Ancient Egypt News 10/07/2019

Emulation Hall: Egypt Style for Sale in Canterbury at Old Masonic Hall
Ian CurrieSource:News Limited

A former Masonic temple that wouldn’t look out of place on the streets of Cairo is for sale in Melbourne’s leafy east.

The 1927-28 Emulation Hall is sure to catch buyers’ eyes, being decked out in Egyptian motifs including gold-winged scarab beetles, sacred serpents, astrological symbols, lotus flowers, winged discs and “the eye of Horus”.

This “rare and distinctive” Egyptian Revival style saved the Canterbury curiosity from imminent demolition in 2012, earning it heritage status for being of architectural, historical and aesthetic significance to Victoria, according to the Heritage Database.

Hieroglyphs in Scripophily Deciphered !
Crédit Agricole d'Egypte 1 Share of 4 Egyptian Pounds, 1951 

Antique securities from companies that operated in Egypt were typically illustrated with pharaonic themes and hieroglyphs. Standing on their own as true pieces of artwork, their mysterious designs made possible investors dream of promising outcomes. People bought these share certificates in the 19th and 20th century when the stock exchanges of Alexandria and Cairo flourished. But are the hieroglyphs on these certificates actually legible?

New Books in Egyptology (July-August 2019)

Every two months the Nile Scribes update our readers on the most recent Egyptological publications. From popular reads to peer-reviewed scholarship, we hope to illustrate the wide variety of topics discussed in Egyptology, and perhaps introduce you to your next read! Below are 10 books that were released this summer (July and August).

• Writing, Violence, and the Military: Images of Literacy in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt (1550-1295 BCE)
• Greco-Roman Cities at the Crossroads of Cultures: The 20th Anniversary of Polish-Egyptian Conservation Mission Marina el-Alamein
• Perfekt, Pseudopartizip, Stativ: Die afroasiatische Suffixkonjugation in sprachvergleichender Perspektive
• Le temple de Ptah à Karnak III
• The Egyptian Collection at Norwich Castle Museum: Catalogue and Essays 
• The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon: Coffin Texts Spells 154–160
• New Horizons: The Pan-Grave ceramic tradition in context
• Stone Tools in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
• The Tekenu and Ancient Egyptian Funerary Ritual
• The naos of Amasis: A monument for the reawakening of Osiris

Several Missions Launched for the New Archaeological Season in Luxor

The new archaeological season has begun, showing promise in Luxor, the capital of world tourism. There are currently five archaeological missions, including three Egyptian missions, one Spanish, and one American conducting excavations there. Several new mission and

projects have been approved for the new season.
Luxor is known for its rich tombs and pharaonic temples, which all seem like they will see a strong tourist season.

An Eerie Egyptian Burial Found With Nonsense Hieroglyphs on The Coffin
J. Dąbrowski/Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology

Note: What the Petrie Museum had to say about this article on their 'unofficial' Facebook page: The discovery of this cemetery is very interesting, but nonsense hieroglyphs really aren't unusual despite the way this is reported. There are many examples during mature Egyptian dynasties, and this burial is from the Graeco-Roman period. The use of blue is also interesting as black would have been a much more accessible ('cheaper') colour, so maybe not quite such a non-elite burial.

When ancient burials are discovered in the sands of Egypt, the stories we hear are usually similar. High-ranking officials and nobles buried with rich grave goods, elaborate coffins, and often cartouches naming the deceased, so we know who they were. But a recent discovery paints a rather different picture.

Archaeologists have found dozens of 2,000-year-old burials near the necropolis of Saqqara that are much more minimal, even clumsy. Perhaps this is the resting place for people from the working or middle class, rather than the elite.

Ruins of Ptolemy IV Temple Unearthed in Sohag

The ruins of a temple belonging to King Ptolemy IV have been unearthed during an excavation at Kom Shaqao, Sohag by a mission from the Antiquities Ministry.

Parts of the ruins had been discovered by chance during the supplying of sewage lines in the city of Tama, Sohag early in September.

The Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa al-Waziry said in a statement on the ministry’s official Facebook page that the sewage work was immediately stopped by a task team from the Ministry of Antiquities, assigned to conduct archaeological excavations in the area.

An Unforgettable Trip at Online Casinos With Doom Of Egypt

Pack your bags for a memorable trip to ancient Egypt by Play ‘n Go which is the best to bring you on this Egyptian adventure. Doom of Egypt is a combination of several Ancient Egyptian themed slots produced by Play’ n GO throughout the years. The amazing theme is among the most well-known in the world of online slots. Ancient Egypt portrays a time of exuberance, of astonishing riches and hidden treasures. They have successfully given us Egypt-themed slots like Leprechaun Goes Egypt, Legacy of Egypt and, of course, the biggest hit and the all-time favorite Book of Dead.

Archaeologists Reveal the Face of an Egyptian Princess

Archaeologists have revealed the face of an Egyptian princess who lived almost 4,000 years ago by painstakingly piecing together the wooden shards of her sarcophagus.

The fragments expose the likeness of a royal, possibly Princess Hatshepset, daughter of Pharoah Ameny Qemau, who lived towards the end of Egypt's Middle Kingdom.

Her image will be seen for the first time on Channel 4's Egypt's Lost Pyramid programme, which follows the two-year excavation and study of the royal's final resting place.

Amazing Ram-Headed Sphinx Linked to King Tut’s Grandfather Discovered in Egypt
Robert Mittelstaedt/Gebel el Silsila Project

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a large ram-headed sphinx that is linked to King Tutankhamun’s grandfather.

The sphinx, which is 16.4-feet long, 11.5-feet high and 5-feet wide, was found beneath several feet of debris at Gebel-el-Silsila, an ancient quarry on the Nile. Only its head was visible prior to excavation.

The sculpture is believed to be from the time of King Tut’s grandfather, the pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled in the 14th century B.C.

Unpacking 19th Dynasty Coffin (video)

The unpacking of the 19th Dynasty coffin of Sennedjem upon arrival at the National museum of Egyptian Civilization.(NMEC) The fumigation of his mummy.

Ancient Egypt January 21 2019

The Crafty Historian Bringing Ancient Socks to Life
These socks, made in Egypt in the fourth or fifth century arenow in the Victoria and Albert Museumr. DAVID JACKSON/CC-BY-SA 2.0

SOCKS AND SANDALS. The combo might elicit cruel jabs from footwear snobs today, but people been rocking it since ancient times. In the eighth century B.C., for instance, the Greek poet Hesiod instructed contemporaries to wear piloi, something soft and matted, under their sandals. Sometime around the year 300, a kid was running around near the ancient city of Antinoupolis, in Egypt, with his or her foot stuffed into a striped sock split into two, kind of like mittens for the feet—the big toe in one part, and the four other little piggies in the other. That socked foot was likely strapped into a sandal.

The Treasure Vault of Ancient Egypt

Many of you know or have at least heard of the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London or the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I wonder though how many people have heard about the museum which has the largest collection of the artifacts of ancient Egyptian civilisation. I am talking about the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, popularly known as the Egyptian Museum.

NKU Scientists, Students Using New Technology To Find Out More About How Child Mummy Died

Scientists and students at Northern Kentucky University will get an up-close look at our ancient past and hopefully clear up some mysteries.

On Thursday, NKU's Health Innovation Center will use its newest technology to scan the mummy of a child from ancient Egypt that belongs to the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Scientists hope the new images can give them clues about how the child died.

Damage to Ancient Carving of Egyptian Couple Was Meant to Hurt Them in the Afterlife

The faces and hieroglyphs on this 3,500-year-old carving were destroyed by someone in ancient times. Credit: ©GM - Tell Edfu Project 2018

An intentionally damaged limestone carving found within a 3,500-year-old shrine at Tell Edfu, in southern Egypt, shows what appears to be an ancient couple who someone tried to vanquish in the afterlife.

The carving depicts a man and woman standing beside each other, with hieroglyphic inscriptions giving their names and occupations. "The faces of the couple were [damaged]," and hieroglyphic writing on the carving had been "scratched out," Nadine Moeller, the director of the Tell Edfu Project, told Live Science. "Erasing a private person's name in ancient Egypt is usually a sign of someone wanting to erase the memory of this person and therefore obliterate their existence in the afterlife," explained Moeller, who is also a professor at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.

Tut Comics

Ancient lands. Endless mystery. One kid just trying to survive Ancient Egypt. Follow to catch a new comic every single day!

Conservation at the Abydos Middle Cemetery
 Abydos Temple Credit: ©Michalea Moore

Happy New Year! My January has gotten off to a good start, because I spent most of December working at the beautiful site of Abydos, Egypt. Abydos is an ancient Egyptian royal cemetery site, and the Kelsey has a field research project there, directed by museum curator Janet Richards. We have a number of special conservation projects at Abydos, and the one I’m most closely involved with focuses on preservation of painted wood artifacts at the site.

Upper Egypt's Dendera Temple to be converted into open-air museum

In collaboration with a French archaeological mission, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities is developing the area around the Dendera Temple complex near Luxor into an open-air museum.

Roman tombs discovered in Egypt's Dakhla Oasis

Two Roman tombs have been uncovered during excavation work at Beer El-Shaghala site in Mut village in Dakhla Oasis.

The walls of the two uncompleted tombs are painted in bright colours with religious scenes.

Archaeologists find Rome-era tombs in Egypt's Western Desert - The Republic

Roman-era tombs filled with human remains and adorned with colorful funeral paintings ... - Daily Mail

Egypt uncovers 2 Roman tombs in Western Desert's oasis - Xinhua

Philip Glass's Akhnaten 

Akhnaten is a mesmerising work whose text draws on ancient hymns, prayers and inscriptions sung in their original Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian. The opera’s unique mood will transport you to the ancient world through music that combines Glass’s characteristic minimalist voice with stylised movement and choreographed juggling to visualise the rhythms of his score.


Note: This site contains a production video and gallery.

Tomb of Antony and Cleopatra to be Uncovered Soon
Courtesy of Wikipedia: Taporsiris Magna- Egypt; taken by Ehab Samy

“The long-lost tomb of Antony and Cleopatra will be eventually uncovered. The burial site has been finally estimated to be in the region of Taposiris Magna, 30 kilometersaway from Alexandria,” Egyptian archaeologist ZahiHawass said in a statement during Palermo Conference.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions discovered in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian archaeologists discovered a hieroglyphic inscription illustrating the signature of King Ramses III, one of the kings of Pharaonic Egypt.

Al-Arabiya channel broadcasted the discovery of the inscriptions in Tayma in Northern Saudi Arabia,one of the largest archaeological sites in the kingdom and the Arabian Peninsula.

Today in History: Pyramid Restorers Ditch Modern Tech For Ancient Restoration Methods

The Djoser Pyramid, Egypt's oldest pyramid, has been undergoing restoration for years. Image: So Hing-Keung/ Corbis, retrieved from Smithsonian Magazine.

On this day in 1984, an international panel overseeing the restoration of the Great Pyramids in Egypt overcomes years of frustration when it abandons modern construction techniques in favour of the method employed by the ancient Egyptians.

Ancient Egypt May 28

Agatha Christie: world’s first historical whodunnit was inspired by 4,000 year-old letters

When the ancient Egyptian priest and landowner Heqanakhte wrote a series of rather acerbic letters to his extended family sometime during the 12th Dynasty (1991-1802BC), he could not have known that he was creating the framework around which the British crime writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976) would, some 4,000 years later, weave one of the world’s first historical crime novels.

Death Comes as the End (1944) is the only one of Christie’s novels not to be set in the 20th century and not to feature any European characters. The death of a priest’s concubine sets off a series of murders within the family and, as in Christie’s more familiar 20th-century whodunnits, the scene is soon littered with bodies. The book is due to be adapted for the screen by the BBC in 2019.

How did King Tutankhamun become a household name?

Out of all Ancient Egyptians, one Pharaoh remains a well-known figure today. And his continued prominence may be because of an an influential museum exhibition nearly fifty years ago. Treasures of Tutankhamun was an incredibly popular exhibition at the British Museum that promoted King Tut into public consciousness. ABC Overnights speaks to Secretary of the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society and Deputy Editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine Sarah Griffiths who saw the exhibition when she was a young girl.

Graduate student unearths ancient Egyptian life stories from burial texts

A UCLA student discovered that ancient Egyptians used material objects to construct their social identities just as people do today.

Marissa Stevens, a graduate student in the department of Near Eastern languages and cultures, studied how ancient Egyptians used funerary papyri to convey social status and personalities by examining social documents buried with the dead. Stevens presented her research May 3 at the final round of the University of California Grad Slam, an annual contest in which UC graduate students present their research in just three minutes.

Collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts seized in Naples, Italy

The artefacts had been stolen from illegal excavation sites in Egypt.

Police in Naples, Italy have seized a number of parcels filled with artefacts from several countries, including ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Tel Al-Amarna Visitors' Centre in Minya to receive upgrade

The Ministry of Antiquities has begun a project to develop the Amarna Visitors' Centre in Minya in partnership with the University of Cambridge's McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

The project is titled Delivering Sustainable Heritage Strategies for Rural Egypt: Community and Archaeology at Tel El-Amarna, and is funded by the Newton-Mosharafa Fund organised by the British Council and the Science and Technology Development Fund, according to Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities at Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.

Skeleton Found At Late Roman Fortress In Egypt Reveals Violent Death

At the Late Roman era fortress of Hisn al-Bab between ancient Egypt and Nubia, archaeologists recovered the skeleton of a young man who met a violent death and who was left exposed where he fell after the fort was destroyed. His remains may hold the key to understanding a previously undocumented battle.





Egypt: Old Kingdom by Clarus Victoria is now available on Steam!

Strategy simulator of the Great Pyramids construction period, where you take your path from the unification of Egyptian tribes to the foundation of The First Empire.

Deep historical research and stylized graphics - these two are the main features of Egypt Old Kingdom, the game made by Clarus Victoria Studio in cooperation with egyptologists from CESRAS (Center for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Science).

The player will lead a small group of Egyptians, who came to the Lower Egypt to found a new settlement. All he has is a minimal stock of food, a handful of people and a few soldiers as a protection from threats and wild animals.

Intriguing Gold Coin and Other Treasures Uncovered in Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed the remains of a huge, red, brick building — likely the remnants of a Roman bath — as well as a mountain of treasures, including a statue of a ram and a gold coin featuring King Ptolemy III, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.

Archaeologists discovered previously unknown hieroglyphic inscriptions in Egypt

Polish scientists discovered dozens of previously unknown hieroglyphic inscriptions on the rocks near the temple of Hathor at Gebelein, Southern Egypt. The inscriptions containing prayers to deities had been made by pilgrims or priests, the researchers say.

"The temple scribe Senebiu adores Hathor Lady of Gebelein" - reads one of the inscriptions discovered by a team of Polish scientists working at Gebelein. Like a few dozen others, it was engraved on a rock surface near the 3.5 thousand years old rock-cut chapel of the goddess Hathor.

Video of the week

Picture of the week

New Amenhotep III Statues at Kom El Hitan. Luxor's West Bank.

Ancient Egypt May 14 & 21

Bob Brier and the Hunt for the New York Obelisk

Bob Brier is arguably the world's most famous Egyptologist. Professor at Long Island University in New York, where he has tenure, he teaches both philosophy and Egyptology. A popular host on Learning Channel's Great Egyptians series, he was the first person since ancient times to mummify a human in the ancient Egyptian style. National Geographic's television special, Mr Mummy, caused its creator to be instantly dubbed ''Mr Mummy'', a nickname which stuck.

Earliest Version of Our Alphabet Possibly Discovered

The earliest example of our alphabet — a possible mnemonic phrase that helped someone remember "ABCD" — has been discovered on a 3,400-year-old inscribed piece of limestone from ancient Egypt, a scholar believes.

Three of the words start with the ancient equivalent of B, C and D, creating what may be a mnemonic phrase.

Archaeologists find remains of second century Roman-era temple in Egypt

Egypt says archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a temple dating back to the second century.

The antiquities ministry said on Thursday that the temple, which dates back to the reign of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, was found near the Siwa Oasis in the western desert. It includes the foundations of a large limestone building.

New Book Chronicles America’s First Female Egyptologist

A Missouri University of Science and Technology historian is telling the seemingly forgotten story of America’s first female Egyptologist.

Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, associate professor of history and political science at Missouri S&T, wondered why there was so little mention of the scholarly work of Dr. Caroline Ransom Williams, America’s first university-trained female Egyptologist, in archaeology’s published history. After all, Ransom Williams was a former student and longtime colleague of Dr. James Henry Breasted, the first American Egyptologist and founder of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

19TH DYNASTY TOMB OF RAMSES II'S 'GREAT ARMY LEADER' UNEARTHED IN SAQQARA

In a Tuesday statement by the Antiquities Ministry, the discovery of a 19th dynasty tomb belonging to Ramsis II's army general, named Iwrhya, was made public. The remains of who the Ministry referred to as a 'great army general' was dug up near the Saqarra burial complex on Cairo's outskirts.

The head of the excavation mission Ola Al-Aguizy said to Sky News Arabia that the tomb is relatively large, and contains material that indicate the general and his descendants maintained a rather high status in the Egyptian army then.

3,500-year-old bust of female pharaoh is centrepiece of RBCM Egyptian exhibit
Photograph By ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

Slowly and gingerly, a 3,500-year-old bust of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut was lifted into place with a pallet jack Monday at the Royal B.C. Museum. At 790 kilograms, the sandstone sculpture doesn’t leave much room for error.

How Millennia of Cleopatra Portrayals Reveal Evolving Perceptions of Sex, Women, and Race
Margaret Foley, Cleopatra, 1871-1876. Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

Cleopatra’s death has captivated artists for reasons alternately sensual, solemn, and deeply suspect. For many painters and sculptors over the past few millennia, the subject matter has offered an opportunity to perpetuate myths about the dangers of powerful women and render the female nude in an anguished, dramatic state. In Giampietrino’s Death of Cleopatra (c. 1515), for example, a snake (a phallic figure if there ever was one) bites the naked woman’s nipple—the painter eroticizes female demise.

Yet many portrayals of the Egyptian queen offer more than mere images of morbid sexuality. Altogether, these depictions reveal more about the times in which they were made than about Cleopatra herself.

Soon You May Be Able to Text with 2,000 Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Collaborations among Egyptologists and digital linguistics promise global visualizations of what was written on inscriptions, papyri, wall paintings, and other sources of Hieroglyphs. It may also allow for more popular knowledge of Egyptian Hieroglyphs and encourage its assimilation into popular language-learning apps like Duolingo.



Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds
March 25 - September 9, 2018

Note: I will post my photos from the exhibit later this week.

In 2018, the Saint Louis Art Museum will be the first North American art museum to tell the epic story of one of the greatest finds in the history of underwater archaeology, a story that revealed two lost cities of ancient Egypt submerged under the Mediterranean Sea for over a thousand years. World-renowned underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team discovered these submerged worlds and uncovered stunning ancient religious, ceremonial, and commercial artifacts, which has led to a greater understanding of life during the age of pharaohs.

Ancient Egypt January 8

Egypt recovers 3 ancient mummies from US
PROMario Sánchez Prada/Flickr

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Wednesday that it has recovered parts of three ancient mummies from the United States, which had been stolen and smuggled out of Egypt in the early 20th century.

The supervisor-general of the ministry’s repatriation department, Shaaban Abdel Gawad, said in a statement that “the ministry had succeeded following several diplomatic negotiations to recover three pieces of various ancient mummies.”

For more on this topic:

• Egyptian mummy fragments to be recovered from New York

• ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MUMMY'S SKULL AND DISMEMBERED HANDS TO BE RETURNED TO EGYPT 90 YEARS AFTER BEING TAKEN TO THE U.S

Ancient Egypt VIII: Ancient Egyptians initiate world literature
‘Sinuhe’ story papyrus – Wikimedia Commons

January 2018: Prominent archaeologist and author, Enas El Shafie, traced the origins of Ancient Egyptian history in a TV interview with Ibrahim Hegazy, aired on state-owned TV.

El Shafie has introduced evidence to illustrate how world literature was inspired by Ancient Egyptian heritage, including the stories of Snow White and Cinderella, and narrative poems, like Divine Comedy and Iliad.

Dawn of Egyptian Writing
(Alberto Urcia, Elkab Desert Survey Project)

Archaeologists have discovered an oversized inscription that offers a new glimpse into the early development of the Egyptian writing system. A team led by Yale University Egyptologist John Darnell found the hieroglyphs on a cliff face within view of a desert road north of the ancient city of Elkab. Dating to around 3250 B.C., they were carved during Dynasty 0, a period when the Nile Valley was divided into competing kingdoms and scribes were just beginning to master writing.

BEYOND THE NILE: EGYPT AND THE CLASSICAL WORLD

Ring with portrait of a Ptolemy wearing the Egyptian double crown, about 186 - 145 B.C., gold.
Musée du Louvre. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski.

“Beyond the Nile is the first exhibition to provide a comprehensive overview – spanning more than two thousand years – of Egypt’s interactions with the classical world. It is an unprecedented compilation of works of art from the Bronze Age to the late Roman Empire, drawn from the major museums of Europe and America, as well as the Getty’s own collection,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum and one of the curators of the exhibition. “From trade, exchange, and artistic borrowings to diplomacy, immigration, and warfare, the cultures and histories of these two civilizations were intimately intertwined for millennia. The monuments and art that resulted provide spectacular evidence of how profoundly these so different cultures affected each other, and indeed the global culture we share today.”

Remains of royal ancient Egyptian artefacts uncovered in Tel Al-Pharaeen

At least one of the pieces uncovered in Kafr El-Sheikh dates to the reign of King Psamtik I.

An Egyptian excavation mission has discovered remains of mud-brick walls and several artefacts that can be dated to different periods of the ancient Egyptian era as well as four furnaces from the Late Period (664-332 BCE) during excavation work carried out in Tel Al-Pharaeen archeological site known as “ancient Buto” in the Kafr Al-Sheikh Governorate.

Scan technique reveals secret writing in mummy cases

Researchers in London have developed scanning techniques that show what is written on the papyrus that mummy cases are made from.

These are the decorated boxes into which the wrapped body of the deceased was placed before it was put in a tomb.

See also Egypt mummy can ‘LIVE FOREVER’ after breakthrough discovery

Verdi’s Ode to Ancient Egypt, ‘Aida’
(Credit: Metropolitan Opera)

Premiering on December 24, 1871, at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo, Egypt, Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” is one of opera’s best-loved and most enduring works. Verdi was commissioned by Isma’il Pasha, who was governor of Egypt, in celebration of the opening of Egypt’s Khedivial Opera House, although the premiere was delayed due to complications from the temporary capture of Paris by Prussian forces.

9 Photos of Extraordinary Mummies, Ancient and Modern
PHOTOGRAPH BY KENNETH GARRETT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

From thousand-year-old crocodiles to a 20th-century pneumonia victim, these preserved remains tell remarkable stories about life and death.

“There was something strangely touching about her fingertips,” author Chip Brown noted in his impression of the 2,500-year-old mummy of Hatshepsut in our 2009 article on the ancient Egyptian queen. “Everywhere else about her person all human grace had vanished."

SECRETS OF GREAT PYRAMID’S HIDDEN VOID MAY BE REVEALED BY TINY FLYING ROBOT
View of the Great Pyramid from Mena House © Michalea Moore 2017

In November, researchers announced they had used cosmic rays to discover (or maybe more like rediscover) a big, empty space inside the largest of the pyramids located in Giza, Egypt. A team of French robotics researchers is building a tiny blimp that could let scientists peer inside the void and other spaces that are difficult to access.

Picture of the week

Modernized versions of ancient Egyptian art created by Anton Batov, an illustrator based in Moscow, Russia. Thanks to Lyn Green and Pharonoic Phunnies.