During routine excavation work carried out by an Egyptian archaeological mission in the front courtyard at Karnak, part of the Karnak Temples site management project for the area enclosed between the temples and the Nile, a 250-metre-long embankment used to protect Karnak from the Nile flood was discovered, along with a quay, baths and a settlement.

A rare mummified child from the early period of Egyptian history was discovered buried with a bright green amulet stone once believed to hold magical powers, according to a new study. The finds help to explain why hieroglyphics and historical texts record that Egyptian children wore green eye makeup. It also adds to the growing body of evidence that ancient Egyptians thought color itself held sacred energy that could help or hurt individuals.

Using a hospital scanner, scientists were able to peer inside her closed casket, and see through the layers of linen that protected her mummified features. Meresamun is thought to have worked and lived in the temple of Thebes around 800BC. According to the inscription she was a priestess-musician who served as a ‘Singer in the Interior of the Temple of Amun’. The scans suggest she was about 5ft 5in and in her late 20s or early 30s when she died.

The Manchester Museum launched the consultation last year after the venue covered up three unwrapped mummies sparking accusations of 'political correctness'. Two months after the cover-up the museum did a u-turn and left one of the exhibits partially unwrapped in its original display state, while another was left partially covered, leaving its head, hands and feet exposed.

There are German newspaper reports citing a secret report of the "Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft" which states that the division of finds of Tell el-Amarna which included the bust of Nefertiti has been done "under unfair conditions". Ludwig Borchardt, the excavator of the bust, "tried to save the bust" for the Berlin Museum.

Egyptian archaeologists say they have discovered 30 mummies inside a 2,600-year-old tomb, in the latest round of excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara south of Cairo. Egypt's chief archeologist, Zahi Hawas, says the new tomb was found Sunday at the bottom of an 11-meter deep well. Eight of the mummies were in sarcophagi and the rest had been placed in niches in the wall. See also: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/6253732.html (with picture)

The work undertaken by the Franco- Egyptian Research Centre of Karnak Temples (CFEETK) in 2008 was slightly different from in previous years. Last year's study focussed on restoration more than excavation. The site that took up much of the centre's attention was the Osirian cults and featured the chapel of Osiris Wennefer Neb-Djefau, the path of Ptah and the neighbouring chapels of Osiris Neb-Neheh and Nebankh-Pa-Usheb-Iad, as well as the temples of Osiris from Coptos, Opet and Khonsu.

The site of Tel Basta is filled with the ruins of temples and statues, and is surrounded by houses and roads. A new visitors' centre has been built at Tell-Basta to explain the site, a safe zone around the site has been created and the temple reconstructed.

There are lots of reports, fotos and videos about the opening of the sarcophagi found recently at Saqqara:
http://tinyurl.com/b6va9h
http://tinyurl.com/clwzcl
http://tinyurl.com/c9xlhp
http://tinyurl.com/bj5b24

German officials have rejected claims that the bust of the pharaonic queen Nefertiti, hailed as the world's most beautiful woman, was smuggled out of Egypt using a ruse nearly a century ago. "The claim that the division of treasures did not take place by the rules is untrue," said the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has possession of the painted limestone carving. Media reports claimed Wednesday that Nefertiti's obvious value was concealed during a 1913 meeting to legally apportion the treasures from a German-led archaeological excavation with half for each side.