Interview with Miroslav Barta about the state of Abusir

Ceske Noviny

Thanks EEF for the above link. I've put it through Google Translate with mixed results, but the gist of it seems to be as follows:

The Czech archaeologists working at the Abusir pyramids have found that the site has been badly damaged by lotters. It was broken into by thieves during the recent political unrest. Objects scattered on the ground were trampled upon. Worse, Miroslav Barta who is the director of the work at Abusir says that years of work to extract valuable scientific information has been undermined, following an assessment of the extent of the damage last week. He says that thieves have excavated in various places in tombs and burial pits and they accessed the stores. Some records have disappeared and thieves threw objects and samples on the floor, mixing up and stepping on anhropological, organic and ceramic materials together with decorated blocks.

According to Barta the culprits are mainly people from surrounding villages, where tens of thousands of people live. Bara says that they are poorly educated and that they were looking for objects made of precious metals. were after the smaller items of precious metals which, even had they been excavated, would not have been stored at the site but sent to the Egyptian Museum. Barta believes that the situation may be repeated at any time and that there is a real need to improve communication with local people to expand their awareness. They are considering starting an educational program for teaching children in schools. He says that it is very unlikely that the stolen items will be sold because they have no market value; instead they have probably been discarded or buried.