Two limestone reliefs stolen from the tomb of the Fifth-Dynasty King Sahure's hairdresser in Saqqara necropolis have been recovered, Nevine El-Aref reports Early this week, the Egyptian tourism and antiquities police recovered two well preserved limestone reliefs depicting natural scenes. It is 25 years since the reliefs were chipped from the walls of the tomb of King Sahure's royal hairdresser Hetepka in the Saqqara necropolis, where they were carved nearly 4,500 years ago. They were discovered in the late 1960s by British Egyptologists Geoffrey Martin. The reliefs were stolen along with two engravings in 1986. The theft was perpetrated by an international antiquities ring, some of whose members were caught in 2002 and imprisoned for stealing and illegally smuggling antiquities out of Egypt. Among the gang members were the British mastermind restorer Jonathan Tokeley-Parry and his partner, well known American antiquities trader Frederick Schultz. Mustafa Amin, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that both recovered items were made of limestone and engraved with ancient Egyptian decorations and hieroglyphic texts. The first is a rectangular relief one metre in height and 60cm in width depicting four walking geese and with a vertical hieroglyphic text on the right hand side. The second is engraved with three lines of hieroglyphic text, written vertically, and the cartouches of two kings from the Fifth Dynasty: Sahure and Neferirkare. Two more reliefs taken at the same time are still missing. Atef Abul-Dahab, head of ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the SCA, says that following the international trial of Tokeley-Parry and Schultz in 2002, Egypt reported the missing objects to Interpol. Now, after 25 years, two of the stolen reliefs have been recovered. Interpol and Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Police are still looking for the other two, which also depict natural scenes of Egypt's wild life and hieroglyphic texts. Abul-Dahab told Al-Ahram Weekly that the two reliefs are now in storage and will be restored and returned to their original position inside the tomb. In another development, Amin says that for the first time since the French expedition to Egypt in 1789, the SCA is making a comprehensive inventory of the land it owns in Egypt in order to ascertain which areas can be declared free of artefacts and sold off to investors. Those that contain artefacts or monuments still buried under the sand will be declared protected archaeological sites. Amin says areas that contain artefacts that can be removed will be declared open for investment after they have been taken to museums and galleries. Concerning fears that the SCA will sell land of archaeological importance, even if the objects are removed, the SCA said it was always carrying out archaeological surveys on land even if the area is privately owned. "The surveys are done honestly and professionally," Amin said. For example, Amin continued, "three years ago at Ain Shams residential area workers stumbled upon archaeological traces while constructing a residential building. Workers stopped digging until the SCA committee inspected the land and declared it a protected archaeological site. The same thing happened at Marina Al-Alamein on the northern coast."
