Spackling over the Crumbly Bits

[billd89]

Roundly mocked, and deservedly so.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/egyptian- ... criticism/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... gers-anger



Makes me think of this restored beauty lol: 'Ecce Mono' by Cecilia Giménez. (Want the tee?)



"I left it to dry and went on holiday for two weeks, thinking I would finish the restoration when I returned ... The way people reacted still hurts me, because I wasn’t finished with the restoration. I still think about how if I hadn’t gone on holiday, none of this would have ever happened."

Oh, the lies (i.e. rationalizations) we tell ourselves. The 'Egyptian Holiday' Surprise!

[billd89]

https://abcnews.go.com/International/co ... =106892273

Egypt is insecure, they'll roll it back.

[billd89]

I'm cool w/ this:
https://apnews.com/article/italy-rome-c ... cdcc80c7a2

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/rome- ... ue-2437630

I first saw the bits in person, way back in mid-July 1982:


But don't be doin' that 'round here. In NashVegas (1990), there were protests when the Athena statue was unveiled: toothless barefoot yahoos screaming "NO PAGANS!!!" but this photo only shows one of the more 'literate' opponents.
https://www.tennessean.com/picture-gall ... 217624002/



This protest was last Spring, so the RAGE against Paganism lives on lol
https://www.facebook.com/40DaysofHope.n ... 988767436/

[billd89]

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/egypt ... on-2437684

The Shame.

[billd89]

Adequate summary for mainstream audience:
https://www.thecollector.com/athena-parthenos-statue/

[Joseph D. L.]

It really speaks to modern man's need to control that the past is not allowed to pass away peacefully and with dignity. Such restoration projects do not preserve art, which is ephemeral and fleeting, but instead it perverts it into something that is lesser than the sum of its parts, empties out its qualitative value, and commodifies it into something for easier consumption.

Is it a moral question to allow historical monuments, artifacts, etc from antiquity to fall and become as the sand of time? Do we think that by preserving them we are spiritually connected to mankind's past? Or more arrogantly, retaining their accomplishments for our own credit? (Certainly that is very Anglo). How can we have a future when we a forever chained to the past? Even in modern day media this happens with seemingly endless productions of remakes, reboots, and "requels" of shows and movies that belonged to a different time and a different generation. In that way it is almost more sinister than merely exploiting art for its cultural value; nor is it simply rewriting history. It is turning our very artistic expression into a simulacrum devoid of any place or time. You see that replica of Constantine and you think "wow, what an achievement." But I look at that and see an imposition of the uncanny other onto our very collective consciousness.

[billd89]

It really speaks to modern man's need to control that the past is not allowed to pass away peacefully and with dignity.
...
Is it a moral question to allow historical monuments, artifacts, etc from antiquity to fall and become as the sand of time?

Ozymandias
(BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY)

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

(Well, not exactly ...)




And "requels" now, is it?

[billd89]

https://allthatsinteresting.com/who-built-the-pyramids

Excavations in the 1990s into what researchers sometimes call “pyramid city” were crucial in establishing a modern understanding of not just how the pyramids were built but also by whom.

Specifically, it was the discovery of large quantities of animal bones belonging to young cows, sheep, and goats that sowed the first seeds of doubt on the slave theory. The presence of these bones suggested that meals of prime beef and other valuable meats had been consumed by those who worked on the pyramids, foods that enslaved laborers would not have had the opportunity to eat.

Sure, but is the absence of Schwein telling?

[andrewcriddle]

https://allthatsinteresting.com/who-built-the-pyramids

Excavations in the 1990s into what researchers sometimes call “pyramid city” were crucial in establishing a modern understanding of not just how the pyramids were built but also by whom.

Specifically, it was the discovery of large quantities of animal bones belonging to young cows, sheep, and goats that sowed the first seeds of doubt on the slave theory. The presence of these bones suggested that meals of prime beef and other valuable meats had been consumed by those who worked on the pyramids, foods that enslaved laborers would not have had the opportunity to eat.

Sure, but is the absence of Schwein telling?

I'm not sure that the fact that the hard working Pyramid builders were well fed proves that they were free workers. (I don't think the workers on the Pyramids were chattel slaves but I doubt if they were allowed to just give in their notice and find a new job.)

Andrew Criddle

[billd89]

Aren't you carrying ideas of Locke, Marx or some modern philosopher into a wholly anachronistic realm, though? Your stipulation bears no relevance to the excerpt provided nor the situation there, such as it was.

Personally, I would not have wanted to work in the Timna stone mines either -- but someone clearly did.

I suppose Semites/Chaldaeans (i.e. Proto-Jews) built the Pyramids, but more as architects and overseers of colossal projects. Surely, they were well-compensated, it was guild- and craftwork.

And if -- much later, obviously, and abit further north -- Plinthine (famed of quarries) was the locale of the Therapeutae, their homeland was reportedly the most desirable place to retire. Lest we forget: 'Therapeut' connotes a form of voluntary slavery, also.

The 'slaves' were paid and ate well. What does that say? It wasn't what you assumed.