The Egyptian permit to dig, 1912 to 1939

Nobody could dig for antiquities in Egypt, not even on his own land, without an authorisation of the Minister of Public Works, granted on the proposal of the Director General of the Service des Antiquités (law no. 14 of 1912 and decree no. 52). Every antiquity in Egyptian soil belonged to the State; the excavator was granted a share of what he found.

Bearer prints it on three sheets in French, the language the law was published in beside Arabic: the decision naming the excavator, the site and the season; the articles of the decree; and the division of the finds, each object set down to the Museum or to the excavator.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The paper

The same paper elsewhere

• Permits to dig by country

Still to be confirmed

• no authorisation actually granted has been found: page 1 is set in the form the ministry's own decrees of 1912 take (Le Ministre des Travaux Publics, Vu…, ARRÊTE, articles), and says what the law and decree no. 52 require an authorisation to say (the person, the site and its limits, the season). What would settle it: an Egyptian autorisation de fouilles of the twenties or thirties.
• the rules printed on page 2 are those of decree no. 52 of 1912; how far the terms granted after 1922 changed them (the division of finds after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb) has not been found. What would settle it: the conditions of an Egyptian concession granted after 1922.
• French alone: the law and the decree were published in French and in Arabic, and Bearer has no Arabic face. What would settle it: an Arabic face in the print shop and the Arabic text of the decree (Journal officiel, 19 Safar 1331).
• the page is set at A4. What would settle it: an Egyptian authorisation measured.

Sources

• Gouvernement égyptien, Ministère des Travaux Publics; printed in the Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte, vol. XII (1912), pp. 245-263, Loi n° 14 de 1912 sur les antiquités, and the arrêtés ministériels n° 50, 51 and 52 of 8 December 1912 (Réglement pour les fouilles), Law no. 14, art. 1: every antiquity on or in the soil of Egypt belongs to the public domain; art. 11: a finder keeps half; art. 12: nobody may dig for antiquities, even on his own land, without an authorisation of the Ministry of Public Works on the proposal of the Director General of the Service des Antiquités, which fixes the place and the period and grants the excavator a share of the finds; art. 14: no export without a special authorisation. Decree no. 52 (in force 1 January 1913): authorisations granted by the Minister after a favourable opinion of the Comité d'Égyptologie (art. 1), only to scholars on a mission or officially recommended, or to private persons with a reputed scholar to direct the work (art. 2), for one season, 15 November to 14 November (art. 3), never more than two sites at once (art. 4), applied for before 25 October (art. 5), P.E. 10 a day for the guarding of the site or P.E. 20 a day for a delegate of the Service travelling with the excavator (art. 7), sixty days' work at least (art. 8), the finds divided between the excavator and the Government under art. 11 of the law (art. 11), transport and export permits on request (art. 12), trenches filled and the ground put back at the end of the season before any share may leave (art. 13), a plan, a list and a report handed in (art. 14), renewal as of right to one who kept to his conditions (art. 16), suspension or withdrawal for breach (art. 17). (read directly)

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