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‘Ding Jinhao was here’ scrawled on a 3,500 year-old Egyptian relief
Image credit Kongyouwuyi/Newspoint
We’re used to reporting damage and desecration to our ancient monuments but the case of a 15 year-old Chinese pupil from Nanjing in eastern China (scene of the Rape of Nanjing by the Japanese in 1927) who scrawled ‘Ding Jinhao was here’ on a 3,500 year-old Egyptian relief in a Luxor temple is yet another indication of how vulnerable and how easily mistreated our cultural heritage can be. Young Ding Jinhao has subsequently expressed remorse for his act, committed while on holiday in Egypt, and his parents have apologised. Perhaps therefore the fact that the issue has now received such widespread coverage (90,000 hits in the Chinese social media alone) will deter others, of all ages and from all countries, from similar acts.
Ding Jinhao’s graffiti on an ancient monument pales into insignificance however when one remembers that in the still unstable regions of the Middle East (including Egypt itself) the illegal excavation and exportation of antiquities has reached epic proportions. It may be worth remembering also that less than fifty years ago, between 1966 and 1976, China’s Cultural Revolution saw countess historical relics and artefacts destroyed and cultural and religious sites, from China in the east to Tibet in the west, ransacked or totally destroyed.
Politically motivated destruction of our heritage is perhaps less common now but destruction, nonetheless, continues; motivated increasingly by the greed of national and multinational industries intent on lining the pockets of their shareholders than preserving our common heritage. It is here, on the frontline against the wanton destruction of that heritage, that a stand should and must be taken.
Divers examining a sunken statue from Heracleion. Image credit Christoph Gerigk/Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation
Richard Gray, Science Correspondent for The Telegraph, reports last month that -
For centuries it was thought to be a legend, a city of extraordinary wealth mentioned in classical texts, visited by Helen of Troy and Paris, her lover, but apparently buried under the sea. In fact, Heracleion was true, and a decade after divers began uncovering its treasures, archaeologists have produced a picture of what life was like in the city in the era of the pharaohs.
The city, also called Thonis, disappeared beneath the Mediterranean around 1,200 years ago and was found during a survey of the Egyptian shore at the beginning of the last decade. Now its life at the heart of trade routes in classical times are becoming clear, with researchers forming the view that the city was the main customs hub through which all trade from Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean entered Egypt.
They have discovered the remains of more than 64 ships buried in the thick clay and sand that now covers the sea bed. Gold coins and weights made from bronze and stone have also been found, hinting at the trade that went on. Giant 16 foot statues have been uncovered and brought to the surface while archaeologists have found hundreds of smaller statues of minor gods on the sea floor. Slabs of stone inscribed in both ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian have also been brought to the surface. Dozens of small limestone sarcophagi were also recently uncovered by divers and are believed to have once contained mummified animals, put there to appease the gods.
Full article here.
Pond in a Garden
Wall painting, dating from 1,400bce, from the Tomb of Nebamun, Luxor Egypt
Source Wikimedia Commons
Heritage Daily reports that -
A bright blue pigment used 5,000 years ago is giving modern scientists clues toward the development of new nanomaterials with potential uses in state-of-the-art medical imaging devices, remote controls for televisions, security inks and other technology. That’s the conclusion of an article on the pigment, Egyptian blue, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Tina T. Salguero and colleagues point out that Egyptian blue, regarded as humanity’s first artificial pigment, was used in paintings on tombs, statues and other objects throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Remnants have been found, for instance, on the statue of the messenger goddess Iris on the Parthenon and in the famous Pond in a Garden fresco in the tomb of Egyptian “scribe and counter of grain” Nebamun in Thebes.
Full article here.
The Great Sphinx of Giza with the Pyramid of Khufu in the background. Source Wikimedia Commons. Image credit w:es:Usuario:Barcex
Cavan Sieczkowski writing in The Huffington Post on the 13 November reports that -
Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Egyptian jihadist who claims he has links to the Taliban, has called for the “destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.”
Al-Gohary, an Islamist leader and jihadist sentenced twice under President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, urged Muslims to “destroy the idols” in Egypt — specifically the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx — during a television interview on Saturday on Egypt’s Dream TV, according to Al Arabiya News. “God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols,” he said, according to Al Arabiya News. “When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do.”
Adding, “All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues,” according to the Egypt Independent. The jihadist refers to when the Taliban blew up a pair of Buddha statues and smashed other art forms in Afghanistan in 2001, according to The Jerusalem Post. These were symbols of the country’s long Buddhist history.
Full article here. See also our earlier feature The Bamiyan Buddhas: Eleven years on…
Valley of the Kings
©
The Heritage Trust
From the British Museum’s website -
This exhibition features highlights from the British Museum’s superb collection of ancient Egyptian objects. The exhibition is the largest UK loan of Egyptian artefacts ever undertaken by the British Museum and includes wonderful examples of sculpture, jewellery, palace ornamentation, papyri and funerary objects.
This touring exhibition has been developed in a partnership between Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and the British Museum. More than 130 objects, some never before seen outside London, have been chosen by the venues to explore the myths and realities of kingship in ancient Egypt.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
14 July – 14 October 2012
Tour dates
Great North Museum: Hancock
Newcastle upon Tyne
16 July – 25 September 2011
Dorset County Museum, Dorchester
17 October 2011 – 22 January 2012
Leeds City Museum
10 February – 17 June 2012
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
7 July – 14 October 2012
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
3 November 2012 – 24 February 2013
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
15 March – 9 June 2013
Supported through the generosity of the Dorset Foundation. More here.
The Past Horizons archaeology website reports that the -
El Hibeh archaeological site on the east bank of the Nile lies in a particularly impoverished area of Egypt, three hour’s drive south of Cairo. For the past 9 months a gang has been systematically and openly looting the site while the local police seemingly turn a blind eye.
The remains at the site date from the late Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic and early Islamic periods – approximately 11th century BCE to eighth century CE. El Hibeh is of special importance because it is one of very few relatively intact town sites remaining in Egypt. It contains extensive archaeological deposits dating to the Third Intermediate Period, Egypt’s last “Dark Age” and an era particularly poorly known archaeologically.
The report contains images that some readers may find distressing. Full article here.
A team of Egyptian and Japanese scientists lifting the first of forty one limestone slabs weighing some 16 tons. Below are fragments of an ancient wooden ship belonging to Khufu – the pharaoh credited with the building of the Great Pyramid
AP Photo/Khalil Hamra
The Mainichi Daily News reports on 21 February that -
Archaeologists on Monday began restoration on a 4,500-year-old wooden boat found next to the pyramids, one of Egypt’s main tourist attractions. The boat is one of two that were buried next to the Pharaoh Khufu, spokesmen for a joint Egyptian-Japanese team of archaeologists said. The boats are believed to have been intended to carry pharaohs into the afterlife.
Last year in June, a team of scientists lifted the first of 41 limestone slabs each weighing about 16 tons to uncover the pit in which the ancient ship was buried, said Sakuji Yoshimura, professor from Japan’s Waseda University. At the time, experts said restoration would likely take about four years and that at its completion, the boat would be placed on display at the Solar Boat Museum near the pyramids, which routinely attract millions of tourists and boost one of Egypt’s most important industries. The team had initially thought the vessel would be safer left underground than exposed to pollution, but evidence showed that pollution, water and insects had invaded the boat’s chamber.
A $10 million grant from Waseda University has helped in preparing the ship’s excavation process.
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Image credit Merlin Cooper, 2005. Wikimedia Commons
Today, Saturday 26 November 2011 - the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford opens six new galleries for the collections of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan). Building on the success of the Museum’s extension, which opened in 2009, this second phase of major redevelopment redisplays the world-renowned Egyptian collections to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of mummies and coffins on display. The galleries will take visitors on a chronological journey covering more than 5000 years of human occupation of the Nile Valley.
The £5 million project has received lead support from Lord Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust, along with the Selz Foundation and other trusts, foundations and individuals. Rick Mather Architects have led the redesign and redisplay of the pre-existing Egypt galleries and the extension into the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the Museum Shop. The contractor Beard has completed the construction work in the historic building. New openings link the rooms, presenting the collections under the broad themes of Egypt at its Origins; Dynastic Egypt and Nubia; Life after Death in Ancient Egypt; The Amarna ‘Revolution’; Egypt in the Age of Empires; and Egypt meets Greece and Rome.
