Looters destroy Egyptian mummies

[nivek]

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Looters-destroy-Egyptian-mummies-20110129

Cairo - 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 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, chairperson 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.

I do support the hanging of these specific looters/protesters, perhaps their bodies can be used to replace the mummies that they destroyed

 

[Creag]

Nothing in the world justifies this behaviour. I can understand their reasons for protest, but their should be "rules of engagement".

 

[marine1]

I hope the army sort these animals out

 

[Skitter]

WTF did they have to do that for? What did those have to do remotely with their issues? That's just senseless destruction for the sheer fun of it. Hang them.

 

[bekdik]

Even if they originally had had a good cause to support, this act has destroyed it.

 

[Wisemansa]

ever considered the government may have done this to make the protesters look bad?

 

[copacetic]

Even if they originally had had a good cause to support, this act has destroyed it.

Oh come on, that's just silly.

 

[Tun@]

Its probably lucky the whole museum never burnt to the ground - the building next door was the NDP's HQ & that got set alight & looted....while that was burning there was apparently a bunch of protestors that did form some sort of shield outside that museum to stop it being looted but seems like that didn't totally work...but they did try.

 

[blunomore]

WTF did they have to do that for? What did those have to do remotely with their issues? That's just senseless destruction for the sheer fun of it. Hang them.

If they should hang, so should their President

 

[ponder]

Its probably lucky the whole museum never burnt to the ground - the building next door was the NDP's HQ & that got set alight & looted....while that was burning there was apparently a bunch of protestors that did form some sort of shield outside that museum to stop it being looted but seems like that didn't totally work...but they did try.

Reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria#Destruction

 

[Tun@]

Reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria#Destruction

48 BC bloopers

 

[Palimino]

ever considered the government may have done this to make the protesters look bad?

This sort of machination had occurred to me (not about the mummies though). Some looters were captured and were carrying security ID’s and armed with security issue weapons. This is staggeringly stupid or a subtle double-bluff.

Any spy novel will tell you that you remove all identifying material from your person (even clothing labels) before embarking on an operation. It’s Spying 101. I am going with the staggeringly stupid conclusion as I see no reason why the protesters should get all ‘clever’ (things are going their way). Besides, something like this would take centralised command which they don’t have.

 

[Ninja'd]

I hope Arnold Vosloo gets these bastards.

 

[Lord Anubis]

Someone took a dump in my sarcophagus

 

[Nicky_G]

Lara Croft at work again.