad: Some Additional Remarks
Thomas Schneider
A Long Walk in the Desert: A Study of the Roman Hydreumata along the Trade Routes between the Red Sea and the Nile
Christina W.M. Scott

Reviews
S.E. Sidebotham--Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route
Pearce Paul Creasman

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAT!

Happy Birthday, lovely Kat
With very best wishes for a super day




Love
Andie
xxx

Photo for Today - Temple of Luxor

Photo of the temple showing the king in the main axis

The post-revolution state of Egypt's heritage

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

The 25 January Revolution seems to have cast the Pharaohs' curse over the antiquities and museums sector in Egypt, which has seen more than its share of bad luck in the past nine months.

The early days of the uprising saw thieves taking advantage of the temporary lack of security to loot several archaeological sites and museums around the country, including the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the Saqqara and Abusir necropolises in Giza, and sites in the Delta and Upper Egypt. Although some of the stolen items were later recovered, many are still missing.

Meanwhile, certain developed sites such as Al-Muizz Street in mediaeval Cairo saw renewed damage to their structure as residents in the area encroached on the unique Islamic monuments that have lined the street since the Mamluk era. And, hampered by a budget shortfall caused by the drop in the tourist industry in Egypt, construction work on new museums such as the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking Giza plateau and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) were put on hold. Also delayed were development and restoration projects at several archaeological sites and monuments, such as Djoser's Step Pyramid in the Saqqara necropolis.

On the administrative level the case was even worse.

Antiquities smuggling attempt thwarted in Aswan

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

With photo.

The Customs Police at the High Dam Port in the Upper Egypt city of Aswan Wednesday caught a Sudanese traveller attempting to illegally smuggle seven wooden boxes full of ancient Egyptian and Islamic artefacts out of the country.

The 50-year-old was arrested after policemen found that the boxes contained a wooden chair inlaid with ivory and pearls, clay and metal pots, as well as a number of statuettes and canopic jars. Investigations are underway to ascertain if the main was working alone or had colleagues in Egypt or abroad.

Restoration of Step Pyramid continues

Al Masry Al Youm

The restoration works will not damage or endanger the monument, Supreme Council of Antiquities head Mostafa Amin said following a field tour Tuesday at the pyramid in Saqqara.

Renovation works are being completed according to a plan laid out to protect the pyramid, according to Amin. Workers have finished cleaning the sand and blemishes accumulated over time from its six steps to remove the added weight from the pyramid.

The restoration includes replacing worn-out stone bricks with new pieces made of the same materials, as well as replacing unstable stones to prevent their collapse. Holes and gaps on top of the six steps have also been filled.

Egypt's first permanent exhibition overseas, in Rome

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

A year after its establishment, Egypt's foreign ministry has selected Atia Radwan, head of the Museum Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), to be the administrative attache to the Antiquities Museum at the Egyptian Art Academy in Rome (EAAR). SCA Secretary General Mostafa Amin appointed Adel Abdel Satar, Radwan's deputy, to replace Radwan.

The museum is Egypt's first permanent antiquities exhibition abroad. The 220 square metre museum presents Egyptian civilisation from the days of the pharoahs through to the Islamic era.

Radwan told Ahram Online that the permanent exhibition, entitled "The Golden Ages of Egypt: Continuity and Change", will highlight the face of Egyptian arts by showing 205 artefacts carefully selected from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo as well as the Coptic, Islamic and the ceramic museums. The collection is exhibited thematically as "Life, Faith and Beyond."

Tell Edfu blog - "Adventures of newbie archaeologist"

Janelle In Egypt

Thanks to Stuart Tyler for sending me the link for Janelle's blog. She started it back in July with all the preparatory work for an October/November season working at Tell Edfu and has been updating it ever since. Her experiences make great reading and are a great compliment to the official Tell Edfu blog. Here's an excerpt the introductory post from back in July.

Fall quarter this year (October-December 2011), I will be joining my very first archaeological dig! The project is in Edfu, Egypt (the project website can be found here). Since this is the first time I've ever been in a foreign country for longer than a few weeks, let alone on a dig, I thought a blog would be a perfect way to keep everyone informed! Internet access is spotty, with only one person at a time being aloud on our rather shaky connection. However, I hope to blog as often as I can, even if it means writing my posts in word and posting in bulk every few days.

The lead on the project is my adviser, so I'm not jumping into this completely blind (plus, Dan and I visited the site on our honeymoon!). I'll also have at least 3 other girls that I know coming with me. We'll be meeting a couple of my adviser's friends for a few weeks at a time throughout the season (including one of my old professors who now lives in Copenhagen), so it won't just be us UofCers all the time. For the most part, I'll be drawing pottery.

3000 year old mummy to be assessed in Ireland

Irish Examiner (Niamh Hennessy)

A 3,000-YEAR-OLD Egyptian mummy which was once hidden under the floorboards at University College Cork (UCC) is at the centre of an investigation by Egyptian authorities.

The male mummy is now located at the Boole Library at UCC but is not on public display.

A spokesman from the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin said they are aware of the mummy at UCC and are in discussions with the university on the matter.

He said they are waiting to have the mummy assessed by an expert or somebody at the embassy. He also said that, once the assessment is completed, they will then decide if it will be returned to Egypt or stay in UCC.

Results of Spurlock mummy scan to be presented

Daily Illini ()

A 1,900-year-old Egyptian mummy from the Spurlock Museum, who made headlines in early April for undergoing a CT scan at the Carle Foundation Hospital, is make another appearance in “The Return of the Mummy.”

Presented by Spurlock, The Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials and the Dr. Allan C. Campbell Family Distinguished Speaker Series, a panel of experts will discuss the new techniques applied to the ongoing study of the mummy and reveal new information gathered.

Exhibition: In the Shadow of the Pyramids

The Art Newspaper

11 Nov 11 – 25 Mar 12 2011
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Dantes Plads 7, Copenhagen DK-1556, Denmark
+45 33 41 81 41
www.glyptoteket.dk

As one of the sponsors of Petrie’s Egyptian’s expeditions, the Carlsberg Foundation was the recipient of a large number of artefacts unearthed in the early decades of the 20th century.

“Cairo kept the unique and most complete objects and Petrie was allowed to take the rest,” says the scholar, Tine Bagh, who led the project.

“My job was to document the finds and investigate why we [the Glyptotek] ended up with some items while others went to Boston or Brussels.” The show will present the finds from the museum’s permanent collection, many of which are not normally on view, and aims to make new connections with artefacts excavated by Petrie in other museum’s ­collections.

“I want the objects to come alive,” Bagh says. “They are not just isolated pieces but an integral part of tombs and temples.” Two key discoveries ­resulting from Bagh’s ­research will be highlighted in the exhibition.

A limestone crown in the Glyptotek’s collection from Hawara, Egypt, has been matched to the head and torso of a crocodile god (Sobek) in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Rashid - A city rich in history

onislam (Emily Cocke)

For most people interested in the history of Egypt, the name Rashid (or as the French named it: Rosetta) is linked to the Rosetta Stone. This stone, which was found in a wall in the fort of the city in 1799, provided the linguist Champollion with the final clues to finally decipher hieroglyphs. The black stone contained three versions of the same text, a decree celebrating the coronation of the pharaoh Ptolemy V in 196 BCE. The text was written in Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphs – the Greek was easily translated and could be used to understand the language of the other two texts. The stone was originally found by French soldiers but was seized by British troops and is now in the British Museum in London, where it is one of the museum's most famous objects (Andrews 2001, 156-157).

Rashid today is a bustling city on the Mediterranean coast, situated where a branch of the Nile enters the sea. It is relatively close to Alexandria and contains a unique heritage of historical houses and mosques, mostly from the Ottoman Period.