Egypt has lost untold treasures through the millennia, most of them to tomb raiders, many others to colonial powers.
Now, the revolution threatens to deprive Egypt of even more treasures as the army and police forces are concentrated in trying to quell the fires of the revolution.
The new tomb raiders are acting commando style: organized, efficient, and very fast. In Dahshur there are seven open tombs left behind where grave robbers have been doing their dastardly deeds. This location in particular could be rich with treasures. Discovered not to long ago and deemed the oldest burial ground of Egyptian antiquity, it could hold many treasures and discoveries.
The revolution's downside must now also add the disaster of loss of heritage. Although grave robbers have been at it for millennia, the revolution has given them renewed energy, as most police is engaged elsewhere and the sites lay unmonitored.
In fact, robbers even depleted the storied Cairo Museum in 2011. Some rioters didn't even steal: they just destroyed. Some Islamists have always called for the wholesale destruction of Egypt's artifacts, as they are deemed blasphemous idolatry.
The Army has placed two armored vehicles at Dahshur. But their presence seems to be ineffective. Thievery goes on unabated. In some cases, when robbers were interrupted, the soldiers are met with machine gun fire.
In addition to the well-armed robbers, there are now gangs of youths who have taken to looting. They are armed and bold. They have looted storehouses in Saqqara, where some of the uncatalogued artifacts lay in storage as archeologists await to clean and tag them.
Aswan and Luxor too have been looted. In some cases, the robbers don't even bother to use shovels and ride up to the site with mechanical excavators, which promises to destroy anything in their path. In the scorching summer heat, which tops 110 Fahrenheit, the police are not willing to sit out the thieves.
Egypt right now has no money for excavation or restoration. For this reason the sites are semi abandoned. The looters then, have a clear path to their plans.
And when those artifacts are gone, they are lost forever. The only way Egypt can reclaim treasures is if they were already catalogued, since anyone could claim that the piece had been found in colonial times.
Source : Spiegel Online / 8.1.13
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