Last week's news from the EEF

Press report: "Fatwa against statues triggers uproar in Egypt"
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060403-043824-7630r
"A fatwa issued by Egypt's top religious authority that forbids the
display of statues has art-lovers fearing that it could be used by
Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypt's historical heritage."

Press report: "Mysterious depictions of elephants in the Egyptian oasis of Dakhla"
http://snipurl.com/oocf
[http://en.naukawpolsce.pl/naukaen/index.jsp?place=Lead07&news_cat_
id=269&news_id=4383&layout=2&page=text]
"A group of Poznan archaeologists has discovered new examples of cave
paintings dating back to the 7th millennium B.C. in Dakhla oasis, Egypt."
-- Another (Polish) report, which includes some photographs (however,
without the elephant drawings):
http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/gazeta/wydanie_060329/nauka/nauka_a_2.html
-- Results of earlier research: Michal Kobusiewicz, Romuald Schild,
Prehistoric Herdsmen, in: Academia. The Magazine of the Polish Academy of
Sciences, no. 3 [7], 2005, pp. 20-24 - pdf-file (770 KB)
http://www.pan.pl/academia/nr07/20-24%20kobusiewicz.pdf
"In the years 2001-2003, the Combined Prehistoric Expedition concentrated on
the newly-discovered ancient water body called Gebel Ramlah (Sandy Mountain)
Playa, located in the Egyptian portion of the Western Desert, some 130 km
directly west of Abu Simbel, near the Sudanese border ... the discovery of
three cemeteries accompanying such settlements, the first such sites ever to
have been encountered, proved to be a revelation ... Both the finds
unearthed at the cemeteries and the results of radiocarbon dating tests
indicate that human remains were buried here some 6,000 years ago ... The
exceptional wealth of the grave goods is striking ... One such slab was
shaped into the form of a fish. This sculpting is so accurate and realistic
that one archeozoologist, upon observing it, immediately identified the find
as depicting a _tilapia_ fish - a species very frequently encountered in the
Nile. This is the oldest known sculpture to have been discovered in Egypt."
Polish version: http://www.pan.pl/academia/PL/nr03/20-24kob.pdf
-- See also: Michal Kobusiewicz, Jacek KabaciNski, Romuald Schild, Joel D.
Irish, Fred Wendorf, Discovery of the first Neolithic cemetery in Egypt's
western desert, in: Antiquity, vol. 78, pp. 566-578 (2004)
abstract: http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/078/Ant0780566.htm


The KV63 diary page has been updated on April 2:
http://www.kv-63.com/pages/1/index.htm
Mostly about issues of organisation, but also a bit about Coffin A.
A lot of pictures have been added (March '06); see also the little
map "KV-63 tomb in relation to previously excavated Workmen's
Huts" in the pictures section.

Also the ARTP website has been updated, with "KV63 in
context - part VI":
http://www.valleyofthekings.org/vofk/default.htm
With a plea to not only look for artefacts but in case of sealed
tombs to also salvage the ancient environment (air samples, smells,
pollen, insects, microbes, dust).


Two online articles that appeared in: Deborah Lyons and
Raymond Westbrook (eds.), Women and Property in Ancient
Near Eastern and Mediterranean Societies, Center for Hellenic
Studies, 2005.
-- Annalisa Azzoni, "Women and Property in Persian Egypt and
Mesopotamia" (460kB)
http://www.chs.harvard.edu/_/File/_/women_property_azzoni.pdf
-- Betsy Bryan, "Property and the God's Wives of Amun" (322kB)
http://www.chs.harvard.edu/_/File/_/women_property_bryan.pdf
-- Table of Contents of the whole volume:
http://snipurl.com/oqbi
[http://www.chs.harvard.edu/activities_events.sec/conferences.ssp/
conference_women_property.pg]

In light of the Spanish discovery of a senet game board:
-- On the website of Dr Peter Piccione
http://www.cofc.edu/~piccione/research.html
you may find a PDF copy (710 kB) of his article "In Search of the
Meaning of Senet," Archaeology 33 (July/August l980): 55-58.
[Note that on the site there is also a reprint of his article
about another (ritual) game, "Pharaoh at the Bat," College of
Charleston Magazine 7/1 (Spring/Summer 2003): 36.]

End of EEF news