I've just been away from the old personal space for a weekend, this time for a conference on Egyptology called "Egypt Revealed" which outlined the lastest discoveries on a number of current archaeological projects. It was orchestrated by Seven Wonders, who are an American firm who organise archaeological conferences and holdiays, and was hosted by the Institute of Archaeology at UCL Bloomsbury London.

Speaking at the conference were four of the top feild Egyptologists, Dr. Kent Weeks, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Dr. Mark Lehner and Dr. Salima Ikram. Below are a few notes i made while i was there, on their various projects, and links to their own resorses.

Animal Mummy Project

Salima Ikram's Animal Mummy Project is based at the Cairo Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, without doubt the most impressive and important collection in the world, no matter what your own national galleries contain it's a mere advert for the stuff they've got here. And in a way that's been the downfall of the Animal Mummy collection, amidst the treasures of the city of Akenaten, the tomb of Tut-Anhk-Amun, the Fayoum portraits and the Royal Mummy collections a few animal mummies were somewhat insignificant, and have not received the care and attention that they perhaps deserved. When Dr. Ikram came to the collection (to be found in gallery 53 on the first floor of the museum) she found them in need of emergency conservation measures, and surprisingly unresearched, and so the Animal Mummy Project was born. The most thorough investigation of faunal mummification undertaken and a wholesale renovation of the museums collection. Mummies are cleaned, stabilised, examined, x-rayed and redisplayed, information has been gleaned about mummification methods, animal populations, species distributions, disease and veterinary practice, domestication, breeding and killing programs, sacred and social practices, changes in climate and habitat and much more. Of course, like all research this project is expensive, but unlike many projects, this has no major sponsors and so every little helps. If you'd like to sponsor the conservation of a mummy, or learn more about the projects work or findings check out their Animal Mummy Project website.

Bahariya Oasis: Valley of the Golden Mummies

Bahariya Oasis was an obscure site with a few long since plundered and destroyed temples and tombs until in 1996 a passing donkey fell into a hole in the ground uncovering a cache of previously undisturbed burials. When the Giza Director of Archaeology Dr. Zahi Hawass arrived at the site he could hardly of expected what he found, the largest deposit of mummy burials ever recorded, whole cemeteries previously untouched, and for the last five years the site has continued to reward Dr Hawass' work. Dubbed "The Valley of the Golden Mummies" the site has become famous for large numbers of Greco-Roman mummies, not with Fayoum style portrait boards, but with gilded face masks more akin to Persian burials. But the finds have been much richer than just this. Mass catacombs and family tombs contain burials from all social classes with according varieties of mummification style, earlier decorated tombs from the XXVI Dynasty (Saite Period) complete with sarcophagi, and the recent discovery of The Tomb of the Crying Children and the family tomb of the Governor of Bahariya (or Zezes as it was known). Zahi Hawass' homepage "The Plateau" can be found using the usual search engines, but is unfortunately too temperamental to link to.

Anyone who wants to know more should check out Mark Lehner's Giza Plateau Mapping Project; Salima Ikram's Kharga Oasis Mapping Project; and Kent Week's Theban Mapping Project

These links are actually working now too!