volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

382 The Egyptians the Earliest Tomb Robbers.
where it would be stared at by a gaping mob, I had
prepared an exhibition which was at once indecent and
disgusting, and degrading alike to the living and the
dead. Naturally, it would be most unseemly for me to
discuss the attacks of such critics (which should have
been directed against the Trustees of the British Museum,
and not against one of their servants), but it may be
useful to describe briefly what the fate of mummies
in Egypt has been during the last sixty centuries, and
to show that they do not remain in their tombs and
graves safe and untouched, save when the " meddling
archaeologist or agent of some museum drags them from
their resting-places, and turns them into merchandise."
From time immemorial the Egyptians have plundered
the tombs of their dead. The neolithic Egyptians stole
flints, stone and earthenware jars, etc., from the shallow
graves of the community, and buried them with the
bodies of men who had recently died. In dynastic
times, when jewels, rings, ornaments, amulets, etc., were
buried with the dead, thieves broke into the tombs
and stole them, and carried off the valuables that were
lying in the coffins or near them ; and they even broke
up the mummies in order to get possessionof the jewellery,
etc., which was hidden within the swathings. Excavators,
both European and native, have found many tombs
which had all the appearance of being intact, and have
rejoiced, but when they have entered them their joy
has been turned into anger, for they have found that the
old professional tomb -robber had been there centuries
before them, and that in his search for treasure he had
destroyed much that was archaeologically valuable. The
kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties had marvellously
intricate tombs hewn for them in the Theban
Mountain, and spared no pains in making hiding-places
for their mummies, but all in vain ; for the thieves
found their way into the most cunningly concealed
sarcophagus chambers, and carried oft the solid gold
cases in which many of the bodies were shrouded, and
every portable piece of funerary furniture and mummy
equipment which could be sold and re-used. Whether