CAIRO: Even though it has been downgraded to Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the headquarters of Egypt's antiquities' top body still reads: ministry of state for antiquities. Archaeologists and others joined forces on Sunday to demonstrate in front of the Egyptian cabinet to demand that it be once again reverted back to ministerial status. A number of archeologists organized the protest for Sunday calling for the return of antiquities to a ministry. They raised banners to express their demands to “cleanse the ministry from remnants of the former regime.” The demonstrators demanded hiring temporary archeologists and fresh graduates, in addition to dismissing the Director General of the High Council of Antiquities. The demonstrators nominated Abdel Haleem Nour al-Din to as a potential Minister of Antiquities. The Public Coordinator of the monuments' Revolutionaries Movement, Intesar Ghareeb, said the movement's main demands are to cleanse the Egyptian ministries from the remnants of the former regime. Since the end of the former Hosni Mubarak regime in February earlier this year, the antiquities ministry – which was elevated to ministerial position during the waning days of the Mubarak era – has been downgraded back to Supreme Council of Antiquities. Prominent Egyptologist Zahi Hawass was forced out of his top job atop the antiquities institution after protesters demanded his resignation. Since then, the antiquities ministry/council has seen massive upheaval, with many demanding Hawass' return, while others are calling for the removal of all former Mubarak cronies, including those close to Hawass. BM