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Egypt’s SCA Avoids Politics… NOT!

Al-Aqsa Mosque seen from outside the city wallLast year, Dr Zahi Hawass spoke to Heritage Key in a video interview about the restoration work being carried out at the Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides) synagogue in Cairo by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (see the video at the bottom of this page). With the project nearing completion, the SCA chief has today announced that a planned celebration to mark the reopening of the restored monument has been cancelled.

Dr Hawass explained that the decision comes in the aftermath of Israeli authorities prohibiting worshippers from praying in the Al-Aqsa mosque in the West Bank.

The West Bank has been on lockdown since March 5, when violence flared following the provocative Israeli announcement that 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers are to be built in the mainly Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and annexed in a move not recognised by the international community. The accouncement followed violent clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron in February after Israel declared its intention to add two ancient shrines revered by Jews and Muslims to their list of protected national heritage sites.

The Al-Aqsa mosque the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and the holiest site in the world to Jews, who call it Temple Mount is a notorious flashpoint between Muslims and Jews. Since Friday, men under the age of 50 and non-Muslims have been barred from entering the compound. Israeli authorities fear renewed violence if the centre of worship is reopened.

Considering the risk of trouble, we maintain the state of alert and restrictions on access to the Temple Mount, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

Speaking last year, Dr Hawass insisted that there is no political agenda in restoring the Moses Ben Maimon synagogue, located in the Jewish quarter of old Cairo and named in honour of a great Jewish religious leader and scholar. Jewish temples are part of our history, he told Heritage Key. If we dont care about the Jewish temples, we dont care about our history.

But the decision to cancel the restoration celebration has seen the SCA embroil itself in an overtly political dispute.

It is a message to the whole world that there is not any difference between the religious monuments and places whether Islamic, Coptic or Jewish — Zahi Hawass

An SCA press release states that, in response to questions from journalists following the announcement, Hawass explained: Egypts devotion to preserve its monuments on its land is reflected in Egypts inhabitants of different faiths (Islamic, Coptic, Jewish) living in a harmonious atmosphere. It is a message to the whole world that there is not any difference between the religious monuments and places whether Islamic, Coptic or Jewish.

Hawass also took the opportunity to deny rumours that the Moses Ben Maimon synagogue will be transformed into a museum for Jewish collections, since Egypt only has a very small amount of Jewish objects, and they are part of Egypts larger cultural heritage. These artefacts will be put on display in several national museums now under construction in different towns in Egypt, he said.

Video – Restoring the Jewish Synagogue of Moses Ben Maimon Featuring Dr Zahi Hawass:

Looted Artefacts Sold to Tourists in Israel Antiquities Scam

Dr Morag Kersel A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently looted artefacts without their knowledge. Buying antiquities in Israel is legal if they were found before 1978, the year a major antiquities law was passed. There are numerous dealers in Israel, who are required to register with the Israel Antiquities Authority and keep an inventory of the artefacts they have for sale. Dr. Morag Kersel, of Brown University in the United States, has been studying the illegal antiquities trade in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.

Dr Kersel has been conducting interviews with anyone involved in antiquities who would agree to talk to her, including dealers, collectors, residents engaged in looting, government officials and archaeologists. These interviewees are guaranteed anonymity so that they can speak freely about the situation in the region. Dr. Kersel told me that she interviewed 36 antiquities dealers in Israel. Out of these dealers roughly half admitted to engaging in an elaborate scheme that allows recently looted artefacts to be sold to tourists.

Loophole in the Law

Heres how the scheme works. While dealers have to keep an inventory of everything they sell, those inventories are often kept vague. A listing that says that a dealer owns a pot dated to the Bronze Age doesnt mean very much, since many pots of that era will be in their shop.

A tourist who buys the artefact will get a certificate of authenticity but will often forget something important an export permit.

Lots of people who purchase artefacts dont know that theyre supposed to ask for an export permit the law doesnt require the sellers to offer you an export permit, said Dr. Kersel at a presentation at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Without the export permit the sale isnt officially registered and the dealer can take the registry number and use it on a new and often looted antiquity. Since the inventory descriptions are kept vague it isnt hard to find an artefact that looks similar to the one that was just sold.

Material that was looted as recently as last week was illegally entering the legal market through an exchange of registry numbers, said Dr. Kersel.

The tourist could, of course, be caught trying to take the antiquity out of the country without a permit. But even if they are, it’s hard to fault the dealer. After all they are under no obligation to let tourists know that they need an export permit.

Why Did the Dealers Confess?

Perhaps the most striking thing about this research is how many dealers admitted to it more than a dozen of them. Dr. Kersel told me that the reason they admitted to this is that they are fed up with the practice and the system that makes it easy to carry it out.

Many of them told me they probably wouldnt do it if the guy next door wasnt doing it, she said. As far as they’re concerned the system as it currently stands doesnt really work.

Kersel said that the Israel Antiquities Authority is aware that this scam is taking place but lacks the resources to clamp down on it. She pointed out that therewere 65 registered dealers in Israel while she was in the country andonly 2.5 officers dedicated to enforcing Israels antiquity laws. There simply are not enough people to go around.

The Looters

Dr. Kersel also talked to people engaged in looting andlearned a bit about what theirmotives are. Not surprising is the fact that many of them do it for money.

Poverty is certainly not a stranger in the Middle East. Just recently the Jerusalem Post reported that nearly one in three children in Israel lives below the poverty line. As of 2002 the general poverty rate in Jordan was reported at 14.2%. The West Bank economy has been hit hard by political conflict and poverty is rampant there.

However, there are some other motives for looting that you may not have guessed. One of them is believe it or not recreational.

People are very interested in getting out on the weekend in the land and its just something that they do, Dr. Kersel said in an interview. They take their families out, have a picnic and dig around on their Tell.

A Tell is a man-made hill that many modern day communities, in the Middle East, are situated on. If people have been living in the same place for thousands of years, the debris from that time will pile up, forming this hill.

Kersels research also revealed the presence of something more insidious a practice termed ‘resistance looting’. That is people looting to try and remove evidence of foreign occupation. So far she has found evidence for this in the West Bank, but not in Israel or Jordan.

People looted to find and destroy any evidence of occupation on their land, she said in at the Toronto lecture. Anything with a Jewish motif or anything with a Christian motif… it just so happens that those things are (worth hundreds) of dollars on the market.

She said that she hasnt found evidence that ‘resistance looting’ is being carried out in an organized way in the West Bank. It seems to be more ad-hoc and not so organized.

I also asked her whether there is any evidence of terrorist groups being involved in the trade in Israel/Jordan/Palestine. She said that that she has found no evidence of that so far.

Telling the Truth

The most obvious question this research begs is: how do we know people are telling the truth?

Its something I grappled with, said Dr. Kersel. The anonymous format of the study means that there is no way for other people, such as this reporter, to check with individual people. Even the transcripts cannot be publicly released and must be destroyed after a few years.

Dr. Kersel admits that she cannot be certain that every person told the truth, every time. But there are patterns more than a dozen antiquities dealers in Israel admitted to taking part in this scam, making that find almost impossible to dismiss. Several people said that resistance to occupation played a role in their decision to loot, making this motive difficult toignore as well.

Why Looting Matters

Another question that may be asked is: why does this matter? If people, especially impoverished individuals, choose to loot for money then why should they be stopped?

In short the looting of sites means that archaeologists lose valuable information needed to reconstruct the past. Once an artefact has been removed from context, without proper note-taking, then archaeologists cannot say where it came from and what material it isassociated with. This note-taking is very important and archaeology students have it drummed in their heads to record every relevant detail.

Museums are full of artefacts that were taken without excavation. The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada has a sculpture which they believe to be of Cleopatra VII – the last ruler of Egypt. They acquired it in the early 20th century but, because they don’t know what site it’s from, didn’t make the identification until just after the year 2000.

The Archaeological Landscape of the Southern Levant Mapped

West Bank and East Jerusalem Searchable MapArchaeologists from USC, UCLA and the Middle East have developed a searchable online map that details 7,000 archeological sites on the West Bank and Jerusalem – many of them never publicy disclosed. The map – an effort to identify Israeli archaeological activity since 1967, when Israel took over the West Bank and East Jerusalem – is freely accesibly online at the USC’s Digital Library.

Built over several years through hundreds of hours of research, bolstered by freedom of information requests and, when necessary, a lawsuit in Israeli courts, the Web site provides interactive satellite maps showing locations of about 7,000 archaeological sites in the region, including:

Boytner and DoddGovernment agencies could consult the database before planning roads or other public works projects.

Tourists and history buffs could research locations of specific sites, such as early Christian churches.

Researchers soon will be able to download the entire file for use in diverse ways.

For example, the overlay of ancient sites on contemporary satellite photographs allows instant comparison of settlement patterns, which in turn may provide information on ancient stream flows and other important features.

“The significance of making this data public should not be underestimated,” said team member Ran Boytner, director for international research at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. “For the first time, both Palestinians and Israelis can dynamically consult this interactive map and view what cultural heritage will fall under the sovereign rule of each side during final peace negotiations.”

The searchable map and database of the archaeological activity on Holy Land sites in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is part of a larger effort to devise a framework for the disposition of the regions archaeological treasures in the event of a two-state peace agreement. Boytner and Dodd explain:

Lynn Swartz Dodd described the process as seeking to ‘fill a void’ in preparation for future peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

“That void was intelligent, prepared conversation and data resources that could inform negotiation over cultural heritage and archaeology. The respective authorities and archaeological communities did not endorse the research officially, they were aware of it, and they did not intervene to stop it,” Dodd said.

This map of the archaeological landscape of the southern Levant might help define the scope of a future agreement. “Weve started a database that lets you know what to negotiate for,” Dodd said. “Each of us is committed to continuing our work so that all information about Israeli archaeological activity in the West Bank and Gaza becomes publicly accessible.” In the event of any proposal for a future border, he added, “you can draw a line on a map and know exactly where each site will fall.”

You can access the West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeology Database at the USC Library, either using the searchable map interface or by loading the KML data into Google Earth.

Tutankhamun Discoverer Carter’s Rest House Opened as Museum

The real house of Howard Carter. Image credit - John Doodo.

The rest house of Howard Carter, discoverer of King Tutankhamun‘s tomb, has reopened to the public today as a museum. The mud-brick building, near the Valley of the Kings on Luxor‘s West Bank, was one of the projects earmarked by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities three months ago, as costly facelifts to Luxor were undertaken – including renovations to Luxor Temple and the Deir el-Bahritemple of Queen Hatshepsut. The house, from where Carter made his greatest discovery in 1922 with the backing of Lord Carnarvon, allows visitors to see the office and tools which made Carter an overnight celebrity 87 years ago when he unearthed KV62, the tomb of Egypt’s boy-king.

The opening of the house is an homage to the man who thrust Ancient Egypt into the world’s limelight during the era of discovery. And Valley of the Kings director Mustapha Al-Wazeri tells the BBC the house will allow tourists an insight into one of Egypt’s greatest explorers. “It was time to take good care of his house,” he says. “We have thousands of tourists coming every day and all their guides point to the Carter house. Many people asked us if they could take a look.”

The Home of Discovery

“It was time to take good care of his house.”

The unassuming building was Carter’s home, as he and his millionaire backer searched for the elusive tomb, which would be the richest in Egyptian history.

The Golden Mask of Tutankhamun

Over 5,000 glittering treasures were found, many of which can be found in Heritage Key’s own Virtual Experience. Photographs of the incredible breakthrough are also among the new museum’s highlights.

“This is where the two men spent long winter months over many years,” says today’s Lord Carnarvon, who still resides at his family’s Highclere Castle. “It is poignant to come back. My great-grandfather was so persistent and determined to find objects of beauty and Howard Carter was such a great organiser, draughtsman and scholar.”

Stuart Carter, first cousin twice-removed of the famous archaeologist, paid homage to his forebear’s persistence and professionalism. “Howard had a dedication to applying scientific techniques of the day to the discovery,” he says. “He spent from 1922 when the tomb was discovered to 1931 or so unlocking the secrets of the tomb.” The museum’s many exhibits show Carter’s passion for meticulous recording and cataloguing of archaeological data at the Theban Necropolis.

Protesters Take to the Streets (and youtube) in Dead Sea Scrolls Dispute

There are few ancient history exhibitions that actually lead people to take to the streets in protest – but the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of them.

Last Friday a few dozen protesters took to the streets outside the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto to protest against the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

At the same timea group of supporters of the exhibit staged a counter-protest right across the street.

Videos, from both sides of the protests, have recently migrated onto youtube.

Its the latest chapter in a series of events that have been playing out in the city since the exhibit was announced last autumn.

So What’s Their Beef?

To understand the protests you have to examine the context of the scrolls’ discovery. The scrolls were discovered at the site of Qumran between 1947 and 1956, although it’s not certain why they were there. Now, Qumran is actually in the West Bank, not Israel proper. At the time of the scrolls’ discovery, the area was controlled by Jordan and many of the scrolls were housed in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem.

The fact that Israel has the scrolls is, needless to say, a sticking point with the Palestinians.


A video from the main protest

Avideo from the “counter-protest” across the street

A second video from the “counter-protest”


After the Six Days War in 1967, Israel took over the West Bank. The scrolls in the Museum, and the site of Qumran, came under the auspices of Israel.

Today the West Bank is controlled by Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian Authority. The fact that Israel has the scrolls is, needless to say, a sticking point with the Palestinians.

So, when the Toronto exhibit was announced the Palestinian Authority objected. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and demanded that the exhibit be cancelled.

Harper refused and the museum got a legal opinion saying that the exhibit they were showing was in keeping with international law.

But thats not the end of it.

Toronto based Palestinian groups objected. Palestine House, a major GTA cultural centre, sent out a press release denouncing the ROMs position.

The protests racheted up a notch last Friday when a small band of protesters converged on the ROM to protest against the exhibit. In response to the protest a group of supporters of the Dead Sea Scrolls, waving Israeli flags,took to the streets at the same time as the Palestinian protesters to wage what is known as a counter-protest. (Yes, a protest to protest a protest)

Dueling videos of the protests can be seen on youtube and we have embedded them here in this blog.

But, perhaps the strangest turn of events came when the owner of a local restaurant, Le Select Bistro, published a call for a boycott of the scrolls exhibit on his website.

The principle of free speech is more important than anything else, owner Frederic Geisweiller told The National Post, adding that his staff has been harassed and threatened over his words. An effect on my business doesnt have me shaking in my sandals.

The protests have started to receive attention media attention in Israel with the Jerusalem Post publishing a lengthy article just yesterday.

In the end its not likely that the protests will result in any changes to the exhibit. The museum believes that the exhibition is legal. Prime Minister Harper supports it, as does the Premier of Ontario (a position similar to a U.S. governor) Dalton McGuinty, who actually took part in the opening of the exhibit.

But, without a doubt, the protests (and counter-protests) have brought the issue of artefact repatriation a little closer to home for the citizens of Toronto.

18th Dynasty tomb found at Dra Abu el-Naga Necropolis

One of the Ushabti figures made of burned clay and faience. (Photo - SCA)Three new ancient egyptian tombs dating back almost 3500 years have been discovered near Luxor by an archaeological mission lead by Dr. Zahi Hawass. One of the newly discovered tombs belonged to Amun-Em-Opet, Supervisor of Hunters and dates back to shortly before King Akhenaten’s reign. Entrances to 2 undecorated tombs have been found to the north-west of Amun-Em-Opet’s. The newly discovered were unearthed at the necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor’s west bank.

Amongst the items discovered in the 3 tombs:

  • seven funerary seals bearing the name Amenhotep-Ben-Neferm, Supervisor of the Cattle of Amun.
  • seals bearing the name of Eke, the Royal Messenger and Supervisor of the Palace.
  • fragmented remains of unidentified mummies.
  • a collection of ushabti figures made of burned clay and faence.

The necropolis of Dra’ Abu el-Naga’ is located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Egypt, just by the entrance of the dry bay that leads up to Deir el-Bahri, and north of the necropolis of el-Assasif. Due to its position directly opposite the Temple of Karnak – the main cult centre of Amun from the Middle Kingdom and one of Ancient Egypt’s most important temples during the New Kingdom – and helped the importance of the royal tomb complexes present, Dra Abu El-Naga necropolis became one of the most significant holy burial sites.

The SCA’s press release in English can be found on drhawass.com and more interesting information on Dra’ Abu el-Naga on the project site of the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut.