Older news about the situation in Saqqara

The following lists the reports about the antiquities situation in the Saqqara region from the past weeks in chronological order as they came in.

Friday 18 February - Blue Shield, the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross, have published a report of a recent visitation to several of Egypt's sites. It briefly mentions the Saqqara New Kingdom tombs of Maya, Horemheb and Tia & Tia. Their website also includes some photos of their visit. Despite this report the exact state of the tombs remains unclear.

Friday 18 February - in his blog Dr. Hawass has given a new update on the state of antiquities after the recent public upheaval. He briefly refers to an investigation by Dr. Sabri Abdel Aziz of the current situation in Saqqara. It does not, however, mention the New Kingdom tombs: At Saqqara, the tomb of Hetepka was broken into, and the false door may have been stolen along with objects stored in the tomb. I have arranged for a committee to visit the tomb this coming Saturday to compare the alleged damage with earlier expedition photos. [...] In addition, break-ins have been confirmed at a number of storage magazines: these include ones in Saqqara, including one near the pyramid of Teti, and the magazine of Cairo University. I have created a committee to prepare reports to determine what, if anything, is missing from these magazines.
  
Thursday 10 February - in his blog Dr. Hawass gives a new update on the state of the antiquities. He has noticed people are still concerned and says he wants to reassure the world that the tomb of Maya, south of Saqqara is safe. He includes a photo of two Ministry of Antiquities employees visiting the tomb on 8 February. Meanwhile, another recent photo of a soldier in the tomb was added to the National Geographic Blog article by Jeffrey Bartholet that appeared yesterday (see below).
 
Wednesday 9 February - National Geographic magazine Blog has posted a new article from Jeffrey Bartholet where he reports that he was given the chance to visit the tomb of Maya 'the treasurer' and that it is indeed untouched. Shortly after he telephoned Maarten Raven of the Dutch excavation team to tell him the good news!

Wednesday 9 February - Dutch journalist Alexander Weissink reports on Twitter that the site of Saqqara is still closed to visitors. He writes security personel would not let me through, and pharaonic necroplis of Saqqara is closed but I could see locals going in and out unchecked by nervous police. He further writes police is present at Saqqara, army is not. The 'locals going in and out' may of course have something to do with preparations for re-opening the site to the public. The question rermains how much really needed a 'dusting off' after the events of last week.

Monday 7 February 09:00 - Dr. Hawass has issued another statement in which Saqqara is also mentioned. Referring to the tomb of the 'wet nurse' he says: The tomb of Maia in Saqqara is safe. Reports that it, and other tombs such as those belonging to the Two Brothers, Mereruka and Tiye, had been damaged were proven inaccurate when I sent Dr. Sabri Abdel Aziz, the Head of the Pharaonic Sector of the Ministry of Antiquities, to check them. Dr. Sabri confirmed that the tomb of Maia has not suffered any type of damage, nor did any other tomb in Saqqara suffer any damage. I believe this is because the tombs are very dark at night, and the looters, who were likely looking for gold, were frightened and ran away without causing any destruction.
He adds that the damage was minimized because the quality of the magazines on the sites has much improved: Many of my foreign colleagues will remember that the old style storage rooms that protected antiquities were primitive. The site of Saqqara used to have those primitive magazines, and people would attempt to dig underneath them in order to steal objects. The new magazines, built all over Egypt, are completely secure with modern equipment and conservation rooms, and we started a database for all museums and magazines. It is easy to recognize the benefits of building these new storage magazines. They are really some of the most beautiful projects in Egypt, because for the first time we can see the benefits in every village and governorate from Aswan to the Sinai. I am very proud of that these storage magazines, all similar to one another, are proving to be so beneficial in this time of crisis.

Sunday 6 February 23:00 - Another eyewitness account. Prof. Philippe Collombert of the University of Geneva had just arrived at the French Mission house at Saqqara to resume his excavation work in the Pepi I complex when the trouble started. He tells about his experiences in this interview (in French) in the Tribune de Genève newspaper. His account confirms the earlier French mission report (see below) that it was mostly unorganized and rather random treasure seeking by 'uneducated youths'. He also mentions some were armed with pistols and fired into the air to scare the ghafirs.

Saturday 5 February 22:30 - A National Geographic reporter was allowed access to Saqqara and has written this very interesting report. Though he did not visit the tombs of the Dutch Mission, he did ask about the tomb of 'treasurer' Maya: When I called to ask about the treasurer's tomb, and others that might have been vulnerable in its vicinity, I was told those too were undamaged. "I've seen them during the last week, and Maya is in good shape," says Hussein, the government archaeologist. "Nothing at all happened there". If this is true, it very good news indeed.

Saturday 5 February 09:30 - A detailed eyewitness report has appeared, apparently from one of the members of the French Mission, about what happened at Saqqara from the moment the trouble started. This report clearly suggests there is damage.

Thursday 4 February 20:00 - In a new statement today, Dr. Hawass has once again addressed the issue of Saqqara: Many people have been saying that Saqqara was looted and it is not true. If anything had happened there, the operation room in Zamalek would have called me immediately and reported what happened. I hope that you will all read each of the statements I have released on my website that say all our sites are safe. The army, curators, antiquities inspectors, and security guards guarded the important sites.

Thursdag 4 February 13:00 - An article in Science Magazine (3 February) reports that 'one archaeologist present at the cemetery of Saqqara' said that as many as 200 looters were digging for treasure in the area this past weekend before police resecured the area. The unnamed excavator also confirmed rumours that the tomb of Maia, the wet nurse of King Tutankhamun, was "completely destroyed". Her tomb was discovered in 1996 by the French team of Alain Zivie (see this video). According to the same article another Western archaeologist said "we still don't know the extent of the damage, but things have been bad and out of control."

Thursday 3 February 14:00 - A reliable source in Cairo (who had this directly from one of the SCA inspectors at Saqqara) confirmed that the Czech magazine at Abusir and the Cairo University magazine at Saqqara have been looted. No confirmation could be had about private tombs. Apparently doors have been forcibly opened but whether reliefs have been taken is not clear. The inspectors themselves have not yet had access to all parts of the site.

Thursday 3 February 11:30 - In a new statement Dr. Hawass has expressed his concern about untruths in the media about the situation in Saqqara. An excerpt: The Gezira television station has reported that the monuments of Saqqara have been damaged and items were stolen- this is not true. The army is in charge of guarding the site; I called the general there 5 minutes ago (it is now 10:30 am on February 3, 2011), and he informed me that Saqqara is safe and all the monuments are fine; nothing is damaged or stolen. In the same statement he remarks [in relation to the Egyptian Museum] I am the only source of continuing truth concerning antiquities, and these rumors are aimed at making the Egyptian people look bad. If anything happens to the museum, I would bravely tell everyone all over the world because I am a man of honor, and I would never hide anything from you.

Wednesday 2 February 22:50 - The situation remains unclear, as Dr. Hawass' statement regarding Saqqara (see below) is contradicted by another report on Facebook from Dr. Sarah Parcak: Saqqara being majorly looted. Reports from ground contacts (verified and trusted+ witnesses) are that numerous people (I was told "thousands") digging day and night.

Wednesday 2 February 22:30 - in a new statement Dr. Hawass said that the sites of Giza and Saqqara are also safe. Outlaws only broke the padlocks that secure the tombs of Saqqara, and when we went inside to check them we were happy to see that no damage had been done. Elsewhere in an interview he repeated yesterday, I sent a committee. And they entered inside the tombs, and they found nothing stolen. The tombs are safe. The site of Abusir, located north of Saqqara, is safe.

Wednesday 2 February 12:15 - Maarten Raven: There are various reports circulating on the internet about widespread looting in Saqqara and Abusir. However, we would like to stress that so far we have not been able to obtain any confirmation of this, except the following. On Saturday 29 January our restoration architect in Cairo told us that his contractor at Saqqara confirmed the looting in Saqqara. On Sunday 30 January the SCA Director of Saqqara told us that the site of the Dutch expedition has been involved in the looting. He would or could not give further details, and that is still the current situation. We have so far been unable to establish direct contact with people who know more.

Tuesday 1 February 22:31 - citation from a new statement by the Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organization: Looting and wanton destruction of Egypt's cultural heritage has been widespread, with many rumours circulating. As we are writing reports of looting keep coming in, our Egyptian colleagues helped by the local population are trying their hardest to keep the situation under control. However the lack of manpower is taking its toll and we are now aware that the Memphis Museum and magazine in South Saqqara have been looted. The staff at Saqqara rang Wafaa el-Sadik, the ex-director of the Cairo Museum in desperation for advice as they were unable to stop the looters. The museum at Memphis consists of a sculpture garden, where a colossus of Ramesses II is held in a special shelter, with other smaller objects at the actual Museum. It is currently unclear as to the extent of the looting and whether the looters were able to steal major objects or simply those more portable items in the display cases. It appears that only the nearby Imhotep Museum and adjacent central areas were being guarded by the military at this point, although the security has now been extended to the whole of the area. The magazine at Abusir has also been looted. [...] At both Abusir and Saqqara many sealed tombs have been entered by thieves, destroying many of the tombs interiors and taking artefacts. Some of these tombs at Saqqara act as storerooms for many of the artefacts excavated from the tombs of the Old Kingdom officials. The storerooms at Abusir contain many royal artefacts excavated from the royal burial ground, which contains the majority of the pyramids of the Vth Dynasty kings. Large gangs of men have been reported as digging day and night at these sites. The situation at present is still unclear whether the army has now secured this region or not, although they have been informed of this activity. (read the whole statement at: http://egyptology.blogspot.com/)

Other news related to the anquities situation in the Giza/Saqqara/Abusir region:

News updates about the antiquities situation in general:

Cairo museum break-in and aftermath:

Under the name of Egyptological Looting Database 2011, an initiative was started to record known (or strongly suspected) details of sites 'looted' during the recent happenings. As far as we can tell there is no real database-side to it, but the website does provide a possibly useful overview of reports and rumours for a large number of sites across Egypt.