Tag: Louvre

How Many Ancient Artefacts Are on Display at the British Museum?

How many ancient artefacts are on show at the British Museum? Sounds like an easy question: after all, surely it’s just a case of finding the right person and writing down a figure, right? I mean, the British Museum is the second most visited museum on the planet behind the Louvre, and well over half the Louvre’s collection is non-ancient (for an explanation of what ‘ancient’ actually is check out Jon’s blog here) – someone must know how much stuff is on show. For the short story, the numbers and how I came to my conclusions click here. If not read on and suffer with me.

First port of call: the museum’s press office, who could only tell me the museum holds a total of around 6,000,000 artefacts. Around? It’s not a great omen if the press office doesn’t even know its own total collection, let alone how much of that has made it from storage into display cases. I was whisked off to another department:”We have around six million items in total, sir, but I’m not sure of the number on display – maybe one of our guidebooks has what you’re after.”

Sounds like an easy question, right? Wrong.

No other web source had the answer, unsurprisingly, so it was off to the BM itself, on a balmy summer’s afternoon, to find out for myself just what its magic number was. My first port of call was the information desk. By definition that was where I should be looking, right? Again, no. I had a very nice flick through some of the museum’s guidebooks, and a perfectly pleasant conversation, but no number. So armed with nothing but a phone, notepad and a C in GCSE Maths I set off in search of the British Museum’s magic number (see the British Museum’s top ten treaures here).

I quick foray into the Egyptian Gallery later I’d noted 160 Egyptian artefacts, alongside 100 Near Eastern pieces (I counted the Assyrian Lion Hunt as one item). There were even fewer in the nearby Greek marbles room – just thirty with the controversial Elgin Marbles counted as one. But these were three of what I’ve cleverly dubbed the BM’s ‘big’ rooms, the showcase bits with the headline treasures like the aforementioned marbles and the Rosetta Stone. On my reckoning there are eight of these, counting the famously beautiful stair wells.

That leaves another 87 rooms unaccounted for 85 when you consider that two of the rooms, ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Life and Death’ are non-ancient. So I headed up to some of the ‘small’ rooms to see what they would add to the number. ‘Greeks in Italy’: 740 (roughly, mind I couldn’t count each and every item individually). ‘Cyprus’: 400; ‘Tomb of Nebamun’: 100 and the upstairs Egyptian galleries a whopping 1,500 between the four of them. Based on that information, and by checking how large or small the rooms are, I finally found my (rough) answer: 43,000.

How did I get 43,000? I flattened out each ‘big’ room’s items at 100, and multiplied by six. I then added this figure to that of the smaller rooms, which I averaged at 500 items per room. I then rounded down ever-so-slightly, though I think this number is fairly accurate. Even if I’m a fair distance out my number betrays a massive discrepancy between the museum’s six million artefacts in total and what’s on show: less than one per cent. I think we’d all like to explore the British Museum’s vast archives, but judging by this you’d be dead before you made it halfway.

Heritage Key is completing a list of the world’s greatest museums, taking in visitor numbers, collections and great treasures. We’ll also have an amazing map of the top museums for you to enjoy!

Could Djedefre’s Pyramid be a Solar Temple? Not According to New Research by Baud

Dr Michel Baud of the Louvre Museum in Paris gave an interesting lecture last week about his excavations of a pyramid at Abu Roash. The monument was badly preserved and its stone had been quarried in Roman times, but the certain details, such as its apparent solar connections, were still discernable. Earlier, Vassil Dobrev stated that the pyramid may actually be a solar temple. However, Baud dismisses these claims….

Nearly 4,500 years ago, in the time of the Old Kingdom, the pharaoh Khufu built one of the greatest monuments on earth – the Great Pyramid. His pyramid was actually a complex of monuments at Giza. Using up 2.7 million cubic meters of stone, it incorporated three queens pyramids, a satellite pyramid and hundreds of mastaba tombs for his officials. At a height of nearly 147 meters it was the tallest human-made monument in the world up until the construction of the Lincoln Cathedral in the 14th century AD.

So what did Khufus successor do? The person who succeeded him as pharaoh would have had a tough act to follow. We know that the person who succeeded him as pharaoh was a man called Djedefre (also spelled Radjedef). He was Khufus son and, like his father, would have had access to the vast resources of the Egyptian state.

His reign is estimated at 11 years and in that time we know that he built a pyramid complex at a place called Abu Roash. Sadly it has not stood the passage of time very well. During the Roman period (ca. 2000 years ago) the pyramid was quarried for its stone and, as such, there is little left standing today. The 20th century has also not been kind to this monument during the last century it was used as a military camp and its proximity to Cairo exposed it to modern development.

In recent years a Franco-Swiss expedition has been analyzing the remains of this pyramid and its nearby buildings. They have been at it since the 1990s and in that time have made quite a number of findings. One of the team members, Dr. Michel Baud, a curator at the Louvre Museum, gave a lecture at the Royal Ontario Museum last Thursday to discuss the latest research. I was at the talk and Dr. Baud granted an interview afterwards. He also generously released some photos of the site.

The Pyramid of Djedefre

At 103 meters in length, Djedefres pyramid at Abu Roash was a formidable monument, but nowhere near the size of Khufus. It was almost exactly the size of Menkaures, said Dr. Baud, referring to the smallest of the three pyramids on the Giza plateau.

Baud emphasized that there was nothing unusual in Djedefre choosing a site different from his father, Khufu.

The strange thing, I should say, is not Djedefres (pyramid), said Dr. Baud. The strange thing is definitely Khafre who chose to be buried very close to his father starting a sort of dynasty necropolis.

In fact, Baud said, contrary to popular belief, the pyramid of Djedefre is not an unusual structure at all. Excavation revealed that its a normal monument, he said.

The slope of the pyramid would have been between 50 and 52 degrees, an angle which is just about the same as the pyramid of Khufu. It also had a mortuary temple, boat pit, satellite pyramid, inner and outer enclosure walls. It also has a descending passageway that takes people down into the funerary chamber.

Unfinished Pyramid

The pyramids layout does contain two anomalies. The pyramids causeway, which would have connected the pyramid complex to a valley temple, trails off to the north rather than going south. There is probably a topographic reason for why it goes north, said Baud.

“We can say that in the reign of Djedefre there are strong solar connections”

The second anomaly, and the one tougher to explain, is the presence of what seems to be dwellings for priests beside the pyramid, along with storage areas. Usually this is something you expect in the valley temples, said Baud. Everything is on the plateau, it is quite strange.

Another misconception about this pyramid, that Baud tried to debunk, is that it was nowhere near completed when Djedefre died. There are such huge piles of granite that it of course means that this monument was at least half finished and probably more, said Baud.

The team also found solid evidence that construction of the pyramid began as soon as Djedefre became pharaoh. We also found in this descending cooridor the painted mark of the first year of Djedefre, said Baud.

Finally, as has been reported in the past, Abu Roashs natural elevation is higher than Gizas. This means that, although Djedefres pyramid is smaller the Khufus, topographically it is almost the same height. With lesser means he had the same level in the sky, said Baud.

Solar Temple, or Just a Solar Connection?

There is solid evidence that this pyramid had solar ties to it, said Baud. “We found a huge number of statue fragments all in quartzite, he said. We know in Egyptian beliefs this stone was associated with the sun.

Baud explained that purple is a colour associated with the rising sun and there is also some yellow on the fragments. This is probably why we can say that in the reign of Djedefre there are strong solar connections, he said.

Baud started reconstruction work of the statue remains in the 1990s and it is being carried on today by an Egyptologist in Belarus. There are about 1,100 fragments – its a complete nightmare”, he admitted.

This idea, that the pyramid has strong solar ties, has spurned one Egyptologist to suggest this monument was actually a sort of sun temple. Vassil Dobrev, of the French Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, made the suggestion in an interview with Newsweek two years back. Its not even a pyramid,Dobrev toldthe publication.

I asked Dr. Baud about Dobrev’s claims. He said that sun temples are known monuments… there is nothing like it at Abu Roash.

He added that, its a special funerary complex with solar connection but (to) go as far as to say it is a solar temple is something I cannot accept.

The Royal Cemetery

Royal cemeteries are features that were commonly built near pyramids.

Ancient Egypt was a complex state and the pharaoh was served by numerous officials and courtiers. The offspring of the pharaoh also wanted to be buried near their fathers pyramid. Royal cemeteries, built close to pyramids, accommodated these people through mastaba tombs. Giza has hundreds of them.

Baud believes that his team has identified the royal cemetery used for Djedefres pyramid. It contains roughly 50 mastaba tombs and is located about 1.5 km east of the pyramid itself. Compared to the royal cemeteries at Giza this is a very small site.

Its nothing, Baud said when asked to compare this cemetery to Giza. Its a little Giza – but a very, very little Giza.

Giza Versus Abu Roash

The cemetery at Abu Roash was layed out in a disorganized fashion a throwback to the way royal cemeteries were set-up at pyramids before Khufu. This stands in contrast to Khufus cemetery which showed extreme order.

Dr. Baud also pointed out another discrepancy between the Khufu and Djedefre. There is something strange, by the way, with Khufus necropolis, he said. He built more mastabas than were needed, adding that some of them are unoccupied.

What we can see at Abu Roash is the opposite, clearly there are fewer mastabas but they are for somebody. Dr. Baud suggested that perhaps Khufus mastaba building project was pre-calculated, in some way.

Exploring the cemetery

The Abu Roash cemetery was excavated by an assortment of archaeologists in the early 20th century. Baud, in his efforts to study it, ran into two problems. The situation is really complex because we have a destroyed site first, then we have people who excavated there and left no records.

He showed the audience a picture of the tombs, it looks more like a battlefield of the First World War in France than anything else, he said.

Bauds aim is to prove beyond doubt that this was a royal cemetery connected with the Djedefre pyramid.

He made a trip to the basement of the French Archaeological Institute where he found poorly recorded remains from the early 20th century digs. Some were defined as Old Kingdom site question mark. There were hundreds of boxes full of artefacts and architectural remains.

Not all the artefacts from Abu Roash are in the basement, some are in the Louvre or in other museums. Baud also went through photographic archives, including some stereoscopic photographs.

One inscription he studied refers to a man named Nykau-Radjedef. He appears to have been a son of Djedefre. The inscription reads.

The sole friend of his father, director of the ah-palace

A bit of caution has to be added to this interpretation since the title of kings son could be given as a reward to a high official. However, there are a number of kings sons at this cemetery, enough that it seem difficult to imagine this not being a royal cemetery. Also the title, director of the ah-palace, was not given at this time to (just) anybody, said Baud, suggesting that this person was Djedefres biological son.

Another clue that Baud found in the basement was a fragment from an alabaster offering table dedicated to a person named Hornit who is identified as the kings eldest son. Again another caveat needs to be thrown in. The title of eldest doesnt necessarily mean that he is the kings oldest biological son. Eldest can also be a title given to someone to signify their importance, still, because hes a member of the group of the eldest, hes someone very important, said Baud. The alabaster fragment was found in a mastaba (F13) that is about50 meters long, one of the biggest at Abu Roash. A tomb fit for a royal prince.

Another Mastaba, F37, also belonged to an unnamed king’s son. It to is a prominent monument, about 50 meters long,on the southern end of Abu Roash. it was excavated by Charles Kuentz in the early 20th century.

The Franco-Swiss team also did some digging, exploringMastaba F48. It occupies one of the highest places in the cemetery. This mastaba, although largely destroyed, yielded the remains of a chapel. It belonged to a director of the personnel in phyl,” and a picture of the tombs unnamed owner was found there. Dr. Baud released a photo of the find which is shown beside this article.

Massive Third Church Discovered at Bawit Depicts Local Hermit Saint Apollo

A large new church, monastic burials and a vaulted room filled with Coptic wall paintings – new excavation work at the Monastery of Saint Apollo at Bawit is yielding a wealth of remarkable finds. One of the team members, Dr. Ramez Boutros of the University of Toronto, discussed some of the finds at a recent lecture and Heritage Key followed up with an interview.

The Monastery of Saint Apollo was founded by the saint around 385-390 AD. Its slightly north to the site of Asyut, which can be seen on the map below.

Saint Apollo was a hermit of sorts who lived out in the desert. Dr. Boutros told me that fourth century Palestinian monks record that they met with him and that he was already surrounded by a few disciples. Two companions were particularly close to him – Phib and Anoup.

He was so spiritual that he was called the friend of the angels speaking and dialoguing with angels, said Dr. Boutros.

The Vitae Patrum, a compilation of early Christian writings published in 1628, records one piece by an unknown author:

In the deserts there we saw a man called Apollo who had a monastery in the mountains. He was the father of about five hundred monks, and was very well known and admired throughout the Thebaid. He did great things, the Lord endowed him with many powers and many signs and wonders were done through him. From boyhood he had used a strict discipline and he grew in grace with age. When he was eighty he had gathered a great monastery of flawless men, who were all capable of performing signs. – From a translation by Rev. Benedict Baker.

The North and South Churches of Bawit

The monastery flourished until the 8th/9th century AD and then declined. Boutros said that the new excavations show no sign of vandalism or destruction of the monastery. Instead it appears to have become abandoned over time.

Between 1901 and 1913 the monastery was excavated by archaeologists from the French Institute in Cairo. They unearthed two churches called the ‘south church’ and the ‘north church’.

The Louvre has a 3D reconstruction of the south church. It was in use during the 7th century AD and was 15 meters by 11.5 meters in size. The church was made up of a sanctuary and nave. It was separated from the other areas by corridors decorated with wood and limestone sculptures. You can also see many of the treasures that were discovered in the early 20th century in the Bawit Room at The Louvre.

The north church is longer and also appears to have been divided in two. A wooden screen ran through the middle of the church. Although partially excavated in the early 20th century, theexcavation notes were never fully published and The Louvre is now trying to finish unearthing the structure. It appears that this church is a bit younger then the south church, perhaps dating to the 8th century AD.

Professor Anne Marie Luijendijk, of Princeton University, wrote in a recent article in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review that:
The monastic complex (as a whole) featured at least two churches, dining halls, monastic cells including special cells for children, a bakery, oil and wine presses, and almost 100 acres of landholdings. Library, scriptorium, or school have not been identified, although they would have formed part of a big monastery.

A New Church with Burials

The biggest news is that archaeologists have discovered a third church at Bawit. It was found using geomagnetic equipment and archaeologists are now digging into it. It is located to the south of the two previously-discovered churches. Few architectural details are available but archaeologists know that itis a big structure, more than double the size of the south church shown in the 3D reconstruction.

Dr. Boutros said that the church has an early date, meaning before the Islamic conquest of Egypt in AD 641. He says that he cannot be more specific than that at this time.

Underneath the floor of the church the archaeological team found burials. So far the team has found less than a dozen of them. They were monks from the time of the monastery, probably, said Boutros.

When the burials were discovered the team had to stop digging because they did not have a physical anthropologist on hand who could properly analyze the bodies.

A tantalizing possibility, which I asked about, is whether any of these burials could be that of Phib, Anoup or even Saint Apollo himself. Boutros said that the team would not be able to prove this unless an inscription, giving the names of the people buried, is found.

There are of course stories about Saints whose remainsdont decompose in a normal way and stay preserved over long periods of time. Until physical anthropological work is done the excavators are not going to know if any of the bodies exhibit anything like that.

A Hermitage and a Vaulted Room

Excavations in the area near the north church have unearthed a hermitage. It dates to the first quarter of the 7th century AD. Dr. Boutros said that its big enough for an elder and two or three monks. They discovered lots of pottery and a wooden codex holder, something that a book could be put on. They found the codex holder in the kitchen of all places.

“It must have been really very beautiful”

In the northern area the archaeologists also found a collapsed Nubian vault. Its a type of architectural style that uses reclining arches to create a vaulted structure. This particular vault was built with mud brick and was covered with wall paintings. It collapsed in ancient times, possibly because of its design.

The vault is five meters by 25 meters in size. Its a huge one, Dr. Boutros said, explaingin that the vault had a very wide span for a Nubian vault, he said. This is a design decision which would have led to a lot of stresses.

The Art

When I asked Dr. Boutros where the team discovered art, he responded with one word everywhere.

It must have been really very beautiful, he added.

Not only because of this world of monastic visions and colors, because of the architecture. The vaults and domes were all plastered in white.

The archaeologists cannot release pictures of the new finds until they are published in a scholarly format.

Dr. Boutros explained that on one wall there would be a depiction of the Life of Mary, the theme of Joseph, the trip to Bethlehem, the nativity, the shepherds and the kings, the Wisemen, the Virgin Mary sitting on the throne”.

The other wall will have bench, Apollo sitting with Anoup and Phib – they were often represented on wall paintings in the rooms.

Opposite to the wall of the life of Mary – you will have the prophets of the Old Testament all carrying scrolls, with the text related to the prophecies about Mary from the Bible.

There were also depictions of local saints. Some of the scenes were painted by monks, but others may have been created by professional artists.

Its a testament to Saint Apollos life that depictions of him, along with Anoup and Phib, were drawn throughout the life of monastery. They were often represented on the wall paintings in the rooms, said Dr. Boutros. They were venerated, they were really the Saints, the founders of the site.

To find out more about ancient Christian monasteries in Egypt, watch our Heritage Key video below, which gives a unique insight into the restoration of Saint Anthony’s Monastery, and the history of Coptic Christianity in Egypt.

Video: The Restoration of Saint Anthony’s Monastery near Al-Zaafarana, Egypt

Check out more great archaevideos here on Heritage Key. Highlights include Dr Zahi Hawass discussing the restoration of the Synagogue of Moses Ben Maimon in Cairo, a look at the search for the lost tombs of Thebes, featuring Zahi Hawass, Dr Mark Lehner talking about the lives of pyramid builders in ancient Egypt and Dr Alain Zivie on the restoration of the tomb of Aper-el.

Museum of London Docklands scraps Entry Fee for Free Admission

The Museum of London Docklands (MoLD) is free to visit today, after its admission was dropped to bring it in line with London’s many free museums. The museum, which covers 2000 years of London’s port history, had charged 5 for adults and 3 concessions, but hopes to increase visitor numbers after today’s news.

The MoLD will now join the pantheon of London museums with no entry charge, that includes the British Museum, Petrie Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Entry to national museums in Britain was made free in 2001, a move which instantly bumped attendance figures up by 70%.

However there has been a vocal opposition to the move in recent years, not least from Mayor of London Boris Johnson, whose spokesman tells the Times, “Having visited the Met(ropolitan Museum of Art, New York) last week, he (the Mayor) was impressed by how they maximise voluntary contributions and believes there are lessons to be learnt from America about increasing philanthropic giving.”

Indeed, the issue may play a part in this year’s general election: a 2007 statement from the Tories claimed they would abolish the free entry rule if they win power. Then-culture minister Tessa Jowell slammed the proposal, saying, “The policy of opening up museums and art galleries has hugely increased visitor numbers, to the benefit of people from all classes and ages.

The Tories plan to end free admission if they win power this year

“David Cameron’s party talks about wanting to be more inclusive and yet they are promoting a policy that is a return to Thatcherism and would exclude the less well-off,” she added. The British Museum have even defended their free policy as a reason to keep the Elgin Marbles, claiming it allows more people to see them than if they returned to Athens.

The MoLD is housed in a striking Georgian warehouse near Canary Wharf, London’s glossy financial heart. Its aim is to chronicle the city’s history through the River Thames from Roman times to today, showing how war, trade and immigration have shaped the area. The Louvre in Paris remains the world’s most visited museum with 8.5million attendees per year. A full-day pass costs 9.50 (8.40). The British Museum is next on the list with just over six million visitors.

Do you think Britain’s national museums should return to charging visitors?

Lost in the Museum — Slideshow from the Louvre Ancient World Collections

Sometimes getting lost in the museum is the most interesting way to find something. Notwithstanding the Louvre in Paris being an expansive, vast area, wandering the rooms in search of a specific place you may not find (read more about the long walk here) is a good way to discover something–even if that something wasn’t what you had planned to find.

Below is short slideshow of some of the objects we ran across in our short visit to the Louvre. It is a fairly random collection of artefacts from Assyria, Greece, Crete and Egypt. Mainly these photos are the images that were better lit. I hope I got all the titles right, even haven taken photos of the tags didn’t make it that easy to figure out what is what now that I am back in front of the computer. It is a bit of a wonder why they place these incredible things around the museum with such care, but don’t bother much helping you understand what you are looking. Is the purpose of a museum just to show stuff or to make sense of things? Anyway, these objects are certainly beautiful and proof that the ancient world continues to reach across time and mesmerize us.

I think the images are a lot sharper when shooting close with a wider angle on the zoom. I tried to adjust the distortion in photoshop as well as correct the lighting to get a more realistic white balance. Even with the auto white balance all the different lighting types scrambled up my light meter.

Lost in the Museum — Oolala Louvre

I had a great break last weekend and made a one-day shot London/Paris/London via the Eurostar (which is best way to travel this itinerary) to join some family for a special celebration. After lunch we also had (not enough) time to make a quick visit to the Louvre Museum. Given the recent incident where the Louvre was busted by Zahi Hawass for taking “hot” artefacts from Egypt, we decided to go have a look at the Egyptian Collection. The Louvre is even bigger than I had remembered it. Getting to the Egyptian area was not very easy.

So the first major tip on visiting the Louvre is to try to avoid the big lines to buy tickets (9 for permanent collection 14 for specials exhibitions combo ticket) you can find ticket machines or shops in the shopping center area near the Metro side entrance level. You can also buy tickets online or at FNAC. The lines can be very long, so getting a ticket is an important part of your gameplan.

As it turns out we made a big mistake in selecting our entrance to the Museum. We went into the gate marked “Richelieu” (probably because we saw too many 3 Musketeer movies). In fact, to strike toward the Egyptian collection you would be better off entering via “Sully.” Ithink the scale on the map doesn’t really give an accurate idea on just how far you need to walk across the Louvre if you choose the wrong starting point. In general, the walk is across many amazing things, but we were pressed for time. The rooms of the museum are almost as interesting as the objects on display. You really need to look around, check the spectacularly painted ceilings and (and out the windows where I was able to take the photo of the Pyramid above). It is truly a stunning place. It must be the most gorgeous museum in the world (like Paris is the most beautiful city anyway).

We eventually made it to the start of the Egyptian Antiquities area (Room 30 on the 1st Floor). My mission was to get to see the Akhenaton pillar fragment highlighted in the map in Room 25. It seemed a lot like the monumental sculpture of Akhenaton in the Cairo Museum that Ihad the chance to see last year. The representation of Akhenaton are usually so distorted and trippy.

The first piece that I noticed was a very nice Bastet the Cat (watch video: Animal Cults in Egypt). This particular cat has lovely blue lines around the eyes. It seems amazingly serene and wise.

A bit further along was this very interesting wooden piece marked “a King, possibly Ramses II”. Iliked the sequin-looking beads that must have been a shimmering crown when it was originally made. The mummy of Ramses II is in the Cairo Museum in their very creepy mummy room. Bob Brier, aka Mr Mummy, writes that Ramses II hair has been studied and shows that the famed ruler was red headed. (Interested to know about how mummies are made? Check this step-by-step mummy recipe and also a video here.)

By this time we were within 20 minutes of the the 6pm museum closing. We had no chance really of making it more than 50 more meters down the galleries. There are some many amazing small object to catch your eye. I could have spent hours there. We could see though that the museum staff were in fact eager to get out and back home even sooner than the closing time. They are starting to push us and the rest of the weary visitors out as fast as they could herd us (5:50pm on my watch).

Fortunately we were close to the beautiful Stele of Taperete. At first glance it is hard to believe that this wooden panel is around 3,000 years old. The colors are vibrant and the lines sharp. It is interesting to see her in some appreciation of two different forms of the sun god Ra. I really like what seems to be flowers shining/flowing down to her from the sun disk. The opposite side panel has this unexpected, amazing giant, nude female figure arched over the scene with her fingers gently touching the ground. Really it is quite stunning, almost like something from a Klimt painting. It is always impressive how much Egyptian artefacts seem so modern and famillar considering how ancient they are.

The good news is that getting out of the Louvre is a lot easier than trying to find a specific area. We came out onto the street level from inside the glass pyramid. The lights of the Louvre reflected on the pools around the exit. We enjoyed a walk down the dark autumn evening at Tulleries garden. A little more than three hours later I was back in the center of London.

Lists at the Louvre: Umberto Eco Curates ‘Mille e Tre’ Exhibition

Everyone makes them (some of us more compulsively than others): scribbled on post-it notes, or kept mentally in our imaginations we all make lists. And we’re not the only ones either; lists have been around for a long time possibly since the first writing systems and certainly since Sumerian scribes began to keep accounts in the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia. So what is it about the beauty of a list its numerical order, hierarchy, completeness that makes them such a part of how we like to categorise, order and understand the world?

An exhibition opening at the Louvre on 7 November may provide some insight into this intriguing subject, with its collection of lists ranging from some of the earliest known lists from Mesopotamian scribes, to modern hand-written lists from the Louvre archives. The name of the exhibition ‘Mille e Tre‘ (One thousand and three) is itself a reference to another famous list: it’s the number of Don Giovanni’s lovers in Mozart’s opera.

‘Mille e Tre‘ is part of a series of events and exhibitions at the Louvre called ‘The Vertigo of Lists‘, which is the brainchild of Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. He is the latest personality to be invited to be ‘guest curator’ at the Louvre for one year and ‘The Vertigo of Lists‘ runs from 2 November to 13 December 2009.

The thinking behind this series of events is that vertigo, or dizziness, is what we feel when we are ‘faced with the impossibility of ordering our world’. Presumably Mr Eco isn’t just talking about making a shopping list here. Apparently lists also represent our need to ‘enumerate, to cite, to count, to classify, to record, to memorize’.

The exhibition Mille e Tre shows how lists have been around since antiquity: buried in tombs, naming gods or ancestors, commemorating athletes or treaties, and publicising the spoils of war. As well as a special exhibition area dedicated to Mille e Tre, other permanent exhibits at the Louvre will be specially sign-posted as part of the exhibition trail. Some of the older exhibits on display include:

A Sumerian Library Catalogue
A clay tablet dating from the start of the second millennium BC is actually a list of literary texts from a Sumerian library. It originates from Nippur (in ancient Mesopotamia, modern-day lower Iraq), which was one of the most important Sumerian cities.

An Inscribed Tablet
Mesopotamian literature was also applied to science and was used by scholars to catalogue types of plants and substances. This inscribed tablet in terracotta is an example.

The records of Thutmose III
The inscribed sandstone blocks from a wall at the Temple of Amun, Karnak, give a list of triumphs and booty brought back for the king during the reign of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC).
The inscriptions reads: Account of booty in this town and among the troops of this miserable prince of the town of Tunip:
Prince of this town: 1
Soldiers: 3029
Silver: 100 dben (= 9 kg)
Gold: 100 dben (= 9 kg)
Lapis lazuli, turquoise and bronze vessels.

Further ancient lists can be found at the Louvre in rooms 5, 12 and 23 of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities and, in display case 16 of room 3 in the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities, in the Code of Hammurabi.

These ancient tablets contrast with some of the modern lists on display, which include notes on the backs of drawings, in notebooks, and in the form of modern artworks and conceptual art.

According to the curator of Mille e Tre, Marie-Laure Bernadac, the list is a powerful and symbolic concept for modern artists and some of the modern pieces in the exhibition include wallpaper, a list of disappeared people and a book listing all the inhabitants of the Louvre. Called ‘Les Habitants du Louvre‘, the book lists all the people who currently work at the Louvre (about 2,000 people) as well as the 2,500 artists whose work is displayed there. It is on sale at the museum bookshop.

Umberto Eco is well known for his theories on semiotics and his novel The Name of the Rose. Past guest curators at the Louvre have included Robert Badinter (French criminal lawyer and anti-death penalty campaigner), US novelist Toni Morrison, Anselm Kiefer (a German painter and sculptor) and French classical music composer Pierre Boulez.

New York Shrine Returns to Temple of Karnak, Egypt Today

A lighter chapter to the ongoing issue of repatriating Egypt’s treasures will close today, as an ancient shrine fragment touches down on Egyptian soil after a year of international co-operation. The red granite chunk, part of a shrine, or ‘naos’, was bought by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art from a private collector last October, with the sole intent to send it back to its home nation.

Today sees the fragment of the shrine, which commemorates King Amenemhat I, the first pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty (1991 – 1962 BC), finally return to Egypt after a combined effort between the museum and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. SCA chief Zahi Hawass praised the move as a “great deed”, stressing it is the first time a museum has bought an object with the expressed purpose of repatriating it. The shrine the piece belongs to can now be found in the Ptah Temple of Karnak, Luxor.

This is the first time a museum has bought an ancient artefact with the sole intent to repatriate it.

This episode is a high note in Dr Hawass‘ long-running campaign to repatriate thousands of Egypt’s most treasured items. The Met will certainly be on better terms with the SCA than Paris’ Louvre, whose experts were recently banned from excavation in Egypt following the ‘theft’ of objects from a Theban tomb. The famous French museum has since promised to return the items. And Dr Hawass is still pursuing the British Museum and Berlin’s Neues Museum, over their continued refusal to return the Rosetta Stone and Bust of Nefertiti respectively.

Got something you want Heritage Key to report – or do you just want to get something off your chest? Don’t hesitate to contact us either via the comments box below, our contact page or by emailing me directly.

France does the Right Thing & Gets to Dig at Saqqara Again.

Fragment of TT15 - Tetiky's Tomb - that ended up in the Louvre Collection. It doesn’t happen all that often that the battle over ‘mere tomb paintings’ makes headline news – why would they, when they have the highly debated return of the Elgin Marbles to the Acropolis Museum to write about? But the whole world was shocked last week, when Dr. Zahi Hawass accused France’s most famous museum of theft. Or at least, of purchasing looted artefacts and then refusing to return them to Egypt. Dr. Hawass hit back by refusing to let the Louvre’s Saqqara team dig in Egypt.

The Louvre stated that it was forced to wait for permission to return the artefacts. But now the committee has advised that the fragments from Tetiki’s tomb are to be returned – President Sarkozy has even phoned President Mubarak to ensure they’ll be shipped to Egypt in six days’ time. Dr. Hawass says: “When the objects return I will be very happy to renew our archaeological relationship with the Louvre and allow them to excavate again at Saqqara.”

As soon as the fragements arrrive in Egypt, possibilities to reinstate them in their proper position on the walls of TT15 will be looked into. If that’s impossible, they will get a prime position in the planned Grand Egyptian Museum.

Stolen Artefacts Still Abroad

The wall paintings of tomb TT15 in the Louvre are not the only artefacts whose return Egypt demands. They want to see the the mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer repatriated from the Saint Louis Art Museum in the United States, and artefacts from the UK’s Ashmolean Museum and the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Brussels.

Dr. Hawass warns these organisations will see their excavations suspended as well: “Any museum that buys stolen artifacts will receive this same treatment.I was forced to cut archaeological ties with the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Saint Louis Art Museum because they would not return artifacts, even after the SCA presented evidence they had been stolen.”

“I hope this story will be a warning to everyone not to deal in stolen antiquities.”

He adds that loss of cultural property is not the only risk, but that looters also damage the items that remain as well, by taking the artefacts out of their context. “When robbers enter the tombs and cut pieces out of the walls and take the objects, they are not just damaging the beauty of the tombs, they are damaging history,” adds Dr Hawass. “I hope this story will be a warning to everyone, all museums and archaeologists, Egyptians and foreigners, not to deal in stolen antiquities.”

Why does Dr. Zahi Hawass keep saying ‘stolen’. Isn’t this a case of ‘finders, keepers, sellers’?

Not according to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. When we say artefacts are in a museum ‘illegaly’, the museum authorities likely broke Article 7 of the internationally ratified treaty:

The States Parties to this Convention undertake:

(a) To take the necessary measures, consistent with national legislation, to prevent museums and similar institutions within their territories from acquiring cultural property originating in another State Party which has been illegally exported after entry into force of this Convention, in the States concerned. Whenever possible, to inform a State of origin Party to this Convention of an offer of such cultural property illegally removed from that State after the entry into force of this Convention in both States;

(b) (i) to prohibit the import of cultural property stolen from a museum or a religious or secular public monument or similar institution in another State Party to this Convention after the entry into force of this Convention for the States concerned, provided that such property is documented as appertaining to the inventory of that institution;

(ii) at the request of the State Party of origin, to take appropriate steps to recover and return any such cultural property imported after the entry into force of this Convention in both States concerned, provided, however, that the requesting State shall pay just compensation to an innocent purchaser or to a person who has valid title to that property. Requests for recovery and return shall be made through diplomatic offices. The requesting Party shall furnish, at its expense, the documentation and other evidence necessary to establish its claim for recovery and return. The Parties shall impose no customs duties or other charges upon cultural property returned pursuant to this Article. All expenses incident to the return and delivery of the cultural property shall be borne by the requesting Party.

Article 7, Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970

Egypt Suspends Louvre Saqqara Excavations over Stolen Artefacts

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 Luxors 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.

Four fragments of TT15 were acquired by the Louvre in 2000, and a fifth one in 2003. In January 2009, the SCA presented the evidence to the Louvre; these fragments that resurfaced in the French Museum’s collection had clearly been stolen.

The Louvre has promised to return the pieces – but that it will have to wait for advice from a national body the French Museum. In September, the SCA informed the Louvre that it was suspending its excavations at Saqqara until the pieces were returned. There is a meeting of the National Scientific Commission for Museum Collections on October 9th, at which the official decision about the return of the fragments of TT15 will be made.

Dr. Hawass has made repatriating ‘stolen’ Egyptian antiquities a priority, especially those he calls ‘icons of our Egyptian identity’ – unique artefacts of Egyptian cultural patrimony. The SCAis also pressuring Berlin’s Neues Museum for the return of the Bust of Neferiti, and the British Museum for the Rosetta Stone. The antiquities chief had already been purusing the Louvre over the Dendera Zodiac, an amazing astronomical chart which was torn from the Temple of Hathor at Dendera by French general Louis Charles Antoine Desaix in 1821.