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Update for 4:30 p.m. ET Jan. 31: Despite the best efforts of the Egyptian army and a human shield, some of the ancient treasures inside the century-old Egyptian Museum were damaged during a brief wave of looting, authorities in Cairo say. Among the damaged artifacts are two pharaonic mummies and a priceless statuette from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The country's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, described the damage in a series of statements, including an update that was posted to his blog on Sunday. He said looters ransacked the museum's gift shop and went on to vandalize authentic treasures as well. More than a dozen display cases were broken into, including one that contained the Tut statuette. "The criminals found a statue of the king on a panther, broke it, and threw it on the floor," Hawass wrote. "I am very thankful that all of the antiquities that were damaged in the museum can be restored, and the tourist police caught all of the criminals that broke into it."
The looters scattered pieces of the mummies across the museum floor — and judging by the photographs that were released Monday (graphic content below), restoring those relics will be challenging to say the least.
Roger Wood/CORBIS
A figurine from Tutankhamun's tomb shows the boy-king riding a panther.
Al Jazeera via EloquentPeasant.com
A video frame from Al Jazeera shows what appears to be the panther in pieces, with the figurine of Tutankhamun missing.
Based on video footage that was shot inside the museum, some observers suggest that other treasures from Tut's tomb may have been damaged as well. Margaret Maitland, an Egyptologist at Oxford University in England, suggested that at least one other gilded statuettes of the boy-king pictures may have been broken off its pedestal.
This one shows Tut standing on a boat with a harpoon at the ready:
Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis
A wooden statuette shows the gilded figure of Tutankhamun standing on a boat, holding a harpoon.
APTV via msnbc.com
This video frame from the looted Egyptian Museum shows what appears to be the boat, with the Tut figure broken off.
Maitland also pointed to another video showing a wooden block with the broken-off feet still attached. At first, she assumed that this suggested yet another statuette of a standing Tut was snapped off, but later analysis made it seem more likely that these were the broken-off feet from the "Tut on a panther" statuette. Check out Maitland's blog posting at the Eloquent Peasant for those comparisons.
Hawass said two mummies in the museum were destroyed, with their heads ripped off. In one of the most upsetting pictures from the museum, shown below, the mummies' heads and bones can be seen spread across the floor.
AP
This photo was taken early Saturday in the Egyptian Museum and made available on Monday. Parts of unidentified mummies, including the heads, are seen damaged on the floor.
Over the weekend, experts wondered whether two mummies may have been the mortal remains of Tut's great-grandparents, Yuya and Tuya. That surmise was based on a comparison of a gilded mummy case seen in the video with photographs of the case that was laid over Tuya's mummy. Discovery News' Rossella Lorenzi focused on that angle.
On Monday, however, Aidan Dodson, an Egyptologist from the University of Bristol, reported that the mummies were unlikely to be those of Yuya and Tuya. As explained in an update from Maitland, the mummy case had been separated from Tuya's mummy and was being exhibited in the museum by itself.
Maitland noted that two more ruined displays matched up with well-known items from Egypt's antiquity: an array of soldier figurines and a wooden model boat from the tomb of Mesehti, a provincial governor during the 11th or 12th Dynasty (roughly 2025 to 1700 B.C.). Here are pictures showing those damaged artifacts:
MSNBC TV
A video grab shows damage done to a display case that apparently contains an array of soldier figurines from the tomb of Mesehti, a provincial governor from the 11th or 12th Dynasty.
MSNBC TV
An armed security guard stands watch next to a display case containing a damaged model boat from the tomb of Mesehti.
In his blog posting, Hawass provided specific information about the Tut-on-a-panther statuette (which is actually one of two similar statuettes from the tomb), but not about the other items that appear to be damaged in the video. Why not? It could be because Hawass is still trying to get all the facts of the story straight, or because he's reluctant to publicize the full extent of the damage at this time. It's also possible that some of the items shown in the video are display-case replicas or gift-shop knock-offs rather than the real things.
In any case, Hawass sees the damage and looting as a national tragedy.
"My heart is broken and my blood is boiling," he wrote. "I feel that everything I have done in the last nine years has been destroyed in one day, but all the inspectors, young archaeologists, and administrators, are calling me from sites and museums all over Egypt to tell me that they will give their life to protect our antiquities."
The good news
That's the good news about the saga of Egypt's endangered heritage. The current chaos in Cairo easily could have left all the priceless artifacts at the Egyptian Museum, including Tutankhamun's 3,300-year-old golden death mask, vulnerable to widespread looting. After all, that's how the situation played out for Baghdad's national museum in 2003 after the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
It didn't happen that way in Cairo because of the high-mindedness of the government as well as its critics.
When fire broke out on Friday night at the ruling party's headquarters, Khaled Youssef, an Egyptian film director who has made movies critical of government policies, issued an urgent call on the Al Arabiya television channel: "I am calling on the Egyptian army to head instantly to the Egyptian Museum. There is a fire right next to it in the party headquarters," he said in a report relayed by Reuters.
As the fire raged, would-be thieves started entering the grounds surrounding the museum, The Associated Press reported. But other young men, some armed with truncheons taken from the police, formed a protective human chain outside the museum's main gates. "I'm standing here to defend and to protect our national treasure," one of the men, a 40-year-old engineer named Farid Saad, told AP.
AP quoted 26-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim as saying that it was important to guard the museum because it has "5,000 years of our history. If they steal it, we'll never find it again."
Another defender at the gates pleaded with the crowd not to let the looters in, shouting, "We are not like Baghdad!"
Finally, four of the army's armored vehicles took up posts outside the museum. Soldiers surrounded the building and moved inside.
AP said the soldiers rounded up would-be looters who made it onto the museum grounds and lined them up in a row. As the soldiers corralled one man toward the line, crowds outside the fence shouted, "Thief, thief!" A couple of the troops hit the man with the butts of their rifles and sat him down with others who were apparently caught inside the gates.
The army and the people are continuing to keep watch on the museum and its riches amid Egypt's crisis.
Treasures galore
Tut's golden mask is arguably the most precious of the museum's treasures — so precious that authorities will no longer let it travel out of the country, even though many other artifacts from Tut's time are currently on the road. (I had the chance to see the mask in Seattle in 1978 during the "Treasures of Tutankhamun" exhibit.) The 109-year-old museum serves as the central repository for the riches from Tut's tomb, which was discovered by Egyptologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. But there's lots more to protect. The highlights range from monumental statues of Amenhotep III and his family to Roman-era gold treasures dug up from Egypt's Western Desert.
Amr Nabil / AP file
The golden mask of Tutankhamun is the best-known treasure at Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
Elizabeth Bartman, president of the Archaeological Institute of America, told me she was heartened to hear that the Egyptian people were so keen to protect their cultural heritage.
"If the reports about the human cordon around the museum are true, that's a very moving thing for me," she told me. "They regard their archaeological finds as so precious that it's worth their lives to protect them."
University of Pennsylvania archaeologist C. Brian Rose, the institute's past president, wasn't surprised by the reports.
"It's not possible to plan for the future unless one understands the past, and I think this is something that all Egyptians understand very well," Rose told me. "There's a great respect for the cultural heritage of Egypt — shared, I think, by I would say nearly all Egyptians. I hope that respect will keep the archaeological sites and museums safe from any harm during this period of conflict."
Even if the protesters and government forces share that respect for the museum's antiquities, the situation could still lead to unintended and unwelcome consequences.
"Especially with Egypt being such a dry place — they have all these organic materials, they have textiles, they have ancient food, they have lots of wooden items — fire is a very scary proposition," Bartman said. "Let's just keep our fingers crossed that the museums are not going to be caught in the crossfire."
More tales from the museums:
- Germany's Zeit Online quotes a former director of the museum, Wafaa el-Saddik, as saying that the would-be looters of the Egyptian Museum included museum guards and policemen. She also said that Egypt's Memphis Museum was "completely robbed," but that museums in Luxor and Aswan appeared to be safe. (Google translation from German.)
- Jan. 29 video: Msnbc.com's Al Stirrett narrates the video shot inside the museum.
- Jan. 30 video: NBC's Kate Snow reports on the damage for NBC's "Nightly News."
- Jan. 31 follow-up: Egypt worries about antiquities being smuggled.
- Slideshow: Tutankhamun's treasures
And other sagas of endangered antiquities:
- Mystery of Afghan gold has a happy ending
- Looted Baghdad museum restored, dedicated
- Iraq finds missing artifacts in premier's storage
- Fire at Nazi death camp destroys victims' shoes
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Leave a Comment:
The History of our past, shall be restored and protected by whatever means necessary. They should not be HARMED, TOUCHED and STOLEN, if they did that will lead to many angry people, Yes I main Angry!! Not just there but throughout the whole World. :) I hope that things settle down and be good again, I guess that will be awhile.
I like Egypt and I wanted to go and visit there, I guess that dream vacations is on hold. Yes I want to be a Historian and Archaeologist, so it a must place be to visit, learn and study Ancient History!! I pray to them, as well others. That is one of my and top goals. I hope they protect them and keep them safe.
I may not agree with all of our policies, but quite condemning the US for everything , look at TuT and his riches over the poor and his dictatorship or was this the US fault as well? We need to let them make their own decisions and get rid of ourr own crooks in washington but
again it looks like we, as Americans like to be herded as cattle until we reach the slaughter house.. . me,me ,me what have (you) the government done for me lately.. ? Nothing! so get rid of as much of them as you can, I can take care of myself as I have for many years and that is what I was taught to do.. .do for yourself and respect others.. .
pretty simple.. .
No one is as careful with your money than yourself but implement more taxes on the one that can offered it Starting with Clinton, Oboma, Buffet etc.
Despite all the oppression Mubarak brought, he really cracked down on Muslim fundamentalists, which is why they left to set up base in Afghanistan. What scares me is if Mubarak is gone and ElBaradei steps up, will he do the same, or will he be too soft and then Egypt becomes another Afghanistan?
- Theodosios
The idea it is that Neo-nazis are behind this. Neo-nazis are bald like the Egiptians of of the Pharaoh Era and there is a Pharonic sect today they are all bald. Hitler like Arabs and Egiptians archienemies of Jewish whom Hitler kill masively. The same Stalin of Arabs ancestor who kills millions of Jews. So Jews and Americans beware and be advised.
hey blackshoes my people where here when yours was rideing a boat...as for as the value of things...the victor gets the spoils all ways have all ways will....oh p.s. we are called native americans not indians
The need a great man like the late Anwar Sadat back in power. I was fortunate enough to see the TUT exhibit when it came. We must protect these treasures at all costs!!!
The history in Egypt, is in large measure not their own history alone; but the history of civilization as we know it. Much the same also holds for Greece and Rome. A lot of what we have today, goes back to what existed in some of these ancient cultures, arguably dating back to Sumeria and other cultures who have come and gone.
Without the foundations they laid, we'd still be reinventing the wheel and comming up with basic mathematics; not developing space probes, telecommunications, and the very computers we're using today. Without the foundaition we're laying; who knows what will come next.
I do think, as to the one person's comment about not being able to remove all traces of a past before Islam, it goes back to the entire existance of the megalythic structures in the area. The Sphynx is no book, which some (past ages) would have desired to burn, in an attempt to kill ideas or thought itself.
It's their heritage they're destroying. NOT MINE. So while it is a shame that there are stupid and ignorant people in the world and that it would be a great loss, I will not lose any sleep over this. My national treasures are safe in my civilized, democratic country..........
Then don`t read this....
How terribly provincial of you, Norbert. Read a chapter from any 4th grade science book and you'll understand that it is your heritage as well.
Who do you think the original tomb-raiders of pre-archeology were? Some called them 'Sand Robbers'. Even the guarded excavations were raided by local bandits in the early days. Not all the artifacts taken from the tombs of the ancients were foreigners, many were stolen by local Egyptians and sold to foreigners or melted down for the precious metal content.
From a historical and artistic standpoint these treasures are very valuable. To anyone interested in world history, the history of religion and of mankind, we should all hope that these Egyptian and other artifacts are safe from looters, fire and damage of any kind. If you haven't seen any of these artifacts, they are amazing and very beautiful.
Who do you think the original tomb-raiders of pre-archeology were? Some called them 'Sand-Robbers'. Even the guarded excavations were raided by local bandits in the early days. Not all the artifacts taken from the tombs of the ancients were foreigners. Many were stolen by locals gems plucked out and the precious metals melted down, others were sold on the common market to tourists and collectors. Hunger and Poverty know little of esoteric values.
If they love their antiquities so much, who were the looters who broke in and destroyed what they could before being apprehended? So much for respect for the antiquities! Oh, and who are these peaceful protestors? The same ones that are looting and burning? This has gone on long enough!
I have been to the King Tutankhamen Mueseum in New York, Times Square. Most of these artifacts are there!!!
no most of the artifact are NOT there. There are so many articles out of Tuts tomb they are building a sperate museum just for his artifacts alsone. If you have never been to the museum in Cairo, you have no idea what it houses. You could spend an entire day in the museum, maybe even two, and not see everything!
A lot of artifacts are on loan to other institutions, to be sure, but most of the good stuff is at the Egyptian Museum.
I had the honor of seeing the exhibit in Seattle in 1978. I also took it for granted I, someday, would see it again.
#1 They are not real Egyptians, the Arabs are imperialists like the Greeks and Europeans were to Egypt. But, I know no one wants to admit that.
#2 There is no concern for the safety of the treasures of (Kemet) Egypt when everyone dug them up, and stole them (in the name history), and considering that it is not their history why would they want to protect something that's not theirs. Oh that's right because of greed, no (Kemet) Egyptian treasures, no tourists = no money!
So much for the "peaceful protestors"! If they are so proud of their treasures in the Egyptian Museum, then who were the looters that entered and destroyed so many before being apprehended? And, who are the looters who have also burned the shops there? Are these all the "peaceful protestors" we are hearing about? The freedom to do what they want? And, why is the military not taking control and stopping all this? It will never cease until someone stops them. And, be careful what you wish for in leadership. Remember Iran? This really saddens me as I never thought I would ever see anything like this in Egypt. Hysteria is contagious! It has to stop! They cannot listen to Mubarak with his new plan in place, but making excuses to destroy anything and everything. Disgusting!
Mubaraks secret service and the police. according to witnesses.
Blackshoesblacksocks, the thing we uphold the most is the freedom you were given by the writers of the declaration of independence and the men who have fought for it since that document was signed. you are wrong the heritage we have is the very nation you are living in and the people such as my son and daughter who serve every day so that you can enjoy life as you know it.
I hope the oil will completely disappear from the middle east, maybe then and only then, the west and the US would not interfere as much in their countries.
i think you're right.
I spent 15 days visiting that wonderful country a year ago, and hope when all is said and done there is something to go back to. I hate the idea that the Egyptian people have to riot to get thier point across because they feel there is no other way, but I hope they will take care to protect the antiquities of thier past. I also hate the fact they have no cell or internet service. That is something that should have never been shut down by any one.
Egypt,What a great country and so much history and pride .like italy,Greece,Turkey.Hope they can understand that this what Muslim radical slops is hoping for ,more caouse.The Lord will be by your side if you put your all into keeping the peace.
Going to Egypt is on my bucket list, I cant wait for the day I can walk into the museum and see all those treasures, so, Thank God the people are protecting them, it would be heartbreaking if they disappeared. I hope this ends soon and the egyptian people are ok.
Save Humanity and Humility from which it is the treasure past.
Sadly until they actually get "real" coverage you don't know how much of this is propaganda and how much is real and/or how much was really damaged or not.
Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.
Injustice in the end produces independence.
If we are to ever find peace with the Muslim world we must stand aside and let them come to us with the intentions of peace. This current polictial belief that western government must force it views on other nations has only made us look the fool amoung our allies and hated above all else to the rest of the world. We can not change what always has been and will always be for muslim culture. They must be the ones to make the change like we did in 1776.
America today is like England before we won our independence. always sticking its nose in places it doesnt belong.
The Middle East today is like The Colonies before 1776. Always being told what to do by a government thousands of miles away from across an ocean.
please, we don't tell them poop they let us what to do and when to do it, because otherwise they will noy sell us oil.
pupil of voltaire: You may think that you are a pupil of Voltaire however you surely are not a pupil of history.
Muslims belive in conquring the unbelievers, convert those who are willing to convert and killing those who aren't willing to convert. Does that sound as though they are willing to come forward with their hands extended in peace?
A Pupil od Voltaire? He is probably laughing at you in his grave!