Limestone painting from Khentika tomb missing in Saqqara

Egyptian antiquities officials said on Sunday that a limestone Pharaonic painting has gone missing from the tomb of Khentika in the Saqqara necropolis just outside Cairo, becoming the latest ancient artefact to disappear from the country. Mohamed Ismail, secretary‑general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the painted relief was installed on the facade of a mastaba tomb dating to the sixth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, roughly 2700 to 2200 BC, and that prosecutors have opened an investigation into its disappearance.

The mastaba was discovered in the 1950s and, according to officials, had not been opened since 2019. A British archaeological mission working at the site found the painting missing in May, local reports said. Egyptian officials gave no further details about when or how the item was removed, and investigations are continuing to determine whether the panel was cut from the wall and taken from the site or otherwise illicitly removed.

Egyptian reports say the limestone painting depicted the ancient Egyptian calendar, dividing the year into three seasons tied to the Nile’s cycle: the inundation season Akhet, the planting season Peret, and the harvest season Shemu....