Archive for June, 2008

This story is about the recovery of a 2,500 year old stone relief looted from Luxor in 1969 but I find the second story about two human skulls dating back to Egypt’s Greek-Roman era more interesting. Egypt retrieved a 2,500-year-old limestone relief from London after its sale was blocked by Bonhams auction house there because... »

Pumice, a lightweight volcanic rock,  was used in ancient times as a cosmetic remedy and also as an abrasive. A product of high demand, it unleashed an intense commercial activity among Egyptian, Syrian, Minoan and other Mediterranean cultures. In Egypt, pumice has been found in ancient workshops. In some of the excavations, there was... »

Egypt gives up more secrets from its past as archaeologists use forensic science to unravel the genetic makeup of mummies in the docudrama “Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs,” showing at the Detroit Science Center’s IMAX Dome Theatre. Famed Egyptologist/archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist Bob Brier and ancient DNA scientist Angelique Corthals appear in the film, while... »

Assem Deif is writer is a professor of mathematics at Cairo University and Misr University for Science and Technology. This is a brief excerpt from an article on the star Sirius and its significance to ancient Egyptians and other cultures. When the star (Sirius) begins to flicker low on the horizon (before sunrise) it marks... »

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered several painted wooden coffins and statues at the Saqqara necropolis. The vast cemetery dates back to 2700 BC from the time of Djoser and was continuously used until the Roman period, three millenniums later. “Some coloured unopened coffins dating back to the sixth century BC were found as well as some... »

Following the success of the first U.S. tour, which drew nearly 4 million visitors and broke records at each of the four museums it visited from June 2005 through September 2007, “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” will return from its current London engagement to open at the Dallas Museum of Art... »

In celebration of the Summer Solstice. May we all live in Maat. Splendid You rise in the lightland of the sky, O living Aten, creator of life! You have dawned in the eastern lightland. You fill every land with ... »

The ancient Egyptian’s secret to making the strongest of all rigging ropes lies in a tangle of cord coils in a cave found in a hand-hewn cave at the ancient Red Sea port of Marsa Gawasis, 23 kilometers (14 miles) south of Safaga. Discovered three years ago by archaeologists Rodolfo Fattovich of the Oriental Studies... »

A History of Egypt: From earliest times to the present, Jason Thompson, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2008. pp383, 2 maps, 80 b/w photos With his new book, Jason Thompson attempts the ambitious task of covering the entire span of Egyptian history from its earliest settlers to the present day. This is the... »

Dr. Kara Cooney is an Egyptian art and archaeology expert. She earned her PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Johns Hopkins University in 2002. She has been part of major archaeological excavations in Egypt at the royal temple site of Dahshur, elite Theban tombs and the craftsmen’s village of Deir el Medina. She is... »