This is hardly up to date news, it did in fact hit the pages of The Times  back in June (link), however I havn’t had a chance to comment on this until now. However, I feel it warrents a mention.

The empty sarcophagus of Menkaura, a Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, was found inside the burial chamber of his Giza pyramid by Richard Vyse, who had  ”excavated” the pyramid using gunpowder. In a true testament to Menkaura’s engineers and architects, this didn’t bring the entire structure down on top of either Vyse or the sarcophagus.  He also found shards of a wooden coffin, inscribed with Menkaura’s name, and a skeleton wrapped in cloth. The coffin turned out, interestingly, to be from the 26th Dynasty, whilst it’s inhabitant was from the Coptic Period. The Pharaohs of the 26th Dyansty had, it seemed, piously re-consecrated the pyramid, having found it robbed, as was common at the time, the 26th Dyn. being the height of the Archaic Revival mentioned in my last post on the Late Period tomb of Harwa.

Vyse claimed that the basalt resting place of  Menkaura would be endangered if it were to be left in place, and decided to ship it back to the British Museum in London, along with the coffin shards and remains.  All did not go to plan, however. The sarcophagus was loaded onto one ship, the Beartrice, along with some other artifacts Vyse had found, whilst the coffin and remains were placed upon another vessel. The Beartrice departed Egypt, and stopped in at Malta, where she departed, ominously enough, on October 13th 1838.

Exactly what happened next is unclear, but the Beartrice was lost, and sank somewhere off the Spanish Mediterranean coast, never making it as far as Gibraltar.  It is speculated that the wreck lies around the south eastern coats of Spain, around Cartagena. And now, Dr. Zahwi Hawass wishes to recover the sarcophagus, and has enlisted Robert Ballard, who located the wreck of the Titanic with help of the US Navy (they were using the mission to search for two lost 1960’s nuclear submarines) to help him.

Many have said that the project is next to impossible, as the exact location of the Beartrice is not known. However, in comparison to the project to locate the Titanic, conditions are in fact much easier, from a marine point of view. Firstly, the area is in fact, fairly confined. If we are to go with the fairly well founded assumption that the best chance for finding the vessel is along the coast of Cartagena, then the actual area of seabed to be searched is not huge compared to the North Atlantic. Secondly, conditions are infinitely better. The sea bed in this area is much shallower. The Titanic lies at some 3,800 metres, and more than 600km from the nearest land, in an area of frequent violent storms. The Mediterranean, by contrast, is an enclosed, almost tideless, sea, with much more moderate weather conditions. The area in question is close to land, as indeed, almost every single point in the Mediterranean is. The difficulties with this project are not technical.

The difficulty is legal, and, of course, political. Egyptian antiquities, on a British vessel, that (it is believed) sank in Spanish waters. In addition, Dr. Hawass announced this project before an agreement with the Spanish authorities has been reached, and I have been unable to find any actual acceptance of the request for his assistance, or confirmation, by Robert Ballard.  Dr. Hawass has stated that he is hoping for co-operation with the Spanish authorities, citing the positive publicity this would bring for all parties (in association with National Geographic, one assumes, especially given the involvement of Ballard) and has also stated that whilst the sarcophagus would return to Egypt, any other Egyptian antiquities found with the wreckage would remain with the Spanish.  This is a pragmatic move, and is more likely to lead to Spanish co-operation. However I cannot help but think this a rather risky offer to make, as well as somewhat contradictory in light of the wish, often expressed by the SCA, to return Egyptian antiquities to Egypt. It is risky, because we do not know for certain what other artifacts were on board the Beatrice when she went down. There may be some unique or extremely valuable items amongst the wreckage, and should this be the case (rather than “less valuable” or lower profile items, which is expected) then I cannot help but fear that many in Egypt will be eating their hats, as it were, in frustration.  It will inevitably lead to arguments…

So, what is to be done? Personally, I see no reason why this project shouldn’t go ahead. I feel the technical issues, whilst expensive to tackle, are far from insurmountable. Politically and legally, a genuine and out of the limelight dialogue between the Egyptian, Spanish and British authorities could easily be stepped up, with no side issuing unilateral statements to the awaiting media.  Menkaura’s sarcophagus could, and should, be brought home. There is a strong argument for this, but it is not one that should be fought through the media. Meanwhile, deciding on who gets the other “spoils” before they are even seen is, I fear, only going to lead to further problems down the road, as well as conjuring up unseemly images of vultures fighting over a carcass.