Tag: Protest

Egyptian Museum Cairo: Royal mummies unharmed & King Tut’s treasures to be restored

One of the Late Period Skulls in the storage room next to the CT scanner lab at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. - Photo by Sandro Vannini (Exif data 31th of January 2011) During a short inspection tour of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s newly appointed Minister of Antiquities, has announced that the restoration of seventy objects, damaged during the failed looting attempt on January 28, has begun and will be completed within five days. The restoration project includes the statue of Tutankhamun standing on the back of a panther and a New Kingdom wooden sarcophagus, both damaged by the criminals.

“One showcase in the Ahkenatengalleries was smashed; it contained a standing statue of the king carrying an offering tray. While the showcase is badly damaged, the statue sustained very minor damage and is repairable,” Dr Hawass explains in the statement. “Anothervirtine that was smashed contained one of King Tutankhamuns walking sticks. The gilded stick isbroken into two pieces, and can be restored. The other King Tutankhamun object that was damagedwas the wooden statue of the king standing on the back of a panther. Both objects were taken out oftheir showcase and were dropped on the floor after the thieves realized that they were not made ofgold.”

He added that the two mummies that were reported as damaged at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, were in fact unidentified skulls dating to the Late Period; they do not belong to royal mummies. They were being temporarily housed in the storage room next to the CT scanner lab, which is in the grounds of the museum. The skulls were there to be used to test the CT scanner.

Dr. Zahi standing near the broken vitrine containing the damaged New Kingdom coffin. - Photo by Sandro Vannini

“When the crisis erupted, I took a very quick walk through the museum and thought that the two skulls thrown on the floor of one of the side rooms might belong to some of the royal mummies examined in our DNA research project on the royal mummies (the Egyptian Mummy Project), namely those found in KV55. However, I examined all of the royal mummies last week and then reexamined them again today; I am happy to report that they all are safe and untouched, including those of Akhenatens family members. As for these two skulls, they were kept in a storeroom next to the CT scanner lab, and were used for testing the machine.“

Dr. Hawass further announced that steps are being taken to reopen all of the Egyptian archaeological sites to visitors. During his statements Dr. Hawass asserted that the sites of Memphis, Saqqara, and Abusir are secure and safeguarded by the army and honest Egyptian people.

So far, the SCA recognizes two incidents related to antiquities have happened:

1)The break-in at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, resulting in 70 broken objects,all of which can and will be restored, and

2) The break-in at the storage magazine at Qantara, in the Sinai. We do not know exactly how many objects were stolen from this magazine, but a total of 6 boxes were taken. All of these objects came from excavations or were being stored there from the Port Said Museum.As of today, 288 objects have been returned, and I am sure that any other artifacts still missing from this magazine will be returned. [SCAStatement, February 3, 2011]

Despite various stories on the web that some tombs and storage magazines were indeed accessed by vandals, so far, not much about the extent of vandalism, and what exactly is – or isn’t – damaged is known. Yet, reports like this one from Saqqara, do give good hopes for the majority of archaeological treasures to be intact: “He also showed me a handful of tombs where robbers had succeeded in breaking steel padlocks on the doors. Once the robbers realized the rooms were empty, Farag says, they ignored the gorgeous reliefs on the walls and went elsewhere, presumably hoping to find gold, jewels, and other treasures they could carry away.”

Good sources to check for updates are: Saqqara.nl, Culture Grrl, KV64, the SCA website,drhawass.com, the eloquentpeasent.com, and Owen’s Unreported Heritage News.

Egypt Protests Sees Cairo Museum Looted as Artefacts and Mummies Are Damaged

Amongst the artefacts damaged at the Cairo Museum was the statue of King Tutankhamun on a panther. Image (Left) Copyright of Sandro Vannini, and (Right) Al Jazeera. As the protests in Egypt gained momentum over the weekend, reports came out that the ruling National Democratic Party headquarters were ablaze, a building which is next door to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where looters damaged several priceless artefacts and mummies, including contents of King Tutankhamun’s Tomb.

When a curfew was declared at 6pm in Cairo, all but three police officers abandoned their posts at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the heart of the capital where protesters are focussing their anger against President Hosni Mubarak.

Like many famous Egyptian attractions such as the Pyramids of Giza, the Egyptian Museum had been closed all day because of the violent demonstrations, but as the Director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr Zahi Hawass explained, once the police had left their positions guarding the museum, people began to enter the museum. Bound indoors by the strict curfew, Dr Hawass spent the night at his home fretting about the fate of his nation’s treasures.

Another damamged King Tut artefact was the Tutankhamun Hunting statue. Image (Left) Copyright of Sandro Vannini, and (Right) Al Jazeera. Of course I was worried, he said. I have been protecting antiquities all my life. I felt if the Cairo museum is robbed, Egypt will never be able to get up again. Dr Hawass shared his love for the artefacts in the Egyptian Museum in a video with Heritage Key (Watch the video).

It was only by sheer luck that the looters who climbed over the walls and forced their way via a skylight into one of the world’s greatest museums did not realise that they were, in fact, raiding the gift shop.

Though looters also ransacked the ticket office, ten of the intruders forced access into the museum itself. They were looking for gold, Dr Hawass told TIME magazine, but not finding what they were looking for in the museum’s vast expanses, they instead damaged priceless artefacts in 13 glass display cases, as well as astatues of King Tutankhamun on a Panther and King Tut hunting a Hippopotamus in the King Tut gallery. Also, as indentified on the Eloquent Peasant, one of King Tut’s golden fans was spotted damaged. King Tutankhamun’s tomb is famous for being the only intact tomb found in the Valley of the Kings (Watch the Video). Al-Jazeera, who have now been banned from reporting within Egypt, broadcasted video footage of some of the destruction in the Cairo Museum.

Also damaged was a Model Boat from the Tomb of Meseti at Asyut. Image Copyright (Bottom) Al Jazeera. Though not officially identified, one of the damaged mummies briefly shown in the Al-Jazeera footage shot inside the museum appears to be of the Mummy of Queen Tuya.

Reports began to break on Twitter on Saturday evening that hundreds of protesters outside the museum had linked arms together to form a human barrier around the building until the military arrived at 10pm to take over security duties. One man pleaded outside the museum gates to people, shouting We are not like Baghdad, referencing the raiding of the National Museum in Baghdad as the 2003 invasion of Iraq began.

The alleged looters who broke into the museum were apprehended and caught with two mummy skulls and a statue of Isis. Crowds chanted Thief, Thief! as troops hit a man with the butt of their rifles and then sat him down with others apparently caught inside. Dr Hawass insisted nothing was missing from the museum though about 100 artefacts had been damaged, adding that They’re easy to restore.

The Former Director of the Egyptian Museum, Wafaa el-Saddik told German newspaper Die Zeit that some of the looters were the museum’s own guards, who she blamed their low wages to account for their actions.

“I have been protecting antiquities all my life. I felt if the Cairo museum is robbed, Egypt will never be able to get up again.”

Dr Hawass paid tribute to the citizens who took stand in Tahrir Square to protect the Cairo Museum and its many treasures, saying “They stood beside me. They know this museum is their cultural heritage…Thank God, we are protecting the sites”.

However, not all museums across Egypt were as lucky as the Cairo Museum. The Memphis Museum had been completely robbed on Saturday morning, as well as heavy looting reported across Saqqara. The storage of the Port Said Museum was raided by a large armed group, raiding boxes of their priceless artefacts. Additionally, the stores at Abusir were also looted.

Other groups attempted to enter the Coptic Museum, the National Museum of Alexandria and the El Manial Museum. An attempt to raid the Royal Jewellery Museum proved fruitless as foresighted museum staff moved all of the objects into the sealed basement before leaving. El-Saddik also noted that none of the museums in Egypt are insured.

Video:Al-Jazeera’s Report on Looting in the Cairo Museum, Egypt.

Security of key cultural points across Egypt has now been taken over by the military, who are safeguarding Egypt’s history. Summarising the situation, Dr Hawass told reporters “My heart is broken and my blood is boiling. I feel that everything I have done in the last nine years has been destroyed in one day.”

Culture Beyond Oil Spills Inside British Museum: Activism or Terrorism?

BP oil disaster strikes British Museum A group of three people dressed in black veils entered the British Museum and solemnly spilled an oil substance near the iconic Eastern Island Moai statue as a form of protest against BP for the Gulf Oil spill disaster. According to blog Culture24 they choose the Hoa Hakananai because of “its fabled links with the sudden demise of reputedly strong civilisations.”

BP is a major sponsor for the British Museum as well as other art institutions including the Tate and Royal Opera.

Says activist Ben Cooper: “Just like the forests on Easter Island, oil represents a resource being over-exploited despite massively increasing risks. “

“With our relentless search for oil we are risking the collapse of the ecosystems on which we depend just as the inhabitants of Easter Island did 2,000 years ago.”

It is certainly a high profile attack on the British Museum and was covered across the papers in London today.

Is it fair pressure to put on the Museum though, especially when they are trying to deal with potential major funding cuts?

Should Museum management be forced to vet companies that they take money from? Where would you need to draw the line then–would some of their bank or law firm supporters also merit protest and attack within the Museum itself? (see the list of BM global sponsors here). And what about all the BP pensioners, should there be protests in their homes?

I think it is absolutely fair enough to protest BP, but it should never be inside the Museum. It is simply too risky have random activity near such priceless objects. Museums are not organized to deal with this type of threat–even if done “responsibly” (by masked people). We don’t want to have Museums forced to implement airport-level security. This “Culture Beyond Oil” group could have made a protest outside the Museum gates. While provocative and flashy, this particular stunt was enormously irresponsible.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Perhaps it is also time to consider the debate as to whether or not the British Museum should still be free to access.

If the Museums were more directly connected with admissions fees, perhaps they would be less reliant on Sponsors to top-up their revenues.

The Museum is now facing a discussion with the Government about dramatic funding cuts up to 30%.

Adding more security costsis not at all going to help the public explore the vast and amazing collection.

On the right,submissions to the Greenpeace “Behind the Logo” competition to redesign the BP logo.

Toronto G20 Summit: Terracotta Warriors to Guard ROM

Its confirmed the Terracotta Warriors show will be opening on June 26at the RoyalOntario Museum, inToronto rightat the startof a G20 summit.

It will be the largest Terracotta Warriors show ever to hit North America. Featuring 250 artefacts, including 16 human terracotta figures.

While the Terracotta Warriors show will be opening many other venues will be closing.

The CN Tower will be closed, the University of Toronto campus (which surrounds the museum) will be shut down and even the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team have moved their weekend home games to Philadelphia. A security cordon will also be in place around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, preventing visitors from accessing much of the downtown area.

Making matters more interesting is that the official protest site, for the G20, will be at Queens Park, about 100 meters south of the museum. Protest groups say they will not remain in that zone.

But, nevertheless, the museum just released a statement saying that the show shall go on.

The ROM will be open for business as usual during this period and is looking forward to a successful exhibition launch,” the statement reads. The museumdeclined to comment on what extra security precautions willbe inplace.

Terracotta Army Stays Until 2011

One other piece of news regarding the warriors – and one which is definitely in the good news category – is that the warriors will be staying in Toronto until the New Year. January 2, 2011 is now confirmed as the exhibition’s closing date, said senior publicist Marilynne Friedman in an email. I’m so pleased that we have it through the holiday season!

Terracotta Army Exhibit in Toronto Could be Affected by G20 Protests

The opening weekend for the The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army, is shaping up to be one filled with, well, warriors. The Royal Ontario Museumannounced recently that the exhibit, the largest Terracotta Warriors show ever to hit North America, will be opening on June 26.

That day coincides with the opening of the G20 summit which runs from June 26-27 in Toronto. The leaders of the worlds 20 largest economies, including US President Barack Obama, will be attending meetings at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

News is just breaking that the main protest zone islikely to be just steps away from the museum. Torontos Deputy Mayor Joe Panatalone just told The Toronto Star that Queen’s Park willlikely bethemain protestarea for demonstraters.

A lot of protests are normally held there and that is a more ideal location, he said. Its close to government, which is the legislature, and secondly, its surrounded by roads on all sides except for the south side. Its self-contained.

Originally the protest area was going to be at Trinity Bellwoods Park, quite far away. During the G20, sections of downtown Toronto near the convention centre will be shut down, with access being restricted to guests, nearby residents, and security. The protest zone is a place, near the shut-down areas, where protesters can demonstrate freely. There is no guarantee that all the protesters will stay in that area.

News is just breaking that the main protest zone is likely to be just steps away from the museum

While Queens Park is surrounded by roads, it is only about 100 meters south ofthe Royal Ontario Museum. The subway line to the museum has a stop at Queen’s Park.

It should be noted that there will be no shortage of modern day warriors in the area. Thousands of police will be on hand in the city and the Canadian Forces recently launched aerial drills over Toronto using helicopters and jet fighters.

This news is just breaking, late in the day, so we will have to wait to hear the museums officialresponse to this development.

It won’t be the first time that a major Toronto exhibition has been affected by political protests. The wonderful Afghanistan exhibit was marred by strike action, and last summer there were protests at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition,

The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army runs from 26th June to December, 2010, at the ROM.

Protesters Take to the Streets (and youtube) in Dead Sea Scrolls Dispute

There are few ancient history exhibitions that actually lead people to take to the streets in protest – but the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of them.

Last Friday a few dozen protesters took to the streets outside the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto to protest against the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

At the same timea group of supporters of the exhibit staged a counter-protest right across the street.

Videos, from both sides of the protests, have recently migrated onto youtube.

Its the latest chapter in a series of events that have been playing out in the city since the exhibit was announced last autumn.

So What’s Their Beef?

To understand the protests you have to examine the context of the scrolls’ discovery. The scrolls were discovered at the site of Qumran between 1947 and 1956, although it’s not certain why they were there. Now, Qumran is actually in the West Bank, not Israel proper. At the time of the scrolls’ discovery, the area was controlled by Jordan and many of the scrolls were housed in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem.

The fact that Israel has the scrolls is, needless to say, a sticking point with the Palestinians.

A video from the main protest

Avideo from the “counter-protest” across the street

A second video from the “counter-protest”

After the Six Days War in 1967, Israel took over the West Bank. The scrolls in the Museum, and the site of Qumran, came under the auspices of Israel.

Today the West Bank is controlled by Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian Authority. The fact that Israel has the scrolls is, needless to say, a sticking point with the Palestinians.

So, when the Toronto exhibit was announced the Palestinian Authority objected. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and demanded that the exhibit be cancelled.

Harper refused and the museum got a legal opinion saying that the exhibit they were showing was in keeping with international law.

But thats not the end of it.

Toronto based Palestinian groups objected. Palestine House, a major GTA cultural centre, sent out a press release denouncing the ROMs position.

The protests racheted up a notch last Friday when a small band of protesters converged on the ROM to protest against the exhibit. In response to the protest a group of supporters of the Dead Sea Scrolls, waving Israeli flags,took to the streets at the same time as the Palestinian protesters to wage what is known as a counter-protest. (Yes, a protest to protest a protest)

Dueling videos of the protests can be seen on youtube and we have embedded them here in this blog.

But, perhaps the strangest turn of events came when the owner of a local restaurant, Le Select Bistro, published a call for a boycott of the scrolls exhibit on his website.

The principle of free speech is more important than anything else, owner Frederic Geisweiller told The National Post, adding that his staff has been harassed and threatened over his words. An effect on my business doesnt have me shaking in my sandals.

The protests have started to receive attention media attention in Israel with the Jerusalem Post publishing a lengthy article just yesterday.

In the end its not likely that the protests will result in any changes to the exhibit. The museum believes that the exhibition is legal. Prime Minister Harper supports it, as does the Premier of Ontario (a position similar to a U.S. governor) Dalton McGuinty, who actually took part in the opening of the exhibit.

But, without a doubt, the protests (and counter-protests) have brought the issue of artefact repatriation a little closer to home for the citizens of Toronto.

Green Dam and The Great Firewall of China

The Great Wall of China was an ambitious attempt by The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang to protect the people of China from invasion from warring nations and states. Today, a massive internet boycott will take place in protest against the country’s newest blockade – the Green Dam project.

As a military strategy, The Great Wall of China was simple to say the least, and its efficiency is generally thought to be limited. Guards are rumoured to have let in undesirables in return for bribes, and any army with serious intentions could find a way to breach it.

Interestingly, it is thought that the Great Wall was also intended to prevent evil spirits from entering the country, with some spent builders actually buried in its walls for that purpose. It’s difficult to ascertain how effective it was in this area, although both Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch have both managed to sneak into the country over the years.

The Great Wall was abandoned in the 1600s when a bunch of Manchu soldiers rode straight through a sentry point and into Beijing, where they established the Qing dynasty. They didn’t think much of the Great Wall (well, it hadn’t exactly thwarted their efforts, had it?), and simply left it to fall into disrepair. A lesson to be learned there, perhaps.

The Green Dam project is the second phase of a large-scale defence strategy implemented by the Chinese government. The first phase, the Golden Shield project – often dubbed the Great Firewall of China – is a large-scale censorship strategy that is set up to halt attackers and evil spirits (porn, violence, wikipedia, BBC…) trying to enter the country via its internet servers.

Like a 5ft wall versus an angry, well-equipped army, it has had limited efficacy. Although a lot of users remain content to have their browsing curtailed (or simply don’t know how to get around the censorship), angry surfers are logging on via a VPN (virtual private network) in order to access banned sites such as wikipedia and the BBC.

Like the bent sentry guards of the Great Wall, the guardians of the Great Firewall are also prone to corruption. The website Murphy’s Law recently reported that: “…a senior official (Yu Bing) of the Golden Shield operation was arrested for taking over $5 million in bribes to help one anti-virus software company put a rival out of business. The rival fought back in the courts, and exposed the corruption within Golden Shield.”

Green Dam was supposed to offer another layer of protection to vulnerable net users. From today, all computer hardware sold in, or exported to, China was supposed to come with Green Dam software, which would protect the user from being attacked by any marauding porn sites that attempt to hijack his or her PC.

Although some nervous net-users were comforted by the little cyber-soldiers, many more people were outraged at the government’s attempt to curb their freedoms. Last night, the government backed down, and announced that the Green Dam project would be delayed (they didn’t say until when).

Outspoken artist, commentator and blogger Ai Weiwei is today inviting users to boycott the web in protest against Green Dam – a move that has infuriated officials. Whether the Great Firewall of China, along with its little sentry of Green Dam guards, will go the same way as the Great Wall of China is yet to be seen. Given the aggressive tactics of viruses, hackers and social protesters, I don’t fancy its chances for long…

Video: Can Bloggers Collapse the Great Firewall of China?

Image (top) of Google sign by grenzfurther. Image of the Great Wall of China (bottom) by saseki.

What Now For the Stonehenge Protesters?

On a recent trip to watch the sun rise from behind the spectacular structure of Stonehenge, I was lucky enough to meet Druid couple Kim and Andrea (right). It was a couple of days before the Easter Solstice, and the pair were preparing to protest against the lack of free access to what they see as a place of worship.

Normally, the stones are only open during the visiting hours dictated by the National Trust. Visitors need to buy a ticket to get anywhere near the site; a ticket that forces them to walk the wrong way around the stones – anticlockwise. According to Kim, this is not only bad for Stonehenge, but bad for England. He points to the many ills of today’s society in England as evidence of this. There is certainly a lot of evidence to choose from!

Fenced Off

Click To Watch Video

A Druid Priest explains Stonehenge

Meet Kim Payne, a druid priest and listen to his explanations of the history of one of the world’s most enchanting and mysterious monuments. How did the stones get there? What are the issues with accessing it?

CLICK TO WATCH

Full access to the stones is only granted at the Summer Solstice, which this year falls on the 21st June. On this date, druids and like-minded revellers are allowed to party like it’s 1999 (BC) right inside the stones themselves, with a full-on party leading up to what must be a spectacular experience of watching the the sun rise in perfect alignment with the Heelstone, from within the stone circle.

If only every day – or at least every solstice – were the same.

Kim and Andrea had managed to get to Stonehenge early and pick out a prime site to park their campervan, and expected to be joined by many more druids in time for the Easter Solstice protest. The single-track road on the western side of the site offered a good, if distant, view of the Stonehenge sunrise.

Click To Watch Video

Episode 8: Spring Equinox at Stonehenge

Nicole Favish heads to Stonehenge to experience the Spring Equinox – the point in the year where the day and the night are of equal length.

CLICK TO WATCH

It wasn’t until later, while I was walking the wrong way around the stones with my National Heritage audioguide, that I caught a glimpse of their campervan on the other side of the electric fence and realised just how fenced off they must have felt.

With plans now in place to close off the A344 / A303, access to the site will be even more restricted. Where will the regular protesters park up? Kim and his fellow protesters have been known to make a mad naked run at the stones from the road where we met him. Let’s hope that they don’t have to run too far next time. It can be pretty cold on those Salisbury Plains.

Check some great stonehenge photos on our Heritage Key Flickr Pool .