Institut français
d’archéologie orientale - Le Caire
Revue de presse égyptienne

Revue de presse égyptienne

Revue de presse égyptienne compilée régulièrement à partir du Bulletin d’Information Archéologique (BIA) qui paraît sous le double parrainage de l’IFAO et de la chaire « Civilisation pharaonique : archéologie, philologie et histoire » du Collège de France sur le site :

http://www.egyptologues.net/archeologie/bia.htm

Revue mise à jour le 8 juillet 2010.

I - Recherches et découvertes archéologiques

II - Restauration, préservation

III - Musées

IV - Expositions archéologiques

V - Thèmes généraux


I - Recherches et découvertes archéologiques

al-Gulf al-Kabîr: Wâdî Sûra

Egyptian Mail du 25 mai 10 : Sahara cave holds clues to Ancient Egypt…

Archaeologists are studying prehistoric rock drawings discovered in a remote cave in 2002, including dancing figures and strange headless beasts, as they seek new clues about the rise of Egyptian civilization. Amateur explorers stumbled across the cave, which includes 5,000 images painted or engraved into stone, in the vast, empty desert near Egypt’s southwest border with Libya and Sudan. Rudolph KUPER, a German archaeologist, said the details depicted in the “Cave of the Beasts” indicate the site is at least 8,000 years old, likely the work of hunter-gatherers whose descendants may have been among the early settlers of the then-swampy and inhospitable Nile Valley.

The cave is 10 km from the “Cave of the Swimmers” romanticized in the film The English Patient, but with far more, and better-preserved image. By studying the sandstone cave and other nearby sites, the archaeologists are trying to build a timeline to compare the culture and technologies of the peoples who inhabited the area. “It is the most amazing cave… in North Africa and Egypt,” said Karin KINDERMANN, a member of a German-led team that recently made a trip to the site 900 km southwest of Cairo. “You take a piece of the puzzle and see where it could fit. This is an important piece,” she said. The Eastern Sahara, a region the size of Western Europe that extends from Egypt into Libya, Sudan and Chad, is the world’s largest warm, dry desert. Rainfall in the desert’s centre averages less than 2 millimeters a year. The region was once much less arid.

About 8500 BC, seasonal rainfall appeared in the region, creating a savanna and attracting hunter-gatherers. By 5300 BC, the rains had stopped and human settlements receded to highland areas. By 3500 BC, the settlements disappeared entirely. “After 3-4,000 years of savanna life environment in the Sahara, the desert returned and people were forced to move eastwards to the Nile Valley, contributing to the foundation of Egyptian civilization, and southwards to the African continent,” said KUPER, an expert at Germany’s Heinrich Barth Institute. The mass exodus corresponds with the rise of sedentary life along the Nile that later blossomed into pharaonic civilization that dominated the region for thousands of years and whose art, architecture and government helped shape Western culture.

“It was a movement, I think, step by step, because the desert didn’t rush in. The rains would withdraw, then return, and so on. But step by step it became more dry, and people moved toward the Nile Valley or toward the south,” KUPER told Reuters. KUPER and his team are recording the geological, botanic and archaeological evidenced around the cave, including stone tools and pottery, and will compare it to other sites in the Eastern Sahara region, adding new pieces to a prehistoric puzzle. “It seems that the paintings of the Cave of the Beasts pre-date the introduction of domesticated animals. That means they predate 6000 BC,” said KUPER, who led his first field trip to the cave in April 2009. “That is what we dare to say.”

Alexandrie

Daily News Egypt du 30 mai 10 : Divers explore sunken ruins of Cleopatra’s palace…

Plunging into the waters off Alexandria Tuesday, divers explored the submerged ruins of a palace and temple complex from which Cleopatra ruled, swimming over heaps of limestone blocks hammered into the sea by earthquakes and tsunamis more than 1,600 years ago. The international team is painstakingly excavating one of the richest underwater archaeological sites in the world and retrieving stunning artifacts from the last dynasty to rule over ancient Egypt before the Roman Empire annexed it in 30 BC. Read Full Story…

Avaris

Al-Ahram Weekly du 24 juin 10 : One less lost city…

State-of-the-art radar imaging techniques have allowed the outline of the Hyksos capital Avaris to be mapped in detail, reports Nevine El-Aref. Read Full Story…

Datation au carbone 14

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 18 juin 10 : Scientists use plants to date Egypt’s pharaohs…

Scientists have established for the first time clear dates for the ruling dynasties of ancient Egypt after carbon dating plant remains, according to a research published Friday. The results will force historians to revise their records for the two millennia when ancient Egypt dominated the Mediterranean world and hopefully end debate once and for all between rival Egyptologists. Led by Professor Christopher RAMSEY of Britain’s Oxford University, an international team tested seeds, baskets, textiles, plant stems and fruit obtained from museums in the United States and Europe for the landmark study. “For the first time, radiocarbon dating has become precise enough to constrain the history of ancient Egypt to very specific dates,” said RAMSEY. “I think scholars and scientists will be glad to hear that our small team of researchers has independently corroborated a century of scholarship in just three years.”

Dates for Egypt’s Old, Middle and New Kingdoms had been based on historical documents or archaeological findings, but estimates were notoriously uncertain as each dynasty would reset the clock. The new data showed the reign of Djoser, the best known pharaoh in the Old Kingdom, was between 2691 and 2625 BCE, some 50 to 100 years earlier than the established wisdom. The study, published in Friday’s issue of the US journal Science, also concluded that the New Kingdom started slightly earlier than thought, between 1570 and 1544 BCE. The research team included experts from the universities of Oxford and Cranfield in Britain, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, and experts from Austria and Israel. Radiocarbon dating, also known as carbon-14 dating, is a technique that can accurately determine the age of organic material.

Fayyûm

Al-Ahram Weekly du 27 mai 10 : Intact burials discovered…

Archaeologists excavating in Fayyûm have discovered 45 intact ancient Egyptian tombs complete with painted sarcophagi, Nevine El-Aref reports. Read Full Story…

Daily News Egypt du 24 mai 10 : 57 ancient tombs with mummies unearthed in Egypt…

Archaeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs, most of which hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said Sunday. The oldest tombs date back to around 2750 BC during the period of Egypt’s first and second dynasties, the council said in a statement. Twelve of the tombs belong the 18th dynasty, which ruled Egypt during the second millennium BC. The discovery throws new light on Egypt’s ancient religions, the council said. Egypt’s archaeology chief, Zâhî Hawwâs, said the mummies dating to the 18th dynasty are covered in linen decorated with religious texts from the Book of the Dead and scenes featuring ancient Egyptian deities. ‘Abd al-Rahmân al-‘Âydî, head of the archaeological mission that made the discovery, said some of the tombs are decorated with religious texts that ancient Egyptians believed would help the deceased to cross through the underworld. Al-‘Âydî said one of the oldest tombs is almost completely intact, with all of its funerary equipment and a wooden sarcophagus containing a mummy wrapped in linen. In 31 tombs dating to around 2030-1840 B.C, archaeologists discovered scenes of different ancient Egyptian deities, such as the falcon-headed Horus, Hathor, Khnum and Amun, decorating some of the tombs. The council said the findings were unearthed at Lâhûn, in Fayyûm, some 100 kilometers south of Cairo. Last year, some 53 stone tombs dating back to various ancient periods were found in the area.

Le bain collectif en Égypte

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 5 mai 10 : Le colloque Balnéorient…

L’Institut français d’archéologie orientale a récemment publié un livre sur les bains collectifs et les hammâms d’Égypte. Il s’agit des actes du colloque international Balnéorient, organisé en 2006 dans la Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Lire la suite…

Louqsor

Dromos

Al-Ahram Weekly du 13 mai 10 : Along the avenue…

The remins of a fifth-century church and a Nilometer have been uncovered this week by an Egyptian mission carrying out routine excavations at the Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor, Nevine El-Aref reports. Read Full Story…

Lousqor

Al-Ahram Weekly du 1er avr 10 : The vizier’s door…

In the course of routine excavations in front of the Karnak temples, an Egyptian team unearthed a huge, red granite false door taken from the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut’s vizier User and his wife, Toy, reports Nevine El-Aref. Read Full Story…

Oasis de Bahariya

Egypt State Information Service du 13 avr 10 : Ancient cemetery found in Bahariya Oasis…

Minister of Culture Fârûq Husnî announced on April 12, 2010 the discovery of 14 Greco-Roman tombs dated back to 2,300 years at a construction site near al-Bâwîtî town in Bahariya Oasis, October 6th Governorate. The archaeologists discovered four plaster human masks, a gold fragment decorated with the four sons of the god Horus, as well as coins, clay and glass, said Zâhî Hawwâs, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. A mummy of a woman measuring 97 centimeters, wearing some jewellery and covered with colored plaster depicting a Roman costume, was also found. The tombs were unearthed in an area where a youth center was to be built in a village there, Sabrî ‘Abd al-‘Azîz, the head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities department, said in a statement. The antiquities department has halted construction at the site, where a large necropolis may exist, he said.

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 13 avr 10 : Egypt archaeologists uncover Roman mummy…

Egyptian archaeologists unearthed a Roman mummy entombed in an elaborate sarcophagus at an ancient grave site alongside gypsum masks, the antiquities council said in a statement Monday. The one meter long gypsum sarcophagus portrays a woman dressed in Roman robes and contains a mummified woman or girl who died in the Greco-Roman period about 2300 years ago. “We are sure [the mummy] is female. Either she was a small woman, and mummies always shrink, or she could have been a young woman,” Zâhî Hawwâs, chief of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP. The archaeologists also found a sheet of gold depicting the four sons of Horus, the ancient Egyptian sky god, and clay and glass vessels at the site in the Bahariyya Oasis, some 300km south west of Cairo. The site, which contained 14 graves, was first discovered during excavation work to build a youth center, but the statement said it would be placed under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Archaeologists had unearthed a vast burial ground in the same area in 1996 that contained hundreds of mummies.

Oasis de Bahariyya

Al-Ahram Weekly du 29 avr 10 : In the sands of time…

Graeco-Roman tombs, an intact coffin, Ptolemaic coins and whale bones are just some the recent discoveries made by Egyptians working in Lower Egypt, Nevine El-Aref reports. Read Full Story…

Pyramide de Chéops

Al-Ahram Weekly du 8 juil 10 : Taking stock of the air…

Many others have had a go before, but can the Djedi team unravel the secrets of the Great Pyramid? Nevine El-Aref has been looking at the progress made by Djedi, a joint international-Egyptian team so named after the magician whom King Khufu consulted when he planned the layout of his pyramid. Read Full Story…

Saqqâra

Tombes de Shendwa et Khonsu

Al-Ahram Weekly du 8 juil 10 : Grave find for father and son…

Archaeologists have uncovered two new tombs in the Saqqâra necropolis. Nevine El-Aref joined the excavating team. Read Full Story…

Tombes de Shendwa et Khonsu

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 7 juil 10 : 2 new Pharaonic tombs unearthed in Saqqâra…

Two Pharaonic tombs have been found in the region of Saqqâra, south of Gîza, by an Egyptian archaeological team working in the area since 1986, Egypt’s culture minister, Fârûq Husnî announced. The colored tombs are some 4300 years old. Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zâhî Hawwâs said that both tombs, found west of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, are carved into rocks and represent a father and his son. Hawwâs, who supervises the team, said the father’s tomb, Sen Dwa, contains a “fake" door, which he considers to be one of the wonders of the Saqqâra region. The door displays colourful paintings showing the deceased sitting at a table of offerings. Inscriptions next to the artwork suggest the man was of high rank during the rule of the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom and carried the titles of “King’s chief scribe” and “delegations supervisor,” among other honorary titles. The burial chamber lies right below the fake door, 20 meters beneath the ground.

Going down to the tomb himself, Hawwâs found that it had not been robbed due to its depth. The wooden coffin in which Sen Dwa was enclosed had disintegrated due to humidity, but next to the coffin antiquities were found including a set of limestone pots that resemble ducks and contain duck bones. The most important discovery found inside the tomb, according to Hawwâs, was a 30-centimeter-high limestone obelisk. Ancient Egyptians were famous for using small obelisks in front of tombs and inside burial places annexed to queens’ pyramids. The obelisks symbolise worship of Ra, the sun god.

Nearby is the tomb of Sen Dwa’s son, Khenso, which was found to contain pictures from the Old Kingdom. Khenso held the same titles as his father. In front of the fake door is a stone doorsill that features characteristics of the Sixth Dynasty. The archaeological team also found images of the deceased in different positions above the fake door.

Sphinx

The Egyptian Gazette du 5 juin 10 : Sphinx, surrounding bedrock area safe…

The Minister of Culture, Fârûq Husnî received yesterday a technical and ecological report on the health of the Great Sphinx at Gîza, which asserted that the giant statue and the surrounding bedrock are safe, and that the groundwater in the area in front of it has not affected any part of its body. Zâhî Hawwâs, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the scientific studies carried out by the Ecology and Engineering Centre revealed that the groundwater in front of the Sphinx is potable water, found at a depth of 4,8 metres below ground, a level which has not changed since ancient times. He asserted that within two months, the water in front of the Sphinx will be pumped out within the framework of a LE2 million project being implemented out by the Archaeological Engineering Centre at Cairo University (AEC).

Taposiris Magna

Al-Ahram Weekly du 20 mai 10 : So where are Anthony and Cleopatra?…

Cleopatra’s curse hung over the ancient city of Taposiris Magna, 50km west of Alexandria, where excavators combed the sand last Saturday looking for her resting place with her beloved Mark Anthony. Nevine El-Aref witnessed the search. Read Full Story…

Al-Ahram Weekly du 6 mai 10 : Looking for Cleopatra…

A headless granite colossus which may have been part of a statue of King Ptolemy IV has been unearthed at Taposiris Magna on the north coast near Alexandria, reports Nevine El-Aref. Read Full Story…

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 5 mai 10 : Archaeologists in Egypt find Ptolemaic king statue…

Archaeologists in Egypt say they have discovered a headless granite statue more than 2000 years old belonging to an unidentified Ptolemaic-era king. Tuesday’s statement by the Supreme Council of Antiquities says an Egyptian-Dominican team made the discovery at the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of the coastal city of Alexandria. Archaeology chief Zâhî Hawwâs says the well-preserved statue may be among the most beautiful carvings in the ancient Egyptian style. He says the statue could belong to King Ptolemy IV. The statue’s height is 135 centimeters and its width at the shoulders is 55 centimeters.

Daily News Egypt du 4 mai 10 : Archaeologists in Egypt find Ptolemaic king statue…

Archaeologists in Egypt say they have discovered a headless granite statue more than 2,000 years old belonging to an unidentified Ptolemaic-era king. Tuesday’s statement by the Supreme Council of Antiquities says an Egyptian-Dominican team made the discovery at the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of the coastal city of Alexandria. Archaeology chief Zâhî Hawwâs says the well-preserved statue may be among the most beautiful carvings in the ancient Egyptian style. He says the statue could belong to King Ptolemy IV. The statue’s height is 53 inches and its width at the shoulders is 22 inches. Alexandria was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled Egypt for 300 years, until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra.

Tell al-Maskhûta: tombe de Ken-Amun

Daily News Egypt du 16 avr 10 : Newly unearthed tomb to reveal Egypt’s relations with eastern neighbors, says Hawwâs…

The elaborate tomb of an ancient royal scribe has been unearthed in a discovery that Egypt’s chief archaeologist said will help illuminate the relationship between Egypt and its eastern neighbors in antiquity. The intricately decorated tomb belonging to Ken-Amun, who was in charge of overseeing the royal records during the 19th Dynasty (1315-1201 B.C.), was unearthed in the village of Tell al-Maskhûta, 120 kilometers east of Cairo, said Zâhî Hawwâs, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Tell al-Maskhûta was a settlement in the Ismâ‘îliyya governorate containing a garrison that supplied and armed the ancient Egyptian army before the troops went on military campaigns east of the border. Ken-Amun’s tomb is that first Ramesside tomb to be discovered in Lower Egypt and is built from mud brick, consisting of a rectangular room with a stone-domed ceiling. Hawwâs, in a statement released Wednesday, said the inscriptions would aid in the understanding of Egypt’s relationships with its neighbors to the east. Inside the tomb, the walls are decorated with reliefs of funerary scenes, including Chapter 12 of the Book of Dead — an ancient text intended to help the deceased in the afterlife — and a scene of women mourning.

The wall’s inscriptions tell that the scribe’s wife was called Isis and worked as a musician for the God Atum. A large limestone pillar also was discovered depicting the God Set, the god of darkness and chaos, in front of the 19th Dynasty king of the time, whose name was not written. On the same pillar, the name of the capital of the Hyksos — an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta in the 12th Dynasty was found. People continued to use the site as a cemetery, and 35 Roman-era graves were also discovered during the same excavation.

Tombe de Ptahmes

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 9 juin 10 : Une tombe problématique révèle ses secrets…

La découverte de la tombe du chef de l’armée et le scribe royal Ptah Mes par la mission égyptienne de la faculté des antiquités à l’Université du Caire opérant à Saqqâra a dévoilé d’importants éléments historiques. Lire la suite…

Al-Ahram Weekly du 3 juin 10 : Lord mayor of Memphis…

A colossus of an ancient Egyptian deity in Luxor, an Umayyad coin in Wâdî al-Natrûn and the tomb of a 19th-Dynasty mayor of Memphis at Saqqâra are the most recent discoveries in Egypt, Nevine El-Aref reports. Read Full Story…

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 31 mai 10 : Ancient mayor’s tomb found south of Cairo…

Archaeologists have discovered the 3300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital’s mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 19th century treasure hunters first carted off some of its decorative wall panels, officials announced Sunday. Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis, also served as army chief, overseer of the treasury and royal scribe under Seti I and his son and successor, Ramses II, in the 13th century B.C. The discovery of his tomb earlier this year in a New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqâra, south of Cairo, solves a riddle dating back to 1885, when foreign expeditions made off with pieces of the tomb, whose location was soon after forgotten. “Since then it was covered by sand and no one knew about it,” said ‘Ula al-‘Agîzî, the Cairo University archaeology professor who led the excavation. “It is important because this tomb was the lost tomb.”

Some of the artifacts ended up in museums in the Netherlands, the United States and Italy as well as the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, providing the only clues about the missing tomb. A team from Cairo University’s archaeology department found the tomb during new excavations of the area that started in 2005, al-‘Agîzî said. The inner chambers of the large, temple-style tomb and Ptahmes’ mummy remain undiscovered. In the side sanctuaries and other chambers they uncovered, archaeologists found a vivid wall engraving of people fishing from boats made of bundles of papyrus reeds. There were also amulets and fragments of statues.

Vallée des Rois

Tombe de Séthi Ier

Al-Ahram Weekly du 8 juil 10 : Dig Days: Seti, please tell us your secret I…

I always wanted to work in the Valley of the Kings. There is something magical about the cliffs that contain the tombs of the most famous kings of Egypt. Sixty-three tombs are recorded in the famous valley, 26 of which belonged to these great Pharaohs and the others to their most valued nobles. For more than two years my team and I have been excavating a tunnel that leads deep into the cliffs from the burial chamber of the tomb of Seti I, one of the great warrior kings of the 19th Dynasty. Read Full Story…

Tombe de Séthi Ier

Al-Ahram Weekly du 8 juil 10 : Make it wider…

An architect who lived well over 3,000 years ago had left instructions that would not be out of place in the construction of a building today, reports Nevine El-Aref. Read Full Story…

Tombe de Séthi Ier

The Egyptian Gazette du 30 juin 10 : Secrets of Seti I tunnel unlocked…

Egypt’s Minister of Culture Fârûq Husnî Wednesday announced that a tunnel in the tomb of King Seti I (1314-1304 BC) has been discovered by Zâhî Hawwâs and his team in the Valley of the Kings. They have been searching for this tunnel for over 20 years in the West Bank necropolis. Hawwâs, the Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and the head of the mission, finally succeeded in completely excavating the 174m long tunnel after several seasons of work that began in November 2007. The tunnel was cut into the bedrock near the end of the beautifully decorated tomb of Seti I. In addition to excavating the tunnel, the team braced the walls and ceiling with metal supports. They also built a wooden walkway over the original stone staircase of the tunnel to preserve it and installed a mining car system to remove rubble from the team’s excavations. During their work, the mission uncovered many shabtis and pottery fragments that dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty (1569- 1315 BC). Several limestone ostraca fragments, as well as a small boat model made of faience were also found. During their excavation of the staircase, the team found that three of the steps were decorated with red graffiti.

The only other excavation of the tunnel took place in 1960 under the direction of Sheikh ‘Alî ‘Abd al-Rasûl. His team was able to reach a depth of 130m but they had to stop their excavation because it was too hard to breath. Upon reaching the end of the 136 meter section, which had been partially excavated by ‘Abd al-Rasûl’s workmen, Dr. Hawwâs’s team were shocked to uncover a descending passage, which measures 25.60m in length and 2.6m wide. The mission eventually uncovered a fifty-four steps, descending staircase. After the first descending passage, a second staircase measuring 6 meters long was cut into the rock. At the beginning of this passage the team found a false door decorated with hieratic text that reads: “Move the door, jump up and make the passage wider.” These written instructions must have been left from the architect to the workmen who were carving out the tunnel.

Hawwâs said that when he went inside the tunnel of King Seti I for the first time, he noticed that the walls were well finished and that there were remains of preliminary sketches of decoration that would be placed on the walls. Unfortunately none of this was completed. Hawwâs added that he was very surprised to find a second staircase inside the tunnel. It appears that the last step was never finished and the tunnel ends abruptly after the second staircase. Hawwâs believes that the workmen and artists first finished the original tomb of Seti I during his twelve-year reign and then began to construct the tunnel. It appears that Seti I was trying to construct a secret tomb inside a tomb. It is likely that when Seti I died his son, Ramesses II (1304 1237BC), had to stop the work and bury his father. Hawwâs believes that Ramesses II continued where his father had left off and constructed his own tunnel within his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The Egyptian mission is currently working in the tomb of Ramesses II to preserve the wall paintings and to look for a similar tunnel to the one in the tomb of Seti I.

II - Restauration, préservation

Dahshûr

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 11 avr 10 : Govt teams up with UN to develop Dahshûr…

The Egyptian government and the United Nations held the first workshop in their “Mobilization of the Dahshûr World Heritage Site for Community Development” program on 10 April. The program aims to focus on developing the community while preserving the area’s rich cultural and natural heritage. The workshop, held under the auspices of 6th of October Governor Fathî Sa‘d at the famous Saqqâra archaeological site, was attended by Spanish Ambassador to Egypt Antonio LOPEZ MARTINEZ, and UN Resident Coordinator James W. RAWLEY. “I am confident that programs such as the Dahshûr World Heritage Site for Community Development will succeed in improving the quality of life of the people of Dahshûr while at the same time contributing to the preservation of the area’s unique cultural heritage and biodiversity for future generations,” RAWLEY declared in an opening address.

The project has two main objectives: to reduce poverty and to protect and manage the area’s cultural heritage and natural resources. Program organizers hope to reduce poverty through increasing local employment, supporting traditional handcrafts, promoting tourism and developing creative industries. “The beneficiaries of the project are 40,000 Dahshûr residents,” said Program Manager Muhammad Shâkir. The project focuses on improving the livelihoods and working conditions of the local population through targeted employment-generation activities, with special focus given to the employment of women and young people, along with the development of small and micro enterprises. Meanwhile, the program will manage cultural heritage through the preservation of Dahshûr’s seasonal lake, a unique natural asset, by coordinating efforts to ensure the lake is preserved in its natural state through community-led conservation. The area surrounding the Dahshûr component of Memphis — along with its famous Necropolis — has also been incorporated into the project.

The three-year project officially began in April of 2009. Its first year was devoted to conducting baseline studies, surveys and preparation for poverty-reduction interventions. According to Shâkir, the socio-economic profile for the target area has been completed, and most of the cooperating partners have finished — or are currently in the process of conducting — the necessary fieldwork and surveys. The development program is budgeted at US$3 million, to be provided by the UNDP-Spain Achievement Fund. It brings a number of government agencies together with the Social Fund for Development, including the Environmental Affairs Agency; the Industrial Modernization Center; the Tourism Ministry; the Tourism Development Authority; the Foreign Affairs Ministry; and the Ministry of International Cooperation. The project represents a collaboration between five UN agencies, namely, the UN Development Program, the World Trade Organization, the UN Industrial Development Organization, the International Labour Organization and UNESCO.

Documentation archéologique

Al-Ahram Weekly du 24 juin 10 : It’s all going on the list…

Nevine El-Aref burrows into the corridors of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and discovers the newly-established antiquities documentation system. Read Full Story…

Hammâm al-Ashraf Inâl

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 5 mai 10 : À la recherche du temps perdu…

Le hammâm mamelouk du sultan al-Ashraf Inâl vient d’être inauguré après une longue fermeture pour restauration. Des interrogations se posent sur la possibilité de sa réutilisation. Lire la suite…

Plateau de Gîza

Al-Ahram Weekly du 1er avr 10 : Dig Days: Once again: camels and horses at the Pyramids…

The camel and horse touts in Gîza are very upset with our new project to save the Pyramids. They do not understand what we are trying to do. Regrettably, many of them do things that harm tourists; I receive many letters from tourists claiming that they will never return to Egypt because of the way they were treated or harassed for money. I do not think that I need to elaborate much more, since one look at the pyramid site shows what kind of pollution the camels and horses cause. Read Full Story…

Réaménagement de la ville de Louqsor

The Egyptian Gazette du 3 avr 10 : Bulldozers overhaul Luxor…

In the dusty streets behind the pasha’s grand villa, bulldozers and forklifts are tearing into the city where Agatha CHRISTIE found inspiration and Howard CARTER unearthed Tutankhamun. Egypt has already cleared out Luxor’s old bazaar, demolished thousands of homes and dozens of Belle Époque buildings in a push to transform the site of the ancient capital Thebes into a huge open-air museum. Officials say the project will preserve temples and draw more tourists, but the work has outraged archaeologists and architects who say it has gutted Luxor’s more recent heritage. “They basically want to tear the whole thing down,” said one foreigner who lives in Luxor part of the year, agreeing to speak only if his name was not used. “They want it to be all asphalt and strip malls and shopping centres. That’s their idea of modern and progressive.” He pointed to the destruction of the 19th-century house of French archaeologist Georges LEGRAIN, demolished to make way for a plaza outside Karnak temple, and plans to knock down the 150-year-old Pasha Andraos villa on the Nile boardwalk. While known mostly for temples and tombs, Luxor’s Victorian-era buildings and dusty alleyways have drawn Egyptologists, statesmen and writers for decades.

Samîr Farag, a former Egyptian general who now heads the billion-dollar plan to reinvent Luxor, dismisses the criticism. Improvements to the city had reduced traffic and brought top-notch education and healthcare. “Just a few people, maybe I removed their houses or something like that, they want to criticize,” Farag said this week in his wainscotted office of British military style. “We just cleaned the houses, cleaned the streets. You’ll never find a clean city like Luxor now in Egypt.” Farag said his work even won praise from Francesco BANDARIN, head of the World Heritage Center at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “His hometown is Venice. They have a very big area of slums,” Farag said. “He told me, when he came here and saw what I did for the houses, the slum areas, he said, ’we should have one like you in Venice, too’.”

By 2030, the city and surrounding area will enjoy golf courses, five-star hotels, an IMAX theater and miles of new roads, while scores of lights will illuminate the mountains and valleys where Tutankhamun was buried, the project’s master plan shows. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is restoring the 2.7 km long avenue of sphinxes that linked Karnak and Luxor temples. The buildings removed were not historically important, officials say, and uprooted homeowners received between 75,000 and 500,000 Egyptian pounds ($13,600-$90,810) or a free flat. But archaeologists said heavy-handed work could be damaging antiquities and is plowing through dozens of classic buildings with lax oversight from the international organizations whose money is funneled into the project. While many fume over the work in private, none agreed to attach their names to criticism, fearing they would be harassed, arrested, deported or see funding for their projects cut. “Many buildings from many different periods have been erased, or will be, and I think that’s entirely negative,” said one architect with wide experience in Egypt heritage projects. “At the end of the day, you’re left with a kind of Disneyland piece of pseudo-pharaonic stuff, and the rest of it is swept away.”

The plan also calls for thousands of homes to be moved. Residents of al-Marîs, south of Luxor, have sued the state to reconsider a proposed marina they say would uproot at least 10,000 people and destroy valuable farmland. Villagers there said they hoped the lawsuit and negotiations would persuade the government to move the port to an empty strip on the other bank, but they will fight if they do not. Protests near Karnak temple in 2008 turned violent when citizens who said they were being forced to leave or unfairly compensated broke windows and threw rocks at police. “They do what they want, we do what we want,” Zayn Sâdî, 35, said outside his house in al-Marîs. “We will beat and be beaten, we will kill and be killed. After we die they can take our homes.” In 2006 and 2007 Egypt demolished al-Qurna, near the Valley of the Kings, to access and preserve tombs buried beneath nearly 3,200 houses, and built a new village about 5 km away. Three years later, residents of New Qurna say they cannot find work and have had problems getting water and electricity.

Those who are not happy with the changes are welcome to say so, Farag said, adding that he holds weekly meetings to hear complaints. But the end result may be the same. When a group of four citizens came into his office this week and asked him to reconsider the widening of a downtown road, Farag said the work was for their benefit. “We’re talking about destruction for the public good,” he said. “There are victims for every development.”

Temple de Dandara

The Egyptian Gazette du 6 juin 10 : Temple of Dandara to open to visitors soon…

Egypt will open the temple of Dandara next month following a site management programme, according to antiquity officials. The temple, 60km north of the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor, is a prime example of the type of site management programme now being implemented, which includes safe-zoning around the temple area. The approach to the temple is preceded by a parking facility located on the west side. Tourists then enter a visitor centre where they can view a nine-minute film made by National Geographic. From there, tourists can then walk to the temple; the handicapped may use cars.

III - Musées

Grand Musée Égyptien

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 23 juin 10 : Les pharaons sous un éclairage moderne…

Mme Suzanne Mubârak ainsi que le ministre de la Culture, Fârûq Husnî, ont inauguré dernièrement les premières phases du Grand Musée Égyptien sur la route Le Caire-Fayyûm après plusieurs reports. État des lieux. Lire la suite…

Al-Ahram Weekly du 17 juin 10 : Museum of the century…

Nevine El-Aref attends the inauguration of the first two stages of the Grand Egyptian Museum. Read Full Story…

Musée Copte

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 21 avr 10 : Un centenaire qui retrouve sa jeunesse…

Célébration. Le Musée copte a fêté récemment son centième anniversaire après avoir été rajeuni et enrichi. Il ouvre ses portes à ses visiteurs. Lire la suite…

Musée de la Préhistoire

Al-Ahram Weekly du 17 juin 10 : A new look at prehistory…

Among Zâhî Hawwâs’s ambitious plans to introduce specialised museums across the country is a proposed predynastic museum at Qinâ. This is good news, says Jill KAMIL. Read Full Story…

Musée des Bijoux royaux

Al-Ahram Weekly du 6 mai 10 : The princess and the glass fairy tale…

Nevine El-Aref visits the Alexandria Jewellery Museum, which has reopened following extensive renovation. Read Full Story…

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 21 avr 10 : Les splendeurs du temps jadis…

Le musée des Bijoux royaux accueille à nouveau ses visiteurs, après avoir été soumis à une restauration globale. Lire la suite…

IV - Expositions archéologiques

British Museum: Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egypt Book of the Dead

The Egyptian Gazette du 18 juin 10 : Ancient Egypt guide to afterlife focus of UK show…

Papyri from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, a series of spells designed to help guide the dead through the after-life, will be at the centre of a new show at the British Museum this November. The star item is likely to be the Greenfield Papyrus, which the London museum called the world’s longest Book of the Dead at 37 meters. It has never been shown publicly in its entirely before. “Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egypt Book of the Dead”, sponsored by BP, will run from November 4 to March 6, 2011 in the museum’s central Reading Room, used for a series of successful “blockbuster” exhibitions in recent years.

California Science Center: Mummies of the World

The Egyptian Gazette du 27 juin 10 : Egyptian mummies displayed in California…

“Mummies of the World” — which premieres next month at the California Science Center will feature 150 real human and animal mummies and objects from South America, Europe, Asia, Oceana and ancient Egypt. The exhibition shows how science can shed light on the history of people and cultures around the world, and that mummification (through natural processes or intentional practices) is not just about Egypt. It has taken place all over the globe, from the hot desert sands of South America to remote European moors and bogs. Exhibition opens in July and runs to December 31, 2010.

Highlights from “Mummies of the World” include one of the oldest mummy infants ever discovered; the first-ever presentation of an entire mummified family; a German nobleman discovered by his own descendants; and Egyptian animal mummies, ritually preserved to accompany royals for eternity. Egyptian animal mummies linen are elaborately wrapped in painted linen bandaging, holding fascinating clues to life and death in ancient Egypt. The Egyptian cat mummies in this exhibition date to the Ptolemaic period, and show how Egyptian cats were ritually embalmed in a lengthy process using salt and various resins. These mummies are on loan from various museums in Germany.

The Detmold Child (Germany) is a Peruvian child mummy in a remarkable state of preservation, radiocarbon dated to 4504-4457 B.C. The ORLOVITS family was part of a group of 18th-century mummies discovered in a long-forgotten church crypt in Vac, Hungary in 1994. Michael and Veronica ORLOVITS and their son Johannis were among those preserved by the cool, dry air and oil from the pine boards used to build their coffins. They are on loan from the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. Baron VON HOLZ is a 17th-century nobleman believed to have died in Sommersdorf, Germany during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). He was discovered in the family crypt of the VON CRAILSHEIM family’s late 14th-century castle, still wearing his top boots.

Discovery Times Square Exposition: Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaoh

Daily News Egypt du 22 avr 10 : King Tut exhibition opening in NYC…

Egypt’s antiquities chief, speaking Wednesday 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. Read Full Story…

Museum Rietberg: Falcons, Cats and Crocodiles. Animals in Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian Gazette du 8 juin 10 : Animals of ancient Egypt displayed in Switzerland…

(…) The exhibition “Falcons, Cats and Crocodiles. Animals in Ancient Egypt”, which will run from June 25 to November 14 in Museum Rietberg, Zurich Switzerland, presents about 100 animal figures from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the Egyptian Museum (Cairo) spanning a period of 4,000 years, showing the crafts and sophistication of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. The birds and animals known to the ancient Egyptians played an important role in every aspect of their culture. Ancient Egyptians believed that the world was inhabited by all manner of powers and forces and this unseen world could in some way be made manifest by the behaviour and characteristics of living creatures. Thus, ancient Egyptian deities could take the form of animals, which were considered to be the earthly manifestation of a god or goddess. However, eve if a deity might adopt a certain animal form, not all members of that particular species were necessarily held to be sacred.

Shanghai World Expo

The Egyptian Gazette du 29 avr 10 : Egyptian antiquities on show at Shanghai…

Eight priceless pieces of ancient Egyptian antiquities will be on display at the Shanghai World Expo which runs from May 1 to Oct. 31, a senior official said. The precious artifacts dating back 2,500 to 3,500 years will be shown abroad for the first time at the expo, Egyptian ambassador to China Ahmad Rizq said in a statement Friday. Coming from different Pharaonic dynasties, one of the pieces is the Gold Mask of Sheshonq, which dates back to the 22nd dynasty. It was discovered in 1939 in the Tanis Royal Tombs in Delta, northern Cairo. The antiquities also includes a limestone Dayed Statue of Nebneheh and Bakyarti which dates back to the 19th dynasty. It was unearthed in 1873. Other pieces include the Limestone Block Statue of Amenmessu with a small Figure of Sobek from the 19th dynasty. It was found in 1904. During the Expo, three Egyptian folk art troupes will perform and showcase Egyptian culture and art of different periods, the ambassador said.

Statue d'Hemiunu

The Egyptian Gazette du 11 avr 10 : Germany confirms loan of statue to Egypt…

Doubts over the loan cropped up after Zâhî Hawwâs, the flamboyant chief of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities who visited Germany last month, called for the statue and other Pharaonic treasures to return to Egyptian permanently. Hemiunu is believed to have been the architect of the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Gîza. The life-size statue, depicting him in nothing but a loin cloth, is the top draw at the Roman and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany. Hawwâs has regularly insisted he also wants Germany to return the Berlin bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Germans have shrugged off the appeals, saying they know of no official claim by the Egyptian government that the treasures are Egyptian property. Kristina ZAPPEN of the Hildesheim Museum said there had never been any official request from Cairo to give the statue back. She confirmed an agreement had been reached on the 2013 loan and she added that it provided for the statue to then return to Germany. Hildesheim was not even considering giving the statue back, she added. The whole museum collection was of honest provenance. “Every item in our collection arrived in Germany legally,” she said. If the Egyptian government were to officially question the statue’s ownership, the museum would have to reconsider the loan. “The whole thing would have to be thought out again,” she said. Hans-Joachim GEHRKE, president of the German Institute of Archaeology, has similarly insisted in the past that Cairo has never officially claimed the bust of Nefertiti, an exquisite plaster and limestone head of a woman.

The Franklin Institute: Cleopatra - the Search for the Last Queen of Egypt

The Egyptian Gazette du 4 juin 10 : Cleopatra show unveils new treasures…

In a glass case at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute two fragments of papyrus feature the handwriting of Cleopatra, the last Egyptian pharaoh whose legendary beauty has inspired artists and filmmakers. The document with the Greek inscription, “make it happen,” refers to a tax break for a friend of her husband Mark Antony. It is one of 150 artifacts in an exhibition featuring the latest discoveries in an intensifying search for her long-lost tomb. Some of the items in “Cleopatra - the Search for the Last Queen of Egypt” which runs until January, have never been on public display. “The story of Cleopatra has drama, trauma, sex, murder and war,” said John NORMAN, president of the show designer Arts and Exhibitions International. “What could be better than that?” The artifacts have been unearthed from the Egyptian town of Taposiris Magna. More recent recoveries are from deep in the Mediterranean Sea from the ancient cities of Heracleion and Canopus, where Cleopatra’s palace was destroyed by earthquakes and tidal waves some 2,000 years ago.

Visitors can view two 16-foot-high, red-granite statues of a king and queen from Cleopatra’s Ptolomaic dynasty. Nearby, a video shows pieces of the statues being lifted out of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of modern-day Alexandria. Gold necklaces, bracelets and earrings, a sculpted head of the son of Cleopatra and her lover Julius Caesar and slingshot bullets that could have been used by the Roman armies that ended Cleopatra’s reign from 69 to 30 B.C. are also on display. The exhibition tells the story of the woman who wooed two of the most powerful men in the Roman world, who won the loyalty of the Egyptian people by melding their traditional gods with those of her Greek culture, and who became educated in mathematics, medicine and foreign languages. It also describes her eventual suicide — an end she chose rather than submit to public humiliation at the hands of the Romans who defeated her.

The exhibition is divided into two parts — the underwater operation and the excavations at Taposiris Magna, the town 30 miles west of Alexandria where Zâhî Hawwâs, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, is leading the search for Cleopatra’s tomb. Hawwâs hopes his work will lead to the tomb, which would be “one of the most important archaeological discoveries in history.” Cleopatra’s enduring grip on the popular imagination is shown in artistic depictions of her over the centuries, and by Hollywood renditions of her story. Movie clips include Elizabeth TAYLOR playing Cleopatra in 1963, and Vivien LEIGH in the same role in 1945. Cleopatra is also credited as a model for women’s liberation, according to a commentary in the final section of the show. “The last of the pharaohs emerged as an emancipated modern woman — beautiful, intelligent, accomplished, powerful,” it says.

V - Thèmes généraux

Amendement de la loi 117/1983

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 5 juil 10 : Minister announces new antiquities guidelines…

Culture Minister Fârûq Husnî on Sunday issued a list of new regulations to be adopted by his ministry in line with guidelines laid out in the recently approved Egyptian Antiquity Protection Law. The 199-article antiquities law was ratified by the People’s Assembly on 15 February. Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Zâhî Hawwâs stated that some of the new regulations specifically pertained to the SCA. New directives, according to Hawwâs, include guidelines for defining what constitutes an “antiquity” per se; determining ownership of antiquities; regulating archaeological excavations; and specifying how antiquities should be inventoried, preserved and restored. Other regulations touch on tourism management at sites featuring antiquities and at Egyptian museums. The regulations also specify the fees to be charged for visiting these sites and photographing antiquities.

SCA legal adviser Ashraf al-‘Ashmâwî said the new list of directives represented the first of its kind pertaining to the new antiquities law. Hawwâs chose al-‘Ashmâwî to head a commission specifically mandated with developing the regulations. The commission, consisting of the directors of various SCA departments, along with financial, legal, management and antiquities experts, reportedly met 15 times within the last three months in order to finalize the new set of rules.

Annual Young Pharaoh summer festival

The Egyptian Gazette du 17 juin 10 : Young Pharaoh fest kicks off…

Under the auspices of Egypt’s First Lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubârak, the activities of the Annual Young Pharaoh summer festival started yesterday under the title of Crafts, Industries, and Technology. The festival, which runs until August 5, includes free visits for children to the nation’s museums with the purpose of creating a closer link between children and antiquities, Zâhî Hawwâs, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said. “This approach helps effect a change of the children’ behavior towards antiquities, which express a culture and civilization that must be protected and respected,” Hawwâs said. The event, he continued, also incorporates field visits to historic sites, where the children can have a first hand idea about the pharaonic arts, industries, and technologies, which affected the world’s civilizations. Meanwhile, Ingî Farîd, the head of the Council’s Culture Development Unit, says that this festival includes weekly workshops during which the nation’s children will know about pharaonic history and arts.

Nomination

The Egyptian Gazette du 3 avr 10 : Antiquity management unit established…

In compliance with the antiquities law, Culture Minister Fârûq Husnî ordered yesterday the setting up of a specialized unit that would be in charge of managing and registering privately owned relics. The unit, which will be headed by al-Husayn ‘Abd al-Basîr, will be receiving Egyptians who have antiquities to report their possessions to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zâhî Hawwâs, in six months. The law allows the possession of antiquities with some individuals, on condition that they cannot use them to benefit others, or to damage and neglect them. These relics can in future only be given as a gift with the Council’s authorization. They may also be passed on as part of an inheritance.

Restitutions archéologiques

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 14 avr 10 : Un premier pas est franchi…

Une première conférence internationale qui s’est tenue au Caire, avec pour principal but le retour aux pays d’origine des pièces antiques volées ou ayant une valeur historique importante, a permis de marquer un point. Lire la suite…

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 14 avr 10 : Batailles réussies…

Depuis son arrivée à la tête du CSA en 2002, Zâhî Hawwâs a fait de la restitution des antiquités qu’il qualifie de « volées » son cheval de bataille. Lire la suite…

The Egyptian Gazette du 9 avr 10 : Egypt, 25 nations to return antiquities…

Egypt’s antiquities chief has teamed up with 25 countries to press their campaigns to retrieve antiquities that were stolen and even those given as gifts, warning museums late Thursday that he would “make their lives miserable” if they refused his demands. Zâhî Hawwâs announced the expanded campaign at a news conference with officials from the US, Greece and Italy. By joining forces with other nations, he aims to add weight to an escalating campaign that even saw Egypt temporarily severing ties with the Louvre last year. “Greece was fighting alone, and Italy was fighting alone, now for the first time we are united. We will fight together,” said Hawwâs. “But I will tell you: Some of us will make the life of those museums that have our artifacts miserable.” Chief among the items Egypt wants back is the bust of Nefertiti, which is at Berlin’s Egyptian Museum. Egypt says it was shipped out of the country in 1913 on the basis of fraudulent papers. Egypt has also been seeking the Rosetta Stone, the slab of basalt with an inscription that was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was taken out of Egypt in 1799 during French colonial rule and is now at the British Museum in London. Hawwâs said a statue of Ramses from the Turin Museum in Italy was also on his “wish list.” He did not outline a specific strategy for retrieving the items. He said, however, that he was not threatening to cut ties with more museums refusing to return artifacts, as he did in the fight with the Louvre. Egypt is after items that it asserts were stolen and items that were once given as gifts, Hawwâs said.

Since becoming antiquities head in 2002, Hawwâs has recovered 5,000 artifacts, he says. In one of the most acrimonious fights, Hawwâs has repeatedly requested the return of a 3,200-year-old golden mask of a noblewoman from the St. Louis Art Museum and has since cut ties with the museum and called on people to boycott its collection. And in October 2009, Hawwâs cut ties with the Louvre, saying the museum had refused to return fragments illegally chipped from a tomb. Egypt suspended the Louvre’s excavation in the massive necropolis of Saqqâra, near Cairo. French officials quickly agreed to hand over the fragments and ties were restored. The British Museum said it had not received an official request for the permanent return of the Rosetta Stone, but that it was considering a request from Hawwâs for a short-term loan of the stone for the opening of the new museum in Gîza in 2012 or 2013. The American officials at Thursday’s announcement in Cairo wanted to signal they recognised the US is a major market for stolen relics, said Tonya FOX of the US delegation. In March, a 3,000-year-old wooden sarcophagus confiscated at the Miami airport was returned to Egypt. Other items are still held in New York including wooden coffins, pottery and ancient art pieces.

Other countries represented at the meeting said they had wish lists of their own. Greece said it wants the Parthenon marbles back from the British Museum, Libya wants the Apollo at Cyrene back from the British Museum, and Peru is in talks to retrieve the Machu Picchu collection that was loaned and remains in the Peabody Museum in Yale University. The process of repatriating cultural heritage is complicated by inadequate local and international laws and many museums maintain they acquire their artifacts legally and in a transparent manner. Determining whether an artifact has even been stolen requires delicate cooperation between government, law enforcement, museums and antiquities dealers. And frequently, there are gaps in the historical records.

Daily News Egypt du 7 avr 10 : Egypt forum on looted antiquities opens with call for unity…

Egyptian antiquities supremo Zâhî Hawwâs on Wednesday opened an international conference on recovering ancient artifacts from abroad, saying countries must unite to recover their stolen heritage. Read Full Story…

The Egyptian Gazette du 5 avr 10 : SCA to restore antiquities from Switzerland…

The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) head and the Ambassador of Switzerland will sign a protocol on Wednesday by which Egypt will restore many ancient relics from the European country. SCA Chairman Zâhî Hawwâs and Ambassador Dominick Fuzrgler will sign the agreement, which asks Switzerland to hand over the antiquities, which were taken illegally, to Egypt, said Imân al-Fâr, the Foreign Minister’s assistant for agreements and cultural protocols’ affairs. Hawwâs is stepping up demands for the restitution of many relics from many European museums including the Rosetta Stone on display in the British Museum and the bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin’s Neues museum.

États-Unis: sarcophage d'Imesy

Watanî du 22 avr 10 : Le sarcophage d’Emus restitué à l’Égypte…

Un sarcophage datant de 1081-931 avant J.-C. a été rendu à l’Égypte 125 ans après avoir quitté le pays illégalement. Un sarcophage pharaonique datant de la XXIe dynastie a été restitué samedi 13 mars à l’Égypte. D’après les autorités égyptiennes, le sarcophage a été sorti en contrebande du pays en 1884. Zâhî Hawwâs, qui a accompagné le sarcophage pendant le voyage de retour des États-Unis, a déclaré devant les journalistes que les négociations pour sa restitution avaient duré un an et demi. « Le sarcophage date de la XXIe dynastie », soit de 1081-931 avant J.-C., c’est « une époque pour laquelle nous avons relativement peu d’antiquités », a-t-il affirmé soulignant la rareté d’une telle pièce. Le sarcophage en bois est orné de textes religieux et d’images devant aider le défunt, un homme nommé Emus, dans son voyage après la mort, a été remis au chef des antiquités au cours d’une cérémonie à la Société géographique nationale à Washington mercredi 10 mars.

Le sarcophage sera la pièce centrale d’une exposition qui aura lieu à partir du 7 avril au Musée Égyptien, a expliqué le chef des Antiquités égyptiennes. L’Égypte avait demandé en 2009 la restitution du sarcophage aux États-Unis. Le Service américain de l’immigration et des douanes avait confisqué le cercueil, à Miami en Floride, à un négociant espagnol qui cherchait à le vendre mais n’avait aucun document prouvant l’authenticité du sarcophage, avait déclaré Hawwâs. Le chef du Conseil Suprême des Antiquités dit avoir récupéré 31.000 objets à l’étranger depuis son arrivée à la tête du CSA en 2002.

Musée du Louvre: Zodiaque de Dandara

Al-Ahram Hebdo du 23 juin 10 : Aventure d’un chef-d’œuvre…

Entre réalité et fantaisie, c’est l’impression qu’on put avoir en écoutant les thèses sur le zodiaque de Dandara et sa présence au Louvre. Lire la suite…

Neues Museum: Buste de Néfertiti

Daily News Egypt du 23 mai 10 : Nefertiti won’t come between us: German FM tells Egypt…

German Foreign Minister Guido WESTERWELLE assured Egypt on Saturday that a dispute over the ownership of a 3,400 year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti will not damage ties between the two countries. Read Full Story…

Neues Museum: Buste de Néfertiti

al-Masrî al-Yawm du 11 avr 10 : Waiting for Nefertiti…

Thousands of artifacts are now returning to Egypt from abroad, but one piece continues to elude decades of government calls for its return: the famous bust of Nefertiti. The bust has become such a contentious symbol that a copy of it is now part of an exhibition at the Ruhr Museum in Germany dubbed “The Great Game: Archaeology and Politics in the Colonial Period,” open until 13 June. Read Full Story…

Suisse: orteil d’Akhenaton

Watanî du 18 avr 10 : Un orteil d’Akhenaton regagne l’Égypte…

Un scientifique suisse a remis à l’Égypte un doigt de pied de la momie du pharaon Akhenaton, père du légendaire Toutankhamon, a annoncé le Conseil Suprême des Antiquités (CSA). L’orteil dérobé en 1907 lors d’un examen des ossements a été remis lors d’une cérémonie de signature au Caire d’un accord entre l’Égypte et la Suisse destiné à faciliter la restitution d’antiquités, a déclaré le CSA. « Maintenant que l’orteil est de retour en Égypte, il sera exposé au Musée égyptien du Caire », écrit le CSA dans un communiqué, en assurant qu’il provient bien du squelette d’Akhenaton retrouvé dans la Vallée des Rois, près de Louxor. (…) L’ambassade de Suisse au Caire a pour sa part indiqué que la relique provenant « très probablement » des restes d’Akhenaton a été remise au chef du CSA, Zâhî Hawwâs, par Frank RÜHLI, un scientifique de l’université de Zurich spécialiste des momies. Il s’agit d’une « initiative privée de la part de ce scientifique qui a, grâce à ses contacts personnels », récupéré l’orteil « dans un autre pays européen », a déclaré un diplomate, sans préciser de quel pays il s’agissait. « Il ne s’agit donc pas d’une restitution par le gouvernement suisse », a-t-il ajouté.

Depuis 2002 la Suisse est le 16e pays à signer avec l’Égypte un accord sur la restitution des antiquités sorties illégalement. « Ce nouvel accord est d’autant plus important que de nombreuses antiquités volées en Égypte passent par la Suisse », a souligné le CSA dans son communiqué. L’Égypte, qui fait du retour de ses antiquités dispersées à travers le monde une grande cause nationale, a organisé la semaine dernière une conférence internationale sur ce sujet. Aucune des six pièces réclamées en priorité par Le Caire — au premier rang desquelles un buste de Néfertiti exposé à Berlin et la pierre de Rosette détenue par le British Museum — n’est toutefois présente en Suisse. L’ambassade helvétique a précisé que cet accord n’était pas rétroactif et se basait sur la convention de l’Unesco de 1970 sur la protection des antiquités et la lutte contre les trafics illicites. Il permet ainsi de mieux « protéger l’acquisition de biens culturels achetés de bonne foi », souligne l’ambassade. Le CSA rappelle quant à lui qu’au cours des dernières années la Suisse a déjà rendu « des centaines de pièces », dont un oeil du pharaon Amenhotep III pris sur une statue à Louxor et exposé à Bâle. « Ce nouvel accord va permettre à l’Égypte de récupérer tous les objets présents illégalement en Suisse ».

Temple d'Idfû

Son & lumière

Al-Ahram Weekly du 17 juin 10 : Paying nightly homage to Horus…

The new sound-and-light show at Idfû Temple is a spectacular addition to Egypt’s many fine existing shows, writes Ingrid WASSMANN. Read Full Story…


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