Were Tut's treasures damaged? (Egyptian Museum Looted)

MSNBC ^ | January 28, 2001 | By Alan Boyle

[americanophile]

Despite the best efforts of the Egyptian army and a human shield, some of the artifacts inside the century-old Egyptian Museum were damaged during a brief wave of looting, authorities in Cairo say. And it sounds as if the damaged goods include treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun, based on comments from the country's top archaeologist as well as a little sleuthing by archaeologists looking at video footage shot inside the museum.

Margaret Maitland, an Egyptologist at Oxford University in England, matched up shots of the damage with pictures of artifacts from Tut's tomb and said that three gilded wooden statuettes of the boy-king may have been broken off their pedestals. In their original condition, one sculpture shows Tut standing on a boat with a harpoon at the ready, and another shows him astride a panther.

[HiTech RedNeck]

no kidding, the sphynx is missing its schnoz now?

[Tenniel2]

The Great Sphinx has been short most of its schnozz since Napoleon’s artillerymen used it for target practice back in 1798.

[PIF]

The Great Sphinx has been short most of its schnozz since Napoleon’s artillerymen used it for target practice back in 1798.

—

According to a poster on another thread, the nose was missing when Nappy arrived, having been chisled off by (he gave the name) a muslim fanatic several hundred years prior.

[SunkenCiv]

The curse of the mummy is Islam. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

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[Scoutmaster]

The legend is that Napoleon's artillerymen shot the nose off the Great Sphinx of Giza and that Napoleon himself stopped his army from further damaging the Sphinx.

That may be true.

However, the physical evidence indicates that one long rod or chisel was inserted down from the bridge of the nose and another up from the bottom of the nose, and that the nose was pried off.

According to the 15th century Egyptian historian al-Maqrīzī, the nose was intentionally destroyed in 1378 by Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim. al-Maqrīzī wrote that al-Darh was outraged that Egyptians treated the Great Sphinx as an icon and were making 'good harvest' offerings to it.

al-Maqrīzī also wrote that al-Dahr was hanged for his vandalism of the Great Sphinx's nose.

[PIF]

Too bad they didn’t treat al-Dhar to the same sort of nose job before they hanged him...

Thanks for the info. With all the muslim vandalization of ancient Egyptian artifacts, one has to wonder if many of the inscriptions were not chiseled off by various dynasties, but by muslims during the 7th century.

Just saying.

[Tenniel2]

Ahah -- thanks for clearing that up.

The way I heard it, an earlier domestic dynastic squabble led to some damage of unspecified extent, and the French simply administered the coup de grâce.

How not surprising who the real culprits were, or what they did.

As some wise person put it recently, we're not in a war of civilizations -- we're in a war for civilization.

[OrangeHoof]

Better than have gangs in the US spray paint it with their ugly crap.

[PIF]

As some wise person put it recently, we’re not in a war of civilizations — we’re in a war for civilization.

—

Concur. Have been aware of that since the muslim uprising began in 1979. Iran declaring war on the US should have been a clue.

[HiTech RedNeck]

A nose job from the old madman of France huh.

That was before photographs, so even if Egypt wanted the schnoz fixed nobody would know what the fix should look like. If fundie Islam takes over the place, they may have to say bye bye to the entire kitty cat.

[Scoutmaster]

Better than have gangs in the US spray paint it with their ugly crap.

I agree completely that thugs who 'mark' public property and the personal property of others with graffiti are nothing but vandals. There's nothing artistic about stealing somebody's else's property as a canvas.

On the other hand, that pain can generally be removed even if it's expensive, and there's no shortage of underpasses and bridge abutments, or sides of buildings.

There was only one 3,300-year-old statute of Tutankhamun. And it wasn't simply painted. It was fragile and and the thugs shattered it, and it's unlikely that it can be restored completely by sandblasting or solvents.

So I don't think that damage to the Tut statute is better than having U.S. gangs spray paint it. And, as a genetic Texas, I say that to you with utmost respect, Texan to Texan. We're approached the anniversary of the day Crockett took his men into the Alamo in 1836.

[Tenniel2]

Not entirely, as FReeper Scoutmaster has noted.

But you know, ever since I was a kid I thought there was something odd about the proportion of the kitteh's head -- surprisingly small in relation to his body. So I was intrigued reading somewhere recently that the Sphinx (which, incidentally, may pre-date the Great Pyramids) might have received not just a rhinoplasty but a complete head job from an earlier Old Kingdom pharaoh who thought his own face would look better than that of some silly lion-creature.