I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about how to demonstrate the value that some groups in society place on their cultural patrimony. My interest in this topic was re-awakened by reports last month that the protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square had set up a protective zone around the Egyptian Museum next door to prevent looting and damage to the priceless assets contained therein. Although there was some minor damage and a small number of statuettes were stolen, this seems to have happened in only one incident. Recent reports from the former head of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass, suggest that there has also been some damage around the ruins at Saqqara and in some other locations. But in the main, the Egyptian people have respected the legal protection afforded to some of the richest archaeological remains in the world.
One compares this with the situation a few years ago in Iraq, when there was widespread looting in the national museum in Baghdad, with many items still missing and presumed destroyed or sold on the black market. And the damage to the ruins of the ancient city of Ur by US marines who used the site as a base to oversee the downfall of Saddam Hussein was not only a violation of trust but also a clear illustration of the lack of awareness, appreciation and understanding of the enormously rich heritage of the region still prevalent amongst many people.
News coming out of Libya also gives some cause for concern, with reports that some archaeological sites are being damaged in the struggle between pro- and anti- Gaddafi forces. In all three cases, there are fundamental issues of national identity and political power being worked out and yet only in the Egyptian case have the protagonists gone out of their way to protect their patrimony. One wonders whether this is in part because they recognise the enormous contribution that such assets make to the development and sustainability of a responsible tourism sector that celebrates rather than diminishes cultures and their heritage. Perhaps we will never know what drove those Egyptian protestors in Tahrir Square to protect the treasures of the Egyptian Museum. But we should remember to thank them.
