The Eloquent Peasant

For the past three and a half months, I’ve been privileged to be working as a trainee curator in the ‘Future Curators’ programme at the British Museum, where I’ve had the opportunity to work on the UK touring exhibition Pharaoh: King of Egypt. Developed in partnership with Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and the [...]

UPDATE 17th March 12pm: 12 of the objects missing from the Egyptian Museum recovered?; 27 objects missing from the Tell El-Faraein storehouse; Ahram Online says no new Minister of Antiquities has been chosen; a BBC eyewitness report on looting in Abydos UPDATE 30th March 10:40am: Dr. Hawass reappointed as Minister of Antiquities; 5 more objects [...]

UPDATE 3rd March 11pm: unsubstantiated, leaked list of objects missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (EDITED) UPDATE 6th March 2pm: Dr. Hawass on his resignation; magazine in Tell el Fara’in robbed as Qantara East’s antiquities moved to Cairo for safekeeping; a petition urging protection of sites; a new Minister of Culture & Antiquities? UPDATE [...]

UPDATE 2nd March 1am: Dr. Zahi Hawass says he’s considering resigning, confirms looting of two warehouses near the pyramids at Giza and at Abydos It is now two weeks since it was announced that a number of objects were missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and a month has passed since the actual break [...]

UPDATE: 14th Feb, 4pm: Yuya’s heart scarab & shabti found on museum grounds; at least 8 amulets stolen from Dashur; Egyptian antiquities workers protesting UPDATE: 15th Feb, 11:20pm: Zahi Hawass says they have found part of the statue of Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess; a statement from UNESCO; other updates from Dr. Hawass & [...]

UPDATE 5th Feb 3pm: Dr. Salima Ikram states damaged mummies were Late Period fragmentary mummies used to test the CT machine UPDATE 5th Feb 8:30pm: Dr. Hawass says Saqqara, the Memphis Museum, and all of Egypt’s sites are safe; a National Geographic reporter gives a report direct from Saqqara UPDATE 6th Feb 1pm: Dr. Ikram [...]

For the latest updates, see the new blog post. UPDATE Jan 30th, 12pm: the mummies of Tutankhamun’s great-grandparents damaged? UPDATE Jan 30th, 2pm: golden fan of Tut damaged, Dr. Zahi Hawass confirms damage to at least one Tut statue UPDATE Jan 30th, 4:30pm: confirmation of theft from the former director of the Egyptian Museum; Memphis [...]

If you live in or near London, I highly recommend heading over to the British Museum tomorrow evening (Thursday, November 18th) for a repeat performance of the Tale of Sinuhe at 6:30pm in the atmospheric Egyptian sculpture gallery. It involves a reading of the classic poem by terrific actors Gary Pillai and Shobu Kapoor, with [...]

So, as you may have noticed, I’ve been focussing on other things lately and not really updating this blog as I should. I do hope to be able to get back to it some time in the near future, but until then I’ve decided that an interesting, different, and simpler approach might be to use [...]

Sorry I haven’t updated the site in so long! I’ve been rather busy with my thesis, teaching, and life in general, but I hope to be able to post some interesting entries soon, as I am off to Egypt for the next 7 weeks. I will be working at the Ramesside site of Kom Firin [...]