Egyptian Archaeologists Unveil Discovery of 4,300-Year-Old Tombs with Vivid Wall Paintings

SAQQARA (AP).- Egyptian archaeologists on Thursday unveiled a newly-unearthed double tomb with vivid wall paintings in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo, saying it could be the start for uncovering a vast cemetery in the area. The tomb includes two false doors with colorful paintings depicting the two people buried there, a father and a son who served as heads of the royal scribes, said Abdel-Hakim Karar, a top archaeologist at Saqqara. “The colors of the false door are [...]

Archaeological Team’s Radar Reveals Extent of Buried Ancient Egypt City

CAIRO (AP).- An Austrian archaeological team has used radar imaging to determine the extent of the ruins of the one time 3,500-year-old capital of Egypt’s foreign occupiers, said the antiquities department Sunday. Egypt was ruled for a century from 1664-1569 B.C. by the Hyksos, a warrior people from Asia, possibly Semitic in origin, whose summer capital was in the northern Delta area. Irene Mueller, the head of the Austrian team, said the main purpose of the project is to determine [...]

Archaeologists in Egypt Find Ptolemaic-Era King Statue

CAIRO (AP).- Archaeologists in Egypt said Tuesday they have discovered a headless granite statue of an unidentified Ptolemaic-era king that is more than 2,000 years old. An Egyptian-Dominican team made the discovery at the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of the coastal city of Alexandria, said a statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Alexandria was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled Egypt for 300 years, until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra. The statue’s height is 53 [...]

King Tutankhamun Returns to New York After More than 30 Years for Last Leg of U.S. Exhibit

NEW YORK, NY.- More than 30 years after King Tut’s last visit to New York, the golden boy is back. “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,” which opened yesterday and runs to January 2, contains more than 130 rare artifacts, twice the number of treasures shown in the 1970s exhibit. It includes items used for royal burial practices and daily life in ancient Egypt, King Tut’s viscera coffin, containers for the boy king’s mummified liver, his chariot and [...]

Egypt’s Zahi Hawass Chides Museums over Antiquities

NEW YORK, NY (AP).- Egypt’s antiquities chief, speaking at a preview of a King Tut exhibition, renewed his attacks on museums he claims have refused to return artifacts that rightfully belong in Egypt. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Wednesday he had a wish list of objects he wants returned. He singled out several museums, including the St. Louis Art Museum, which he said has a 3,200-year-old mummy mask that was stolen before the museum [...]

Egypt’s Zahi Hawass Urges States to Cooperate on Artifact Return

CAIRO.- Egypt and other states which say artifacts have been illegally taken abroad should work together and list items they want returned from Western museums, Egypt’s top archaeologist said on Wednesday. Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, was speaking to representatives from 21 countries, some like Greece and Syria, seeking the return of artifacts and others like the United States which have returned stolen antiquities. “Museums are the main source for stolen artifacts. If they stop (buying [...]

Mummy of Egypt’s Monotheist Pharaoh to Return Home

CAIRO.- The DNA tests that revealed how the famed boy-king Tutankhamun most likely died solved another of ancient Egypt’s enduring mysteries — the fate of controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten’s mummy. The discovery could help fill out the picture of a fascinating era more than 3,300 years ago when Akhenaten embarked on history’s first attempt at monotheism. During his 17-year rule, Akhenaten sought to overturn more than a millennium of Egyptian religion and art to establish the worship of a single sun [...]

Massive Head of Famous Pharaoh Amenhotep III Unearthed in Egypt

CAIRO.- Archaeologists have unearthed a massive red granite head of one Egypt’s most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced Sunday. The head of Amenhotep III, which alone is about the height of a person, was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor. The leader of the expedition that discovered the head described it as the best preserved sculpture of Amenhotep III’s face [...]

New Cleopatra Exhibition to Make World Premiere at Franklin Institute

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The world of Cleopatra, which has been lost to the sea and sand for nearly 2,000 years, will surface in a new exhibition, “Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” making its world premiere in June 2010 at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Organized by National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), the exhibition will feature more than 250 [...]

Tests Show King Tutankhamen Died from Malaria Infection, Study Says

CHICAGO.- King Tutankhamen, the teen-aged pharaoh whose Egyptian tomb yielded dazzling treasures, limped around on tender bones and a club foot and probably died from malaria, researchers said on Tuesday. There has been speculation about the fate of the boy king, who died sometime around 1324 BC probably at age 19, since the 1922 discovery of his intact tomb in Egypt’s Valley of Kings. Women look at one of the coffins of King Tutankhamun at the Egyptian museum in Cairo, [...]

Egypt: New Find Shows Slaves didn’t Build Ancient Monuments

CAIRO .- Egypt displayed on Monday newly discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, presenting the discovery as more evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments. The series of modest nine-foot-deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry desert sand along with jars that once contained beer and bread meant for the workers’ afterlife. The mud-brick tombs were uncovered [...]

Egypt Antiquities Chief Zahi Hawass to Demand Nefertiti Bust

CAIRO.- Egypt’s antiquities chief said Sunday he will formally demand the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti from a Berlin museum after confirming it was sneaked out of Cairo through fraudulent documents. Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has been aggressively campaigning to reclaim treasures that he says were stolen from Egypt and purchased by some of the world’s leading museums. Hawass’ campaign yielded a huge success this week with the return of painted [...]

Antiquities Chief Says Ancient Egyptian Wall Paintings to Return to Luxor

CAIRO.- Egypt’s antiquities chief says the wall paintings that caused a feud between Egypt and the Louvre Museum will be returned to their original location in a tomb south of Egypt. In a statement Wednesday, Zahi Hawass says the ancient pieces will be restored by experts and replaced on the wall of a 3,200-year-old tomb in Luxor, 320 miles (510 kilometers) south of Cairo. Hawass cut ties with the Louvre in October, saying the museum had refused to return the [...]

Egypt’s Zahi Hawass to Ask British Museum for Rosetta Stone

LONDON.- The head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said he plans to ask the British Museum to hand the Rosetta Stone over to his country. The ancient stone was the key to deciphering hieroglyphs on the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs and is one of six ancient relics that Egypt’s chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said his country wants to recover from museums around the world. “I did not write yet to the British Museum but I will. I will tell [...]

Do Antiquities Really Belong To Their Country Of Origin?

Zahi Hawass regards the Rosetta Stone, like so much else, as stolen property languishing in exile. “We own that stone,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking as the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The British Museum does not agree — at least not yet. But never underestimate Dr. Hawass when it comes to this sort of custody dispute. He has prevailed so often in getting pieces returned to what he calls their “motherland” that museum curators are scrambling [...]