Archaeological, Cultural Repatriation

[JGolomb]

Dr. Zahi Hawass has been on an international tour pitching his new book. One of his stops is at the British Museum which houses the Rosetta Stone...an item that Dr. Hawass wants back in Egypt very badly.

 

Here are a few full articles on the issue and I've pulled some highlights and images below.

Zahi Hawass Visits London's British Museum (and 'Doesn't' Mention Rosetta Stone)

The British Museum's Egyptian Sculpture Gallery was packed last night, as hundreds of dignitaries flocked to see The World's Most Famous Archaeologist (copyright all bloggers) Dr Zahi Hawass, speaking ahead of the release of his latest book A Secret Voyage. Cameras in hand, Heritage Key was there to witness Dr Hawass' appearance, heralded more like the second coming than a book signing.

 

Stood in front of the museum's colossal head of Ramesses the Great, Dr Hawass boomed out at his fans like an emissary from the pharaoh himself. But as he spoke, you could sense he was looking longingly above all our heads at the Rosetta Stone - the repatriation of which he continues to crusade.

 

Yet as Dr Hawass steps up his quest for the Stone, he tried to placate things with BM director Neil MacGregor in his introduction: "When I first came here, everyone thought I came to take back the Rosetta Stone! But I'm not here to talk about the Rosetta Stone..." followed by a couple of minutes talking about the Rosetta Stone.

"We are not Pirates!" Zahi Hawass Anger at British Museum Rosetta Stone Loan Letter

Does Zahi Hawass want the Rosetta Stone on loan or not? It's hard to know if you read the news often enough. Last night saw Egypt's antiquities boss come to the British Museum in London to promote his new book A Secret Voyage. Yet among the niceties between Dr Hawass and BM director Neil MacGregor, trouble was already brewing behind the scenes.

 

And while Dr Hawass, who has stepped up his quest to bring Egypt's greatest treasures home, insisted he wasn't in London for the Rosetta Stone, he couldn't help stepping in front of BBC cameras to stake his country's claim for the fabled basalt slab, the key that unlocked ancient Egyptian language.

 

"I want the Rosetta Stone to be back, its a unique artefact," says Dr Hawass. "Its home should not be the British Museum in London, its home should be Cairo, in Egypt." The BBC then reported that Dr Hawass would be willing to drop his requests for permanent repatriation, as long as the BM agreed to a loan deal, possibly to coincide with the Grand Egyptian Museum's proposed 2013 opening.

 

Yet a later appearance, this time on the BBC's radio service, seems to contradict Dr Hawass' earlier statement, bringing in a letter the British Museum allegedly sent in reply to his loan request.

 

"When I said...I want to have it on a short-term loan, the British Museum wrote a letter to say that they need to know the security of the museum that will host.

 

"Even some people in the press began to say: 'If the British Museum will give the Rosetta Stone to Egypt, maybe Egyptians will not return it back.' We are not the pirates of the Caribbean. We are a civilised country. If I...sign a contract with the British Museum, (we) will return it. Therefore we decided not to host the Rosetta Stone, but to ask for the Rosetta Stone to come back for good to Egypt." (note: my bolding)

 

This sudden about-turn is hardly likely to endear the British Museum, whose officials have repeatedly insisted the Rosetta Stone is better viewed in a global context. "The principle is exactly the same, be it the Parthenon Marbles or the Rosetta Stone, or any object in the collection," says the museum's PR chief Hannah Boulton. "The value of that object is because you can see it within this world collection here at the British Museum, and it can tell you a wider story about cultural achievement through the ages."

 

 

[sylla]

It seems like a little more of the same; both sides have political motivations, so the solution can only be more politics.

 

We can only hope that any actual or potential research is not hindered by politics, a risk which honestly seems currently unlikely for this case.

 

There's a priori no reason why the "global context" should be any better in one place than the other.

[JGolomb]

Mary Beard takes aim at the issue. She makes the most cogent arguments I've read against repatriation. My instinct states that the items should be returned to their "home". But it's clearly not a cut and dry issue.

 

Full story here: Should the Rosetta Stone go back....where?

 

Highlights below:

And now, again, Zahi Hawass (Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt) wants it "back"? Does he have a point?

 

In my view, no -- not at all. And I am not just talking here about the British Museum's claims to be a centre of world culture, symbolically at least owned by the whole world (the current Director is very fluent and convincing on this subject). On this Egyptian issue I feel a bit more jingoistic than usual.

 

For a start, lets be honest, if this boring lump of basalt has become an icon, it was because of the linguistic work or either a Brit or a Frenchman. It wasn't born an icon, it became an icon by a lot of hard academic grind (with huge "impact" if we are going to talk Hefce talk). At that time, the state of Egypt did not exist and "Egyptians had nothing to do with its decipherment. Sad but true.

 

If it should go back anywhere, it should be to France (as it seems pretty clear to me that, national prejudices apart, Champollion was the key figure here).

 

But more that I find myself suffering from an increasingly severe allergy to Zawi Hawass. he might once have been a good archaeologist, but he has become a nationalist media showman (complete with mad theories about famous ancient Egyptian graves, and a tv crew, plus a book signing, at his back). He appears to have a checklist of some icons he wants 'back' to Egypt -- as if they has been stolen.

 

I remember him on the Today programme a few years ago in discussion with some female descendant of Howard Carter (excavator of Tutankhamun). He was in full flow complaining about how the Brits has ripped everything off, when she politely pointed out that actually the whole Tut treasure had been left in Egypt (which did then exist).

 

Today, you can go an visit his fiefdom in the Antiquities Service of Egypt. It is truly amazing stuff ad no one is remotely suggesting removing it. But an awful lot in the marvellous Egyptian museum in Cairo is in a truly dreadful conservation stae (take a look at the Fayum portraits disintegrating there.). Now the truth is that in a global culture, we should all be paying to preserve this material for all of us, the world over, for the next few centuries. But that can only happen if Hawass stops making a media splash by demanding the Rosetta Stone and stops ignoring the much more exciting treasures crumbling on his watch.

 

If you want a good introduction to the Stone, can I recommend a book by John Ray in my edited Wonders series, available from your local bookshop or online from Blackwells/Heffers.

[JGolomb]

The blogosphere is full of references to this opinion piece from The National:

Indiana Jones, but in reverse

some highlights:

[sylla]

Faced with requests such as those of Mr Hawass, some European museums have found a comfortable middle ground. Katja Lembke, the director of the Germany

[Ursus]

Mary Beard takes aim at the issue. She makes the most cogent arguments I've read against repatriation. My instinct states that the items should be returned to their "home". But it's clearly not a cut and dry issue.

 

Beard's closing point on which country is better able to preserve the legacies of the past is key, I think.

 

And it's not just a matter of funding, either. Can ZH promise that the coming generation of virulent islamic Arabs won't treat ancient treasures the way the Taliban treated ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? Should the Elgin marbles be returned to a homeland Greece where the overly influential state religion of Orthodox Christianity despises the pagan legacy?

 

I feel a lot more comfortable with the British safekeeping these ancient treasures.

[Maladict]

Beard's closing point on which country is better able to preserve the legacies of the past is key, I think.

 

But that doesn't set a very good precendent, we might as well ask half the countries of the world to hand over their cultural treasures as they obviously can't (or won't) take care of them like we would.

It would be very embarrassing, too, given how much of a luxury problem cultural heritage is.

 

Can ZH promise that the coming generation of virulent islamic Arabs won't treat ancient treasures the way the Taliban treated ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?

And what if they do? If the Egyptian government decides it's a good idea to dismantle the pyramids what are we going to do about it? They may 'belong to all mankind', but all mankind doesn't own them.

And in the West we're not exactly innocent when it comes to purposely destroying ancient treasures. Even today, the way we're treating places like Babylon doesn't inspire confidence.

 

As for the Elgin marbles, there doesn't seem to be a happy solution. Perhaps some sort of joint ownership and regular loans would be a sensible approach, especially considering how grand travelling exhibitions seem to have been doing wonders for museums.

On the other hand, what could happen when they first touch Greek soil might be all too predictable.

[sylla]

Beard's closing point on which country is better able to preserve the legacies of the past is key, I think.

 

But that doesn't set a very good precendent, we might as well ask half the countries of the world to hand over their cultural treasures as they obviously can't (or won't) take care of them like we would.

It would be very embarrassing, too, given how much of a luxury problem cultural heritage is.

 

Can ZH promise that the coming generation of virulent islamic Arabs won't treat ancient treasures the way the Taliban treated ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?

And what if they do? If the Egyptian government decides it's a good idea to dismantle the pyramids what are we going to do about it? They may 'belong to all mankind', but all mankind doesn't own them.

And in the West we're not exactly innocent when it comes to purposely destroying ancient treasures. Even today, the way we're treating places like Babylon doesn't inspire confidence.

 

As for the Elgin marbles, there doesn't seem to be a happy solution. Perhaps some sort of joint ownership and regular loans would be a sensible approach, especially considering how grand travelling exhibitions seem to have been doing wonders for museums.

On the other hand, what could happen when they first touch Greek soil might be all too predictable.

Couldn't agree any more with such an eloquent statement.

[Ursus]

And what if they do? If the Egyptian government decides it's a good idea to dismantle the pyramids what are we going to do about it?

 

 

Oh, I could think of a few very politically incorrect things. Cheers.

[Maladict]

By all means, don't hold back.