The Pharaoh in the Suburbs

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Hafiz
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The Pharaoh in the Suburbs

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The Pharaoh in the Suburbs

A small recent doco by that title that provides a context to the large statue (11m full reconstruction) found in a Heliopolis a year and a half ago. Can’t find the doco anywhere on the internet, maybe it goes under other names. It opens doors and does not give a full or final picture.

It has reasonable commentators from Cambridge, Berlin and Chris Naunton and, in addition, local Supreme Antiques that blow hard, extravagant and incoherent. Their words imply chaotic brains. A voice over so aggravating it could cause a revolt.

Al Ahram presented the find at the time as a singular achievement of the Supreme Antiques and the statue as Ramses II. In fact it was a German find with possible blue collar assistance from Egyptians – until the find, when the German’s were tossed aside, the Army arrived as did a whole fleet of S Class Mercedes and supreme persons. It was not Ramses II but al Ahram never apologized.

The only Egyptian they could find to comment on the discovery was the desk and suit bound Mahmoud Affifi who doesn’t even work for the Supreme Antiques, has never published anything but who I think is a former Foreign Affairs Cabinet Advisor to the Mubarak Government. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09CAIRO81_a.html. That he is entirely unqualified for his current job is an Egyptian requirement for all jobs. He was all 3 star suavity with not a single useful thing o say.

Careful examination, by the Germans, showed it was the relatively unknown Psamtik I who was born during the Assyrian occupation and who developed Sais north of Cairo as his capital (briefly looked at in this doco) – a site far from fully examined.

He recruited Greek soldiers, expelled the Assyrians and helped reunite Egypt. This was probably the last Egyptian military victory – but it wasn’t Egyptian. These contacts with Greeks probably led to an upsurge in trade with Greece and more broadly in the Med, and considerable prosperity.

Two of the large pieces of the statue were displayed, for an extended period, on the front lawn of the old museum on a base that was far from stable (the piece on the right is propped up by a circular firewood log about 5 inches high and a couple of feet long) and with no protection against graffiti or sharp pocket knives. Its not even centrally placed just stuck on the edge and illustrates all we know about the supreme incompetence of the Supreme Antiques and their carelessness and complete absence of skills in displaying anything other than ego. They put this unstable mess in a public place. Oh they are fresh out of the hole so they forgot to do any photographs, scientific examination, assessment of how the stone would be affected by smog and other chemicals after 2,500 years underground, didn't do any X-rays to assess its structural integrity etc - they did nothing but dump it as two incoherent pieces of a larger sculpture on the front lawn in front of the world media that they desperately want to attract to Egypt. There is also no fence and no security cameras.

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Here are the massed lunatics placing the statue on the lawn – no one appears to be in control of this mayhem – as if anyone is in any matter.

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Here is how they excavated parts of it – unbelievable – at this stage I think the Germans lost control. And they police the western digging teams and scream about all the thefts and how they should be returned. Returned so what can happen? At

least one worker is in bare feet - do they pay them so little or do they do nothing to require that workers protect themselves - probably both.

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Here is the ‘pick up’ - so to speak – note there is no padding on the steel scoop – what are these fools doing? Have they learnt nothing. Answer yes. They knew the world media was filming them.

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In all the crowds of official and unofficial persons and the entire ‘workforce’ there was not a single woman – just foolish, impatient and hysterical men.

The statue was deliberately destroyed in ancient times using fire and cold water – not known by whom.

This period leading up to the Persian invasion seems interesting but little studied.

Psamtik was unusual in being curious about the outside world and engaging with it – not something those in current power are interested in lest Egyptians feel inadequate.

The art of this period is unusual and may reflect external influences – now feared and rejected in other terms in modern Egypt. Some unusual art styles which may be linked to this poorly studied era.

Head of his successor Psamtik II.

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Head of Amasis

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I would be interested to know if any Egyptian scholar has done any work on this shift in style. Unlikely.

The documentary does a quick and shallow argument on how Greek presence in Egypt changed Greek sculpture back home. This is complex and assiduously avoided by Egypt on the basis that they have never been interested in their connection with the broader world. A short authoritative Met article on the matter. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/argk/hd_argk.htm a long and scholarly British Museum article on Naukratis https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Thoma ... lpture.pdf. It’s a subject specialists are cautious about.

Museums around the world produce articles, organize seminars, hold conferences, publish books, run kids programs, produce and sell videos and give lectures for average and interested people. With its 77,000 staff the Supreme Antiques does none of this. They don’t even do much digging because physical work out in the open is beneath their status – whilst western Archbishop’s daughters are happy to do it. There is no catalogue to the Tahir holdings after 15 years of random trying nor a standard $US30 ‘best of the museum’ in 100 pages for tourists to buy - nor well photographed and printed $US2 postcards of items in their collection. They is a new AUC Hawass book – proceeds to the Hawass Benevolent Fund which means that any tourist money will go into one pocket. Bet he didn’t write it or too many of the other pap (all/most not reviewed in any professional/academic journals).


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