Link to full article on Heritage Key

Submitted by Sean Williams on Fri, 10/23/2009 – 21:00

Francisco Bandarin and Steve Kaufer celebrate the partnership on Thursday. Image by UNESCO
Two giants of travel and world heritage teamed up this Thursday, as UNESCO and online community site TripAdvisor launched a partnership to help save some of the world’s greatest cultural sites. The pairing will see TripAdvisor pledge an initial $1.5million (£919,000) towards UNESCO’s ambitious World Heritage Centre, from which the UN’s culture wing will observe and preserve some 890 sites on its World Heritage List. These include some of the planet’s most celebrated ancient places, such as Stonehenge, the Theban Necropolis and Chichen Itza.

Link to full article (Al Ahram Weekly)

The controversy over five 3,200-year-old ancient Egyptian tomb fragments removed from Egypt and put on display in the Louvre in Paris has finally come to a close, reports Nevine El-Aref

Following two weeks of sometimes difficult negotiations with the Louvre Museum in Paris over the fate of five ancient Egyptian tomb fragments dating back over 3,000 years, France agreed this week to hand the five painted fragments back to Egypt.

According to Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, President Hosni Mubarak received a telephone call from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which Sarkozy confirmed that the five fragments, stolen from a tomb in Luxor, would be returned to Egypt. Hosni added that the conversation had emphasised the deep cultural relations between Egypt and France and the friendship between the two presidents.

Hosni said that preparations were now underway between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Louvre and Egypt’s embassy in France in order to ensure the safe return of the fragments next week.

The controversy over five 3,200-year-old ancient Egyptian tomb fragments removed from Egypt and put on display in the Louvre in Paris has finally come to a close, reports Nevine El-Aref

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Parts of a painted scene discovered in 1980 at the tomb of a nobleman in Draa Abul-Nagaa necropolis on Luxor’s west bank

Following two weeks of sometimes difficult negotiations with the Louvre Museum in Paris over the fate of five ancient Egyptian tomb fragments dating back over 3,000 years, France agreed this week to hand the five painted fragments back to Egypt.

According to Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, President Hosni Mubarak received a telephone call from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which Sarkozy confirmed that the five fragments, stolen from a tomb in Luxor, would be returned to Egypt. Hosni added that the conversation had emphasised the deep cultural relations between Egypt and France and the friendship between the two presidents.

Hosni said that preparations were now underway between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Louvre and Egypt’s embassy in France in order to ensure the safe return of the fragments next week.

Link to full article

Revamped Neues Museum Finally Opens in Berlin

For seven decades Berlin’s Neues Museum was a derelict, bomb-scarred shell — but finally it is back, boasting a star-studded cast including the 3,400-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. German Chancellor Angela Merkel officially opens the restored museum on Friday.

It’s a day that took decades to arrive. One of the jewels of Berlin’s Museum Island complex will reopen its doors. The Neues Museum reopens on Friday, meaning that the entire ensemble of Berlin’s neoclassical galleries will be open for the first time since World War II.

Do follow the link to the full article, as there are some truly excellent photos there. Also, a hertening extra from the article:

The star of the show will be the limestone-and-stucco bust of Nefertiti, which has been in Germany since 1913. Reflecting her status in the world of art history, the beautiful object will reside alone in a dome-ceilinged room which overlooks the length of the museum.

It’s always make me smile to see Egyptian art get pride of place… biased a know, but in this case I think almost everyone would agree it’s a place rightfully occupied.

The restoration of the Neues is a major achievement, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s been executed, as much of the original structure has been preserved, complete with it’s battle scars.

As a follow up to the recent article on the restoration of the Moses Ben Maimon synagogue in Cairo, a video featuring Dr. Hawass on the SCA’s commitment to preserving Jewish monuments in Egypt. Many thanks to Prad Patel over at Heritage Key for drawing my attention to this video.

From State Information Service – Link to full article

A statue of Alexander the Great has been discovered in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, Governor Adel Labib said on Wednesday 7/10/2009.

Archeologists have suggested the statue was of Alexander the Great and it was uncovered during excavations at el-Shalalat Park in the city, he said.

The discovery was made by a Greek mission working in the city.

Not Egyptology related, but for anyone travelling in Egypt, you may want a few “heads up”:

CAIRO METRO

There has been a bout of renaming on the metro system, so some station names have been changed. Giza Suburb is now Omm el Misryeen. I think there may be a few others as well, so make sure when travelling to note of number of stops as well as the name, as some metro maps in circulation on the internet are out of date. Line 3 still isn’t open (surprise!).

CAIRO AIRPORT

Terminal 3 is now open and operating.  Virtually all EgyptAir flights are now using this terminal.

OBELISK OF SENUSRET I AT HELIOPOLIS

Is CLOSED due to the site being developed into an “open air museum”. Note that this is  actually closed instead of “Egyptian Closed”. It was meant to re-open in October, but don’t hold your breath.

LUXOR PUBLIC BUS FARES

Have gone up. It is now 35pt per person, not 25pt per trip on the East Bank. West Bank fares are, as always, something of a movable feast. 50pt remains a pain free rule of thumb for anything except very long rides (i.e. Seti Is mortuary temple).

WEST BANK BUS STATION AND VEHICLES

Has been changed. Now located immediately north, across the unfinished road, from the old station. Prior advice about heading into the village and flagging a already part-full bus on the main road out still stands. Also, a new fleet of vehicls has been introduced, so some buses are now of the East Bank minibus variety, rather than pick ups. The newer ones do look a little like the vehicles some tour companies use, so don’t let them sail by on the road thinking it’s just for people with bigger budgets than you and I.

KARNAK TEMPLE

Visitor centre is now open. Contains some models of the complex with not much explanation, and a short video in English. Has AC, but lies beyond the ticket and security check point, which is still at the 1st Pylon, and is the same as before. There’s some shops too, if you feel the need.

LUXOR MUSEUM

Does not accept Egyptian issued ISIC cards. Students, make sure to bring your own uni ID card as well! They are accepted provided they have the usual details (photo, name of your uni, your name, student number etc.) and look “legit” (i.e. produced on a proper card printer rather than stick on and laminate job)

AVENUE OF SPHINXES

Excavations are ongoing. Be aware that the excavation is being extended northward, so there are some road closures, including around the mosque previously just beyond the northern edge of the temple site. There mosque is still there, but the road has been mostly removed.  See Google Earth image below:

CLOSURES AND DEMOLITIONS

Some buildings are being cleared to make far for a widening of the Corniche, and Avenue of the Sphinxes project. However there is a lot of rumour, much of it untrue. Before taking it off internet rumour that any particular apartments or hotels are closed, call and check in person.

Apologies for delay on adding new videos. I had my laptop stolen a few weeks before the new academic year, which was not very helpful! I’ve also had no end of headaches with last minute course changes at uni, so I rally have not had time to sit down and think about it. Hopefully this weekend I will get something done.

Link to original article

Egypt has decided to suspend all archaeological cooperation with the Louvre, after the French museum refused to return fragments of a Theban Tomb. The news was confirmed today by Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department. The artefacts were excavated in a tomb near Luxor, and according to Dr. Hawass were stolen by the French. This decision endangers planned conferences at the Louvre, as well as the French team’s current excavations at Saqqara, the ‘city of the dead’. A boycott of the Louvre’s Egyptological activities also ensures no archeological expeditions sponsored by the French museum could go ahead in Egypt.

The decision to cut all ties with the Louvre, as well as its archaeological teams, was taken two months ago after the Louvre had repeatedly ignored requests for the return of four reliefs. Dr. Hawass says the reliefs were illegally taken from a tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in the 1980s.

The disputed artefacts are 5 fragments from the wall of Theban Tomb 15 (TT15), the tomb of Tetiki on the West Bank at Dra Abu’l Naga.  The tomb was photographed in 1968 and shown intact.  In the 1990’s the tomb was – like so many – lost, and thought to be destroyed by modern building. A team from the Heidelberg University rediscovered this tomb during excavations at Dra Abu El-Naga in 2001, but the fragments were missing.

Update from ABC News -

…Subject to a decision by France’s national museum scientific committee, Mr Mitterrand said he was ready to order the frescoes be handed back.

Under the UNESCO convention of 1970, member countries agreed measures to prevent the illegal export of national treasures.

Mr Mitterrand [French Cultural Minister] said the five Egyptian pieces had been acquired in good faith by the Louvre and it was only in 2008, after the discovery of the tomb from which the murals apparently came, that serious doubts were raised about their provenance….

It would seem that all is set to end well, but does this set a precedent of “gunboat diplomacy” with regards to antiquities? And where is the line drawn? Dr. Zahi Hawass, has repeatedly said that it is only ilegally aquired anqituities that should be returned to Egypt, and so, one assumes, where methods like this would be used.

However, Dr. Hawass has repeatedly referred to a desire to see the Rosetta Stone and Bust of Nefertiti returned to Egypt, despite both peices being regarded as legally removed by the UNESCO Convention of 1983.  Will “gunboat diplomacy” be used to secure these peices? If it is, then the implications for both foreign archaeologial research in Egypt, and the status of all Ancient Egyptian collections in foreign museums could be far reaching.

Foreign museums will be loathed to surrender peices that they hold, in their and UNESCOs eyes, perfectly legally, and may have done so for the better part of 200 years. Yet, threatened with their ongoing work in Egypt being wiped out, they face a “Catch 22″ situation that may end up causing more harm than good.

In addition, the history of these artefacts is often entwined with the history of more than just Egypt. The Rosetta stone, for example, from the point of view of Ancient Egyptian history, is of relatively minor importance compared to it’s unique and hugely symbolic importance to modern Egyptology, which is essentially an international discipline centred as much around Paris, London, and any number of cities from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, as well as Cairo.

Euston, we have a problem…

From the Egypt State Information Service (FULL ARTICLE)

The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities on Thursday 20/8/2009 unveiled restoration work under way at one of Egypt’s most famous synagogues, a project he denied was meant to assuage Jewish anger at the country’s culture minister.

The Egyptian government has rallied around Culture Minister Farouk Honsni, but Zahi Hawwas, the head of the Council said the decision to restore the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue in Cairo had nothing to do with Hosni’s candidacy.

“I believe these rumors were started to harm Hosni’s bid to become the next director general of the UNESCO,” said Hawwas. “The Jewish monuments are Egyptian monuments … they are part of us and part of our culture”, he said

He added that the Ministry spends L.E. 700m annually on the restoration and development of archaeological sites, especially the ones which were damaged after the earthquake of October 1992.

This seems to be part of a trend I’ve noticed over the last 18 months or so, highlighting SCA work on post – Pharaonic sites, such as the Rosetta Museum (highlighting the Ottoman heritage in the city), the rebuild of the Abu Haggag mosque in Luxor and the long term Islamic Cairo projects, the last of which was first mooted back in the early 2000’s, but has only recently really begun to make an widely publicised impact.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, and whether this will mean a long term broadening of the SCA’s focus, and the implications of that for Pharaonic era monuments and artifacts.