Strolling on the Avenue of Sphinxes

Originally published February 11, 2010 | Al-Ahram Weekly Online | by Nevine El-Aref | Tourists will soon be able to see two sections of the Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor looking much as they did in the days of the Pharaohs. Nevine El-Aref takes a stroll down the path of priests and princes in her very detailed article regarding this very exciting excavation program.

Photo - Philae Temple

Originally published October 16, 2009 | Zahi Hawass' Photo Blog | photo credited to the SCA

The temple of Isis at Philae is one of the most beautiful and best preserved Greco-Roman temples in Egypt. Most of the temple was built by the Ptolemaic rulers as part of their promotion of the cult of Isis, which lasted well into the Roman Period. In the 1970’s the temple was relocated to preserve it from the rising waters resulting from the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Movie Trailer - Agora

Accessed August 31, 2009 | Mania | by Jarrod Sarafin

My twin (well, really my triplet, I'm already a twin) has a new moving coming out in theaters (hopefully very soon because I've been waiting for this for almost a year!) called Agora.

The following is the plot for the movie:

4th century A.D. Egypt under the Roman Empire... Violent religious upheavel in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city's famous Library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer Hypatia and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the Ancient World... Among them, the two men competing for her heart: The witty, priviliged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia's young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.

Rachel is such an amazingly intelligent actress (and person) and seemingly every nice (she'll get down on her knees to talk to someone who is not mobile enough to get up out of their chair...and in heels!)...and the movie looks spectacular to boot! I wait in thorough anticipation for this to come to a theater near me, particularly to the Chicago Film Festival, where I'm hoping this will be the featured movie opening night (because that would bring her back to Chicago, where I could see her again).

Egyptian Funerary Art Upstages Americana At The Cobbs Sale

Originally published July 28, 2009 | Antiques and the Arts Online | by Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

This article features a blurb about the auction of a Roman Era wooden portrait. As Indiana Jones would say, "It belongs in a museum."

The highlight was not early American, however, but early Egyptian — a Fayum sarcophagus portrait of a woman provoked a competition among nine phone bidders and only ended when it went to one for $143,750. The Egyptian painting dates to the Roman First Century AD and depicts a woman with earrings and two necklaces. It came from a Peterborough collector whose husband purchased it in New York City in the 1960s. It was accompanied by a letter verifying the purchase because the original receipt had not been located at the time of the auction. The portrait went to a London dealer buying for a client.

Curator's Diary - June 26

Originally published June 26, 2009 | Egypt at the Manchester Museum

This blog post announces the completion and near completion of reboxing, photographing and cataloging collections of glass and other fragile artifacts, which include pieces from Antinoe during the Roman Period and Amarna. The author also gives lips service to future plans for the Ancient World galleries.

Book: Oneiric Empire

Accessed June 9, 2009 | Forum Egypte | by Cédric B.

This new (French) book, posted at Forum Egypte and Kymera-Drakosia-Outworld follows the story of an archaeologist and his team, which launches into a fantasy when they find a temple on the Giza Plateau, inside which the former finds himself in the land of Ancient Egypt, during Cleopatra VII's time.

Both sites are in French.

Remains of Isis Temple Found

Originally published May 28, 2009 | ANSA - Italy

Workmen digging a hole inside Florence's courthouse for a new water cistern end up finding a spiral column and multicolored fragments once belonging to a Roman temple built for Isis and date to the 2nd century AD. The fragments are comparable to others found close by, within the last three centuries.