CyberNews-04 (2 November 2005)

1)    More on those ‘missing’ items in the Egyptian Museum basement
2)    Reports of damage to items in the Egyptian Museum
3)    Plans for the Egyptian Museum basement
4)    New laws for smugglers and thieves of Egyptian antiquities
5)    Plans to force more artifact repatriation from abroad
6)    New robot to probe pyramid shafts
7)    Egypt and Sudan plan joint Nubian museum
8)    Planned Imhotep Museum at Saqqara
9)    Major piece discussing the Egyptian mode of Ramadan
10)    Cells of Egypt’s earliest monks discovered

1)    More on those ‘missing’ items in the Egyptian Museum basement

The three Ancient Egyptian limestone statuettes which disappeared three weeks ago from the basement of the Egyptian Museum have been recovered in an undercover operation.   It seemed that the Egyptian Museum's basement had been afflicted with the Pharaohs' curse. Three weeks ago, when the Giza archaeological inspectors asked for the return of 14 objects placed on loan with the museum last April to celebrate World Heritage Day, curators realised that three of the pieces had vanished. In an attempt to find the missing objects up to 40 inspectors have been exploring the museum's basement, sorting through the overwhelmingly large collection of stored artefacts, but with no luck. That was until early this week, when the Tourism and Antiquities Police (TAP) arrested two men who were trying to sell the objects to a policeman working undercover as an antiquities trader. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has called for an investigation into the theft.

Major-General Abdel-Hafiz Abdel-Karim, director of TAP, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the two men belonged to a team of workmen engaged in the restoration of the basement. The duo concealed the statuettes in cement bags and removed them from the museum with rubble they were clearing during restoration.

The men were able to escape with the objects as they were not subject to routine security checks. They hid them in a house overlooking a canal in Ayatt, Giza, and tried to sell them by showing photographs to antiquities traders. Abdel-Karim said that TAP were tipped off and sent an undercover agent who offered LE500,000 for the statuettes. The pair were arrested as they handed them over.

Al-Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/764/eg4.htm

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Egyptian police arrested two men on Saturday in connection with the disappearance of three 3000-year-old Pharaonic statues from the basement of the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo. Police captured the men, both of them employees of a company contracted to do restoration work in the museum, in a sting operation with officers presenting themselves as antiquities dealers.

The statues, one representing a man and his wife side by side, another the head of the royal guard and the third an unknown character, vanished from the museum last month under mysterious circumstances.

Police said that the suspects smuggled the artifacts out of the building in bags that they used to remove rubble from the basement of the museum, which explained why they were not searched at the gates. The arrests men came just days after culture minister Farouk Hosni ordered a probe into reports about damage to another Pharaonic statue, also during restoration work at the museum.

Middle East Times
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20051010-044840-6919r

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2)    Reports of damage to items in the Egyptian Museum

On Tuesday (Farouk Hosni) ordered a probe into the reports, asking Attorney General Maher Abdel-Wahid to investigate the matter only hours after the country's top antiquities official dismissed the reports as being unfounded. The Egyptian press, quoting museum officials, had reported that a statue of Khafre (2576-2551 BC), the fourth dynasty king and builder of the second pyramid at Giza, had been found damaged in the basement.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Hawas, however, refuted the claims the Agence France Presse reported, saying they were "untrue." He said the statue the press described was small and bore no inscriptions to suggest that it was of Khafre.

"This statue is in good condition and was never damaged since its discovery in 1988 west of the pyramid of King Khafre and transferred to the Egyptian Museum," the statement said.

The Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=19062#

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Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosni ordered a probe into reports about mysterious damage to a pharaonic statue during restoration work at the Egyptian Museum. He asked Attorney General Maher Abdul Wahid to investigate the matter, the official MENA news agency reported, only hours after the country's top antiquities official dismissed the reports as being unfounded.

The Egyptian press, quoting museum officials, had reported that a statue of Khafre (2576-2551 BC), the fourth dynasty king and builder of the second pyramid at Giza, had been found damaged in the basement. Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawas refuted the reports in a statement received by AFP, saying they were "untrue."

"This statue is in good condition and was never damaged since its discovery in 1988 west of the pyramid of King Khafre and transferred to the Egyptian Museum," the statement said.  But Hosni insisted that he was determined to find the officials responsible for wrecking the treasure, ignoring his subordinate's denials.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/763/he2.htm

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3)     Plans for the Egyptian Museum basement

After its many problems last year, the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) has started to develop the basement of the Egyptian Museum in the light of the anxiety about the artefacts that have gone missing from the basement. The development project will cost LE12 million, after the committee registering the 600,000 or so artefacts has finished its work.

"There will be modern lighting, as well as new digital lockers for storing artefacts. We will also register all the data about these artefacts and their history. A file will be made for each antiquity. Each file will include the history of the artefact, the material which it is made from, its description, how and when it was discovered, the era it belongs to, its size, and who found it and where. In addition to this, the position of each antiquity in the basement will be registered and a photo of it will be enclosed in its file. The basement will also be prepared to allow archaeologists to do research on these antiquities. There will also be facilities for postgraduate students, as well a database of the basement's contents," says Dr Zahi Hawass, the SCA Secretary-General.

Mabrouk adds many of the artefacts in the basement have been gathering dust in boxes for over a century. These boxes haven't been opened since the Egyptian Museum was built. They include statues, pieces of masonry, thousands of pieces of pottery from different ages, the skulls and skeletons of Nubian men, and wooden biers.

Egyptian Gazette
http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/egyptian_mail/m2/


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4)    New laws for smugglers and thieves of Egyptian antiquities

Can the new antiquities law put an end to the antiquities trafficking business? A draft of a new antiquities law replacing the current one, Law 117/1983, is now awaiting the approval of the People's Assembly after the coming legislative elections. According to Hawass: "The old law is no longer suitable because the penalties it imposes for the crimes of antiquity trafficking are not strong enough. We need more severe penalties in order to stop further trafficking."

Ashraf Ashmawi, legal consultant in the SCA, told Al-Ahram Weekly that changes in the 1983 law focussed on five articles. The first was properly and legally to identify three main terms -- the SCA's permanent committee, the inviolable area around every monument, and the land found next door to the archaeological site -- in an attempt to provide all necessary security measures and a healthy environmental atmosphere.

The second article to be repealed is the section of the law allowing possession of antiquities. A year after the approval of the law all owners of Egyptian antiquities must hand over all objects to the SCA, which in its turn will install them in their archaeological storehouses. Ashmawi continued that Article 7 of the old law stipulating that the police were the only department authorised to remove any encroachments on archaeological sites or monuments had been changed. Such responsibility is to be given to the SCA's secretary-general, or to someone he entrusts, while the police agencies will only be a safeguarding agency while executing the secretary-general's decision. Article 30 has been added to the law stipulating that the SCA is the only authority competent to carry out restoration and preservation work for all Egyptian monuments, archaeological sites and historical edifices. The minister of culture will have the authority to assign any scientific authority or mission to execute any such work, but under complete supervision of the SCA's secretary-general.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/766/he1.htm

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5)    Plans to force more artifact repatriation from abroad

Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is taking legal steps to retrieve some antiquities to be sold at auctions in the world. SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawas said 13 websites were advertising Egyptian antiquities for sale at auction this month, while the total for July was 22 websites. SCA's Archaeological Department has collected all brochures of these auction halls and forwarded them to Public Funds Prosecution, said Hawas. He added that a SCA committee has carefully compared the antiquities in the brochures with photos of Egypt's missing antiquities.

"Some of the missing items belong to an Egyptian trader, while others has gone missing from the museum at Cairo University's Faculty of Archaeology and the storehouse of the university's Faculty of Arts, as well as from an archaeological area at Marina in Egypt's North Coast" he said.

China View
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/11/content_3605822.htm

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The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is taking legal steps to retrieve some antiquities, which, according to the Internet, are to be sold at auction halls.  SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass stated that 13 Web sites were advertising Egyptian antiquities for sale at auction this month, while the total for July was 22 Web sites. The SCA's Archaeological Department has collected all the brochures of these auctions halls and forwarded them to Public Funds Prosecution, said Hawass, adding that an SCA committee has carefully compared the antiquities in the brochures with photos of Egypt's missing antiquities. He added that some of the missing items belonged to an Egyptian trader, while others had gone missing from the museum at Cairo University's Faculty of Archaeology and the storehouses of the university's Faculty of Arts, as well as from an archaeological area at Marina, on Egypt's North Coast. The committee has identified the items up for auction as antiquities that have gone missing from Egypt.”

Egypt Gazette
http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/2/  

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6)    New robot to probe pyramid shafts

Egypt will send a robot up narrow shafts in the Great Pyramid to try to solve one of the mysteries of the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum, Egypt's top archaeologist said on Monday. Zahi Hawass told Reuters he would this week inspect a robot designed to climb the two narrow shafts which might lead to an undiscovered burial chamber in the pyramid of Cheops at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo.

The shafts were last probed in September 2002, when a robot drilled a hole through one of the stone panels to reveal a small empty space at the end of which lay another panel, which appeared cracked and fragile. The new robot, designed by a university in Singapore over two years, would drill through that panel and the stone slab blocking the second shaft.

MSNBC
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9653090/#storyContinued

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A robot is to be sent up two narrow shafts in the Great Pyramid in Giza to discover whether a secret burial chamber contains the real tomb of the pharoah Cheops, also known as Khufu. The chief Egyptian archeologist, Zahi Hawass, is to inspect the robot designed by Singapore scientists later this week.

New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349858

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7)    Egypt and Sudan plan joint Nubian museum

Egypt and Sudan will jointly establish a museum for Nubian antiquities in Sudan’s Wadi Halfanear the borders with Egypt, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported Friday. It is part of a recently started giant project of cooperation between the two countries in the field of antiquities.

At a press conference at Egypt’s Alexandria Library, Regine Schulz, chairperson of the International Committee of Egyptology at the International Council of Museums (ICOM), announced the start of the project. The project would be held under the umbrella of ICOM and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Schulz was quoted as saying.

Talking about Nubian museum in Wadi Halfa, Mohamed el-Beyali, director of Upper Egypt’s department of antiquities, said that the establishment of the museum is an important project coming as part of continued cooperation between Cairo and Khartoum in the field of antiquities.

Sudan Tribune
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=11966

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8)    Planned Imhotep Museum at Saqqara (By Zahi Hawass)

We have begun a new phase of the site management programme at Saqqara by building new offices, new facilities, and housing for foreign expeditions on the plateau. Later every modern building on the plateau will be demolished. However, the most important building, not built yet, will be a new museum, the Imhotep Museum. This museum will exhibit major artefacts discovered on the site, which is why we call it a site museum.

The Imhotep Museum is just one of many new ones being built on archaeological sites as part of the site management programme. For example, near the temple of Kom Ombo, we are now building a site museum for crocodiles, representing the god Sobek. We also plan to build a desert museum in Dakhla and a museum in Bahariya Oasis to showcase the golden mummies.

The site museum complex of Imhotep will include a cafeteria and a bookshop. Before tourists enter the museum, a short film about the site's history will be shown in the visitors' centre. In the museums's centre, we will construct a large model of the tiled wall of the Step Pyramid's southern tomb. This wall will have blue tiles and scenes that show Djoser wearing ceremonial dress for the Heb-sed festival.

Al-Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/763/he2.htm

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9)    Major piece discussing the Egyptian mode of Ramadan

During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world unite in religious belief and tradition, while retaining their distinctive cultures. Jill Kamil looks at how this dynamic manifested itself in Egypt over the ages. When Amr Ibn Al-Aas built the first mosque in Africa in the area of Fustat, it was a simple mud-brick structure, rectangular in shape, its roof supported by columns and covered with palm trunks and branches much like contemporary Egyptian buildings -- a far cry from these computer renditions of the dome and colonnades of today's restored building in marble, mosaics and gilded Quranic inscriptions

It should come as no surprise that Islam, as practised in Egypt after the arrival of Amr Ibn Al-Aas in the seventh century -- when it put an end to another brief period of Persian rule -- should take on a distinctive local flavour because such was the enduring nature of the ancient Egyptian civilisation that whoever acceded to power and ruled the country for a certain length of time became Egyptianised.

Whether in honour of their sheikhs or saints, Muslims and Christians make pilgrimages to holy sites today that resemble one another in preparation and ritual and have continued through the millennia. Tents are erected around the church or tomb and the area is decorated with flags, banners and lights. The night before the celebration, stalls sell toys, sweets and trinkets. The highlight of the occasion is the great zaffa, a procession through the streets carrying a picture of the Muslim sheikh or Christian saint. Votive offerings or pieces of cloth are torn from the clothing of the pilgrims and placed on the tomb near the relics, or on trees, and the celebration is accompanied by music and dancing.

The Muslim mulid celebrated in Luxor during the month of Shaaban closely resembles the ancient Egyptian Opet festival depicted in the colonnade of the Luxor temple, where sailing boats placed on carriages traverse the city bedecked with flags and filled with rejoicing people. Ancient Egyptian traditions have broken through the time barrier.

Al-Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/764/heritage.htm

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10)    Cells of Egypt’s earliest monks discovered

Egypt Men have retreated to the desert for centuries in search of God, drawn by the quiet and the isolation, by a feeling of divine presence in the barren landscape, in the sand, the wind and the sun.  Maximous Elantony, a Coptic monk, knew that. He too was drawn to the desert in search of a relationship with God. But he could hardly believe it when he recently helped to discover some of the earliest physical evidence of Christians who made that quest as well.
 
Working with contractors, and with the help of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, he found one basin, and then, mysteriously, a second. The second was a bit deeper down than the first, and in the wrong position to have been part of Apostle Church. "The direction of this one, could not be for this church," he said pointing at the second basin. So they kept digging, pulling away flooring and stone until they found the foundation of an 8th-century church, the entire foundation beneath the floor of the 15th-century church.
 
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/27/news/journal.php#