Quoted in "Now give us back Rosetta Stone and other treasures, Egyptians demand/Campaigners say the Grand Egyptian Museum opening strengthens the country’s moves to have ancient looted artefacts returned" (London Times).
What's up with the British spelling "artefact"? The Latin root is "artēfactum," just combines "skill" and "thing" to mean "thing made," and the French word was "artefact." The American spelling — "artifact" — reflects the thinking of Noah Webster, who scorned spelling based on etymology and foreign languages — especially French.
As for the Rosetta Stone: Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere.
पोस्ट्स
४३ टिप्पण्या:
Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere
…that’s what the clients do with the Sotheby’s stuff…
As for the Rosetta Stone: Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere.
dunno. knowing that I would be seeing a replica would probably dissuade me from coming to visit. I could just look at the pictures.
Why aren't these "enviromental activists" being prosecuted along with their orgazations and whoever is funding these people? And not only prosecuted but sued?
The problem with Arab "artefacts" within Arab museums in Arab countries is you're only ever one muslim brotherhood change of regime from a repeat of the Bamiyan Buddhas. And they stole 50x as much of their own heritage from their own museums after the region's most recent failure of a sociopathic strongman...I almost forgot about that particular "blessing of freedom".
The departed souls of Rumsfeld and Cheney are doing double-duty on my psyche today.
No one wants to see a replica at a museum- you can just look at high quality photos today without going to the museum if a replica is all you need.
Hide it under Brigitte Macron's skirt. That's the secure facility in Europe.
"knowing that I would be seeing a replica would probably dissuade me from coming to visit. I could just look at the pictures."
Yeah. Get ready. In the future, no one will need (or want) to go anywhere.
most secure facility
Will you recognize it as a copy? Consider the possibility replicas are already happening…
They didn't care a tinkers cuss about any of this crap when it was in their country. Now that it's been found, collected, studied and preserved, they want it back? Sod off swampy.
The Rosetta Stone wouldn't be the first thing hidden under that skirt that might be a replica and not the real thing.
There's a reason I observe fuzzy little galaxies through a telescope rather than look at Hubble telescope images*. In the telescope, the actual 10 million year old photons that started out at that galaxy are entering my eye; creating a biochemical response in my retina.
A replica is not the original.
*I look at Hubble images too.
"Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere."
Why would it be safe in a vault somewhere? Display the real thing and 10 replicas. Don't tell anyone which is the real one. Might be safer.
"In the future, no one will need (or want) to go anywhere."
The future is now...huge cohorts are already there.
"Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket!"
Regarding replicas versus the real thing: Forgers need no incentives to make near-perfect copies. They've been copying art and sculptures for thousands of years. In recent years they've copied collector cars and luxury watches so well that experts get fooled.
The creator and first owner know it's a fake and often tell the first buyer. The first buyer suspects he/she "got a deal" and that it was actually real. The second buyer resells it with sincere uncertainty (or commits outright fraud). The third buyer pays $400,000,000 and puts it in a museum.
"Display the real thing and 10 replicas. Don't tell anyone which is the real one. Might be safer."
Romans did the same thing with the Shields of the Salii, but it didn't save the original from Elagabalus.
A small stone the size of a large stone.
"Why would it be safe in a vault somewhere?"
Who cares?
People with expensive jewels wear replicas to go out. Really valuable objects are a pain in the ass for everyone involved. So are people who linger over museum cases.
’The American spelling — "artifact" — reflects the thinking of Noah Webster, who scorned spelling based on etymology and foreign languages — especially French.’
French is merely provincial Latin. Gallia est provincia.
I vote they put it in Al Capone's vault... somewhere.
The future is coming, an AI generated Rosetta Stone. It is so meta that I would expect Meta to do it and make it visible in VR space.
"Who cares?"
Who cares if someone steals the Rosetta Stone?
Besides the obvious, who knows what new test science may want to do on it in the future.
That strategy is universal for all of the so-called great masterpieces in top art museums. A very high percentage of them are fakes. The real ones aren't stuck in the vault, they are hanging in the homes of the money changing and technology grinding billionaire uberclass after, of course, they get the huge tax write off for donating the fake to the museum.
I didn't know that about Noah Webster. How did he justify spellings with 'ough' and "igh"? Sigh. I like spellings based on etymology, as they can help you figure out what a word means, both in English and other languages.
AI it's going to reinterpret the Rosetta Stone as an advertisement for a two-for-one early bird special at Lenny's Halva and Hummus Hut.
Except islamists regard ancient artefacts as dhaliya before the prophet
IMO, it's better to have such items dispersed than all sitting in one place. One good bomb at the one museum housing all of it and it's all gone.
Also see Palmyra.
imagine annual spelling bee competition infused with Websterian spirit!
Like the infiniti stonss
First day of first business trip to London - straight to the British Museum to see it.
Anthony said, "One good bomb at the one museum housing all of it and it's all gone."
Not an entirely bad idea that. They might end up with less to murder each other over.
I roll my eyes whenever Modern day Egypt tries to claim some sort of significant cultural connection to Ancient Egypt. In my mind Greece has a stronger, but also silly claim, to the Rosetta Stone.
The Vault Dweller said...
“I roll my eyes whenever Modern day Egypt tries to claim some sort of significant cultural connection to Ancient Egypt. In my mind Greece has a stronger, but also silly claim, to the Rosetta Stone.”
I would think the Copts would have the strongest claim relative to other Egyptians. The Coptic language is a descendant of ancient Egyptian. Plus, they have the highest percentage of genetic continuity with the ancient Egyptians compared to other Egyptians as well.
“As for the Rosetta Stone: Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere.”
You can get a Rosetta Stone replica from Amazon for less than $100. Nobody goes to a museum to see replicas. People want to see the real thing. Would you go to MOMA to see prints?
"Egypt’s Arab Academy for Science and Technology?"
Seriously, such a thing exists? Muslims are renowned throughout history for toppling and destroying things, and killing lots of people too. Wonder if this "academy" has mastered the multiplication tables or conducted any experiments boiling water.
"Would you go to MOMA to see prints?"
Good question.
The idea of going to a museum is to make an emotional connection to past times via the power of the totem object. Would the magic still work if it is a fake? Probably, but not if you tell everyone.
For example, when the banana rots and falls off the wall, everyone sees that you nailed a new one up.
Is the Rosetta Stone really a work of art, or is it more like an index or table designed for commercial or other practical use?
If the latter, who cares whether it’s the original. There could have been dozens of the things made, and it just so happens that the others are lost.
Lucien,
Wherever did you get the idea that the Rosetta Stone was a work of art?
It works like a code key
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