"Say what?" That must be the phrase of the day on Beacon Street as huddled masses of archaeological community activists scratch their heads in dismay over the week's events in Cairo.
First, we heard of dreadful vandalism and looting at the National Museum and other sites around Egypt. Headlines reported the heads being ripped off of mummies and artifacts being destroyed. On its Daily News web page, National Geographic boldly asserted that "Looting attempts at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and theft at other historic sites have underscored the vulnerability of 'a cultural legacy that belongs to mankind.' Can the country's antiquities and sites be protected?" Archaeologists immediately reacted, in true military contingency plan fashion, with suggestions for a U.S. government response. That response, no surprise to seasoned followers of the AIA methodology, would be centered around emergency import restrictions. The AIA and five other "preservationist" organizations called for U.S. law enforcement agencies to "be on the alert for the next several months" for Egyptian antiquities (as if there were some U.S. collector conspiracy to empty the Cairo Museum through a staged overthrow of the government). Ricardo St. Hilaire proposed that Congress pass "An Emergency Protection for Egyptian Cultural Antiquities Act". Dr. Larry Rothsfield echoed that call on the S.A.F.E. website and encouraged Egypt to request import restrictions via a MOU through the State Department.
Scene 2: Suddenly, the storm clouds part and a bright ray of light shines upon the Great Pyramid -- all is well! Zahi Hawass has been named Minister of Antiquities and the problems of Egypt are so much smaller than they were just days ago. Everything is Safe! "The people in the streets have to give this government an opportunity to change," Hawass said cheerfully. "Beautiful things happened in the last five days."
OK...... nice spin, but what about the call for import restrictions? Yesterday they were crucial and Congress was being urged to act. Today, there isn't any problem. That sort of takes the wind off shore in Boston as far as justifications go. But, knowing how these things tend to go, I expect that the hype will be strummed loud and long. American intervention in world cultural affairs is becoming a tedious drone of self-righteousness and politically correct indignation. Like a guitar tuned in Open C5, it has a very flat edge to it. Maybe we should mind our own business?
Archaeologist Alexander Joffe hit the nail on the head in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on Tuesday. The influential professor summed up his critical analysis of the current situation by saying "The heritage of Egypt on Egyptian soil belongs to Egyptians and should remain in Egypt. It is up to the Egyptian people to decide whether to preserve or destroy it." This amazingly rational statement is particularly poignant in the context of Joffe's accompanying argument that opposes repatriation of objects already outside of Egypt. Joffe is well remembered for his "Museum Madness in Baghdad" published in 2004. In that Middle East Quarterly paper he exposed and criticized the wild exaggerations of archaeologists and Baghdad Museum officials that ultimately led to emergency U.S. import restrictions (and did nothing to address the real looting issues in Iraq). Those restrictions have yet to be lifted even though their congressionally mandated sunset has long since passed. It's ironic that he (and we) should have yet another opportunity to weigh in on the same sort of sensationalism.
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