Eat like an Egyptian

http://www.daytondailynews.com/life/content/life/daily/0831egyptfood.html
An article looking at Egyptian food and drink, ancient and modern.

Tutankhamun Ticket Sales

http://tinyurl.com/d3tdw

"More than 600,000 tickets to the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit have been sold since it opened on June 16 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)". For details about ticket availability at LACMA, see the above press release on the Business Wire website.

Who was King Tut? - Part III

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2256&dept_id=457701&newsid=15122994&PAG=461&rfi=9

Following on from Parts I and II, which I posted about last week, this is the third part of the serialized piece from the Marco Island Sun Times, subtitled The Burial Chamber: "What would they find? The first thing they found, lying beside a small hole in the door made by robbers in ancient times were portions of two necklaces, dropped by the thief. Ancient Egyptian officials had resealed the doors" . For links to the first two parts click here.

Avoiding the Pharaoh's Curse

http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o290825f.htm
"Thousands of Americans booked their tickets for an exhibition of Egyptian treasures in Dayton, Ohio. The number of persons who bought tickets to visit the exhibition The Queen for Immortality stood so far at 25,000. Director of the Modern Art Museum, which hosts the exhibition, expected the number to reach 400,000 by January; adding that the Americans fancy the ancient Egyptian civilization. The local press in Dayton urged US citizens to visit the exhibition to avoid the curse of the pharaohs. Some 141 artifacts representing the modern dynasty are displayed in the exhibition which will be opened for the public on Thursday. The exhibit includes: massive stone carvings, intricately painted sarcophagi and coffins, gold death masks, exquisite jewelry, stunning relieves, and artwork from Egypt's golden age, many items of which have never before been displayed outside of Egypt". This is the full State Information Service bulletin.

Tourist programme in Japan on Aswan, Saqqara

http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o290825e.htm

"A team representing Japan's TV Man channel is currently visiting Egypt to shoot a tourist programme on archaeological sites in Aswan and Saqqara in Giza. Youssef Khaled, representative of the Japanese university of Waseda, said the delegation, which is visiting Aswan at the invitation of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) will shoot the programme in cooperation with SCA. The programme is due to be aired by TV Man channel that covers Japan, China and most of the European countries with the aim of promoting tourism into Egypt". This is the full State Information Service bulletin.

Egypt in Hollywood

http://tinyurl.com/7qgmj

Yesterday a new exhibition opened at the Hollywood Museum: Egypt in Hollywood: A Retrospective 1898-2005: "Located in the lower level of the historic Max Factor Building, the exhibit presents the largest collection of Egypt-themed props, costumes, jewelry, photographs, and memorabilia ever assembled. Dating from La Fruite en Egypte (France, 1898), the new exhibit is comprised of treasures from hundreds of movies including The Mummy (USA 1911, 1932, 1959 and 1999 versions), Cleopatra (1899, 1912, 1917, 1934, 1963 versions), The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956 versions), Charlie Chan in Egypt, Caesar and Cleopatra, Aida, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, Land of the Pharaohs, The Spy Who Loved Me, Death On the Nile, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Stargate, The Prince of Egypt and The Scorpion King."

More informatin, including examples of actual items on display, and details of when, where, and how much, are detailed on the above page on the Business Wire website.

Official on mission to promote, protect Egypt's history

http://www.daytondailynews.com/life/content/life/daily/0829egypt.html

Another article profiling Zahi Hawass, who is lecturing in Dayton on Wednesday and Thursday to two sell-out audiences: "One would not blame you, upon meeting Zahi Hawass, if you thought of Indiana Jones. There's the outfit — the dusty jeans, the blue work shirt with rolled-up sleeves, the crumpled fedora that is sweat-stained to almost Hollywood perfection. There's the confidence, too — he's a look-you-in-the-eye, take-charge lion of a man. He is impatient with people being uninformed around him and assumes that if you're talking to him, you understand that he's important".

Museum teaches visitors of all ages all about Egypt

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/education/12498835.htm

A chatty description of the San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium, built by the Rosicrucian Order, which was founded in the 1930s: "a mystical, philosophical organization that traces its roots to ancient Egypt, spearheaded archaeological digs in Egypt during the Depression, paying for expeditions when there was no public sector money available for research. The bulk of their finds remain in Egypt, but the budding San Jose museum slowly acquired artifacts, with permission from the Egyptian minister of antiquities".

Getty Museum ownership disputes

http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/qtakes/cl-ca-artsnotes28aug28,0,6655175.story

The Getty Museum, home to a world class collection of art and antiquities, is facing allegations from the Italian government that it obtained items which were looted and smuggled. The article also contains a comment and update on the situaton with Egypt's claims against the museum. Earlier in the year Zahi Hawass wrote to request the return of a piece: "But the claim was sketchy and confusing, says Suzanne Hall, spokeswoman for the Virginia museum. Hawass' letter described the piece, supposedly looted from a temple at Behbeit el-Hagara, as a depiction of the god Hapi — but it's the museum's belief that the relief, purchased in 1963 from a dealer in New York, shows a different god, Khonsu. Hall says the museum researched the sculpture's provenance, checked the Art Loss Register, a leading database of lost and stolen objects, and found no evidence that there was a problem. Museum attorneys twice wrote to the Egyptian government asking for more information, and received no answer, she says. When he was in Los Angeles in mid-June for the opening of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hawass told The Times that the theft apparently had not been reported properly when it occurred and that his staff was gathering information to support the claim against the Virginia museum".

See the article for more about the Getty Museum allegations.

Turin's Turn: Museo Egizio

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/travel/12498739.htm

It definately appears to be museum day today in the online world of Egyptological news. First off, the above feature looks at the city of Turin, which is to be home to the 2006 Winter Olympics in February. As well as all the other attractions that Turin has to offer, the article recommends a visit to the Museo Egizio, which has 30,000-plus artifacts: "Turin officials consider it the equal of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the British Museum in London, thanks in part to the statues of Ramses II and the sarcophagus of Nefertiti. Although the Museo doesn't have a headliner to match the Rosetta Stone (London) or King Tut's gold (Cairo), it's certainly worth an hour or two".

The Second Door

http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/5/

Article on today's edition of the Egyptian Gazette website by Zahi Hawass about investigations of the "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid - nothing new here, but I have added it in case it is of interest. It is copied in its entirety because it will cease to be displayed very quickly, and there is no archive on the site - or at least, not that I've managed to find: "It was an important day in my life when we looked behind the secret door inside the Great Pyramid. This was inside the southern "airshaft" in the Queen's Chamber. The function of these airshafts was a mystery. Those leading from the King's Chamber to the outside of the pyramid might have been magical tunnels so that the soul of Khufu could travel to join the imperishable stars. But the shafts in the Queen's Chamber did not go to the outside, and now we had found this enigmatic door, or slab, blocking the southern shaft. There was great interest from all over the world. I had been in Hong Kong the month before, and everyone there was fascinated, and could not wait to see the investigation. They set up big screens everywhere so that people could see the National Geographic show at 8 am. We sent the robot into the shaft and it drilled a hole about 1.1 cm in diameter. But we did not put the camera in. We told the world that this great moment would be live, for everyone to see. I never thought that we would find evidence for Atlantis or aliens, but I truly did not know what to expect. My best guess was that there would be nothing there but empty space. This would be important, however, because even empty space inside the Great Pyramid could be very interesting for archaeologists. We made the TV programme live at 3 am Cairo time, which was 8 pm in the States and 8 am in China. We began by talking about the development of the pyramids, from the tombs of the Early Dynastic Period to the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, to the first true pyramid, built by Khufu's father Sneferu. So we put the Great Pyramid into context, and showed that there were other pyramids before and after Khufu's.We sent the camera into the hole that had been drilled through the first door at 4:50 am Cairo time. Twenty-one centimeters behind this door was another limestone slab, this time without any handles. This was a very important discovery, and a big surprise to me."

Cairo's Museum doesn't match majesty of treasures

http://www.daytondailynews.com/life/content/life/daily/0828cairo.html

In this article from the Dayton Daily News entitled Cairo's Egyptian Museum doesn't match the majesty of its treasures, the Cairo museum is given the thumbs down: "Rare artifacts sit randomly stacked in corners and hallways, or crowded onto shelves too small for them. Labels are tattered, curling and faded, typewritten decades ago and apparently untouched since then. Welcome to the Egyptian Museum: the world's largest and most important repository of ancient Egyptian art — and at the same time, a ramshackle, deteriorating mess". The item goes on to explain that the current Tutankhamun exhibition will be playing its part in paying for a solution: "The DAI [Dayton Art Institute], like other museums which have picked up the tour, paid the Egyptian government $1 million upfront for the show. As you wander around the Egyptian Museum, you can see plenty of ways in which that much, and much more, might be spent". Two of the objects that the article describes as particularly easy to miss are the Narmer palette and the model human head from Merimde.

Getting To The Bottom Of The Dorak Affair

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0508/S00224.htm

The name James Mellaart is normally associated with Catal Huyuk and Near Eastern archaeology, but this long article, which may of interest to some, looks at the Dorat treasure, for which Mellaart became well known: "celebrity for Mellaart came only after publication of his tale of the glitzy treasure of Dorak the following year. He wowed readers by claiming the treasure had been illegally dug up during the Turko-Greek war (1919-1922) from two royal tombs of the Yortans, neighbors of the Trojans. The significance of this Yortan find was its establishing that a major seafaring nation existed in northwest Anatolia, adjacent to Troy, around the time of the Egyptians. Mellaart said he was able to deduce this from a gold sheet in the collection, which he claimed was once attached to a wooden throne. It was embossed with Egyptian hieroglyphics bearing the name and titles of Pharaoh Sahure (2487-2473 BC) - thus a royal gift from the Egyptians". But the owner of the treaure, Anna Papastri, vanished taking the treaure with her. The article's conclusion, which it reaches via a long tale of investigative journalism, and descriptions of Mellaart's past work, is that the evidence suggests that there never was a Dorak treasure. A shame - it would be a cracker if it existed.

Ancient Egypt gems on Italian isle

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-08-25_1087109.html
"Pantelleria, August 25 - A priceless set of ancient jewellery, probably from Egypt, is the latest archaeological jackpot experts have struck on this southern Italian island. Excavations at the 16th-century BC settlement of Mursia, on the north-western part of the isle, have uncovered a beautiful oriental style ring, necklace and pair of ear-rings" .

Sinai Mosaic Photographs

http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o250825.htm
Two photographs of the new mosaic discovered on the Sinai Peninsula accompany this State Information Service bulletin.

The boy shill

http://tinyurl.com/d5lzy

With Tutankhamun soon to be on the move again, another rash of articles can be expected. I'll only update the blog with those that seem to offer something a bit different. This article, entitled How King Tut evolved from Cold War cultural ambassador to today's corporate pitchman examines the history of Tutankhamun's transformation from miraculous archaeological find to commercial pin-up, is by Christopher Knight, whose writing is always entertaining, and offers a detailed and highly readable overview of the subject. See the link above to go to the artilce on the Calendarlive.com website.

Mummies Unwrap the Ancient Past

http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/arts/viewarticle.asp?id=276366

An article on mummification to compliment the new British Museum exhibition at the Hancock Museum in the UK: "They scrambled people's brains, hooked them out through their nose, stuffed bodies with sawdust and then wrapped them in up to 375 square metres of linen.No, this isn't a scene from a horror movie. It is a glimpse into the ancient ritual of mummification, which is one of the areas explored in the Hancock Museum's latest exhibition. Egypt Revealed: Life & Death in Ancient Egypt, a British Museum exhibition, investigates little-known facts about one of the world’s greatest civilisations and includes rarely seen ancient Egyptian artefacts".

Trivia Round-up

Shirley MacLaine's Dog

http://news.inq7.net/entertainment/index.php?index=2&story_id=48062&col=134
"Meet Terry, the rat terrier, best friend and traveling companion of Shirley Maclaine, 1984 Oscar Best Actress and 10-time Golden Globe awardee. At 71, Maclaine has been acting for five decades. . . . In the course of our interview with Shirley at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, we learn that Terry, in one of her previous lives, was an Egyptian who knew our colleague, today’s press con moderator, back in those days. Our Egyptian peer, it turned out, was a pharaoh. It is that kind of afternoon". Read the article for more!

Time Travelling Pharaoh

http://www.playthings.com/article/CA635930/playthings?industry=Retailing+News&industryid=1221 "In a move to launch its comic books and animated programming in the United States while maintaining its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Jordan Udko will head the U.S. office as vice president business development. . . . A princess of darkness, a time-traveling pharaoh and an ancient Arabian swordsmen were some of the characters first created by AK founder Ayman Kandeel, an Egyptian economics professor at Cairo University".

The Mummy - Collector's Edition

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/themummyce.php "Universal comes through (as usual) with a loaded-with-extras, terrific collector's edition version of the recently updated version of The Mummy". A full review both of the original movie and the collector edition extras is shown on the above page.

The Last Days of Cleopatra - On Stage
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/showguide/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001022493
"In The Last Days of Cleopatra, three actors are not only required to bring Elizabeth Taylor (Anna Roberts), Richard Burton (Michael Deleget), and Rex Harrison (Christopher LaCroix) to life, they must do so in a musical about the filming of the 1963 epic Cleopatra. It's a tall order, and only Roberts succeeds, specifically when her cadences match those of the screen legend. But one resists Deleget's attempt to re-create Burton's lush Welsh intonations and LaCroix's effort to achieve Harrison's signature suave urbanity, particularly as costume designer Georgette Feldman keeps Harrison in a toga throughout".

Here comes Hatshepsut

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/12471495.htm

"The Kimbell Art Museum has announced that Hatshepsut, the most powerful female ruler of ancient Egypt, will be the subject of a show at the museum next year. Hatshepsut was more than a queen regent warming the throne for her offspring. She claimed the rights and full entitlements of pharaoh in the traditionally patriarchal society. Her reign lasted for almost two decades (c. 1479-1458 B.C.). Egypt -- and its arts -- prospered under her control. Approximately 300 objects including statuary, reliefs, sculptures, ceremonial objects and jewelry will be included in the exhibit. After her death, all images of her were destroyed by her stepson and nephew Tuthmosis III, who struck her name from the list of kings. Before it opens at the Kimbell on Aug. 27, 2006, Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh will make stops at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the deYoung Museum in San Francisco".

This is the complete bulletin on the dfw.com website

Zahi Hawass: A hat is a hat

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/757/profile.htm
"Whatever is said about the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) -- and a great deal is -- one thing is certain, he is never going to be accused of being a wallflower. Since being appointed to the post three years ago Zahi Hawass has courted the media spotlight with a fervour few would have imagined in the rarefied world of archaeology". A profile of Zahi Hawass on the Al Ahram Weekly website