Return the Slab

Return the slab...or suffer the curse... is probably what the Egyptian people want to tell the British Museum. Well not, quite a curse, but more than likely some level of shaming will happen. It's no secret that a lot of the items in European museums were stolen from other countries, especially those in the British Museum. The British Museum has been urged in the past to return certain stolen artifacts, but most of the time items are not returned.

At the center of this particular fight is the Rosetta Stone. What is the Rosetta Stone? The Rosetta Stone is a stone slab with three versions of a decree that was issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC. The text consists of the same decree written in hieroglyphics, Demotic scripts, and Ancient Greek. The stone is believed to have originally been displayed in a temple and was eventually moved to be used as a building material in the construction of Fort Julien which was located in the Nile Delta. The significance of the Rosetta stone is that prior to this discovery, understanding of Ancient Egyptian was essentially non-existent.

How did it get to the British Museum? This tale starts with the French in 1799 during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. French scientists uncovered the stone in Rashid (known by the French as Rosetta) and did their best to hold on to the stone and study it. Unfortunately for them, when the British defeated the French, they took the stone to London in 1801 and, since 1802, the Rosetta Stone has been on public display at the British Museum. The Rosetta Stone wasn't the only thing that the British took - over a dozen other antiquities were handed over to the British as part of the terms of the surrender deal between the generals of both sides. To be clear, it isn't the country of Egypt, and not the Egyptian government, requesting the return of the stone but the people of Egypt.

There are currently two petitions calling for the stone's return. The question here is, do the British have the right to keep the stone? It is said to have been illegally possessed by the French initially, but does that also translate to being in possession by the British illegally as well? U.S. Museums believe that to be the case and returned 16 antiquities to Egypt in September of this year after an investigation was done and determined that the items had in fact been illegally trafficked. The British Museum, on the other hand, doesn't seem to believe that the Rosetta Stone was illegally obtained, nor do they feel that they have an obligation to return it at this time. The British Museum states that the 1801 treaty included the signature of a representative of Egypt and since the Egyptian government has not put in a formal request for the Stone's return, they do not feel that these petitions should be obeyed.

Is there potential for the Rosetta Stone to be returned? More than likely, the British Museum will take action if the Egyptian government files a formal request for the return of the Rosetta Stone, but for now, the Rosetta Stone will remain on display at the British Museum.

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