Ancient treasures become another casualty of Egypt's turmoil
As violent clashes roiled Egypt, looters made away with a prized 3,500-year-old limestone statue, ancient beaded jewelry and more than 1,000 other artifacts in the biggest theft to hit an Egyptian museum in living memory.
The scale of the looting of the Malawi Museum in the southern Nile River city of Minya laid bare the security vacuum that has taken hold in cities outside Cairo, where police have all but disappeared from the streets.
For days after vandals ransacked the building, there were no police or soldiers in sight as groups of teenage boys burned mummies and broke limestone sculptures too heavy for the thieves to steal. Among the stolen antiquities was a statue of the daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled during the 18th dynasty. Archaeologist Monica Hanna described it as a "masterpiece." Other looted items included gold and bronze Greco-Roman coins, pottery and sculptures of animals. Under the threat of sniper fire, Hanna and a local security official were able to salvage five ancient Egyptian sarcophagi, two mummies and several dozen other items left behind by the thieves.
The museum was a testament to the Amarna Period, named after its location in southern Egypt that was once the royal residence of Nefertiti. The area is located on the banks of the Nile River in the province of Minya, some 190 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo. When Hanna asked a group of teenagers wielding guns to stop destroying the artifacts that remained, they said they were getting back at the government for killing people in Cairo, she said.
After managing to chase them away, a group of men began opening fire to try to force her and the security official to leave. Still, the two were able to salvage some 40 artifacts and thousands of broken pieces that Hanna said will take archaeologists years to put back together. The Egypt Heritage Task Force, a group of Egyptian archaeologists who use social media to try to raise awareness about illegal digging for artifacts and looting, said 1,050 pieces were stolen from the museum.
Some looting occurred during the 18-day uprising in early 2011 against autocratic President Hosni Mubarak. More than 50 items were stolen from the Cairo museum, but around half have been recovered. Never, though, was the looting then or at any other time since on the scale seen at the Malawi Museum, according to archaeologists.
古老瑰寶成了埃及動盪局勢另一個受害者
在暴力衝突席捲埃及之際，掠奪者搶走了一尊有三千五百年歷史的珍貴石灰岩雕像、一串古老串珠飾、以及上一千件的文物，而這成了有記憶以來埃及博物館所發生最嚴重的竊案。
在尼羅河流域南部明亞市的馬拉維博物館所發生的掠奪事件規模，已將開羅以外城市安全真空的情況攤在陽光下，這些地區已經幾乎見不到警察的蹤影。
在掠奪者將博物館洗劫一空之後，在一群群十幾歲的少年焚燒木乃伊，並將重到竊賊無法搬走的石灰石雕塑敲成碎片之際，現場卻看不到警察或士兵。失竊文物包括第十八王朝統治期間阿肯那頓法老女兒的雕像。考古學家莫妮卡漢娜形容該雕像為「傑作」。其他遭洗劫的物品包括希臘羅馬金、銅錢幣、陶器與動物雕塑。在狙擊手的威脅下，漢娜和一名當地安全官員成功挽救了五具古埃及石棺、兩具木乃伊、以及幾十件盜賊未劫走的文物。
博物館是阿瑪納時期的證明，阿瑪納是埃及南部的一個地區，曾經是奈費爾提蒂的皇家住所。該地區位於明亞省的尼羅河畔，距離開羅以南約一百九十哩（三百公里）處。漢娜表示，當她要求一群揮舞著槍的十幾歲少年不要破壞文物時，他們說他們是在報復政府在開羅的殺人行為。
當她成功驅離他們之後，一群男子開始開槍，以迫使她和安全官員離開。儘管如此，漢納說她們兩人仍挽救了約四十件文物，以及得花考古學家多年才能恢復原貌的數千個碎片。由一群埃及考古學家組成的埃及文物工作隊，會透過社群媒體來提高民眾對盜掘及搶劫文物的關注；該工作隊表示，博物館遭竊的文物共有一千零五十件。
二○一一年初發生、反對前總統穆巴拉克專制獨裁統治為期十八日的起義期間，就發生了一些掠奪事件。開羅博物館有五十多件文物被偷，但已有一半左右被尋回。可是據考古學家表示，當時或任何時間內都未曾出現馬拉維博物館遭洗劫那樣規模的事件。
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