Egyptian Looters Destroy Priceless Antiquities

Last night my wife, who majored in anthropology and has a keen interesting in Egyptian antiquities, was very worried that the rioting might destroy some of the priceless treasures of Egypt's past.  Sadly, her worries were well founded:

Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late on Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, Egypt’s top archaeologist told state television.

The museum in central Cairo, which has the world’s biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early on Saturday.

“I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night,” Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Saturday.

“Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some [looters] managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies,” he said.

He added looters had also ransacked the ticket office.

The two-storey museum, built in 1902, houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.

Back in 1979 my wife joined millions of other Americans and saw the King Tut Exhibit that toured the country. She was very impressed, though she did describe the whole thing as a little creepy. It would be a terrible tragedy if those irreplaceable items were to be destroyed.

Here's another story on the problems at the museum.  It looks like saner heads have prevailed and most of the  antiquities have been protected.

Someone made a good point on Twitter:

@MileHighBecky: It's at times like this when I don't feel bad about The British Museum refusing to return artifacts.