Saturday seems like a good day to round up the highlights of the latest news from the world of Egyptology. This was not an earth-shaking week.
The The Art Newspaper reports that the Supreme Council of Antiquities have asked the British Museum (London, U.K.) for the return, on three month loan, of the Rosetta Stone in 2010, when the Egyptian Grand Museum is opening to house Egypt's most important artefacts (currently in the disorganized and old fashioned Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo).
Saqqara Technologies have released the beta (trial) version of their new font set, which has been submitted to the World Wide Web committee for approval as a recognized font set, meeting the Committee's formal standards. For a more formal description see the Specification Page. For more details go to the EPGZ website.
For those of you who speak French, there's a nice piece on the CNRS website about the
School of Scribes at the Ramesseum in Luxor.
Quite a bit of interest seems to have been generated by the announcement that the search for the "true" mummy of Hatshepsut will be assisted with DNA testing. For anyone interested in seeing some of these discussions,
Donald Ryan discusses some of the evidence with respect to the identification of the mummy of Hatshepsut. Donald Ryan ( Donald P. Ryan, Ph.D., Division of Humanities, Pacific Lutheran University) rediscovered and documented KV 60 in the Valley of the Kings in 1989, and here he offers some clarifications on the discussion that has been taking place on that forum, including some history and the current state of play. His post is currently third from the bottom of the page.
Prensa Latina reports that the Cairo Islamic Art Museum is to re-open in December 2007 after a four year restoration.
Details of a new publication have been posted on the British Academy's website: Regime Change in the Ancient Near East and Egypt – From Sargon of Agade to Saddam, edited by Hussein Harriet Crawford (Proceedings of the British Academy No. 126). A contents listing with sample pages can be found on the British Academy website.
The Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente (
CEHAO), Argentine Catholic University, has published a paper from Volume 1 of its electronic Monograph Series on its website, with later additions to follow as these become available:
Centro y periferia en el mundo antiguo. El Negev y sus interacciones con Egipto, Asiria, y el Levante en la Edad del Hierro (1200-586 a.C.). By Juan Manuel Tebes. CEHAO Monograph Series Vol. 1, Buenos Aires, 2007. It is in Spanish, with maps, diagrams and photographs and is in PDF format.