Egyptian artifacts in danger: antiquities chief

Egyptian artifacts in danger: antiquities chief

Egypt's antiquities chief has expressed concern the country's valuable treasures are at risk because of the continuing chaos in the country.

Zahi Hawass posted an update on his blog ? with the help of an Italian colleague since internet services are suspended in Egypt ? saying his heart is broken.

Hawass said many valuable artifacts have already been taken and some of the country's lesser known museums have been emptied of their treasures, including the one in Memphis ? the capital of ancient Egypt, about 19 kilometres south of Cairo.

Hawass said the Coptic Museum, Royal Jewelry Museum, National Museum of Alexandria and El Manial Museum had all been broken into.

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Indy's brother said:

Bet he's not so pissed anymore about other countries having Egyptian artifacts safely on display.

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Archaeologist said:

It's almost unbelievable that one week ago today he was "officially" asking for Nefertiti back. It will be interesting to see these reports of artifacts damaged, because it is a good example of how news reports should not be taken at face value or quoted:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_protest_museum says: ONLY two mummies damaged.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_protest_antiquities (same author a little later) 2 mummies and 10 artifacts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110130/wl_time/08599204515500 claims: Two heads, a Statue of Isis and 100 artifacts damaged.

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/egypts-tombs-temples-under-siege.html claims: two mummies and only 13 cases (either holding 10 artifacts or a 100, it doesn't fit).

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/tut-family-mummies-damaged-in-egypt-riots.html details the mummies and wooden statues and boat that were damaged.

The ways that the looters entered the museum varies as well from arriving with a pick up truck and guns to breaking in at night through ceiling windows with ropes.

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Archaeologist said:

It will be interesting to see what the end total will be. Will Hawass only count the artifacts that could NOT be repaired (since he says the damaged ones can be put together "easily" in a couple articles), or will another estimate be given in ambiguous terms such as "cases" or exhibits, halls, etc. Either way, I am glad all of the Egyptian artifacts haven't "come home" as Hawass would say.

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CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet on Monday, replacing one dissolved as a concession to unprecedented anti-government protests.

Egypt's most famous archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, was named state minister for antiquities, a new post.

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Rocket Surgeon said:

Egypt's own Rene Belloq:

State TV: Egypt president announces new government

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Montana Smith said:

Know any good Egyptian wikileaks?

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Rocket Surgeon said:

Common Logon Error (hex 80070005): Egypt is Denied

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KATE SNOW reporting: Good morning to you, Ann. You know, Egypt is such an alluring place, filled with so much history, the pyramids, the Nile , mummies, the King Tut spring to mind, but unfortunately over the past few days some of Egypt 's treasures have been destroyed or defiled. At the Egyptian Museum in Cairo this weekend, soldiers surveyed the damage, 14 cases, priceless artifacts damaged by thieves who seemed to be hunting for gold.
Mr. ZAHI HAWASS (Secretary General, Supreme Council of Antiquities): They were able, these two people, to enter inside the Cairo Museum from the top and they destroyed two mummies.
SNOW: Concerned Egyptians formed a human chain to protect the museum's treasures.
Mr. HAWASS: But thanks God, there is some Egyptians , real good Egyptians , tried to stop them.
SNOW: Still, the damage was done. Archaeologists and Egyptologists all over the world are studying the grainy images on Web sites , conferring with each other on blogs, and to their trained eyes, the destruction is devastating.
Dr. BOB BRIER (Contributing Editor, Archaeology Today): It just hurts, it really hurts.
SNOW: Dr. Bob Brier is an expert on Egyptian mummies who's been to that museum more than 100 times.
Dr. BRIER: It's like our Smithsonian , it's a repository of Egyptian culture .
SNOW: Many of the damaged or looted items came from the tomb of that famous pharaoh, King Tut . What are we looking at right there?
Dr. BRIER: That's a Tutankhamen object, King Tut . It's a -- it's a wooden statue that he was buried with and it's a panther and he was standing on top of it. And that was once in beautiful condition.
COWAN: How old is that?
Dr. BRIER: It's 3,300 years old.
SNOW: Two mummies were damaged, there were reports they may have been beheaded.
Dr. BRIER: This was on the mummy of Tutankhamen 's great-grandmother.
SNOW: There are reports of looting at other archaeological sites , including one of Egypt 's ancient burial grounds. On Sunday, the military stood guard at the museum in Cairo and at the famous pyramids, closed now to tourists. Experts are hopeful Egypt has enough security forces to protect most of its history, literally millions of ancient artifacts .
Dr. BRIER: It's crucial to protect all the sites, but it's a very difficult job.
SNOW: Most Egyptians do want to protect those treasures not only because they're culturally important but also because they serve as a major source of tourism revenue, of course. As we've seen, however, it only takes a few people, Ann , to do so much damage to something so historic.
CURRY: But then how did those people get into the museum? Is there any explanation as to why authorities were not doing a better job protecting these museums?
SNOW: Right. Apparently this museum under normal circumstances isn't the most protected place, although there is some security. But on Friday that crowd swelled, as we remember, so large, it got right up to the gate, into the courtyard and then some men were able to go up on the roof and get in through a skylight.
CURRY: You know, Zahi Hawass , who you interviewed for this, or at least we heard in your report...
SNOW: Mm-hmm.
CURRY: ...he said, I think he speaks for I think everyone listening, when he wrote in his blog, "My heart is broken and my blood is boiling." For those people who care so much, as we all really should because this is a very important legacy to all of us. Thank you so much , Kate Snow , this morning.

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Damage from break-ins at Cairo museum is still being scrutinized

Concern about Egypt?s priceless antiquities continues to grow, and Egyptologists around the world are issuing high-alert statements about the risk of Egyptian antiquities being smuggled abroad.

?It would be a wonderful gesture if people who are in the antiquity business do not buy any Egyptian artifact at the moment, particularly if they look (like) Old Kingdom antiquities or if they appear to come from the Memphite Necropolis of the New Kingdom,? Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, told Discovery News in a phone interview from Cairo.

According to Ikram, a leading expert on animal mummies, the Egyptian National Museum is safe at the moment, thanks to the Egyptian people who have bravely defended their national treasures.

?The people and the army are united and helping one another. The people are doing astonishing things, taking responsibility for the maintenance of the areas themselves,? Ikram said.

Meanwhile, holding together on social networks, the Egyptology community is trying to assess the damage at the Egyptian National Museum by scrutinizing the footage shot just after looters broke into the building on Friday.

Watching the footage, experts have been able to produce a map of the museum rooms where looting and vandalism took place, showing that the attack occurred on three sides.

According to a faxed statement by Zahi Hawass, who on Monday was appointed minister of state antiquities in the new government named by President Hosni Mubarak, 13 Late Period cases where smashed, and several antiquities were thrown on the floor.

?Then the criminals went to the King Tutankhamun galleries. Thank God they opened only one case! The criminals found a statue of the king on a panther, broke it, and threw it on the floor,? Hawass said.

He added that all of the antiquities that were damaged can be restored.

Some experts fear that the Late Period cases mentioned by Hawass, and not shown in the footage, could belong to the collection of precious jewels and gold known as the Treasure of Tanis.

?So far it?s only speculation. As for the items shown in the footage, some objects are very difficult to identify because of the poor quality of the images combined with the fact that they don't appear to be ?unique? objects,? Margaret Maitland, a doctoral candidate in Egyptology at the University of Oxford, told Discovery News.

In her blog, Maitland has identified several damaged objects, including a large wooden boat from the tomb of Mesehti at Asyut.

Dating to about 2000 B.C., the artifact is one of the largest model boats in existence.

?A figure shown in the footage, kneeling and armless, also appears to be from the model boat. Other objects appear to be a smashed shabti figurine, a bronze statuette of the Apis bull, a travertine calcite (alabaster) vessel, faience jewelry, and a faience hippo figurine from Lisht,? Maitland said.

Much mystery remains around the beheaded mummies.

Speculation has arisen that they could belong to Yuya and Tuya, which recent DNA tests identified as King Tut's great-grandparents.

?These were the only two mummies that were easily accessible. However, I have not been able to see the damaged mummies, so I can?t make any statement at the moment,? Ikram said.

Speculation about King Tut?s great-grandparents losing their heads in the Egyptian revolution abounded because of the the gilded, open-work cartonnage case shown on the museum floor on Al-Jazeera footage.

?We know that it belonged to Tjuya,? said Maitland.

But according to Egyptologist Aidan Dodson at the University of Bristol, the gold mummy-cover was not actually on Tjuya?s body any more, and both mummies were inside their coffins.

?A , with a head lying on the floor and bones scattered around, is circulating on the Internet, but identification is difficult, although it's unlikely it belongs to Tjuya,? Maitland said.

According to Swiss anatomist and paleopathologist Frank Rühli, the mummy's violation is intolerable from an ethical point of view.

?The damage also appeared to be very serious," Rühli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich and one of the world's top mummy experts, told Discovery News.

For more information and images showing the damage, check out this Cosmic Log posting.

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Indy's brother said:

Bet he's not so pissed anymore about other countries having Egyptian artifacts safely on display.

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The New York Times said:

At the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, thieves looking for gold broke 70 objects, including two sculptures of Tutankhamen, and took two skulls from a research lab before being stopped as they were leaving the museum. Mr. Hawass said that they had first been caught by civilians, who fought the thieves until soldiers arrived and detained them. He said that the damaged objects could all be restored.

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The New York Times said:

In Saqqara, site of the oldest pyramid in Egypt and a number of important tombs, padlocks on the tombs were broken but nothing was taken, Mr. Hawass said. He said that other sites, including the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, the pyramids of Giza, and all of Egypt?s other museums were safe, and credited not only the army but also average Egyptians, who he said had helped guards protect cultural sites.

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Le Saboteur said:

Because this couldn't happen anywhere else.

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Rocket Surgeon said:

You've got some grasp of irony...

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Rocket Surgeon said:

There are so many supreme antiquity chiefs stamping their feet, casting aspersions, DEMANDING priceless artifacts be sent to their totally secure museums...based solely on their word and reputation.

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Rocket Surgeon said:

...besides the earlier question you ignored regarding what implied content was interesting, what exactly was the levity you posted from The New York Times?

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Zahi Hawass said:

On another note, I went to the Egyptian museum today with reporters from the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers.
We reviewed every smashed vitrine. One showcase in the Amarna galleries was smashed; it contained a standing statue of the king carrying an offering tray. While the showcase is badly damaged, the statue sustained very minor damage and is repairable. Another vitrine that was smashed contained one of King Tutankhamun?s walking sticks. The gilded stick is broken into two pieces, and can be restored. The other King Tutankhamun object that was damaged was the wooden statue of the king standing on the back of a panther. Both objects were taken out of their showcase and were dropped on the floor after the thieves realized that they were not made of gold.

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Zahi Hawass said:

The two mummies that were reported as damaged at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo were in fact unidentified skulls dating to the Late Period; these two skulls are NOT royal mummies. These skulls were being temporarily housed in the storage room next to the CT scanner lab, which is in the grounds of the museum. The skulls were there to be used to test the CT scanner, and when they were retrieved from the looters, they were in the same condition that they had been in when they were originally placed in the storage room.

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Jeffery Bartholet said:

Scores of people, many of them youngsters from adjacent villages, had swarmed the area. Farag tried to shoo them off; guards fired shots in the air. The treasure-hunters would flee briefly, then quickly return. Most of them were children and teenagers digging fruitlessly in the sand, Farag told me. He called in the army, and two platoons arrived on the morning of the 30th, led by Lt. Col. Mohammed Tayel. Most of the 30-man force held back at first, while Tayel and an 11-man reconnaissance team scoped out the situation.

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Jeffery Bartholet said:

Amid the chaos, museum officials and police knew that one or more people had entered the main building when motion sensors set off alarms. One thief descended on telephone wires and cables through a skylight in the roof. The intruder apparently lost his grip and fell, crashing on a showcase holding a coffin, scepters, and sticks belonging to Mesehti, a prince of the 12th dynasty, around 2000 B.C.

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Jeffery Bartholet said:

Standing in the courtyard of the massive peach-colored museum that overlooks Cairo’s Tahrir Square--site of a vast anti-government protest camp--Awady told me that curators spent most of Sunday conducting a detailed survey of the damage. They still have more assessment ahead but now believe that just 20 to 25 items will require repairs and restoration, down from an earlier estimate of about 70. “It’s mostly what we call minor damage,” said Awady.

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Zahi Hawass said:

I am pleased to report that an additional five objects that were stolen from the Qantara East Magazine in the Sinai were located and returned to the storage magazine on February 8, 2011. It seems that the thieves simply threw these five objects in the desert, and the police was able to retrieve them. To date, 293 objects have been returned to the Qantara East Magazine, but as I have previously stated, we will not be able to know the exact number of the stolen objects until the current situation calms down. A committee will be formed in order to inventory the contents of the magazine. I believe that it will be impossible for the people who stole the objects to sell them. No museum or private collector will buy Egyptian antiquities now, they will be too scared. I am very happy that my calls for the return of these objects on television and in newspapers were successful.

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Jeffery Bartholet said:

It turns out the reports were grossly exaggerated. The tomb of the wet nurse is still sealed with bricks. And on Tuesday, inspectors at Saqqara led me into Maya the treasurer?s burial chamber. ?Nobody touched the tomb here, ? said Mohammad Mohammad Youssef, chief inspector for South Saqqara, as he and a colleague broke a wire and seal on the metal door leading underground. ?We put seals on the lock about a month ago when we checked it for humidity and temperature, and the same seals were still here and the locks were not broken.? Youssef and I walked down a tight, sandy staircase of a dozen steps to an iron gate with another three locks on it, and another seal that was untouched after the looting. Then we entered three chambers, over 3,000 years old, shimmering with golden-yellow reliefs.

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