And now. . . .the news from the EEF
Press report: "Culture Minister announces start of restoration
of Zoser step pyramid"
http://snipurl.com/1f82g
[http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000001/
0203000000000000000733.htm]
Press report: "On site heroes"
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/838/he1.htm
"The SCA has marked a day of homage to those archaeologists
who spent their lives exploring, enriching, documenting and
preserving Egypt's heritage, (...) "The First Day of Archaeologists"
(..) From next year on, the day will be held annually on 14 January. :
Press report: "Show Me the Mummy. USC Orthodontist Investigates 2,000-Year-Old Girl"
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2007/04/02/health2/health04.tx
The mummy of a 4- or 5-year-old Egyptian girl in the Rosicrucian
Egyptian Museum in San Jose was examined by an orthodontis.
"Utilizing three-dimensional imaging software used in the School
of Dentistry's orthodontic clinic, Mah and Jack Choi of
Anatomage - manufacturer of the software - discovered tooth
fragments lodged in the throat and the nasal pharynx of the mummy."
Press report: "Hungarian archeologists to excavate
sites in Nile delta"
http://snipurl.com/1f7vu
[http://english.mti.hu/default.asp?menu=1&theme=2&cat=
25&newsid=237778]
"A team of ten Hungarian archeologists will soon begin
excavations at two sites in northern Egypt's Nile river delta,
(..) in June a tomb dating back to the 12th century BC and
a large archeological site in the middle of a village now called
Kom Truga, near Alexandria."
Article: "Joan of Arc's relics exposed as forgery.
Perfume experts help unmask remains as Egyptian mummy."
in: Nature, vol. 446 (April 5, 2007), p. 593
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070402/full/446593a.html
"The relics of St Joan of Arc are not the remains of the
fifteenth-century French heroine after all, according to European
experts who have analysed the sacred scraps. Instead, they
say the relics are a forgery, made from the remains of an
Egyptian mummy. A vanilla smell of the alleged remains from
Joan of Arc suggested natural decomposition, not burning."
Some more conventional tests were also done.
-- Some newspaper reports about this:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/04/04/joanofarc_his.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070404-joan-arc.html
"In medieval times and later, powdered mummy remains were
used as medicine "to treat stomach ailments, long or painful
periods, all blood problems."
Press report: "Ducks fly home"
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/838/eg9.htm
About the return to Egypt of two MK duck-shaped alabaster
food boxes. The article contains a color photo of one box.
[No, it is not the side-view of a beheaded&plucked duck --
it is a living duck seen from _above_.]
For a large photo of this very beautiful object, see:
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/SCA/artifacts_return_to_egypt.htm
Press report: "Say it with flowers. Pharaonic flowers
and funeral vases are the latest news from Luxor"
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/838/he2.htm
About the recent find in the tomb of Djehuty: 42 clay vases
and 42 flower bouquets., with details of the earlier
finds in the area (like Djehuty's wooden duck-hunting tablet
and the tomb of Hery).
Press report: "Egyptians Head To France To Get Stolen Mummy Hairs"
http://www.javno.com/en/lifestyle/clanak.php?id=31032
"Egypt sent an archaeological team to France on Thursday
to retrieve 3,200-year-old strands of hair from the mummy
of Pharaoh Ramses II." [cf. EEFNEWS (434)(447)]
-- Other (near identical) press reports on this:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10431639
http://english.people.com.cn/200703/30/eng20070330_362400.html
-- Another press report speaks of the arrival in Egypt on Monday:
http://snipurl.com/1f803
[http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070402-0316
-egypt-mummy.html]
Bernard V. Bothmer, Egypt 1950. My First Visit, edited
by Emma Swan Hall, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2003. xviii,
168 pp. - pdf-file (5.9 MB)
http://www.gizapyramids.org/pdf%20library/bothmer_diary_1950.pdf
"And then there is the Diary 1950, one of Mr. Bothmer's last
projects. He improved it as he went along and would have gone
further had time permitted. The Egypt he describes was very
different from what it is now. With a lot of help from the Egyptians
he met, he achieved a great deal. He kept the Diary every day
for three months, taking copious notes on sites and photographing
along the way. It is possible to see, aside from the hours of waiting
for transportation, by bus and by train, and having to suffer from
the winter weather, indoors and out, how triumphantly he fared
at every turn." (editor)
Clarence S. Fisher, The Minor Cemetery at Giza, University
Museum, Philadelphia, 1924. xxiii, 170 pp., 55 pls., 3 plans -
pdf-file (39 MB)
http://www.gizapyramids.org/pdf%20library/fisher_minor_cemetery.pdf
"This volume ... will record the results of the excavations made
from 1915 onward by the Eckley B. Coxe Junior Expedition. It deals
with the work done on a small area in the royal cemetery at Giza ...
Dr. Reisner suggested that the University Museum undertake the
clearing of a small area of the great Giza cemetery for which he
held the concession. The area available lay to the west and north
of a section of the royal cemetery already excavated by him. His
work had shown that probably here would be found tombs of
some of the smaller officials of the court of the Fourth to the
Sixth Dynasties."
Panagiotis I.M. Kousoulis, "Magic in Greco-Roman Egypt:
The Semiotics of a Gradual Interpenetration of Egyptian and
Greek Ritual Beliefs", in: Mediterranean Archaeology and
Archaeometry, Volume 2, No 2 (December 2002).
In PDF, 3,89 MB.
http://snipurl.com/1f80g
[http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/maa_journal/docs/volume
2%20No2%20Dec2002/kousoulis%20paper.pdf]
Ludwig D. Morenz, Apophis: On the Origin, Name, and
Nature of an Ancient Egyptian Anti-God, in: JNES, vol. 63,
pp. 201-205 (2004) - HTML, ps, pdf versions
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=doi:10.1086/424771
"Apophis is an impressive supernatural figure. This anti-god
and enemy of order surely deserves to be studied in a monograph.
Here, however, I offer a brief study of only some of his attributes."
[NB: Somehow the article was downloadable earlier this week,
but now it needs the usual subscription again. But you could
always try - perhaps the lucky moment may return. (The article
mainly deals with possible etymologies of the name Apophis.)]
End of EEF news