U.S. Hands over 3,000-Year-Old coffin to Egypt

U.S. Hands over 3,000-Year-Old
coffin to Egypt


The U.S. has handed over to Egypt a 3,000-year-old stolen coffin smuggled out of that country more than 100 years ago.
The sarcophagus of “Emus”, which was confiscated by customs officials at Miami International Airport in 2008, was handed over to Zahi Hawas, secretary-general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), last month at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Hawas returned to Cairo with the sarcophagus last month after signing the papers of the coffin’s restitution, along with U.S. officials. The coffin dates back to the 21st Dynasty (1081 BC-931 BC), Hawas said. Its inscriptions were meant to help the occupant in the afterlife, he added. A Spanish merchant shipped the sarcophagus to Florida
for sale in 2008 after it was taken from Egypt to Spain in 1970. However, Hawas said it was originally smuggled out of Egypt in 1884 before it reached Spain.The painted wooden coffin, in the shape of an Egyptian man in a state of repose, raised the suspicions of a customs agent at the Miami airport, following which U.S. Immigration and Customs officials contacted Hawas and informed him about the antique. (BBC)