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CairoScene
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
The Real Pyramid Scheme: The Colonial Issue at Egyptology's Core
In 2016, two artists walked into Berlin's Neues Museum with a hacked Xbox Kinect sensor concealed in a scarf. They weren't tourists. They weren't researchers. They were there to perform a unique heist. In front of them stood the bust of Queen Nefertiti: serene, ancient, impossibly elegant. She had been excavated from Amarna, her home in Egypt, in 1912 by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt and exported to Germany through deliberate deception. In official documents, Borchardt described her as a painted plaster head of no significant value. Privately, he called her 'the most beautiful object ever found.' Germany has refused every request for her return ever since - they've never even allowed a brief loan. Al-Badri and Nelles lingered in front of the queen, pretending to gawk at her while the Kinect sensor - originally designed for video games - captured thousands of data points from every angle. This modified sensor, rigged with custom software, allowed them to collect a three-dimensional scan of the sculpture, effectively digitising her form without ever touching her. The artists later released the scan online: a 21-million-polygon model of the bust, open-source and freely downloadable. Anyone in the world could now 3D-print Nefertiti, remix her, replicate her, reclaim her. Soon after, a replica made from the artists' data was unveiled in Cairo. Nefertiti, displaced for over a century, had returned home - if only in likeness. They called their project The Other Nefertiti. It was a counter-archive. A radical gesture aimed at breaking the aura of museum authority and disrupting the fiction of cultural neutrality. A reclamation by simulation. They wanted to activate the artefact, to inspire a critical reassessment of today's conditions and to overcome the colonial notion of grabbing in Germany. And it provoked precisely the kind of questions that Egyptology, for over two centuries, has avoided: Who owns the past? Who controls its images, its language, its circulation? What is more original, an object in glass behind museum walls, or a copy that breathes back into the culture from which it was extracted? To speak of decolonisation, then, is not simply to demand the return of artefacts. It is to reclaim the right to interpret, to narrate, to critique. It is to dismantle the systems, academic, bureaucratic, financial, that continue to privilege foreign voices and frameworks. It is to insist that heritage is not a spectacle, nor a commodity, nor a weapon. It is a relationship. "Not through national branding or a single triumphant repatriation, but through democratising knowledge, restoring agency, and building political coalitions,' Monica Hanna tells CairoScene. As Dr. Monica Hanna, a renowned Egyptian Egyptologist has argued in her paper 'Contesting the Lonely Queen' against the myth of universal museum, the bust is not just removed from place, but from meaning. 'The reality of imperialistic museums,' Hanna argues, 'is that they permanently store decontextualised things of one culture in a museum of another… The experience of the bust of Nefertiti has always been limited to those who could visit her in her confinement in Berlin, decontextualised from the materiality of her background of discovery in the mudbrick workshop of Tuthmosis… and disconnected from the sensoriality of her Indigenous community.' She calls the Neues Museum a heterotopia, a Foucaultian non-place, where a single, highly curated version of the past is staged under the illusion of neutrality. In that dimly lit rotunda, Nefertiti is less a queen than a projection: a European fantasy of ancient Egypt, frozen in plaster, beauty and captivity. The question is not whether Nefertiti belongs to Egypt. It is whether we are ready to acknowledge that she was taken, misrepresented, and used to scaffold Western identity at the expense of her own. And it is the real problem with Egyptology today. Until she returns home, that story remains unfinished. I often return to one page in 'The Future of Egyptology', the most recent book by Dr. Monica Hanna. In it, she recalls the ransacking of the Mallawi Museum in Minya in August 2013, a moment of chaos and erasure that rarely makes its way into national memory. One teenage boy, she writes, was seen running from the looted site with an artefact in his hands. When Hanna stopped him, he told her plainly that it was fine to take it because, he said, 'the museum belongs to the government.' That sentence has stayed with me for its brazenness, and its clarity. Behind it is not malice, but a quiet, inherited disconnection. A belief that heritage is not ours but theirs, that these statues and stelae and fragments of wall text belong to an apparatus of power, not to the people who live in their shadow. Because it reveals the extent to which so many of us Egyptians, through no fault of their own, have been estranged from the very culture others cross continents to study, a culture often depicted as a lost one but in fact still very alive up to this day. 'Many Western scholars audaciously express how Ancient and Modern Egypt are two hermetically sealed entities, where the modern does not identify with the ancient.' Hanna tells CairoScene. Years of colonial power didn't just remove objects, they stripped away the tongue and the knowledge. Those who once held meaning, who passed stories through gesture, ritual, or oral memory, were sidelined until the story of ancient Egypt was no longer told by its descendants, but by foreigners first, in French, German, English. By the time Egyptians were invited back into the narrative, it had already been framed, captioned and curated for someone else. This is not a crisis of patriotism or awareness but the residue of centuries of colonial sediment, of knowledge extracted, names overwritten, meanings translated and retranslated until they no longer land. Egyptology, as a discipline, was not built for Egyptians. It was built on them, around them, and often without them. It catalogued ruins but ignored the living. It preserved history while denying people their relationship to it. So when we speak now of 'decolonising' or 'decentralising' Egyptology, the question is not whether the field can be reformed. It's whether it can be reclaimed. Whether Egyptians, not just scholars and officials, but ordinary people, can once again see themselves not as caretakers of foreign interest, but as inheritors of a complex, living past. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte landed in Egypt not only with soldiers, but with scientists. His was not just a military campaign, it was an intellectual invasion. The scholars and savants who accompanied him mapped the Nile, measured temples, copied inscriptions, and compiled what would become 'Description de l'Égypte', a multi-volume monument to European conquest through knowledge. It marked the birth of modern Egyptology, and the beginning of its dislocation. The Egypt they documented was reframed not as a lived, layered land but as the cradle of Western civilisation, frozen in antiquity, severed from its continuities. I call it mythmaking: an origin story curated for the West, built on the erasure of the present and often-times maniac colonial kitsch. Christian Langer, in his essay for Critical Epistemologies of Global Politics, calls this 'epistemic colonisation.' Unlike formal colonialism, which operates through flags and borders, epistemic colonisation exerts its power through knowledge production. It is enacted not by generals, but by scholars and institutions, museums, universities, editorial boards. The archaeologist granted unrestricted access, the foreign mission that dominates excavations, the museum that guards looted artefacts under the pretext of universal heritage. The story of Egyptology is, at heart, a story of dispossession. While pharaonic monuments are scrubbed, lit,and photographed for glossy brochures, the broader texture of Egypt's historical identity, oral traditions, and village memoryscapes, the very structures that can be traced back to the ancient Egyptian civilisation, remains underfunded, unarchived and frequently erased. The result is a curated illusion: a country proud of its ancient grandeur, yet estranged from it, all while Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers confidently discuss the presence of submarines and helicopters on temple walls. It's a form of temporal segregation. Ancient Egypt is treated as a glorious but dead civilisation, valuable only when extracted, classified and displayed. Contemporary Egyptians, in this framework, are not the inheritors of pharaonic legacy but its accidental neighbours. And when Egyptian archaeologists do enter the field, they are too often expected to mimic the tools, citations and tones of Western academia to gain legitimacy. Access is conditional. Voice is conditional. In recent years, the call to decolonise Egyptology has gained momentum. Conferences now feature panels on inclusivity. Grants are allocated for Egyptian scholars. Partnerships are struck between foreign and local institutions. But how much of this is performance? Austrian archaeologist Uroš Matić, in his 2023 paper 'Postcolonialism as a Reverse Discourse in Egyptology', warns that much of this activity reproduces, rather than dismantles, colonial logic. The discipline, he argues, has adopted postcolonial theory like a costume, borrowing terms like 'hybridity,' 'entanglement' and 'third space' without understanding their origins or implications. In postcolonial theory, hybridity is a powerful concept. It's not just about cultural mixing or visual combinations. As theorist Homi Bhabha explains, hybridity is about what happens when the colonised mimic the coloniser, not to become them, but to subtly expose and undermine their authority. It's a kind of resistance that happens in the cracks - an 'in-between' space where power is echoed, exaggerated and sometimes turned against itself. A true example of postcolonial hybridity in Egyptology might look very different. It could be an Egyptian archaeologist working within a major European museum, using the tools, language and authority of that institution not just to fit in, but to challenge how Egypt's past is represented, to call out colonial theft and to push for the return of looted artefacts. That's hybridity as resistance: using the master's tools to dismantle, or at least rattle, the master's house. What Matić warns against is the way Egyptology often borrows postcolonial terms like 'hybridity' but strips them of this meaning. The word becomes aesthetic, something about appearance, rather than political. In doing so, the field gives itself the appearance of being critical or decolonial, while continuing to operate within the same old frameworks. Or consider 'entanglement' - a concept introduced by archaeologist Ian Hodder to describe mutual dependencies between people and things. In theory, it offers a way to trace complex histories of interaction. But in practice, it often becomes a euphemism for occupation. Matić calls this dynamic 'reverse discourse', another Foucauldian term for when the language of liberation is used within the very framework of domination. Postcolonial concepts are deployed not to critique power, but to camouflage it. Reclaiming Egyptology requires more than symbolic gestures, it demands structural transformation across every layer of the field. It begins with reforming excavation labour practices aligned with today's cost of living, offering transparent briefings about the significance of the work, and crediting local labourers in publications. Beyond the site, it means building democratic infrastructure, funding regional libraries and cultural centres in Upper Egypt and the Delta, translating core Egyptological texts into Arabic, and establishing community heritage councils with decision-making power. Central to this vision is the digitisation and repatriation of archives, and training students in digital curation and storytelling. Hanna reframes restitution not merely as the return of objects, but as a return of authorship - insisting that the right to interpret Egypt's past be restored to Egyptians through shared authorship, visible credit and contextualised exhibitions. Finally, she calls for regional political alliances, working alongside nations like Iraq, Greece and Sudan to coordinate diplomatic and legal pressure on European museums, and forming transnational councils to demand accountability and co-create new models of cultural sovereignty. What would a truly Egyptian Egyptology look like? Perhaps it would begin not with tombs, but with testimonies. Not with gold masks, but with memories. It would recognise that the language of the past still lives, in songs, in crafts, in rituals passed between Egyptian grandmothers and grandchildren. It would be less about possession, and more about care. What was taken from us was the authority to remember, to interpret, to feel. And that cannot be returned through loans or replicas. It must be reclaimed, patiently, politically, and with the same quiet insistence that once built this marvellous world.
Hypebeast
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Hypeart Visits: Awol Erizku Is Shaping a New Cultural Canon
By Keith Estiler Awol Erizku is in a season of momentum. With his first solo museum show X on view and a major presentation at Sean Kelly Gallery, the artist is expanding his language across institutions, classrooms and city lines. At the same time, he's navigating fatherhood, carving space for reflection between professional milestones and personal sacrifices. Erizku's work has long challenged dominant narratives, pulling from ancient African symbolism, street culture and contemporary Black identity. He calls it 'Afro-esotericism,' a visual ideology that resists easy definition. Whether it's a black disco-ball Nefertiti or a sports jersey reframed as relic, his practice refracts history into new forms. It's not just about reclaiming symbols, but recharging them with layered, and often, spiritual intent. In conversation with Hypeart as part of our Visits series, Erizku opens up about building a practice rooted in research and ritual, the tension between visibility and depth and why the future of visual culture may depend on a return to what's human, flawed and real. 1 of 4 2 of 4 3 of 4 4 of 4 'Afro-Erizku is my own ideology around certain universal truths that inspire me or push me towards a particular direction that helps me arrive at a pure vision.' Congrats on 'X', your first solo museum show. How did the exhibition come together, and what was your experience like seeing such a personal vision unfold on a museum scale? Initially, it was years of collaborations and dialogue with the curator and a dear friend Dr. Daniel S. Palmer which led to this moment. He's been instrumental in every step of the way to button up everything from the institutional side of things. In a post, you shared that you missed your son's first steps during the install. How do you manage the tension between professional milestones and personal ones, especially as both seem to be happening at full speed? I give my family all the love, and I've been blessed to have flexibility due to their understanding of my time away from home. The term 'Afro-esotericism' is central to your practice. You've used it to describe a language that blends mysticism, symbolism, and Black identity. For those unfamiliar, how would you define it in your own words and what does it look like when visualized? Afro-Erizku is my own ideology around certain universal truths that inspire me or push me towards a particular direction that helps me arrive at a pure vision. At its finest, it would look like a constellation of ideas by way of objects, writings and images as represented in a book form as in Mystic Parallax . 1 of 3 2 of 3 3 of 3 'I guess it's fair to say some ideas can have A1 flawless execution but it won't resonate for a few more years and that's patience at its finest' In 'X,' we see a merging of ancient iconography with contemporary objects. From the black disco-ball Nefertiti to your use of sports imagery and sound, how do you approach bridging timelines and references without losing coherence? I used to think it was 'bridging the gap' when I arrived in Los Angeles in 2014. Now I just think that's how we (the collective we) experience life and the world around us, the internet, social media etc. As a multidisciplinary artist, what challenges have been the hardest to confront, emotionally, professionally, or even politically? And does working across mediums help you tell stories that wouldn't land the same way in just one form? I guess it's fair to say some ideas can have A1 flawless execution but it won't resonate for a few more years and that's patience at its finest…I, like my thoughts, need multiple mediums, textures, experiences, etc. to communicate most effectively. 1 of 3 2 of 3 3 of 3 'I'm invested in creating forms that resist simplification, works that operate in layers, that embrace contradiction, spirituality, and opacity. ' What does your creative process look like on a practical level? Research > Study > Implement a new idea into the world. Are there specific rituals, routines, or environments you need in order to get into a state of flow? Good music, good reads, good Frankincense. Are there any particular images, symbols, or references you feel have been co-opted or misused in ways that dilute their original meaning or your own relationship to them? I've always been drawn to the ways symbols become emptied out, how they're co-opted, sanitized, or commodified until their original meaning, their cultural and political charge, is stripped away. One figure I return to often is the bust of Nefertiti. To me, it isn't simply an ancient artifact; it's a cipher, a contested icon whose history has been displaced. In Western institutions, she's often encased behind glass, removed from her cultural lineage and repurposed as a static emblem of idealized beauty. That kind of dislocation, where a deeply symbolic figure is transformed into a Eurocentric fantasy, is its own form of erasure. Instead, I'm invested in creating forms that resist simplification, works that operate in layers, that embrace contradiction, spirituality, and opacity. The goal isn't necessarily to merely reclaim the image, but to reanimate it, to charge it with a renewed sense of power and presence. We're oversaturated with imagery today especially with AI creating content at scale. As someone deeply invested in the power of images, what concerns you most about where visual culture is heading? I'm actually excited that the AI over saturation will ultimately lead to a revival of human made objects, images and experiences 1 of 3 2 of 3 3 of 3 Your work often blends personal mythology with broader historical and spiritual narratives. Is there a specific symbol or motif that you keep returning to, one that you feel hasn't fully revealed itself to you yet? Everything from the Black Diaspora. Therefore, I'll always return to it. If you could design your own set of criteria for what contemporary art should be judged by, what values or rules would you put in place? Urgency, Authorship and transformative potential would be my suggestion. Looking ahead, whether in art, fatherhood, or life, what's the one thing you're still trying to figure out? All of the above, actually. Photography courtesy of the artist, Awol Erizku.
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Time of India
KSINC plans monsoon cruise packages to attract tourists during off season
Kochi: Aiming to attract more tourists during the monsoon season, which is the off-season for cruise boat services in Kochi backwaters, Kerala State Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) is planning to introduce special trips and packages for visitors. As per the plan, KSINC will offer journeys at a lower rate during the entire off-season. It was learnt that the corporation might offer a minimum of a 25% discount on packages during such seasons. The special packages would be applicable for almost all of its cruise boat services, including the Sagararani cruise. However, Nefertiti cruise is not operated during the monsoon period and the service will resume in Sept. "We want to attract more visitors during the off-season. So, we are experimenting with a similar method followed by the tourism management societies in major destinations like Ooty. We have to provide service at a low rate during such seasons," said a KSINC source. The corporation has already started marketing the Sagararani service under the 'monsoon trip' theme to attract more passengers. As the cruise service will not enter sea waters during the monsoon, it will cover other destinations such as Mattancherry, Willingdon Island, etc.
New Indian Express
27-05-2025
- New Indian Express
All sea-going services suspended as heavy rain batters Kochi
KOCHI: Even as the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) denied reports of its sea-going cruise vessel 'Nefertiti' sailing dangerously in the rough sea the other day, the adverse weather has forced the authorities to indefinitely suspend all sea-going services. This after the Cochin Port Authority (CPT) denied permission for operators to sail beyond the Vypeen Ghat citing adverse weather conditions for the second straight day. Luxury vessels, including that of major private operators like 'Neo Classic Cruise & Tours Pvt Ltd' and 'Minar Cruise' didn't operate their sea-going services. 'Nefertiti' and other sea-going vessels of KSINC including 'Sooryamshu' and 'Sagararani' also didn't conduct services. 'We didn't operate the vessel on Monday despite having advance bookings on all days till May 31, following the issuance of adverse weather warning alerts. The services tomorrow (Tuesday) too remain cancelled,' a KSINC spokesperson told TNIE. Nefertiti is allowed to sail 12 nautical miles (nearly 22 kms) into sea only till May 31. The sea-going services won't be conducted during the monsoon season – June, July and August. Meanwhile, the KSINC denied reports that it operated the sea-going ship in violation of the restrictions placed by the port authorities on Sunday. 'Nefertiti is a cruise ship registered under the 'M S Class 6' (Merchant Shipping Act) and is capable and legally allowed to sail up to 20 nautical miles into the sea. However, it sails only up to 12 nautical miles to avoid taking the Immigration Clearance of the Cochin Port,' KSINC said in a statement, while denying that it operated dangerously on Sunday. 'On the said day, the ship sailed only after receiving the nod of the Cochin Port and travelled only two nautical miles from the LNG terminal and returned since the sea was rough. Also there was no situation that forced the ship to anchor in the sea,' it added. The private operators too are currently not taking advance bookings for their sea-going services, especially the popular sun-set tours in the evening.
Egypt Independent
20-05-2025
- General
- Egypt Independent
Is Queen Nefertiti's mummy about to be revealed?
International newspapers several years ago reported the discovery of Queen Nefertiti's mummy, citing an English researcher more interested in fame than science. Naturally, I opposed the publication of such sensational, unverified news. At the time, I challenged every piece of alleged evidence the English researcher presented. During our debates, I lacked scientific data on the purported Nefertiti mummy. However, after the English researcher examined this mummy using x-rays, I wasn't able to refute its results. The mummy that is claimed to be Queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten, was first discovered in 1898 by French Egyptologist Victor Loret within a cache of mummies in Tomb #35 in the Valley of the Kings, which belonged to King Amenhotep II. Years after the cache of mummies in Amenhotep II's tomb was revealed, Howard Carter, renowned for discovering Tutankhamun's tomb, relocated nine identified mummies – including those of Kings Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, and Merneptah (son of the famous Ramesses II) – to Cairo. The story behind these caches dates back to the 21st Dynasty. At the time, Amon's priests sought to protect the royal mummies from widespread tomb robberies. To do so, they moved the mummies from their original burial sites to nearby tombs, and then to various hidden caches. The most famous of these is undoubtedly the Deir el-Bahari cache, unearthed in 1881. Carter left three mummies inside Amenhotep II's tomb, the first of which he named the 'Elder Lady.' Through the Royal Mummies Study Project, which I've led for years, we later confirmed that the Elder Lady's mummy is indeed the famous Queen Tiye, wife of King Amenhotep III, known as the 'Pasha of Ancient Egypt's Pharaohs,' and the mother of King Akhenaten. Next to Queen Tiye's mummy lay another mummy of a young boy, whom I believe to be a son of King Amenhotep III who died young, leaving the throne to his brother Akhenaten. The third mummy, the subject of this article, was initially believed by the French Egyptologist Loret to be that of a young boy with a bald head, a missing right arm, and a crushed area below the face. This mummy, known as the 'Younger Lady,' is the one that is widely proclaimed to be Queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten. She lived alongside her husband during their struggles against the priests of Amun, moved with him to Amarna, and bore him six daughters, one of whom married the famous boy king Tutankhamun. However, upon Queen Tiye's (Nefertiti's mother-in-law) arrival in Amarna, Nefertiti completely withdrew from public life, living separately from Akhenaten in her palace with her daughters. Scientists have never found the tomb or the mummy of the beautiful queen, yet her fame endures through her exquisite bust displayed in the Berlin Museum. The struggle between us and the museum regarding the return of the queen's head to her homeland, Egypt, continues. Under my leadership, we successfully established the first-of-its-kind Egyptian Project for the Study of Royal and Non-Royal Mummies. This ambitious project aims to create a comprehensive database and record of all mummies located in tombs and storage facilities. Furthermore, it involves studying royal mummies using the latest CT-Scan technology and establishing the only DNA laboratory in the world specifically dedicated to mummy studies. This lab was initially located in the basement of the Egyptian Museum before being transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat. We initially used the CT scanner to uncover the secrets of the controversial 'Younger Lady' mummy, which had been popularized as Nefertiti's. However, our studies concluded that she had no connection to Queen Nefertiti. One of the arguments proposed in favor of this being Nefertiti was the mummy's right arm position. When the mummy was discovered, its right arm was missing, though two separate arms were found nearby: one straight and one bent. While scientists initially believed the straight arm belonged to the mummy, a later study, using mummy measurements and x-ray analysis, revealed that the bone density of the straight arm differed from the rest of the body. This led him to conclude that the bent arm was the correct one. If true, the woman would have one straight left arm extending along her body and a bent right arm across her chest. This specific arm positioning, one straight and one bent, was a tradition reserved for queens. However, this doesn't confirm her identity as Nefertiti, as many other ancient Egyptian queen mummies have yet to be identified. The next article will delve deeper into the true identity of the Younger Lady mummy, fully dispelling the long-held belief that she was Queen Nefertiti.
