As the director of the Egyptian section of the Neues Museum in Berlin prepares to meet next month with Egyptian officials regarding the future of the bust of Nefertiti, both sides are beginning to hint at what evidence they may offer to support their respective positions. 
October has come and gone and it’s time to review our checklist of things Dr. Zahi Hawass had “promised, hinted, and suggested” would occur during—if not before—last month. So how did he do?
It is kind of hard to say someone had a bad month when they successfully reclaimed five artifacts from the Louvre and were appointed Vice Minister of Culture. So call me a taskmaster, but those two things were not on the list…
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Tags: Alexandria, Ankhesenamun, Bust of Nefertiti, Carter House, Cleopatra VII, Forensic Mummy Studies, Genetic Mapping, Howard Carter, KV64, Louvre, Ludwig Borchardt, Queen Tiye, Ramesses VIII, Repatriation, Tetaki, Tombs of the Nobles, TT15, Tutankhamun, Zahi Hawass
Almost everybody knows what the Great Sphinx of Giza is, but how much do we really know about it? In this article we will be looking at the role of sphinxes in Egyptian mythology—what they are, what they mean, and what they did. We will also be taking an in depth look at the history of the Great Sphinx. Who may have built it and why? When was it built? Do we really know?
We have a status report on the effort to repatriate Nefertiti, thanks to 
The University of Zurich’s Swiss Mummy Project, headed by anatomist and paleopathologist Dr. Frank Ruhli , has succeeded in mummifying a human leg. Well, two legs, actually. Ok, to be honest, the test subject didn’t go so well, so I guess it was one leg after all. 
The French Culture Ministry has agreed to return the fragments taken from the wall of a tomb located in the Tombs of the Nobles section of the Theban Necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River, across from the city of Luxor. The tomb (TT 15) belonged to Tetaki, an Eighteenth Dynasty official, and depicted his journey to the afterlife. The fragments were removed in 1980 and purchased in 2000 and 2003 by the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities has drawn a line in the sand in another fight for the repatriation of artifacts. France’s Louvre Museum has been told in effect to stay out of Egypt until they return four stelae that have been connected to the looting of an Eighteenth Dynasty noble tomb. 
October just got busier for Egypt’s prize fighter, Zahi Hawass, as another contender steps forward. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has taken up the cause of one of his subordinates at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), charging Hawass with using his position to muzzle dissenting opinions.
Mummies are always a source of wonder. Whether your interest is academic, spiritual, or just plain macabre, you can’t pass a good mummy by. 
If you already thought October was going to be exciting for Egyptology, then dig this! Dr. Zahi Hawass says that new work in the search for the tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Antony will begin this October.
For obvious reasons, the primary source for what is going on in Egyptology is the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and the voice of the SCA is Dr. Zahi Hawass. Some exciting things have been promised (or at least dangled before us!) for the 2009/10 excavation season, but not everything on the radar is being dug out of the ground. There are mummy forensic studies, DNA tests, and the repatriation of artifacts, all of which play a role in Egyptology.
Dra Abu el-Naga is a sort of suburb, if you will, of the Valley of the Kings where some tombs belonging to Seventeenth Dynasty royalty (such as Queen Ahhotep I, to the left) have been discovered, along with the tombs of Theban priests and officials.
For weeks now you have been reading here at Em Hotep! about the genetic testing done on two fetuses found in the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter in 1922, and the implications this may have for the genetic mapping of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Well, Zahi Hawass in the Valley of the Kings: Part 2 has been posted. This time we are looking at some of the artifacts his team has recovered from the current excavations in the Central Valley area.
