Visiting Turin last summer, I had the opportunity to see the splendidly rebuilt Museo Egizio, now directed by Leiden’s old friend Dr Christian Greco. The contrast with the museum as I had seen it several years ago, with its still partially 19th century design, could not have been bigger. Turin houses one of the most beautiful…
Author: Nicky B
Carnarvon and the search for Tutankhamun
In the summer of 2011, I had the pleasure to visit Highclere Castle with a tour group I was guiding together with a friend and fellow Egyptologist from the Huis van Horus foundation. Upon arrival I was impressed by its rolling lawns (lazy pheasants included), charming garden temple and majestic façade reminiscent of London’s Houses of Parliament….
Mrs. Tsenhor
Sometimes in life, things happen at the right moment. When Koen Donker van Heel encouraged me to start my own business, I hadn’t read his new book Mrs. Tsenhor yet, which was published in 2014 by the always lovely AUC Press (hardcover, nice design, sparkling white pages). Now that I have, I am affirmed in…
Artefacts of Petrie
When the Englishman William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) first came to Egypt, he was 27 years old. Visitors to the Giza plateau must have looked up in suprise when they noticed a young man in pink pyjamas emerging from one of the rock tombs in the morning. In the desert glare it almost seemed as if…
Egypt in 3D adventure games
Digital Egyptology news can now be followed at my website https://digitalegyptology.org/ My love for 3D reconstructions of ancient sites is founded on those turn of the millenium computer games that were described as ‘edutainment’. As a true nerd, I revelled in 3D point-and-click adventures that brought the player back to ancient places such as Egypt,…
The stubborn travels of Alexine Tinne
Alexandrine Tinne (1835-1869) was the daughter of a wealthy merchant in 19th century The Hague. Her father left her a fortune so vast that she could spend it at will on as lavish a lifestyle as she desired. But instead of wasting her inheritance on elaborate dinner parties and other pastimes of ‘Haguois’ high society,…
A note on the King Tut documentary
Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered aired last Sunday on BBC and has already sparked controversy. In the documentary, Tut is shown bare-boned, CT-scanned and computer modeled to an unflattering degree. Previous theories concerning his death (a blow to the head, a fall from a riding chariot) are discarded and instead, the king is presented as a…
Agatha Christie in Egypt and the Near East
Agatha Christie is world-renowned for her crime writing. Her countless mystery stories are packed with locked rooms, cracked mirrors and unreliable clocks. Trains, boats and islands provide the closed systems in which one of the characters is inevitably the murderer. Card games, hunting parties and casual vacations provide the perfect backdrop for an intricate series…