CAIRO, EGYPT—Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty announced that a collection of historic documents has been found in a Supreme Council of Antiquities storehouse in the Al-Abbassiya district of Cairo. The documents include maps, architectural diagrams, and letters exchanged between the historic Egyptian Antiquities Organization and early Egyptologists such as Gaston Maspero, Jacques de Morgan, Pierre Lacau, and Howard Carter. There are also papers from the Gabry and Fayyed families who were known to trade in antiquities; a file on the Egyptian Exploration Society; and a file on the French Institute for Oriental Studies. The French Institute at the time had been working at Tanis, Matariya in Heliopolis, and Karnak Temple in Luxor. A committee has been formed to study and archive the collection of documents. “These are the oldest documents found in the history of the Antiquities Ministry,” Hisham El Leithy, director general of the Egyptian Antiquities Registration Center, told Ahram Online. To read more about Egyptology, go to "The Cult of Amun."
