An Ancient African Artform To Be Revived? A massive hot metal machine built in 1902 has been restored to its former glory. The French-made Foucher typecaster is back in action at a workshop in Egypt by way of The French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo or IFAO, who recently showed off the revived machine which allows the printing of ancient Egyptian inscriptions i.e. hieroglyphs which date back to 5,000 years. Mathieu Gousse, the head of the IFAO's publishing division, explains the situation. "It was successfully restarted in September after several repairs and the acquisition of parts that had failed. It is now working since September, we were very moved the first time we were able to engrave a mobile character which was a cross of life, which was the first sign that we were able to engrave again."