Rosetta Stone as Fridge Magnet
Thoughts on Collecting and Empire
How’s your summer going? Let me guess, hotter than hell, and that’s just the news cycle.
One of the benefits of being an almost-mostly empty nester is the ability to travel when the planets align. I’ve just returned from London after one of those rare celestial events where there was no one home who couldn’t fend for themselves for a few days.
London is a fabulous city. I could, but won’t, spend an entire newsletter on that. Today, I want to discuss language and communication via the British Museum.
What Type of Museum Visitor Are You?
I’m an enthusiastic museum visitor - depending on the museum of course. I like museums with curiosities, objects that make you imagine who owned them and what they were used for. While I enjoy art museums, I admit that my art knowledge is on the lower side of smart, and without a docent, I’m bored. I shuffled through the Vatican a few years ago and thought my eyes would bleed, but that’s another newsletter as well. (ahem, stolen art?)
My family has coined the phrase museum feet. It’s the soreness that your feel on the bottom of your feet from walking and standing on hard museum surfaces after several hours.
I ventured to the British Museum for two specific exhibits, the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.
I have always been captivated by the Rosetta Stone, what it represents, its history, and how it unlocked two ancient languages, opening our eyes to ancient Egypt.
Here’s the TL:DNR
Discovered in 1799 by Napoleon’s army in Egypt in the town of Rashid also called Rosetta
Came into the British possession in 1801 after they defeated Napoleon
It is a decree written in three languages: Hieroglyphics, the language of the priests, Demotic, the language of educated Egyptians, and Ancient Greek, the language of the “then” government.
At the time of discover, no one knew how to read demotic or hieroglyphics, but they knew how to read ancient Greet
Two and a half decades after it made its way to England, scholars decoded both the demotic and the hieroglyphics unlocking these ancient languages.
Here’s the movie version if you want more details.
The Real Rosetta Stone, Not the Language App
The Rosetta Stone is a hugely popular exhibit. I had to wait a long time for gaggles of school children to peer through the glass. It’s about the size of my kitchen table.
Then My Trip Began to Feel Icky
From the Rosetta Stone, I wandered (the museum map is terrible) until I found the Elgin Marbles.
I wanted to see for myself why these ancient Greek artifacts were controversial in 1802 and remain so today.
The Elgin Marbles are on display in the British Museum as the Parthenon Sculptures. They are a massive collection of sculptures that were taken from the Parthenon in Athens by Thomas Bruce the 7th Lord Elgin. He had a passion for antiquities.
LSS, Elgin takes a boat load (really several boat loads) of antiquities from the Parthenon and other structures for safe keeping back to England. His side of the story is that he feared that the current government of the Ottoman Empire would be indifferent to their significance and destroy them. He stated that he was given the authority to take them. ¯\_(ツ)_/.
These magnificent works of ancient Greece are still in the British Museum. Greece wants them back countering it would be like the British crown jewels being in Athens. The British say that they have kept these pieces safe and well cared for, allowing millions of people to see and study them.
However, none of this controversy is mentioned as you walk through these massive displays.
On one hand, yes, millions of people have seen and studied these incredible works of art and culture. That’s why I was there.
On the other hand, I didn’t see many black and brown people walking through the museum (granted it was only a one day sample) but it made me wonder who - demographic - has been able to see these?
But then the real hmm…of the day started to hit me as I considered how the British Museum communicated its collection history to the millions of visitors. The museum has a Collecting and Empire Trail that you can follow throughout the building that discusses specific pieces that were acquired during the age of Empire.
The link above provides images and a shortened caption of the actual printed narrative.
I found this Collecting and Empire Trail to be nothing more than a sorry not sorry trail. As I read the plaques, I was struck how they all state that objects were collected to save them, or that they were given for safe keeping, or the best one, they were taken after receiving a permit.
My favorite of the plaques I read is the one below where the East India Company is called honorable. And when the Chinese Qing government demanded they stop/reduce the amount of Opium coming into China caused the first Opium war. The Qing government lost and was forced to allow even more drugs into the country. How is this honorable and okay?
That’s like waging a war with the Mexican drug cartels where the U.S. loses and then being forced to allow more fentanyl in the US. That’s not something to be proud of. And yet, it is stated as that’s the way it was fact.
Museums and Marketing
I’ve been a copywriter and marketer for thirty years. I can recognize spin when I read it. The British museum and museums around the globe are guilty of this. The Smithsonian museums in Washington DC have thousands of objects including skeletons of Native People.
While I recognize that our/my sense of propriety has evolved since these objects were first collected, I am struck that more isn’t being done to right these wrongs.
I appreciated and loved my day at the museum. The museum is free allowing anyone to come and view these incredible objects. I was fascinated by a huge collection of Viking artifacts, the likes of which I had never seen — all collected from archeological sites from Ireland. Should they be returned? Is this finders keepers?
Museums do preserve, protect, and display stunning works of art. Many are purchased and donated. They tell stories of humanity and culture. They show the horrors of war, the human experience through the ages.
History is written by the victors is a quote often but incorrectly attributed to Winston Churchill. But the sentiment is the same here. The entity that owns the possession seems to have the power to describe its significance. That doesn’t mean it’s correct. And certainly not honorable.
Yes, do visit and support museums and appreciate all they display and offer, but read the plaques with more than a degree of skepticism. Consider the source of the source.
My day of museum research led to a day of reflection.
Pelican Update
The Pelican Tide is taking off since its debut. I’ve been overwhelmed by the response. Here are some upcoming dates where you can find and hear me.
August 31, Mary Riley Styles Library, Falls Church Virginia
October 4-5, New Hampshire Book Festival
October 12, Barnes and Noble, Fairlakes, Virginia
October 17, George Mason University, Fall for the Book
November 1, Louisiana Book Festival (yes, they did invite me)
How Do I Prepare for These Book Events?
With hot sauce of course. I just bought 144 mini bottles of Tabasco for giveaways and book club swag bags.
Next issue features a special interview with my friend and domestic suspense author, Maggie Smith where there will be a book giveaway.
Sharon, you’ve done a fabulous job of educating, or re-educating, on the subject of questionable museum acquisitions and the morality of same. Your humorous tone is a great help in hammering home your point. Great read!
Today, my book club talked about "The Writing of the Gods" by Edward Dolnick. Some history preceding the search for the Rosetta Stone, the scramble to find pieces, and the eventual decoding. Took the searchers and decoders a bit to put it mildly. I recommend the book. I may change my mind, but right now, I say finders keepers, the Rosetta Stone being a good example of how the local appreciation of what they have and efforts to preserve could be less than optimal even destructive when it comes to preserving artifacts.