Looting at El Hibeh, Update

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News from El Hibeh in Egypt is not good. The active destruction of the site continues. It would seem that it is being done by invisible men which the police cannot quite seem to see at work. An archaeologist who works on the site reported yesterday (though was not yet able to confirm) that they had "heard by the local grapevine that the looters have been using bulldozers for the past two days to dig up the cemetery in the desert east of the town mound". Presumably if this is true, these too these have some kind of visibility cloaking device (powered by red mercury?) which prevents the Egyptian security services from spotting them from their patrol cars. Dr Abdul Rahman Al-Ayedi, employed by the SCA and among other things excavator of Lahun (Kahun) and author of a study of the inscriptions of the Way of Horus (the road from the Eastern Delta to Palestine) is angry. He says he has been fighting to protect all archaeological sites in Middle Egypt, since January 2011. He alleges that "it is deliberately planned not to provide security". By whom he was not explicit.

If you have not done so before, consider signing the petition (which will apparently be closing soon due to having reached its target), it may achieve nothing in the current circumstances, but those who care should not stand idly by as this tragedy continues.

UPDATE 18.03.12: A site visit by the American team in the company of the SCA inspector with a police escort showed that there was no evidence of bulldozing as had been reported two days earlier, there was however horrific devastation of the cemeteries, undoubtedly there will be new shabtis and other grave goods appearing on the market soon.