SUMMARY: Antiquities Sites Accross Egypt Known or Reportedly Affected

Summary of sites affected across Egypt – either confirmed or strongly suspected. Data pooled from Egyptopaedia and others.

Alexandria Area (All confirmed by ZH/SCA 5th Feb):

• Anfushi Necropolis – SAFE
• Alexandria National Museum – Rumour of fire incorrect. SAFE
• Bibliotheca Alexandrina – SAFE
• Buto (Desouk) – Attempted break-in to magazine unsuccessful. Two thieves caught.
• Chatby Necropolis – SAFE
• Greco-Roman Museum – SAFE
• Kom el-Dikka (Amphitheatre) – SAFE
  
• Kom El-Shuqafa – SAFE
  
• Marine Museum – SAFE
• Mosaic Museum – SAFE
• Pompey’s Pillar – SAFE
  

Delta Region

• Qantara Museum (Nr. Ismailia) – Magazine looted. 288 objects recovered (4th Feb.), and 5 more (8th Feb.)
• Sa el-Hagar – SAFE
• Tell Basta – Attempted looting. Military arrested thieves. Reported 18th Feb by ZH.
• Tell el Dab’a – SAFE

Cairo

• See earlier report on Cairo Museum thefts.
• See the Eloquent Peasant for a continuously updated record of artefacts confirmed lost/found/damaged. Photographic record of items is being compiled. LINK
• Cairo University magazine entered. No further details available at present. (ZH 17th Feb) LINK

Pyramid Fields

• Tomb of Hetep-Ka at Saqqara entered. False door looted. (ZH 17th Feb) LINK
• Saqqara magazine (Nr. Teti pyramid) entered. No further details at present. Other magazines at Saqqara affected(?) (ZH 17th Feb) LINK
• Tomb of Rahotep at Abusir entered. Fragment of false door looted. (ZH 17th Feb) LINK
• Dashur (DeMorgan magazine, German mission) – Looted. Date of looting uncertain, perhaps multiple times.  Eight amulets confirmed missing. (14th Feb. Al Ahram – LINK)
• Tomb of Maya – SAFE (9th Feb ZH)
• Giza – SAFE (various sources)

Memphis

• Conflicting information. Blue Shield inspection (Austrian mission) reports nothing stolen, but could not locate magazine facility. Dr. Wafaa el Saddik reports magazine has been looted. ICOM suggests looting may have actually been vandalism, and lost in translation.

Faiyum

• Lahun – Signs of illicit digging. (Lahun Survey Project, 3rd Feb)  LINK
• Karanis – Magazine attempted break-in unsuccessful. Now safe. (Lahun Survey Project, 3rd Feb) LINK
• Lisht – Unsuccessful attempt to rob tomb. (ZH 17th Feb) LINK

Middle Egypt

• Abydos – Unconfirmed report of widespread illicit digging and looting of storerooms amidst lack of security presence. (Egyptian Dreams, 13th Feb) – LINK. However ZH (2nd Feb) reported as safe.
• Akhmin – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Beni Hasan – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Dendera – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• El Hibeh – Looted. Now secure. (ICOM) – LINK

Upper Egypt

• Karnak – Attempted entry by looters on 28th Jan. Repulsed by locals. (Egyptopaedia, 4th Feb) – LINK
• Luxor Temple – SAFE (Chicago House, 8th Feb) LINK
• West Bank Sites – SAFE (Chicago House, 8th Feb) LINK
• Kom Ombo – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb)
• Edfu – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Philae – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Elephantine – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Nubian Museum – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Kalabsha – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK
• Aswan Nobles Tombs – SAFE (ZH, 2nd Feb) LINK

Outer Regions

• Kharga Museum – Unconfirmed report of looting. (Louay Mahmoud Saied, 9th Feb)
• Berenice – SAFE (Egyptology Blog, 3rd Feb) LINK

 

For more information please check the Egyptopaedia Looting Database and the ICOM Report on Egypt’s Museums

 

Statue of Alexander Found in Alexandria

From State Information Service – Link to full article

A statue of Alexander the Great has been discovered in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, Governor Adel Labib said on Wednesday 7/10/2009.

Archeologists have suggested the statue was of Alexander the Great and it was uncovered during excavations at el-Shalalat Park in the city, he said.

The discovery was made by a Greek mission working in the city.

 

Sarcopgagus of Nectanebo II – Last Native Egyptian Pharaoh

This weeks video, examining the sarcophagus of Nectanebo II (Cat. No. EA10) in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery at the British Museum. I have wanted to make a piece on the sarcophagus for this blog for a long time now, as I feel it’s historical importance is often overlooked, as marking the end of an era, and in some ways an entire culture. I’ve always found this piece to be profoundly moving.

To practicalities, I do apologise in advance for the rather poor delivery on this video, as I had about 10 minutes to mentally go through the presentation before plunging in.  C’est la vie!

Next week, the video shall not feature an object from the British Museum collection, but somewhere else, whose collection is completely and utterly new for me, having never visited the institution in question before in my life.  It’s a very exciting time for me!

 

Under The Waves

From Al Ahram Weekly – Original Article

Will Egypt build the first offshore underwater museum? Nevine El-Aref investigates

Setting up an offshore, submarine archaeological site anywhere is not an easy task, let alone in a city with the water pollution problems of Alexandria. Yet the remarkable discoveries made by underwater archaeologists over the last decade justify further serious efforts for what would be Egypt’s first ever offshore underwater museum.

The site and form gives cause for conjecture. Should it be in Alexandria’s Eastern Harbour, the Sisila area, or Abu Qir Bay? What will it look like? Should it resemble the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney or the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology at the spectacular Uluburun Wreck in Turkey, or the Musée de Marine in Paris? All these display a collection of sunken ship wrecks, flora and fauna.

These questions and more were raised at an international workshop held last week in Alexandria to discuss the feasibility of constructing such a museum. On the table were a projected ground plan, an architectural design and a programme to study the environmental conditions of Alexandria’s Mediterranean Sea and its state of marine pollution, the socio- economic problems related to the success of the underwater archaeological museum project and urban impacts. The workshop was held under the umbrella of UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture at the Alexandria Art Creativity Centre, where a multidisciplinary team of 28 international and Egyptian experts were gathered.

On the eve of the workshop participants were taken on a field visit to Alexandria’s underwater archaeological sites, and listened to a presentation by Egyptian authorities on the current situation and recent activities carried out in the Eastern Harbour and around the Qait Bey Fort. This is also one of the suggested locations for the submarine museum.

The workshop was very well organised by the Cultural Development Fund (CDF). The opening session began with a short documentary relating Alexandria’s ancient history from its inception by Alexander the Great up to modern times. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni’s speech, delivered by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), revealed that the aim of the workshop was not only to study the possibility of building the world’s first ever underwater archaeological museum in Alexandria, but is also to set up international principles as a model or a pilot project for any country which wanted its own submarine museum. Singapore, China and Greece are on top of the list.

For his part, Hawass described the initiative as a “beautiful dream” for Alexandria. He told the assembled experts that he had decided four years before to stop removing all ancient objects from the seabed with the exception of coins, jewellery and small artefacts that were vulnerable to looting.

“Hence, it is about time to think about an underwater museum to make such magnificent monuments accessible and visible to all,” he said.

If it happens, it’d be a incredible show, but I dread to think of the cost, let alone the conservation and engineering headaches a project like this would entail. Also, it opens up some interesting ideas. It states in the article that the larger artefacts wouldn’t be moved form their current location. Since museums function as conservation, archive and study centres for artefacts, this would seem to be taking the traditional idea of a “safehouse” of historical artefacts for future generations in a whole new direction. It raises some interesting questions. I’ll be watching this with quite some interest. Either way, less sewage in the bays of Alex is good news all round, for archaeology, for marine life and city residents alike.

 

Athens museum to show its priceless Egyptian collection

From the Daily News Egypt – Link to original article

By Nicholas Paphitis

First Published: May 14, 2008

ATHENS, Greece: A priceless ancient Egyptian collection opened to the public Wednesday, featuring a wooden body tag for a mummy, a stunning bronze statue of a princess, and a 3,000-year-old loaf of bread with a bite-sized chunk missing.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is putting more than 1,100 pieces from the collection on permanent exhibition, as more of its halls open to the public following years of renovation.

The previous Egyptian display, shelved six years ago, included just 350 artifacts.

Most of the current collection — which museum officials say is one of the best in the world — has never been shown to the public before due to lack of space.

A further 6,000 Egyptian artifacts remain in underground storage.

This should be fascinating, given that the display includes many Egyptian items that were discovered in Greece, having come there through trade. The relationship between the Minoans, Hyksos and early New Kingdom rulers has intrigued me for a few years now. Ahmose I (founder of the NK) is widely held to have built a palace in the re-conquered city of Hatwaret/Avaris that featured Minoan style decoration, a possibility that has long raised many questions in my mind.

The miniature was made in the red century BC in Alexandria, the Greek-Egyptian port city founded by Alexander of Macedon that grew into a major intellectual and administrative center.

This part of the article does irk me somewhat. It is now known that the city of Alexandria predates the conquest of Persian controlled Egypt by Alexander, and was founded in the Pharaonic period. Details are still very sketchy, but recent work shows the city existed at least as far back as 1000BCE, according to drill core samples. I don’t know why many publications still do not take note of the new findings.

 

Ptolemaic Temple discovered in Alexandria

From the State Information Service (Full article)

A team of archaeologists have unearthed a Greek temple in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, showing that the Greeks worshipped Pharaonic deities more than 2,500 years ago.

An official of the expedition said that the temple was found during the renovation of an area of Alexandria with the relics of the temple unearthed evidence that Greeks were influenced by the ancient Egyptian civilization.

He added that the Greeks believed in the holy trinity of Isis, Osiris and the child Horus, developing these gods after Alexander the great conquered the city in 332 BC.

No more information at present. The article is a little confusing. I shall post more as information comes to light.