Mummy for Lunch and Obelisks for Sale: How the Heritage of Ancient Egypt Was Treated in Enlightened Europe

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There is a popular myth that the Europeans were very careful about Egyptian antiquities, and the Arabs and Copts, on the contrary, and therefore there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that the Europeans exported mummies, statues and treasures from Egypt. Alas, in fact, it does not correspond to reality. The former Egyptomania of Europeans makes archaeologists tearfully calculate the losses to history.

Europeans ate Egyptians

Literally, in the Middle Ages, Europeans who visited Ancient Egypt mined mummies from simple tombs (the cemeteries of ordinary people were not as hidden as the necropolises of the kings) and sold them profitably to noble Christians or pharmacists at home. Together with the mummies, they brought their embalmed entrails, which were even more appreciated.

Both dried meat and entrails were supposed to be eaten as a reliable remedy for certain diseases. In addition, which was hardly discussed aloud, the host of lovers of alchemy and communication with spirits tore the mummies for ingredients, trying to use the corpses of the ancient Egyptians as a special magical means.

Europeans painted as Egyptians

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mummies began to be imported almost on an industrial scale, and the production of brown paint from this, let's say, raw material was started up for continuous production. Manufacturers assured that such paint gives a special, "brooding" and "hazy" brown color.

There is a known case when the artist could not believe his friends that the paint "brown mummy" is made from ancient corpses, and not named so only by color, and they took it to production. After what he saw, the artist felt unwell, and he buried his tubes of paint so as not to participate in the mockery of the corpses.

Europeans forced corpses to striptease

A popular fun at other parties was to gradually unfold the mummy, examining the bandages, the amulets hidden in them, and, finally, the body itself. By the shape of the skull, amateur phrenologists tried to guess what the person who appeared before them was in life. The curious looked into the eye sockets and into the mouth. The mummy was turned over in every possible way and, in the end, was irreversibly damaged.

The removed figurines were damaged

The Egyptians used granite blocks in the manufacture of large structures, which took a long time to hew out and took just as long to be delivered; they could make small figurines from bronze and wood, but sandstone and clay were the most popular. European explorers of the nineteenth century were far from being so good at transporting fragile things, and often fragments of Egyptian figurines or antique marble statues that had lost their details reached European museums (marble as a material is rather fragile).

In addition to the figurines, a lot of steles with inscriptions were broken - that is, written evidence of the era. It would seem that it would be most reasonable to redraw them carefully before transportation, but this was not done for a very long time. Modern archaeologists are lucky that so much more or less whole remains - because Ancient Egypt existed for thousands of years and left behind itself, accordingly, a lot of gravestones, statues, toys, utensils and just the dead.

Obelisks in the streets

Even the ancient Romans began to export Egyptian obelisks as trophies - so they dispersed across Europe. European adventurers who came after the crusaders or simply made pilgrimages to the places mentioned in the Old Testament also sometimes bought a "stone" for memory. And what - it is narrow, albeit long, it is not very difficult to transport, and at the same time it is all patterned.

The obelisks were made in ancient Egypt so that they were ideal for centuries of standing in the local climate. In more humid and colder Europe, their surface collapsed, in the course of hostilities or street riots, they were dropped and broken, and after all, they were also written monuments of an ancient civilization - the patterns on their sides were Egyptian hieroglyphs. And nevertheless, many more of these pillars adorn cities.

However, you should not stare at every obelisk in Europe - not all of them are real. Everything that can be beautiful created overseas, the Europeans decided, can be done on the spot, why transport it in vain? So on the streets you can see just copies, which are meaningless to “read”. But some real obelisks seem to be local to tourists, because a cross is installed on their tops. In fact, this cross was attached already in place in order to "drown out" the pagan spirit - you never know what is written on the "stone" there.

Not only Europeans

The Arabs, of course, also did not differ in scrupulousness in relation to the heritage of the pagans. Among them were scientists who secretly practiced magic and therefore appreciated everything ancient and unusual, but the rest, for example, were not satisfied with images of people. So, one fanatic in the sixteenth century shot a sphinx's nose with a cannon. And in the twentieth century, Europeans who were not indifferent to science had to persuade the Egyptian Muslim ruler for a long time not to disassemble one of the pyramids for the construction of a dam. The matter was solved by two piastres - that is how much one block from the pyramid cost more than the same block brought from the quarry. The great tomb was left alone.

However, the mass destruction of the heritage of the ancient civilization was not observed. Nowadays, the Egyptian authorities, just like modern Europeans, care about the country's heritage. Undoubtedly, this was influenced by Western scholars, but looting was completely unnecessary for this.

And now you can almost live on the air to follow that which exported exhibits and remains are returned home by European museums.