Egypt: Military Detain 50 Men Trying to Break into at Egyptian National Museum

CAIRO (AP).- Soldiers detained about 50 men trying to break into the Egyptian National Museum in a fresh attempt to loot some of the country’s archaeological treasures, the military said Monday. Snipers were stationed on the roof of the building, and dozens of troops patrolled the grounds of the famed antiquities museum amid fears that the chaos sweeping Cairo could engulf the nation’s heritage. Some of the most intense anti-government protests in the past week happened near the museum. On [...]

MFA Houston to Present Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs in October 2011

HOUSTON, TX.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) will host Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, an acclaimed exhibition featuring more than 100 artifacts, most of which had never been shown in the U.S. prior to this tour. The exhibition opens October 13, 2011, and will be on view through April 15, 2012. Visitors will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the spectacular treasures, more than half of which come from the tomb of King Tutankhamun. These [...]

Eleven Egyptian Officials to Be Tried in Van Gogh Theft

CAIRO (AP).- Eleven culture officials from Egypt’s government have been formally charged in last month’s theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum that had no functioning security alarms. People look at the priceless golden mask of the famed King Tutankhamun, watched by security monitoring cameras, unseen, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Security for Egypt’s cultural treasures is under scrutiny after the Aug. 21, 2010 theft of a van Gogh painting from Cairo’s Mahmoud Khalil Museum [...]

Tut-Tut: Security Problems Seen in Most of Egypt’s Museums

CAIRO (AP).- The Egyptian Museum houses some of the world’s prized antiquities, including the gold mask of King Tut that draws millions of tourists a year. But it also has an outdated video surveillance system that doesn’t work around the clock and guards who snooze, read the Quran or are seemingly too bored to pay attention. Security for Egypt’s treasures is under scrutiny after the Aug. 21 theft of a van Gogh painting from another museum in Cairo revealed some [...]

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 [...]

Tutankhamun’s Funeral Exhibition at the Met will Explore Materials and Rituals

NEW YORK, NY.- In 1908, while excavating in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, American archaeologist Theodore Davis discovered about a dozen large storage jars. Their contents included broken pottery, bags of natron (a mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulphate, and sodium chloride that occurs naturally in Egypt), bags of sawdust, floral collars, and pieces of linen with markings from years 6 and 8 during the reign of a then little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamun. The Metropolitan Museum [...]

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 to Soon Announce King Tutankhamun DNA Test Results

CAIRO.- Egypt will soon reveal the results of DNA tests made on the world’s most famous ancient king, the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun, to answer lingering mysteries over his lineage, the antiquities department said Sunday. Speaking at a conference, archaeology chief Zahi Hawass said he would announce the results of the DNA tests and the CAT scans on Feb. 17. The results will be compared to those made of King Amenhotep III, who may have been Tutankamun’s grandfather. The effort is [...]