CAIRO: Egypt has lifted a 13-year-old ban on excavation permits
issued to foreign archeology missions working in Upper Egypt, Secretary
General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mostafa Amin was
quoted by Youm7 Friday.
For 13 years, the excavation permissions were limited only to
Egyptian missions to explore treasures in Upper Egypt but due to the
“successive requests from foreign Universities and researchers, the
council agreed to give the licenses after 13 years of suspension,” Amin
told Youm7 without going into further details on number of the foreign
missions applied for the permits.
Allowing any foreign mission to search the Egyptian artifacts should
be approved by the Ministry of Tourism and five other sovereignty
bodies, former head of the SCA Abdel Halim Nour el-Din told The Cairo
Post Saturday.
Moreover, the mission should be escorted by security forces and
accompanied with Egyptian archeologists, Nour el-Din said, noting that
the mission should pay certain fees. He added that all the excavated
artifacts should be documented only under the supervision of the
Antiquities Ministry.
Nour el-Din added that the number of the Egyptian archaeology
missions does not exceed 12, while there are around 200 foreign missions
nationwide. He added that the big number of the foreign missions stems
from their professionalism in excavation work along with their advanced
equipments and high financial capabilities.
In March, the Director-General of Upper Egypt Antiquities Sultan Eid
said told media reporters that only 60 foreign missions are “researching
in the Luxor.”
Among the active foreign missions is the Spanish one headed by Dr.
Myriam Seco Álvarez of the Academy of Fine Arts of Seville who is
excavating in the Thutmosis III Temple at the Deir el-Bahari in Luxor,
where a 4,000-year-old female mummy wearing jewels in the necropolis was unearthed.
Source: http://www.thecairopost.com/news/158350/inside_egypt/foreign-archaeological-missions-resume-excavating-upper-egypt-after-13-year-ban
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