LUXOR, Egypt - A mummy more than 3,000 years old and other items have been stolen from a Pharaonic tomb near this southern Egyptian city, a senior antiquity official said Tuesday.

The missing objects were taken from the tomb of a nobleman who lived in the time of Pharaoh Akhenaton, who ruled in 1379-1362 B.C., said Sabri Abdel Aziz of Egypt's antiquity department.

The theft was reported on Sunday when an archaeological team from the University of Pennsylvania returned to the tomb after six months.

"I expect the goods to be retrieved soon," Abdel Aziz said. He argued that as the theft was recent, the items were probably still in Egypt, which would make them easier to trace.

The Penn archeologists have worked at the site since 1996.

Police said they reported that the mummy of a child and four small artifacts had been stolen.

Abdel Aziz said the Supreme Council of Antiquities was taking the "necessary steps to inform Interpol about the theft and post pictures of the stolen pieces on the Internet."

He said the items appeared to have been removed from the tomb through a back tunnel leading to a house in the town of Gourna.

Some 420 tombs lie under the town, which is home to thousands of people. The inhabitants are believed to have plundered the tombs for decades. They successfully resisted a government attempt to move the town in the 1940s. Their livelihoods depend on tourists visiting the nearby Pharaonic temples and the Valley of the Kings.

"So long as there are houses on top of the tombs in western Luxor, the danger (of theft) remains," Abdel Aziz said.

He added that the town's sewage water is an even greater threat to the tombs.

Interesting that they would be concerned about ancient artifacts as opposed to people's livelihood now, as this clearly wasnt the case when building the aswan dam and covering all the "Nubian artifacts" under a man-made lake. I believe there is still significant history that we may never discover about the Nubian due this necessary action for the "livelihood" of the people.