Brian M. Fagan: The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt

[bibliogramma]

In The Rape of the Nile, Brian Fagan tells the story of centuries of theft and destruction of priceless artefacts and archeological sites, largely by foreign invaders and adventurers, but also by Egyptians themselves. The catalogue of loss is a long one, and includes Roman conquerers, medieval adventurers, Napoleonic soldiers and historians, British entrepreneurs and archeologists - all of whom felt that the treasures of the ancient land of Egypt were theirs for the taking.

During the past two thousand years Ancient Egypt has effectively been destroyed, both by the Egyptians themselves and by a host of foreigners, many of them arriving in the Nile Valley in the name of science and nationalism. The loss to archaeology is incalculable, that to Egyptian history even more staggering. As a result of the looting and pillage of generations of irresponsible visitors, the artifacts and artistic achievements of the Ancient Egyptians are scattered all over the globe, some of the most beautiful and spectacular of them stored or displayed thousands of miles from the Nile.

Fagan's detailed accounting of the discoveries and wholesale removals of the cultural wealth of an entire civilisation - often in more recent times under the paternalistic colonial argument that Western institutions can take better care of Egypt's heritage than Egyptians can - is valuable both as a record of the development of Egyptology and as a testament to the necessity of cultural sensitivity on the part of archeologists, and cultural preservation on the part of countries such as Egypt whose history has been turned into a tourist bazaar.