volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Mastahah Tombs at Sakkdrah and Gtzah. 337
and sold them to the building contractors in Cairo;
and they carried away and buried all the inscribed
stones, and waited for opportunities to sell them to
private collectors and agents of museums like myself.
The Service of Antiquities knew quite well what had
happened to the mastabahs, and that many of them
were in ruins, but they took no steps either to rebuild
or repair them, or to protect their ruins. And they
made no attempt to stop the stealing of the stones to
sell to the builders. Although they loudly denounced
the natives of Sakkarah and Gizah for " smashing the
mastabahs," they allowed the scandal to go on. I
asked an official of the Museum why the authorities
did nothing to preserve the mastabahs, and his answer
was, " Why should we spend on them the money which
we want for other purposes ? We have already mor^
false doors and stelae of the Ancient Empire than we
know what to do with here; and we have no room
for any more." I was not sorry to hear these words,
and I confess that I noted them with great satisfaction,
for they banished from my mind my last scruple about
acquiring some fine specimens of bas-reliefs, tables for
offerings, stelae and stands for censers of burning incense,
etc., from the ruined mastabahs at Sakkarah.
I then placed myself in the hands of some of the natives
of Gizah and Sakkirah, and I left Cairo and went with
them to examine the collections which they had made
from the ruined mastabahs. They dug up their treasures
from the places in which they had hidden them, and the
sight of them was good. Among them there was nothing
older than the middle of the IVth dynasty, and nothing
more modern than the reign of Pepi II of the Vlth
dynasty. There were a great many inscribed monuments
of the IVth, Vth and Vlth dynasties which it
was important to have. I made a good selection of
unbroken stelae, etc., and many of them bore the cartouches
of Seneferu, Khufu (Cheops), Khafra (Chephren),
Menkaura (Mycerinus), Userkaf, Pepi I and Pepi II.
From a chronological point of view the most important
monument in my selection is the large stone " door " (with