Antiquities ministry starts inventory of artefact storehouses throughout Egypt

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities has only now launched a campaign to make an inventory of all store galleries in archaeological sites around Egypt.

The galleries consist of three types of storages; museological storehouses, subsidiary storehouses, and those belonging to archaeological missions. Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Ahram Online that the committee in charge of the inventory campaign, established in 2017, has inventoried 34 museological storehouses in early January and has found no missing artefacts. The ministry started yesterday an inventory of the subsidiary storehouses and those of archaeological missions that had not been opened or cataloged for several years.

Already evidence of poor stewardship has come to light, for example in a mastaba in Saqqara that was used as a store gallery and had not been inventoried since 1997: 

Upon entering the mastaba, the committee found evidence of attempts to remove some of the iron beams from the metal ceiling of the mastaba’s open court. The door of the mastaba was closed and sealed with stamps marked 1997. The committee has reported the attempted break-in to the Tourism and Antiquities Police and will continue with the inventory procedures to check if there are any missing objects.

(Antiquities ministry starts inventory of artefact storehouses throughout Egypt)

Iraq's Archaeological Sites Face Looting, Urbanisation Threats

Anarchic development and looting in war-torn Iraq are the greatest threats to its treasure trove of archaeological heritage, warned Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani  (Karen Dabrowska, "Iraq's Archaeological Sites Face Looting, Urbanisation Threats" https://thearabweekly.com 2019-01-19).

Gailani, an associate researcher at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, said more than one-third of the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, on the outskirts of Mosul, has been covered with houses. "Archaeology is never a priority for any government," Gailani said. "It has always been like that and now, with Iraq's financial difficulties, the last place they want to put money is into archaeology."

Gailani left Iraq to live in Britain in the 1970s, but has returned to her homeland for a few months every year to continue her work. She said she was particularly concerned about the looting and sale of artefacts, illicit trade among militiamen and Islamic State militants who destroyed many of Iraq's archaeological riches.

"One way to stop the looters is for the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) to start digging for the objects looters are after," she said. "The board has a large excavations and survey department but it has to cover the whole of Iraq. We have thousands of archaeological sites and the department does not have enough staff. They can't stop the looting and much of the development on archaeological sites." 

But Western museums and collectors could help to save the objects.