"If the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, is safe, Egypt is safe," newly appointed Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass wrote on his web page Thursday. Yet Egypt is anything but safe and the museum is on the front lines of the ongoing street battle between anti-government demonstrators and those loyal to President Hosni Mubarak.
While the safety of those peaceful protesters I met in Tahrir Square over the past week concerns me, so does the protection of Egypt's archaeological sites. As in any popular revolt, rumors fly faster than rocks and bullets. Local and foreign archaeologists have been calling each other daily and flooding the Internet with whatever bits of information they can come by. Yet, first-hand accounts of whether sites have been looted are hard to find. The official statements from Hawass say that only two heritage sites were damaged: the Cairo Museum and Quntara in Sinai.
"In Quntara, thieves broke into the storage facility, but they later returned 288 statues," Hawass told me over the phone on Thursday. "We think that nothing else is missing." Thieves broke into the Cairo Museum on Friday, January 28, damaging several artifacts—including a wooden statue from King Tut's tomb—and beheading two mummies. Hawass has said everything that was damaged can be restored and that the army and other security forces are protecting the museum. Information about damage to other sites around the country, however, is patchy because many archaeological teams are between digging seasons and only the local inspectors are nearby.
"We've all been talking, mainly finding out who is here, who isn't, who is leaving, and who is staying," said Miriam Seco, director of the excavation of the Temple of Thutmose III in Luxor, on Wednesday in her apartment in Cairo. The tympani-like chants of Mubarak supporters from a nearby square echoed throughout the interview. "I've been in contact with the curators at the Cairo Museum, and many are sleeping there at night. The army is outside, but they are staying there to protect the antiquities. In Luxor, there were warnings on January 29th and 30th about armed looters so all the Egyptian archaeologists, who live on the East Bank, crossed the river to take turns standing guard with sticks and anything else to protect the sites. Thank god there were no such attacks."
Seco said that as of Tuesday, the missions pressing on with work include Chicago House in Medinet Habu—the holy ground where the four primeval gods of Egyptian mythology are believed to be buried—and her excavations at Thutmose III's temple in Luxor. A French team is still working at Karnak (a vast complex of temples devoted mainly to the god Amun) and a Polish team continues excavations at Deir el Bahri (the site of a temple and palace complex built by Hatshepsut in the 15th century B.C.)
What concerns the Egyptologists I spoke to, however, is the funerary site of Saqqara, which suffered a 36-hour gap in security before the army moved in around the site. Hawass insists that no looting took place. Some locks on tombs were broken, but the intruders caused no damage inside nor stole anything. "If anything had happened it would have been a disaster," he said.
Several archaeologists with contacts at Saqqara, who requested anonymity, confirmed this assessment. But they added that storage facilities were robbed, something the Supreme Council of Antiquities has denied. Inspectors, sources said, are evaluating the damage to the site with the army because the looters might be armed. The site is now closed to the public.
I spoke to an archaeologist at the French mission, who works at Saqqara and was in Cairo. "We've heard a lot of conflicting stories and many things on the Internet are wrong," he told me, based on calls to his Egyptian counterparts. "People were saying that my site in south Saqqara was destroyed, but in reality only two tents were damaged. We just have to wait and see, because now we have orders to stay out. On Sunday, looters were shooting at inspectors, who were very brave. Looting in Saqqara is nothing new, but before the army arrived, the site was left unguarded."
Egypt will likely undergo change in the coming months. Politically, the future is anyone's guess. Archaeologically, we will have to wait for the research teams to resume work before we learn about anything definitive about possible damage.
Mike Elkin, Archaeology correspondant, 2/4/11
(http://www.archaeology.org/news/articles/cairo.html)
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