Update re death of Tutankhamun

http://tinyurl.com/yxhghl (canada.com)

"Dr. Selim, who yesterday presented a further analysis of CT scans taken last year to the Radiological Society of North America's conference in Chicago, was part of the first team to examine King Tut's mummy since 1978, when it was last X-rayed. They moved the mummy in its tray about 30 metres from its tomb to a truck parked outside, equipped with a CT (computed tomography) scanner.
By scanning the entire body, the team of Egyptian, Swiss and Italian scientists concluded that the cause of King Tut's death was "most probably" a compound fracture to the lower part of left thigh bone. A compound fracture occurs when bone breaks through the skin, leaving the person vulnerable to infection or an embolism caused by globules of fat in the bloodstream.
Their findings run counter to the popular belief that King Tut was murdered, either by his successor Aye, who was a powerful figure in the court of the young leader, or by some other scheming courtier."

See the above page for the full story.

Also reported at:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003450834_kingtut28.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/rson-rat112206.php

http://tinyurl.com/y9eq2k (washingtonpost.com)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20824977-29677,00.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2472117,00.html

KV63 website updated

http://www.kv-63.com/index.html

Otto Schaden has updated the KV63 website with the following short report: "Since the closing of KV10 and KV63 on July I6th I have been busy with reports to the SCA and a proposal for the 2007 season which will commence in February or March 2007. Our immediate plans will include continued conservation work on the coffins, exploration of the remaining storage jars, consolidation of various artifacts, and mending of ceramic vessels. The conservation work on the coffins will be a top priority, as we attempt to identify names and texts on the KV63 coffins." It looks as though he will not be updating the site again this year.

The photo page has also been updated:

http://www.kv-63.com/photospage2.html

Book Review: Cleopatra. A Sourcebook

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-11-39.html

The Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.11.39 has been updated with a review of Cleopatra. A Sourcebook. Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture, 31 by Prudence J. Jones: "In this work PJ sets out to address the question: Who was Cleopatra? Who is Cleopatra? This sourcebook does not provide an answer, but what it does do is to provide the reader with a foundation from which to pursue a variety of research projects into the nature of the infamous queen."

See the above page for the full review by Susan Sorek, University of Lampeter.

Book Review: The Royal Tombs of Egypt

A very short review of one of the latest offerings from Zahi Hawass: "With its 300 color illustrations — including 30 huge foldouts — The Royal Tombs of Egypt: The Art of Thebes Revealed (Thames & Hudson, 315 pp. $65) is a kingly achievement itself. According to the publisher, the book is the first to reproduce in full the murals lining the walls of the royal resting places in the Valley of the Kings. With text by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass."

Exhibition: More re Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20810606-5002031,00.html

Another review of the exhibition touring Australia, introducing the exhibition and describing individual artefacts: "Last year, 200,000 Australians visited the Louvre; after the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, its Egyptian antiquities are the museum's most visited exhibits. The size and distinction of the Egyptian collection puts it among the world's most significant, and from now until late October next year, for the first time, an intriguing selection of these rare and precious objects is in temporary residence in Australia; until late February at the NGA, then in Adelaide and Perth. . . . Tanethep's black diorite sarcophagus is an extraordinary work of sculpture, sending echoes back into a place where time seems meaningless. Her face is immutable, a mask for the deep complexities of the world she knew and the afterlife she imagined, of which we, even now, have only partial glimpses, teased out and pieced together from the clues they so deliberately left behind."

Canberra venue:

http://www.nga.gov.au/.

Adelaide venue:

www.artgallery.sa.gov.au

Perth venue:

http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/

Biosemiotics in Ancient Egyptian Texts

A paper recently presented on October 25, 2006, by independent researcher Judy Kay King at the Second International Congress for Young Egyptologists in Lisbon, Portugal, is now available at www.isisthesis.com/papers.htm. . . . . Entitled “Biosemiotics in Ancient Egyptian Texts: The Key Unlocking the Universal Secret of Sexuality and the Birth of the Limitless,” King’s paper explains the reproductive mystery that has been manipulated by biopower from ancient Egypt to the modern era."

See the above page for the full story.

Blog update

Regular visitors will have spotted that I failed to update the blog either yesteday or this morning. I am having technical difficulties with a dial-up connection in Wales, for which my apologies. I will be back in London on Monday and will update the blog again then. Hopefully my new PC will have arrived by then too! All the best to everyone, and kind regards.
Andie

Exhibition: Opening of Quest in Portland

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/821/heritage.htm

"Despite the inset of the rainy season in the American west cost city of Portland, Oregon, hundreds of people were queuing last week at the front gate of the Portland Art Museum to take an incredible journey with the Pharaohs through the afterlife. The street in front of the museum, which looks much like Park Avenue, was also packed with luxurious vehicles as the crème of Portland society flocked into the museum to attend the opening of The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, the largest collection of antiquities ever loaned by Egypt for a North American exhibition. . . . The exhibition displays 107 artefacts illustrating the Pharaohs' dramatic voyage to the afterlife. Items were carefully selected from the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Luxor Museum and archaeological sites in Deir Al-Bahari on Luxor's west bank and Tanis in the Delta, where the intact royal burial of Psusennes I was discovered in the 1940s."

See the above page for the full story.

University-owned mummy kept at St. Louis museum

http://tinyurl.com/y6ed8u (studlife.com)

"Washington University owns one of the world's most prized mummies, currently on display at the St. Louis Art Museum. Many in the university community would like to see her moved to campus. Prominent St. Louis banker and private collector, Charles Parsons, donated two mummies to the University in 1896. Both mummies have been on permanent loan to the St. Louis Art Museum since 2002. They were displayed at the University from August to December of 1999. Prior to this showing, they were in storage at the University. One of those is Pet-Menekh, a male mummy, from the 4th or 3rd century B.C.E., whose wrapped toes can be seen at the foot of the coffin. The female mummy, Henut-Wedjebu, from roughly 1391-1350 B.C.E., is held in much higher esteem."

See the above page for the full story and a lovely photograph of one of the exhibits.

More re finds at the Ramesseum

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=333
Thanks to Carolin Johansson for pointing out that Jane Akshar has updated her blog with a little extra information about the new finds at the Ramesseum. She says that one of her cleaners who also works at the French excavation at the Ramesseum have "found some very beautiful coffin remains and some had gold on them".
Hopefully something more will emerge soon.

Call to save Egyptian style cinema

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5059507.html

"Conservation groups today claimed a rare Egyptian-style cinema in Glasgow would be 'completely ruined' if a developer is allowed to convert it into flats. Govanhill Picture House, which opened in 1926, is one of only five cinemas in the world built in the unique Arabian fashion and is the only one of its kind in Scotland. But Hanison Estates, based in Cathcart, want to create a five-storey development of 43 flats at the site."

Mummified bird examined

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/11/20/news/doc45614a6553ce3530112911.txt

The University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital has been examining the contents of mummy wrappings on behalf of Spurlock Museum, at the request of the museum's Director, Douglas Brewer: "The mummified bird of prey recently imaged at the UI veterinary school may end up as a gift from an alumnus to the university’s Spurlock Museum. The museum routinely checks potential gifts for authenticity, although it doesn’t normally use a veterinary hospital imaging lab to do so. . . . In the case of the bird mummy, the images from the session will help establish its authenticity, but also may tell researchers things about its age, origin, purpose and more. Brewer got one of his questions answered during the initial examination. From a microscope examination before the imaging session, he could tell there was a bird’s head inside. But he wondered if the linen wrappings contained anything else, perhaps a mouse to feed the hawk in the afterlife. He also wondered whether the wrappings contained a whole bird, or just the head with filler, a bundle of sticks or something else, below. The images from the veterinary hospital, both digital X-rays and a CT scan, revealed a whole bird in stunning detail, but no other items."

1959 at the foot of the Giza pyramids

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4042

Another lovely photo from the Arab Image Foundation on the Daily Star website: "Abdel-Halim Hafez and Mariam Fakhreldin share a romantic moment at the foot of the Giza pyramids as they star in the onscreen love story 'Hikayat Hob' directed by Helmi Haleem and released in January of 1959".

The International Conference on heritage of Naqada and Qus region

http://www.egiptomania.com/asade/novedades/conferencias_internacional.htm

Taking place in Egypt, from January 22nd to January 28th 2007, the above conference has the following objectives:

1- To increase and affluence the amount of cultural general knowledge of Naqada and Qus region and to increase and activate the concern with such important region and with such important subject and its concepts among the public.

2- To present an overview and to conclude the current state of discoveries, conservation and restoration research, practice, problems and the progress in conservation and in the related fields in the region.
3- To create a common understanding of the profession among those who are involved in the practical work around Naqada and Qus region and the different items of the subject and in the related fields around the world.

4-To create a dialogue among the local and international professionals, such as Egyptologists, Copticists, archaeologists, curators, art historians, conservators, legislators and architects with the exploration and design of different strategies and methods around the subject.

5- To agree proposals for defining standards for the study, research and development in the different items of the subject for Naqada and Qus region and for the related fields around the world.

6- Honoring of some names between those who contributed in the discoveries, registration, publication, restoration and conservation and the development works in the region.

7- to achieve an active involvement of the public in the integral process of Cultural Heritage and its preservation, to achieve the understanding, acceptance and thus the support of the public in the activities it generates and to encourage the public to support and participate in the preservation of their own Heritage.

See the above page for the main themes.

Tutankhamen exhibition yields $60 million

http://tinyurl.com/y99asf (State Information Service)
This is the entire bulletin on the SIS website: "The Egyptian Tutankhamen exhibition in the United States has yielded $60 over the past two years," said Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Dr Zahi Hawwas. He added that the exhibition will move from the city of Chicago in February to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He said the exhibition will be later held at several European countries, Japan and finally in Bahrain. Hawwas said the exhibition has an insurance premium of $650 million, the largest."

TV: Temples of Doom

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E71E29F-DA97-4870-BCCF-ABA500A28579.htm

It sounds like an Indiana Jones movie, but in fact this is the title of an article recommended by Jane Akshar (Luxor News Blog) who has seen it and in fact appears on it! It deals with the damage to temples in Egypt caused by rising ground water, and looks at some of the work being done to combat the problem. It is showing on Al Jazeera at the moment, in their English language slot. It is good to see the subject being taken up and publicized in this way.

Lecture: Luigi Vassalli

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=327

Thanks to Jane for again supplying a summary of the most recent lecture at the Mummification Museum on her Luxor News Blog. This week's lecture was about the activities of nineteenth century Egyptian antiquities enthusiast Luigi Vassalli, by Francesco Tiradritti. Here's a sample: "In 1863 Mariette sent Vassalli to Dra Abu el Naga to draw the coffins of the high priests of Montu, these have now been lost. He found the coffins of Yahotep and Kahmose and the golden fly’s necklace of Ahmose Nefertari. He would continue to excavate in that area and personally supervised the excavation. His manuscripts are not complete but he recorded tombs like 104 Amenemhet I of XII dynasty. There are many coffins which re now lost which were recorded by Vassalli. One inscription says ‘the man with the wig’ which would be a special title like a man with big nose. Another strange name sounded like Misship North Syrian. There were 4 coffins in the tomb 2 anthropoid and 2 rectangular. Tombs could have been used for more than one centaury."

See Jane's site at the above address for her complete notes, including photographs.

International Congress for Young Egyptologists

Thanks a million to Paula Veiga for information about the next conference dates for the International Congress for Young Egyptologists. Here are the next ones (place, date and main theme):

2009 -

Location: Budapest, Hungary

Theme: Economy and Commerce

Organizers: Maté Petrik mailto:csakabill@vipmail.hu

2012 -

Location: Bucarest, Romania

Theme: Faces of Death

Organizer: Renata Tatomir renatatatomir@gmail.com

Request for Information: Grenoble 2004

If anyone knows of a website which lists the programme for the Ninth International Egyptologists Conference, which was held in Grenoble in 2004, please could you email me? I've had a hunt around the web without success. I can get hold of hard copies of the programmes with abstracts, but it would be useful to see an online list. I have the reference to Nevine el-Aref's summary on the Al Ahram website, but a proper list of speakers and titles would be great.

Thanks

Andie

a.byrnes@ucl.ac.uk

Pharaonic cemetery discovered in Luxor

http://tinyurl.com/wr78u (sis.gov.eg)
Frustratingly brief announcement, in its entirety, from the State Information Service: "The Egyptian-French archeological mission has discovered a Pharaonic cemetery inside the ancient Ramsis Temple in Luxor. The cemetery contains kitchens, ovens and a school for children. Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawwas said the grand cemetery was not royal but rather public."

I am sure that more will be forthcoming.

Exhibition: Gold

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/gold/

There's an exhibition at the moment at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) which looks at gold, including its geological context, how it is extracted and its use in different ancient socieities. Having just returned from Egypt's Eastern Desert, where gold was extracted from mines from Pharaonic times onwards, it was nice to see the above page featuring the Wadi Hammamat: "The Turin Papyrus, an ancient scroll from about 1150 BC, contains the oldest known geological map. It accurately shows the local distribution of different rock types in a 15-kilometer stretch of Wadi Hammamat, the 'Valley of Many Baths,' in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Inscriptions on the map describe such features as 'mountains where gold is worked,' and 'houses of the gold-working settlement.' Some experts think the three vertical 'stripes' on the upper left of the map represent iron-stained, gold-bearing quartz veins." The website's exhibition pages contain many fascinating details about gold. For more details about the exhibition see the above page. For details about opening times, ticket sales etc see:

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/gold/info.php

An image and full description of the Turin Papyrus can be seen at:

http://tinyurl.com/yk8grx (James A Harrell)

For full details of the best known of the Eastern Desert gold mines, Bir Umm Fawakhir, with excellent images and a short bibliography, see the following web pages:

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9703/Meyer-9703.html

http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/FAW/Fawakhir.html

Exhibition: More re Amarna at UPenn

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15720389/

A comprehensive summary of the Amarna exhibition currently showing at UPenn: "The exhibition timeline starts before Tut's birth, and before Amarna was built, with excavated busts of the pharaohs from whom he was descended and of the many gods they worshipped. Its focus, though, is on Egypt's brief Amarna Period, circa 1353 to 1336 BCE, when Tut's presumed father, the pharaoh Akhenaten, tried to refashion Egyptian society after his vision. Seeking a place where no other gods were held sacred, Akhenaten moved the capital of the Egyptian kingdom from its traditional seat at Thebes to a spot on the eastern bank of the Nile River. There, he built the city now known as Amarna - and moved 20,000 people there - in about 12 years. Stone statues and reliefs at the heart of the exhibit reflect the changes Akhenaten imposed on Egyptian society. Trumpeting a religion that for the first time in recorded history relied on the belief in a single god, Akhenaten strove to turn his monotheistic subjects to the worship of the Aten - the sun disc. . . . The Penn Museum, which holds the world's third-largest collection of Egyptian artifacts, will host a series of lectures, tours and films during the exhibit's run. Also the curator of the national Tut exhibit, Silverman said he enjoyed putting together the Penn show because it allowed him to tell another detail of the story that didn't fit into the blockbuster, by bringing out pieces that Penn had been holding in storage. Some of the artifacts on display have never been viewed by the public before. Silverman said he thought visitors would appreciate the items - a comb, paintbrush, wine jug and basketry - that give a feeling of everyday life in Amarna."

See the above page for the full story.

Travel: Visiting Egypt and Sinai

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4607940

A factual description of a trip to Egypt (Cairo, Sinai and a Nile Cruise): "Only 4 percent to 4 percent of this vast desert country is inhabited with the majority of the people living in the fertile delta and the along the banks of the life-giving Nile. North of Aswan, the river runs wide, its current gentle and the water remarkably clean.
From the deck of our boat, we drift past mud brick homes, men fishing, children swimming, laborers digging in the sugar cane fields, workers carrying baskets on their heads, and camels being ridden to market. Immediately beyond this lush, verdant strip stretches the merciless desert; the beige-colored mountains rise as a backdrop in undulating waves of heat. When we dock at the town of Kom Ombo, a friend and I wander the authentic Egyptian markets and bazaar (souk) where the locals shop. Gigantic blue tarps are used to create outdoor stands, each offering new and used items for sale.
After a little shopping, we retire to our ship, where we watch bejeweled belly dancers and swirling Sufi dancers in colorful skirts who perform stunts while they spin in circles nonstop for an incredible 15 minutes without any signs of dizziness.
Our sailing adventure ends at Luxor, but what a grand finale this town shows us! Luxor is the most significant and memorable of our town and temple visits -- for its tremendous array of tombs, temples, and statues make it the world's greatest outdoor museum."

See the above page for the full account.

Profile: Henri Loyrette

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20775004-28737,00.html

To coincide with the Louvre Egyptology exhibition currently showing in Australia, there is a profile about the current head of the Louvre, Henri Loyrette: "Little in Henri Loyrette's demeanour suggests an implacable revolutionary. Yet this affable 54-year-old Degas scholar has steamrolled resistance to shake up one of the most venerable institutions. In 2001 he took over the Louvre, the grandest cultural institution in France, a country that places enormous value on its culture as well as its institutions, and since then Loyrette has sped reform at a dizzying pace. The first thing he did was to wrest administrative control of the museum from the hegemonic French Ministry of Culture. Then he set about expanding its buildings, its public programs and its scholarly remit. His ambitions were high: to change the Louvre from a grand but reified presence into a questing international player. Opposition has faded as the Louvre has flourished. . . . The French have a long scholarly history in the Middle East. The first curator of Egyptology at the Louvre, Jean-Francois Champollion, who cracked the code of Egyptian hieroglyphics, established the department under royal decree in 1826. Another Frenchman, Auguste Mariette, set up the Cairo Museum. There is still a significant French scientific presence in Egypt: excavations at Saqqara, funded by the French Ministry of Culture, are headed by the Louvre's director of Egyptian antiquities, Christiane Ziegler."

See the above page for the full story.

Travel: Visiting Egypt

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-2457081,00.html

I liked the tone of this travel piece - not a long article, but the writer conveys some of the feel of a first visit to Egypt (Cairo, Aswan and Luxor): "Strangely, as I discover the next day, proximity and daylight don’t make the pyramids more impressive. You marvel at how they managed without cranes: the largest of the trio, the Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu, as Ingrid has taught us he is more properly known), was constructed from 2m blocks of stone and took 100,000 workers to build, according to one estimate. You want to be overwhelmed. But the closer you get, the more you lose any sense of scale. It takes a trip to the Cairo Museum for the reality of Cheops’ megalomania to sink in. There, in a nondescript glass case, you can see all that remains of the treasures once buried in the Great Pyramid, a 7-inch statue of the king. You almost feel sorry for him."

See the above page for the full story.

Report on Scholars' Colloquium, Toronto 2006

http://www.geocities.com/jjcastillos/colloq06.html

Thanks to the weekly EEF News Digest for the information that Juan Jose Castillos has posted a summary of the 2006 Scholars' Colloquium in Toronto online at the above address. The summary is available in English and Spanish: "On the 3 and 5 November 2006 the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities of Toronto, Canada, organized another Scholars’ Colloquium in which egyptologists of several countries read papers dealing with their current research. . . . More than two hundred people attended this event which was open to students, scholars and also to the public interested in these subjects, and which for the first time had to be extended over two days by the number of speakers that were invited this year. As usual, I will provide here a Report on this meeting so that all those who may be interested in any of the subjects covered by the Colloquium will be able to have a basic idea of what was said, at least as I perceived it. For more details or clarifications, it is relatively easy to reach the speakers using the email listings provided by the International Association of Egyptologists."

See the above page for the full report.

Sincere thanks to Juan Jose Castillos for continuing to provide excellent summary reports of conferences which he attends. For more of his summary reports, and some of his own papers, see his website at:

http://www.geocities.com/jjcastillos/

Saturday Trivia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7iQRFP_e90

Thanks to Tor Hershman for sending me this video link - great fun. It is an alternative look at the story of the Amarna episode. There's nothing new in the story, but the way in which it is produced is very different - and as I said, great fun. You'll need to settle for a few minutes for this - Tor isn't mean with his time.

Exhibition: Objects for Eternity

http://cf.uba.uva.nl/apm/exhibitions.html

A new exhibition, Objects for Eternity, Egyptian treasures from Antiquity, is opening today at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam (Netherlands), with items from the collection of Dutch collector W. Arnold Meijer: "Approximately one hundred and fifty objects from ancient Egypt will be on display in the exhibition Objects for Eternity at the Allard Pierson Museum. This exhibition will show how intensively and carefully the ancient Egyptians prepared for the eternity they believed was in store for every decent person. The Allard Pierson Museum will show these glorious treasures - supplemented by a few objects from its own rich Egyptian collection - on their path through time, answering questions such as: How were they made? For whom? And why...?"

The exhibition runs from 17th November 2006 to 25th March 2007.

The home page for the museum can be found at:

http://cf.uba.uva.nl/apm/

Click on the image to enter the site (in Dutch)

Update on the New Seven Wonders

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3975
"Nominations were whittled down by public votes to 77 last year. Then a panel of architectural experts, chaired by former Unesco chief Federico Mayor, shortened the list to 21. Interest has grown as Weber and his 10-member teams visit the 21 sites. Their final visit will be March 6 to New York's Statue of Liberty.
In addition to the Statue of Liberty, Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu, the finalists are the Acropolis; Turkey's Haghia Sophia; the Kremlin and St.Basil's Cathedral; the Colosseum; Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle; Stonehenge; Spain's Alhambra; the Great Wall; Japan's Kiyomizu Temple; the Sydney Opera House; Cambodia's Angkor; Timbuktu; Petra, Jordan; Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer; Easter Island; and Chichen Itza, Mexico."

For the full story, including details of how to vote, see the above page. The New Seven Wonders website is at:

http://www.new7wonders.com/

Theodosius obelisk

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3978

Picture of and brief caption re the Theodosius obelisk. The Theodosius obelisk was removed from Luxor by the Byzantine emperor Theodosius I in the late 4th century, and now stands in Istanbul's Hippodrome Square, in front of the Blue Mosque. At 19.5 meters in height, the obelisk is in fact incomplete, missing a section at the bottom. No-one appears to know when this was lost or what happened to it.

BMSAES Issue 6

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/bmsaes/issues.html#is6
The current issue of British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan (BMSAES 6, October 2006) is available online at the above address. Abstracts can be viewed by clicking the article hyperlink. Full articles are in PDF format. Contents include:

Editorial
Abstracts of all articles in this issue
The 'Eternal Treaty' from the Hittite perspective by Trevor Bryce
Pharaoh and his Brothers by Stefan Jakob
High society and lower ranks in Ramesside Egypt at home and abroad by K.A. Kitchen
The failed reforms of Akhenaten and Muwatalli by Itamar Singer
Forerunners of the Hattusili-Ramesses treaty by Dietrich Sürenhagen
Le messager royal egyptien Pirikhnawa by Alain Zivie

For more aboute BMSAES, see

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/bmsaes/about.html

Digital Egypt - Giza Panoramas

http://egypt.ebeling.ee/panoramas/
Andrei Bodrov has recently reassembled his interesting project digital.egypt which displays panoramas of the Giza Plateau sites in a variety of different ways. This means that 99% of visitors should be able to view them (with combination of plugins: QuickTime / DevalVR / Flash / Director / Java). To see the panorama click on the image when it has loaded and drag the mouse so that you can take a panoramic tour of the image (and the site).

It is also now possible now to locate the panorama with Google maps.

What's new in ABZU

http://www.etana.org/abzu/
Thanks to Chuck Jones for the information that you can now register to receive e-mail notification when Abzu is updated. Direct your browser to http://www.rssfwd.com/ , enter the url: http://www.etana.org/abzu/rss/ , and then your email address and you're done. For those of you unfamiliar with Abzu, "Abzu is a guide to the rapidly increasing, and widely distributed data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East via the Internet."

A New Hotel Ranking System for Egypt

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/hotelranking.htm

Jimmy Dunn has updated the Tour Egypt website with news about a new ranking system for hotels in Egypt, enabling tourists to make more informed decisions about facilities and services that will best meet their needs: "The Minister of Tourism has issued a ministerial decree adopting new regulations for the classification of hotels in Egypt. These regulations were set by a committee consisting of tourism experts under the direction of Mr. Fathi Nour, Chairman of the Egyptian Hotel Association and Consultant to the Minister of Tourism, with the participation of private sector hotel experts and Mr. Ahmed El Nahas, Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, an international hotel expert. . . . The new classification system has introduced, for the first time in the Middle East and Africa, a system of assessment in two phases. The first deals with the infrastructure, equipment, appliances and tools available within the hotel. The second specifically addresses the quality of service, which is carried out through an evaluation system using 'Mystery Shoppers', an internationally recognized practice where reviewers make undeclared visits to hotels."

See the above page for full details.

Climate change poses threat to world heritage

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=76605

"Governments must realize that the greenhouse effect is damaging world heritage monuments such as the Parthenon, climatology experts said at the International Conference on Climate currently under way in Nairobi. Climate change is a grave threat to some of the greatest world heritage monuments, from Darwin’s favorite coral reef in Belize to the archaeological treasures of Scotland. . . . .Egypt is also at risk. Coastal erosion and flooding in the Nile Delta pose a risk to the monuments of Alexandria".

See the above article for more.

Information Request - Congress for Young Egyptologists

Please can anyone email or post a comment if you know when and where the third installment of this conference is to be held (possibly announced at the end of the Lisbon meeting).

Thanks

Andie

a.byrnes@ucl.ac.uk

Museum to tell the history of Cairo

http://www.anba.com.br/ingles/noticia.php?id=12884

"Egypt is going to have a new museum. The Arab country is building, in Al-Azhar Park, in Cairo, a museum that will retrieve the history and religion of the capital city of the Arab country. It will be named First Museum of the City, and will convey a notion of the evolution of the city. The museum will be in an area of 4,000 square metres, and will have two floors, on which 1,000 pieces from different historical periods, especially the Islamic one, will be exhibited. . . . The committee in charge of the project is still searching the country for objects to be exhibited in the museum. Some of them will come from other museums. The Pharaonic pieces will come mostly from archaeological excavations in the Matarya region, in the outskirts of Cairo. Objects coming from excavations at the Citadel, a historical area in the Egyptian capital, will be exhibited in the museum as well. According to Abdel-Khaleq Mokhtar, general director for monuments in southern Cairo, the founding of the museum serves the purpose of showing the urban and cultural development of Cairo throughout the centuries. The museum will provide visitors with informative, educational and ludic data on the city."

See the above page for the full story.

Review: BBC's Egypt series

http://tinyurl.com/tuub4 (theage.com.au)

"The BBC's Egypt relives the bitter rivalry between Britain and France. . . . The desperate military, political and scholarly competition between the two European powers plays a large role in the six-part dramatised documentary series Egypt, which Bradshaw produced for the BBC.
The series devotes two episodes to each of three stories: Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen; Italian Giovanni Belzoni's explorations of southern Egypt on behalf of the British; and the race between the finest minds of Britain and France to unlock the secrets of the hieroglyphs."

See the above for the full review.

A summary is also available on the following site:

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=24&ContentID=13285

"The stories of Howard Carter, who made one of the greatest ever archaeological finds when he discovered Tutankhamen’s intact tomb, circus strongman and adventurer Giovanni Belzoni, who unearthed the 3000-year-old monuments of Rameses II, and Jean-Francois Champollion, who cracked the code of the hieroglyphs via the Rosetta Stone, are revealed in the handsome six-part documentary drama Egypt, which began on Seven and GWN last Sunday. Series producer Paul Bradshaw says the stories were so compelling that they derailed original plans for a series focused purely on ancient history. Instead, Egypt became a fully dramatised account of the men behind these critical discoveries."

Ticket sales for Tutankhamun in Chicago

http://tinyurl.com/yxhfy6 (chicagotribune.com)
"The boy king is still the man. With about six weeks to go before its Jan. 1 departure from Chicago's Field Museum, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" seems to be surpassing the museum's expectations. Though it hasn't reincarnated the craze -- and probably won't top the attendance -- of the first Tut show here in 1977, it has been a very respectable sequel. According to the Field:From the show's opening May 26 through last Sunday, 868,812 Tut tickets of all types have been sold.
The Field projects it will sell around 1 million tickets before the show's seven-month run ends, which would be a new record for a ticketed exhibition there. Admission was free for the first Tut show, which ran for four months in 1977 and drew 1.36 million visitors -- an attendance total the current show likely won't reach because it has had relatively few free admissions."

See the above page for the entire story.

Italy threatens embargo on Getty Museum

http://tinyurl.com/y423pd (latimes.com)

"Frustrated by the J. Paul Getty Trust's refusal to return a prized statue of Aphrodite and a score of other antiquities, Italian officials are threatening to impose an unprecedented 'cultural embargo' on the Los Angeles museum that would prevent its borrowing any artwork from or conducting research in their country. The impasse in talks came as new evidence was submitted Friday in the criminal trial of the Getty's former antiquities curator that the museum chose not to pursue information about the Aphrodite statue's origins when presented with an opportunity a decade ago."

Last chance to see Rhind Papyrus

http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Culture&F=1&id=9899

"The Egypt Centre at Swansea University will say goodbye to one of Ancient Egypt's most mysterious artefacts next week, when the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus is returned to its permanent home at the British Museum .A section of the famous Rhind has formed the centrepiece of a year-long exhibition at the Egypt Centre, after it was loaned to the museum under the British Museum 's Partnership Scheme.Visitors to the centre, where entry is free of charge, will have a last chance to see perhaps the most famous of the British Museum's magnificent collection of Egyptian papyri until Tuesday 21 November.

The Rhind was originally a roll 513cm long by 32cm high and came from an unknown site in ancient Thebes , now Luxor .Beginning with the rather grandiose introduction, Accurate reckoning. The entrance into the knowledge of all existing things and all obscure secrets, the text consists of 84 mathematical problems, which concern the doubling of odd-numbered unit fractions relating to commerce. The Greeks were still using the same system 2000 years later."

See the above page for the full story.

Exhibition: Icons from Sinai

http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=18167

Another review of the Holy Image, Hallowed Ground exhibition, which opened at the Getty yesterday, accompanied by a photograph of the lovely 6th century icon of Saint Peter the Apostle: "In the shadow of the rugged Mount Sinai in Egypt lies Saint Catherine's, the world’s oldest continuously operating Christian monastery, established in the sixth century. Artistic treasures from this ancient site will travel to Los Angeles for Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Center, November 14, 2006–March 4, 2007. The exhibition offers an unprecedented look at some of the oldest surviving icons from the Byzantine world, and provides rare insight into monastic life, past and present, at the remote, historic monastery."

The death of Tutankhamun

http://www.timesnews.co.ke/15nov06/magazine/magazine2.html

An article on the Kenya Times, in a miniscule font, summarizing the current state of speculation about the death of Tutankhamun: "If there is one Pharaoh who is most famous and has elicited the world’s interest in Egyptology, then undoubtedly, King Tutankhamun stands out.
Tutankhamun ruled between 1361-1352 BC in the 18th dynasty of the new kingdom of ancient Egypt.
When Egyptologists Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter tumbled on this young boy-King’s tomb in the Valley of kings next to Ramses VI’s tomb in 1922, the body had for three thousand years lay there in an anthropoid coffin of solid gold, besides it strange animal statutes, inscriptions and ushabti figures.
Jesus had been born and died, Mohammed too, so much had happened while Tut, as he was fondly referred, lay there untouched, un-interfered with and as it was, closed to the world. Since then, Egyptologists have been baying to establish the real cause of the young King’s death ever since a close examination of his mummy revealed an evidence of injury on his head. It could have been a result of an accident but suggestions of murder most foul have also been floated. An X-ray scan revealed a dense spot at the lower back of the skull, potentially a chronic subdural haematoma, which could have been caused by a blow from behind.
Last year, Egyptian archeologist Zahi Hawass revealed the results of a CT scan performed on the Pharaoh’s mummy which uncovered no evidence for a blow to the back of the head as well as evidence suggesting foul play."

See the above page for the full story.

Blog Update

Hi to all

As I posted yesterday, I'm back in the UK after a terrific week away with some really great people, visiting some parts of Egypt that I have never been lucky enough to experience before. I will post the photographs online when I have finished editing them (there are a couple of thousand - it may take some time!).

Sorry the update was a bit late - it took me longer than usual to go plough through emails and websites to update the blog retrospectively. You'll find all the news items dating from (and including) 4th November below. You may need to go into the archive to go back to the November 4th items.

If I've missed any news items that you've noticed elsewhere, please let me know so that I can plug the gap.

Special thanks to Kat Newkirk for all the forwarded news items - Kat, you're a star.

Also, many thanks to everyone who emailed for the welcome home! Much appreciated.


All the very best to everyone
Andie

Ptolemy's Alexandrian Postscript

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200606/

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200606/ptolemy.s.alexandrian.postscript.htm

"In the first years following Alexander’s death, Ptolemy (like the other so-called Successors) continued to mint the traditional coinage that had been issued by his hero. The main type of coin had shown Alexander’s putative ancestor Herakles (Hercules) wearing on his head the lion scalp that commemorated one of his legendary labors. It was, after all, normal Greek practice to reserve the “heads” side of a coin for the portrait of just such a god or goddess: Athena at Athens, Persephone at Syracuse, Helios at Rhodes and so forth. Then Ptolemy dared take a step that has stirred no end of debate among scholars—one that, in essence, threw a rock into the still waters of Greek art and religion, sending great ripples outward through time and place to Sicily, Syria, Rome and beyond: Ptolemy replaced the portrait of Herakles on Alexander’s posthumous coinage with a stunning image of another god—Alexander himself."

See the above page (the second link) for the full story.

A 1902 visit to the pyramids at Giza

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3899

The Daily Star is featuring photographs from the collection of The Arab Image Foundation over the next few weeks. This is a lovely photograph of tourism, complete with camel rides, in 1902: "The Great Pyramids of Giza have been a major tourist attraction for centuries. A group of visitors pose by the World Wonder at the turn of the 20th century, in 1902, in this photography by Selim Abou Izzedin. While Egyptian society has undergone a dramatic transformation since this photograph was taken, the national landmark remains relatively unchanged. Visitors, past and present, enjoy camel and horse rides at the foot of the pyramids."

See the above page for the photograph and text.

There's also an article about the Arab Image Foundation at:

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3811

The Arab Image Foundation website is at:

http://www.fai.org.lb/CurrentSite/index.htm

A new site is also under construction:

www.fai.org.lb

Request - Winkler's Site 18

I would be eternally grateful to anyone who could give me the GPS co-ordinates for Winkler's Site 18 in the Eastern Desert - not the one's shown in David Rohls's Followers of Horus, but any other independent readings.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help

Andie

a.byrnes@ucl.ac.uk

Exhibition: Amarna at UPenn

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/16002724.htm

"Another review of Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun, running from November 12th through October 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology:

"Seeking a place where no other gods were held sacred, Akhenaten moved the capital of the Egyptian kingdom from its traditional seat at Thebes to a spot on the eastern bank of the Nile River, where he built the city now known as Amarna - and moved 20,000 people there - in about 12 years.
Stone statues and reliefs at the heart of the exhibit reflect the changes Akhenaten imposed on Egyptian society. Trumpeting a religion that for the first time in recorded history relied on the belief in a single god, Akhenaten strove to turn his monotheistic subjects to the worship of the Aten - the sun disc. . . . As a result, temple architecture under Akhenaten changed because the buildings no longer had to accommodate three-dimensional renderings of the gods. Art took on more naturalistic, curved lines, as can be seen in the full-figured, if headless, statue of a princess on display."

Another article on the same subject can be found at:

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/15976714.htm

"esides the Amarna exhibition, the museum's Upper and Lower Egyptian galleries have gotten a face-lift, so the continuing exhibits of mummies and the like have upgraded space and interpretation. The Amarna exhibition is an appetizer for the highly anticipated show Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs, coming in February from Egypt to the Franklin Institute Science Museum. "

17th November 2006

Also at:

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061113/LIFE/61113026

Illuminating the Pyramids

http://tinyurl.com/ygs7m6 (swissinfo.org)

"Hofstetter, one of the world's best-known light artists, transforms buildings, monuments and natural beauty spots into contemporary works of art. His masterpieces include projections of polar bears on icebergs and Swiss crosses on the Matterhorn and government buildings. . . . The tireless globetrotter is just back from a trip to Egypt where he and his team lit up the Giza pyramids and sphinx for a local hotel chain. 'Six days, 12 hours of sleep, jeeps, helicopters and permits. The fact that it happened; I can't find the words,' he declares, his eyes sparkling. 'My ideas help them put across their ideas. They want to stop people going into the pyramids and damaging them. I gave them the idea that by illuminating the graves on the outside of the pyramids people don't need to go inside.' "

Current World Archaeology 19

http://www.archaeology.co.uk/cwa/issues/cwa19/cwa19.htm

The latest issue features an article about Kush (September 2006 issue, but only recently updated on the CA website): " In the late Kushite period, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD, the Kushites (almost) rivalled Egypt, and at Dangeil a fine temple to Amun is being excavated by Julie Anderson and Salah Mohamed Ahmed. Here they tell how they are uncovering a city steeped in ritual, bolstered by monumental architecture, and inhabited by a people with a surprisingly strong penchant for baked bread."

Plans for Tutankhamen in Philadelphia

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15989183.htm

"Tourism promoters are hoping that after their next advertising campaign, even Tut, the boy king, will know Philly's more fun when you sleep over. The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. says it's equipped with $1 million in grants from the state to promote "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," opening Feb. 3 at the Franklin Institute, to attract people from outside the region. . . . The traveling exhibition, which will make the last of four U.S. stops here, could draw more than a million people, officials said. Already, the museum has sold more than 200,000 advance tickets, with 94 percent bought by people from outside the region. At the full price of $27.50, that would mean the show has sold about $5.5 million in tickets."

See the above link for the full story

EEF Newsletter

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/4482/EEFNEWS.html

"Last week's EEF News Digest is online at the above address, for all the latest information about exhibitions, conferences, lectures and new online and print publications, grants awards and fellowships, new websites, courses and trips, plus a round up of last week's main news items."

Research in the tombs of Harwa TT37 and Pabasa TT279

Jane Akshar has updated her Luxor News Blog with a summary of a recent lecture at the Mummification Museum in Luxor. Dr Silvia Einaudi lectured on the theme of Researches in the tombs of Harwa TT37 and Pabasa TT279 on the 12th November 2006: "Harwa lived around 700-680 BC in the reign of Shabita and Tarhaqa 25th Dynasty. There are 8 statues of Harwa known 3 cubic or block statues, one of him with his parents, one with 2 goddesses and three Old Kingdom seated scribe styles, only one of which has a head but this is quite clearly a portrait. His title was Great Steward (Butler) of the Divine Adoritist. His tomb is situated in the middle of the Assasaif area, built on the processional way of Mentuhotep, with an entrance at the south. At the time his tomb was built the processional way of Hatshepsut’s temple was still being used for the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. It is between the tombs of Montumonet and petamenophis."

See the above page for the full story.

Exhibition: Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre

http://tinyurl.com/ybew2k (smh.com.au)

Article about a new exhibition opening soon in the National Gallery of Australia, Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre: Journey to the Afterlife, based on an interview with co-ordinating curator Bronwyn Campbell: "Campbell expects the new exhibition to attract large crowds, larger even than the 100,000 who went to see the gallery's popular Constable show last summer. And that's despite the fact the Australian Museum hosted its own imported blockbuster - Life Beyond the Tomb: Death in Ancient Egypt - just 12 months ago. . . . In all, 302 objects - from sarcophagus and sculpture to jewellery - will be on display in Canberra. They were chosen by Marc Etienne, the curator of the Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities. Despite the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and other great wonders of the Louvre, Egyptian Antiquities is the most popular of the museum's eight departments. Yet of its 60,000 artefacts, there is room for only 5000 in the Louvre's permanent display - which is why in recent years the Louvre has taken its Egyptian collection to the world."

The exhibition runs from November 17th 2006 until February 25th 2007. See the above page for the full 2-page article.

Another article on the subject can be found at:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20717402-16947,00.html

This piece looks more at the relationship of France with Egypt's heritage since the 19th century, and at the collections held within the Louvre itself.

The National Gallery of Australia's home page is at:

http://www.nga.gov.au/Home/index.cfm

A good overview of the exhibition on the NGA's site is at:

http://nga.gov.au/Egypt/

Reviews: Ancient temples and dictioniaries

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/788/bo121.htm

N.B. - this page seems to have an intermittent problem. It loaded for me once, but failed to load on another occasion.

"When two substantial books with similar titles featuring images on the cover that are almost the same are published by the same press in the space of a single year, one feels almost challenged to discover the difference between them, if only in order to guide potential readers. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, published by AUC Press by arrangement with Thames and Hudson of London, is part of a series of book put out by the latter publisher. Already on the market are The Complete Gods and Goddesses, The Complete Royal Families, The Complete Tutankhamun, and The Complete Valley of the Kings. This new addition is of the same excellent quality as the rest of the series, and it includes the most famous monuments in Luxor and every temple along the Nile. It covers temple construction and decoration, explains the function and meaning of each part of the temple, as well as the religious rites and roles of pharaohs and priests. Fact files, tables, newly commissioned perspective views, and a guide to visiting the major sites are included."

See the above page for full detail (if the page loads)

Extended hours for Tutankhamun at the Field

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/LIFE09/611120321

"The Field Museum in Chicago, where Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs is on view through Jan. 1, is extending its hours for the holidays, providing not only more viewing time at the blockbuster show but also more time for shopping. Through the end of the year, the museum will open one hour earlier (8 a.m.) on Saturdays and Sundays."

See the above page for details of the opening times.

New UK based academic journal

http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/index.htm

The first issue (Autumn 2006) of a new academic journal, The Papers of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity from the University of Birmingham, is now online. "The Rosetta journal is aimed at postgraduates and professionals from a variety of historical and archaeological disciplines. Within Rosetta you will find articles covering a wide scope of archaeology, history and classics subjects, book reviews, museum and conference reports. There will also be the opportunity to respond to articles in the forthcoming 'forum' section, and links to other sites of interest."

There's nothing Egyptological in this issue, but I thought it worth highlighting that the journal exists, for future reference.

Amended fees for Alexandria sites

http://www.touregypt.net/teblog/alexandrianews/?p=106
Amended entrance fees for sites in Alexandria are listed on Zahraa Adel Awed's Alexandria News Blog at the above address.

New Egypt Travel Website

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/News/112006/travel-egypt.htm

"All-About-Egypt is a travel guide website designed for people interested in Egypt as a vacation destination. The site delivers all the necessary information for Egypt travelers such as passport and visa requirements, main tour attractions, hotels, restaurants, transportation shopping and currency exchange. It also contains interesting facts about ancient Egypt magnificent temples, exquisite art and its glorious past, which continues to be the most powerful magnet for visitors to Egypt." See the above page for the rest of this short summary.

The site can be found at:

http://www.all-about-egypt.com/

Serabit Al-Khadem

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/819/tr401.htm

A short and somewhat dubious article from Al Ahram (since when was Serabit Al-Khadem in both the Nile Valley and Sinai at one and the same time?). But here it is anyway: "Miners were the very first settlers in Sinai. Around 8,000 years ago they started mining near-surface turquoise and copper. By 3500 BC, the goliath turquoise vein of Serabit Al-Khadem was discovered and for more than 2,000 years the early Pharaohs of newly united Egypt conducted a fairly systematic operation. Turquoise was extracted from the high mountainous mines, carried down through Wadi Matalla till it reached the garrison port of Al-Markha, near today's Abu Zenima. From there it was loaded onto ships bound for mainland Egypt. The bluish green turquoise served a number of purposes, from carving scarabs to using its powder as a colouring paint. Dedicated to Hathor, the patron goddess of copper and turquoise miners, her temple is located 1,100m above sea level. It was first built during the reign of Pharaoh Sesostris I of the Middle Kingdom."

See the above for the rest of the piece.

Global warming threat to heritage

http://tinyurl.com/ygolnr (today.reuters.co.uk)
"Global warming is threatening archaeological sites from Peru to Egypt as well as natural wonders such as the Caribbean's largest coral reef, a U.N. report said on Tuesday. . . . UNEP said fear of cultural losses, such as a Viking camp in Scotland at risk from erosion or rising seas threatening Alexandria in Egypt, was an extra reason for action to rein in a warming widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels."
See the two-page story at the above address.

Exhibition: Tutankhamun to Bahrain

http://tinyurl.com/y2jkfn (gulf-daily-news.com)

"Egypt's Tutankhamen exhibition is coming to Bahrain next year. Egypt has accepted in principle Bahrain's offer to host the Golden Pharaoh display in April, Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities secretary-general Zahi Hawwas said yesterday. He said Bahrain would be the first country in the Arab world and North Africa to hold an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities.
The exhibition will run for several months in Bahrain, he told the Egypt State Information Service. It is currently in the US, but will move to South Africa before travelling to Bahrain, said Mr Hawwas."

See the above page for the remainder of this brief bulletin.

Dewatering project at Karnak and Luxor Temples

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=320

Dr Edwin Brock's lecture at the Mummification Museum in Luxor on the 5th November 2006 has been summarized at the above address by Jane Akshar, on her Luxor News Blog:

"The project was inaugurated in January last year by Dr Zahi Hawass and specialist form the US and Sweden. It is expected to finish at the end of this month.
The reason it was needed was that Karnak and Luxor temples, (in fact all temples in Egypt) were at risk from the rising water table.
This has been caused by irrigation especially of water hungry crops like sugar cane. This means the foundations of the temples are constantly in contact with water. The capillary action within the stone draws the water up and natural evaporation causes slats to be deposited on the surface or just underneath he surface of the stone. This then crystallises below the surface of the stone and forces the stone o separate. The surface is pushed out and this causes the loss of decoration. Additionally the constant moisture itself makes the stone to revert to its original state of sand. Eventually the block itself disintegrates. This affects limestone at well as sandstone.
A consortium of Egyptian, US and Swedish companies and people is addressing the problem. The Supreme Council of Antiquities is the client, it is financed by US and Sweden; SWECO project manage with the work actually being done by EGYCO."

The summary is accompanied by photographs. See the above page for the full story.

Controversy re high rise buildings facing Citadel

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7015

Penultimate article on the above page: "Controversy over what the media has dubbed the 'Citadel Towers' reached new heights last month after Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni reportedly suspended Dr. Abdallah Kamel, the director of the Islamic and Coptic antiquities’ sector. Insiders claim Hosni berated Kamel for his failure to inform the ministry that a leading businessman was building a number of high-rise buildings on the hills facing the Citadel.
The question is: Why fire him now? It’s not as if the threat of high-rises so close to the Citadel hadn’t been discussed for months in Egyptian newspapers. The towers’ existence directly violates international antiquities preservation measures as they fall within the safety zone of the ancient Citadel. Under Egypt’s Antiquities Act, the Supreme Council for Authorities (SCA) has the right to halt any construction around a monument if it falls within a three-kilometer radius."

See the above page for the rest of this short piece.

New museum

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7015

This is the last bulleting on the above page: "Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni is preparing to open yet another museum this month, this time in the beautiful coastal city of Rachid, where the Rosetta Stone was discovered by the French in 1799 and translated in 1822. According to SCA head Zahi Hawass the LE 4-million, two-building complex will feature a three-floor historical construction dating back to the Ottoman era. In the 1960s, the building was turned into a small museum depicting Rachid’s role in the struggle against the British occupation. The museum will display some 700 pieces, the most important of which are Umayyad and Ottoman gold and bronze coins."

This is the entire item.

Late 19th century photographs in Portland

http://tinyurl.com/y9u8am (oregonlive.com)

In the 1870s and '80s, ships carried groups of tourists to see the world's ancient wonders in Greece, Jerusalem, India, Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) and especially Egypt -- all of which were known at the time as the Orient. Many photographers sold their pictures outside the ancient wonders as tourist souvenirs. They weren't called photos but views, which is how the View-Master toy got its name and conjures up the notion of a special hidden sight, a seemingly three-dimensional image leaping out of the frame. And the subject matter was just as compelling, offering average Americans glimpses of other cultures that they could take home and keep -- art for the masses. . . . The Portland Art Museum's permanent collection includes about 150 photos from this era by some of the most celebrated photographers of their day, including J. Pascal Sebah. Sebah first made his name in Constantinople with views of ancient ruins, portraits and local people in traditional dress. In 1873 he opened his first studio branch in Egypt, and that's when his career accelerated."

Exhibition: "Quest" in Portland

http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061105/LIFE/611050360/1059

"There are images that stand out in every art exhibit. In the Portland Art Museum's exhibit The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, it may be one of the smaller objects, a statue of the goddess Isis -- as pristine as if it had been carved yesterday, not in the 26th dynasty, 664-525 B.C. Seated on a throne, serenely looking ahead above the level of any mortal, she is delicately crafted, with smooth surfaces and fine detailing. You have to shake yourself to remember that many of these works have endured for 3,500 years, from a civilization that lasted for 3,000 years. Some of the objects in this exhibit were new when the pyramids already were 1,000 years old."

See the above page for the full story.

Another article reviewing the exhibition is at:

http://www.dailyvanguard.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/11/14/45598270e1f29

The preparation for the exhibition is covered at:

http://tinyurl.com/yc6qu5 (oregonlive.com)

"Before a single ticket is sold for "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt" at the Portland Art Museum, staffers had to clear a series of hurdles nearly as long as the Nile. (OK, maybe not quite that long). First, Portland had to compete with several other museums to host the show, which began at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., one of its organizers. The five-year, 11-city tour of the United States includes Boston, Houston and Denver; Portland is the only West Coast stop. . . . .Moving and construction for the traveling Quest for Immortality exhibit is overseen by an Egyptian curator designated by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, as well as representatives from United Exhibits Group of Copenhagen, Denmark, a show organizer. And lots of Portland Art Museum employees will help once the crates arrive. But only a select few have license to touch any of the objects."

New Title: Ancient Egyptian Chronology

http://www.brill.nl/

Now available from Brill publications: Ancient Egyptian Chronology Edited by Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton • ISBN 90 04 11385 1 • List price EUR 159.00 / US$ 215.00 •

Minerva Magazine November/Decemer 2006

http://minervamagazine.com/issue1706/index.html

Minerva Magazine's latest edition features an article called Roman Amheida: Excavating A Town in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis by Roger S. Bagnall, Paola Davoli, Olaf E. Kaper & Helen Whitehouse. For the full contents listing see the above page.

Travel: Tale of Two Cities

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4726568

"Modern Cairo is a city of 18-million people. Like many large cities, residents enjoy the conveniences of technology and availability of culture and nightlife, but struggle with dense gridlock and small spaces. There is something that clearly distinguishes Egypt's Capital as a unique Metropolis. The sprawling city is a backdrop to one of the most recognizable images in the world the Giza Pyramids. . . . Luxor is nearly 400 miles south of Cairo. Its simplicity is a stark contrast to the capital city. Many residents don't even have running water. The parched mountains of sand and rock have not seen rain since 1994."

CT scan of Philadelphia mummy

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4700646

An article accompanied by a video report about the investigations into a mummy nick-named Annie, originally from Akhmim (c.300 miles south of Cairo), dating to between 300 and 200BC: "Back in April, Annie was taken from the Academy of Natural Sciences to Hahnemann Hospital. Without disturbing Annie's wrappings, she was given a CT scan. These images were then sent to a laboratory to produce a skull model. Now, forensic sculptor Frank Bender will start facial reconstruction."

see the above page for the remainder of this short story

Saturday Trivia: Silly Symphonies

A bit of high quality trivia for you today, thanks to Kat Newkirk:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LoCuZeyGwYU

The 1931 Walt Disney classic animation 'Silly Symphonies - Egyptian Melodies' can be seen at the above URL on YouTube. I'd never seen it before, and it is really quite charming. A spider, making a web at the side of the Great Sphinx travels into the Sphinx via a gate betweeen its front legs, and finds itself traveling to a tomb full of mummies who come to life and have a party. It is in black and white.

Zahi Hawass - Dig Days

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/818/he3.htm

This link was broken yesterday, but is now up and running - Zahi Hawass discusses Egyptian museums: "Museums in Egypt are entering a new era. New institutions are being constructed, and there is a change from the concept of museums as storage facilities to modern museums with educational and cultural messages. In conjunction with this development, associations for 'Friends' of various museums, including the Islamic Museum, Coptic Museum, and the Cairo Museum, have been organised. For the first time, each of these museums also has educational programmes that teach archaeology and art to both adults and children. We are building a number of new national museums."

Tutankhamun and Tutmania

http://tinyurl.com/yhe8lj (dailylobo.com)

"Emily Teeter said Tut-mania didn't begin until after museums started exploiting ancient Egyptian artifacts with traveling shows.Teeter, an Egyptologist at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, gave a lecture titled Tutankhamun: How His Treasures Changed Our World, Thursday in the Hibben Center. She discussed the global impact of the discovery of King Tut's tomb.She said the tomb's discovery changed people's expectations of the museum experience and the government and businesses' function in the exchange of artifacts. In 1976, Cairo allowed 55 of the tomb's pieces to leave Egypt and be revealed in several cities around the United States.Teeter was an assistant curator of that show."

See the above for the full article.

11th International Conference of Nubian Studies

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/818/he1.htm

"Of more than 150 papers that researchers presented at the 11th International Conference of Nubian Studies, the largest group concerned recent studies with special emphasis on current rescue operations in the area of the Fourth Nile Cataract.
Organisers made an effort to bring together papers that would present an overview of the most important archaeological sites under excavation in recent years, those where significant discoveries have recently been made. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to review the achievements made in Nubian studies over the 34 years since the 2nd conference took place in Warsaw in 1972, and conference committee director W Godlewski made particular mention of Nabta Playa, Kerma-Doukki Gel, Naga, Banganarti and Dongola."

Polish activities upstream

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/818/he2.htm

"One of the most important achievements during the Nubia Salvage Operations under the auspices of UNESCO in the 1960s was unquestionably the discovery of an ancient cathedral in Faras which contained wall paintings preserved in excellent condition. As a result of four years of investigation and conservation by a Polish mission under the direction of K Michaowski, these magnificent and unique paintings can today be seen in special galleries in the National Museums of Warsaw and Khartoum.
The discovery can be regarded on a par with the most important archaeological discoveries of the second half of the 20th century, and certainly among the most significant achievements of the Nubian campaign."

More about the Reisner papyri at Berkeley

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4718864

There is a video report aout the Reisner papyri on the above page (preceded by an irritating but very brief advert). The text from the video is also shown on the above page. "They've arrived -- ancient papyri from an Egyptian excavation conducted for U.C. Berkeley more than a century ago. The documents are on campus today after a long journey worthy of a mystery novel. Some of it, 4,000 years old. The papyri was excavated by archaeologist George A. Reisner, who was devoted to distraction.
Some academic presentations are more elaborate than others. With that in mind, one should not discount the importance of this one at U.C. Berkeley's Morrison Library. It was 105 years in the making. "

See the above page for the full story.

History from on high

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1937151,00.html

A new exhibition in London, UK, looks at some of our more admirable achievements from the air in an exhibition entitled The Past From Above, at the British Museum from November 16 2006 to February 11 2007. There were all taken by Swiss photographer Georg Gerster, who has been photographing from the air since 1963: "He came back from more than 40 years of aerial photography with an exceptional record of monuments as their long-dead creators could only hope to see them from some celestial viewpoint in the afterlife.Pharaoh Ramesses II, for instance, had to be content to imagine the magnificent pattern of the Ramesseum, his mortuary temple dating from the 13th-century BC, from 1,000ft up. He had only his architect's plans and the vast but partial views available from the flat desert ground surrounding it. Visitors to the museum see not only the bird's-eye view, but the striking effects of later history on the monument - and the hundreds of others alongside it in the exhibition."

Egypt draws the crowds

http://tinyurl.com/ymjdvq

"Life and death in ancient Egypt is proving to be a big draw at the Museum of St Albans in more ways than one.For the exhibition called The Red and the Black, which has returned to the museum in Hatfield Road by popular demand, was also at the heart of its contribution to the nationwide Big Draw.Then children were invited to produce their own pictures in the style of ancient Egyptian art.The title of the exhibition refers to the Egyptians' concept of their land - the black land was that part fertilised by the Nile floods each year and the red lands were the desert where their ancestors were buried.As well as using the museum's own exhibits, it also contains artefacts on loan from other museums across the country, including the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge and the Egypt Exploration Society.The exhibition goes on until June next year."

Tourism damaging Egyptian heritage

http://tinyurl.com/ycxyke (reuters.co.uk)

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1618462006

Michael Jones, of the American Research Centre in Egypt, and Gaballa Ali Gaballa, a former head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities highlighted the problems of managing the impacts of tourism on Egypt's heritage at the meeting of the British Egyptian Society and the London Middle East Institute on Wednesday, with careless scuffing and moisture from breath and perspiration being two of the main problems: "Booming tourism, a key part of Egypt's economy, is having a catastrophic effect on the country's unique cultural heritage, experts said on Wednesday.

So large were the numbers of people now visiting Egypt's famed ancient sites like the Valley of the Kings that they were causing serious damage in a way that even centuries of weather had failed to do, they said at a meeting in London. . . . After tailing off sharply following a string of attacks by militant Islamists in the 1990s, tourist numbers in Egypt climbed to eight million in 2004 and up again to 8.6 million last year.
Figures from the Egyptian Tourism Authority show that in the first six months of this year tourist numbers were 12 percent up on the same period the previous year, and there are plans to boost numbers to 16 million by 2014."

See the above page for the rest of this short report.

Egyptian papyri arrive on campus

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/11/01_papyri.shtml

A rather nice piece from UC Berkeley looking at the arrival of a set of Reisner's Middle Kingdom papyri at Berkeley. The article gives details about the content of the papyri, Reisner's role in their aquisition, and some background to their travels: "Ancient papyri from an Egyptian excavation conducted for the University of California, Berkeley, more than a century ago have arrived on campus after a circuitous journey worthy of a mystery novel, campus officials announced at a new conference today (Wednesday, Nov. 1).
Following their discovery in Egypt, the papyri were sent to a German conservator, hidden in Berlin during World War II, concealed from East Germans intent on seizing them, smuggled to West Berlin and stashed in a shop, and stored in Switzerland. One roll was shipped to Boston in the 1930s, but the others remained hidden until the 1960s, when they, too, were shipped to Boston. They remained there until just a few weeks ago.
Four large rolls of the papyri found resting atop an Egyptian coffin during archaeologist George A. Reisner's 1901-1904 dig at Naga ed-Deir near the Upper Nile Valley arrived recently at UC Berkeley's Center for the Tebtunis Papyri in The Bancroft Library."

See the above page for the full story.

Institute boosts Egypt program

http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34071

"Yale's Egyptology program may not yet have a large presence on campus, but it will soon have a home overseas as construction continues on the Yale Institute in Egypt.
Construction of the many components of the institute ­- which will be spread across various sites west of the Nile River - began last year and is now picking up pace. Egyptologist John Darnell said living spaces, storage work spaces and expedition headquarters to be used during fieldwork will be built in the western desert region of Egypt by the end of this academic year. He said the institute also hopes to soon open offices in Cairo and Luxor. The other major component of the program's growth will be the expansion of the institute's Web site to include scholarly accounts of fieldwork in Egypt, Darnell said. . . . Darnell brought his two projects - the Theben Desert Roads Survey and the Toshka Desert Survey - to Yale when he came to the University from the University of Chicago in 1998".

See the above page for more details.

Travel guide: Egypt's Mediterranean

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3717

Description, with input from the authors, of a travel guide to Egypt's Mediterranean: "Egypt’s Mediterranean coast is associated with leisurely summer holidays where the vacationers lounge on the white sandy beaches and swim in the cool, choppy waters of the Mediterranean. For the most part, holidaymakers stay within the confines of the resort compounds that have pervaded the coastal beaches. From the Western village of Sallum bordering Libya, to the beaches of Rafah on the East, Egypt’s sprawling Mediterranean coast has a lot more to offer than a relaxing spot to pitch an umbrella on the beach. Jenny Jobbins, along with Mary Megalli, trekked along the coast to provide an essential traveler’s guide for the more adventurous holidaymakers who want to discover the area’s rich history and natural heritage."
The book is: Alexandria and the Egyptian Mediterranean: A Traveler’s Guide by Jenny Jobbins and Mary Megalli, American University in Cairo Press, 2006 (new and revised edition). Paperback.

Tut, tut, those hedonists

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1833780,0012.htm

One of the more light hearted looks at this week's news that John Hopkins have uncovered scenes of debauchery at Luxor: "The ruins of a temple in Luxor in Egypt point to a discovery that could be the ultimate excuse for any teenager facing the music the day after a night out. Archaeologists have found evidence that way back in 1470 BC — in other words, much before today’s parents were yesterday’s teenagers — Egyptians would take part in great festivals the point of which would be to partake in sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, or at least, sex, alcoholic concoctions and pyramidal rock formations. Any doubts about the ancient youngsters not making a Woodstock out of their lives have been dispelled by evidence of a drinking ritual and naughty graffiti."

See the above for more.

Saqqara Online update 09/2006

http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/saqqara/homepage.htm

The Leiden Excavation team have updated the Saqqara Online website. Click the What's New link in the left hand navigation bar on the above page to see the latest update (September 2006): "We have entered a text about the Decipherment of hieroglyphs and we have updated the calender (only on the site of the Friends of Saqqara). We have changed the text from the pages about Memphis and Saqqara and Four thousand years history."

Made in China

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061031-091400-4221r

"Figurines of King Tut, Ramses, and Queen Nefertiti in Cairo's famous Khan Khalili bazaar all bear the hallmarks of Pharaonic regalia, from the goats-hair beards to the golden scepter. But the slanting eyes framed by the ancient Egyptian rulers' trademark kohl lining betrays the statuettes' Chinese origins. While Egypt is increasingly betting on the irresistible rise of China's economy for its own prosperity, the unbeatable prices of the Asian giant's products are breaking into the last strongholds of local manufacturing."

See the above for more.

Lecture series at Luxor Mummification Museum

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=314

Thanks very much to Jane Akshar and her Luxor News Blog for the information that the Luxor Mummification Museum has announced its new lecture series, now being held on a Sunday, and kicking off with an update about the work on reducing water at Luxor and Karnak temples.

Blog Update

First, apologies for the lack of update yesterday. My desktop PC crashed and burned in a most spectactular manner, and I wasted the entire day trying to restore it. In the end I went and drowned my sorrows in the pub, and it meant that the blog wasn't updated. I'm on the laptop today, and not even looking at my wretched desktop!

Second, just an advance warning that I am off for a week to Egypt on Sunday, and won't be updating the blog whilst I'm there. Assuming no more technological breakdowns, I'll hopefully have some nice photos to put online when I get back. If you have any requests for photos from the areas I'm visiting in Egypt, and it's not a bog-standard itinerary, the itinerary can be found at:

http://www.ancient.co.uk/default.aspx?page=Z6132

Just email me if you need any digital images taking.

Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rite

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15475319/

A short piece describing new scenes found depicting the so-called Festival of Drunkeness: "Archaeologists say they have found evidence amid the ruins of a temple in Luxor that the annual rite featured sex, drugs and the ancient equivalent of rock 'n' roll. Johns Hopkins University's Betsy Bryan, who has been leading an excavation effort at the Temple of Mut since 2001, laid out her team's findings on the drinking festival here on Saturday during the annual New Horizons in Science briefing, presented by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing."

It is wonderful just how many of you picked up on and emailed details of this story to me :-)

Water damage at Temple of Seti I

http://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/?p=306

Jane Akshar has updated her Luxor News Blog with a set of photographs demonstrating deteriorating conditions at the temple of Seti I, accompanied by a heartfelt commentary: "I am sorry there is no other word, the rising water damage has always been an issue there and has scared the living daylights out of me but look at this photo. The entire piece is about to fall of and disappear into the trench surrounding it. But it gets worse, the shameful neglect of this site is appalling. there is vegetation growing everywhere and damaging both restoration and pharonic stone. This is the picture of the temple palace, it looks more like a garden than a palace."

The photographs illustrate her point perfectly. See the above page for the photos and the rest of her comments.

Getty Museum improves acquisition standards

http://www.latimes.com/

http://tinyurl.com/uq4nt

"Under growing international scrutiny for buying potentially looted antiquities, the J. Paul Getty Museum has dramatically tightened its acquisition standards.The move, announced Thursday, is designed to screen out any item whose history since 1970 is murky. In doing so, two experts said, the Getty is essentially taking responsibility for making sure an item's recent history is clean, instead of challenging critics to prove it's dirty.
The move is not retroactive — if it were, the museum would have to relinquish scores of ancient items from its galleries and storerooms — but some authorities see it as a potential turning point in a global confrontation between curators and archeologists over the way museums do business."

Apologies about this story - I went onto the page linked to in the TinyURL first thing this morning and got access to the article in full, but when I went back to check something it asked me to register. Maybe you'll have more luck.

Egyptology search engine on Glyphdoctors

http://www.glyphdoctors.com/

Glyphdoctors is developing a new Egyptology search engine, as a part of their Open Egyptology Forums. It is described by Nicole Hansen as follows: "Powered by Google, this search engine allows you to restrict your search to trustworthy Egyptological sites, both professional and amateur alike. I have added only a few sites myself to get it started, but in order to make it as useful as possible, I need your recommendations on what sites to include. It could be the Web site of an archaeological project or an amateur site with great photos of Egypt. You decide what you would like to search! You can start using the search engine now or suggest more sites to be included."

See the above links for more.

Mastaba of Kagemni on OsirisNet

http://www.osirisnet.net/mastabas/kagemni/e_kagemni_01.htm

Thanks to Thierry Benderitter for the information that the mastaba of Kagemni has been entirely rewritten on the OsirisNet website. The hieroglyphic text has not yet been added to the pages, but they hope to have it updated soon when they have found a source for the texts. There are now more than 100 photographs.

Ancient Egyptian Boats

http://www.abblogger.com/yourboatportal/2157362/

Not really news, per se, but a useful summary, posted on athe Your Boat Portal blog yesterday, about ancient Egyptian boats from Predynastic through Pharaonic times. Here's an extract: "The ancient Egyptians were creating ships with technological skills far beyond their time, well before the invention of the wheel. Egyptologists suspect that simple light rafts made from bundled papyrus reeds may have been made by hunter-gatherers who moved to the Nile Valley during the Upper Paleolithic period; of course, no specimens remain today. However, there is evidence of the presence of boats in the Naqada II culture, which immediately preceded the dynastic period. Archaeologists have unearthed red painted pottery with designs that include boat motifs as important symbols, and some interpretations stress the boats were used in a religious or ritual capacity. Further evidence for the early use of boats lies in tomb reliefs (ship building scenes were among the most popular motifs in tombs), paintings, and model boats dating from predynastic times through the New Kingdom."

See the above page for the full item.

Archaeological Diggings - Photo Album

http://www.freewebs.com/diggingsmag/photoalbum.htm

There's a rather good photo album of Egytian images on the Archaeological Diggings website at the moment. See the above page. You will need a Flash 5 compatible plug-in to view it. Scroll using the left and right arrows, and click on the thumbnail image to see the bigger picture.