[brownie]

To the victors go the spoils. There is no guaruntee that had not a french soldier found the stone, it would ever have been found. Moreover, there is no telling whether, if an egyptian had discovered the stone, its importance would have been recognized.

Moreover, someone could call just about anything his "heritage" or claim some historical "right" to something, see for instance the palestinians many "Historical" arguments for their right to Jeruselum. The American Indians heritage was certainly taken away by europeans/americans taking their land, should we return all of that land? Should every museum in the world search its collections and send each item back to its country of origin?

Frankly, I wonder whether there is any actual connection between most, if not all, of today's Egyptians and the people who inhabited the region when the pyramids were built and the Egyptian empire flourished. don't forget, those areas were conquered by Islam, who made it a practice to get rid of most locals once they counquered, thus my skepticism.

[Cronos]

Well, while I agree that the sword of Islamdid a lot of damage (as evidenced by my tag line), they didn't carry out mass genocides -- they never had the strength to do so, they just subsumed the culture. Pockets of the original culture still hung on - witness the Copts and the assyrian Christians.

The American Indian heritage claimed is land, not artifacts. The artifacts can be moved to the country of origin, handed over to the descendents. Land is a more difficult proposition to which there is no easy answer, if there is one at all