The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 47, November 5, 2005, Article 34

EGYPTIAN MUSEUM BASEMENT NEGLECT

Do any numismatic treasures await catalogers working in
Egypt?  “Egyptian archaeologists, who normally scour the
desert in search of treasures of the past, have discovered
that one of the greatest caches of antiquities may well
be in the basement of the Egyptian Museum. For the last
century, artifacts have been stored away in crates
there and forgotten, often allowed to disintegrate in
the dank, dusty cavern.

Forgotten until now. The recent theft and recovery of
three statues from the basement have prompted antiquity
officials in Egypt to redouble an effort already under
way to complete the first comprehensive inventory of
artifacts in the basement.

"For the last 100 years, curators sat down to drink tea,
but they did not do their jobs," said Zahi Hawass, the
general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
"How many artifacts are in the basement?  It was awful."

Step through a small, Hobbit-sized door, down a steep
flight of stairs and through a locked gate. The basement
is a maze of arched passageways and bare light bulbs
hanging from decaying wires. It is packed with wooden
crates, hundreds of them, sometimes piled floor to ceiling.

Cobwebs cling to ancient pottery and tablets engraved with
hieroglyphics. Six hundred coffins and 170 mummies have
been found so far. No one knows what may have been stolen
over the years. Last year, officials reported that 38
golden bracelets from Roman times had vanished from the
basement, apparently six years earlier.

"It is an accumulation of 100 years of neglect," said
Dr. Ali Radwan, a professor of Egyptology at Cairo
University who took a recent tour of the basement.

To read the complete story, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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