Weekly Websites

Another collection of the far-from-weekly listing of recently visited websites. I really must make more of an effort in this department! I shall try to complete this slot on a weekly basis once again.

Names Matter: The Unfinished History of the Niagara Falls Mummies
The Egyptian Museum
By Gayle Gibson
A detailed, informative and entertaining look at the mummies in the Niagara Falls Museum by Egyptologist Gayle Gibson:

In May 1999 I accompanied collector Bill Jamieson to a former corset factory in Niagara Falls, Canada. We were there to say goodbye to some very old friends. Since 1958 the factory had housed the Niagara Falls Museum, and within it the mummified bodies of nine people who had once lived in ancient Egypt. For over 100 years these preserved remains had formed part of an old-fashioned museum, a cabinet of curiosities, which also included brightly painted Egyptian coffins, fossils, Civil War and Wild West memorabilia, the two-headed calves and the barrels used by dare devils who had challenged the Falls. The Egyptians were leaving this all behind, setting off by moving van for Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Under the supervision of Dr. Peter Lacovara, curator at the Museum, these ancient Egyptians now enjoy the finest care and most serious study that modern Egyptology can provide. Long relegated to obscurity, they are emerging into the light of the Twenty-first Century publicity. Reporters and film-documentary producers compete to track down their stories. A handsome member of the group, with his arms crossed on his chest, has even graced the front page of Canada's national newspapers, under the headline "Mummy from Oddity Museum could be Rameses I." The accompanying article asked, "Did pharaoh spend more than a century in Niagara Falls?"

Sadd el Kafara Dam (Dam of the Pagans)
Cracking Dams

The ruins of the Sadd-el-Kafara embankment dam were discovered over 100 years ago in the Garawi ravine in Egypt. The dam was built around 2600 BC and was 14 m high and 113 m along the crest. It is the oldest dam of such size known in the world. The of the dam was to retain the water from rare, but violent, floods.

The grossly overdesigned cross section of the dam was due to inexperience. Unfortunately, there was no channel or tunnel to divert the river around the dam site while it was being built. As a result, the dam was destroyed while still under construction during one of the rare floods it was intended to control.

See the above page for a diagram superimposed over a photograph of the dam. For those interested in reading more, the page's bibliography lists Garbrecht, G. "Sadd-el-Kafara: The World's Oldest Large Dam." International Water and Power Dam Construction, July 1985.

Free e-book: Manual of Egyptian Archaeology
BookMC

MANUAL OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt.
FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND TRAVELLERS.
BY G. MASPERO, D.C.L. OXON.MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE;PROFESSOR AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE;EX-DIRECTOR GENERAL OF EGYPTIAN MUSEUMS.
TRANSLATED BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS.
NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR.
With Three Hundred and Nine Illustrations. 1895

Virtual Reconstruction of an Egyptian Beaker
Ercim News Online
By by Marco Callieri and Flora Silvano

The Visual Computing Laboratory of ISTI-CNR, Pisa, frequently collaborates with museums and conservators-restorers in the development of new instruments that can be used in cultural heritage preservation, restoration and display. We present a small but interesting case study in which a broken artifact is virtually reconstructed and can be displayed with a user-friendly visualization tool.

The most immediate use for 3D models generated by scanning real objects is the preservation of their form for measuring purposes and documentation. But what can be done if the object is fragmented or incomplete? Thanks to the Department of Ancient World of the University of Pisa, we had the chance to work on an Egyptian artifact with such characteristics. Working with the digital model of the fragments, we were able to reconstruct the entire form of the object and enable users to interact with it via an ad-hoc display procedure. This kind of reconstruction can be obtained without altering the actual state of the artifact, unlike hands-on interventions using resins or other filling materials, and can be used to experiment and evaluate different alternatives.

The most complete piece of engraved glass found in the excavations at the site of Medinet Madi (Egypt) is a beaker of colorless glass (H. 15 cm.; D. rim 13.1), dated 2nd or 3rd century AD.

See the above page for the full story.

Daily Photo - Abu Ballas

Egyptian sites - open or closed to visitors?

I have been having quite a few conversations recently with people who want to know whether or not certain sites are open - either so that they can update their websites with reliable information, or so that they can plan their visits. Trying to find out this information is always a bit of a game, so I asked Bob Partridge (Editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine) for his advice. Here is what he says (with my sincere thanks to him for allowing me to add his words to the blog):

At Sakkara the ONLY pyramid open is Teti... Unas is unlikely to open for a while and whilst there is talk of Userkaf being restored opened this is a long way off and Djoser is closed any way and there is some major underground restoration going on so even the odd visit allowed in the past to specialists will probably not happen.

At Giza at least 2 of the 3 main pyramids will be open but I get the impression that this can, and does, vary at short notice, so any long term planning by visitors is not really possible. The Great Pyramid tends to be open the most as it is the main one, but it can be closed at short notice.

In the valley of the Kings/Queens, again this seems to be a movable feast, and there is a board on display at the ticket office which details those open.

For what it is worth, Nefertari, Sety I, Horemheb, and Amenhotep II will I think, in the future only be open to specialist and booked groups (or possibly on a separate and more expensive ticket) and I think Merenptah is closed at the moment as there are excavations in progress outside the entrance.

I get asked this question too and I don't think there is an answer to this as there is no real advance planing anywhere and it depends on the local circumstances and when the SCA decides a tomb should be 'rested' or opened ... bearing in mind the closures are to allow either restoration or conservation work to take place, or for the tombs to recover from the high humidity caused by visitors.

Bob's view confirms my impression that it is really just a case of turning up and making the best of what is open.

On an ongoing basis, if anyone visiting Egypt emails me to let me know what has been open during their visit, I am quite happy to post details on the blog, bearing in mind that as Bob says, there is no guarantee that a site that is open one week will still be open the next.

Exhibition: digNubia

Connect Savannah (Linda Sickler)

An article looking at the new digNubia exhibition, which includes contributons from Dr Robin Bailey, whose brainchild the exhibition is:

Bailey had a grand idea — develop an interactive exhibit that could be used to showcase the achievements of the Nubians and introduce students to science and technology at the same time. The result is digNubia, an interactive exhibit, Web site and documentary film.

“All three can be used as stand-alones,” Bailey says. “The exhibit also has a manual that educators can use to integrate the information into their classrooms.”

The creation of digNubia was funded by a $2.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation as digNubia: Exploring the Science of Archaeology. Bailey is the founding principal investigator for the project, which was completed by a staff he organized at the Education Development Center in Newton, Mass. in 2002.

A grant to bring the exhibit to SSU was provided by the Georgia Humanities Council. After traveling around the country, digNubia will be presented in SSU’s Adams Hall through March 2 as part of Black History Month and the Savannah Black Heritage Festival.

“The exhibit is quite sophisticated in design and fabrication,” Bailey says. “We wanted to take it to more places other than the big museums.

“All the crates are on wheels, and there are instructions to set up everything step-by-step,” he says. “You can set it up with just four people, but we’re using teams of students and faculty.”

School and recreational groups already are signing up for tours, but Bailey says the exhibit is for anyone who wants to learn about Nubia and archaeology. The display focuses on three areas and eras of ancient Nubia: Kerma, Napata and Meroe.

Through digNubia, participants can actually take on the role of an archaeologist. The exhibit includes an archeologist’s tent, with all the equipment and materials found on an actual dig.

See the above page for the full details.

Book Review: Daughters of Gaia

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Christina A. Clark)

Bella Vivante, Daughters of Gaia. Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Westport, CT: Praeger Press, 2007.

Table of Contents

In her preface to Daughters of Gaia, Vivante declares that this book is a labor of love. Clearly it is so; Vivante has published many articles and books dealing with the lives and experiences of women, both in ancient Greco-Roman cultures, and in other important world cultures such as China and India. This book is a thematic study of women's roles in the ancient Mediterranean world starting from the assumption that pre-state societies positively valued women and their contributions to culture and daily life, whereas later patriarchal societies consistently downgraded women's roles and contributions. Vivante has used information from modern American indigenous cultures to provide gynocentric models for framing her research questions, which, in her view, enable "a far greater understanding about ancient women's lives than conventional Western lenses allow" (xiii). Indeed this is the author's stated goal: "to gain meaningful appreciation of the fullness of women's lives in the ancient Mediterranean World" (xxii). She examines evidence spanning four thousand years from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, employing a "feminist and multiethnic" analytical framework (xxiv). Topics addressed are those common to studies of women in antiquity: goddesses and women's roles in religion, daily life, health and medicine, women and economics, women with political power, women and war, and women writers (philosophers and poets, for the most part).

See the above page for the full review.

Brooklyn Museum policy on Egyptian antiquities

CultureGrrl (Lee Rosenbaum)

Thanks very much to David Gill's Looting Matters blog for a post highlighting Lee Rosenbaum's post showing a Brooklyn Museum has a poster which states the Museum's policy with respect to the acquisition of Egytpian antiquities. Here's an extract, but see Lee Rosenbaum's post for full details:

How Do Museums Obtain the Antiquities They Exhibit?

Museums most often acquire antiquities as loans or gifts from generous individuals and foundations, through archaeological excavations, or by purchasing them.

Official archaeological excavations were a major source of antiquities for the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the first four decades of the last century. In the early years of Brooklyn's fieldwork in Egypt (1906-8), the Museum retained most of what it found. In the 1920s, the Egyptian government began exercising its right to keep most excavated material. Some antiquities, however, came to Brooklyn during the 1920's and 1930's through "archaeological division" ["partage"], a process that allowed the excavating institution to retain objects not claimed by the Egyptians.

There's a good photograph of the poster on the Iconoclasm blog (Troels Myrup).

Tourism: Goldmine or conflict of cultures?

Egypt Daily Star News (Ahmed Maged)

Gaber is a Hurghada-based carpenter who spent years of his career working at a hotel in that famous sea-resort. Now he has shifted to a contracting company following the recent construction boom.

For Gaber and many other Egyptian hotel staff the shift is inevitable whenever an opportunity offers itself in another field. Simply put, any income generated through tourism is "haram" — prohibited under Islam.

“This is a sector where the bulk of profit is made through the sale of alcoholic drinks and hosting unmarried couples,” related Gaber. “True, I didn’t work in bars, but it’s a feeling of guilt that I had always failed to overcome.”

The same attitude can be traced among Egyptians, common people or otherwise. After Magdy Zaher got his BA in archaeology from the University of Alexandria, he refused to do the diploma qualifying him to be a tourist guide. Instead, he went to work as a shop-assistant at a department store in Dubai.

Holding the same view, Karim Saber, a driver at a tourist agent’s in Sharm El Sheikh, is looking forward to the change once something new comes up.

But dig a little deeper, and it becomes apparent that people from outside the tourism field share the same opinion.

More than 15 years ago the matter was brought to light by the BBC as part of a program that focused on the impact of tourism on Third World countries.

See the above page for the full story.

Interview: Nina Burleigh, author of Mirage (audio)

The Book Guys

An interview with Nina Burleigh, author of Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt, by book appraiser Allan Stypeck and Washington DC radio host Mike Cuthbert.

Toutankhamon Magazine #37 (Feb/March 2008)

Toutankhamon Magazine

Thanks to Francois Tonic for emailing to let me know that Toutankhamon Magazine (n°37, février/mars 2008) is now available. It is nice to see them running another article about the prehistory of Egypt.

The magazine is available from news stands or by subscription (details of both are available on the website). Sadly, there is apparently still no provision for the purchase of single copies by overseas would-be purchasers.

The website shows the cover listing as featuring Nefertiti, but this is contradicted by the cover itself, as well as a second contents listing.

- Nefertari
- Les chapelles d'or de Toutankhamon
- Hatshepsout
- Pount enfin retrouvé !
- Les pilleurs de tombes
- La préhistoire de l'Égypte
- Les funerailles dans l'ancienne Egypte

More details of each of these articles is available on the above page. Here's the description for the article on Egyptian prehistory:

Quand nous évoquons l’Égypte, nous pensons immanquablement aux temples, aux tombes, à Karnak, Toutankhamon, Amarna, etc. Il existait pourtant quelque chose avant le roi Narmer. Ce quelque chose, Petrie, célèbre égyptologue anglais, l’appela « dynastie 0 ». Mais encore avant, il y a la préhistoire de l’Égypte. Inconnue du grand public, les spécialistes de cette période, en France, se comptent sur les doigts d’une main, voire de deux...

This month's Images Du Mois is a good one, featuring the Sadd el Kafara dam: "Le plus vieux barrage du monde, appelé Sadd el-Kafara. Très difficile d'accès dans une zone peu accessible où les clans possèdent de grands pouvoirs. Nous avons vécu une véritable expédition pour admirer ce monument exceptionnel!"

Some of the articles from previous issues are available free of charge online. The most recent is a short interview with Dr Nicholas Reeves, focusing mainly on "KV-64".

Exhibition: Faraonska Renesansa

cankarjev dom

The exhibition Faraonska Renesansa (Pharaonic Renaissance), curated by Franceso Tiradritti, will run from March 4th to July 20th 2008 at the CD Gallery in Ljubljana (Slovenia). This is part of the Egypt In Ljubljana (Glasba) festival.

The term "Pharaonic Renaissance" indicates a period spanning the beginning of the seventh to the middle of the sixth century B.C. (XXVth and XXVIth dynasty). In this period Egypt knew a moment of renewed splendour after the three centuries of political and economic crisis that followed the New Kingdom.

In the Pharaonic Renaissance, cultural manifestations are characterized by a conscious retrieval of the past. Archaic tendencies aimed at preserving the country’s cultural identity are recognizable in several other moments of Egyptian history. Only in the Pharaonic Renaissance, though, can one find a conscious re-modelling of older artistic expressions into new forms. This resulted in a renewed view of the main religious and social concepts, which undergo noticeable changes indeed during the Pharaonic Renaissance. This moment is vital to the history of Egypt also due to the arrival of the first Greek travellers. The latter, charmed by the Nilotic culture, exported it to their homeland and then to the entire Mediterranean basin. It can be hence said that contemporary European culture is eventually a direct result of the way of feeling and thinking elaborated between the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.

Studies on the Pharaonic Renaissance have grown over the last few years, and the exhibition in Ljubljana aims to reflect this. This is the first time the public is being offered an up-to-date analysis of this era through a highly valuable exhibition. Besides the era between the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., other classical periods of Egyptian history (Old, Middle and New Kingdom) are also documented, supplying a necessary introduction to the event. The exhibition is hence also the spark for a more generic reasoning about archaism and the sense of history in ancient Egypt. This is in turn another topic focusing the attention of contemporary Egyptological research.

135 exibits within the exhibition come from major European collections: the British Museum (London), Louvre (Paris), Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), the Egyptian museums of Berlin, Munich and Florence, Civico Museo di Storia e Arte (Trieste), Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest) and Archaeological Museum (Zagreb). Some items belong to the private collection of the lost Giuseppe Sinopoli, who developed in his last years a real passion for classical, Egyptian and near-eastern antiquities.

Exhibits will be loaned by prominent West-European museums of Egyptian art: British Museum (London), Louvre (Paris), Egyptian Museums of Berlin and Munich. Collections from Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary will also be exhibited.

See the above page for full details, including a number of highlighted objects and four photographs (click to expand).

Antiquities in private collections - ethics and practicalities

SAFE: Saving Antiquities For Everyone (Dr Kimberle Gray)

A post on the SAFE website in which Dr Gray picks out two recently auctioned objects and looks at how two different news reports dealt with them, and then asks whether the sale of unique items to private collectors is actually appropriate. Here's a short extract:

What neither of these news reports addresses, however, is the question of the ethics involved in auctioning pieces universally acknowledged as rarities to private owners. In fact, the Time article’s main thrust was towards prospective collectors of antiquities, or the “über-rich”, as the article dubs them. Antiquities, according to the article and to John Ambrose, an antiquities dealer and founder and director of Fragments of Time, Inc., are a good investment opportunity. The concluding line of the Time article should give us pause; “. . . no matter how ornate a stock certificate might be, an Egyptian amulet is always going to look better in your living room display case.”

Is this the message the public should be hearing with regard to antiquities – their price tag, and their potential investment value? . . . .

Contrary to the opinions expressed in the Time article, antiquities should not be lumped in with artworks as an investment option; antiquities are intrinsically valuable for the knowledge they may transmit about long-vanished cultures, for information about technology, for historical details, and so forth.

See the above page for the full article.

Travel: Falling for Egypt

Guardian Unlimited - four page version
Guardian Unlimited Print version
(Lynn Barber)

After Cairo, which is hard work with all the fumes and traffic jams, Luxor and Aswan are pure pleasure. Aswan in the far south is where Egypt suddenly feels like Africa and you start seeing Nubians - tall, graceful people with long necks and almost blue-black skin. It is also where the Nile breaks up into 'cataracts' and becomes unnavigable except by felucca. Beyond it is the vast Nasser Lake, created by the Aswan Dam, and after that endless desert stretching into the Sudan.

We stayed at the Old Cataract Hotel, famous as the setting for Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, which is a charming old building with, alas, not so charming old food. But we took a blissful felucca trip across to the Botanical Garden (which used to be called Lord Kitchener's Garden) on an island and also a boat trip on Lake Nasser to visit the Temple of Philae, which was moved to higher ground when the lake was created. Near Aswan you can also see the Unfinished Obelisk, still half embedded in its granite quarry. It would have been the tallest obelisk in Egypt but it cracked before completion so they just left it there.

I'm allergic to cruises, so we did all our travelling by plane or road which, from Aswan, meant the much-reviled coach convoy back down the Nile to Luxor, visiting the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu on the way. The convoy is supposed to be an anti-terrorist measure, whereby all tourist buses travel together, with police escorts front and back. It means in effect that if anyone wants to bomb tourists, they know exactly where to find them, and also that every time you stop at a checkpoint, dozens of touts come dashing out of shops shouting 'Welcome! We have toilets!'

Even so, the journey was well worth it, both for the temples, and for the glorious scenery along the Nile, brilliant green fields dotted with palm trees and occasional irrigation wheels still worked by cows or donkeys. Kom Ombo and Edfu are both Ptomelaic (late Egyptian) temples, with bits added by Roman emperors. Kom Ombo has the best preserved Nilometer - a shaft that was used to measure the height of the Nile's flood each year and determine taxes - the higher the flood, the higher the taxes.

See the above page for the full story.

Daily Photo - Paw prints in the desert

JHU 2008 season at Luxor now online

The JHU Gazette

Egyptologist Betsy Bryan and her team are again sharing their work with the world through an online diary: a digital window into the day-to-day life on an archaeological expedition. This month, visitors to Hopkins in Egypt Today at www.jhu.edu/egypttoday will be able to peruse photos of the Johns Hopkins group working for their 13th year in Luxor. Bryan, the Alexander Badawy Professor in Egyptian Art and Archaeology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, will continue to explore the Egyptian New Kingdom (1567 to 1085 B.C.E.), considered "the golden age" of temple building in Egypt.

According to Bryan, today's Luxor is rich in discoveries from the New Kingdom. This is the eighth year that Bryan and her crew will be working at the temple of the goddess Mut. In years past, their finds have included food processing and industrial installations such as bakeries and granaries and, in 2006, the remarkable discovery of a statue of Queen Tiye, now housed in the Cairo Museum.

The goal of the Hopkins in Egypt Today Web site is to educate visitors by exposing them to the elements of an archaeological work in progress. University photographer Jay VanRennselaer will capture images of the team as they work. The Web site's daily photos and detailed captions emphasize not only discoveries but also the teamwork among Bryan, her colleagues and their gufti, the local crew members who are trained in archaeology.

The Web site typically garners more than 50,000 hits every winter when the dig is taking place.

Book Review: Ostraca de Krokodilo

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Thomas Kruse)

Hélène Cuvigny, Ostraca de Krokodilô. La correspondence militaire et sa circulation (O. Krok. 1-151). Praesidia du désert de Bérénice II. Fouilles de l'IFAO 51. Le Caire: Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 2005

Hélène Cuvigny is a distinguished expert on the area of the Egyptian Eastern desert between the Red Sea and the valley of the Nile in the Roman period. Since 1994 in the context of a research project which is funded by the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo she has been entrusted with the exploration of the network of the small Roman forts (praesidia) along the 180 km road leading from Qift (ancient Koptos) to Qusayr on the Read Sea. Almost at the beginning of this project it turned out that Qusayr or (to be more precise) the ancient site of Qusayr al-Qadîm, 5 km north of the modern town, is the ancient sea port of Myos Hormos, which had until then been located in historical maps of the region about 160 km further to the north along the Red Sea coast. . . .

With the book under review (henceforth O.Krok.), which contains the edition of about 150 ostraca from Krokodilô, a Roman praesidium 63 km east of Koptos, Cuvigny now begins the series of the systematic publication of the ostraca found in the excavations of the several praesidia alongside the road to Myos Hormos. In the introduction to this volume Cuvigny informs the reader that the ostraca of Krokodilô now provide the most substantial information on the internal organisation and functioning of the several praesidia and for this reason deserved to be edited first.

Book Review: Corpus Papyrorum Raineri, XXVII

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Peter C. Nadig)

Nicolas Flessa (ed.), Corpus Papyrorum Raineri, XXVII. "(Gott) schütze das Fleisch des Pharao": Untersuchungen zum Magischen Handbuch pWien Aeg 8426. München: K. G. Saur, 2006.

Students of Egyptology in German-speaking countries are often encouraged to publish their master's thesis, a step which in contrast, is rather uncommon, if not discouraged among ancient historians. Nevertheless, many of these Egyptology graduates edit Egyptian texts hitherto unpublished or in need of a new edition or publish archaeological finds or analyze philological topics. This is the case with Nicolas Flessa's publication of pWien Aeg 8426, a late hieratic papyrus of the Roman Period now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. This fragmentary papyrus is from a temple handbook containing magic spells and rituals for the protection of the king. Its text has not been published in its entirety before, but the papyrus has been consulted in part by scholars since 1974.

See the above page for the entire review.

U.S. investigations of smuggling and fraud

New York Times

I have included this item because the vexed subject of smuggling artefacts, and the involvement of museums in this trade, is one that is relevant to global heritage management. If you are asked for a username and password enter egyptnews in both fields.

Recent raids on museums in Southern California have stirred much questioning in the art world about why three federal agencies would devote four years to investigating what seems to be low-level smuggling and penny-ante tax fraud.

Yet tax experts say that the pattern of deceit outlined in court papers — appraising art objects for amounts just below a threshold that sets off higher scrutiny — is frequently investigated by the criminal enforcement arm of the Internal Revenue Service.

And a scholar who aided in the investigation argues that the modest dollar value of the objects — mostly artifacts from Southeast Asia that the authorities say were probably looted — is vastly eclipsed by the damage that looters wreak at archaeological sites, adding urgency to the inquiry.

Travel: Luxury Nile cruise

Independent.ie (Katy Guest)

This is more a review of the experience of this particular cruise ship than of the Nile and its various attractions.

Do you aspire to a life in which you are greeted with a smile and a jasmine-scented cold flannel? Do you prefer your masseuses hand-picked from Thailand, "because they are more beautiful"? Do you like to be wafted to sleep on a soft scented pillow of lemongrass oil and Nile breezes? Then this cruise ship is for you – even if you are not a god. So lavish is it that even its view of the world is superior: guests see the Nile

and the Egyptian sky through blue-tinted windows.

See the above page for the full story.

Culture: Dancing Ancient Egypt

Free Times, Columbia (Ron Aiken)

With priceless artifacts from ancient Egypt on display at the Columbia Museum of Art as part of the museum’s 10th anniversary celebration, it only made sense to Columbia City Ballet artistic director William Starrett to capitalize on the timing of its Main Street neighbor with an Egyptian-themed production of his own, Cleopatra.

The brand-new ballet is scheduled for three performances — this Friday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. — and takes place both in Alexandria and Rome, no small feat for technical director Barry Sparks.

“We originally considered renting a huge set co-owned by companies in Houston, Boston and Pittsburgh, but that would have cost us $40,000 for a one-time rental and what’s more, after seeing it, William and I really didn’t like it,” Sparks says. “We thought we could do something ourselves more colorful, tell our own story and make budget.”

That decision led the pair to hit both the history books and the silver screen for ideas.

“We looked at all the resources, the historical accounts, and came up with a storyline that we could create scenes for,” Sparks says.

The State, South Carolina (Natasha Derrick)

“This is the first three-animal show I’ve done,” said technical director Barry Sparks. “The snake will not be an asp, of course, but a similar small snake.” Abraham, Columbia’s resident camel, will appear in Act I. A white cat will be used in the bedroom scene.

The “Cleopatra” sets are some of the largest Sparks has worked on in his 20 years with the ballet. The showpiece is Cleopatra’s bedroom, which features four 13-foot columns painted Egyptian Nile blue with gold and white accents, a massive canopy bed, 8-by-12-foot archways and a detailed sculpture of the goddess Isis.

Made by local artist Brandon McIver, the sculpture took nearly a week to complete and is made entirely of a durable packing material called ethafoam. The sculpture will be painted gold and flanked by smoking urns.

Daily Photo - modern Bawiti (Bahariya)

Of Fayoum's mummies and churches

eTurboNews (Hazel Heyer)

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced last week a Russian-American archaeological mission has unearthed a number of well-preserved Graeco-Roman mummies covered in cartons. They made the discovery during a routine excavation work at the Deir el-Banat necropolis in Fayoum. . . .

Rather than the mummies, Fayoum may be known more for its religious history. Villages in Fayoum support previous findings about Roman persecution by Christians in Egypt. Archeological remains from this persecution are not well known but are on display. Coptic Christian crosses from this period can be found in caves in Fayoum, the same ones crosses visitors find in pharaonic tombs in Luxor, and the temple of Dendera near Qena. These locations probably served as hiding places for Christians during the Roman persecution.

The period between the year 200 and the council of Chalcedon (451) was a period of flourishing for the Coptic Orthodox Church. In spite of the Roman persecution of Christians the church continued to grow. The persecutions were most severe during the emperor Diocletian’s reign (284-311). The size of the Christian persecution in Egypt was probably larger than in other countries because of the size of the Christian community in Egypt.

See the above page for the full story.

A tale of two museums

Luxor News Blog (Jane Akshar)

Jane has written a review of her visits to two museums in the Cairo area, which has some great insights:

I spent the first day doing some business and then went to the Cairo Museum. I must admit it defeated me. I went round looking at my favourite things but every time they look shabbier and in urgent need of TLC it really disheartens you. The museum was built a long time ago and is in urgent need of some modern display cases above all else. It will be moving to its new home at Giza and the sooner the better as far as I can see. After a couple of hours I gave up, I just could not enjoy anything and just wanted to get a duster out.

Contrast my next day when I went to Sakkara. I had been chatting to Dr Sabry of the SCA and when he heard I was going there he totally took over my plans. He gave me the contact details of the Director of Sakkara. Dr Osama who then made sure I was taken round by his staff. I had heard great things about the Imhotep museum and we were actually given a guided tour by its director Mr Ahmed. I do love an enthusiast and boy was he one. He obviously loves his museum and its collection and delighted in showing and explaining everything to us. After the previous day at Cairo it was such a joy to see things housed properly with great explanations and lightening.

Pyramid updates

Egyptian Pyramids

Two great pieces of news: there is a new blog by Vincent Brown which is dedicated to Egyptian Pyramid news (see the blog at the above address), and Vincent has just received information today that the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre are both open, but that of Menkaure is closed. Vincent is going to try to find a way of keeping tabls on which of the pyramids at Giza, Saqqara and elsewhere are open/closed at any time but it promises to be an uphill struggle.

Vincent's blog not only has up to date information about what is happening at various pyramid fields, but also has a section which gives full details of the pyramids in those fields (Google Earth image, name of pyramid, dates, vital statistics, and photograph).

Louisville Science Center's mummy is female

Courier Journal (Sheldon S. Shafer)

After extensive computer modeling, University of Louisville J.B. Speed School of Engineering experts believe they have finally determined the gender of the 2,600-year-old Egyptian mummy called Then-Hotep . . . .

The team took the medical data from the CAT scans and X-rays donated by Baptist Hospital East. The X-rays "were sliced like bread" into 190 micro-thin strips and fed into the Speed School computers, said Mike Miller, a research engineer who worked on the project.

Each strip was aligned and digitally reconstructed, with the pieces assembled to make a computer 3-D model of the skull, Miller said. The model replicated the bone structure and tissue.

Once the engineers had developed the 3-D model, they hooked the computer up to machines that, with the help of a laser, produced two types of models of the skull. One was a life-sized model made of a hard nylon material and the other was a smaller one made of a hardened liquid photopolymer.

See the above page for the full story.

Travel: 36 hours in Cairo

New York Times (Michael Slackman)

An 11 step timed guide to what to do in Cairo if you only have 36 hours at your disposal. If you are asked for a username and password, enter egyptnews in both fields.

Sunday
8:30 a.m.
11) COPTIC CAIRO
At the Sadat Station in Tahrir Square, take the metro (1 pound) toward Helwan and get off at the Mar Girgis stop. This puts you directly in Coptic Cairo. There is a lot to see in this quiet, compact area, but there are two important sites: the crypt of the Holy Family under St. Sergius Church and the Nunnery of St. George. Tourists often miss the tiny Chapel of St. George, a small basement-floor room where the faithful can place a chain — said to have been used in the torture of St. George — around their necks and gaze at a mechanical picture on the wall depicting St. George spearing the dragon. Finally, there is the Ben Ezra Synagogue, with its cool marble floors. Lore has it that the Nile once flowed up behind the synagogue, and there, in the reeds, baby Moses was hidden. Now it’s all cement and a wall. Afterward, visit the old cemetery, a quiet respite from the chaotic city and walk along tombs that testify to the ethnic diversity that once made Cairo such a cosmopolitan city.

Trivia: Filming ancient Egypt in Malta

Times of Malta

Fort Ricasoli in Kalkara is slowly being transformed into ancient Egypt as preparations are in full swing for a film by Oscar-winning director Alejandro Amenábar.

Columns, decorated with hieroglyphics and topped with faces of ancient Egyptians, head covered in a blue and gold head-dress, are quickly taking shape.

A statue of what looks like an Egyptian pharaoh lies on the ground at the 17th century fort, which is buzzing with activity.

During a visit by Investments Minister Austin Gatt on set yesterday morning, details on the film were sparse. Spanish line producer José Louis Escolar said the film, with a budget of €50 million (Lm21,465), had not yet been announced, and details would be given during an official launch at a later date.

He said the film did not even have a name yet, and currently has the working title of 'MOT', although designs in the fort's workshops had 'Mists of Time' written on them.

Trivia: Ancient Egypt depicted in snow

Time (Jaya Jiwatram)

When a group of enthusiastic Japanese students built a couple of snow sculptures at their local park in 1950, little did they realize they were kicking off a tradition that would snowball into one of their city's biggest attractions — the Sapporo Snow Festival.

This year's event, from Feb. 5 to 11, features more than 290 displays — of which the biggest are ambitious reproductions of ancient Egyptian ruins, including the Great Sphinx of Giza, standing up to 55 ft. (17 m) high. Work is on show at three free-admission locations.

The Festival has its own website with a version in English. The Egyptian themed sculptures are at the Odori site and there is a photograph of them on the Odori site page (page down to item 7).

Daily Photo - Footprints in the desert sand

Blog Update

There will be no updates tomorrow or on Sunday. I am off for a weekend with an old friend, and we have decided (I have no idea why) to visit Portsmouth. I have never been to Portsmouth, which is on the south coast of the UK. The only thing I know about the town is that it is home to Admiral Horatio Nelson's ship, the H.M.S. Victory, which we are hoping to visit, and Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose. To be honest, I don't really mind what's there - I just cannot wait to breathe in the sea air! The Thames has a certain aromatic presence in my life, but it is anything but maritime.

Updates will resume on Monday.
All the best, Andie

Surprise Egypt Tombs Yield Ornate Coffins, Dog Mummies

National Geographic (Steven Stanek)

Four ancient tombs containing well-preserved mummies and ornate painted coffins have been unearthed in El Faiyum, an oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Cairo (see map). (See photos of the tomb treasures.)

One female mummy was found wearing a gilded mask, a rare treasure at the site known as the necropolis of Deir el-Banat. The burial complex is a frequent target for modern-day grave robbers and was thought to have been looted of its riches.

"An important point is that these mummies are almost untouched," said Galina A. Belova, a Russian Egyptologist who led the excavation.

"There are not so many [well preserved] mummies in El Faiyum at the moment. They are very rare."

In a separate tomb, the excavators discovered the first completely intact mummy ever found at the necropolis.

The team of U.S. and Russian archaeologists stumbled upon the burials during routine work in a section of the cemetery, which was used from the early fourth century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.

Some 150 other tombs from various periods and dozens of poorly preserved mummies were also unearthed, though most of the graves had been plundered during a rash of robberies in the 20th century.

See the above page for the full story

Amarna fake statuette may go back on dispaly

The Bolton News

The Amarna Princess, Bolton Museum's statuette at the centre of a forgery scam, could be exhibited in the town again.

Conman Shaun Greenhalgh and his parents fooled experts at the British Museum, Christie's and the Egyptology department at Bolton Museum into believing it was a 3,300-year-old image of the mother of King Tutankhamun.

The museum parted with £440,000 for the statuette in September, 2003, and, amid a blaze of publicity, it went on display as the highlight of their collection of artefacts in January, 2004.

It was taken off show after being revealed as a fake and has since been held by the Metropolitan Police as evidence. But now, after Judge William Morris ruled it should not be destroyed, it is possible that the Amarna Princess could be put on display once more in the town - this time in an exhibition telling her own remarkable story.

See the above page for more.

Bushey Museum stages curriculum friendly exhibition on Egypt

Bucks Free Press (Melanie Dakin)

WATCHING my son repeatedly pull a fake mummy's brain out through its nose I marvelled at how hands-on Bushey Museum has become. As well as making a cartouche (an Egyptian name tag in hieroglyphs), my boy went on to remove the vital organs from the mummy and stuff them less than ceremoniously into the waiting coptic jars. He could also read about Egyptian life and do colourings while I walked around the display of art created by Myrtle Broome, who lived from 1907 in Bushey. A contemporary of Bertha Herkomer, the cousin of Sir Hubert, Myrtle gained a London University Certificate in Egyptology, studying under Flinders Petrie. From 1929 to 1935, she spent six months of every year at the temple of Seti I at Abydos in Egypt, recording the painted scenes and relief decoration. The work that she and the Egyptologist Amice Calverley carried out was published in four volumes by the Egyptian Exploration Society. On display are the first two volumes and a selection of more informal Egyptian pictures.

See the above for details.

New Book: Dire le droit en Egypte pharaonique

Editions Safran

By Alexandra Philip-Stephan

I haven't bothered to translate any of this because if you don't speak French you won't be able to read the book!

En consultant les nombreuses études consacrées au droit égyptien, on constate que la majorité d’entre elles n’abordent pas la période qui précède la XVIIIe dynastie. Il est donc difficile, voire impossible, d’avoir une vue d’ensemble des structures et des mécanismes juridictionnels avant cette période. Pour pallier cette lacune, le présent ouvrage présente l’analyse de l’appareil judiciaire et des procédures juridictionnelles mis en œuvre entre l’Ancien et le Nouvel Empire (2700-1500 avant notre ère).

Ainsi, par l’examen du matériel, principalement prosopographique, il est non seulement possible de reconstituer les cours et leur personnel mais encore de suivre l’instauration d’une sorte de département de la Justice sous l’Ancien Empire, sa disparition lors de la Première Période Intermédiaire, puis son remaniement sous la forme d’une section dépendant du bureau viziral au Moyen Empire. En croisant les différentes sources recensées, juridictionnelles et extra-juridictionnelles (procès-verbaux, contrats, testaments, donations, décrets royaux, autobiographies, correspondances épistolaires…), on peut mieux comprendre les compétences reconnues à ces instances, les fonctions exercées par leurs agents. Cela permet aussi d’étudier les deux types de procédure observées par ces cours : de fait, si ce que nous qualifions de « civil » et de « petit criminel » relève de la procédure accusatoire, les affaires graves, liées à la Couronne ou impliquant les personnages les plus éminents de l’État, suscitent le déclenchement d’une procédure inquisitoire conduite par le roi en personne ou par des agents qu’il désigne.

Par ailleurs, cette étude a permis de mettre en valeur le rôle, jusqu’ici sous-estimé et pourtant essentiel, tenu par certains agents en matière juridictionnelle, qu’il s’agisse du sab attaché à Hiérakonpolis sous l’Ancien Empire ou encore du héraut sous le Moyen Empire et la Deuxième Période Intermédiaire.

En outre, parmi la documentation analysée, une tablette mise au jour dans l’oasis de Dakhla est d’un intérêt exceptionnel dans le domaine du droit des successions puisqu’elle révèle la possibilité, sous l’Ancien Empire, de tester en faveur d’enfants à naître, voire même non encore conçus.

Travel: Ancient meets modern in Cairo

Canada.com

Sprawling east and west from the Nile's banks, the city seems to be struggling with the challenge of integrating a 6,000-year-old culture with 21st century technology and lifestyle.

"The contrast between modern and ancient Egypt is on display everywhere in Cairo," says Britton. "The Great Pyramid is surrounded by fast-food eateries and a KFC franchise sits across from the Sphinx."

Both the Pyramids and Sphinx lie smack in the middle of this ancient city on the Giza Plateau and the Sakkar complex. In the next few years, King Tut's treasure trove will move here from the old Egyptian Museum on Tahir Street.

Flooded with immigrants from the countryside, Cairo's population has tripled in the past half century.

Today, it exceeds 16 million. Add to that tens of thousands of tourists, the constant noise and traffic, and for the average tourist it can all be a little too much.

"Just crossing the street is an unnerving exercise that requires chutzpa, perfect timing and a sense of humour," says Britton.

Perhaps only more daunting than crossing eight lanes of traffic, moving at record-breaking speeds, is bartering at the local bazaar.

Review: Tutankhamun at the O2 (again)

It wasn't my intention to write two informal reviews of the same exhibition, but having returned this afternoon from a second visit to Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs, which was a somewhat different experience from the previous one, I thought it worth penning a few words on the subject.

The main differences were that I drove there, it was a different time of day, an expensive day of the week for ticket purchases, and that I took a friend who has only the vaguest interest in archaeology of any sort. The friend gave me the benefit of seeing the exhibition through very different eyes.

Driving to the O2 from my home in Surrey Quays was easy and, because I was heading out of London rather than into London, the traffic was very light even at that time of day (it was chaos on the way into town, however!). Finding the O2 on the A-Z was straight forward, and finding somewhere to park was also simple (although the first carpark we were directed to initially was actually closed). You collect a ticket from the ticket barrier on the way into the carpark, and as you head on foot to the O2 you are directed to a ticket machine to pre-pay for your parking ticket before you leave. It cost 5.00ukp, which I paid on my debit card (it also accepted credit cards and cash). It was certainly an argument for taking public transport next time, but we were going on somewhere else afterwards and needed the car. After leaving the carpark, the signposting was very poor, with my friend and I squabbling mildly over which direction we should be taking in the absence of useful information.

Being a Friday, the tickets cost 20.00ukp, which is 5.00ukp more than the cost of a visit from Monday to Thursday. I booked online again, but it was too close to the date of the planned visit for the tickets to be sent to me. Instead I was instructed to pick them up at the box office. The box office is not the ticket office that you see as you walk into the O2. Instead it is located next to the Tutankhamun exhibition queue. This was causing some confusion that I hadn't observed last time, having had my tickets sent to me by mail. Once at the box office, I handed over my printed order confirmations (both web and email versions), and my tickets were handed over. Make sure that you take the card (debit or credit) with which you paid for your tickets online - it will be required as a security check, to verify that you are the person who booked the tickets.

Thanks to the anonymous comment posted in response to my previous review I found the lockers, and these were very welcome indeed. However, I never found out what the lady in front of me at the x-ray machine, who had an enormous suitcase, did with her luggage. If you are intending to take your luggage with you, I suggest you phone the O2 in advance for some advice.

This time I booked an early slot. My previous visit, booked for 1430, had been dictated by a morning visit to the dentist, but I had the freedom to select any time for today so I chose 9.30. a.m.. My guess was that this was the best way to avoid school children and coach loads of visitors who had set out in the morning from other parts of the U.K for a day trip to the museum. This turned out to be a smart move. Whether it was partly due to the additonal cost of a Friday ticket, or just the early booking time I don't know, but there was no queue to talk of, we were not held at different points before being allowed to proceed to the next part of the queue, and instead walked straight into the room where the short film was shown. The exhibition itself was infinitely less busy on this occasion, and there wasn't a school child in sight.

Due to the lack of crowds I found that showing a friend round was an embarassing experience - every time I opened my mouth to translate a row of hieroglyphs or share a bit of history, I was aware of attracting an audience. However, this was pleasantly due to the fact that on this occasion you actually could hear yourself think. I wouldn't have attempted to attempt to communicatite anything on my previous visit - not only would it have been impractical in the crowds, but it would have been a case of roaring over the surrounding melee.

Chatting with my friend afterwards it became clear that the exhibition can be, simultaneously, a pleasure and a let-down. He loved the exhibits, picking out a number of favourites - the twin statuette of Khaemwaset and Manana, the brown quartzite Amarna head, the alabaster twin-handled cup in the form of a lotus flower, the pectoral in the form of a stone scarab with the jewelled wings, and the fabulously decorated dagger with its scabbard. But the black and white photographs and video footage of the animal-headed funerary beds, the famous black and gold Anubis shrine, the chariots and many of the other larger objects, highlighted that this was a small sample and somewhat unrepresentative of the much bigger and broader range of items. It was not so much that the famous mask and other well known items were missing - it was that the bigger items of furniture were not represented. This comment is less about Tutankhamun, than about getting a first hand view of the entire range of items that might be buried in an undisturbed tomb. This did not lessen my friend's pleasure in the objects that were on display, but did leave him wishing that there had been a something more of the other types of item from the tomb. I do see his point.

The other point made by my friend is that there was not enough information available about the periods and the objects. The audio tour was probably more informative, and it is quite clear that the recording device talks visitors through some of the information boards in far more detail, but this has a downside logistically speaking. There were always immovable groups of people staring at the maps and boards and listening to Omar Sharif in their heads, and as these information boards are located just inside the doorways to each new gallery, this was a real bar to traffic flow. If the information boards were more informative, the groups would be even more of a barrier. The same goes for the labeling of individual objects - it would be great to have more information but the crowds would be worse. On the other hand, I was having to do far too much explaining, and most of my pearls of very (very) basic wisdom might well have been helpful for other visitors. For those who don't want to wear a pair of headphones for the duration of the tour (around two hours), a good compromise might have been a reasonably-priced exhibition guide sold at the box office, just as they do in the U.K. at stately homes, the zoo, or exhibtions at certain art galleries. The essential difficulty of sorting out the conflict between ensuring traffic flow and providing good quality information is one of the things that I appreciate as a real problem but, on the experience of two rather different visits, I don't think that the problem was resolved particularly well here.

By the way, the headphones cost 4.00ukp. You can book the machine at the same time as your book your ticket, or you can simply rent one at the time. If you do choose to go down the machine route, do try to remember that you are on planet Earth with the rest of us - I was again reminded of body-snatching movies where aliens take over the human host and all that remains is a mindless zombie. For the hearing-impaired there is a text version of the audio guide that is available at any of the audio sales points (according to FAQs on the tut.org website). Perhaps that text guide would be good for the rest of us too! :-)

We both had a really good time, even if the experience was very different for each of us.

If you have even a minor addiction to hieroglyphs I recommend that you get up to speed on 18th Dynasty funerary texts. Most of them are very straight forward indeed. I had been practising my hieroglyphs so I had the satisfaction of being able to read the entire texts on most of the objects, with only a few bits of vocabularly jotted down in a tiny notebook for looking up later. The most useful quick reference guide was that by Karl-Theodor Zauzich (Hieroglyphs Without Mystery), which is quite short but has some worked examples from the tomb of Tutankhamun that are in the exhibition.

I am glad to say that my friend was as taken aback by the shop as I was myself - both by the astronomical prices and by some of the sheer tackiness of some of the gifts on offer. I suppose that if adults are daft enough (or charitable enough) to pay those prices then so be it, but it saddened me that products aimed directly at children were so ruthlessly over-priced.

My favourite object this time? The black leopard statue stand. That leopard was prowling, and it was beautiful.

The exhibition is currently scheduled to be open until the end of August 2008. I daresay that I will be visiting again before it closes.

Daily Photo - More from Dakhleh Oasis

The last set, for the time being, from Page in Dakhleh, with my sincere thanks.