GE Healthcare Gives CT Scans to Mummies

Today's TMJ4 (Jesse Ritka)

They have been dead for thousands of years, but some very special patients could still help save lives. They date back to 250 B.C. but they still have access to the latest in CT scan technology.

Nilesh Shah of GE Healthcare CT Scans tells TODAY’S TMJ4 Jesse Ritka "These are built for living patients to help them and get treated better but now they get mummies scanned. We tell patients when they are being scanned to hold their breath I guess we don't have that problem with the mummies, they are very still."

A selection of mummies from the Mummies of the World Exhibit may be thousands of years old but scientist at the GE Healthcare Campus in Waukesha hope their ancient remains help the patients of tomorrow.

Researchers found a circular hole on a CT scan of one of the mummy’s sculls, it could be evidence of early Egyptian brain surgery.

Photographs of discovery of puppy mummies

National Geographic

Photographs on the above page.

As part of the first full excavation of Egypt's ancient Dog Catacombs, scientists examine 2,500-year-old animal remains—a small sample of the roughly eight million animal mummies in these tunnels.

Likely supplied by ancient puppy mills, most of the mummies are dogs, and many were just hours old when taken for mummification, according to new research based on the summer 2010 excavation.

Snaking beneath the desert at the ancient royal burial ground of Saqqara (map), the Dog Catacombs were discovered more than a century ago. But only now is research shedding light on the massive number of mummies found in this complex of tunnels and chambers dedicated to Anubis (picture)—jackal-headed god of the afterlife.

Poorly mummified and piled high, the carcasses long ago deteriorated into indistinct heaps, experts say.

Hawass sworn in as Minister of Antiquities, again

Egypt State Information Service

Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawas took on Monday 4/4/2011 the constitutional oath in presence of the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Hawas and Tantawi discussed new ideas to develop the performance of the newly-formed ministry.

Tantawi underlined the importance of coordinating with international bodies concerned to protect Egypt's monuments and restore those stolen abroad.


Hawas expressed appreciation for re-assigning him to hold the antiquities profile, saying he agreed with Tantawi that the immediate removal of all encroachments on antiquities' lands would be on the top of his priorities.

He said he will make a list of all transgressions and will set a timetable for removing them.

He also promised to work in coordination with the Armed Forces as well as the tourism and antiquities police to restore all stolen monuments.

Hawas added he will continue the construction of the national projects that were suspended because of the latest events in Egypt and will open the already-finished ones, including the Hanging Church and Suez National Museum.

Egyptian authorities stop truck driver from smuggling antiquities to Jordan

Al Masry Al Youm

Egyptian authorities arrested a Jordanian truck driver as he attempted to smuggle 107 Pharaonic and Islamic artifacts from Nuweiba into Jordan at dawn Thursday.

The suspect had 40 metal statuettes, 52 amulets, five wooden masks and other artifacts including a copper vase and four metal shields.

Ramsess II's last journey

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

Downtown Cairo did not sleep last Friday night. Its streets were enlivened with the scene of a huge carnival, with hundred of thousands of Cairenes leaving their homes to line the pavements and bridges as they bade farewell to the red granite colossus of the 19th-dynasty Pharaoh Ramses II. The colossus, the central point of Bab Al-Hadid Square since 1954, was now making the overnight journey to its new home at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau.

As the 'royal' cavalcade rolled through the streets, where thousands of policemen were deployed in a bid to form a cordon allowing for the safe passage of the convoy, people stood at their windows and balconies waving, clapping, whistling and ululating to greet the pharaoh, while others climbed buses, cars and buildings trying to catch the last glimpse of this familiar downtown landmark.

Damage to Egypt’s antiquities cannot justifify refusal to repatriate items

elginism

A lot has been made in some news sources, of the amount of damage (or potential damage, because at the time that things like this are reported, it is often hard to make a full assessment) done to the collections of museums in Egypt during the recent protests there. Many sources then jump straight on to the next conclusion that this means that it is right to keep disputed Egyptian artefacts in the big museums of the West, despite the fact that even a year ago these riots could not be anticipated & that no one appointed certain big museums as official custodians of global culture.

Further to this, there is of course the fact that artefacts aren’t necessarily safe in any country.

One promising thing though, is that while some rioters were vandalising the museums, many more Egyptian citizens were making every effort they could to try & protect these places from damage.

The search for gold in the Egyptian Museum

Ahram Online (Zahi Hawass)

Archaeologists spend their lives excavating sites and making major discoveries, and at the end of their dig seasons they bring all of their finds to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. I, myself, used to come to Cairo all the time when I was excavating at Kom Abou Bellou in the Delta. For more than six years I would come with trucks full of treasures, such as statues and gold jewellery.

Now, for the first time, the Egyptian Museum was broken into by a group of criminals who tried to steal from their own country in an attempt to ruin the revolution for freedom and democracy. I visited the museum the morning after the break-in and at first glance it did not look like any items were missing: all of the masterpieces seemed to be in place. There were many broken objects scattered throughout the galleries and it appeared that the criminals just broke cases and threw objects on the ground. I believed then that nothing had been stolen.

Photo for Today - last one from Deir el Medina

View from the village up
towards the workmens' tombs

Sorry Tim - this is the last one of the village for the time being!

Mummy Royalty Show Signs of Clogged Arteries

Science (Heather Pringle)

In the ancient tomb paintings of the Nile Valley, Egypt's nobility often appears lithe, beautiful, and, above all, healthy. But researchers have long doubted that life at the top of the social pyramid in ancient Egypt was quite so rosy. At least as early as 1500 B.C.E., Egyptian physicians observed symptoms of angina, heart attacks, and congestive heart failure in patients and recorded them in medical papyri. Yet they gave little indication of how often they saw such cases.

Now a team led by cardiologists Adel Allam of the Al Azhar Medical School in Cairo and Gregory Thomas of the University of California, Irvine, has conducted the broadest and most detailed study yet of atherosclerosis—a hardening of the arteries that causes both strokes and heart attacks—among ancient Egypt's upper classes by building on earlier work and performing CT scans on 52 of their mummies. In a study presented at the scientific session of the American College of Cardiology today in New Orleans, the team found that 44 of the mummies still possessed identifiable cardiovascular tissue, and of these 45% exhibited definite or probable hardening of the arteries.

"We were a bit surprised by how just how much atherosclerosis we found on ancient Egyptians who were young," says team member James Sutherland, a radiologist at the South Coast Radiological Medical Group in Laguna Hills, California. "The average age of death was around 40."

Bloomberg (Pat Wechsler)

Clogged arteries seemed to run in the family of Ahmose-Henutempet, a queen during Egypt’s 17th dynasty almost 3,600 years ago, according to research based on body scans of mummies.

Both the queen, who died in her 40s, and her sister, the princess Ahmose-Meyret-Anon, showed signs of atherosclerosis, a buildup of fatty substances in heart vessels that lead to heart attacks and stroke, according to a report today at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans.

The study scanned 44 mummies from the royal family, their ministers and staff that still had remnants of arteries. It found 20 with a disease that doctors now mostly tie to the stresses and bad habits of modern life, said Randall Thompson, a cardiologist and study author.

LA Times (Thomas H. Maugh II)

CT scans of Egyptian mummies show that many of them suffered from hardening of their arteries, researchers said Sunday. Cardiologists have generally believed that atherosclerosis is a byproduct of the modern lifestyle, caused by eating foods that are too high in fats, lack of exercise and smoking. The new findings indicate that "we may understand atherosclerosis less well than we think," Dr. Gregory S. Thomas, a cardiologist at UC Irvine, told a New Orleans meeting of the American College of Cardiology. It may be that humans "are predisposed to atherosclerosis," he said, "that it is part of our genetic makeup."

Thomas and his colleagues reported 18 months ago on a study of 16 mummies, in which they found hardening of the arteries in nine. Eight of those nine were older than 45 when they died. The oldest of the atherosclerotic mummies belonged to a woman known as Lady Rai, who had been a nursemaid to Queen Ahmose Nefertiti.

Kansas City Star (Alan Bavley)

She didn’t smoke. Never ate a double bacon cheeseburger. Never sacked out on the couch watching cable. Yet by the time she reached her early 40s, she was a candidate for a heart attack.

That was nearly 3,600 years ago.

Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon, of Egypt’s 17th Dynasty, had the world’s oldest known case of coronary heart disease, researchers say.

Atherosclerosis — commonly called hardening of the arteries — was surprisingly widespread in ancient times, at least among the Egyptian mummies examined by an international team of scientists and heart specialists, including one from St. Luke’s Hospital.

More re reinstatement of Hawass

drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass)

Video - 4.46 minutes.

On Wednesday, March 30th, Dr. Zahi Hawass was called from the Prime Minister Essam Sharaf in his office to be appointed Minister of Antiquities. In this video Zahi Hawass is addressing a message to all friends of Egypt.

Ahram Online

Five days after his meeting with Egypt Prime Minister Essam Sharaf renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass has been officially reappointed to the post of Egypt’s minister of state for antiquities affairs.

A 30-minute meeting was held between Hawass and Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces to discuss security measures necessary to safeguard Egypt’s antiquities and efforts to be exerted to restore Egypt’s looted artefacts in collaboration with the world community and UNESCO.

Hawass told Ahram Online that the first order of the day is to repel the 500 encroachments on archaeological sites that have been found within the past two weeks, as well as the resumption of projects that were on halt due to the revolution.

Modern Ghana (Kwame Opoku)

When Hawass resigned we questioned whether the time he choose was right seeing that Egyptian antiquities were in a bad situation, with lootings going on in several museums and archaeological sites. We cautioned those who rejoiced at his resignation that the respite the retentionists had unexpectedly gained would be very short:

“Many Western museum directors may be rejoicing at the resignation and departure of Zahi Hawass from the position of the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Let them rejoice for the period of respite they have unexpectedly gained will be shorter than they wish.” (2)

On his re-appointment, Hawass met representatives the young archaeologists who had protested and picketed the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, because they had no jobs. They received a promise from the new Minister of Antiquities that he would assist by continuing to create more jobs in his Ministry but he also pointed out that the problem of unemployment which is general in Egypt cannot be solved by his ministry alone

Tel el Dabaa warehouse break-in

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Armed looters broke in to the Tel El-Dabaa antiquities warehouse on Thursday, stealing artifacts and breaking several pieces of the stored collection.

Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, head of the Central Administration of Antiquities of Alexandria and Lower Egypt, said the warehouse was used to store artifacts found at Tel El-Dabaa's archaelogical sites by Dutch and German excavation missions over the last 30 years. They include a collection of ancient Egyptian clay pots and amulets.

Abdel Maqsoud said that an inventory is now being carried out by Egyptian archaeologists to determine the number of missing objects and the cost.

Reports of looting continue to dominate in Egypt

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

With photos.

A report issued early this week shows that 800 artefacts are still missing from the Qantara-East warehouse in North Sinai. The storehouse was looted on 29 January -- the fifth day of the Egyptian uprising.

On that day, thieves broke into the warehouse and succeeded in stealing and escaping with what amounted to a significant part of its collection. The warehouse was being used to house the collections belonging to the planned Port Said, Sharm El-Sheikh and Taba museums, as well as many objects originally from Sinai that were retrieved from Israel following the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

Two days after the break-in, 292 of the stolen objects were recovered with the help of the army and members of the Sinai Bedouin community. However, the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs at the time was not able to assess the exact number of objects stolen until the completion of a detailed inventory.

The remaining objects in the Qantara-East warehouse have now been moved to safety in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The result of the inventory revealed that some 800 objects are missing, all dating from the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Islamic eras.

Online: Tuthmosis III Temple Project

Tuthmosis III Temple Project

An excellent website with full details of excavation and survey work, and campaign reports for 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The excavation, restoration, conservation and site management of the Temple of Thutmosis III, in Luxor’s West Bank first began in 2008 through a collaborative project between the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquity and the Academy of Fine Arts, Seville-Spain.

The team is directed by Dr. Myriam Seco Álvarez and Dr. Atia Radwan. Both coordinate the investigations at the Temple of Millions of Years, built by a pharaoh considered to be the “Napoleon” of Ancient Egypt and among the most important pharaohs of the New Kingdom.

Since the beginning, the project has had the support of the Spanish Embassy in Egypt and is sponsored by the Spanish petrol company CEPSA. Starting in 2010 the BOTÍN FOUNDATION also graciously donated funds to support the project. Thanks to our sponsors, we have been able to extend our work season to three months a year; therefore, having a greater opportunity to increase our knowledge of the temple and to restore and preserve more of this significant monument.

EES Delta Survey - First Visit to Daba

Egypt Exploration Society (Patricia Spencer)

With photos.

This morning we went to the SCA office and met the Director for Kafr esh-Sheikh, Dr Mohammed Abdel Rafaa, who made us very welcome and actually remembered us from when we were touring around tells in 1990 with Sabri Abdel Aziz! He assigned an Inspector to us, Madame Salwa Galal, and she came with us for a preliminary visit to the site. We set off on the 15 km drive to the site in lovely weather but it started to rain heavily just as we arrived so our first view of Daba was though a very wet windscreen!

Fortunately the rain soon stopped and we were met by the SCA site guard, and walked around part of the site, looking at the substantial mud-brick remains which seem not to have changed in the last 20 years. The surface of the site is covered with burned red brick- fragments and some intact structural remains - and there are also a few weathered red granite blocks visible.

Fundraising for Amarna's monastic history

JustGiving

The Amarna Project has another fundraising project up and running on the JustGiving website. they are trying to raise £1500.00, which seems entirely reasonable. So far they have raised £210.00. Many small donations add up just as quickly as a few large ones. See the photos on the above page.

In 2000, excavations at the 5th-7th century monastic site of Kom el-Nana at Amarna unexpectedly revealed the sanctuary of the monastery’s church and, amongst the rubble, over a thousand fragments of painted plaster. During several study seasons, these were painstakingly rejoined by Dr Gillian Pyke to reveal part of the original decoration of the apse: a scene of Christ and the Apostles.

The next stage of the Kom el-Nana Church Painting Project is to disseminate this important attestation of early Christian faith, and of Amarna's later history. Can you help us with this? Your donation will be put towards the costs of publishing this work in full, and will help make this important research accessible to a wide audience.

Hanging Church in Old Cairo restored

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Following 13 years of restorations to the fourth century Hanging Church in Old Cairo, it will finally welcome its worshipers back in time to perform their Easter prayer ceremonies.

Within days, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf is set to officially inaugurate the Hanging Church for Coptic Easter.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s well-known antiquities expert, who is expected to accept re-appointment as minister of antiquities, detailed that the LE120m budget (roughly $20m) dedicated to the Hanging Church’s restoration was mainly to reduce the water leakage into the church, strengthen the foundation of the church Babylon fortress in order to protect them from future damage. The walls were reinforced, missing and decayed stones were replaced and masonry cleaned and desalinated. The decorations and icons of the church were also subjected to fine restoration in collaboration with Russian experts and new lighting and ventilation systems have been installed.

Book Review: City of the Ram-man

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Review by Robert Gozzoli)

Donald B. Redford, City of the Ram-man: The Story of Ancient Mendes. Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2010.

This book by Redford is a synthesis of the author’s fieldwork at the site of Mendes, in the northeastern Nile Delta, from 1990 onward, supplemented with a history of the site itself. In fact, the book is a general introduction to the site, as each of the 13 chapters has an initial historical introduction followed by a discussion of the archaeological discoveries of the period. There are numerous textual boxes throughout, giving biographies of ancient Egyptian officials, royal texts or other relevant material. Previously, books for the general public have appeared only for major sites such as Amarna and Thebes; now there is a third: this book describes the entire history of a capital of a Delta nome, which grew to become Egypt’s capital during the first millennium BC. While the idea is certainly lauda-ble, the end result is not entirely smooth.

Chapters one and two deal with the origins of Egypt. Prehistoric Egyptian to later Mendes is described, introducing the reader to the geographical and historical setting. Redford takes pains to describe the growth from the primitive community to chiefdom, led by the Big Man (“Great Man”) and the extension of the settlement, with mudbrick houses and buildings imitating Asiatic prototypes. The integration of the Delta region into the southern kingdom through military conquest is then narrated. The foundation of the White Fort is briefly described, as well as the implications of a unified kingdom over the country, which also brought the development of writing.

From the Elephantine archives, the life of a Jewish woman

The Jerusalem Post (Renee Levine Melammed)

In the sixth century BCE, a large military camp was set up in Elephantine by the Persian rulers who had conquered Egypt. This “city of ivories” was located on a small island in the Nile opposite Syene (Aswan), the site of their civil administrative capital. Persian soldiers and mercenaries served in the army; we know that Jewish regiments comprised part of these mercenary troops needed to protect this southern exposure from foreign attacks and to supervise trade and taxation there. Jewish soldiers were permitted to raise families and to engage in business.

Life for the Jews of Elephantine was quite different from that of their brethren returning to settle in the Land of Israel: They had not been exposed to the ideas being propounded by Ezra and Nehemiah, and they had built their own temple in which two local goddesses were worshiped alongside Yahu, the God of Judah.

In the late 19th century, various archives from Elephantine were discovered, transcribed and translated from the original Aramaic. When property was passed on or decisions were made in court that concerned property, the papyri upon which these legal activities were recorded were retained by the owner. The Jewish woman Mibtahiah’s archive contains 10 documents found in superb condition; they reveal surprising details concerning her life and the options available to Jewish women in this settlement.

Libyan archaeological sites

Archaeological Institute of America

The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the US Committee of the Blue Shield (USCBS) call on the international community to protect the ancient sites and antiquities of Libya, which are now facing very real threats of damage and destruction caused by the civil unrest and military action taking place there.

While our thoughts are primarily for the safety of the people harm’s way, the cultural heritage and archaeological resources located in Libya are irreplaceable elements of the world’s shared memory, going back thousands of years. The importance of guarding these treasures while military operations are underway cannot be overestimated.

In this context information is essential, particularly up to date knowledge of the locations of cultural heritage and archaeological sites. We have posted this map to provide locations of sites in Libya and to illustrate just how close so many are to the danger.

Black-Market Trinkets From Space

New York Times (William J. Broad)

Thanks very much to lovely David Petersen for this link.

Ebay and other Web sites pulse with hundreds of sales pitches. “The pieces below have an exceptional patina,” a site called Star-bits.com said of 10 pictured fragments.

The ads are for chunks of meteorites, bits of asteroids that have fallen from the sky and are as prized by scientists as they are by collectors. As more meteorites have been discovered in recent years, interest in them has flourished and an illegal sales market has boomed — much to the dismay of the people who want to study them and the countries that consider them national treasures.

“It’s a black market,” said Ralph P. Harvey, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University who directs the federal search for meteorites in Antarctica. “It’s as organized as any drug trade and just as illegal.”

The discovery of a rich and historically significant meteorite crater in southern Egypt, just north of the Sudanese border, has shown the voracious appetite for new fragments. Just as scientists appeared to be on the cusp of decrypting the evidence to solve an ancient puzzle, looters plundered the desolate site, and the political chaos in Egypt seems to ensure that the scientists will not be going back anytime soon.

Largest whale skeleton found at Siwa oasis

Al Masry Al Youm

With photos. It looks as though these remains date to the same period (and were therefore probably part of the same coastline) as the Faiyum remains of whale, shark and mangrove in the Wadi el-Hitan (Valley of Whales).

The Environment Ministry announced on Monday that it had discovered the largest whale skeleton in the world, dating back 37 million years. The skeleton was found in the area of Siwa Oasis, which became a natural protectorate in 2002.

According to a statement from the Environment Ministry, the Egyptian Fossil Exploration Team found the skeleton during a collaboration with the University of Michigan that lead to the discovery of several important fossils.

The ministry also announced that 150 new palaeontological sites have recently been registered as excavation sites. Among the specimens contained in the sites are three different types of marine species, namely whales, dugongs, and giant sea turtles, as well as water snakes, and shark teeth.

Photo for Today - more from Deir el Medina

Stone mortar in a room in
Deir el Medina

More re reappointment of Hawass

Also see yesterday's posts here and here.


New York Times (Katie Taylor)

Zahi Hawass, who resigned as Egypt’s minister of antiquities less than a month ago under criticism for his close ties to former President Hosni Mubarak, was reappointed to the post on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported, citing an Egyptian news report; Mr. Hawass, reached by phone, confirmed his reappointment.

Mr. Hawass, a powerful figure in the world of Egyptology, was promoted to a cabinet position in the early days of the uprising, and drew the animosity of the revolutionaries by saying at the time that Mr. Mubarak should be allowed to hold power for another six months. He also said that Egypt’s museums and archeological sites were largely secure and that cases of looting were very limited. In the weeks that followed, that turned out not to be the case: several dozen objects were stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo during a break-in on Jan. 28 — many have been recovered, though 37 are still missing — and hundreds more were taken from tombs and warehouses elsewhere in Egypt.

Egypt State Information Service

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf assigned on Wednesday 30/3/2011 head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawas to hold the antiquities portfolio.

In statements after meeting Sharaf, Hawwas said the ministry will immediately start an ambitious program to renovate Egyptian antiquities.

The Egyptian civilization is the greatest worldwide, Hawwas said, urging the Egyptians to help preserve the country's ancient history.

Hawwas has pledged to protect Egypt's antiquities against looting.

Hawwas said his first mission in the job is to preserve Egypt's antiquities against plunder. He urged the Egyptian people to assist him in this mission.

Several archaeological sites in Egypt have come under looting in the wake of the January 25 revolution.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf will open several important archaeological projects soon in both the capital and other governorates, Hawwas said.

Amigos de la Egiptologia

En Egipto no hay que dar a nadie por muerto, y menos a Zahi Hawass. Con una capacidad de resurrección digna de Imhotep, el malo de La Momia, el exministro de Antigüedades vuelve a serlo cuando ya todo el mundo bailaba sobre su tumba. Habrá que ver ahora cómo rebobinan todos los que han dicho pestes de él o expresado críticas a su labor y su carácter. Habrá muchos que se digan que no tenían que haber hecho tan pronto astillas del árbol (uy, el obelisco) caído.

Conociendo a Hawass, habrá tomado buena nota de los enemigos que se le han destapado y antes o después pasará cuentas. El episodio tiene el sabor de esos cuentos antiguos en los que el rey (el faraón) se fingía moribundo o muerto para ver qué hacían los cortesanos. Una estrategia que usó por ejemplo sin ir mucho más lejos en la antigüedad Calígula.

Armed men dig for artifacts in Faiyum

Al Masry Al Youm (Mohamed Farghaly)

Armed groups have been digging for ancient artifacts at the Garza archeological site in Fayoum, said eyewitnesses. Watchmen guarding the area said the armed groups came to the site several times at night with automatic weapons, forcing them to leave the area so that they could dig and search for artifacts.

The watchmen complained that the small number of watchmen and their inadequate weapons facilitates made it difficult to protect such archeological sites.

UNESCO visit to Egypt

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Following favourable reports on Al Mary Al Youm and Ahram Online about UNESCO's visit to Egypt (22nd March), Hawass says that UNESCO was upset by the damage that he showed them at sites in northern Egypt.

Following his short visit to Abusir and Saqqara necropolises, Zahi Hawass former minister of state for antiquities affairs launched an appeal asking field marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the supreme council of army to stop all encroachment on Egypt’s archaeological sites, which reached 500 encroachments during the past two months.

Abusir sits opposite to the famed city of Memphis on the river Nile just before the delta opens.

Hawass told Ahram Online that what shocked him the most during his visit to both necropolises was the damage inflicted on the archaeological sites by neighbour inhabitants since Egypt’s January revolution. . . .

Hawass pointed out that all of these illegal structures were seen by the UNSECO delegation during their visit last week. They were really upset and asked for the immediate removal of these encroachments.

Millions of canine mummies revealed at Saqqara

LiveScience (Wynne Parry)

The excavation of a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Egyptian desert has revealed the remains of millions of animals, mostly dogs and jackals. Many appear to have been only hours or days old when they were killed and mummified.

The Dog Catacombs, as they are known, date to 747-730 B.C., and are dedicated to the Anubis, the Egyptians' jackal-headed god of the dead. They were first documented in the 19th century; however, they were never fully excavated. A team, led by Paul Nicholson, an archaeologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, is now examining the tunnels and their contents, they announced this week. [Image of mummified puppy remains]

They estimate the catacombs contain the remains of 8 million animals. Given the sheer numbers of animals, it is likely they were bred by the thousands in puppy farms around the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, according to the researchers. The Dog Catacombs are located at Saqqara, the burial ground for the ancient capital Memphis.

Daily Mail (Fiona MacRae)

With some good photos.

A labyrinth of sacred tunnels packed with the mummified remains of millions of dogs has been excavated under the Egyptian desert.

The catacombs are estimated to contain the remains up to eight million dogs, many of which would have been offered to the gods when they were just hours old.

Others would have been treated as living representatives of the dog or jackal-headed god Anubis and would have lived out their lives in the nearby temple before being preserved and laid to rest in the network of tunnels.

The fascinating details come from Cardiff University scientists, who along with Egyptian colleagues are the first to examine the structure and contents of the complex underground network built 2,500 years ago under the Saqqara desert.

The catacomb, which lies ten to 12metres underground, consists of a long central corridor and a series of smaller passages that branch off it.

Sampling of small areas and bone examination of their contents suggest that the entire network is home to eight million dogs, as well as a handful of cats and jackals.

Spurlock mummy back under the scanner

The News-Gazette (Debra Pressey)

The first time a CT scan was done on a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy from the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois, medical technology wasn't sharp enough to help solve some of the mysteries about the body inside.

Now, experts are hoping today's more advanced CT-scanning equipment will help answer some of the vexing questions that remain.

Such as: Is this mummy, already determined to be a child, a girl or a boy? And what was the cause of death?

A new CT scan, done Tuesday at Carle Foundation Hospital, will help provide the first three-dimensional, noninvasive look beneath the ancient wrappings since 1990.

Exerpt from Wilkinson's "Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt"

New York Times

See the above page for the full exerpt.

Chapter 3
Absolute Power
Command Economy

Ideology is never enough, on its own, to guarantee power. To be successful over the long term, a regime must also exercise effective economic control to reinforce its claims of legitimacy. Governments seek to manipulate livelihoods as well as lives. The development in ancient Egypt of a truly national administration was one of the major accomplishments of the First to Third dynasties, the four- hundred- year formative phase of pharaonic civilization known as the Early Dynastic Period (2950–2575). At the start of the period, the country had only just been unified. Narmer and his immediate successors were faced with the challenge of ruling a vast realm, stretching five hundred miles from the heart of Africa to the shores of the Mediterranean. By the close of the Early Dynastic Period, the government presided over a centrally controlled command economy, financing royal building projects on a lavish scale. Just how this was achieved is a story of determination, innovation, and, above all, ambition.

Photo for Today - more from Deir el Medina

Stone vessel in the corner of one of the mudbrick-
and-stone built rooms at Deir el Medina

There's a good description of Deir el Medina housing
on the reshafim.org website at
www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/building/deir_el_medine.htm

And more about the reappointment of Hawass . . .

Ahram Online

A very short post from Nevine El-Aref:

Zahi Hawass, after stepping down early in the month, is‎ re-‎appointed as minister of antiquities following a meeting with Egypt PM‎

Zahi Hawass‎, chief of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced that he had been re-‎appointed as Minster of Antiquities following a meeting with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf ‎on Wednesday. ‎

Hawass first took up the newly-created post in the cabinet when ex-president Hosni ‎Mubarak installed him late in January.‎

After a number of artefacts had been declared missing in the wake of the 25 January revolution the Egyptian archaeologist had stepped down from his post.

Breaking News - Zahi Hawass reappointed as Minister of Antiquities?

Al Masry Al Youm

Dated today, there is an article on Al Masry Al Youm which says that Egypt's interim Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has appointed Zahi Hawass to the position of head of the new Ministry of Antiquities.

I have not seen this confirmed by Egyptian sources (particularly Hawass himself). I'll post more when I hear anything.

This story comes as Egyptian archaeologists threaten to strike over the unfilled position and Nevine El-Aref in Al Ahram Weekly points to the potentially dire consequences of leaving the position unfilled.

Egypt's antiquities still at risk

npr (Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson)

Among the casualties of Egypt's revolution are many of its famous historical sites and artifacts.

Vandalism and looting at these sites skyrocketed in the weeks after the Egyptian police force — including those responsible for tourism and antiquities — vanished from their posts.

Even now, as the security forces resume their duties, archaeologists and experts complain that far more needs to be done by Egypt's new government to protect the country's heritage.

Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum suffered some of the worst damage. It is home to famous ancient Egyptian artifacts like the golden mask of the boy King Tutankhamen.

This heritage should be protected by everyone in Egypt and outside Egypt because this is for the whole world. It's the heritage of mankind.

- Tarek al-Awadi, director of the Egyptian Museum

Tourists, who are slowly returning, see few signs of the damage and looting that took place at the museum in late January. But the museum's deputy director, Mahmoud el Halwagi, says it feels like it happened yesterday. The veteran curator cringes when he recounts the events.

Hawass - Current news on sites and objects

drhawass.com

Hawass comments about findings at Dashur, Abusir, and five objects recovered from the looting at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

On Sunday I went to Dahshur to visit my excavations in an area south of Saqqara. We began this work when satellite images showed a pyramid hidden below the sand. We have found several unique 6th Dynasty tombs at this site, but the most important discoveries we have made is a large mud brick enclosure wall measuring three meters high. Inside this enclosure we expected to find tombs that reach down to bedrock; these tombs were built in this style to decrease the chances of tomb robberies. Tombs such as this have previously been found in the area.

Another interesting site that we have been working on is to the north of the pyramid of Khendjer, where we found the limestone enclosure wall of the pyramid. We know that this area had previously been excavated by Gustave Jéquier, but his work went unifinished.

The other site is the unknown pyramid, also found by Jéquier; satellite images show one pyramid with its superstructure above ground. Components that may reveal the name of the owner of the pyramid have been discovered and we are working on piecing them together. We have found the remains of a mud brick structure, and while at this time it is difficult know what purpose it served, this structure may have served as a funerary temple. Excavations have stopped due to revolution, but we hope to continue in the near future.

What shocked me the most during my visit to the area was the damage inflicted on the archaeological sites by modern people since the revolution started in late January.

Looting at Met’s Excavations in Dahshur

Talking Pyramids (Vincent Brown)

Thomas Campbell, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art speaks of how the looting has effected their excavation site in Dahshur:

JEFFREY BROWN: Tell us about the site. What kind of work goes on there? And the attacks, what do you know about the attacks at this point?

THOMAS CAMPBELL: It’s a middle kingdom pyramid, a brick pyramid, now in a state of partial collapse. We’ve been excavating there for the last couple of decades, recreating, rediscovering the causeway that led down to the Nile, painstakingly recovering fragments of stones that’s chipped off the blocks lining the causeway and the other buildings. These fragments, they belong to the Egyptian government; they don’t belong to us. It’s this site that we fund really for scholarly purposes. And many of these fragments are stored on site, and so far as we understand the warehouse has been broken into at least on a couple of occasions.

A poor boy’s grave – How did a teenage Egyptian weaver end up with a “very nice” coffin?

Unreported Heritage News (Owen Jarus)

About 3,200 years ago, at a time when Egypt was recovering from civil war, a boy named Nakht worked as a weaver for a funerary chapel.

His diet was poor, he suffered from malaria and ultimately he died in his teenage years, likely not much older than 14.

His occupation may have contributed to his poor health. . . .

But now new research suggests that Nakht`s story is quite a bit more complex.

The Braves made a fish farm in Tell Tanis

Luxor Times

Tarek Ibrahim Hoseni, manager of Behira and Port Said antiquities, asked for help to protect Tell Tanis site by Lake Menzalla.

He said that a group of armed men violated the site in the area by the lake and established a fish farm and built few huts. That group called themselves the Braves and they have kettle and animals over there beside that they are digging for antiquities.

Mr. Tarek said that he filed a report to the tourism and antiquities police on 21st February and 10 days later he files another report but the threat still exist.

Egyptian antiquities - a "smokescreen"?

Looting Matters (David Gill)

Vernon Silver has published a reflective piece on the recent looting of antiquities and the debate about cultural property ("Looting in Egypt Arms Critics of Sending Antiquities Back Home", Bloomberg.com March 9, 2011). Has the looting of the Cairo Museum during the recent political upheavals changed the nature of the debate?

Silver has interviewed William Pearlstein who is seen as opposing claims by Egypt: "My clients will have an easier time against retention laws”. Silver also quotes Ursula Kampmann, the press officer for the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA): “The incidents during the Egyptian revolution could be taken as basis for a change of discussion ... It comes to the question, what is the best way to protect our world’s cultural heritage?”

The repatriation of the St Louis Mask again under discussion

NewsDay

A fight between the US government and the St Louis Art Museum over a death mask from ancient Egypt intensified last Wednesday as the government formally demanded the museum hand over the disputed object.

The 3 200-year-old mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, a 19th Dynasty noblewoman, sits on display in the basement of the museum.

The federal complaint contends the mask was stolen from Egypt before the museum obtained it for $500 000 in 1998.

The complaint, which included a request for a restraining order preventing the museum from disposing of the mask during the legal proceedings, came a month after the museum sued the government to try to block the seizure of the mask.

AllGov.com

Officials with the St. Louis Art Museum are fighting an attempt by the U.S. Attorney’s office to have an ancient mummy mask returned to Egypt, from where it was allegedly stolen decades ago.

The artifact in question is the 3,200-year-old mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, first discovered in 1952 by an Egyptian archeologist, Mohamed Zakaria Goneim, near the step pyramid of Saqarra. The Egyptian government claims the mask was stolen after it was shipped to a Cairo museum.

culturalheritagelawyer.com

Last month the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) sued the US government to claim ownnership of the ancient mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer. The US government yesterday sued to forfeit the mask.

Fearing that federal authorities could seize the Egyptian mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, SLAM filed a preemptive complaint on February 15 to have a federal district court declare that the mask is the museum’s property. US Attorney Richard Callahan responded on March 16 by initiating a lawsuit against the mummy mask.

In a complaint titled United States v. Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, Callahan petitions a Missouri federal court for forfeiture of the ancient object pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1595a. That statute permits officials to seize and forfeit items that have been illegally stolen, smuggled, or clandestinely imported into the United States. Callahan also asks that a restraining order be placed on the mask so that it remains available while the court case progresses.

Exhibition: Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization

Chicago Now

Chicago, Monday, March 21, 2011. A new exhibition, "Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization", opens Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at the Oriental Institute Museum. Nearly 130 artifacts from the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods (ca. 4000-2685 BC) in Egypt will be showcased in the exhibit.

The exhibition offers visitors a rare look at beautifully constructed statues, vessels, figurines and other artifacts that document the birth of the most fundamental aspects of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

"It has been decades since there was an exhibit devoted to earliest Egypt," said Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute. "By showing us the origins of the Egyptian state, this gem of an exhibit only enhances our sense of wonder at the later achievements of this civilization when it reached its zenith."

Pride cometh before a fall

Al Ahram Weekly (Jill Kamil)

Apologies that this is so out of date (6th March), but it may be useful to anyone who missed it.

Zahi Hawass, the international face of Egypt's archaeology for some 10 years, has admitted that he was no longer able to protect the country's antiquities because of the absence of police protection, and because he believes he is the victim of a campaign against him by senior officials at his ministry. What he doesn't admit is that members of his own staff have accused him of dictatorial polices concerning findings, unfairness in taking credit for the excavations of others, punishing any whose opinions do not square with his own, of hampering the aspirations of qualified graduates, of nepotism and even, in the words of ex-director of the Egyptian Museum Wafaa El-Saddik, of overseeing a system of corruption.

Days before he resigned as president in February 2011, Hosni Mubarak elevated Hawass from his position as secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) to head a new Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs (MSAA) -- which separates it from the Ministry of Culture -- something he has long been pressing for. As a member of the old guard, however, his name indelibly linked with those of Suzanne Mubarak and ex-minister of culture Farouk Hosni, so he could not expect to remain a cog in the wheel of a discredited state apparatus no matter how often or how vociferously he defended himself on his website and in public interviews.

In NatGeo Newswatch posted on 22 February, he vowed to stay on as Egypt's antiquities chief, "so that I can continue to do everything in my power to protect Egypt's cultural heritage." That he has failed to do.

Amara West - looking back at the 2011 season

British Museum (Michaela Binder)

After seven weeks in Sudan, we’ve just returned to England, and are looking back on a very successful season full of interesting new results. During the 41 days of excavation, Dyan Semple, Carina Summerfield-Hill and I were able to excavate 25 graves, 42 more or less complete skeletons and a large range of small finds and pottery.

Most importantly, in the chamber tomb G234 we found evidence that Cemetery C was already in use during the New Kingdom, much earlier than previously thought.

The last few days at Amara West were quite busy, as is usual in excavation projects like this. On one hand, all the fieldwork has to be finished.

Centenary Awards 2010-11 - From Jenny Cromwell in Copenhagen

Egypt Exploration Society

Jenny Cromwell has recently been in Copenhagen to study a series of unpublished Coptic documents in the University's collection. The project is funded by the EES through the Centenary Fund and Jenny has sent the following summary of the first phase of her work.

Tutankhamun arrives at Melbourne, Australia

Herald Sun (Simon Plant)

Right now, it's as barren as an Egyptian desert. But as Mark Lach traverses the wide open spaces of Melbourne Museum's touring exhibition hall, another world looms before him like a mirage.

A world of giant chambers where the awesome power of an ancient civilisation speaks to us through theatrically lit stones, statues and sarcophagi.

"I can see it all now," he says. And no wonder: Lach is exhibition designer for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.

"Of the eight cities we've been to, this is the best space yet," he tells me.

"No columns for one thing, which is almost unheard of, and lovely high ceilings. That gives us enormous freedom."

Touring since 2005, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs boasts 130 Egyptian artefacts, including 50 from Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

Lach, creative director of Arts and Exhibitions International, has been on every leg of the journey. He brings years of experience in theatre, music and TV to the task.

Initiative To Protect Egyptian Antiquities

VAdvert.co.uk

The George Washington University Capitol Archaeological Institute announced today that it has launched an initiative to protect Egyptian antiquities from illicit trade around the world. The institute identified specific actions that the U.S. government and international law enforcement authorities should take to help prevent the illegal trade of Egyptian antiquities. In addition, many of the most respected Egyptologists in the United States and the world and other respected scholarly organizations have joined the GW institute in calling for action by government and law enforcement authorities. To view the call to action, please visit this link.

“As an institute located in the heart of our nation’s capital, we have a special responsibility to help ensure that issues and solutions are highlighted for policy and law makers,” said Eric Cline, director of GW’s Capitol Archaeological Institute and associate professor and chair of GW’s Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

London museums urged to show more 'hidden' artefacts

BBC News

Museums in London are being urged to get more of their collections out of storage and on display as funding cuts will mean fewer landmark exhibitions.

Many museums in the capital keep more than 90% of their collections stored away.

The Museums Association says despite the current economic climate it wants to challenge venues to offer more to the public.

The government says national museums will face a funding cut of 15%.

A BBC Freedom of Information request found the British Museum had spent £86,280 in 2009 and 2010 keeping 99% of its collection in storage.

The mystery of ‘The Starving of Saqqara

Past Horizons

Grotesque or beautiful? – Rare antiquity or outright fake? – For more than a decade Concordia University has investigated the origins of a mysterious sculpture. Once part of the Diniacopoulos Collection of Mediterranean antiquities, it has been in the university’s possession since 1999.

The 67-centimetre-high limestone work, with traces of pigments, depicts two nude seated figures with large heads. It also features inscriptions in an unidentified language.

To learn more about the artwork, Concordia’s Director of Special Projects and Cultural Affairs, Clarence Epstein, has consulted experts from Cambridge University, the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Israel Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum.

So far, no authority has been able to confirm the sculpture’s pedigree.

Photo for Today - Deir el Medina

Deir el Medina settlement
View from west to east

Another call for Egypt's PM to save antiquities

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

An official letter, signed by top officials and legal consultants in the ministry of state for antiquities affairs, call for the Egypt’s PM Essam Sharaf to appoint a minister of antiquities immediately.

Three weeks following Sharaf’s decision for antiquities to separate antiquities from the ministry of culture, leaving it an independent body among the cabinet echelon, the antiquities department is leaderless. To date the cabinet has not yet appointed a leader for the Antiquities Department, and at this point whether the title is ‘minister’ or ‘director’ seems to be of secondary importance to those working in the antiquities field in Egypt.

“No one is responsible for Egypt’s antiquities,” Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, director of the central administration for antiquities in Alexandria and Lower Egypt, told Ahram Online. He continued that this has led to the absence of security and administration. These have been halted as there is no leader to take decisions on antiquities or to continue working.

Further investigations into the Norwich Shroud

British Museum (Janet Ambers)


The British Museum's fascinating ongoing investigation of the Norwich Shroud, with photos.

With the shroud unfolded for the first time (although still in need of much conservation attention) David Saunders, Keeper of Conservation and Scientific Research, Emma Passmore, Mellon Research Fellow, Caroline Cartwright, scientist, and I made our first visit to see what had been revealed on the inner surface.

David has a longstanding interest in the use of imaging techniques to enhance and investigate painted surfaces, and our main objective was to examine areas where text has been applied.

Using specialist cameras, we took both infrared and ultraviolet images of the shroud. Infrared reflectography is often employed in research into paintings to reveal initial sketches under the final images. For the shroud, it will make the black text clearer. This will help John Taylor with his interpretation of the hieroglyphs while the conservators continue to treat the shroud, and also allow the hieroglyphs to be published clearly for international scholars.

Alleged artifact thieves referred for military trial

Al Masry Al Youm

The Tourism and Antiquities Police referred two suspects accused of stealing artifacts from the Egyptian Museum for military trial, according to an Interior Ministry statement released Monday.

The statement said the antiquities police, coordinating with the military, have recovered five artifacts that had been stolen from the museum during the 25 January Revolution.

Original copy of La Description de l'Egypte to be sold at auction

Christie's

Christie’s proudly announces the sale of the Michel Wittock Collection, Part IV, which will be held in Paris on May 11. As well as an exceptional copy of the famous Description de l’Egypte, bound by Jean-Joseph Tessier in polished and richly decorated calfskin, the collection includes a fine selection of French literature in master bindings from the late XIX^th to the XXI^st century, by or after design by Marius-Michel, Rose Adler, Pierre Legrain, François-Louis Schmied and Paul Bonet. Jean de Gonet is represented in a unique selection of more than 30 examples ranging from 1977 to 2006.

Collection Michel Wittock, Part IV
Jean-Joseph Tessier and the Description de l’Egypte

The highlight of the sale is the Description de l’Égypte, 23 volumes in their original mahogany display case, which is expected to realize €500.000 to €700.000. This is the first edition of this monumental publication, which is considered to be the foundation of modern Egyptology: a virtually complete set of the large paper issue, printed on woven paper with handcoloured ornithological plates.

Book Review: The Last Pharaohs

Scholia Reviews (Review by John Atkinson)

For some reason all Scholia Reviews pages come up with nonsense in my Firefox browser, but load perfectly in both Chrome and Safari.

J. G. Manning, The Last Pharaohs: Egypt under the Ptolemies, 305-30 BC. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Manning, with numerous previous publications in the field of Ptolemaic studies to his credit, here plunges straight into the issues which he proposes to address, and dispenses with the customary historical survey of the Ptolemaic period. His brief historical introduction is entitled 'Egypt in the First Millennium BC’ (pp. 19-28), and picks up the story from the end of the New Kingdom, giving more space to Persian rule than to the period of Alexander and Ptolemy. This is appropriate as he identifies with the trend in scholarship over the last three decades to lay greater stress on Egyptian culture in the Ptolemaic era, and on Persian administrative practices (p. 2).

EES Minufiyeh Survey

EES Minufiyeh Survey (Joanne Rowland)

Jo is back in the Minufiyeh district of the Delta reporting on the long term project to survey the area. See the above page for all her posts to date.

Wednesday 23rd March

Today was the first real day of survey work - we set off from the apartment at 7.30am, a later start than usual, as we have to ensure that our inspector can travel from Tanta in good light! We met as usual under the bridge at Quesna and headed off to the area of el-Rimaly where we made our first stop - as usual on the first day of survey in a new area - in the town centre for tea, to await the arrival of our colleague. Our colleague having arrived, we began to walk around the area, which is in close proximity to the Delta Survey sites of Tell Mustai and Umm Harb. The fields are mainly planted at the moment, although there are a number of clear fields, giving us the opportunity to take a closer look at the range of ceramics that have been turned up through ploughing. A selection of diagnostic sherds will be examined by our ceramicist, Ashraf el-Senussi during the last week of this short season. Tell Mustai was once a high kom and has been heavily built upon; Umm Harb is the highest point on the kom, surmounted by the tomb of the Sheikh Umm Harb (Arabic for ‘mother of war’). We also worked with the total station surveying equipment, and were able to plot the fields that were examined and measure the height of each of the remaining koms.

Toby Wilkinson book wins prize

The Bookseller

Bloomsbury's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt: The History of a Civilisation from 3,000 BC to Cleopatra has won this year's £3,000 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History.

Written by Toby Wilkinson, the book was commended by the judges for its "boldness, vivacity and authority".

Chair of judges Richard Davenport-Hines said: "We were captivated by Wilkinson's book . . . in describing remote societies, [he] has a deceptive lucidity which belies the precision of his expertise. His subject matter and his sensibility are both unusual."

Returning to the Delta

EES Delta Survey

The EES Delta Survey have started updating on Tumblr again this season.

This is my last day at work before we leave on Monday for Egypt - flying on Egyptair this time after the problem we had at the end of the last season with the BA strikes! With the support of the grant given to the EES Delta Survey by the British Academy we hope to survey a large tell, Kom el-Daba, in Kafr es-Sheikh Governorate which we first visited in 1990 and which has substantial brick remains.

In Egypt, crowd-free travel is the new normal

The National (Susan Hack)

Two months after the start of largely peaceful demonstrations that drove former president Hosni Mubarak from power on February 11, foreign tourists are returning to Egypt in a trickle rather than a flood. Uncrowded beaches, the lack of queues at tombs and museums, plus discounts offered by hotels and Nile cruise ships make the next six months a unique time to travel to the cradle of civilisation, according to officials hoping that exhilaration over the country's youth revolution - and Egypt's compelling combination of sunshine and pharaonic antiquities - will eventually translate into a tourism rebound.

"Welcome back," reads the optimistic cover of this month's issue of Horus, the in-flight magazine of Egyptair, which was forced to cancel 75 per cent of its flights in February. As Egypt lost an estimated US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) in tourism revenue amid an 80-per-cent drop in tourist arrivals compared with the February to April period last year, tour operators diverted clients to cultural destinations in Turkey and beaches in the Canary Islands. (Russia, yet to lift its Egypt travel warning, has sent many of its sun-seeking holidaymakers to Dubai).

Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

The Wall Street Journal

Toby Wilkinson's "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt" stands in the great tradition of Breasted but incorporates much new archaeological information. With a literary flair and a sense for a story well told, Mr. Wilkinson offers a highly readable, factually up-to-date account of what we know about Egyptian political history. He organizes his narrative by ruling family or "dynasty," following a design first set down by the Egyptian priest Manetho, whose account of Egyptian history (written in Greek ca. 270 B.C.) survives in summary form.

Tomb of prince Montuherkhepeshef on Osirisnet

Osirisnet

We have the pleasure to present to you today the tomb of prince Montuherkhepeshef, which is in the Valley of the Kings and bear the number KV19. It amounts to an entry and a corridor, but the scenes which decorate it, although repetitive, are of a good pictorial quality.

Dig-it-al NEA

The American Schools of Oriental Research

The new online complement to NEA is now available, free of charge, with a Museum Review relevant to Egypt - but see the above page for other Near Eastern topics.

Near Eastern Archaeology is pleased to announce its new online venture: Dig-it-al NEA. This online forum features original essays, reviews, and other content to complement the print publication of the journal.

MUSEUM REVIEWS
Enchanted by an Exposition: Magical Antiquities from Egypt at Leiden
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, Netherlands
October 16, 2010 – March 13, 2011

New Book: Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt Vol 2

Coptic News and Archive (Howard Jones)

The 2008 St Mark Foundation Symposium contribution papers are now published in the regular series of "Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt" - the current one is Volume 2: Nag Hammadi-Esna
Here are the details and contributors:

Edited by Gawdat Gabra
Hany Takla

New studies in Christianity in the Sohag region

Christianity and monasticism have flourished in Upper Egypt from as early as the fourth century until the present day. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization along the Nile Valley from Nag Hammadi (associated with the famous discovery of Gnostic papyri) through Luxor and Coptos and south to Esna over the past seventeen hundred years, looking at Coptic religious history, tradition, language, heritage, and material culture in the region through texts, art, architecture and archaeology.

Photo for Today - Deir el Medina

Deir el Medina settlement
View from the Ptolemaic temple end towards the capark
(roughly north to south)

UNESCO delegation reassured after first day in Egypt

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Yesterday, a UNESCO delegation led by Christian Manhart, chief of the Museums and Cultural Objects Section within UNESCO, embarked on a three-day tour of archaeological sites subject to looting during and since Egypt’s 25 January Revolution. The tour includes the Egyptian Museum as well as the Memphis necropolis, and covers the Giza plateau, Saqqara, Abusir and Dahshur archaeological sites.

The first place on the delegation's visit list was the Egyptian Museum. Following three hours of touring the museum’s exhibition halls and labs, the delegation's members expressed their satisfaction with what they saw.

“The status of the Egyptian Museum in totally different from what has been said in the media,“ director Tarek El-Awadi told Ahram Online Manhart had said while admiring the museum.

Ancient Egyptians made the arduous trek to Chad new research suggests

Unreported Heritage News (Owen Jarus)

A trip across the desert of southwest Egypt is not for the faint of heart.

Modern day travellers departing southwest from the Dakhla Oasis will find themselves hitting their flasks as they traverse the Egyptian wilderness. Water sources are scarce, the area is sparsely populated and the lack of landmarks means you’ll want to keep your GPS system in good order.

Passing by Gilf Kebir, a plateau the size of Puerto Rico, you’ll find prehistoric cave paintings, evidence of a time when the climate was much more favourable to human life. Assuming you keep a southwest direction, and don’t get lost, you’ll come across a mountain range called Jebel Uweinat. Straddling the Egyptian-Libyan-Sudanese border, travellers will find springs there and – if you know where to look – a recently discovered 4,000 year old inscription, written in the name of Mentuhotep II, a pharaoh credited with reuniting Egypt.

If you continue southwest you’ll cross the border into southeast Libya and, if you keep on going, venture into the northeast corner of Chad, in Central Africa.

It’s a daunting, perilous, journey. And now, thanks to a body of new archaeological, textual, environmental and linguistic research, we have evidence that the ancient Egyptians undertook it.

A Swiss Egyptologist on Her Majesty’s Service

Egypt Exploration Society

With photos.

From the time of his first contact with A.B. Edwards and R.S. Poole until the end of his excavations in Lower Egypt (1880-1892), Edouard Naville wrote approximately 200 letters to the joint honorary secretaries of the EEF, which are now kept in the Society’s Lucy Gura Archive. Writing in a fine and fast hand and in perfect classical English (a skill inherited during 1862-1863 when he attended King’s College, London), Naville mentions his researches at major sites in the Delta such as Tell el-Maskhuta, Saft el Hinna, the famous site of Bubastis (Tell Basta) and Tell el Yahudieh.

This scientific correspondence contains precious details about his everyday life as an Egyptologist, how the hard work was divided between Naville and the engineers Achille Jaillon and the Count Riamo d’Hulst and eventually about the editing of the final publications, in which his wife, Marguerite (née de Pourtalès), played a great part thanks to her skill in drawing.

Archaeologists threaten strike over unfilled ministry position

Al Masry Al Youm

Egyptian archaeologists threatened to organize a strike and sit-in on Sunday if a ministry official is not immediately appointed to take charge of archeology-related affairs. The threat came in light of the repeated thefts and lootings of Egyptian artifacts and relics.

The archeologists sent a letter to Prime Minister Essam Sharaf in which they demanded the appointment of either a minister or a head of an independent body affiliated to the Council of Ministers.

In the letter, Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, the director of the Central Administration for Antiquities in Alexandria and Lower Egypt warned of the seriousness of the situation, saying that it “has resulted in the total paralysis in the decision-making process needed for the continuance of archaeological work.”

Prolonged conflict a threat to Libyan heritage sites

Monsters and Critics (Kate Thomas)

The track leading to Al Bayda's forgotten Temple of Aesculapius is shingled with rocks and rubbish.

Sheep doze beneath juniper trees, graffiti tags blight nearby buildings and, in the distance, the ample family home of Safia Farkash, wife of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, spills over the hillside.

The remains of the Temple of Aesculapius, a medical school that dates back to 4BC, is one of eastern Libya's cultural treasures and one of the heritage sites threatened by the ongoing conflict.

Earlier, it was a lack of state funding to the Department in Antiquities, that cast doubt on the preservation of the site with its white marble columns, topped with carvings of the ancient wonder-drug Silphium.

The United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) says the Libya government and allied forces implementing the no-fly zone must respect the rich cultural sites.

More re items missing from Qantara East

Ahram Online

With photo.

Following a detailed archaeological inventory on the collection of artefacts stored in the Qantara-East warehouse, some 800 objects from the ancient Egyptian, Graeco and Islamic eras were found missing.

The objects derived from archaeological sites in Ismailia as well as North and South Sinai, which have been scientifically documented and published. The missing objects include of a large collection of clay vessels, bronze coins, scarabs, and amulets, as well as wooden arrows, textiles, amphora and a headless limestone statue inscribed with hieroglyphic text.

Tales from the Egyptian revolution

The Art Newspaper (Sarah Marei)

Scrambling in the glaring sun we lifted heavy wooden boxes laden with antiquities to safer locations at the site where hopefully they would be easier to protect at night. The director had his sleeves rolled up and, covered in dust, was booming spontaneous orders. The entire, hurried operation was guided by the levelheaded and reasonable decisions of the high-ranking officials responsible for the site now acting as patriotic Egyptians struggling to protect their history.

Giza, home to the Great Pyramids, had two storage facilities broken into in the wave of attacks on antiquities overtaking Egypt during the revolution. As the news broke I rushed to the site (where I am based as an antiquities inspector) to offer my help. I was not alone: many other inspectors and other employees had left the safety of their homes with the same thoughts.

Egypt is riddled with archaeological sites and many remained virtually unscathed due to the inspectors and residents of the surrounding towns and villages endangering their lives to protect sites, storage locations and museums, as was the case at Beni Suef and Fayum.

Wart on the forehead of Queen Tiye?

Online Journal

King Tut's grandmother Queen Tiye may have been a legendary beauty, but she had an ugly wart on her forehead, a mummy expert says. The small, flat protuberance was located between the eyes of the so-called Elder Lady (KV35EL).

The bump had gone unnoticed for centuries until Mercedes Gonzalez, director of the Instituto de Estudios Cientificos en Momias in Madrid, saw it while viewing the mummy during a trip to the Cairo Museum.

"I got a high resolution image of the mummy's face from the Egyptian museum. From the enlargement, the small growth appears compatible with a flat wart or verruca plana," Gonzalez told Discovery News.

Gonzales believes that the bump is a hyperplastic epidermal lesion, a harmless bump produced by the papilloma virus. These bumps typically appear on the face, neck and back of the hands... But they're not typically found on the faces of ancient Egyptian mummies.

"Until now I haven't seen anything similar," Gonzalez said.

But Frank Ruhli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project and Center for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, isn't sure whether the bump is really a wart, and whether the mummy is even really Tiye.

More re missing artefacts found

Ahram Online (Nevine El Aref)

Today, with the help of Egypt’s armed forces and the tourism and antiquities police, five artefactes from 42 objects missing from the Egyptian Museum were recovered.

The five items include four bronze objects depicting different ancient Egyptian deities, such as Osiris, the cat goddess Bastet, Abis Bull and Neith. All the returned objects are in good condition except the Abis Bull, which was broken into several pieces. With restoration, archaeologists hope, it can be restored to its original form.

Interview with Barry Kemp re looting

New Scientist (Jo Marchant)

A thriving market for antiquities in the west is behind the looting of Egypt's heritage, says Barry Kemp, who describes the fraught situation on the ground

Where is your dig site?
I work at Amarna, the short-lived capital built by "heretic" pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th century BC. The site is a beautiful stretch of desert, bordered by high cliffs. We are working to map, excavate and repair the ancient buildings.

How did you hear about Egypt's uprisings?
On Saturday 29 January we received a police order to close down. We packed up our equipment on Sunday and most of the expedition was evacuated to Cairo on Monday. I and one other team member stayed behind.

What steps did you take to protect Amarna?
Because of attacks on archaeological sites elsewhere in Egypt, the police asked us to block the entrances to our storerooms. Workmen built a wall of limestone blocks across the iron doors, covering the main one with cement so it appears impregnable. On 5 February we finally travelled to Cairo, where I live. As we drove through the western desert, life seemed to be proceeding as normal, although the trains were not running.

Mediaeval settlement found in Sudan

thenews.pl

A major stronghold and a Mediaeval settlement have been discovered by Polish archeologists in Sudan at the start of a three year research project realized by the Prehistory Institute of Poznan University and the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan.

The Hosh esh-Sheitan strongold, or Satan’s Court, is situated in the Nile valley.

“There is no written mention of it and yet it is one of the biggest strongholds in this part of the Nile Valley”, says Polish archeologist Mariusz Drzewiecki.

Another interesting find is a settlement on the Nurein hill.

Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

Winnipeg Free Press (Review by Matt Gibbs)

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt
By Toby Wilkinson
Random House, 611 pages,

Recent events in Egypt, culminating in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, largely as the result of popular indignation and revolt, have provided a rather fortunate news hook for this magisterial work of popular history.

Neither author Toby Wilkinson, an academic at England’s University of Cambridge, nor his publishers, likely expected Egyptian politics to take a significant turn at the time of publication.Neither author Toby Wilkinson, an academic at England's University of Cambridge, nor his publishers, likely expected Egyptian politics to take a significant turn at the time of publication.

Nevertheless, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt highlights several themes prevalent in the Middle Eastern nation's history that will almost certainly play upon the minds of those who followed Mubarak's downfall.

At 486 pages (not including notes and indices), the book is a daunting read, to be sure. But Wilkinson's narrative is clear, refreshing and, at times, amusing. His take on Egyptology and Egyptian history is not only relaxed and approachable, but also entertaining.

Exhibition: Nubia, Ancient Kingdoms of Africa

New York Times (Karen Rosenberg)

“Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa,” an exhibition at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, takes you deep into the history of a currently volatile part of the continent.

The show occupies just two small galleries, but spans a 500-mile stretch of the Nile River Valley (now Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt) and more than 2,250 years (from about 3000 B.C. through 750 B.C.). During that time conquerors became the conquered; trading partners were reborn as bitter enemies.

A brief summary of the period: Beginning in about 3000 B.C., Southern Nubia developed into a powerful kingdom known as Kush. Egypt, increasingly nervous about this neighbor, conquered a large swath of it in 1500 B.C. Four centuries later the Egyptian empire collapsed; a dark age followed. Then, around 900 B.C., Nubia rose again. By 750 B.C., its Napatan kings had control of Egypt — at least until the Assyrians arrived, in 650 B.C.

Book Review: Herakleides

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Jane Draycott)

Lorelei H. Corcoran, Marie Svoboda, Herakleides: A Portrait Mummy from Roman Egypt. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.

Herakleides: a Portrait Mummy from Roman Egypt not only provides the results of a series of scientific analyses, but also those of a comprehensive classical, Egyptological and art historical, study undertaken on the Herakleides portrait mummy. Consequently, it serves as an extremely informative and useful case study with regard to funerary practice in Egypt during the Roman period.

The Herakleides portrait mummy was first acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1991, and was subject to a full study by the Museum’s Antiquities Conservation Department in 2003, before finally being exhibited for the first time at the Getty Villa in 2006. The questions raised by the study were numerous and comprehensive: whether the portrait attached to the mummy represented the mummified individual; the precise state of preservation of the body inside the wrappings; whether there were any inclusions such as jewels or amulets within the wrappings; what materials had been used in the mummification and subsequent adornment process; and whether a precise date could be attached to the mummy and the portrait respectively. Additionally, in 2006 the Herakleides portrait mummy was included as part of the "Getty Red-Shroud Study Group", a project which aimed to determine whether similar materials were used to manufacture nine red-shroud mummies. It would appear, based on the information presented here, that both studies were resounding successes, and have added immeasurably to our knowledge not only of mummy portraits, but also of portrait mummies, beliefs about the afterlife, funerary practice and the mechanics of the mummification process in Egypt during the Roman period.

Photo for Today - Deir el Medina

Deir el Medina