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

 

Saqqara, Abusir tombs looted. Tell Basta looters caught.

From the blog of Zahi Hawass: http://www.drhawass.com/blog/further-updates-state-egyptian-antiquities

I am very sad to announce that several important antiquities sites have been vandalized. After a preliminary inventory had been taken, Dr. Sabri Abdel Aziz, Head of the Pharaonic Sector of the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, reported to me the following incidents: At Saqqara, the tomb of Hetepka was broken into, and the false door may have been stolen along with objects stored in the tomb. I have arranged for a committee to visit the tomb this coming Saturday to compare the alleged damage with earlier expedition photos. In Abusir, a portion of the false door was stolen from the tomb of Rahotep. In addition, break-ins have been confirmed at a number of storage magazines: these include ones in Saqqara, including one near the pyramid of Teti, and the magazine of Cairo University. I have created a committee to prepare reports to determine what, if anything, is missing from these magazines. The Egyptian Military caught and released thieves attempting to loot the site of Tell el Basta; the military also caught criminals trying to loot a tomb in Lisht. There have also been many reports of attacks on archaeological sites through the building of houses and illegal digging. I have asked the sector heads in the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs to prepare full reports for each site under their jurisdiction.

 

Thefts from Cairo Museum confirmed – DETAILS

Apologies for the delay, I know this already out there. Personal circumstances have intervened, but I feel it is important this information is re-broadcast as widely as possible.

Along with the damaged items at the museum, a list of items known to be missing has now been made available from the SCA. More items may also be unaccounted for, but these are confirmed:

1. Gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess
2. Gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun harpooning. Only the torso and upper limbs of the king
are missing
3. Limestone statue of Akhenaten holding an offering table
4. Statue of Nefertiti making offerings
5. Sandstone head of an Amarna princess
6. Stone statuette of a scribe from Amarna
7. Wooden shabti statuettes from Yuya (11 pieces)
8. Heart Scarab of Yuya

NOTE: Since the press release was issued, the Heart Scarab of Yuya , wooden fragments belonging to the damaged New Kingdom coffin, one of the eleven missing shabtis of Yuya and Thuya , and fragments belonging to the statue of Tutankhamun being carried by the goddess Menkaret have been recovered. These were found scattered across the museum grounds, or within the building itself. Furthermore, the statue of Akhenaten offering was found in one of the museum trash cans, though the offering table (detached) is still unaccounted for.

Source: SCA Press Release 12/feb/2011 – Link to PDF file

Updates: Zahi Hawass personal blog – http://www.drhawass.com/blog/update-current-state-antiquities – and other sources.

 

Fragments come back home

Link to full article (Al Ahram Weekly)

The controversy over five 3,200-year-old ancient Egyptian tomb fragments removed from Egypt and put on display in the Louvre in Paris has finally come to a close, reports Nevine El-Aref

Following two weeks of sometimes difficult negotiations with the Louvre Museum in Paris over the fate of five ancient Egyptian tomb fragments dating back over 3,000 years, France agreed this week to hand the five painted fragments back to Egypt.

According to Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, President Hosni Mubarak received a telephone call from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which Sarkozy confirmed that the five fragments, stolen from a tomb in Luxor, would be returned to Egypt. Hosni added that the conversation had emphasised the deep cultural relations between Egypt and France and the friendship between the two presidents.

Hosni said that preparations were now underway between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Louvre and Egypt’s embassy in France in order to ensure the safe return of the fragments next week.

The controversy over five 3,200-year-old ancient Egyptian tomb fragments removed from Egypt and put on display in the Louvre in Paris has finally come to a close, reports Nevine El-Aref

---

Click to view caption

Parts of a painted scene discovered in 1980 at the tomb of a nobleman in Draa Abul-Nagaa necropolis on Luxor’s west bank

Following two weeks of sometimes difficult negotiations with the Louvre Museum in Paris over the fate of five ancient Egyptian tomb fragments dating back over 3,000 years, France agreed this week to hand the five painted fragments back to Egypt.

According to Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, President Hosni Mubarak received a telephone call from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which Sarkozy confirmed that the five fragments, stolen from a tomb in Luxor, would be returned to Egypt. Hosni added that the conversation had emphasised the deep cultural relations between Egypt and France and the friendship between the two presidents.

Hosni said that preparations were now underway between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Louvre and Egypt’s embassy in France in order to ensure the safe return of the fragments next week.

 

Egypt Suspends Louvre Saqqara Excavations over Stolen Artefacts

Link to original article

Egypt has decided to suspend all archaeological cooperation with the Louvre, after the French museum refused to return fragments of a Theban Tomb. The news was confirmed today by Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department. The artefacts were excavated in a tomb near Luxor, and according to Dr. Hawass were stolen by the French. This decision endangers planned conferences at the Louvre, as well as the French team’s current excavations at Saqqara, the ‘city of the dead’. A boycott of the Louvre‘s Egyptological activities also ensures no archeological expeditions sponsored by the French museum could go ahead in Egypt.

The decision to cut all ties with the Louvre, as well as its archaeological teams, was taken two months ago after the Louvre had repeatedly ignored requests for the return of four reliefs. Dr. Hawass says the reliefs were illegally taken from a tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in the 1980s.

The disputed artefacts are 5 fragments from the wall of Theban Tomb 15 (TT15), the tomb of Tetiki on the West Bank at Dra Abu’l Naga.  The tomb was photographed in 1968 and shown intact.  In the 1990′s the tomb was – like so many – lost, and thought to be destroyed by modern building. A team from the Heidelberg University rediscovered this tomb during excavations at Dra Abu El-Naga in 2001, but the fragments were missing.

Update from ABC News -

…Subject to a decision by France’s national museum scientific committee, Mr Mitterrand said he was ready to order the frescoes be handed back.

Under the UNESCO convention of 1970, member countries agreed measures to prevent the illegal export of national treasures.

Mr Mitterrand [French Cultural Minister] said the five Egyptian pieces had been acquired in good faith by the Louvre and it was only in 2008, after the discovery of the tomb from which the murals apparently came, that serious doubts were raised about their provenance….

It would seem that all is set to end well, but does this set a precedent of “gunboat diplomacy” with regards to antiquities? And where is the line drawn? Dr. Zahi Hawass, has repeatedly said that it is only ilegally aquired anqituities that should be returned to Egypt, and so, one assumes, where methods like this would be used.

However, Dr. Hawass has repeatedly referred to a desire to see the Rosetta Stone and Bust of Nefertiti returned to Egypt, despite both peices being regarded as legally removed by the UNESCO Convention of 1983.  Will “gunboat diplomacy” be used to secure these peices? If it is, then the implications for both foreign archaeologial research in Egypt, and the status of all Ancient Egyptian collections in foreign museums could be far reaching.

Foreign museums will be loathed to surrender peices that they hold, in their and UNESCOs eyes, perfectly legally, and may have done so for the better part of 200 years. Yet, threatened with their ongoing work in Egypt being wiped out, they face a “Catch 22″ situation that may end up causing more harm than good.

In addition, the history of these artefacts is often entwined with the history of more than just Egypt. The Rosetta stone, for example, from the point of view of Ancient Egyptian history, is of relatively minor importance compared to it’s unique and hugely symbolic importance to modern Egyptology, which is essentially an international discipline centred as much around Paris, London, and any number of cities from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, as well as Cairo.

 

Hawwas: L.E. 700m spent annually on restoration, development of archaeological sites

From the Egypt State Information Service (FULL ARTICLE)

The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities on Thursday 20/8/2009 unveiled restoration work under way at one of Egypt’s most famous synagogues, a project he denied was meant to assuage Jewish anger at the country’s culture minister.

The Egyptian government has rallied around Culture Minister Farouk Honsni, but Zahi Hawwas, the head of the Council said the decision to restore the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue in Cairo had nothing to do with Hosni’s candidacy.

“I believe these rumors were started to harm Hosni’s bid to become the next director general of the UNESCO,” said Hawwas. “The Jewish monuments are Egyptian monuments … they are part of us and part of our culture”, he said

He added that the Ministry spends L.E. 700m annually on the restoration and development of archaeological sites, especially the ones which were damaged after the earthquake of October 1992.

This seems to be part of a trend I’ve noticed over the last 18 months or so, highlighting SCA work on post – Pharaonic sites, such as the Rosetta Museum (highlighting the Ottoman heritage in the city), the rebuild of the Abu Haggag mosque in Luxor and the long term Islamic Cairo projects, the last of which was first mooted back in the early 2000′s, but has only recently really begun to make an widely publicised impact.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, and whether this will mean a long term broadening of the SCA’s focus, and the implications of that for Pharaonic era monuments and artifacts.

 

Egypt warns pharaohs’ tombs could disappear

AFP – Wednesday, August 19

LUXOR, Egypt (AFP) – - The ornate pharaonic tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings are doomed to disappear within 150 to 500 years if they remain open to tourists, the head of antiquities has warned.

Zahi Hawass said humidity and fungus are eating into the walls of the royal tombs in the huge necropolis on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor, which is swamped daily by several thousand tourists.

Poor ventilation and the breath of the hordes of visitors are causing damage to the carvings and painted decorations inside the tombs, he told journalists on a tour of the royal necropolis on Monday.

“The tombs (in the Valley of the Kings and nearby Valley of the Queens) which are open to visitors are facing severe damage to both colours and the engravings,” Hawass said.

“The levels of humidity and fungus are increasing because of the breath of visitors and this means that the tombs could disappear between 150 and 500 years.”

The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, where pharaonic royalty was mummified, is home to the tombs of legendary pharaohs such as the boy king Tutenkhamun and Queen Nefertiti.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities have taken a series of measures to protect the tombs, including setting up new ventilation systems, restricting the number of visitors and closing some tombs.

Hawass said the authorities have also decided “to close some tombs definitively to tourists and replace them by identical replicas,” including those of Tutenkhamun, Nefertiti and Seti I.

“A team of experts is currently using laser technology to examine these tombs in order to build the replicas… which would then open to visitors in a place near the Valley of the Kings,” Hawass said.

Link to full article

The idea of building exact replicas of the most visited tombs has long been suggested, though this is perhaps one of the most concrete statements I have come across so far that the SCA is seriously looking into giving this idea the go ahead.

 

Pyramid of Sesheshet

From the State Information Service – Link to article

Archaeologists have discovered a new pyramid under the sands of Sakkara, an ancient burial site that remains largely unexplored and has yielded a string of unearthed pyramids in recent years, Egypt’s antiquities chief announced Tuesday11/11/2008.

“The 4,300-year-old monument most likely belonged to the queen mother of the founder of Egypt’s 6th Dynasty, several hundred years after the building of the famed Great Pyramids of Giza,” the country’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said as he took media on a tour of the find scene.

The discovery is part of the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Giza.

All that remains of the pyramid is a square-shaped 16-foot (5-meter) tall structure that had been buried under 65 feet (25 meters) of sand.

“There was so much sand dumped here that no one had any idea there was something buried underneath,” said Hawass.

Hawass’ team has been excavating at the location for two years, but he said it was only two months ago when they determined the structure, with sides about 72 feet (22 meters) long, was the base of a pyramid.

They also found parts of the pyramid’s white limestone casing, believed to have once covered the entire structure which enabled them to calculate that the complete pyramid was once 45 feet (14 meters) high.

Click here to go to the full (original) article

BBC News In Pictures – New Pyramid Found

 

SCA Organises International Competition

From State Information Service – Link to article

Zahi Hawass Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on 31/10/2008 that the Supreme Council of Antiquities will hold an international competition under the auspices of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak under the title “Egypt peace between past and present” for children and youth aged between 6 and 18 to encourage them to understand the principles and values of the Egyptian civilization and the genius of the ancient Egyptian.

He said that the competition comes within the framework of the role of the Ministry of Culture and the Supreme Council of Antiquities to shed light on some of the concepts and meanings of the ancient Egyptian’s work and their establishment of the ancient Egyptian civilization. He added that these concepts are: the right, peace and justice.

 

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.