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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999 Issue No. 440 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999 Issue No. 440
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters The Rosetta storm
By Nevine El-ArefIn an unprecedented action, Britain is celebrating the bicentenary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the key to the unravelling of the hieroglyphics.
"This celebration sheds light on the most important event of the second millennium," said Graham Green, the director of the British museum. He said that this festival aims to "rediscover" the Rosetta Stone and underline its importance to humanity by exhibiting it alone in a special display at the British Museum in London. This exhibition will last until January 2000.
However, what started off as a goodwill gesture in England has not been received that way here. Egypt's antiquities officials are boycotting the London festivities marking the 200th anniversary of the discovery as long as the stone remains in British hands.
"I declined an invitation to take part in the bicentenary," said Gaballa Ali Gaballa, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). "We cannot celebrate the bicentenary of something we do not have."
Mohamed El-Saghir, head of the pharaonic department in the SCA, said, "Our treasure was stolen. What are we going to celebrate? Its absence?" The only celebration that would take place, he said, would be when the stone is returned to Egypt.
"But it would be difficult to recover it (the Rosetta Stone) using the courts since UNESCO agreements on recovering antiquities grant the right to recover only items stolen after 1971," explained El-Saghir. He said that the recovery of the Rosetta Stone would depend on a gentleman's agreement between Britain and Egypt.
"We cannot celebrate the bicentenary of the Rosetta Stone's discovery, because it reminds us of the French and the British occupations of Egypt," said Zahi Hawass, director-general of the Giza plateau. "Shall we celebrate the bicentenary of both occupations?
"I am not against displaying Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt, but the fact that it has been illegally taken out of its mother country makes me oppose the festivities."
Hawass believes that the British abused their colonisation of Egypt by taking the stone out of the country.
"The discovery of the Rosetta Stone is not an important event to celebrate. But the deciphering of its symbols is the main issue which must be marked in a big festival in 2022 (the year marking the deciphering of the stone)," Hawass said. "I am supporting Gaballa's refusal to participate in the British festivities."
The Rosetta Stone was discovered in the northern Egyptian village of Rosetta in July 1799 by French Captain Pierre Bouchard during Napoleon's expedition to Egypt.
The Rosetta Stone in its new display in the British Museum
The basalt rock, on display at the British museum since Britain colonised Egypt in the 19th century, allowed Frenchman Jean-François Champollion to decipher the ancient form of writing known as the hieroglyphics. It contained a 190 BC decree from ruler Ptolemy V written in hieroglyphics, ancient Greek and demotic languages.
Nowadays, it seems that the British are obsessed with ancient Egyptian artefacts. A month ago two new exhibitions opened within the British Museum containing Egyptian funerary collections of mummies, coffins, statuettes, amulets and "books of the dead". The new collections display 3000 years of burial practices.
The exhibitions use models, toys and figurines to give a better idea of how people lived during those times. More than 80,000 objects are on display.
Amongst the wide range of materials on display are animal mummies, canopic jars, funerary statues, gilded coffins, amulets, papyri and tombs fittings. Some of these have never before been publicly displayed before.
The last major reorganisation of the museum's mummies was in 1898 and not much has been done since then. They first entered the museum in 1656, three years after it was founded. But it was only recently that they have been closely examined.
The mummies were recently sent to London hospitals to be inspected. X-rays were used to produce images of their bodies without disturbing the wrappings.
Some of the most beautiful objects on display are three gold mummy cases, all for a woman known as Henutmerhyt (1250 BC). "We do not have her mummy but we do have her lungs in a jackal-headed canopic jar which showed that she had emphysema," museum director Green said.
These new galleries are named after Roxie Walker, an American anthropologist and philanthropist who worked in Peru and Egypt and lived in Switzerland.
Not to miss out on the Rosetta Stone festivities, France -- the homeland of Champollion -- is also marking the bicentenary. Figak, the city where Champollion was born, is celebrating the anniversary of the stone's discovery by inaugurating an exhibition for French scientists who came to Egypt in 1798.
The exhibition includes the private collections of the scientists, their instruments and their studies. Nubian dancers and a fashion show displaying the traditional dress from Rosetta and Damanhur was also held at the start of the Figak celebrations.
