Painted blocks used in Osorkon II’s temple unearthed

French excavators working at the San El-Hagar archaeological site have unearthed hundreds of painted limestone blocks which were once used in the construction of the temple of the XXII dynasty king Osorkon II.

Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities, reported by Ahram Online, said studies on site showed these blocks were dismantled and reused in the construction of edifices during the Late Ancient Egyptian period and the Ptolemaic era.

Philip Brousseau, head of the French mission, claims the newly discovered blocks were reused in the construction of the enclosed wall of goddess Mut’s sacred lake, which the mission has been working hard to locate since last year. The lake is 30 meters in width, 12 meters long and six meters deep.

Colossal statue of Amenhotep III unearthed

A colossal statue of King Amenhotep III as been unearthed at his funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Egypt's Ministry of State for Antiquities.

Measuring 1.20 metres (3.9 feet) in height, the well-preserved face of the pharaoh has been described by antiquities minister Zahi Hawass as "a masterpiece of royal portraiture."

Finely carved in alabaster, a stone hewn in the quarries of Hatnub in Middle Egypt, the sculpture shows King Amenhotep III seated, wearing the Nemes headdress (a striped headcloth that pharaohs put on), a pleated kilt and a royal beard.

For more click HERE.

Head of Nefertiti embroiled in German court ruling on Egyptian artifacts

The legal complexities surrounding the University of Leipzig's Egyptology collection could become even more tangled, it seems.

Last week a German court ruled that the University of must hand over its collection of 150 Egyptian artifacts to the Jewish Claims Conference.

Among the objects are the Ebers Papyrus, a medical papyrus purchased by George Ebers, and a small limestone head of the queen Nefertiti, wife of the monotheistic king Akhenaten.

The University of Leipzig bought the ccollection in 1936 from a Jewish professor, Professor Georg Steindorff. The court said Steindorff had been forced to sell his collection under Nazi rule for a value far below its actual worth.

Now Leipzig residents are angry the museum would be losing its collection, and under this pressure the Leipzig University is to appeal against the court ruling.

Meanwhile, Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities, has sent an official letter to the Jewish Claims Conference - an umbrella alliance of 24 international Jewish organizations seeking compensation for Holocaust victims and their descendants - demanding restitution of these objects, and threatened to file a lawsuit against it before German and international courts if the JCC did not comply.

Georg Steindorff had held Leipzig's Egyptology chair and emigrated from Nazi Germany to the US where he died in 1951. The professor had collected the antiquities on research trips.

For more Click HERE

See: University must surrender collection of Egyptian antiquities

Hawass complains over BBC '17 lost pyramids' broadcast

It appears that Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Minister of State for Antiquities, is upset about media reports about how satellite infrared images had identified 17 lost pyramids and thousands of ancient Egyptian settlements.

“These anomalies could be anything: a house, a tomb, a temple or even geological features,” Hawass told Ahram Online.

Dr Hawass singled out the BBC for particular criticism over a radio broadcast. On Monday 30th May 2011 20:30 (BST), BBC1 will screen a new 90 minute documentary called Egypt's Lost Cities which will show how satellites probed beneath the sands, and found cities, temples and pyramids.

This will feature the work of Dr Sarah Parcak has pioneered space archaeology from a Nasa-sponsored laboratory at the University of Alabama in USA.

Dr Hawass maintains that satellite infrared images are only able to locate anomalies beneath the sand, which cannot be identified until archaeological research is carried out.

For his part, Harvey Lilley, a producer at the  BBC sent his apologies to Dr Hawass. He emailed: “Many apologies to you but this story was published before the official BBC press release was approved and released by us.... So as things stand I am not quite sure yet how the story broke without us doing you the courtesy of consulting you beforehand.”

Cleopatra in Cincinnati

More than 150 artifacts - that when combined together weigh over 30 tons - are showcased in Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt

until September 5 at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Cincinnati is one of only five stops that will feature the exhibit in the United States.

Of Greek descent, Cleopatra was handed the throne at the young age of 17. Ancient texts indicate that she was fluent in seven languages, including Egpytian, which established her as the first pharaoh of the Macedonian line to do so.

Thanks to the archaeological findings of Dr Zahi Hawass and Frank Goddio, both on land and underwater, two ancient cities have been recovered, and buried amidst the statues, jewellery and coins found are clues to the mysterious life of one of the most powerful women in history.

For more KYPost.com

US experts to help Egypt counter antiquities theft

Experts from the US are planning to visit Egypt to help the country's authorities plan counter measures to combat the problem of theft of antiquities.

Members of the delegation have not bee n names but news reports say they represent "major American institutions interested in protecting relics."

Included are several prominent experts who had submitted a petition urging the US administration to help prevent the potential trading of Egyptian antiquities in the US market.

A total of 1250 artifacts, stolen from museums and ministry stores during the "security vaccuum" that started during the 25 January revolution, have not yet been retrieved, according to Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass.

For more, see Al-Masry Al-Youm

Ahram Online: Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass met yesterday (Tuesday)  a group of American Egyptologists led by Deborah Lehr, director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University, to discuss ways of collaborating to protect Egypt’s heritage.

Suez National Museum opens Thursday

Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass will officially inaugurate the Suez National Museum this Thursday.

The LE42 million, the museum is 5,950 square metres in size and displays 1,500 artefacts that tell the story of the city of Suez from prehistoric to modern times.

The Suez museum displays archaeological artefacts, illustrations and maps that reveal the history of the Suez Canal beginning with the time of the canal’s ancient forerunner, the Sesostris Canal. This ancient canal was built during the reign of King Senusret III (1878-1840 BC) to link the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea via the River Nile. A colossus statue of the king is on show.

To see pictures of the new musem, click. HERE. 

Hawass to lecture in Reno

Dr Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, is due to give a lecture at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno, USA, on June 17. He will talk about his search for the tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Antony; excavations at the Valley of the Kings; and solving mysteries of Tutankhamun and Ramesses III.

For more see The Sacramento Bee.

Nefertiti bust: Egypt renews call for its return

Egypt is stepping up its campaign to ensure the iconic bust of Nefertiti, currently a prized exhibit in Neues Museum in Berlin, is returned to Egypt.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s minister for antiquities, is to send an official letter to the German government requesting the return of the Nefertiti bust.

German archeologists, led by Ludwig Borchardt, discovered the Nefertiti bust in 1912 in Amarna. The Egyptians maintain that the artefact was taken to Germany illegally. Dr Hawass said the letter he will include all documents confirming Egypt’s ownership of the bust.

Egypt would like the bust to exhibited in the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

“These documents are a statement to the whole world that the Nefertiti bust belongs to Egypt and not Germany,” Hawass said.

The Nefertiti bust is ranked first on a list of five important objects currently abroad that Egypt wants returned.

The others are the Rosetta Stone (British Museum, London); the statue of Hemiunnu, architect of the Great Pyramid (Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hilesheim); the Dendara Temple Zodiac (the Louvre, Paris); and the bust of Kephren's pyramid builder Ankhaf (Museum of Fine Arts in Boston).

Hawass has told reporters that an ancient Egyptian statue, illegally smuggled out of the country will return from Switzerland as well as the Ka Nefer mummy mask from the United States. This could happen next week.

 Ludwig Borchardt 

The Ka Nefer mummy mask: this could be returned to Egypt soon.

Four more artefacts are back in the Egyptian museum

Tourism and antiquities police have succeeded in retrieving four ancient Egyptian artefacts, two of which were reported missing from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

The criminals were caught ‘red-handed’, according to press reports.

Zahi Hawass, minister of state for antiquities affairs, assigned an archaeological committee headed by the Egyptian Museum Director, Tarek El-Awadi, to check on the authenticity of such pieces and whether they belong to the Egyptian museum.

Hawass told Ahram Online that the four bronze statutes date to the Late Period.

Egypt will help restore Iraqi antiquities, says Hawass

Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass has said that Egypt is ready to help Iraq recover stolen antiquities from other foreign countries and museums. According to news reports, Egypt over the past six months has restored about 5000 artifacts that were smuggled out of the country.

At the court of king Zahi

Just read an interesting profile of embattled Dr Zahi Hawass, undoubtedly the most famous archaeologist in the world. Like him or loathe him he seems to set to fight on against all his crtiics. “I did it all for Egypt,” he says.  See here

Hawass: Egypt antiquities chief faces jail time

News reports being carried by Al Jazeera and other agencies say Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt's minister for antiquities, has been sentenced to a year in jail after he refused to implement a court decision in a land dispute. The court on Sunday also fined him 10,000 Egyptian pounds (more than $1,600) in damages.

The sentence will be suspended until the appeal ruling.

Dr Hawass, who has reached international acclaim as an Egyptologist, said he would appeal the ruling and told journalists had the court's decision had not targeted him "personally".

Yesterday's court ruling concerned a complaint brought against Hawass when he was Egypt's antiquities chief under Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's ousted former president. Hawass was ordered to return the land to the plaintiff, but had allegedly refused to do so.

AFP: Egypt's antiquities chief to appeal jail term

Trend News Agency: Egyptian minister of antiquities sentenced for a year in jail

New York Times: Antiquities Official Sentenced in Egypt 

Hawass: Use him of lose him

Commenting in Science on the return of Dr Zahi Hawasss as Egypt's Antiquities Minister, National Geographic archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert says: "You can lose him or you can use him. He turned tourism into the number one industry for the country. You can say he's an egomaniac who doesn't let others speak, but he has put Egyptian archaeology on the front pages of newspapers around the world."

Hawass: Egypt's stolen artifacts must be returned

When the campaign to restore Egypt’s stolen antiquities first began, the world – particularly the archeological community – was surprised by the force of our call and insistence that our stolen artifacts and heritage be returned to us, writes Dr Zahi Hawass in Asharq Al-Awsat.

The initial rallying call for our antiquities to be returned to their homeland was made from the heart of the British Museum, after I was invited to give a lecture there.

After the lecture, the museum curator invited British intellectuals and several politicians to a dinner that was held in one of the museums halls, where I noticed that a number of Egyptian antiquities were on display. Such antiquities included the magnificent statue of King Ramses II, the greatest Egyptian pharaoh of them all, as well as a statue of King Tuthmosis III, who has been nicknamed the "Napoleon of Ancient Egypt" as he is credited with expanding the ancient Egyptian empire as far north as Anatolia and as far south as the fourth Cataract of the Nile [Dar al-Manasir].

Read more: Asharq Al-Awsat

Egyptian archaeologists discover statue of Tutankhamun's grandfather

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed part of a 3,000-year-old granite double statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamun. The statue has been excavated at Kom El-Hittan on the west bank of Luxor.

"The statue is one of the best new finds in the area because of its expert craftsmanship, which reflect the skills of the ancient Egyptian artisans," Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA),

Read more: Digital Journal

Luxor yields Amenhotep III statue PressTV

Pediamenopet's Curse

Pediamenopet was an Ancient Egyptian priest who built a tomb for himself in the region known as al-Asasif, west of Luxor, writes Dr Zahi Hawass. The tomb is known as Tomb 33 [TT33], and many myths and stories have emerged surrounding this tomb to the point that some archeologists even fear entering it. It is generally believed that Pediamenopet was one of the most important magicians in ancient Egypt, where witchcraft and magic was part of the ancient Egyptian priesthood.

Read more: Asharq Al-Awsat

Zahi Hawass headlines Ancient Mysteries Conference at Edgar Cayce's ARE

World-renowned archeologist and star of the History Channel series Chasing Mummies, Dr Zahi Hawass will headline ARE’s Annual Ancient Mysteries Conference: Dr. Zahi Hawass’ Secrets from the Sands October 8-10, at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. Dr. Hawass will show attendees the latest discoveries coming out of Egypt, and ancient mysteries expert John Van Auken will show the latest updates in the search for Atlantis and its hidden hall of records, in and around Bimini, Bahamas. A capacity crowd is expected.
Read more: PR.com

Yale archaeologists discover remains of ancient oasis city in South Egypt

A team of archaeologists from Yale University has unearthed the remains of an Egyptian city built more than 3,500 years ago in the southern Kharga oasis, which once connected caravan routes between the Nile Valley and what is now western Sudan.

The mud-brick settlement, which measures about 1km by 250m (3,280 by 820 feet), is thought to have been an administrative center, Zahi Hawass, secretary- general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in an e-mailed statement today. The discovery of a bakery and large debris dumps suggests the city produced a food surplus and may have been feeding an army, John Coleman Darnell, head of the Yale mission, was cited as saying.

Read more: Bloomberg
Bread for an army Al-Ahram Weekly
Ancient Egyptian city found in oasis Herald Sun
Egypt discovers 3500-year-old oasis trading post The Associated Press
Archaeologists Uncover 3500-Year-Old Egypt City ABC News
Ancient Bakery Found in Egyptian Desert  Discovery News
Pharaonic settlement discovered near Egyptian oasis Earthtimes

Cairo art heist: museums to be monitored

The thieves who made off with van Gogh's 'Poppy Flowers' in a daytime Cairo art heist were not met with alarms or guards. The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Egypt would create a central security office.

When the Vincent van Gogh still life “Poppy Flowers” was stolen from Egypt’s Mahmoud Khalil museum Saturday, no one noticed at first. Zahi Hawas, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement Tuesday that Egypt would create a central security office to monitor its museums, and that Culture Minister Farouk Hosni would review museum security procedures.

Read more: The Christian Science Monitor