What has been the fate of Egypt's antiquities during the recent turmoil, asks Nevine El-Aref When the revolution began on 25 January, some of Egypt's most important monuments and archaeological sites were subjected to attacks from vandals, thugs or thieves, and as a result of the recent turmoil looting has increased across the country, with some antiquities being in danger from criminals trying to take advantage of the situation. Army units that protected historical sites during the uprising itself have now been redeployed on other missions, leaving the tourist police in charge of the safety of the country's cultural heritage. However, the tourist police are often nowhere to be found, allowing criminals to attack tombs, open warehouses and even steal an unknown number of artefacts. Meanwhile, people have encroached on monument buffer zones, building houses or carrying out illegal nighttime excavations. Reports of illegal construction have come in from near the Pyramid of Merenre and at the Mastaba Faraun near Saqqara. Many sites, including in Alexandria, Ismailia, Saqqara, Beheira, Sharqiya, Abusir and Dahshur, have reported illegal excavations being carried out, some of them at night. After a preliminary inventory carried out at the Egyptian Museum, 18 items have been registered as missing as a result of a break-in at the museum during the uprising. Thankfully, four of these items have already been recovered, including the heart scarab of Tutankhamun's grand-grandfather Yuya and an image of a goddess from the statue of Menkaret, both of which were found on the west side of the museum near the new gift shop. One of the missing ushabtis of Yuya was discovered under a showcase inside the museum. A painted limestone statue of the monotheistic king Akhenaten bearing an offering was returned by a young protester who found it near the southern wall of the museum in Tahrir Square. However, the Egyptian Museum was not the only landmark building to be subjected to looting during the uprising. Many storage places all over Egypt have suffered break-ins, among them the Qantara East storage site in Sinai, which houses artefacts belonging to the planned Port Said museum, as well as the Suez, Sharm El-Sheikh and Taba museums and objects returned from Israel under the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Looters broke into the storehouse and stole several boxes of objects, though fortunately to date 292 items have been returned. According to Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, head of antiquities for Alexandria and Lower Egypt, the rest of the objects stored in the Qantara East storehouse have been transported to Cairo, where they have been placed in the basement of the Egyptian Museum, which is guarded by the army. Abdel-Maqsoud told Al-Ahram Weekly that the transported objects had filled 30 trucks and had arrived safe at the museum with the protection of the police and army units. Meanwhile, at Saqqara the padlocks of many tombs have been smashed and inscribed blocks and parts of the false door of the tomb of Hetepka stolen. A storehouse belonging to an archaeological expedition run by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in Dahshur, known as the De Morgan storehouse, was attacked twice by looters, who overpowered and tied up guards. In Abusir, looters broke into the storehouse of a Czech expedition, and in Giza they broke into the Selim Hassan storehouse. The looters were carrying guns, forcing the unarmed site guards to surrender. Storehouses in Tel Al-Basta and Wadi Al-Feiran near Sharm El-Sheikh have also been subject to breaking and entering. Several other ancient Egyptian sites have also been subjected to vandalism and looting. The only known 19th-Dynasty tomb in Lower Egypt, that of Ken-Amun in Tel Al-Maskhuta near Ismailia, was completely destroyed, as was the Old Kingdom tomb of Impy near the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. Inscribed blocks were also taken from the tomb of Ptahshepses in Abusir. Guards at sites in Nekhen north of Edfu in Upper Egypt managed to catch several thieves. In Aswan, looters attempted to steal a statue of Ramses II, but archaeologists and guards at the site apprehended them. Looters attacked Abydos nearly every night during the recent turmoil, with illegal excavations and trenches, some as deep as five metres, damaging the site. Islamic monuments have also suffered. The police station in Gammaliya in Islamic Cairo was set on fire. Since one of the station's responsibilities is to ensure that cars do not drive along Al-Muizz Street, recently restored at a cost of LE1 billion, without the police presence cars have already returned. Also in Islamic Cairo, the Khan Al-Zeraksha, a recently restored group of villas, was broken into by about 50 armed thugs, who forced security guards to leave, and criminals are still occupying the site. In Tanta in the Delta, the Sabil of Ali Bey Al-Kabir was broken into and three original windows, furniture and the modern iron gate were stolen. Some pieces of the windows were later found in the possession of street merchants. The Kom Al-Nadoura site near Alexandria suffered some damage to doors and furniture. At Wekalet Al-Jeddawi in Esna, local people broke into the building, changed the locks and are currently protesting in front of the site. The most recent attack in the Delta took place in Kafr Al-Sheikh, where some 40 armed thieves attacked the antiquities warehouse of Tel Al-Faraeen. Luckily, some of the attackers were caught red handed, while others are still at large. According to Abdel-Maqsoud, a committee has been formed to make an inventory of the artefacts and identify what has been stolen. "The antiquities guards and security forces at the sites are unarmed, and this makes them easy targets for armed looters," Zahi Hawass, former minister at the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs (MSAA), wrote recently on his blog. The guards and security forces are therefore forced to comply with the criminals' demands. In addition, Egypt's police do not have the capacity to protect every single site, monument and museum in Egypt. "The situation looks very difficult today, and the MSAA is trying its best to ensure that the police and army restore full protection to the cultural heritage of the country," Hawass wrote. On the employment level, one day after the former regime fell as a result of popular demands for political and economic reform, protesters were seen picketing the Zamalek offices of the MSAA in Cairo. Many of those involved in the protests were archaeologists and restorers campaigning for employment within the newly created MSAA. Some of them claimed they had been unemployed for years, while others demanded better pay and equality. Frustrated at the situation of the country's antiquities, Hawass himself has resigned as minister, citing his inability to protect the nation's treasures. "I cannot stay as minister at the MSAA and see antiquities being stolen when I cannot do anything to stop it," Hawass said in an interview with the Weekly. "This situation is unbearable, especially as I have always fought to return stolen artefacts to Egypt." Since his appointment as secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002, Hawass has succeeded in arranging the restitution of some 5,000 artefacts that had been illegally smuggled out of Egypt. Of the recent protests, Hawass said that "sadly, I cannot give a job to everyone, but I have found funds to provide nearly 2,000 trainee positions." Even before he was appointed minister of state for antiquities affairs at the end of January, Hawass had been seeking funds to create jobs for the country's many archaeology graduates. During his tenure, Hawass increased salaries twice and offered medical benefits and insurance. He was also working on setting up a syndicate for archaeologists and had arranged several training scholarships for restorers and excavators. Hawass himself has also been the victim of the current disorder, having been the subject of a campaign, believed to be led by two disgruntled antiquities employees, accusing him of smuggling Egyptian heirlooms out of the country on behalf of the family of former president Hosni Mubarak, as well as of enabling suspected Zionist organisations to enter the Egyptian Museum eight years ago and mishandle ancient Egyptian antiquities. Hawass has asked Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud to conduct investigations into the allegations, telling the Weekly that they were "unfounded and nonsensical" and that there was no evidence supporting the claims. The Weekly has seen copies of documents recording disciplinary actions taken against the employees accusing Hawass, showing that their salaries had been withdrawn and that they had been suspended from duty, pending a court appearance. Hawass said that he had been the victim of similar allegations in the past, when a professor who had previously been director of antiquities made similar allegations. Hawass claimed that the professor had himself "given permission to a rich woman from an Arab country to take manuscripts out of Egypt." The protesters in Zamalek, Hawass said, had been encouraged by his accusers "to shout outside my office that they need jobs." "How could I steal antiquities," Hawass asked. "How could a man who has given his life to protecting, preserving and promoting antiquities be accused of stealing them?" Hawass said that his decision to resign had at least in part been motivated by the accusations against him. "I love working, and I can work if there is discipline and honesty. However, regretfully dishonest people have begun to appear to attack honest people. I can stand up to them if the antiquities themselves are safe, but at the moment the antiquities are not safe," he said. A day after Hawass announced his resignation, hundreds of his supporters and MSAA employees gathered at some of Egypt's most famous sites, including the Great Pyramid, the Egyptian Museum, and the Luxor and Karnak temples, appealing for him to stay in his post and for newly appointed prime minister Essam Sharaf to confirm the appointment. Archaeologists fear that Hawass's departure could lead to further damage to Egypt's cultural heritage. Meanwhile, former minister of culture Farouk Hosni, Hawass, and the director of the Alexandria Museum Ibrahim Darwish have filed a complaint with the prosecutor-general targeting Yasser Seif, head of the International Association for the Development of Environment and Culture, accusing Seif of defamation after the latter filed a complaint accusing Hosni and Hawass of giving a piece of ancient jewellery to former Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak during the opening of the Jewellery Museum in April 2010. Darwish said that evidence proving that the accusation was unfounded had been presented to the prosecutor-general. The museum's collection was strictly inventoried, he said, and all the jewellery received by the museum was intact. "Nothing from the museum's collection has been removed," Darwish said. "No official, whatever his position, may do such a thing." Hawass said that no artefacts could be removed from any museum without governmental approval, and he had never given such approval or helped facilitate the giving of artefacts as gifts. For his part, Hosni said that he had instructed his lawyer to file a lawsuit against Seif accusing him of defamation. The three men also called on the prosecutor-general to review the museum's surveillance camera recordings and records to show that the complaint was false. When new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appointed his cabinet he reunited the MSAA with the Ministry of Culture, led since earlier this week by former secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Culture Emadeddin Abu Ghazi. However, this did not suit many archaeologists, who protested in front of the cabinet building the day after the announcement was made, demanding an independent ministry for antiquities. Sharaf then agreed to make the MSAA an independent body under the direct control of the cabinet. However, nobody yet knows if the new body will be a ministry in its own right, or whether it will be a council answerable to the cabinet, as it was before the late 1990s when it was combined with the Ministry of Culture. Another question is who will direct the new body. Hawass himself has said he is distressed that some officials in the antiquities department have accused him of corruption and stealing antiquities, saying that it has been they who have instigated young Egyptians to shout in front of his office for jobs. An accomplished archaeologist, Hawass is known for his many contributions to Egyptology, including his directorship of excavations at the Giza Pyramids, Saqqara and in the Bahariya Oasis. Hawass is the author of many books, and he has appeared extensively on television and in films about Egypt's treasures. However, "he has irritated many scientists with what they see as a dictatorial approach and a tendency to hog the limelight," according to a recent article in the US magazine Science.
