Ancestral remains should no longer be displayed in UK museums, say MPs (www.theguardian.com)
from fossilesque@mander.xyz to archaeology@mander.xyz on 12 Mar 2025 20:39
https://mander.xyz/post/26363785

#archaeology

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deegeese@sopuli.xyz on 12 Mar 2025 20:49 next collapse

Replace the mummies with domestic monarchs.

starshipHighwayman69@lemmy.ml on 12 Mar 2025 21:37 collapse

Current ones?

deegeese@sopuli.xyz on 12 Mar 2025 22:01 collapse

Nah, they’ve got plenty stashed in Westminster Abbey. Just dig ‘em up like they did the Egyptian kings.

starshipHighwayman69@lemmy.ml on 12 Mar 2025 23:17 collapse

Nah fuck them all. No kings no Masters.

Coelacanth@feddit.nu on 12 Mar 2025 21:14 next collapse

“Putting human remains on display is unethical, especially when no consent has been given,”

Wait, this is their issue? Not colonialism and displaying stolen goods, but the fact that Artemidorus didn’t sign a form allowing his mummified body to be displayed at the British Museum and his 3000-year-old ghost might be offended?

[deleted] on 12 Mar 2025 21:24 collapse

.

KevinFRK@lemmy.world on 18 Mar 2025 18:29 collapse

“For example, she said Egyptian mummified persons were excavated and brought back to Britain, for racist pseudoscientific research.”

As opposed to the utterly respectful local descendants of those times, who, if they got there first, unwrapped the mummies, took any precious metals for resale (often melting it down first), and discarded the rest on the ground - playthings for dogs and children. Oh, or used as fertilizer, of course.

Traveller’s journals of the Nineteenth century seem to all have at least one account of the traveller’s horror of unearthed, looted and broken mummies left scattered on the ground.

As for European and Local looters, in Pharonic times up to 2011, can I recommend “A Short History of Tomb-Raiding” by Maria Golia?

So, perhaps “We should do better” today, but don’t pretend back in the “Golden Age” of Egyptology that the locals in Egypt were not as bad as the Europeans in their disrespect.