What Would YOU Do...

Scenario:

You are an average Egyptian citizen in today's Egypt.  You are barely scraping by.  You have been through seemingly endless "revolutions" of governments and ruling systems but you know what, when it comes down to you, it pretty much has stayed the same.  You are still screwed no matter what you do.

So, you happen to live in a tiny little house on top of part of a temple.  You go exploring one night, digging down beneath the surface.  Dig dig dig.  You get 20 feet down and lo and behold, an entirely new world opens up before you.  Well, not exactly, since you have to remove the dirt bucket-full by bucket-full, and make sure your equally hungry (and greedy) neighbors don't get suspicious.  Hmmm....

Would you turn away from the potential for discovering countless treasures you could possibly to the Black Market dealers, accepting 10 cents on the dollar?  Or would you stand up and be a "patriot" and say "Oh no, these are treasures for the Egyptian state!  These priceless artefacts belong to our people as a whole.  I shall travel to Cairo tomorrow and report this important discovery to the Ministry of Antiquities."

So you travel to Cairo and report the find underneath your home.  The government comes with bulldozers and kills your home, meanwhile not offering you any kind of compensation because, hey, it's all for the good of the homeland, right?  You, nonetheless, comfort your now homeless and penniless family with the thought that you did what was right.  In the long run, surely, it was right. Those priceless antiquities will now be duplicated by the government and replaced with cheap imitations while the REAL artifacts reap the government ministers MILLIONS of dollars, all safe and secure in secret Swiss Bank Accounts.  And meanwhile, you and your family starve.

Yeah.  What would YOU do?

As much as I ABHOR, absolute ABHOR, the plundering of cultural treasures for filthy lucre, I DO understand the motivations behind the plundering of ancient archaeological sites.  Who, in the end, is more corrupt, heh?

October 29, 2014

Giza men arrested after digging up ancient temple under house

Men carrying out illegal excavation work found the remains of an Egyptian temple from the reign of New Kingdom King Tuthmose III

Seven residents of a Giza district have been arrested after they illegally excavated the area beneath their home and found the remains of an ancient Egyptian temple.

The huge limestone blocks, engraved with hieroglyphic texts, date from the reign of the New Kingdom's King Tuthmose III, and were found in the Hod Zeleikha area of Al-Badrasheen district.

The find was made two weeks ago, according to Major General Momtaz Fathi, an aide to the interior ministry and a director in the tourism police.  A unit from the tourism and antiquities police heard of the illegal excavation work and arrested the seven men – two of whom are Palestinian, Fathi said. [Does it make a difference if one is Palestinian or one is Egyptian when it comes to illegal digs, since they are ALL Muslims???  I mean, really, darlings, what difference does it make to them, since allegedly their one true "God" is "Allah," whose origins (before the old "switcheroo") go back to a Moon Goddess?]

The police also found diving costumes, oxygen cylinders and diving masks with the detainees. [Okay, what does that have to do with any illegal excavation your home in Giza -- A FRICKING DESERT?]

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh El-Damaty said that the unearthed blocks are genuine and belong to a huge temple from the reign of King Tuthmose III.

Seven reliefs and two marble columns were unearthed along with a huge red-granite armless colossus of a seated person, El-Damaty.

The items have been brought to the Saqqara site for restoration and further study, the minister said, adding that the Hod Zeleikha area has now been declared an archeological site and under the control of the ministry in order carry out more surveys nearby and unearth more of the temple.


What really gets me is how MUCH these "policemen" resemble Egyptians depicted in ancient tomb drawings:

Take away the guns and the long pants.  Egyptians haven't changed at all over 7000 plus years, physically.  But they buy the bullshit, don't they.  Well, a man has to do what a man has to do to make some money and survive. Never mind the wife and kids back home, and you keep repeating the same ridiculously losing cycle over and over and over again.  Whatever.

Looted Statue of Goddess Demeter Recovered by Turkish Police

From greekreporter.com

Greek Goddess Statue Found At Illegal Excavation in Turkey
by Iro-Anna Mamakouka - Apr 17, 2014

A statue, believed to be the ancient Greek goddess Demeter, has been unearthed at an illegal excavation in Simav, western Turkey. The statue, weighing in at 610kg and standing 2.8 meters tall, was discovered by two Turks, Ramazan C. And Ismail G, 26 and 62 years old respectively, who are alleged to have been conducting illegal excavations in the wider area where the statue was found. The two men were taken into custody by the Turkish police and sent to court.

The head of the statue and the altar, missing during the raid, were later found in a house in the city centre.

In Greek mythology, Demeter, one of Zeus’ sisters, so the story goes, was the goddess of agriculture, nature, abundance and seasons, and mother of Persephone, wife of Hades.

EBay Sale of Antiquities

This is interesting - but, does this mean that every country in the World where EBay is present online must enter into its own agreement with the online vendor to limit the sale of illicit antiquities? Story from Swiss.info.ch from news aggregator October 20, 2009 - 7:53 PM eBay to limit sale of cultural artefacts Switzerland's Federal Culture Office and online auction house eBay have agreed to limit the sale of archaeological artefacts over the internet. The memorandum of understanding, signed on Tuesday in collaboration with the Federal Police Office and the Association of Swiss Cantonal Archaeologists, follows a successful three-month pilot project in 2008. eBay "will only permit the sale of archaeological artefacts in Switzerland with proof of legality issued by the competent authorities in Switzerland or abroad," the Culture Office said in a statement. The restrictions apply particularly to cultural property classified in risk categories including those contained in the "red list" of the International Council of Museums, and in categories defined in bilateral agreements. Both Interpol and Unesco, the United Nations culture agency, have released recommendations concerning the illegal trade of stolen cultural artefacts. A law banning the illegal trafficking of cultural property entered into force in Switzerland nearly four years ago. The country is one of the world's top four trade hubs for art objects. eBay's international headquarters are in Bern, the Swiss capital. swissinfo.ch and agencies

Illegal Antiquities Trade: Mesopotamian Vase

How will we ever solve this culture-destroying problem? Archeology 30.06.2009 Mesopotamian vase sheds light on Germany's artefacts trade A legal dispute surrounding an antique golden vase being held in a museum vault in Mainz shines light on the surprisingly important role Germany plays in the often shady world of antiques trading. The case sounds more like an esoteric crime novel than a simple legal tussle, involving as it does archaeologists, rare-coin dealers, customs officials, and the Iraqi embassy in Berlin. At its heart is a golden vase just six centimeters high that may or may not have its origins in ancient Mesopotamia. The vase is currently being held by Michael Mueller-Karpe, an archaeologist at the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, Germany. Three years ago he was charged with providing the court with an expert opinion on the provenance of the object, which is at the center of a lawsuit over fencing illegally trafficked goods. Archaeologist refuses to comply Now Mueller-Karpe is ignoring a court order, and refuses to turn the vase back over to the customs officials who confiscated it. The Iraqi embassy in Berlin has asked him not to, he says. Apparently they believe the object is safer where it is. Contrary to reports in the German media, the Stuttgart Customs Investigations Office is not about to break into the vault at the Roman-Germanic museum and grab the vase by force. "I don't know how that rumor got started, but it's not true," said Dieter Peulen, the acting director of the Stuttgart Customs Investigation Office. He would, however, like to get the object back. "I've never seen anything like this before," said Peulen. "At the moment, [the vase] has been confiscated by customs. [Mueller-Karpe] doesn't own it. In my opinion, the court has requested him to give it back, and he should do so." The vase showed up in Germany years ago in the catalog of a Munich auction house, designated as a Mediterranean piece from the Roman Iron Age. But someone familiar with Mesopotamian art spotted it, and sued the auctioneer for breach of the Foreign Trade Law. Stolen objects transit through Germany As part of the suit, customs officials brought the object to the museum in Mainz to have its provenance checked. Mueller-Karpe said the vase is "most probably" around 4,500 years old, and believes it was stolen by grave robbers from the ancient royal cemetery in the city of Ur, Iraq. Its provenance may be researched further as the case moves through the courts, said customs official Peulen. International traffic in antiques and artefacts from Iraq has bloomed since the fall of Saddam Hussein. According to the Spiegel Online newsmagazine, of the 15,000 pieces that were robbed from the National Museum in Baghdad in the wake of the US invasion in 2003, just 6,000 have been returned. Many of the missing objects - and more stolen from grave robbers around Ur - make their way through German auction houses at some point on their travels. Indeed, the case sheds light on Germany's overall role in both antiques trading and antiques trafficking - a distinction that is often hard to make when it comes to the sale of ancient objects, experts say. 'Unfortunate' legal situation Germany was the last industrial country to sign a UNESCO convention on protecting cultural heritage, and its loose demands for documentation on exports of some ancient objects seen as being friendly to fencers and smugglers. "The legal situation in Germany is very unfortunate for us," the Iraqi culture attache in Berlin told Spiegel Online. The burden of proof, "especially for objects stolen by grave robbers," is too high, he said. "Even an expert opinion with a probability of provenance of 95 percent isn't enough for the courts." According to Mueller-Karpe, the two-handled vase - which he believes is a "miniature version" of a Sumerian-era vase that would have served a functional purpose - remains in the museum for the time being. He told dpa news agency that it would be too dangerous for him to give it back to customs authorities, since the Iraqis have threatened that anyone who is involved in helping fence stolen goods could face a sentence of up to five years in Iraq. Since he is frequently on archaological digs in Iraq, Mueller-Karpe said, the sentence threat means he would lose his opportunity to work. Author: Jennifer Abramsohn Editor: Kate Bowen