What interests 7W.....Ancient Egypt

So I asked 7W what they wanted me to write about and these were the things they came up with.
Ancient Egypt, the Titanic, World War 2 (rationing, air raids, Hitler and Anne Frank), the Industrial Revolution and the Beatles.

Here is one entry for now and I will follow up with articles on the other areas in the following weeks.

Ancient Egyptians - If I'm totally honest I'm not the biggest fan of the Ancients, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians etc. It's not that I don't appreciate how ingenious they were for building things like the Pyramids or Aqueducts but I just don't know a huge amount about them for me to form a solid opinion about them. So I thought I would write about the artefacts that were taken by Howard Carter and others when they discovered the tombs in the pyramids in the early part of the 20th century and whether or not these should be returned.

Howard Carter

Britain took control of Egypt in 1882 and it remained a British protectorate until it's independence in 1922. Many of the Egyptology (study of Ancient Egypt) that took place was while Britain was in charge of this area, partly due to it becoming fashionable in the aristocracy of England.

Howard Carter travelled to Egypt in 1891 at the age of 17 and worked with an archaeologist. In 1907 he was given his own commission by Lord Carnarvon, an English aristocrat.  In 1922, Carter and his crew discovered a flight of steps that led to a sealed door and a secret chamber. Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb where they found a huge collection of gold and treasures. A few months later, Carter opened the innermost chamber and found the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun. Carter remained in Egypt for the next decade while the excavations and removal of treasures took place.

Much of the debate surrounding Egptian artefacts has been around whether or not they should be returned to Egypt. One particular artefact is the Rosetta Stone which came into British posession in 1802 and has been displayed ever since, apart from during World War 2 where it, with other artefacts, were stored safely deep underground due to the bombing that was happening to London. The latest demand for its return was in 2010 where Egypt requested that a number of artefacts be returned, the Rosetta Stone being one of them. The Egypt delegates argued that while they were aware that there was no legal reason for the artefacts to be returned they argued that important icons should be in their motherland. Other countries have made requests for important items to be returned such as Greece's request for the Elgin Marbles and Nigeria's request for the Benin Bronzes. There are anti-looting laws that have been in place since 1954 to prevent artefacts being removed for either resale or display from countries however these laws do not apply to items taken before this time.

So the debate lingers on. Should artefacts be returned to their country or origin where they may not have the same care and protection as offered by museums in London, Berlin, Paris and New York who preserve them for the good of all nations or should they be returned to their country of origin regardless of the ability to preserve and protect these historically valued items? 

To read more visit.... 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/7563963/British-Museum-under-pressure-to-give-up-leading-treasures.html 

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/museum_and_exhibition/audio_description_tour/the_rosetta_stone.aspx

http://www.biography.com/people/howard-carter-20683395

Be a Historian for the National Archives!

The National Archives have been working for many years to make thousands of documents accessible on the Internet. They have been able to scan and make available thousands of documents from World War 1.

But now they need you to use your "tagging" skills to label these documents so that people can search for a date or a person or a location. This makes it a lot easier for families of relatives or people doing research to find the best document for them. It also means that you can help track an individual's journey throughout the war.

It is really easy and simple to do, I did some myself!

Follow the link below to help out the National Archives and therefore help out fellow historians!


http://www.operationwardiary.org/

Come and tell us in the History department what you learnt from this or comment below!

Have fun being a Historian!