Posted on 07/20/2003 10:18:03 AM PDT by UnklGene
Egypt demands return of the Rosetta Stone By Charlotte Edwardes and Catherine Milner (Filed: 20/07/2003)
Egypt is demanding that the Rosetta Stone, a 2,000-year-old relic and one of the British Museum's most important exhibits, should be returned to Cairo.
The stone, which became the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, was found by Napoleon's army in 1799 in the Nile delta, but has been in Britain for the past 200 years. It forms the centrepiece of the British Museum's Egyptology collection and is seen by millions of visitors each year.
Now, in an echo of the campaign by Athens for the return of the Elgin Marbles, the Egyptian government is calling for the stone to be returned and threatening to pursue its claim "aggressively" if the British Museum does not agree to give it back voluntarily.
Zahi Hawass, the director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, confirmed to The Telegraph that he had begun negotiations with academics and curators at the museum. He said he hoped that they would agree to "voluntarily return the stone", but gave a warning that, if the request was rejected, he would intensify his campaign to bring it back to Egypt.
"If the British want to be remembered, if they want to restore their reputation, they should volunteer to return the Rosetta Stone because it is the icon of our Egyptian identity," said Dr Hawass.
"Otherwise I will have to approach them using a different strategy. There are various stages to our negotiations. I don't want to fight anyone now, but if the British Museum doesn't act, we will have to employ a more aggressive approach with the Government. I don't care if people know my strategy, the artefacts stolen from Egypt must come back."
Dr Hawass said that he had been discussing a possible three-month loan of the stone with the museum. "More immediately, we are prepared to accept it peacefully on a temporary loan and we are in discussions about that right now. That is a short-term solution, however. Ideally, we would like the stone to come back for good."
Dr Hawass said that the Cairo Museum, where the Rosetta Stone would be kept, had a replica of the relic which it would be willing to give to the British Museum in return for the original.
The Rosetta Stone, which dates from 196 BC, was discovered by French troops in 1799 in the village of Rosette (Raschid) in the western delta of the Nile. The stone's importance was that it provided a key to understanding hieroglyphic text because it was accompanied by a Greek translation.
Although the stone was Napoleon's most coveted war acquisition, the French ceded it to Britain under the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801 and it has been exhibited in the British Museum since 1802.
Vivian Davies, the keeper of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the museum, expressed sympathy with Dr Hawass's claim, but suggested that legislation on the repatriation of artefacts would prevent the relic's permanent return.
"Will the Rosetta Stone be returned? I would say that our priorities are elsewhere at the moment. We are working with our Egyptian colleagues to preserve the heritage of today rather than concentrate on problems - or issues, perhaps I should say - that are very old," he said.
"We would like to co-operate with the Egyptians insofar as we can under the law. It is the same law that guides us on the issue of the Elgin Marbles - the British Museum Act of 1963." This rules that no artefact can be repatriated without the permission of the museum's trustees.
Mr Davies added: "Perhaps, if I were in Dr Hawass's position, I would feel the same way. We are having constructive negotiations over the loan for three months. It's a new idea he has produced and we appreciate very much that Dr Hawass is being constructive on these matters. We enjoy working with him and his staff."
Dr Hawass, one of the world's leading Egyptologists, has pioneered a major new museum development programme and encouraged the Egyptian government to pour considerable funds into archaeological research.
The Egyptian government has asked for the stone as part of a wide-reaching programme to return "stolen" antiquities from all over the world. Among the items it wants to retrieve are the bust of Queen Nefertiti from the Berlin Museum, the statues of Hatshepsut in the Metropolitan Museum of New York and, perhaps most controversially, the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, one of the most famous landmarks in Paris.
Dr Hawass added: "The obelisk in France is needed because the Luxor temple from which it came is left with only one. The second one should be there with it."
Last night Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, was unavailable for comment, but in the past he has described the personal significance of the stone. "I remember the first visit I made to the museum was with my father at the age of eight," he said. "I was fascinated by the Rosetta Stone. I was thrilled to be able to touch it - it was uncovered at the time - and physically connect with history."
If the stone were to be moved, it would be seen by far fewer people than is the case today: the Cairo Museum has about 2.5 million visitors a year, compared to the 5.5 million who visit the British Museum annually.
The idea that England should return such a spoil is to me a rather naive idea. Have you any idea of the implications if all of the world’s museums turned over their treasures to the country in which they originated ?
If the French soldiers had not found the large stone embedded in the ruins of a makeshift wall near the town of Rosetta (and appreciated it for the treasure it was), it may have been destroyed or lost forever.
The Rosetta Stone had been carved by order of the Egyptian priesthood in 196 B.C. The inscription praised the good works performed by the Greek king Ptolemy V, who ruled over Egypt from 205-180 B.C. The carved stone was intended to address both the native Egyptian population and the dominant minority led by the Greek king.
If Ptolemy V ruled Egypt during the period the stone was created why is it not the property of the Greek people and not the Egyptian?
I mean if you're going to be politically correct,at least be honest enough to go all the way with it.
For one with such acrimony toward the British I find it curious that you would choose to take your screen name from The Avengers.
Wow, They took the whole mount??
The bastids.
Of course - that is the Human Way.
Larry Lucido: "Tell them they can have Sharon Stone."
Good idea. Sharon wouldn't mind being uncovered and/or touched ;-)
Why doesn't everyone on the planet just make up their list of grievances all at once and get it over with? Give the UN something to do - sort them all out in neat piles, do nothing, and say "we're working on it".
Statute of limitations...
Thought Julius Caesar's Army played a role in the burning of the library. That was some seven or eight hundred years earlier. The library in Mohammed's time was a shadow of its former self.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
There is a growing consensus among historians that the Library of Alexandria likely suffered from several destructive events, but that the destruction of Alexandria's pagan temples in the late 4th century was probably the most severe and final one. The evidence for that destruction is the most definitive and secure. Caesar's invasion may well have led to the loss of some 40,000-70,000 scrolls in a warehouse adjacent to the port (as Luciano Canfora argues, they were likely copies produced by the Library intended for export), but it is unlikely to have affected the Library or Museum, given that there is ample evidence that both existed later.
Second prize being four passes to EuroDisneyland.
actually the museam has a huge collection of celtic, saxon, roman and ancient briton artifacts so i doubt they wouldnt be found lacking in display items however i went there just to see the Egyptian pieces. one thing i found interesting was the similarities between the Maya and early Egyptian artifacts. even though i consider myself fairly knowledgable about history i would be able to pick out some of them in a line up.
you associate it with babylonia because it is in that same area where the egyptian exhibit ends and the mesopotamian starts, i had to read some of the signs just to figure out which were which.
not really, it was gained through the spoils of war, blame france for the actual theft if one was so inclined to go down this insane path, while we're at it, lets give them all of our dollar bills since they depict a pyramid and thus must belong to Egypt
I say that possession is nine-tenths of the law; he who breaks the code keeps the stone; and finders-keepers, losers weepers.
I know the US wouldn't give it back (unless it was a small Cuban boy during a socialist administration)
First, the British Museum has had the Rosetta Stone for longer than we have had the Southwestern United States, which were also taken by force. Do you insist we give them back?
Second, property rights accrue to individuals, not to collectives (although sovereignty over territory, as in the case of the Southwest, is another matter). The Rosetta Stone was dug up and its ownership transferred--legally or illegally makes no difference, as Egypt would still demand it if a French soldier had purchased it for ten francs at a curio shop. For Egypt to assert property rights over it, just because it was dug out of Egyptian mud, makes as much sense as the South African government asserting ownership over half of the world's gold, just because it was dug out of South African land. If an individual owner for the Rosetta Stone can be identified, let him come forth and file a claim.
Heck, I don't care one way or the other.
It's just a rock with a bunch of scribbling carved into it, for heaven's sake.
Besides, this thread is almost as old as the rock is. How'd it get started up again, anyway?
For F#$@ sake.
Just spent way too much time reading this ancient thread. Half the people I could reply too probably dont even visit FR anymore.
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