Perfume, Restoration, and Repatriation

Ptah-Sokar-Osiris and Treating Painted Surfaces

As a conservation intern working in the Artifact Lab, I was able to go shopping through shelves of Egyptian objects and scope out interesting treatment projects. A painted wood statue, depicting the composite god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, immediately caught my eye. The figure has intricate painted designs decorating the mummiform figure and its base, as well as gilded details in the face and headdress.

Tut comes to Downton Abbey

Well, really to Highclere Castle, which is where Downton was filmed. Highclere was the home of Lord Carnarvon. Yes, THAT Lord Carnarvon was the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. The 8th Earl and Countess have opened a new Egyptian Exhibition throughout the cellars of the Castle to celebrate the 5th Earl’s achievements.

Egypt Welcomes Archeological Conservation, Exhibition With China
Photo: Akwe

Excavation works and artifact discoveries have recently flourished in Egypt and China, Tarek Tawfik, general director and head supervisor of the still under-construction Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The Middle East perfume that dates back 5,000 years
Photo by Irene de Rosen

If Paris is the capital of modern perfume then the Middle East, notably Mesopotamia and Egypt, were the hub in ancient times, stretching back 5,000 years.

Le Grand Musée du Parfum in Paris charts some of that period with maps showing the sources and routes of myrrh, olibanum (frankincense), cinnamon, saffron and

Ministry of Antiquities January Newsletter

Click on the link in the title to read it.

Teaching Egyptians to read ancient plants: Pioneering the field of archaeobotany in Egypt

Sherief Abdellatif Elshafaey Attia sits alone in a lab surrounded by cupboards filled with desiccated plants in the herbarium at Helwan University’s Department of Botany and Microbiology. He is currently the only Egyptian botanist in Egypt who examines millennia-old plant remains to understand the ancient Egyptian environment, its diets and food economies.

National Museum cracks Egyptian treasure riddle after 160 years

Missing fragments of an ancient Egyptian treasure have been reunited with the rest of the remains – 160 years after the item was donated to a Scottish museum. Experts said they have been able to shed new light on the origins of a perfume box believed to be around 3,400 years old thanks to the recovery of two lost pieces.

Five ancient Egyptian artefacts smuggled to US repatriated

Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs repatriated on Monday five late pharaonic-era artefacts which had been smuggled to, and recently recovered in the US, General Supervisor of the Antiquities Repatriation Department Shabaan Abdel-Gawad told Ahram Online.

Swedish Mission discovers 12 new tombs

The Swedish mission from Lund University at Gebelel Silsila, south of Luxor, in Upper Egypt led by Dr. Maria Nilsson and John Ward, discovered 12 rock cut tombs from the reign of the New Kingdom kings Thutmose III and Amenhotep II.

Also Three crypts cut into the rock, two niches possibly used for offering, one tomb containing
multiple animal burials, and three individual infant burials, along with other associated material.

Son of  Sekhmet?