Cybernews 01 -- 8 August 2005

NOTE: News items concerning the recent bombings in Egypt will not appear here. The story has evolved so quickly that all older reports are too filled with erroneous information. Your current newspaper will have better and more current information.

This set of news stories included the following categories:

1) Return of the Rosetta stone
2) Return of other objects allegedly removed illegally from Egypt
3) Stories concerned with the current Tutankhamun show in the US
4) Other Tutankhamun related items
5) Nefertiti’s new home
6) Hawass and the Egyptian Museum’s basement
7) Warnings of dire environmental changes in Egypt
8) Canadian government travel warnings for Egypt
9) Development plans for the Egyptian Sinai
10) Egyptian exhibition plans for Tokyo
11) Behind those doors in the Great Pyramid
12) Problems for travelers at the Cairo Airport
13) Sand castles and other Egyptian themes in Brighton, England
14) Cities (built by Hollywood) buried in the sand
15) Studies on sources of ancient Egyptian glass
16) Antiquity and Tourism Report from Egypt
17) Egypt desert may be added to heritage shelter list
18) Knights may have traveled beneath Cairo citadel
19) The Agriculture Museum in Cairo
20) Book review: The Third Translation : A Novel
21) Exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina

1) Return of the Rosetta stone

In a speech at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin held at UNESCO in Paris, Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said Egypt had been deprived of five key items of Egypt's cultural heritage. "They should be handed over to us," Hawass said.

The objects in question are the Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum in London, the bust of Nefertiti in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, the statue of Great Pyramid architect Hemiunnu in the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hilesheim, the Dendara Temple Zodiac in the Louvre in Paris, and the bust of Kephren pyramid builder Ankhaf in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Hawass urged other countries affected by similar issues to prepare a list of stolen artifacts considered unique and invaluable to their cultural identity that should be handed over for good, or on loan.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/751/eg7.htm

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Zahi Hawass, the country's chief archaeologist, said UNESCO had agreed to mediate in its claims for artifacts currently at the British Museum, the Louvre in Paris, two German museums and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Several countries have waged uphill battles to get back pieces they contend were looted by Western museums. Most notably, Greece has been seeking for decades the return of the Parthenon's Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.

Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1894&e=3&u=/ap/20050713/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_antiquities

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Egypt is launching a campaign for the return of five of its most precious artefacts from museums abroad, including the Rosetta Stone in London and the graceful bust of Nefertiti in Berlin.

Zahi Hawass, the country's chief archaeologist, said the UN's cultural agency UNESCO had agreed to mediate in its claims for artefacts currently at the British Museum, Paris' Louvre, two German museums and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

If Egypt presses the campaign, it would be joining for the first time what has been an uphill battle by several countries to get back pieces they see as looted by Western museums, usually during the colonial era.

The Age

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Egypt-wants-its-museum-treasures-back/2005/07/14/1120934327604.html?oneclick=true

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Hawass told journalists in Cairo he proposed two weeks ago that UNESCO lead negotiations with the museums and the agency agreed. He showed a letter he sent to UNESCO's assistant director-general for culture, Mounir Bouchenaki, listing the five pieces Egypt seeks. Egypt's Culture Ministry is backing the request, he said.

``This time we are very serious because we asked UNESCO'' to intervene, Hawass said.

Egypt considers the artifacts stolen, he said. ``We believe that Rosetta Stone didn't leave Egypt legally. It was taken through imperialism,'' he said.

He said Egypt is also seeking the elaborate Zodiac ceiling painting from the Dendera Temple, now housed in the Louvre; the statute of Hemiunu - the nephew and vizier of Pharaoh Khufu, builder of the Great pyramid - in Germany's Roemer-Pelizaeu museum; and the bust of Anchhaf, builder of the Chephren Pyramid, now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Hawass said the Anchhaf bust was the only piece of the five that left Egypt legally, and Egypt is offering compensation for it.

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5139396,00.html

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UNESCO officials could not immediately confirm the agency had agreed to mediate with museums over Egypt's claims.

Hawass told journalists in Cairo that he proposed two weeks ago that UNESCO lead negotiations with the museums and the agency agreed. He showed a letter he sent to UNESCO's assistant director-general for culture, Mounir Bouchenaki, listing the five pieces Egypt seeks. Egypt's Culture Ministry is backing the request, he said.

"This time we are very serious because we asked UNESCO" to intervene, Hawass said. Egypt considers the artifacts stolen, he said.

Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3265496

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Egypt has demanded that Britain return the Rosetta Stone, the priceless artifact that helped crack the code of hieroglyphics. The move is the latest attempt by Egypt to retrieve its ancient history.

Egypt's top archeologist accused Britain and Belgium of stealing artifacts and announced that Egypt would host a conference for countries which have lost their historical artifacts to other countries.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archeologist, threatened to shut down archeological digs run by British and Belgian scholars in Egypt if the 4,400-year-old reliefs that were taken from two tombs uncovered in 1965 are not returned. "We sent a letter to the Fitzwilliams Museum in Britain and the Catholic University in Belgium asking them to bring the two pieces stolen from the Giza pyramids in 1965," Hawass told The Jerusalem Post. The Catholic University is presently excavating in Deir al-Barsha, near the southern town of Minya and the Fitzwilliams Museum at Cambridge University has archeologists at the site.

"We will use our scientific relationship to put pressure on them," said Hawass.

Asked if this meant he would halt digs, Hawass, who is the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, did not mince his words: "Exactly," he said.

The Jeruselem Post

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1121653128613

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Hawass has also called on UNESCO to send invitations to all the countries who have unique artifacts they want back to come to a conference in November. "Then we can discuss together how to retrieve what we lost," said Hawass.

Dr. Moain Sadeq, director- general of the Department of Antiquities in Gaza and a participant in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 1994 on archeological issues, told the Post he believed the conference could help return Palestinian archeological artifacts.

"When we meet with our colleagues in UNESCO and from departments of antiquities around the world, we will ask for help and support in the returning of artifacts taken from the 1967 Palestinian Territories and the return of the Palestine Museum," said Sadeq.

Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1121653128613

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2) Return of other objects allegedly removed illegally from Egypt

Egypt demanded that institutions in Britain and Belgium return two pharaonic reliefs it says were chipped off tombs and stolen 30 years ago, threatening Sunday to end their archaeological work here if they refuse.

The 4,400-year-old reliefs, taken from two tombs uncovered in 1965, are currently at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Britain and the Catholic University of Brussels. A request has been sent to both seeking their return, Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said in a statement.

Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he would cut off the Catholic University's excavation mission at a site in Deir al-Barsha, near the southern town of Minya, if the relief was not returned, and would suspend the Fitzwilliam Museum's "scientific relationship" with archaeologists working here if the British institution did not cooperate.

Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1894&e=2&u=/ap/20050717/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_antiquities

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Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he would cut off the Catholic University's excavation mission at a site in Deir al-Barsha, near the southern town of Minya, if the reliefs were not returned, and would suspend the Fitzwilliam Museum's ''scientific relationship'' with archeologists working here if the British institution did not cooperate. 'We need our history' ''We are not afraid of anything, anyone who makes a mistake should be punished. This is history. We need our history, and anyone who steals our artifacts has no place in Egypt,'' Hawass said.

The Fitzwilliam Museum said no one could comment Sunday. There was also no comment from the Catholic University.

The reliefs came from two tombs uncovered in 1965 in a necropolis next to the Stepped Pyramid at Saqqara, outside Cairo.

Chicago Sun Times

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-egypt18.html

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Australia has handed over to the Egyptian authorities several 2500-year-old antiquities at the centre of a smuggling racket. Police recovered the tomb artefacts as part of an investigation that has led to a prosecution in Egypt, a spokeswoman for the department of environment and heritage in Sydney said on Tuesday. The seven objects include small funerary statuettes (shabtis), a bronze axe head, a ceramic bowl and amulets.

"The smuggling ring came to light a couple of years ago and the items have been sought internationally since then," the spokeswoman said. "They were identified in March and seized by police." The identification took place in the Australian city of Melbourne.

She said no arrests had been made in Australia since the artefacts were smuggled out of Egypt under false papers as reproductions before being sold in Australia.

Aljazeera.net

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4EDD1A48-4AD7-4223-A5AF-6DC06A6E6B19.htm

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Ancient artefacts smuggled out of Egypt as part of a major antiquities scam were returned to Egyptian authorities on Tuesday after being discovered for sale on an Australian Internet auction site.

The seven funeral objects, dated to about 664 BC, included a small statue, amulets, an axe head and a bowl, and were part of a collection of 50,000 artefacts illegally taken out of Egypt two years ago.

Egypt's ambassador to Australia Mohamed Tawfik said the objects would be used as evidence in the trial of 10 people who were currently facing smuggling charges in Egypt.

Reuters.UK

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=9106258&section=news

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Ancient artefacts smuggled out of Egypt as part of a major antiquities scam were returned to Egyptian authorities on Tuesday after being discovered for sale on an Australian Internet auction site.

The seven funeral objects, dated to about 664 BC, included a small statue, amulets, an axe head and a bowl, and were part of a collection of 50,000 artefacts illegally taken out of Egypt two years ago.

Reuters UK

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=9106258&section=news&src=rss/uk/internetNews

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A piece of a valuable alabaster block stolen from a tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor in 1958 was posted back to officials almost 50 years after its disappearance, Egyptian antiquities authorities said on Tuesday.

The item, which is inscribed with hieroglyphics on one face and decorated with raised carvings on the other two faces, was returned to the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) on Monday following a letter from an American explaining the story behind its disappearance.

Jack A. Graves, a professor emeritus at California State University, sent a letter to head of the SCA Zahi Hawass in June saying that the item had been in the possession of a friend of his who had died a few months earlier. Before the man died, he gave Graves the piece. The man, the professor said, had felt guilty about having taking it during a visit to Egypt.

Iol

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=qw1121788262265B221

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3) Stories concerned with the current Tutankhamun show in the US

 

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, home to the nation's costliest art exhibition tickets, has raised the bar by offering a $75-a-person VIP ticket to "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," more than double the already controversial top price of $30. What does an extra $45 get you? Not relief from the crowds ogling the ancient treasures from Egyptian tombs, and no extras, not even a catalog. Instead, you gain access to a shorter line to get inside, and at any time on the chosen day. Buying a lower-priced ticket requires a specific time and puts you in a longer line — sometimes for an hour or more.

One hundred VIP tickets a day are available, even when regular tickets are sold out. But buy the special tickets online, through Ticketmaster, and you pay a $7.50 "convenience charge" plus a delivery fee of $2.50 by e-mail to $25 by UPS, bringing the total to between $85 and $107.50. No fees are added to tickets bought at the museum box office.

High-end arts aficionados think nothing of paying $100 and more for operas at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, but general admission to LACMA costs $9, and tickets to special shows usually top out at $20. People who go to art museums only for blockbusters such as Tut are likely to weigh the cost of a VIP ticket against a similarly priced all-day trip to Disneyland ($76 for ages 10 and older, and you can visit two parks) or a sports event at Staples Center. Tut ticket prices sparked an art-world controversy when the peak was $30, a new high for an art exhibition in the U.S.

LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tut14jul14,1,2203981.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

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A mega-exhibition dubbed Tut II, touring the United States, may come to Australia in a gesture of goodwill, after some smuggled Egyptian artefacts which turned up for auction in Melbourne were returned this week. More than 25 years ago, a Tut show of half this size caused mummy mania and kicked off a blockbuster trend in museums. The new Tut show, now in Los Angeles, has stirred new controversy because it is a fundraiser for the Egyptian Government, mounted with an American sports and entertainment promoter, AEG.

That company has put up $US40 million ($53.2 million), which will go to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities for a new Grand Museum in Cairo. It is banking on the $US30-a-ticket draw of 130 glittering antiquities - 50 are from King Tut's tomb, including the gold crown excavated with his mummified body.

Still, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art refused the exhibition. Its director, Philippe de Montebello, reportedly said: "It's not worth the cost, the hassle, the difficulty of setting up the whole infrastructure."

Fairfax Digital

http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/chance-for-tut-tour-as-goodwill/2005/07/20/1121539032809.html?oneclick=true

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We came not to find out why he died, although experts disagree on the cause of his demise, but to marvel at the stuff he took with him as presented by National Geographic. We were among thousands who bought $25 tickets for the opportunity to see objects so invaluable as to boggle the mind.

Or at least that's what we'd been led to believe by the impressive advertisements that heralded the arrival of "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." It was one of those exhibitions that conscientious parents force their children to endure. Alas, the great Tut sales pitch was only partly true.

The exhibition had its strengths, especially if you were among the schoolchildren present who'd obviously chosen Tut as a term paper subject, but the show was overrun with onlookers jockeying for a gander at the smaller-than-life artifacts. I'll wait a dozen lifetimes for my next glimpse of the little guy's knickknacks.

Las Vegas Review Journal

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jul-10-Sun-2005/news/26856930.html

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Egypt's boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun, has returned to the United States on a four-city, 27-month tour starting in Los Angeles and ending in Philadelphia. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" opened June 15 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and will remain there until the middle of November.

The exhibit includes more than 130 objects that span 250 years. Only 13 of these artifacts are repeats from the last Tut tour in the 1970s, and most have never left Egypt before.

These objects represent not only the riches of Egypt but also the transition of the empire's politics, art and religion, Kathlyn Cooney said. "This exhibit has a difference emphasis — focusing on context rather than beauty and gold." Not that the artifacts aren't exquisite. "We just hope that it's less about the stuff, and more about history and culture and what North Africa was about during the 18th Dynasty," she said.

Deseret News

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600146473,00.html

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Let the art-world moralists worry about the Los Angeles County Museum of Art selling its birthright for a mess of King Tut pottage. All we can think about is the fantastic Tut-styled tissue box cover on sale in the exhibition gift shop! Priced at $24.95, the impeccably styled plastic replica is based on the boy-king’s gold-and-royal-blue sarcophagus, with the tissues emerging from a discreet opening positioned between his nose and his mouth. It can be purchased online at the special website for the show, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs."

LACMA curators have effectively left the building to make way for a prepackaged blockbuster put together by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and National Geographic along with two decidedly profit-making entities, AEG LIVE, the world’s second largest rock concert promoter, and Arts and Exhibitions International, a company run by former Clear Channel exec John Norman that has previously organized shows about the Titanic and Princess Diana, among others. The profit-maximizing approach may well be the wave of the future. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which opened an 18-month tour at LACMA, June 16-Nov. 15, 2005, got off to a rip-roaring start, grossing $400,000 in its first month.

ArtNet

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews07-20-05.asp

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There's something intoxicating about gold. It has lured humans to the brink of insanity during the Gold Rush, caused people to hoard it, commit murder for it, and inspired some -- such as King Tutankhamen -- to place it in their burial chambers, dispelling the notion that "you can't take it with you."

Aside from the wealth it imparts, we are attracted to its dazzling shine. No wonder legions of enthusiasts are drawn to "The Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibit that opened four weeks ago at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

However, Thomas Logan, former associate curator for the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- who packed up and brought the first Tut show to American soil in 1976, knows all that glitters is not gold. He just returned from Turkey, where he visited King Midas' tomb and discovered that everything inside was brass and bronze.

Monterey Herald.com

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/entertainment/12154883.htm

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How to beat the crowds for tickets to King Tut

Egypt's fabulous King Tut exhibit is back, bigger than ever—and more expensive. The exhibition will show at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art through Nov. 15; at the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art, Dec. 15 through April 23, 2006; at Chicago's Field Museum May 26 through Jan. 1, 2007, and at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, Feb. 3 through Sept. 30, 2007. The Los Angeles exhibit has already opened, and ticket sales have begun for Ft. Lauderdale; the box offices will open soon for Chicago, later for Philadelphia. Some ideas for beating those crowds:

Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-g1i1u5j1u.25jul17,1,7413459.story?coll=chi-travel-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

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What's remarkable about the Tut show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, for which the museum has effectively sold its good name and gallery space to a for-profit company, is that people still find this arrangement shocking. Outrageous? Sure. It's an abdication of responsibility, integrity, standards. But it's becoming the norm in the United States.

Money rules. It always has, of course. But at cultural institutions today, it seems increasingly to corrupt ethics and undermine bedrock goals like preserving collections and upholding the public interest. Curators are no longer making decisions. Rich collectors, shortsighted directors and outside commercial interests are. When the New York Public Library traded away one of the city's great civic treasures, Asher B. Durand's "Kindred Spirits," in a closed auction for $35 million, the library's curators didn't find out about the sale until hours before the public read about it in the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Museum has entered into an arrangement even more problematic than the one for the King Tut show. Tut, after all, will come and go. But the museum is making more lasting plans with the billionaire contemporary art collector Eli Broad, letting him build a museum that he can oversee, with his name on it, on museum property - on public, tax-free land. Los Angeles County will then pay to maintain it.

International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/15/news/museum.php

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Many of you will have heard of the current US tour of exhibits from the tomb of King Tutankhamun, and noticed the acres of press coverage that the boy king has received. Over recent weeks, banner headlines such as “King Tut Reigns Again” and “King Tut Mania Alive and Well,” live telecasts from Egypt and other Tut-related hoopla have blanketed US media. So what is the story behind the story? Weren’t we told that the priceless treasures of King Tut would never leave Egypt again after a 1981 accident in which a figure of the goddess Selket from Tutankhamun’s tomb was damaged while on tour in Germany? What has changed in the last 20 years?

When the antiquities museum in Basel, Switzerland, requested a tour, which eventually opened in April 2004, it had a bit of leverage in that Swiss citizens made up over half the casualties of the 1997 Luxor massacre. However, many have suggested that it was the potential revenue that convinced Egypt to approve this tour.

By the time the exhibition left Basel it had attracted 620,000 visitors, while a further stop in Bonn drew upwards of 870,000. Together these showings raised about $15 million for Egypt’s treasury.

Cairo Magazine

http://www.cairomagazine.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=1117&format=html

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More than 25 years ago, a Tut show of half this size caused mummy mania and kicked off a blockbuster trend in museums.

The new Tut show, now in Los Angeles, has stirred new controversy because it is a fundraiser for the Egyptian Government, mounted with an American sports and entertainment promoter, AEG.

That company has put up $US40 million ($53.2 million), which will go to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities for a new Grand Museum in Cairo. It is banking on the $US30-a-ticket draw of 130 glittering antiquities - 50 are from King Tut's tomb, including the gold crown excavated with his mummified body.

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Still, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art refused the exhibition. Its director, Philippe de Montebello, reportedly said: "It's not worth the cost, the hassle, the difficulty of setting up the whole infrastructure."

SMH.com.au

http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/chance-for-tut-tour-as-goodwill/2005/07/20/1121539032809.html?oneclick=true

 

 

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4) Other Tutankhamun related items

 

He has been buried for 3,000 years, dug up, manhandled, cut into pieces, X-rayed and displayed before the modern world. Can't we leave him in peace? Not any time soon. Scientists still have much to learn from the ancient Egyptian king and continue to study his physiology, cause of death and what he may have looked like.

Using three-dimensional computerized tomography-scan imaging, a team of researchers from the United States and Egypt recently made 1,700 high-resolution cross sections of the pharaoh's bones, teeth and skull. The effort is part of a five-year conservation project to preserve not only King Tutankhamen, but also most of Egypt's known mummies. Tut suddenly is revealing a great deal, said John Bredar, executive producer of a documentary, King Tut's Final Secrets, recently broadcast on the National Geographic Channel.

"Tut was kind of a tired subject, and the CT technology completely brings him back to life," he said. "Now, we have a new tool and a new way to look at Tut."

Times Dispatch.com

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_
BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783956101&path=!health!healthology&s=1045855935235

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Myths about the “Curse of Pharaoh” took shape around the 7th Century when the Arabs landed in Egypt. They were incapable of deciphering the ancient Hieroglyphics so many things appeared bizarre and obscure. They associated almost everything with Black Magic and the supernatural. There was a popular belief that if one entered a tomb and chanted a magical formula they would be able to visualise objects made invisible by the ancient Egyptians. They believed that the Egyptians protected their tombs by occult means (i.e. curses on anyone who entered).

The most celebrated story occurred in 1923 when Howard Carter discovered King Tutankhamen’s tomb. It is said that the curse of Tutankhamen befell on all who opened king Tut’s tomb. “Death Shall Come on Swift Wings To Him Who Disturbs the Peace of the King...” said the curse.

Lord Carnarvon who died a mysterious death from some infection caused by an insect bite. Stories say that at the hour of his death there was a short power failure and all the lights went out in Cairo. Back on his estate in England his favourite dog growled and suddenly dropped dead.

The Statesman

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=18&theme=&usrsess=1&id=83071

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5) Nefertiti’s new home

 

Renovation work continues on the galleries of Berlin's Museum Island, located between the River Spree and Kupfergraben.

The first to get a makeover was the Old National Gallery, which reopened in 2001. Work is now under way on the Bode Museum, the neo-baroque home of Byzantine art. It is scheduled to reopen to the public next year.

A refreshed Neues Museum -- its Egyptian collection includes the famous limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti -- will debut in 2009 with a glass skin preserving its classic façade.

Globe and Mail.com

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050716.wxgtrot0716a/BNStory/specialTravel/

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One of art history's most beautiful women is moving to a new address this summer, marking the reunification of the Berlin Egyptian Museum's fabulous collection after more than six decades of division.

The exquisite limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti forms the focal point of the collection, which re-opens to the public on August 13 in its new-old home at Berlin's Museum Island complex in the heart of the German capital.

The grand re-opening culminates 15 years of painstaking restoration work, museum renovations and cataloguing of the collection, which was split up for safekeeping during World War 2 and which languished in minimal exhibition spaces in both halves of the divided city - until now.

IOL

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=418&art_id=qw1121747766793T614

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For Westerners, the center of Berlin suddenly shifted east when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The geographic heart of the metropolis still lies in the bohemian neighborhood of Kreuzberg, with its big, loft-like apartments and sometimes raucous night life. But reunification of East and West has meant that the city's spiritual core has returned to Museumsinsel — Museum Island — a spot of land in the Spree River that is home to an array of seminal art museums stuffed with astounding collections. Nearby, the once drab East Berlin neighborhood around Auguststrasse, just a short walk across the river, has metamorphosed into the liveliest contemporary gallery scene in Europe.

Freewheeling Weimar liberalism, unspeakable fascist barbarism and the kabuki dance of Cold War posturing — evidence of the city's last century lingers around every street corner. Today a new, not yet fully defined profile is being added. The new Berlin seeks to come to terms with Germany's dark past while building on its better self to emerge as an incomparable cultural capital. The city is in the throes of growing pains, with all the excitement — and anxiety — that assertive urban evolution entails.

For this art critic, surprises were in store. The amazing mix of great historical art museums, ambitious contemporary galleries and eager young artists now flocking here for inexpensive studio space has put Berlin in an enviable, even unrivaled position.

Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-berlin24jul24,1,3771175.story?coll=la-travel-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

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6) Hawass and the Egyptian Museum’s basement

 

I have always dug in the sand, and this is where I have made my most important discoveries -- such as the Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariya Oasis, and the Tombs of the Pyramid Builders at Giza. But recently I have become interested in digging in a new place, a place without sand -- the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There is a maze of corridors lying under the museum. For decades, no one knew what was hidden down there: boxes of all sorts of treasures discovered by foreign and Egyptian expeditions were brought in and stored over the years, without proper recording of the artefacts. There were objects of stone and wood, mummies, and even objects made of precious metal. But no one knew exactly what was there. It became known among scholars that if anything was sent to the basement it would be lost forever.

At the beginning of my career I excavated at Kom Abu Billo, an important site in the Delta. I worked there for nine years, from 1970 until 1979. We discovered a great cemetery of the Graeco-Roman period: many of the people interred were devotees of the goddess Isis- Aphrodite, the Egyptian-Greek goddess of beauty and love. Near the cemetery was a temple to the god Apollo. We had begun excavations at this site because a grand canal, five kilometres-long, was being cut through the desert, so we had to excavate along its designated route. Each year I took a truck full of boxes packed with jewellery -- especially bracelets -- and gold amulets, stelae, and 12 beautiful statues of the goddess Isis-Aphrodite.

When I came to Cairo much later I tried to find these artefacts in the museum, but no one could tell me where they were. So when I became head of Egypt's Antiquities Service in 2002, which coincided with the centennial of the museum, I decided to deal with this issue. I asked the curators at the museum to begin cleaning the basement and opening the boxes to see what lay inside. We cleaned out several basement galleries on the west side of the museum and turned it into an exhibition area. The first exhibition held here was of treasures found in the basement, along with objects from storerooms around the country and exhibits from the overcrowded showcases in the museum. We called the exhibition, which contained about 250 objects, "Hidden Treasures", and it was a great success.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/751/hr2.htm

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7) Warnings of dire environmental changes in Egypt

 

Millions of Egyptians could be forced to migrate from the Nile Delta due to the effects of climate change, according to a report published last month by the Ministry for Environmental Affairs. In the next 50 years, Egypt’s coastal zone, home to more than 40 percent of the population, stands to be severely damaged by flooding, groundwater salinity and erosion resulting from rising sea levels associated with global warming. Compiled by numerous research institutions and commissioned by the State Ministry for Environmental Affairs, the report forecasts a rise in sea level of approximately 50 centimeters by 2050, based on official figures from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. Such a rise could potentially create as many as 14 million internally displaced persons as increased groundwater salinity and land deterioration make residents’ living situation untenable.

The areas at highest risk of damage are highly populated industrial and commercial centers, including Alexandria, Port Said, Damietta and Rosetta. With about 40 percent of all Egyptian industry located within the governorate of Alexandria, the predicted environmental impact could have dire socio-economic repercussions.

Researchers cited in the report estimate that if no action is taken to reduce global warming, rising seas will displace nearly 1.5 million people in the governorate of Alexandria alone.

Cairo Magazine

http://www.cairomagazine.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=1169&format=html

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8) Canadian government travel warnings for Egypt

 

Foreign Affairs Canada advises against all travel to the region(s) specified below. (IDW5)

You are advised against all travel to the Egypt-Gaza border area due to the violence in Gaza. Travellers should consult the Travel Report for Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza for further information.

On July 23, 2005, several large explosions occurred at the tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheik and at hotels at nearby Naama Bay on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. At least 40 people were killed and about 100 were injured in these apparent terrorist attacks. On April 30, 2005, three assailants attacked tourists in two separate incidents in Cairo. The first attack was carried out by a suicide bomber near the Egypt Museum. The second attack involved two assailants firing shots, unsuccessfully, at a bus carrying tourists. The three assailants were killed and eight people were injured, including four foreigners. On April 7, 2005, an explosion occurred in the central historic area of Cairo killing four people and injuring at least 18 others.

The risk of possible terrorist attacks in areas frequented by Westerners or tourists exists, and we cannot rule out further such attacks in Egypt. Canadians in Egypt should exercise extreme caution and maintain vigilance, especially in commercial establishments, government facilities and public areas, including tourist sites and other areas frequented by foreigners. On October 7, 2004, explosions occurred at three popular resorts on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. At least 26 people were killed and many more injured. As these explosions demonstrate, security incidents can occur without warning. Canadians in Egypt should maintain a high level of personal security awareness at all times and in all places. This advice is being kept under review as the situation warrants.

TravelVideo.TV

http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=6107_0_1_0_M12

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9) Development plans for the Egyptian Sinai

 

The Supreme Council of Antiquities has launched an LE10 million project to upgrade the temple of Serabit Al-Khadem and the nearby turquoise mines in Sinai for what is loosely called "safari tourism". The vagueness of the term is disquieting. "Safari" suggests excursions, either by camel caravan or four-wheel drive; "tourism" brings to mind paved roads and a visitors' centre; while upgrading a temple leads one to suspect an attempt at reconstruction -- a difficult and totally unnecessary exercise.

At this early stage, Al-Ahram Weekly appeals to the project planners to give serious consideration to minimum intervention in the Ancient Egyptian temple, limited intrusion on the environment, and to consider taking advantage of this unique opportunity to present the divergent and overlapping cultures of central Sinai.

Few places on earth have played so decisive a role in the history of mighty nations as this triangular peninsula that juts into the northern end of the Red Sea. Before the construction of the Suez Canal it provided a land-bridge to western Asia. As such it saw the passage, along the "Way of Horus", of the Pharaohs' armies to and from the Levant, the Assyrian hordes, the Persian army of Cambyses, Alexander the Great with his mercenaries, Antiochus and the Roman legions, the Arab army of 'Amr, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/751/hr1.htm

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10) Egyptian exhibition plans for Tokyo

 

The Mainichi Newspapers will host the "Ancient Egyptian Exhibition: Mysteries through Five Millennia," in collaboration with Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc and Toei Co., Ltd. from July 28 to Aug. 28.

It has been approximately 5,000 years since the first Egyptian dynasty was born by the side of the Nile. The ancient Egyptian civilization was well established, governed by a living god Pharaoh at the top of its political system. Hieroglyphs were already being used as a written language.

This exhibition traces back through ancient Egyptian history and thought, introducing the Egyptian collection of the Hildesheim Museum in Germany. On display are over relics of the ancient Egyptian civilization, including a gilded mummy mask and colored wooden coffin.

Mainichi Daily News

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entertainment/japanofile/news/20050701p2g00m0et019000c.html

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11) Behind those doors in the Great Pyramid

 

For years scholars have believed that the pyramid of King Khufu, largest of the three "great" pyramids at Giza, had been plundered in antiquity and everything of value, including the body of Khufu himself, had been removed. Now, Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and director of the Giza Plateau, suspects that might not be the case.

"I really personally believe," he recently told a sold-out lecture hall in the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, "that the secret chamber of Khufu is hidden inside the pyramid."

What changed his mind was the discovery of a set of previously unknown doors, hidden in the shafts of the so-called "queen's chamber" of the Great Pyramid. Located beneath the "grand gallery," the queen's chamber never housed a queen, and in fact, its exact purpose remains unknown. There is some speculation that it was an abandoned burial chamber, or possibly held offerings for the deceased.

Daily Star

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=16740

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12) Problems for travelers at the Cairo Airport

 

Airport officials began banning most vehicles from driving up to Terminal 2 10 days ago. Instead, departing and arriving passengers must take a shuttle bus from a temporary car park for the two-kilometre ride to the terminal. The measure was meant to reduce crowds while construction progresses on a brand new terminal that the government promises will finally bring Cairo's main gateway up to par with international airport standards.

Cairo Airport's Terminal 3 is being built by TAV Hol, a Turkish company, at a cost of $350 million, of which $280 million in loans were provided by the World Bank.

Airlines and tour operators have filed complaints with Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq, claiming that their business had been affected by the Terminal 2 traffic ban. After following the situation for several days, Shafiq and the airport authorities have taken several steps that they hope will resolve some of the problems. For one, EgyptAir's domestic flights to Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh were moved to Terminal 1 (where vehicle traffic is flowing as always), thus reducing Terminal 2's traffic by 600,000 passengers a year. The rules were then changed to allow limousines, tour buses, handicapped vehicles and ambulances to drive up to Terminal 2.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/751/eg9.htm

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13) Sand castles and other Egyptian themes in Brighton, England

 

They stand up to 45ft tall and are a cut above your run-of-the-mill seaside sand castles. The ornate works, recreating ancient Egypt in 10,000 tons of sand imported from Holland, will feature in Britain's first festival of sand sculptures, which opens in Brighton tomorrow.

Final touches to the sculptures, which include the pyramids, the tombs of Rameses II and Tutankhamen, temples and sphinxes, were being made yesterday.

Made from water and special sand from the River Maas, the sculptures are being created by artists from Russia, America, Germany, Ireland and France.

News.telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/13/npyram13.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/13/ixhome.html

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An artist works on a sand sculpture at Brighton Marina

The wonders of Egypt are being recreated on the South Coast by 60 artists from around the world in a summer-long sand sculpture festival.

Nearly 10,000 tons - 500 lorry loads - of special sand has been shipped from Holland to Brighton Marina for the festival, which lasts until September.

Keeping to the Egyptian theme, the artists will create sculptures of the pyramids, Rameses II and Tutankhamen. The highest pyramid, made entirely with sand and water, will reach 15m (45ft).

BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4672583.stm

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14) Cities (built by Hollywood) buried in the sand

 

Hollywood established its presence here by building one of the most lavish movie sets ever: a replica of ancient Egypt for Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 silent version of "The Ten Commandments." When filming was over, the set vanished, presumably dragged off the dunes, taken to Hollywood and forgotten as sound stages and on-location filming rendered things such as fake, 5-ton sphinxes and 35-foot statues of the Pharaoh Ramses obsolete.

The story begins with Brosnan, a 52-year-old Brooklyn native, chatting with a fellow film buff 22 years ago. "He told me a crazy story about a guy burying sphinxes in California," said Brosnan, who lives in Los Angeles and who, for the record, is no relation to actor Pierce Brosnan. His parents live in Port Jefferson.

The excavation effort has its own Web site, www.lostcitydemille.com, and skeptics can view chunks of the set at the Dunes Center in downtown Guadalupe. There, a lion's face and a sphinx's foot sit in a display case, along with smaller pieces uncovered naturally by sand shifts or salvaged by Brosnan.

NY Newsday.com

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usfilm264338166jul10,0,5566110.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

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15) Studies on sources of ancient Egyptian glass

 

Archaeologists have uncovered for the first time the remains of a Bronze Age glass factory, where skilled artisans made glass from its raw materials. Surprisingly, this factory, which was bustling around 1250 B.C., is in Egypt rather than Mesopotamia, which is generally thought to be where glass was first made.

Glass was extremely valuable during the Bronze Age, so this discovery implies that Egypt may have enjoyed more clout than was previously thought as a producer of this sought-after substance.

The oldest-known glass artifacts of consistently high quality date back to approximately 1500 B.C. These may have been made in Mesopotamia.

“But this is the first place that we have been able to put our fingers on and say, ‘Here it was and this is how they did it,’” said Thilo Rehren of University College London in London. “Until now we have only seen the final products of the glassmaking process, and nothing showing the level of skill and organization in which it was done.”

MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8221331/

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16) Antiquity and Tourism Report from Egypt

 

An American-Egyptian team working on the site of ancient Nekhen -- known in Greek times as Hierakonpolis -- near the Upper Egyptian city of Edfu has found what is believed to be the largest pre-dynastic funerary complex ever found. This major discovery, which dates back to the period identified as Naqada II (c. 3600 BC), is expected to cast more light on the period when Egypt was first developing into a nation.

Although the tomb and its surroundings were severely plundered in antiquity, the excavators have unearthed four bodies in situ on the stone floor at the tomb's western end. No grave goods or matting were found with the bodies, which were in a very poor state of preservation.

A shallow subsidiary tomb found within the enclosure wall of the funerary complex may be a later addition, but is definitely associated with the main tomb. It houses the well-preserved remains of three adults as well as a large quantity of textiles used to wrap and pad the deceased before covering them with another, thicker layer of matting.

(Followed by numerous other site and find announcements)

Travel Video.tv

http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=5872_0_1_0_M12

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17) Egypt desert may be added to heritage shelter list

 

 

Norway’s Gerangerfjord and Naeroyfjord, and Egypt’s Wadi Al-Hitan, or Whale Valley — are among eight it has recommended for approval at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in South Africa next week. The IUCN, or World Conservation Union, which plays a major role in proposing sites to be added to 788 already on the global list, said other areas included India’s Valley of Flowers National Park, home to endangered animals like the snow leopard. Coastal and marine areas feature prominently in this year’s list of proposals, which also include the Shiretoko Peninsula located in Japan‘s northernmost island of Hokkaido.

“It has particular global importance for marine and terrestrial species,” the IUCN said. “It also boasts the highest recorded densities of brown bear populations in the world.”

The governments on whose territory world heritage sites — both cultural and natural — are located are obliged, under a 1972 United Nation (UN) convention, to ensure their long-term protection and prevent any development that could damage them. Thailand’s rugged and mountainous Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest is another candidate.

Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1166736.cms

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18) Knights may have traveled beneath Cairo citadel

 

 

Egyptian authorities announced on Monday the discovery at Cairo's citadel of an underground passageway tall enough to accommodate a mounted horseman. The 150-metre-long tunnel, the longest of several beneath the citadel, was found in the vicinity of the 19th century Mohamed Ali mosque in the course of a project to drain off groundwater from under the compound.

The Cairo Citadel dates to the 12th century. The much newer Mohamed Ali mosque, one of several buildings on the compound, is a major Cairo landmark visible from several vantage points around the city.

The narrow passageway, which runs three to seven metres beneath the ground at different points along its length, appears to have connected palaces dating to the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

Iol

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=qw1121092021914B221

 

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19) The Agriculture Museum in Cairo

 

Agriculture has played a major role in the Egyptian history and always affected the lives of Egyptians from the days of the pharaohs up to our modern time. There is much truth in the famous saying: “Egypt is the gift of the Nile”. This is because the Nile is the major source of water used in agriculture in Egypt. Therefore, because of agriculture's ancient and continuing importance to Egyptian life, during the 1930s the Egyptian government decided to build an agriculture museum. The museum was built during the period of King Farouk to mainly serve two purposes. These are to provide information agricultural and economic knowledge and to record the history of agriculture over a long period that extends form prehistoric to modern times.

The palace of Princess Fatma, daughter of Khedive Ismail, was chosen to house the museum in November, 1930. The Ministry of Agriculture made a lot of changes in the palace to make it suitable as a museum. The museum was first opened on 16 January 1938 and was the first museum of this kind in the world.

The facade of the old palace was adorned with engravings and other decorative designs of plants and animals, and additional buildings, all designed in the style of the original palace, were constructed to serve various functions. The grounds of the museum are huge, covering about 125 thousand square meters. The actual buildings occupy 20 thousand square meters. More than 15% of this space is occupied with gardens that contain a lot of different flowers and plants, including trees, bushes, rare plants, green areas and greenhouses, in addition to two pharaonic gardens. It also has a cinema hall, a lecture hall, a library, laboratories for reparation, maintenance, embalming, preserving and storing.

Tour Egypt

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

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20) Book review: The Third Translation : A Novel

 

One has seen a plethora of books dealing with real or imagined ancient mysteries, from the Da Vinci Code to the Rule of Four. I found the Rule of Four an intereresting read, given that it dealt with a very real mystery, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. I was delighted to find the Milwaukee Central Library actually had an original copy of this Renaissance manuscript.

The Third Translation deals with another ancient mystery manuscript, or stela in this case, the Stela of Paser. This is a hymn to the Egyptian Goddess Mut, from Karnak at Thebes, Egypt, dating back to about 1150 pre-C.E. The hieroglyphs are laid out on a grid, crossword like, allowing both horizontal and vertical interpretations. The mystery, yet unsolved, lies in the notation at the top of the Stela, that there are 'three ways' of reading the inscription. Much analysis and theory has been spent in finding the 'third translation'.

Dan Brown, or many other authors, would perhaps have used this as a springboard to reveal a secret conspiracy passed down the ages, one enveloping everyone from Yves St Laurent to Michelangelo. While Matt Bondurant does introduce a conspiracy, involving a modern-day cult dedicated to restoring Aten/Amun, it is not a conspiracy of the grandiose sort, made up instead of giant wrestlers, 'Krishnas' who turn out to be a group of 'Saudi and Egyptian Muslims operating some kind of stolen-artifacts ring to support extremist groups', and a half-mad, deranged collector of antiquities named Oldcastle.

BlogCritis.org

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/25/161701.php

 

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21) Exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina

 

Private collections of Egyptian antiquities are rare in the United States. There are only two or three such collections in the Southeast, according to Peter Lacovara, the curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art at Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta.

About 90 works from one such collection recently went on view at Charlotte's Mint Museum of Art in a similarly rare exhibition titled "Ancient Egyptian Art for the Afterlife." Among these works are mummy boards, scarabs, ceremonial vessels and figurines representing deities and servants. These objects were interred with the mummified remains of socially prominent Egyptians over a period of about 3,000 years ending with the first century A.D. Later they were uncovered and traded on the international market, where they eventually found their way into the hands of a Charlotte lawyer who lent them anonymously to the Mint.

Lacovara, who helped organize the exhibition and wrote an essay for the accompanying brochure, said in a recent telephone interview that he has known the collector for several years. He said that the collection was assembled over the past eight years by a discerning eye and consists of beautiful, high-quality examples of Egyptian art. It's not unusual, for reasons of security and privacy, for antiquities collectors to request anonymity in lending works for museum exhibits.

Winston Salem Journal

http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_RelishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784003843