British Booty: The Rosetta Stone

In English class, we have been discussing the role of museums in society. One of the things my teacher brought up about a week ago was the British Museum in London and how she really doesn't like it. To her it seems like a huge treasure chest -- Britain's booty from their loot of their their vast number of colonies. This idea intrigued me because I've been to the British Museum, and I can remember hating it for other reasons. Mainly it was huge and my history-buff parents (what a surprise, right?) would not leave. Oh, and I was like nine. So I decided to do some research into the British Museum to see where all of their pieces really come from, and if my teacher was correct in using the treasure chest metaphor.

The simple answer -- they're stolen.

The Rosetta Stone has been biting at my interest for a while, and I knew that the British Museum is its current home, so I dove into the history of it for a bit, a few days ago, and what I found out is fascinating (to me at least), but not all that surprising.

Basically, it was also stolen. But it's somewhat special. The Rosetta Stone had the immeasurable pleasure of being stolen not once, but twice. In 1799, it is widely accepted that Napoleon discovered the stone while digging reinforcements into the French Fort Julien, in Egypt. Although, I hope it to be rather obvious that Napoleon was not in fact the one with his hands in the dirt and the sweat seeping through his shirt. Ergo, it was some unnamed soldat français who actually rediscovered the Rosetta Stone. But I was not able to find the name of any specific soldier, so he shall continue to be unnamed -- a small example of how people only remember the big guys (of course I mean that metaphorically, not literally, because Napoleon was, in stature, quite small) and the winners.

Which bring us to the role of the British. They're the winners. They tend to win. They like to win. And it is the basis of much of their national identity. So, in true British fashion, George III's army defeated the French in Egypt, in 1801, and took what they said was theirs, including the Rosetta Stone. France finally accepted its fate -- essentially the seizure of all its archeological and historical discoveries -- by signing the Capitulation of Alexandria, along with the British and Ottomans, in August of 1801.

Most people would probably agree that the British and French stole the stone from Egypt, and that Egyptians have the right to want it back (although they tend to be rather preoccupied at the moment; the return of the Rosetta Stone is not exactly on their radar). But who, of the two Europeans, is more at fault? The French for taking it in the first place, or the British for not returning it upon seizure and continuing to hold it 200 years later? Do we, as citizens of the world and students of history, have a bias against certain nations, or empires, or peoples because of what they've done in the past? Because the British are often seen as "the conquerors" with "the empire," do they always have to be the most at fault? And how do these biases based on events and patterns affect the way we see, not only history after the fact, but history before the fact, as well as modern issues?

For more on this historical tale, check out this article!

< Histrophile >