A LARGE collection of prehistoric artefacts, some of them dating from as far back as the Stone Age, have been sent home to Egypt. Nevine El-Aref reports that following several meetings with University College London, Egypt has succeeded in claiming the restitution of 217 early objects. The objects were part of a division agreement between Egypt and Great Britain more than 50 years ago. The collection includes a stone axe dating back 200,000 years, as well as pottery from the seventh millennium BC that bears the fingerprints of its maker. The artefacts will constitute the foundation for a collection from the pre-dynastic Naqada period, named after a village in southern Egypt where they were found. "[This] represents one of the oldest centres of civilisation in the world," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni says. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the collection would form the core of a planned museum of prehistoric art currently under construction in Dakhla Oasis. This museum will be named after the renowned archaeologist Ahmed Fakhri, who documented the archaeology of the Western Desert oases and discovered several pre-dynastic objects. Khaled Saad, head of the prehistoric department at the SCA, said that among the most significant of the recovered objects were a perfume jar and two stone stelae used to grind pigments, as well as an axe with a stone handle and an ivory box, arrows, pins and some human hair. Since he took office in 2002, Hawass has succeeded in retrieving 31,000 relics from abroad. Egypt is due to host a conference in April demanding the return of its antiquities, taken from but on display in museums around the world. Thirty countries, including Greece, Mexico, Peru, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and China, will participate in the Cairo gathering.
