Saturday, August 20, 2011

Statement from the SCA

The Egyptologists' Electronic Forum (EEF) has posted the following update from the SCA, with my thanks to EEF for continuing to do such a great job. I don't normally republish items posted on EEF, because I assume that most of my readers will be subscribers, but this is an important statement that should probably be shared.

Dear Colleagues,

In the last few weeks as you all watched and heard in the media that the Ministry of State for Antiquates returned back to be Supreme Council of Antiquates which has maintained its independence from the Ministry of Culture, it is reporting directly to the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Mr. Mohamed Abdel Fattah is the Secretary General of the SCA and all official letters should be addressed to him.

In the last days many rumors were widespread about stopping the work of the Foreign missions in Egypt, others saying that no more excavation will be undertaken in Egypt.

Therefore, I would like to pay your attention to the fact that all what you hear or read is completely wrong, since you did not receive an official note from our department.

The SCA are not intended to stop any excavation work in Egypt, except for some sites which are under threat from robbery according to the security reports. Therefore, The Permanent Committee has suspended only some excavation work for some missions due to the security statues of each site. However, the study season or conservation and protection work are approved at all the sites. In other words, the SCA is dealing with sites case-by-case according to its security conditions.

I would like also to inform you that our department is ready to receive any application and it is working with the same system as before.

There is no change at all till further notice.

You can visit our website to see our regulation
http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/FMR_RR.htm


Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled
Director of the P. Committee & Foreign Missions Affairs
Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)
3. El Adel Abou Bakr St.
Zamalek, Cairo

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