Egypt from the Air is part of the Wings over the Pyramids: Will Egypt's Treasure Survive exhibit designed and curated by Museum Studies graduate students at San Francisco State University, under the guidance of Professor Linda Ellis.

This blog attempts to capture, document, and make accessible some of the hundreds of thousands of videos, articles and photographs relating to the dramatic events that have swept across Egypt since early 2011.

Wings over the Pyramids opens April 4th, 2011.

4/4/11

"Black-Market Trinkets From Space"

The New York Times ran an interesting article today regarding the illegal sale of meteorite fragments on the black market.  Apparently, The Gebel Kamil Crater in Southern Egypt is popular site for plundering these meteor fragments.
A 6-gram fragment of meteroite found in the Gebel Kamil Crater

“'It’s a black market,' said Ralph P. Harvey, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University who directs the federal search for meteorites in Antarctica. 'It’s as organized as any drug trade and just as illegal.'

The discovery of a rich and historically significant meteorite crater in southern Egypt, just north of the Sudanese border, has shown the voracious appetite for new fragments. Just as scientists appeared to be on the cusp of decrypting the evidence to solve an ancient puzzle, looters plundered the desolate site, and the political chaos in Egypt seems to ensure that the scientists will not be going back anytime soon"
It seems that anything that can be moved, dug up, pryed off, or chipped away, has a price on the black market.
Read the entire article here.

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