King Tut's Burial Mask Has Been "Irreversibly Damaged"

oh the past, the past, we've lost a treasure from the past.
although i love history, and think we should preserve what we can. sh@@ happens, it was a mistake, whether due to carelessness, or ignorance it's done and can't be reversed, get over it and move on.

i know that i'm gonna catch flame from this, a great deal of what we supposedly know.... well never mind i don't feel like dealing with it today.

originally posted by: Chrisfishenstein
Who effing cares? People make mistakes and I am sure curators make mistakes also from time to time.

I care. And if someone isn't capable of handling ancient artifacts properly, then they shouldn't be near them. This is inexcusable. Someone got lazy and didn't follow proper artifact handling that a real curator would have been trained in.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: butcherguy
It looks like they got it more-or-less straight. Surprisingly. Here's a before-and-after comparison...

It is a shame that this has happened.
Egypt must be like the US,skilled people that know how and can do the job.
Are being replaced by people that will work for noting and have no clue what they are doing.

I dont see how they cant fix it...It's only a man made glue, we have chemicals that will dissolve that stuff without harming the mask itself and as for the scratches.... have they never heard of polishing compounds. Gold is easy.

Christ, i'll do it for £100 and a fortnight at Sharm el sheikh battering bull sharks over the spud with midgets and a free pass allowing me to corrupt their wimmin folk.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

So tragic, first thought was this>



www.youtube.com...

Reminds me of a Brady Bunch episode involving a horse statue.

Could be worse, they could have let the Old Lady who did this to a valuable artwork loose on it.

That's an amazing piece of art work. Seems hard to imagine someone having the capability to make such a perfectly smooth golden object that long ago. It is a shame that it got broken but at least its still there and hasn't' been melted down for the gold.

Thing is, if these guys in Egypt didn't know what the hell they're doing - there's probably a whole slew of museums in the Europe or U.S. that would have taken this artifact on loan for a month or so in order to repair it correctly. I even know some museums take the restoration process an extra step (I remember this last time I went to the Field Museum), they'll have a room with one way glass and mics so the public can watch and overhear the restoration process taking place live without causing interference. You definitely have to be in top form to to have it semi-open where anybody and everybody can watch what you're doing like that, as some expert could be standing outside taking notes while it's very obvious as to who is working on it.

Well sure people make mistakes, but I could have done a better job with the epoxy fix than they did, it looks very sloppy. Believe me, I have used enough of that stuff on my swimming pool. Honestly, I think in this case a small bead of super glue probably would have been a better option. Always keep a wet towel handy too. ~$heopleNation

originally posted by: LockNLoad

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: butcherguy
It looks like they got it more-or-less straight. Surprisingly. Here's a before-and-after comparison...

that makes me think of when i was doing construction work right before going to boot camp.
one of the guys would ask how does that look, everybody else would say looks good from my house, nail it!

Pretty for sure they called the janitor in to fix this. I can see it now, "OH MY GOODNESS, I just knocked Tut's beard off! Who has the glue around here? Quick, call the janitor, he fixes all the stuff that gets broken..."

*shaking my head*

Yes, accidents happen. I tell my children this all the time. But, this is like somebody tried to hurry up and slap it back together so nobody would notice. How was the beard originally attached anyhow? It obviously wasn't a solid piece if it was that easily knocked off. Why couldn't they at least use sauter or some kind of metal bonding agent that wouldn't be as easily noticeable? Should have called a jeweler maybe. Geez.

I've been reading some more about this, and found some more information, and something rather strange....

According to a few different sources, the beard was broken off when they were trying to change the lighting in its' display case. Apparently the mask fell forward, somebody rushed to grab it, and the beard snapped when the mask hit this person's chest. Thank god they were quick to react, because it sounds like if that person hadn't been there, it would have fallen face first to the floor, and who knows how much more damage it could have sustained.

Now for the peciullularity....I first heard about this early yesterday afternoon. Just about all of the major news sources have picked up on the story within the last 24 hours, most within the last 16 hours. There are stories from the past 24 hours about conservation groups filing suit, and investigations being opened, in addition to the numerous stories about the damage and repair. This would lead one to assume that this was a very recent event, but that's not the case, as this all evidently happened last August. Here is a comparison shot (this time with the same angle), between a photo taken in 2010 and a photo taken late last year. The lip kind of tripped me out for a minute, until I realized it was something in the background lol...

And here is a photo that a visitor to the museum took last August of two men from the museum purportedly holding the beard in place while the epoxy set. I believe it is what it says, as they're obviously holding the beard, and if you look closely, both men are wearing latex gloves, and the man with the blue striped shirt is holding what I presume to be the spatula that they attempted to scrape epoxy off with. (That still blows my mind).

So if all of this happened five months ago, as now seems to be the case, why are we just now hearing about it, and why is it being reported as if it's breaking news? Why are these groups just now filing lawsuits, and investigations just now being opened into the incident? It's not as if they hid it for this long, as hundreds, if not thousands of people see the mask every day, and the shoddy repair work is glaringly obvious. So why was there not a peep for five full months, and suddenly it's a major story? This is a conspiracy site, so I'd love to hear people's thoughts and speculation on the matter...

a reply to: Chrisfishenstein
I am with you, who cares.

If people had any brains at all, they would have 3d scanned it already, and made an exact replica for display purposes, and keep the original in a vault.

It's quite obvious, from reading some of the replies, which of you were never archaeology students.

"World's single most important and iconic archaeological artifact? Bah. Who cares? They can make another one..."

I don't understand that sort of mentality at all, and I don't think I ever will...

We are lucky to even know about this death mask according to rumour when Howard Carter was sacked from the dig this was found in a whisky case ready to be spirited away

www.amazon.co.uk...

you could not make this [ snip ] up

I am in shock and disbelief at some of the posters who say 'no big deal' and 'who cares?'

I literally did not know that these types of people existed on this earth. My mind is blown. My heart is saddened for humanity.

a reply to: douglas5

I've never heard that before, but it's quite interesting, if true. I may have to check that book out!


a reply to: curme

As am I, friend. Particularly troubling, is the fact that such indifference seems as though it's becoming more and more common.

Ultimately, I guess one could say that it's only a piece of metal sitting in a glass case somewhere, that happens to have a bit of epoxy on it, but what some don't seem to realize, is that it's not the physical artifact that really matters. It's certainly very important, and unbelievably valuable, but the underlying issue is what it represents. It's a piece of our collective past, as a species. It's part of where we came from, part of how we got to where we are today, part of our development.

I don't understand how it is that anyone can say that it doesn't matter, or "who cares?".... If people stop caring about, preserving, and respecting what remains of our past, what sort of future will we have? It's quite depressing to think about....