What Is Egypt Covering Up?

Holy Hathor. Check out this series of articles and YOU tell me if you don't think the Egyptian authorities are keeping this discovery ALL to themselves.  Good luck, dudes, trying to keep this one under your hats.  Bet the local antiquities raiders are already busy at work.  What do you suppose the odds are that the Egyptian government has plenty of armed troops guarding the" million mummies" site??? Ha!  Where is Zahi Hawass when we need him? 

At Live Science:

Million-Mummy Cemetery Unearthed in Egypt
by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   December 16, 2014 07:43am ET

TORONTO — She's literally one in a million.

The remains of a child, laid to rest more than 1,500 years ago when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was found in an ancient cemetery that contains more than 1 million mummies, according to a team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

The cemetery is now called Fag el-Gamous, which means "Way of the Water Buffalo," a title that comes from the name of a nearby road. Archaeologists from Brigham Young University have been excavating Fag el-Gamous, along with a nearby pyramid, for about 30 years. Many of the mummies date to the time when the Roman or Byzantine Empire ruled Egypt, from the 1st century to the 7th century A.D. [See photos of the million-mummy cemetery]

And then this:

Fayoum antiquities official denies 'million mummies' reports
Head of Fayoum antiquities says that the million figure was a research estimate only
[I'm gagging on this one!]

Nevine El-Aref , Friday 19 Dec 2014

A local antiquities official told Ahram Online that news reports about "a million mummies" discovered by an American archaeological mission working close to Fayoum were false.

Ahmed Abdel-Aal, the head of the Fayoum antiquities authority, told Ahram Online that the million figure is an estimate, presented in research presented to an academic colloquium in Toronto last month by mission head Kerry Muhlestein, and not a concrete number.

Abdel-Aal said that the mission had been based in the Fag Al-Gamous area for 34 years, and during that time had stumbled upon torn textiles, and late period and Roman remains of human skeletons. “No mummies were found except one discovered in 1988 inside a wooden anthropoid coffin with a gilded mummy mask," he said.

Archaeologist Affifi Rohayem told Ahram Online that this kind of burial was common during the Roman period.

“I think the burials found in Fag Al-Gamous is one of those necropoli, but the mission does not know much about it,” he added.

The Egyptian antiquities ministry said earlier on Friday that it had decided to halt cooperation with the Brigham Young University mission because it had "published false news" and had broken the law by speaking directly to the press about a discovery without first getting ministry clearance.

***************************************************************************

Right...

… which resulted in the loss of the mission’s dig permit, apparently:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/118343/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Egypt-antiquity-ministry-slams-US-mission-after-mi.aspx
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.ca/2014/12/mummy-curse-strikes-again-msa-stops-byu.html

While Explorator's comment implies that BYU's permit to dig has been cancelled (are the archaeologists and field crews being expelled or have they already been expelled from the country?), the articles it points to do not confirm that this is what, in fact, has happened.

So, what do you think?  I know what I think (isn't it clear?)