Wow. You always heard so much about tomb robbers, It's amazing for them to have found so many intact and unraided.
A piece of me says....I guess it's an amazing find.....but another side of me says, what makes these archaeologists (sp?) so very different from the grave robbers.....they are opening the well preserved sarcophagus' from 3000 years ago....people who thought they were buried forever.......Part of me just doesn't get 'it'......and they're ALL EXCITED about finding, hopefully, MORE??
The colors! The colors inside the sarcophagus, looked so brilliant, like they were painted last week. It is strange Aquitaine but I kind of understand the excitement of learning more about them. Unlike the grave robbers who sold everything, at these will be preserved and displayed in a Museum. It's better than the Victorian's obsession of holding mummy unwrapping parties and then burning the mummies when they were done.
I agree. It is an amazing find.... of something that was never meant to be found. But at least archaelologists make records of everything. Jmo, mummies don't belong in museums, they belong in the burial chambers they were put in. At peace, no need for historians or tourists. I always hated seeing the remains of dead people in museums, why put them on show, and who are we to look at their remains and disturb dreams of eternity. If someone were to do that with the remains of our grandparents, we would feel very hurt and find it disrespectful. I am not against archaelology, not at all. But we can find out much about the past without disturbing graves. And if we come across them accidentally, like in construction sites, we can take photos and soil samples. Maybe some dna. After that, either close the grave respectfully, or move the remains to a safe burial site.
This seems like the first big Egyptian find that was simply a pit dug in sand, filled with treasures, then covered up with only a relatively thin layer of sand. I doubt this was the only such site. You can be sure the explorers will start flying all around Egypt with ground-penetrating radar or whatever.
The very first time I ever went to a museum, my grandfather took me to see the mummies at the University of Pennsylvania. It has only just now struck me that it was an odd outting for a two-year old! I remember them quite well -- some wrapped up, and some partially exposed.
That felt a little like Déjà vu. I use to share models with some other artists and several years ago, during a break, we had a similar conversation about being the mummies of the future. The conversation began with how people felt about cryonics. Someone said they were going to write a letter on a piece of his artwork and insist it be hung around their neck like a hang tag upon their burial. It would include all personal information and brief biography of his life. Just in case he was discovered by archaeologists of the future, he didn't want to leave them guessing and, if he ended up on display, he wanted everything to be "correct".
