If one studies the history of scientific research in the Middle East, one begins with Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. Though most famous for the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the campaign included a team of draftsmen and scholars who studied and recorded the land’s temples and tombs.

The publication of their study awakened Europe to the treasures of the ancient past and spawned modern Egyptology and biblical archaeology.

The original manuscript of Napoleon’s Description de l’Egypt has been kept in Cairo at the Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Research. In an attack by protestors on Saturday, 166,000 works were reportedly destroyed including the Napoleonic work.

The story is reported by Ahram Online, Haaretz, and others. If only the manuscript had been displayed (or stored) at the British Museum or the Pergamum Museum, this loss would have been avoided.

If you’re interested in the beautiful drawings from the French campaign, a new edition published in 1987 made the work much more accessible to the public. A nice two-volume box set with all 421 plates from the original edition was published by Princeton Architectural Press. I had the happy opportunity to pick up Monuments of Egypt: The Napoleonic Edition some years ago, and I see that Amazon still has a few copies available.

UPDATE: Reuters has published a story today with the latest details. It notes that there are four other handwritten copies of Napoleon’s work. (HT: Jack Sasson)

Over at biblearchaeology.org, Bryant Wood presents some new evidence for the existence of Israel in an Egyptian inscription dating to about 1400 BC.

The first two names are easily read—Ashkelon and Canaan. The name on the right, however, is less certain. Görg restored the right name as Israel and dated the inscription to the reign of Ramesses II (ca. 1279–1212 BC) in the Nineteenth Dynasty, based on a similarity of names to those on the Merenptah Stela (ca. 1210 BC).1 Görg also concluded, based on the spellings of the names, that they were copied from an earlier inscription from around the time of Amenhotep II (ca. 1453–1419). Israeli Egyptologist Raphael Giveon (1916–1985) previously dated the inscription to the reign of Amenhotep III (ca. 1386–1349 BC) (1981: 137). If these two scholars are right, this extra-Biblical Egyptian inscription would place Israel in Canaan at about the time of the Biblical date for the Conquest.

Wood then goes on to describe the results of a new published study by three European scholars who confirm this reading. He also notes an objection by James Hoffmeier. Wood and Hoffmeier have previously debated the date of the exodus and conquest in a series of articles in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.

From the AFP:

Egypt will close the Great Pyramid of Giza on Friday to avoid any rituals by a group rumoured to have plans to mark the date of 11/11/11 at the site, an official said.
The decision came “after much pressure” from Egyptian Internet users that strange rituals were going to be held “within the walls of the pyramid on November 11, 2011,” Atef Abu Zahab, head of the Department of Pharaonic Archaeology, told AFP.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities confirmed the closure Friday of the tourist site, in a statement that only referred to the need for maintenance following a busy period during Muslim holidays.
[…]
Some attribute the number 11 to paranormal powers that provide a channel of communication with the subconscious, others see a mystical connection between the number and disasters, like the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

The full story is here. The AP covers the story here.