Revolution in the museums

[Евгений]

A revolution in museums

       Egypt sums up the victorious revolution. Especially painful part - the fate of local museums, especially the most important, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, literally stuffed with ancient artifacts. Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said: "If the Egyptian Museum in security - security in Egypt. I'm afraid, Egypt is not safe." Egyptian Museum in Cairo at the place of honor - in a huge centenary neoclassical building on Tahrir Square. During the popular uprising was unfolding around major events.
 When the Tahrir fled police, students, museum workers and simply conscious demonstrators human chain rose up around the museum to save it from looting . Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, temples Karnak and Luxor before joining the army defended from marauding groups of local residents. All enlightened humanity should bow at the feet of these people.
 When the army came Tahrir, for her protection of the Egyptian Museum was a priority. Almost immediately, the military cordoned off and pyramids.
But fully protect Egyptian antiquities from the looters did not succeed. On the night of 28 to 29 January in the building of the Egyptian Museum penetrated the roof of the nine robbers. They are crushing windows, ripped from the walls of the ancient bas-reliefs, broken artifacts. Fortunately, this was an isolated incident.

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Even when the streets of Cairo continued unrest, Zahi Hawass - the most respected Egyptologist in the world and one of the most respected people in Egypt - repeatedly inspected the museum. It is important to note that in the course of government reform, had started President Hosni Mubarak for the sake of power, led by Hawass Supreme Council for Antiquities allocated to individual ministries. On site Hawass regularly publish reports on the situation of Egyptian antiquities in the revolution. And they look a whole rather encouraging. Cases of looting in the museums mentioned, but the damage (on a common scale events) the damage was not great. In addition, with total dedication to work museum workers. Director of Cairo's Egyptian Museum, Tarek El-Awadi and his subordinates did not go home for several days, sleeping on the job. Restoration Studios did not stop work, and exhibits, the victims at the hands of looters, he immediately went there.
 Ministry of Antiquities announced list of property missing from Cairo's Egyptian Museum, on Saturday, February 12, the day after the victory of the revolution . In the eighteen points:
   Missing statue of Tutankhamen. Photo from drhawass.com 1. gilded wooden statue of the goddess, bearing Tutankhamen.
 2. gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun with the harpoon. This famous statue was broken: the feet of Pharaoh and the boat that serves as a pedestal, remained in the museum, and the rest is lost.
 3. limestone statue of the pharaoh Akhenaten with a tray for gifts.
 4. Statue of Nefertiti, Akhenaten's wife, with gifts.
 5. Statue of the Amarna Princess (sandstone).
 6. A stone statue of a scribe from Amarna.
 7. Amulet in the form of a scarab belonging to the family Yuyya (Eyya), from which the mother of Akhenaten.
 8-18. Wooden statuettes ushebti (ghostly servants) family Yuyya (Eyya).
On Monday, 14 February, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that two of the missing exhibits - Scarab and one of the statues - were found in the gardens of the museum. The remaining values are looking for the police and army, which claimed responsibility for maintaining order in a revolutionary Egypt.
As you can see from the list of missing items, at the hands of looters nine hardest hit by the so-called Amarnskaya gallery. Amarna - a city on the Nile, 285 kilometers south of Cairo, where there are ruins Ahetatona - the capital of the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV Akhenaton. This Pharaoh in the XIV century BC in Egypt staged a grand experiment - set monotheism (worship of the sun god Aten) instead of a highly complex traditional polytheism. In 2010, thanks to genetic analysis was identified the mummy of Akhenaten. The so-called Amarnsky period - one of the brightest pages in the history of ancient Egyptian art. Suffice it to say that it is from this period include the famous bust of Nefertiti, found in Amarna German archaeologist Ludwig Borkhardtom in 1912 and is now the jewel collection of the Neues Museum in Berlin. Nefertiti was the chief wife of Akhenaten.
It was also reported missing two Pharaonic mummies. Subsequently, it became clear that, firstly, not Pharaonic and secondly, not a mummy, and the skull, and thirdly, are not lost, as has already been found and were not injured.
Damage that was caused to other museums of Egypt, documented a lot worse. It is known that the looted archaeological deposit on excavation of the ancient capital of Memphis. There were artefacts not only from Memphis itself, but also from nearby cemeteries. Journalists wrote that were separated out all that is possible. Hawass later denied the information, and even complained to management at the National Geographic reporter who picked up a panic about the looting of Memphis.
  All of subjects riots in Egypt, Egypt without Mubarak also reported that severely damaged the archaeological deposit in Al Cantara el-Sharqiya on the Asian side of the Suez Canal, which have been gathered artifacts from excavations in the Sinai Peninsula.
Zahi Hawass asked the museum workers, collectors and antique dealers all over the world with an appeal not to buy antiquities looted in Egypt during the revolution. It is relatively calm only for the lost artifacts of the Cairo museum: they are all too familiar in the world, that they could sell even on the black market. The rest - it is hoped the conscience of robbers and traffickers. That is - no hope.
4-millennial cultural heritage of the Nile Valley was not affected as much as they could, given the scale of what happened in Egypt in recent weeks. Archaeologists, museum workers and ordinary Egyptians, who preserved it, made a real feat. Let this be a good omen for Egypt.
Artem Efimov

[fabosch]

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