Friday March 29th, 2024
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11 Ancient Egyptian Monuments and Artefacts that We Want Back

It's been a few thousand years, and we think it's time they give them back,

Staff Writer

Ancient Egypt was one of the most advanced civilizations of its time. From papyrus to the Pyramids, the Ancient Egyptians gave us hundreds of thousands of advancements in mathematics, medicine, architecture and agriculture. Their legacy will live on way past our lifetimes, and hopefully those of generations to come. We should be living in a country with Hieroglyphics on every corner, but a few people wanted to share the wealth (literally) and hand out some of these treasures as gifts to foreign emissaries and leaders. While some were stolen by foreign expeditions or grave robbers.

Some of those goodies have turned up in museums and private collections around the world; like the valuable capstones made of gold or diamond that sat atop the great Pyramids of Giza. Now there isn't much we can do about the monuments and artefacts hidden in private collections, but many of the largest museums have the gall to exhibit some of the most monumental Artefacts from Ancient Egyptian history in plain view. They refuse to return them to their rightful owners because it would "deprive millions of visitors of the chance to see them," according to the British Museum.

Well, here are a few that we want back and which country borrowed them.

Box of Amenhotep II

Currently situated at the National Museum of Scotland, this box bears the name of the Pharaoh Amenhotep II - not Imhotep - and is one of the finest pieces of woodwork to come out of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Zodiac Writing

Even the Ancient Egyptians loved to take glimpses into the future using zodiac signs, as seen on this massive paintin. It somehow chipped off a wall in the Dendera Temple, and is currently decorating the walls of the Louvre.

 

Bust of Anchhaf

This dude built the pyramid of Chephren and is now on extended (and forced) vacation at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, instead of gazing out the windows of the Grand Egyptian Museum and looking at his massive creation.

The Rosetta Stone

Currently sitting at the British Museum and found in the town of Rashid in 1799, the British were not even the original discoverers of the tablet, but stole it from the French. So it's theirs now' because that's how this works.

Cleopatra's needles: 

These obelisks show the only some of the many marvels of human engineering. Not just in their construction a few thousand years ago, but also transporting them from their original locations of Luxor and Heliopolis to London, Paris and New York City, and plopping them down as if they were always there.

The statute of Hemiunu

The nephew and Vizier of Pharaoh Khufu - builder of the Great pyramid - is currently living in Germany's Roemer-Pelizaeu museum, it looks like he was pretty well fed.

3,000-year-old bust of Nefertiti

This old and very life-like bust of Nefertiti is currently housed at Berlin's Egyptian Museum, and the reason for not returning it was "it's too fragile to transport". W wonder what they're implying.

 

Qurna Burial

 The Qurna burial is thought to be the only intact royal burial group on display outside Egypt. Found in 1908, it is believed to be from approximately 1580 BC, and it's pimp AF.

 Temple of Dendur

This Temple - yes a whole temple - is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. That's right, they actually picked up the temple and took it to the USA. America.

Oldest Medical Papyrus Text

The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus dates back to 1800 BCE, and is located in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. It is perhaps the oldest medical text in the known world.

Moscow Mathematical Papyrus:

Approximately 3,000 years old and one of the oldest pieces of written mathematics, this scroll was purchased in Thebes in the year 1892 by Egyptologist Vladamir Golenishev.

So you've seen only a few of the  grandest Ancient Egyptian monuments and artefacts that abroad - just a few - and to put that into perspective; many of these museums only exhibit a handful of their artefacts while keeping thousands in storage, which were also stolen or given to them Illegally by the Khedive. While Egypt does still possess hundreds of thousands of monuments - enough to fill the new Grand Egyptian Museum apparently - there are still so many historical legacies that Egyptians are denied access to. Even though their ancestors slaved and laboured to create these beauts' that no one expected to last thousands of years.

If Egypt possessed the Royal Crown jewels, maybe a few of Napoleons favourite possesions, and say, the declaration of Independence, I'm sure the Brits, French and Americans would be up in arms and wouldn't tolerate someone else possessing a few beloved pieces of their history.

Main Image from Rosettastone.org