In a remarkable coup for his ongoing fieldwork project in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Dr. Zahi Hawass has today revealed that he now has firm evidence for his hypothesis that a 'Hawass-like' figure was deified and worshipped by the ancient Egyptians more than 3,000 years before his own birth. Uncovering a new section of tomb decoration before a live broadcast to a worldwide television audience - reproduced here to the right - Dr. Hawass said: "what we see here on the left is a pharaoh adopting a posture of adoration. On the right we see the unmistakeable headress of a galivanter-in-residence for a major lifestyle magazine. Beneath that hat we see a delicate and beautiful rendering of the Egyptians' idea of divine beauty and physical perfection. Look in particular at the bulbous nose and lips pursed in concentration." Experts in Egyptian art were also quick to draw attention to the exquisitely fine modelling of the dozens of tiny beads of sweat picked out by the ancient artisans on the god's face.

Hawass explained how the inscription accompanying the painted relief had also greatly aided his identification of the figure, and his understanding of the newly-discovered God's attributes: "As I translated this passage, reading it aloud for the first time in millennia on behalf of my official media partner CNN, I realized that it is a hymn to the great virility of this Hawass-like God. This god, he is a god of love and sex."

Pausing briefly to study the inscription more closely, Hawass added: "mostly the sex."

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