No Discrimination

This article is from 2003 but it is important and really set the standards for the last 5 years of Egyptian exploration.

Clearly Joanne Fletcher was without the concern of tact and her actions alone caused damage to her extremely prestigious British institution. Dr. Hawass appeared in her television show unaware of her "surprise" and found himself in a TV show who's summation was unknown to him, the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme council of antiquities.

http://www.guardians.net/hawass/articles/no_discrimination.htm

Cutey Finds Head

Two skulls found in a garden in England have been returned to Egypt. The article has two pictures one of a skull and one of the cutey that found them.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1069625_mystery_of_skulls_solved

Dr. Hawass's Dig Days

When Dr. Hawass Speaks people listen so here are a number of interesting articles.

http://www.guardians.net/hawass/

American research

This is the latest newsletter of the American research center in Egypt.

http://www.arce.org/

Old Women Opens New Museum

Egypt's dictator sends his bon bon chewing wife to open a museum on jewelry. Perhaps she should be opening a museum on dictators and their old ladies.

http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000002/0203000000000000001055.htm

A Tale of Old Cities

Here we have an article on the maintenance of Cairo and other ancient cities.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/916/he1.htm

New Gallery for Liverpool

The article is very interesting with an excellent picture of the Rameses III girdle.

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=26296

Statue of Rameses II found

Wow you sure cant have enough of those! The statue is made from pink granite and is missing the nose and beard.

The author said Nefertiti was wife of Rameses II this would have made Nefertiti around 200 years old, thank goodness for the picture.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/3074496/Ancient-statue-of-Ramses-II-found-near-Cairo.html

and here:

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world/statue-of-ramses-ii-one-of-ancient-egypts-most-powerful-pharaohs-found_10099599.html

Aerial Egypt

Currently Egypt's monuments are being photographed by aerial and terrestial cameras no doubt this is taking place in conjuncture with Egypt's plan to copyright its monuments.

http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=16669

The Remains of the Departed

The Eleventh dynasty Pharaoh Mentuhotep II, 2055-2004 bc reunited Egypt for the first time in a 150 years a King could rightfully call himself "The Lord of the two lands". Early in the Kings reign Mentuhotep chose the site for the building of his mortuary temple below the cliffs of Deir el Bahri opposite Thebes.

Unfortunately six of the Kings wives died before their Monarch and were interred within the mortuary temple in tombs behind shrines for the deceased women.

The Kings reign was long and successful and his mortuary temple was expanded a number of times to accommodate the burials.

When the six tombs were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century two were found intact that of the Kings wife Ashayet, the mummy of the Queen lying in her cartonnage inside a wood coffin inside a six panelled sealed sarcophagus with metal joiners beautifully decorated with a wood coffin left on top inscribed for the lady Kemsit.

Nearby in another tomb lay the body of a child named Mayet "the cat".

The four remaining burials had been plundered in ancient times still one of them held the mummy of Queen Henhenet another held an intrusive burial of a necropolis official of the twenty first dynasty named Horemkenesi.

While the official was laying undisturbed in his coffin in the center of the chamber covered in vegetal wreaths the original occupant Queen Sadeh's badly damaged remains were simply pushed aside for the intruders burial or maybe even robbed by the people burying Horemkenesi and pushed out of the way.

This is hardly the respectful treatment of a former Kings wife by necropolis officials burying one of their own and that the indifference in the necropolis officials have left to kick bones back into the holes and forget about it. One wonders whether this was a good time to vandalise the shrine marking Queen Sadeh's burial.

The official Horemkenesi had in life more than likely left six graffiti in the Theban hills marking his official duties as "Great one of the gang in the place of truth". This title was occupied by two persons at once in the "Place of truth" or "Valley of Kings" who official duties would have been that of a foreman.

Horemkenesi's life working in the necropolis as foreman of a gang of workers expected to create objects for the burial of the Pharaohs in the valley had become extinct as the Pharaoh's had long left for the delta and the valley had long been unsafe as a burial ground.

Surviving 3000 year old court documents tell of the various robberies occurring in the necropolis's of Thebes including the tombs of Seti I and Rameses II. The robbing of a 17th dynasty King and his Queen including their burials destruction by fire is a low point in the surviving records.

In these years the glory of Thebes was over and with a number of bad crops the population were not receiving the rations of food they had become used too including the year of the Hyenas in which starvation had set hold of the once mighty Egypt.

The foreman of the crafts men instead of creating objects found themselves retrieving the very objects their forefathers had created for comfort of the dead kings and nobility, these objects being destroyed for the metals and costly ornaments which sometimes meant entire coffins being removed for the reuse of the later necropolis officials.

Ptolomies Through Plexiglass

Here is another article on the proposed underwater museum for Alexandria.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/915/heritage.htm

Egypt in Budapest

An exhibit on ancient Egypt in Budapest is receiving mixed reviews but thankfully the article has nice pictures.

http://www.budapesttimes.hu/content/view/9116/222/

Thefts from Mosques

Dr. Zahi Hawass and the Supreme council of antiquities are seeking legal action against people responsible for the protection of Egypt's ancient mosques. The council claims these people are leaving the mosques unprotected.

http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=16547

Wellcome Collection goes Digital

The amazing Wellcome medical collection goes digital.

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART60874.html

Underwater museum

A new proposed museum for Alexandria will be both underwater and above as well.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080916-underwater-museum.html

New Objects for Tutankhamun

When the King Tut exhibit continues this fall four new objects not seen outside Egypt will join the tour. Here are nice pictures of the objects.

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/sep/16/new-artifacts-debut-dallas-king-tut-exhibit-openin/

Rameses the Great Lives

Remnants of an ancient temple dedicated to the God King Ramese II has been found within Cairo.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=vn20080916053850908C449745

Tut's Twins

To the ancient Egyptians twins were seen as undesirable though there are some suggestions that some may have risen to great prominence.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/080912-hn-twins.html

Amenhotep's Eye 2

Here we have a picture of the eye which the Swiss will be giving back to Egypt.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/914/fr2.htm

Amenhotep's Eye

The eye was stolen from a statue at Luxor some 36 years ago during a fire around the temple and now is to be returned.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24327921-5003402,00.html

Kings Wives in Monaco

This exhibition seems to be a success and is receiving glowing reviews, a beam of light.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/906/heritage.htm

Egyptian Museum Newsletter

The newsletter is interesting if all a little brief.

http://www.russiadockwood.ukfriends.com/EMCNewsletter_2_-_English.pdf

A Famous Mummy

Nesyamun is on his way to the the new Leeds museum it strikes me how odd that this simple Egyptian is more famous dead than he would ever have been in life.

That's quite the afterlife!

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART60517.html

The Pyramids

Dr. Zahi Hawass wants all the pyramids open by next year.

http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/7/tvnradio/1760437&sec=tvnradio

New Treasures of Saqqara

This article is in Spanish however the pictures are excellent.

http://www.egiptomania.com/noticias.asp?PagePosition=1

Underwater Alexandria

UNESCO has agreed to back the idea of an Underwater museum to showcase all the monuments still lying on the bottom of the harbour at Alexandria.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/05/content_9800051.htm

Dig Days

Another article from the Director General of Egypt's Supreme council of antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/913/he2.htm

Sphinx Studies

The Sphinx is the constant subject of monitoring its condition to ensure that the statue remains around for another 4000 years.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/913/he1.htm

Grand Egyptian Museum

An article with pictures of the proposed new Egyptian mega-museum.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10282

Touring Cairo's Egyptian Museum

A nice article which captures the aura of this famous museum.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/ET_Travel/Mummiesbest_friend/articleshow/3441788.cms

Out Comes Nesyamun

The Leeds mummy is a sole survivor of the WWII bombing which destroyed the Leeds museum and Nesyamun's fellow mummies. Now Leeds is about to open its new museum and Nesyamun is a star attraction.

http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/2008-09-03-Sting-in-the-tale-of-Leeds-mummy

3500 Year old Shipwreck

A mouse long gone reveals he was among the newcomers on board a ship carrying among other things a gold scarab bearing the name of the 18th dynasty Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-09-02-montpelier-restoration_N.htm

Fake Story

Many of my viewers will notice that travelling the internet highway these days is a story about egyptologists finding the burial of Sesostris II. The Kings burial was in fact discovered and cleared well more than a hundred years ago and as a result I am not carrying the story.

If you wish to read about that Kings tomb go here:

Illahun, Kahun and Gurob:

http://efts.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_title.pl?callnum=DT73.I3P5_cop2

Mirror case of Isetemkheb

Nice images of objects mostly from Russian collections except of course the mirror case which is in the Cairo museum.

http://www.cesras.org/Ding/BodyCare/MirrorAsetemachbjt-D.html