Marilyn Terrell of National Geographic points us to the photo above making the rounds on Twitter and Facebook today, and explains:
Citizens linking arms in front of the Egyptian Museum to prevent looters from entering. I found this photo on Twitter, posted by @theplayethic, who also tweeted, “Power memes in #Egypt. Reports of soldiers roaming damaged Cairo museum, armed criminals in suburbs.”
Related, BB reader charlesj says,
Margaret Maitland, an Egyptology student at Oxford University, examines Al Jazeera video to assess what has been damaged during rioting at the Cairo Museum. She thinks the damaged objects include items from Tutankahmun’s tomb.
Here’s a link to Maitland’s blog post. I see there’s a similar report on MSNBC, with before/after photos of some of the same items.
And BB reader Jack points us to a related NPR report:
Would-be looters broke into Cairo’s famed Egyptian Museum, ripping the heads off two mummies and damaging about 10 small artifacts before being caught and detained by soldiers, Egypt’s antiquities chief [Zahi Hawass] said Saturday.
