Archeology treasure ownership drives me nuts. If you spend a lot of money and find a treasure laden vessel that has sat on the bottom of the ocean for 300 years, it is claimed by the nearest country. It would still be rotting in the bottom of th ocean if the treasure hunter did not go find it.
The US claimed a huge percentage of the Otosha when Fisher made finding it his lifes work.He spent decades scouring the ocean for it. With zero help from the government.
The original Egyptologists made Hawas possible. He feels he owes them nothing, that they actually are ripping Egypt off. If they want the treasures back, they should be willing to pay the hunters for their time.
Maybe the treasure hunters should all go on strike just to show the rest of us how much we need them.
Nothing? The Egyptians were subjugated to colonial powers. Script deciphering is a bit of a luxury good when you are barely scraping by, dominated by outsiders.
Even museums do not dispute that so many of their treasures are of uncertain provenance, purchased on the black market, effectively looted by treasure-hunters in the 19th century. These objects were not acquired by legitimate archaeology but by force and deception. There were no site reports, and we certainly don’t know anything about the contexts in which the objects were found. The objects just turned up in some wealthy person’s house, and in fortunate cases, found their ways to museums where at least the rest of the world can see them.
Whether we give the items back is another and very fraught question. We don’t give our country back to the Native Americans whom we looted it from. But on the other hand, we can’t simply extract oil from Saudi Arabia without paying for it, even if the Saudi Arabians never would have dug the wells by themselves.
So Zahi is definitely an asshole, as anyone who has done archaeology in Egypt can tell you. But what’s your excuse, aruvgan?
Hawass Shrugged.
The Egyptians were in full control fo their country for centuries. Matter of fact they were dominant players in that area for centuries as well. Apparently they only began having an interest for archeological sites and their value when Europeans started showing up and digging. No, correct that, when Europeans started to make major discoveries in the field.
Moreover, ever since its independance, Egypt has not produced much in terms of value for Egyptology, even though they’re in full control of their country. Again.
It aint the fault of Westerners that Egyptians didnt give a toss about their ancient history for such a looooong time.
Interesting story from today’s New York Times:
Revolution Dims Star Power of Egypt’s Antiquities Chief
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world/middleeast/13hawass.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
From the above article:
He’s prominently featured in their current cover story on Cleopatrain fact. Hard to consider 20+ times the salary of an average Egyptian an honorarium, especially when it’s far from his only means of income.
I get that you are joking, but if you flat-out say you’re not, I’ve found all this does is undermine your credibility in future discussions when you’re actually not joking.
They belong to Hawass and should be under his watch. He is the only one who understands Egyptian archaeology and Seth Rogan.
Bwa-ha-ha. I used to work with Zahi Hawass, when he wrote regular columns for EgyptAir’s inflight magazine Horus and I was part of the editorial staff. I never spoke with the man personally - he always delivered his pronouncements/orders to us through his long-suffering assistant, whose devotion to him was puzzling (or maybe he was just standing over her shoulder every time she called or wrote an e-mail - that wouldn’t surprise me, as on top of all his other behaviors he was a real control freak). His aggressive self-promotion was a thing to behold - I always wondered why he couldn’t see that he was embarrassing himself through his childish demands.
We met most of his demands - we had to - but one that we managed to slither out of was his insistence that his photo be on the cover of every issue of Horus. Yep, you read that right. He told us that it would be good for the magazine if his face was on the cover of every single edition.
I’m sure he believed it, too.
LOL I can believe that. That is why I jokingly say that I can never work in Egyptian Archeology if I ever had to email him because of my posting about his jackassery … as I am more than certain he vanity googles … and my tag is on some pretty nasty mudslinging. Is it mudslinging when it is the truth?:dubious:
Absolutely. Only when there is no mud to sling and you have to import dirt and water is it untrue mudslinging.
I think the man should be mummified alive and buried in one of those tombs.
A fitting “tribute”