This week's EEF news

Press report: "Satellite technology has more than doubled the number of ancient sites known in part of the Nile valley"
[scroll down the page]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,61-2037531,00.html
"The survey was carried out on the west bank of the Nile, opposite
the famous abandoned city of Tell el-Amarna or Akhetaten (..) A
sample area of 30km by 15km was chosen: Napoleon's survey of
1798 had noted 12 sites in the area, and by 2004 the number had
risen to only 23. (...) Dr Sarah Parcak used a combination of
different satellite images, including high-resolution photographs
taken in the 1960s and 1970s, when there was somewhat less
building development, and multispectral electronic images taken
by the Landsat 7 satellite in 2002. In addition the Quickbird
satellite, which has a pixel size of only 60cm (2ft) and allows
very detailed images to be constructed, was used on some sites,
including Akhetaten itself. "


Press report: "Out of Egypt. From a long-buried pyramid to
the Saint Louis Art Museum: The mysterious voyage of the Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask."
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2006-02-15/news/feature.html
Article of 10 pages about the discovery of the Saqqara Mask
by Mohammed Zakaria Goneim [3 pages, at beginning and
end of the article], and the subsequent wanderings of, and
controversies surrounding, this artefact. [Cp. the open letter
by Dr Hanna in EEFNEWS (393).] The above report says
that Dr Hawass did not comment on the affair, but this
other, much shorter, press report quotes him as saying:
"The SCA is now taking steps to launch an official
restitution request."

Yuval Goren, Shlomo Bunimovitz, Israel Finkelstein, and Nadav N'aman
"The Location of Alashiya: New Evidence from Petrographic Investigation
of Alashiyan Tablets from El-Amarna and Ugarit" in: AJA 107 no. 2 (2003)
pp. 233-55. Available online in PDF, 7.14 MB
http://www.ajaonline.org/index.php?ptype=content&aid=94
See also: "Provenance Study of Amarna Tablets", in Near Eastern
Archaeology 6500 (2002) pp.196-205, available in HTML:
http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/archaeology/projects/amarna.html
Based on the clay of Amarna letters, locations mentioned in
Egyptian sources, like Alashiya, Tunip, and others are located.

[Next three items submitted by Michael Tilgner]

Online version of: P. Martinetto, E. Dooryhee, M. Anne, J. Talabot, G.
Tsoucaris and Ph. Walter, Cosmetic Recipes and Make-up Manufacturing in
Ancient Egypt, in: ESRF [= European Synchrotron Radiation Facility]
Newsletter, no. 32, April 1999, pp. 10-11
HTML: http://www.esrf.fr/info/science/newsletter/apr99/dosexp/pagexper.htm
pdf-file (226 KB):
http://www.esrf.fr/info/science/newsletter/apr99/pdf/pages10to11.pdf
"Powder x-ray diffraction, carried out at the ESRF (BM16), was used to
elucidate the composition and the elaboration processes of the mineral
constituents of ancient Egyptian cosmetics."

Online version of: M. Uda, S. Sassa, S. Yoshimura, J. Kondo, M. Nakamura,
Y. Ban, H. Adachi, Yellow, red and blue pigments from ancient Egyptian
palace painted walls, in: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research B 161-163, pp. 758-761 (2000) - pdf-file (74 KB)
http://hbar.phys.msu.su/test/dating/egcolor.pdf
"Yellow, red and blue pigments from the painted walls of the Malqata palace,
founded by Amenhotep III, 18th Dynasty, were analyzed using PIXE and X-ray
diffraction (XRD). From most of the yellow, red and blue parts, goethite,
hematite and Egyptian blue, respectively, were found on the basis of
diffractometry results. From some yellow parts, As was detected together
with Fe spectroscopically, suggesting the use of orpiment as a yellow
pigment. The red pigment seems to be natural and not man-made. This
assumption is deduced from the dehydration experiment of a synthesized
goethite."

* Online version of: Karen Polinger Foster, Gardens of Eden: Exotic Flora
and Fauna in the Ancient Near East, in: Yale School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, Bulletin, no. 103: Transformations of Middle Eastern
Natural Environments: Legacies and Lessons, pp. 320-329 (1998) - pdf-file
(107 KB)
http://www.yale.edu/environment/publications/bulletin/103pdfs/103foster.pdf
"The idea of the garden began in the ancient Near East, in concert with the
origins and development of agriculture, urbanism, and imperialism. From the
start, exotic flora and fauna played vital roles in the world's earliest
transformations of the natural environment, creating physical and
metaphysical gardens of far-reaching significance. This paper examines
selected aspects of exotica in Mesopotamia and Egypt, drawing together
evidence from art, texts, and archaeology."