Should the Rosetta Stone return to Egypt? The answer you give to this question demonstrates your feelings on “repatriation” or the return of objects to their countries of origin. This post will discuss some of the issues surrounding repatriation.
One thing I think is clear is that every situation deserves a separate approach and a separate solution. Not every country on earth is asking for “their” objects back. Those that are, need to be evaluated each on its own merit. Sticking with Egyptology, the approach to the Rosetta Stone (which was used as a stone in the wall of a fort for defense by the Egyptian army, “rescued” by the French, and “taken” as a spoil of war by the British) is not the same approach that will be used for “Cleopatra’s Needle” (“given” as a gift from the local government to the English).
The first question to answer is who do these ancient objects “belong” to? None of the people who used or made them are still alive. Direct descendants (for the Egyptian artifacts) can never be proven, so family possession cannot be determined for private objects. The religion that “owned” the objects from temples was long ago renounced as “pagan” by the local Egyptian populace (Muslim and Christian alike). Does general ethnic decent qualify for “ownership” over the ancient (and largely ignored – until the coming and interest of foreigners)?
Today, the Egyptian government is doing fantastic work (compared with past efforts – or lack thereof) with care, maintenance, and reconstruction of monuments for the purpose of encouraging tourism. I do believe that there are genuine scholars with authentic scholarly motivations among the Egyptian Egyptologists. And I have no problem at all with the use of “tourism” to appropriate money from the government for the care of these objects. Indeed, I, myself, have given permission to the official advertising agency (JWT in Cairo) to use photos I have taken in Egypt for their project for the ETA (Egyptian Tourism Authority). (Those of you in London may have seen the fantastic advertisements in the Tube stations or on the sides of buses here in the city.) I think it is past time for archaeologists to “milk” the tourist industry instead of fighting it, to raise money to do our work (but this is another topic).
The next question is in regards to human remains. How old does something have to be to deserve “privacy”? In the Museum of London, a Roman skeleton has been hidden by closing the coffin out of respect for the dead, while a prehistoric skeleton is still boldly on display. Should the mummies in the Cairo museum be returned to their tombs?
These sorts of questions are hard to answer. Respect for the dead is one angle. But what about safety? Mummies didn’t fare well in their tombs and were only safe when put in the Cairo museum. King “Tut” has been returned to his tomb, but questions arise as to the preservation of his mummy in the moist tomb conditions there (because of visitors). So should the tombs be closed then? That would kill tourism. What about scientific studies that need to be conducted? I believe the Egyptian Antiquities Department has put forth the right attitude in this regard – showing the utmost respect for the dead, limiting exposure time when being studied, and heavily screening the studies that will be allowed.
How about the mummies that are in other countries? Should they be returned to Egypt because they are people? Should they be treated any differently then objects? No one “owns” people. But should these “people” (ie mummies) be allowed to rest in a museum in the country they died in or in a museum in another country? Care, respect, and preservation being equal, does it really matter which museum in the world houses them if they are not to be put back in the tombs?
As for the tourist angle, isn’t it better for countries such as Egypt to have objects in other countries to help promote tourism? If everything was in Egypt, would that force people to go there? Or would people just forget about Egypt? (Maybe not with Egypt but other, less “famous”/“popular” countries maybe…)
How about safety? If all the “eggs” (so to speak) are in one basket, doesn’t that put them more at risk from terrorist attack, natural disaster, or just common error?
And we come back again to the original question. Whose heritage is it really? None of the ancient civilizations still exist today. Modern countries can lay claim to the ancient civilizations that lay within their current borders but not to those without. Egypt (at one time) held claim to all the territory up to the Euphrates and down deep into the modern Sudan. What about the “Egyptian” artifacts that are found in Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Jordan? Do these belong to Egypt because the ancient civilization “owned” them? Rome conquered much of the Mediterranean world. Does this mean that all Roman artifacts found in Greece, England, Egypt, belong to Italy? Is Egypt going to export all of the Greek period artifacts to Greece, the Persian period artifacts to Iran, and the Roman to Italy? Who owns the past?
I believe that “wrongs” should be “righted”. But I am not one who is easily swept away by emotion. If something was legitimately stolen from one country, it should be returned. But there has to be proof of ownership at the time it was taken for me to believe that a wrong was committed. Do late-19th century Egyptian tomb “robbers” who sold their discoveries to interested “others” count as having “owned” the artifacts they discovered? Did the establishment of an Antiquity Department in the Egypt government count as “ownership” over the objects yet undiscovered? If so, what about the objects the Antiquities Department of Egypt gave to the foreign excavators and governments? Was that a “wrong”? Does that count as “stolen”?
These issues are much deeper than at first they might appear. The answer to Repatriation is not a simple one. However, the complexity of the answer makes it a worthy one to consider. Whichever side you find yourself on, I hope you know why you are on it – and I hope it took you some time and thinking to arrive at it.
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