Egypt’s antiquities in peril as political turmoil drags on

 

Eyes are on Egypt's heritage half-way round the world too (Joseph A. Cambra, 'Egypt’s antiquities in peril as political turmoil drags on', New Zealand Week, 26/08/2013).

Today, when Egypt is busy drafting plans for a future to lead the country out of chaos, its past seems to be in peril as well, as the ongoing political turmoil and consequent violence put the country’s priceless fortune of history under threat. In one of the biggest looting incidents the world has even seen, over 1,000 artifacts were stolen from the Malawi Museum in the central Minya governorate on August 14 [...] one employee was killed, while other security guards ran for their lives, but no army or police forces were there. “No one denies the humble security measures in the museum, but what had happened there was unprecedented and unexpected,” said Shadia Mahmoud, head of the international cooperation department at the Ministry of Antiquities. “We have nearly 40 local museums around the country, some of them are fully protected with modern systems, but others still depend on old protection systems that need to be improved,” she said. 

Well, not exactly "unprecedented", not at all:

Just before the 2011 unrest that eventually toppled ex- President Hosni Mubarak, looters sneaked into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, then nearly 50 pieces of the museum’s artifacts went missing. Also in 2011, valuable pieces were stolen from a museum affiliated to the faculty of antiquities of Cairo University. 

Then we have a dozen archaeological storerooms all over the country (mainly in the north though) that were broken into in the early months of 2011 and lost unknown (still unlisted?) numbers of curated objects.

“It’s strange that the government didn’t introduce any new security measures to museums after those accidents,” said Hossam Eddin Aboud [...] a member of archaeologists coalition that aims at improving archaeologists’ working conditions, said “There were no training or lectures for workers to help them deal with such a situation.”.

No emergency response plans either it seems. Perhaps now Egypt's new government will give this matter more consideration as part of restoring law and order. they could usefully start with holding an official investigation into all the cases of looting since January 2011, identifying what happened, what the response was and why it failed to prevent the loss of thousands of archaeological objects - state property, the heritage of all its citizens with the safety of which the state is entrusted.

So how do Egyptian archaeologists plan to mend the broken system, especially now when a ready-made source for funding (tourism) seems likely to be drying up over the next few months and years? Perhaps they should not be in so much of a hurry to cut off their ties with their colleagues outside, who may be able to offer valuable support, help and share opinions and expertise?  

Vignette: Artefact Hunters hunting artefacts for collection and sale.