Egypt: Looting and Vandalism

[DrB0b]

Most of the news coming out of Egypt is about the protests and the political chnges happening there. Something I think that's of equal importance is not getting anywhere near the same amount of coverage, that's the looting and vandalism of Egypt's cultural heritage. In this thread I want to post about what's happening to Egypt's unique and irreplaceable sites and antiquities. Because of the communications problems in Egypt at the moment it's hard to verify any of this, some of the info is from friends of mine working in Egyptian archaeology, some is from mailing lists, news, and blogs. I'll post links where I can but can't guarantee that everything I post is either verifiable or true, much of it is rumour and word of mouth. We won't know the reality until thinjs calm down but right now the situation looks bad.

[kingwilly]

Wouldn't surprise though.

[DrB0b]

Known to the Ancient Egyptians as Abu or Yebu, the island of Elephantine stood at the border between Egypt and Nubia. It was an excellent defensive site for a city and its location made it a natural cargo transfer point for river trade. This border is near the Tropic of Cancer, the most northerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon and from which it appears to reverse direction or "turn back" at the solstices.
Elephantine was a fort that stood just before the first cataract of the Nile. During the Second Intermediate Period (1650 - 1550 BCE), the fort marked the southern border of Egypt.[1]
According to Egyptian mythology, here was the dwelling place of Khnum, the ram-headed god of the cataracts, who guarded and controlled the waters of the Nile from caves beneath the island. He was worshipped here as part of a late triad among the Egyptian pantheon of deities. The Elephantine Triad included Satis and Anuket. Satis was worshipped from very early times as a war goddess and protector of this strategic region of Egypt. When seen as a fertility goddess, she personified the bountiful annual flooding of the Nile, which was identified as her daughter, Anuket. The cult of Satis originated in the ancient city of Swenet. Later, when the triad was formed, Khnum became identified as her consort and, thereby, was thought of as the father of Anuket. His role in myths changed later and another deity was assigned his duties with the river. At that time his role as a potter enabled him to be assigned a duty in the creation of human bodies.

The Nubian Museum in Aswan has been secured by the Army and is protected by armed guards. Gangs of looters have attempted to break into the Nubian Museum but were chased away by looters. Current archaeological investigations in the area are being led by the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Team leader Sabine Landon has said that the current dig site is safe even though the team has had to abandon the site.


There is no word on activities at the monuments and tombs on the West bank of the Nile or to the South of Aswan.

[Caxa]

Unfortunately there is nothing new about this. I first went to Egypt nearly 20 years ago, and the Cairo Museum was chaotic with stuff lying in piles on the floor. The security guards were actually selling artifacts to tourists.

[Mid]

there were reports of vigilantes guarding the museum a couple of days back .

[DrB0b]

The Coptic Museum in Cairo has been attacked by looters. Local Egyptians attempted to stop the looters but right now there is no more news on what has happened there other than that a relative of one of the workers there has said that some artifacts, on display outside the museum, have been stolen.

The Egyptian Museum has been attacked by looters and a considerable amount of damage has been caused. Once again locals stopped the looters. News has been contradictory. The army and locals are now protecting the museum. Among the vandalized artifacts are artifacts of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

From The Eloquent Peasant

UPDATE, 31st Jan 11am: In the comments, Mellady mentions that two of the gilded Tutankhamun statues, which are mentioned above shown wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt (the ones *not* on the papyrus boat or the panther), are probably still on tour in the USA with the ‘Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs’ tour. You can see photos of the statues in questions on at these exhibition links. The exhibition was just in New York until January 17th, 2011, and it’s due to open again in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 18th, 2011. If you factor in the time needed to move the objects and set up the new exhibition space, they must be in one of those cities. I have contacted the exhibition organisers to see if I can confirm this. This would suggest that the broken sandalled feet shown in the Al Jazeera footage belong to the figure of Tutankhamun from the panther statue.
Other objects shown in the footage but difficult to specifically identify appear to include a smashed shabti figurine, a bronze statuette of the Apis bull, a travertine calcite (alabaster) vessel, faience jewellery, and a faience hippo figurine from Lisht. The large wooden statue shown in the screen capture below comes from the Meseti boat model. Another model figure shown in the footag, kneeling and armless, also appears to be from the same model.
There are worrying reports of archaeological sites and museums around the country being targeted but no concrete information as of yet. Nevertheless, I am still inspired and awed by the valiant efforts of ordinary Egyptian citizens taking a stand to protect the heritage of which they are so proud. For whatever damage has been done, it’s possible that it could have been much worse without their help. My focus on this site is on the artefacts because that is what I’m best able to comment on, but my thoughts are with the Egyptian people.

(Reuters) - Looters broke into the Cairo museum housing the world's greatest collection of Pharaonic treasures, smashing several statues and damaging two mummies, while police battled anti-government protesters on the streets.
Arabiya television showed soldiers, armed and in battle fatigues, patrolling the museum that houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection. Display cases were shattered and several broken statues and porcelain figures lay on the floor.
A number of display cases appeared to have been emptied of some of their contents during Friday night's break-in.
Egypt's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, told state television Egyptians on the street had tried to protect the building, but that the looters had entered from above. Two mummies on display had been damaged.
"I felt deeply sorry...when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night," Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said.
The museum is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters torched ad earlier set ablaze in protests demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Some was still rising from the building on Saturday morning.
(Reporting by Yasmine Saleh, Writing by Patrick Werr)http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...70R7K820110129

[DrB0b]

Egypt Treasures Looted, but Public Strikes Back



Ker Than
for National Geographic News
Published January 31, 2011
As protesters in Egypt agitate for President Hosni Mubarak to step down, the resulting chaos is providing cover for looters who are pillaging the country's museums and archaeological sites.

That chaos, though, is also galvanizing both Egyptologists and everyday Egyptians. Many have formed human chains, established unofficial check points, and even jury-rigged ways around Mubarak's Internet and cell phone shutdowns—all in the name of safeguarding ancient Egyptian treasures.
In Cairo on Friday, looters broke into the Egyptian Museum, which was "not well guarded," according to Egypt's top antiquities official, Zahi Hawass. The museum is home of some 120,000 historical objects, including a famous gold funerary mask of King Tut (picture), officials say.
The looters damaged—but didn't manage to steal—dozens of artifacts, including a statue of King Tut standing atop a panther and two royal mummies, whose heads fell off during the raid. (See pictures of King Tut tomb treasures.)

"A lot of the things that were broken off were gilded wood, so I think they were after gold," UCLA Egyptologist Willeke Wendrich told National Geographic News.
"The restoration of those objects, even if all the parts are still there, will be very difficult, time consuming, and costly," she added. "This is really fragile wood."
Police officers and Cairo citizens apprehended the looters on Saturday. The same day, everyday Egyptians locked arms and surrounded the museum to prevent other would-be thieves from entering the museum, according to news reports.
(See ancient Egypt pictures, stories, and more from National Geographic magazine.)

People Power on the Rise in Egypt
While reports of looting throughout Egypt are now widespread, accounts of local Egyptians banding together to protect local historic sites are also common.
In Alexandria, local youths organized themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods, and guarded public buildings such as the Library of Alexandria. (Read an official's letter thanking young Alexandrians on our News Watch blog.)
Speaking from Luxor, once the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Egyptologist Suzanne Onstine said she's encouraged by news of Egyptians coming together to protect local treasures—even defying the Mubarak government's newly instated curfews to do so.
"There were reports that people were stealing guns from the police stations and that they were going to the monuments," said Onstine, who is affiliated with the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
However, "they were unsuccessful in getting in because the local people had formed barricades at some places."
For anyone who has traveled in Egypt, such actions by local people would not be surprising, said UCLA's Willeke.
"There is a general appreciation in Egypt of its history and there's a very clear understanding that an important part of the country's income comes from tourism based on Egypt's history," she said.

Other Egyptian Museums Hit

But not all of Egypt's museums and ancient sites have been quite so well protected. (See "Plundering of Tombs, Museums, Antiquities Widespread, Egyptian Official Reports" on our News Watch blog.)
The open-air museum in Memphis—a capital of ancient Egypt just south of Cairo—was emptied of its treasures, according to antiquities chief Hawass.
While an inventory of items damaged or stolen at Memphis is not currently available, the site is famous for its large statue of Pharaoh Ramses II and other sculptures.
Other museums—including the Coptic Museum and Manial Palace Museum in Cairo as well as the Royal Jewelry Museum and Alexandria National Museum in Alexandria—were all broken into.
Archaeologists are also reporting that tombs at more remote sites—such as the royal necropolises at Abusir and Saqqara, the site of Egypt's first stone pyramids—are being ransacked.
Hawass, reached by phone early Monday, dismissed such claims as being exaggerated.
"The damage at Saqqara is not really much. I'm not worried at all. Everything is going to be safe today and tomorrow the situation will be finished," said Hawass, also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
According to Hawass, all 24 of Egypt's museums are now "completely safe," guarded by Egypt's army, and should be open again to the public by this Friday at the latest.

Egypt Treasures Especially Vulnerable
Other scholars hope Hawass is right.
"I am hopeful that the looting will come to an end. Hawass has already implemented numerous security measures, but there are hundreds of sites across Egypt, many of which lie in remote areas," said Sarah Parcak, an Egyptologist at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Egypt is more vulnerable to looting than other countries in the region, said archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, a National Geographic fellow.
Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan—two other countries that recently had their archaeological treasures pillaged during times of civil unrest—many of Egypt's richest archaeological sites are located where modern Egyptians live and work.

"In Iraq and Afghanistan, people [had] moved away from the archaeological sites." But because Egypt is mainly desert, "you can't move anywhere—the Nile is it," Hiebert said.
"People are just living on top of archaeological sites. … And there are signs everywhere. Looters don't have to guess" where the treasures are.
"There probably is no country in the world that's more archaeologically rich than Egypt," Hiebert added.
"They can't protect everything. It's impossible."
Picking up the Pieces, From Outside Egypt
With Internet and cell phone access still down in much of Egypt, it could be several days or weeks before the full extent of the looting is known. Many Egyptologists outside of Egypt can't wait that long.
Egyptologist Margaret Maitland of the University of Oxford in the U.K. is assessing the archaeological damage from afar by watching video clips from news outlets such as Al Jazeera and reporting her observations on her blog, The Eloquent Peasant.

Using this method, Maitland determined that a wooden boat smashed by the looters in the Egyptian Museum is over 4,000 years old. She also identified two King Tut statues that had been damaged.
"When I saw the video footage from Al Jazeera from inside the Museum, I instantly recognized the Tutankhamun statues," Maitland told National Geographic News.
"I almost couldn't believe my eyes, though, so I instantly wanted to look it up and make sure of what I thought I was seeing. ... I think a part of me kind of felt that if I could figure out what had been damaged, then by piecing together that information I could somehow piece together the artifacts again."

Mother of Invention
Meanwhile, Parcak, of the University of Alabama-Birmingham, has created a Facebook group called "Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum!"
The group serves as a forum where Parcak and colleagues can pool information and try to separate fact from rumors.
"We're trying to find specific people on the ground that have eyewitness accounts of what's going on, and that's difficult," Parcak said.
The Facebook group has also worked out a roundabout way to help the Egyptian Army protect archaeological sites.
The system works like this: A researcher in Egypt gathers names of sites that have reportedly been looted. He or she uses a landline phone to call a colleague in a country with working Internet service. That person then goes online and determines the GPS coordinates of the sites using online services such as Google Earth and then relays the information back to the researcher in Egypt, who passes it on to the Egyptian Army.
"The Egyptian Army said, We don't understand if you tell us it's the tomb of a known ruler that's being looted, but if you tell us the latitude and longitude, we can go there," Parcak said.
Parcek and her colleagues have also alerted UNESCO, the World Monument Fund, the U.S. State Department, Interpol, and other organizations about possible stolen goods being exported from Egypt.
"There's sort of this attitude out to get everyone on high alert, in case objects start appearing on the black market," she said.
"It's awesome. We all feel like we're doing something."

[DrB0b]

Saqqara (or Sakkara, Saqqarah; Arabic: سقارة‎) is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of mastabas. Located some 30 km south of modern-day Cairo, Saqqara covers an area of around 7 km by 1.5 km.


At Saqqara, the oldest complete hewn-stone building complex known in history was built: Djoser's step pyramid, built during the third dynasty. 16 other Egyptian kings built pyramids at Saqqara, which are now in various states of preservation or dilapidation. High officials added private funeral monuments to this necropolis during the entire pharaonic period. It remained an important complex for non-royal burials and cult ceremonies for more than 3,000 years, well into Ptolemaic and Roman times.


North of the area known as Saqqara lies Abusir; south lies Dahshur. The area running from Giza to Dahshur has been used as necropolis by the inhabitants of Memphis at different times, and it has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.[1]

Saqqara has been reported to be extremely badly damaged with many armed and organized gangs of looters in the area. Reports describe the damage as "immense". The Saqqara museum has been looted. Some tombs have had wall paintings stolen and others have been severely damaged by people attempting to chip paintings off the walls. Almost all tombs in the Saqqara area have been opened. The pyramids of Pepi I and Djedkare Isesi have been broken into and a number of antiquities repositories have been looted.

Egyptian Egyptologist Monica Hanna:
“I am terribly sorry but here are the latest veriified news from my friend Hana Vymazalova: The commision with Mr. Kamal and Mohammad Megahed and others have been bravely checking Saqqara and Abusir today. Last report says Pepy I pyramid open, Djedkare’s pyramid open South Saqqara magazines open, They now proceed to Saqqara and Abusir. … Thanks to God all guards alive and well (M. Barta) ”

Sarah H. Parcak, Assistant Professor at the Department of History and Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham:
“Verified by Mohammad Megahed: Immense damages to Abusir and Saqqara, all magazines and tombs which were sealed were entered last night. Only Imhotep Museum and adjacent central magazines protected by the military. In Abusir all tombs opened. large gangs digging day and night everywhere.
The damage is *vast*”
It seems that some of the storage magazines at South Saqqara and Abusir have been looted – hard to say how much was taken and the extent of the robbing. SCA representatives are only today able to check on the museums/storage magazines, but early reports suggest major looting. If you all could please contact anyone who can help and put them on “high alert” for Old Kingdom remains and Egyptian antiquities in general, and please spread the word to law enforcement officials worldwide. Egyptian looters (who may be encouraged by outside Egypt entities) may try to use the general confusion to get things out of the country.
Other bad news: prisons in Qena and Armant (next to Luxor) have been emptied, so people fear major looting will occur in that region. Reports still abound for major looting in the Alexandria Museum—but those reports are hard to confirm. The violence has been worse in Alexandria, and there have been few police reports there.”

Pyramids at Saqqara & Abusir Broken Into

[harrybarracuda]

It's nice, but really, the muslims do not fucking care a bit. If it predates Mohammed then it doesn't matter.

If they're protecting it, it's simply to protect their livelihoods, but then again any excuse is good at the moment.

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

Am reading a book about Napoleon's odyssey to Egypt.

Seems like the local tomb raiders had got there long before him. Pillage appears something of a neighbourhood custom.

[harrybarracuda]

Am reading a book about Napoleon's odyssey to Egypt.

Seems like the local tomb raiders had got there long before him. Pillage appears something of a neighbourhood custom.

Yeah, that lovely library in Alexandria....

[DrB0b]

Pillage appears something of a neighbourhood custom.

It was actually a fundamental part of the Ancient Egyptian economy. Neither Pharaohs nor the priesthood of Amun had any problems cracking open a tomb or two when finances got tight. There are a number of interesting new books on the subject of Pharaonic Tombs being the ancient Egyptian equivalent of a national gold reserve.

As to peasants robbing tombs, there's a fascinating set of ancient-Egyptian documents, the records of the trial of a tomb robber, which describes the whole tomb-robbing hierarchy - from the peasant who broke in, to the chief-of-police who took his cut, to the mayor of Thebes who organised the whole thing.

[Mr Gribbs]

There was a story on the looting of historical places in Egypt this weekend on Al Jazeera, an Arab guy responded that white people are more concerned about the artifacts then they are Egyptians, he is probably right, right? Didn't the British and French steal a bunch of Egyptian artifacts to begin with?

[taxexile]

Didn't the British and French steal a bunch of Egyptian artifacts

yes, theyre just a bunch of thebes.

that white people are more concerned about the artifacts then they are Egyptians

the artifacts are irreplaceable.

[Bogon]

This may seem like a stupid post, but here goes...................

My daughter (17 years old) has booked a holiday for July in Egypt.
What are your thoughts about cancelling the holiday now instead of 4 months down the line when things still might be simmering?
Remember that newbies to Thailand forums were asking the same thing when the yellow and red shirt debacle first started and progressed to coups/airport closures/riots/burnings of shopping malls and killings on the streets.
I know I am wandering off from the OP, but would like some opinions from you guys.
Serious answers please lads.

[Mr Lick]

I booked a holiday to Egypt in 1997 following the Queen Hatshepsut's Temple massacre, Luxor, where 62 people were slain (mainly tourists by an Islamic terrorist group), on the basis that it was probably one of the safest place to visit as additional security measures would be in place and that a bargain holiday was to be had as other tourists would be put off by the incident. (I had a great holiday BTW).

The difference i can see here is that the whole country will be in turmoil for a while until the political situation is resolved. I certainly would be giving it a wide berth as a holiday destination and would be advising my daughter to do the similar if she was contemplating a visit. Plenty of more years ahead of her at 17.

[Airportwo]

^^ I would wait another month and see what happens, the situation cant continue as it dragged out in Thailand, Egypt (Suez canal) is too important to the rest of the world. If it does drag on the world will be in turmoil anyway!

[S Landreth]

Egypt’s undercover police behind museum looting, group claims

Egyptian security forces have been caught trying to loot priceless artifacts from the museum in Cairo and commit other acts of violence "in an attempt to stoke fear of instability," a rights group claimed Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch emergency director Peter Bouckaert told The Washington Post that police identification cards were found on several wounded looters that broke in to Cairo's Egyptian Museum.

Soon after the Egyptian police forces withdrew from the streets Friday, "people began to enter the museum," Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's antiquities department, told Time Magazine.


Reuters video in link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/rights-group-confirms-undercover-police-loot-egyptian-museum/#

[Bogon]

^Thanks for the advice Lick and Airport. Taken onboard.

Sorry for veering off from the OP by the way.................

[S Landreth]

17 artifacts stolen from the Egyptian museum

Reported on CNN


From this site: egyptian museum


At least 17 artifacts from the Egyptian Museum of Cairo are missing following a break-in, the country's minister of antiquities said Sunday.
The missing objects include a gilded wood statue of King Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess; parts of a a gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun harpooning; a limestone statue of Akhenaten; a statue of Nefertiti making offerings; a sandstone head of an Amarna princess; a stone statuette of a scribe from Amarna; 11 wooden shabti statuettes of Yuya; and a heart scarab of Yuya.

[BobR]

It's not about Egypt, and it's certainly not about any kind of protest or complaint; within every society there is a small minority ready to run wild the second the system of government breaks down. It's too bad when they damage something like a museum which is priceless and not replaceable.

Much better when it's something like the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the idiots burn their own neighborhoods.

[harrybarracuda]

Islam. How many times do you have to hear it? Remember the Buddhas in Afghanistan? Why do you keep apologising for them?

[S Landreth]

Five rare and priceless Egyptian statues and artefacts dating back to the pharaohs are still missing after looters broke into Cairo's museum during the political turmoil there.

The authorities say a number of men have been arrested. Today journalists were allowed inside the museum, which is still closed to visitors.

The BBC's Christian Fraser reports.

if you haven't seen the video already: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12488311

[StrontiumDog]

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2...medium=twitter

King Tut's stolen dad found

Associated Press, Cairo | Fri, 02/18/2011 12:31 PM | World


Egypt said it will reopen historical sites to tourism on Sunday as it sought to revive a key industry shattered in the turmoil that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Archaeologists were cheered by the recovery of the most important artifact stolen from Cairo's Egyptian Museum, a rare statue of King Tut's father.

A 16-year-old anti-government protester found the statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten next to a garbage can and his family returned it, the antiquities ministry said.

But damage to Egypt's heritage may have been greater than previously thought, as officials reported new cases of break-ins at archaeological sites.

Zahi Hawass, head of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, had reported a total of 18 missing museum artifacts, three of which were found on the museum grounds, possibly abandoned by looters making their escape.

The antiquities ministry cted Sabry Abdel-Aziz, head of its pharaonic sector, as saying the tomb of Hetep-Ka, in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara, was broken into and a false door was stolen along with objects stored in the tomb. Also, a portion of a false door was looted from the tomb of Re-Hotep in Abusir, the ministry said.

Many archaeological storehouses were also targeted in break-ins, including ones in Saqqara, and ministry officials were trying to determined what, if anything, was missing. They did not say when exactly the vandalism occurred, but the discoveries were part of an inventory conducted in the wake of 18 days of ant-government protests and the security vacuum surrounding Mubarak's ouster on Feb. 11.

The ministry also said the Egyptian military caught thieves attempting to loot the sites of Tell el-Basta, and a tomb in Lischt.

"There have also been many reports of attacks on archaeological lands through the builing of houses and illegal digging," it said.

After police and government officials met to discuss security, Hawass announced that "all of the Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and modern sites will reopen to the public" on Sunday, according to a ministry statement.

The pyramids of Giza are already open, bt most tourists fled Egypt earlier this month. An outbreak of labor unrest and uncertainty over a military-supervised political transition indicate tourism is unlikely to recover in the short term.

Egyptian officials had said the magnificent legacy of their ancient civilization emerged largely intact from he chaos in Cairo and elsewhere in the country. The spectacle of civilians forming a human chain to protect the Egyptian Museum testified to a sense of national pride in the past that may have averted more widespread damage.

"Egypt is an outdoor museum," said Dr. Robert Littman, a member of the governin board of the Archaeological Institute of America. "There are thousands of sites everywhere, and inevitably when there's disorder, there's always going to be a few who try to take advantage of the situation."

The most important object that went missing from the Egyptian Museum in the upheaval was the listone statue of the Akhenaten, father of the famed King Tutankhamen. It depicts the standing pharaoh with a blue crown, holding an offering table in his hands. The table was found separately inside the museum.

The antiquities ministry said a youth found the statue, which has an alabaster base, and his mother contacted her brother, a professor at the American University of Cairo. He, in turn, contacted officials to arrange its return on Wednesday. The statue, about one foot (30 centimeters) tall, will undergo restoration before being returned to its display case.

Littman said the statue was "extremely important" because it is one of the few surviving depictions of Akhenaten, who built the city of Amarna and introduced an early form of monotheism, doing away with the worship of the chief god, Amun.

The king ruled for nearly two decades, and after his death ancient Egyptians went back to worshipping Amun, destroying images and statues of Akhenaten.

"It's one of the few that there is," Littman said of the recovered statue. "It's just terrific."