Cyrus Cylinder of Iran, Rosetta Stone of Egypt, an Obelisk but No Dogs in Paris……….
“The “remarkable” discovery this month of two small fragments of inscribed clay at the British Museum will cast new light on a 2,500-year-old cylinder that bears the world’s first charter of human rights. The finds, however, have aroused Iran’s suspicion because it means the British Museum will again delay loaning the so-called Cyrus cylinder to Tehran while scholars in London study and decipher the discovery. “We will cut off all our cultural relations with the museum if we realise later that the British Museum has been wasting time and seeking excuses to shrug off our requests,” Hamid Baqaei, Iran’s vice-president in charge of cultural heritage, warned this week. The Cyrus cylinder was written in BC539 on the orders of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire, after he conquered Babylon and freed the Jews and other peoples held captive there, while ushering in religious freedom. Two small pieces of clay from a cuneiform tablet were discovered on January 5 to be inscribed with the same text as the nine-inch-long Cyrus cylinder, one of the British Museum’s most celebrated possessions. “Remarkably, the new pieces assist with the reading of passages in the cylinder that are either missing or obscure,” the British Museum said in a statement. Despite rising political tensions between Tehran and London, the British Museum has worked hard to maintain good relations with its Iranian counterpart in recent years – and is now striving to smooth ruffled feathers in Tehran………..”
In principle, all these major artifacts were acquired illegally by European powers, when they were gunboat powers. The Cyrus Cylinder of Iran and the Rosetta Stone of Egypt belong in the Middle East. Now if Egypt and Iran were run by Salafis, who destroy anything that is pre-Islamic and most things that are post-Islamic (a la Taliban), then I would keep them safe in Europe.
I would vote, however, to keep the Egyptian obelisk right where it is in Paris, at the Place de la Concorde, right near the Hotel de Crillon. It was stolen from the temple of Ramses II, but it looks really good in Paris, as most things do in Paris. Most women also look better when they are in Paris, no matter where they come from, well almost. It must be the water, no?
Cheers
mhg
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