Welcome to the Egyptological Looting Database 2011
This site was established by Kate Phizackerley on 31st January 2011 to record known (or strongly suspected) details of sites looted during the popular Egyptian uprising of January and February 2011. The intention is to provide a site by site record of information as it became available. The site is still maintained as news trickles in of sites, recoveries of artefacts and, mostly sadly, ongoing looting in some sites. In February 2011, the Ministry confirmed that 2% of antiquities stored in museums and magazines were looted; countless more were dug up illegally and without record.
If you have any new information, please use the comment form on the relevant page for the affected site; I will consolidate it into the text as soon as information can reasonably be verified. If you need another site added, please record the information in the comments and I will set up a dedicated site page as soon as I can. I will also split and re-arrange pages as information comes in. Comments are arranged with the newest at the top to reflect any developing situations.
You may also contact me using the comment form on this page, or by using my personal contact form to send me an email. If you would like editing permissions to help record information, please get in touch.
The site was established to respond to the fast-moving situation in Egypt. It is a working site, so please don’t expect lots of refinement. Text is not pretty: it is usually a case of adding new information quickly. All main sources are retained to maintain the historic picture, but text may be archived to the bottom of the page, or to an archive page.
Information is provided on a best endeavours basis. Even months later hard facts are not always available.
2012 etc.
I have decided to continue to add new incidents to the Egyptological Looting Database when I hear of them. These will be clearly dated 2012, 2013 etc. Reports without a year refer to the start of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. A year (2011) will be added to clarify these when pages are updated.
There is a long article at Egypt Independant with news updates for various sites. Read here:
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-turmoil-thieves-hunt-pharaonic-treasures
The Egyptian antiquities don’t belong only to Egypt, but also to the entire world. Thank you agian, and please keep up the good work!
With love and best regards from sunny Egypt!
Peace be upon you and the mercy of God and His blessings!
Hi, Kate! Thank you so much for making this site and for taking the time and effort to provide us with this information! Unfortunately, Egypt has been in a very bad situation for many years, and the theft and sale of Egyptian antiquities/monuments is not a new thing. Life in Egypt is very hard and rough, but things are getting a little bit better every day, but still far from an acceptable standard.
By the way, Zahi Hawass is NOT a good person. He is fake and thinks himself Mr. Indiana Jones, the defender and protector of Egyptian antiquities. He should be tried along with Hosni Mubarak.
I would like to thank all of you regarding your interest and feeling towards my country Egypt
iam an English tour guide in Egypt and really breaks my heart to see our History and treasures looting by this way and no one care about them except you and all Egypt’s lover i really support your idea..i sent this article to many egyptian sites and to all my friends from tour guides we really want to save pur History i know well its value i saw that in my Tourists’s eyes when they were so happy to see or to touch them Tutankhamun Mask,statues,and all his treasures and more i will follow up with you and if you need anything from me i can do please inform me thank you for your effort
Sometimes the only way to get a picture is to build a site like this. It should serve as a record of the damage done but also, with the links to sources, it should be a historical record of events. We will see what Hawass’ book says but if it is not forthcoming then I may myself use the information on this site to write an account of the events.
I would suggest changing your assumptions. Rather than assuming a site is safe if it isn’t on your list, I would suggest assuming it was looted or of questionable status unless it can be verified safe. Conditions in Egypt now can best be described as a fourth intermediate period. El Hibeh is currently being severely looted by a “gangster” who “escaped” from prison and has the local countryside terrorized. He has threatened SCA inspectors. The taftish is doing the best they can, but security and/or army refuse to do anything about the situation. Ihnasya el Medinah (Spanish mission) was also badly looted after the revolution but seems to be okay now.
Thanks Carol. I have just refined the front page somewhat, partly reflecting your comments. I will update the El Hibeh page shortly.
Carol-The looting of your site was reported on TV two nights ago:
http://www.alqaheraalyoum.net/videos/playvideo.php?vid=0164108b3
The report starts at 5:00. Thank you for making this information available publicly. Too many archaeologists are afraid to speak out about damage to the sites that they have taken on the responsibility to protect.
Greetings Kate
I would just like to start by saying thank you for providing a detailed report for the damage of antiquties in Egypt.
Second of all, as an Egyptology studentI would like to say that this is an extremely important issue and something should be done to prevent more damage/theft to antiquities.
I will be posting some more bad news about sites over the weekend. Good news is that we are talkingwith the government about taking some serious measures to protect sites in the future, one of the main ones will be a central SMR, as you cannot protect what you don’t know exists. This can lead to a heritage at risk map.
Excellent work Andie et al.
Zahi Hawass has resigned, although there are some reports stating he was sacked. This conicides with the ‘resignation’ of the Egyptian prime minister.
There is a major news update from Zahi Hawass for many sites all over the country with mainly bad news. You will have to do a huge update to this database.
http://www.drhawass.com/blog/status-egyptian-antiquities-today-3-march-2011
As I suspected I one of my last comments, the statue in the aswan south quarry has been damaged according to the picture at the hawass website.
According to Dr. Hwass’ blog, “On 20 February 2011, all of Egypt’s archaeological sites and six of its antiquities museums reopened.”
http://icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/working_groups/110207_ICOM_preliminary_report_Egypt_07.02.pdf Here is a preliminary report from ICOM (International Council of Museums) about the situation of Egypt’s museums and antiquities.
Hawass today confirms the identity of the “2 mummies” to be unidentified:
http://www.drhawass.com/blog/sphinx-sad?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Drhawasscom-New+%28DrHawass.com+-+What%27s+new%3F+Feed%29
Stuart
The mummies have true at American and Eygpt. . There have body and skin dead many years ago. We went to Mummies CaliforniaScience Muesum it there looked mummies. Laura
Excellent, excellent work, Kate and Andie. Way to step up, and congrats for the much-deserved coverage from Discovery News.
This is a wonderful thing you are doing in a terrible time.
–Keith
Thanks Keith
hello,
there’s a good article of discovery news about this website and your blog!
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/egypt-headless-mummies-identity-110204.html
etienne
Dear Kate,
I am writing a short update of the looting of Egyptian Patrimony and I would like to know if I could use some of your information.
I tried to fill the form, but it is not working .
Thanks in advance, Claudio
Hello
I did get the message via the Contact form and replied by email. I hope you got it. Yes, you are welcome but please credit. There are various stories which are reappearing as new stories because people are not linking back to the earlier source so the new article gets taken as a new source.
Thanks
Kate
PS I would like to get a better contact form up – it’s on the list when I get time!
news of el-lahu survey:
http://lahun.blogspot.com/2011/02/brief-news-on-fayoum-sites-and-looting.html
etienne
Certainly a good argument against repatriation of artifacts from the Global North to sites of origin such as Egypt. Why return artifacts to places where they’ll be looted and destroyed?
We wrote pages : articles, books, contributions about the primordial dichotomy :
M3′t vs isft
… I guess we know now what it is all about.
Eyewitness report looting in Saqqara in this very moment 20:42 Paris time. Others in Tahrir report looting at the entrance of the Museum.
Will try to confirm asap with reliable documentation.
This is from Dr Salima Ikram who managed to get in touch with my friend Aayesha Mohammed, I have been told to pass on: “The government has mobilised the secret police and thugs to attack the peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square. The seemingly Pro-Government people being paid by the government. Please alert the media. Also, the government seems to NOT be helping to protect archaeological sites in the provinces. Police in Middle Egypt not very helpful. Thebes is secure and calm, as is Edfu and Aswan, in terms of antiquities.”
Now we are in the real danger for all the antiquities. If the Egyptian Museum will be burned what we can to think? Imagine if Mr. Zahi had taken back the bust of Nefertiti and this would have gone in ash?
And the treasure of Tutankhamun?
What tragedy !
Thank you for the wonderful job regarding information on the situation in Egypt.
I have implemented a software block for the main Egyptian IP address ranges. There has been no access from Egypt but just in case their Web connections are restored, I think it prudent to try to keep it that way until security is normalised.
I think that this is a great idea, it is shocking to see photo’s & to here about what has happened to some of Egypts Great Treasure. I don’t understand and probably won’t understand why people have to damage some great treasures.
Great work as usual Kate if I can be of help please let me know and I will keep my eye out for related news.
Cheers
Thanks Tim. It’s not just me though, Andie, Lauren and Julia are helping too!
Thank you all for spearheading this important database, Kate! Please let me know if I can be of any assistance. Keep up the great work!
Amy
I’m just very interested in ancient egypt. It hurts to see any artifact, piece of history damaged.
I would like to support the egyptian people, but plundering is unacceptable.
Many thanks for the reassuring news that most of the monuments and antiquities are safe.
GOOD job. And thank you.
Thank you so much for this blog, I support your idea, I may understand the anger of the Egyptian people, but I dont understand the looting and damage of Ancient Egyptian Culture, hurts me so much.
Blessings
Many crimes have been committed throughout history and, unfortunately, many horrible crimes are being committed at this time in the beautiful country of the Nile. I totally agree that the Egyptian people should have a better quality of life, It is my wish that everyone can reach the happiness and dignity of a productive and honest life. But I totally disagree on the horrible acts of vandalism and looting
happening now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and all over archaeological sites of the country.
It really breaks my heart to see these ancient artifacts thrown and broken on the floor of the museum. Unfortunately, the perpetrators of
these acts have not realized that they are committing the greatest crime that can be made to any society, and worst of all, to Egyptian people. The vandals who did this abomination denied the opportunity to this, and future generations, to know the past of his own country.
They not realize that if you don’t know about the past, you are doomed
to repeat it.
I think things will change, after this last “Friday of Anger” -28
January 2011- but I hope Egyptian people can find the solutions
to all the problems, and more important, reach peace an stability for their own good.
Sincerely yours:
Archaeologist Gerardo P. Taber
Curator of the Egyptian Room in the Museo Nacional de las Culturas México.
“Egyptologists for Egypt. Supporting the people’s demands” facebook group reports:
“Amarna Project The political unrest in Egypt has now forced the suspension of fieldwork at Amarna as a precautionary measure, but we are pleased to report that there are no reports of threats to people or antiquities at the site.”
same source:
“As far as yesterday the Italian Archaeological Mission (Florence) in Antinoe was reporting everything was fine there and work continued peacefully. I think as far as in these remote areas archaeologists are active, the heritage is safe.”
“Iman R. Abdulfattah
”
I spoke with the Deputy Director of the Museum of Islamic Art – it is closed, secure and he checks on the Museum regularly
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Egyptologists-for-Egypt-Supporting-the-peoples-demands/104270532983680?v=info#!/pages/Egyptologists-for-Egypt-Supporting-the-peoples-demands/104270532983680?v=wall
Thanks Daniel
thanks for putting all the info on this site.I have been busy searching the net myself for days to find info. great job!
German report from SPIEGEL magazine that Aswan museums are ok, acording to Wafaa as-Saddik. Reported Sunday.
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,742521,00.html
there is an article of miroslav barta a czech egyptologist:
http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/foreign-affairs/czech-egyptologist-ancient-egyptian-sites-damaged-during-unrest
etienne
Thanks. That article added a little to the info on Saqqara, and of course if confirmation more generally.
hi kate!
thank you so much for your contribution on this badly case!
your blog and your site are very nice with true informations!
what a great damage for egyptian archeology!
etienne a french lector