Curator’s tour of the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery (Periscope comments removed)

In this after-hours tour among the pharaohs, watch Curator Marcel Marée decode ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and reveal the secrets of the Rosetta Stone.
This tour was originally broadcast on 31 March 2016 as a live Periscope tour as part of #MuseumWeek
This was the third of three Periscope tours that took place that evening.
Watch the others now:
Enlightenment Gallery: • Curator’s tour of the ...
Arched Room: • Behind the scenes in t...

[@spikeman4pres]

Guys remember before you comment that , First : this was originally for people on periscope (phone app) Second : the quality is from the app not the phone itself Third : Be happy they even decided to put this on KZbin for our entertainment

[@sinanmahmoud7563]

A million thanks for such videos! They are very useful for people like me who can't visit this amazing museum.

[@adolflenin4973]

Where are you?

[@MrChristiangraham]

This is wonderful. I have walked this gallery many times, but it was a real privilege to have Marcel guide us through it.

[@augustecomte3841]

Too bad all the stories they told you are fake. All of this art was STOLEN from Africa.

[@luisromanlegionaire]

@@augustecomte3841 if it was left there most likely would be destroyed look at isis in Syria and Iraq destroyed so much historical site

[@shogunchanell5394]

@@augustecomte3841 yes ,it was stolen, but that doesn't make the stories fake

[@zulushanx7959]

@@luisromanlegionaire still it belongs to Africa

[@Revan8787]

I wish there where more of these videos! They don't need to be shiny and perfect, they are super interesting as they are!

[@nicolaseando]

What a great video, it was like a private guided visit. Thanks for share!

[@shawnstone72]

I was fortunate to go to The British Museum a few years ago. I only had one day. I hope to get back one day soon and be able to spend more time. One day isn’t near enough to see the amazing collections they have.

[@fjLKA]

I didn't even know the Rosetta Stone was at the British Museum until I saw it in 2006. Was so cool, recognizing it from far away.

[@jds9559]

thank you for showing this. how generous of you and your staff

[@arringar]

Comment I see a number of comments here like “it’s stolen, give it back”, “looted treasures” and “send it back to where it belongs”. Let me point out some facts before you end up looking foolish with that comment. Let’s start with the obvious. Who does it belong to? Egypt? The Egyptian people? Perhaps. But to what end? Egypt has literally hundreds of thousands of artifacts sitting in warehouses where they have been for many decades. If you don’t believe me you need only read a handful of articles about the contents of the new Grand Egyptian Museum. The Grand Egyptian Museum is 81,000 sq. meters (870,000 sq. feet) and even still it only has enough space to display a fraction of the artifacts the Egyptian Ministry of Culture has in storage. The Ministry admits thousands of those artifacts including many with significant cultural importance such as those from the tomb of Tutankhamen have never been displayed OR studied. They are literally hoarded in dusty warehouses in boxes and crates that haven’t been opened for a hundred years in many cases. Does that benefit anyone, anywhere? So what is the real motivation behind the attitude that these artifacts should never leave their country of origin? Tourism. It’s all about money then? So you’re trying to call out what you see as greed by being greedy or promoting someone else’s greed? Interesting approach. The argument that “it’s about doing the right thing” is a complete and total farce. The Ministry of Culture in Egypt and similar agencies of other countries have been pushing the narrative that these things were stolen and should be returned for ONE purpose and one purpose ONLY. To force as many artifacts to be returned as possible so the only way for the masses to see them is to visit their country and spend money. Perhaps a noble goal, but it is NOT about ownership of cultural property. Don’t pretend for two seconds that your indignant comment is because they were taken from their resting place in a tomb. Repatriated artifacts do not get returned to the tomb they were found in. If you think that you’re quite uninformed. Instead, they sit on a shelf in a government owned warehouse where they get no care and no proper preservation. They’re not even typically stored in climate controlled space so they get subjected to high temperatures, moist environments, etc. Especially in poorer countries where there simply isn’t sufficient funding to allocate for the purpose. Would you rather these items educate millions of people every year about the culture and the country they came from, or let them decay in a warehouse for several more decades or perhaps indefinitely? Please put forth an ounce of effort and thought to understand the motivation behind the “give it all back” attitude before you blindly subscribe to it or open the comment box.

[@WaywardSon1]

Thank you, great talk! I am in awe of this level of ability to read hieroglyphs.

[@sybilvane645]

I would like more that this kind of videos. walking the museum with a sherpa to guide you. Mortals like me missed a lot in the visit, and the museum is one shot in life , for people who’ s living in the other part of the world.

[@JacobafJelling]

Marcel the Curator: Why would they film me, and not these amazing old artifacts. Is what his eyes and body language tells me

[@jessewru6425]

Good catch

[@josharples4078]

Marcel thank you. I like the way you focus on just a few objects, and explain their significance both in terms of context and iconography. Would love to see more of your specially chosen objects.

[@jakenewitt9853]

Amazing museum best in the country can’t wait to go there tomorrow 👍🏻👍🏻🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@rexhepirexhepi3541]

this was very interesting, especially when he read through some of the hieroglyphs.

[@paulbouchard9521]

Really well done. So great to be walked through by a truly knowledgeable person.

[@flamencoprof]

Thanks for the learned presentation. I visited this area in "96. Took about 10 mins, sadly. Did the whole museum in about 5 hours not including break for lunch. The perils of tourism, see so much, take in so little. Now I have a much greater interest in this part of history I'd go back in a heartbeat after a lottery win :-) Currently reading The Gods of the Egyptians by E. A. Wallis Budge, old book, but not as old as this stuff!

[@amethystsamia]

Poor Marcel. He’s so nervous. Would be fantastic to listen to him talk about these things when not so nervous. He obviously is well schooled in Egyptian history.

[@adolflenin4973]

@Ouro Boros Yes.

[@annettefournier9655]

Thank you. I so much enjoy these . I will never get to the British museum and much appreciate these segments.

[@Gardengirl4]

How marvellous to get a tour as I would not be able to visit, and so enjoyed very much, Thank you Marcel.

[@susanhepburn6040]

Thank you so very much for this - greatly appreciated!

[@inessamaria2428]

One year later after my first comment on this video, I come back to say that I visited British Museum seven months ago and like I aspected the collections are fascinating, I hope I come back again to spend more 5 hours in this amazing place.

[@Hunter-de3dx]

Thank you so much for posting. The video is better than picture for sculpture. Very interesting lecture as well as informative given the amount of time.

[@inessamaria2428]

I loved it. Amazing video! Museums are magical places.

[@Bpl541]

Fascinating and very well presented by a knowledgeable man.

[@paulohayashijr7676]

Great video.... thanks for sharing... wonderful work.....

[@anahernez1]

at great remove, I am delighted to experience this tour. I have many questions, but of course...

[@kilowhiskeyalpha6078]

Quite brilliant and informative,thank you Marcel.

[@eduardamarques5614]

Geesh, knowledgeable curator. In my ignorance, I thought the Rosetta stone contained 3 different languages. Thanks for clarifying.

[@jayofthenorth3364]

If the British didn’t steal these objects likely they would have never survived anyways. That’s the harsh truth. I hope they never give the items back before I can go see them.

[@rugosetexture2716]

A little bit of the 'host' goes a long way but the talk by the Curator is excellent. Thank you.

[@mizpappas]

This guy is great! Well done

[@roberthenderson4347]

, this man is full of shit. He is saying that the black features are not African. Any thing that a european says about egypt is bullshit. If you notice he by passes the african statutes and gos to the Greco-Roman period. He is a product of white racism.

[@andreafalconiero9089]

@@roberthenderson4347 No, you're full of shit. He said no such thing -- nothing remotely like it. I guess you didn't actually watch the video, or if you did you clearly were not paying attention. The only thing he commented about with regard to the middle-kingdom statuary he presented is that the kings appear more aged and care-worn, because that was the style of presentation that had become dominant by that time. There was no discussion of race whatsoever.

[@roberthenderson4347]

@@andreafalconiero9089 please , you see and hear the proproganda the presentation was nothing

[@jamsheertp7879]

Thanks 4 this videos...

[@pedromarques3539]

I really like the explanation of the whole history and the representation of each statue although historians they never detailed the technique behind sculpting granite. I would like to know what tools and techniques involved behind granite for the fact harder than granite only diamond a normal tool cannot carve granite so easily taking at least over twenty years to cut and carve with such detail. Any sculpture knows the difficulties of carving granite but I would like to get some more info from the historian.

[@al2207]

agree , all black rock are actually granodiorite at least as hard as granite , i am still surprised nobody seam to realize the sculpting is way better than the crushed hieroglyph engraving and nobody have any explanation about the rock extraction and sculpting of each figure

[@ghostrider-be9ek]

@@al2207 they dont want to, and are not in some cases ALLOWED to mention the obvious - I was just there today and the advanced MACHINE work on SOME of these objects is obvious - inner radius of curvatures that are PERFECT in every detail

[@pheart2381]

How fascinating!

[@krishnenduroy6343]

many many thanks.

[@annaziganshina1392]

Thanks so much! I am not very well in English, but understand almost all :) Good pronunciation.

[@nasrammar774]

very interesting, thank you

[@pim1234]

Great vid !

[@user-pw7yz6sb6m]

영상 고마워용!!

[@christosvoskresye]

MORE!!!

[@mybeautyaddictions4980]

Does anyone know what the name of the sculpture at the end of the video to the left behind the rosetta stone is? I took a photo of it when I was there but didn't take a photo of the sign explaining what it was -_- Thank you!

[@akttonsemhh3849]

That's queen Ahmose meritamun,XVIII dinasty

[@mybeautyaddictions4980]

@@akttonsemhh3849 Thank you so much

[@iamdacosmos7528]

Great job

[@cassi_5422]

Anybody know a book based on the museums artifacts? Can't find any. When I was there the book was in German so I couldn't read it. Trying to find it now and not sure what to get.

[@oldsailor83]

The very famous: History of the world in 100 objects

[@jeremiahlarkins618]

Do you guys have a Buddha exhibit?

[@anthonygeorge9932]

Why so low quality? 2016 had at least 720p for sure.

[@jasonz9902]

Up close and personal in 480p (lol) but a stunning tour.

[@sav7568]

The changes to all the cartouches suggest that the statue was not originally of Amenhotep at all but someone else

[@africanamerican1818]

See a vid called"Ancient Egyptian Art They Don't Show" here on KZbin. Check the top pinned comment and it's replies for more interesting details

[@christophernelson7986]

I always greet the Rosetta Stone as an old friend when I visit. Silly I know.

[@sibtayshaheed5485]

Missing part of compas watch is there in Lahore "Sherry"

[@jonerlandson1956]

i need this in HD... maybe it's just my connection...

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

Irving is my hero and heart-throb!

[@nathanlee5520]

why is this in 480p

[@andreaherron968]

so the kings would have images of them made to not look like them cuz he said the statues were just an ideology of what they looked like. Ijs cuz the statues have similarities in their features to a lot of ppl I know

[@daehaeng8439]

Absolutely beautiful but how did they carved them all systematically perfect with copper chisels ?????

[@al2207]

simple answer it is not the Egyptians that done that with copper chisel in hard granite

[@Eastsidetone313]

My family work 💯

[@yvettemarshallTWN]

#DadaTheHeretic. 💕😭🤩 Thanks all over you!

[@jeffsmith50001]

Has there ever been any comparative measurements made on the lions or any pair of sculptures, to see if they are perfect copys?. Possibly machine/CNC made. Copper chisels would not make any impression on granite or basalt.

[@johng4093]

Quartzite sand in conjunction with copper tools.

[@sav7568]

Notice the doorway to nowhere at 10:40 just like you see in South America.

[@jonerlandson1956]

I think these statues of kings may actually in some instances represented the house over which he presides...

[@triciabarr4620]

The tsk sounds that he keeps making are very distracting, I'm wondering if it's a nervous tick of some kind, as he seems nervous by his rapid speech, it's just slightly faster and therefore noticeable in the beginning of his talk then settles into a normal gate. Very informative thought, thank you.

[@bobjuniel8683]

480P is just not good enough, very disappointing.

[@peterkavanagh64]

Kisses of your road to that palace.

[@peterkavanagh64]

The Queen 👑

[@TodayFreedom]

Not even 1% of the fascinating information about objects in the BM is shown on the items. And there’s absolutely no excuse for it. Virtually none of the inscriptions are ever written out for the public either; even tracking them down via the BM’s own records is an absolutely bloody nightmare. Why? Because academics couldn’t give a toss whether the public has access to that information or not. A classic example of a massive inscription will be some risible line on a notice next to it saying “This is a tomb offering naming Osiris”. How bloody lazy is that? Of all the national collections I’ve been to the BM is by far the worst for this trend. They seem to think we don’t care what’s written or what the context is. And guess who pays for this place? Yep- we do.

[@shiddy.]

that looks amazing - why are the originals in Europe though?

[@joannamallory2823]

The collecting was all done in the early years of Egyptology... at that time even the Egyptians were selling artifacts to European markets and there wasn’t such a sense of national pride. Nowadays they are trying very hard to repatriate much of this collection. However, I think some at least should stay in Europe where they can be accessed, understood and wondered at by other people. It would be a shame if you could only get up close and personal with these wondrous items by going to Egypt!

[@charlesking415]

AFRICAN STOLEN PROPERTY

[@luisromanlegionaire]

@@charlesking415 look what isis did in Iraq and Syria destroyed so many historical sites thank God some stuff is around the world

[@LordInter]

they were mostly purchased from whoever was I'm charge of Egypt, some were taken when the British Empire rulled Egypt but most had already been moved by then

[@johng4093]

I'm sure they have less than .001% of the stuff that exists in Egypt, and more continues to be found there every year. Many tombs were robbed in antiquity by professional tomb robbers and existing structures torn down by later Pharaohs for building new structures. This is all water under the bridge.

[@darrengillesdarrengilles8336]

So the curator postulates the first two statues are made of Diorite rated seven on the Mohs scale created somewhere around 1400 BCE . That would completely contradict the theorists who state the Egyptians couldn't have made the great pyramid as the Egyptians did not have the tools to cut limestone which has a hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs scale. If they couldn't cut Limestone how the hell did they cut Diorite. Could someone please make sense for once.

[@sav7568]

Try cutting a 20 ton cube of limestone with only copper chisels & tell us how it goes. Sure the stone was soft but so were the tools. Then there were the transport issues because the Egyptians did not acquire the wheel until around 1800 - 1700 BC.

[@nataliebutler]

May be they didn't cut either!

[@nightmail7962]

Red granite predynastic

[@elizandraborges3922]

Bomito

[@iulianispas8634]

The body of that colossal head still exists

[@bosshicks9152]

That's not a lily, it's called a lotus flower.

[@elizandraborges3922]

BOMITO

[@flamencoprof]

7:34 Pretty thin manes, are these lionesses?

[@studogable]

Some lions do not have manes. This includes the lions of Tsavo, preserved at the Field Museum.

[@thysonsacclaim]

Lions in North Africa often do not have manes.

[@selendriamuganogo7077]

That’s what I was thinking... they look like female lions

[@MrWizardofozzz]

Well, the Sphinx has no trademark tuft at the end of its tale and since they discovered 8 million mummified dogs in Egypt recently, I am willing to say the sphinx was probably a dog originally.

[@YellowSynth]

all the noses are knocked off

[@apples3214]

Because their noses were direct representation of a black man's nose and when the Europeans, specifically Napolean at one point and the German during WW2, saw this they ordered the gunners to blow the noses off. Google it.

[@user-iv7qb6vt8v]

@@apples3214 Bullshit. Protruding parts of sculptures are the most susceptible to wear and genetic evidence suggests that Egyptians were neither black nor white. They were pretty much what people of Egypt are today: brown with elements of both.

[@hellonearth-thehistoryofwa1270]

@@apples3214 Bulshit. A 15th-century Arab historian wrote that the Sphinx got his nose job at the hands of Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a fanatical Sufi who saw his fellow Egyptians leaving offerings for the Sphinx and considered this to be idolatry. The angry Sufi vandalized the Sphinx's nose and ears-and, according to one account, his neighbors retaliated by lynching him and burying him at the foot of the monument he had desecrated. Don't mess with the Sphinx.

[@clare5one]

@@apples3214 False about Napoleon. He sent scholars to study and document the monuments.

[@rexhepirexhepi3541]

@@apples3214 Ramesses II's nose does not look too much like a "black man's nose", which is just as well because he was a red head.

[@ig_sh9120]

Awesome As cool as #karmarkarshilpalay meusium

[@yougotredonyou5584]

It's like toy story right.. you the name Andy wrote somewhere on each toy. Hmmm , that must mean Andy made them all 🤣🤣🤣

[@matevacca5410]

15:52

[@mariamery7025]

Quien m lleva quiero Una mummy

[@pavelpolyakov5763]

Absolutely loved the Freudian slip by curator: " The right hand of the statue is STILL in Egypt" meaning "give us time we'll pilfer that too". Britain was a privateering country and still is, and, probably, will always be.

[@dirkbonesteel]

@0:50 annoying guy goes away

[@ryansutter4291]

Periscope comment: Submarine's often have periscopes....

[@elultimopujilense]

Diorite? How the hell did they create those perfectly symmetric sculptures with bronze tools? That thing is almost as hard as diamond! Something is just not correct here, and egyptologists are not giving us the right answers. We are doing a great disservice to our ancestors by assuming we know everything about them.

[@billyhendrix5544]

Are they not lionesses?

[@Solar_Planet_YT]

The grand egyptian museum will open in november 4 so take all the egyptian statues to the museum or else it will not be complete.

[@Kemet3.0]

Of course, he didn’t want to say that was the era of the Black Pharaohs. 18:50 that giant head... from the 25th history.

[@uptalk144]

The entirety was the black pharaohs. Wasn't until the late kingdoms and invasions that the ethnicity started to change. The era you speak of is the Cushite takeover. They were the same people, different kingdoms, one more advanced than the other. They all are of the seed of Ham. The black race.

[@karrole88]

They pharaohs are all black

[@Kemet3.0]

@@uptalk144 You're correct.. my bad. I did more research and this guy channel breaks it all down. My brother have the most incredible website that breaks down the whole ancient Egyptian dynasty from the 1st. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaOzXqetfrpooZI

[@karrole88]

Even the one in British museum have broken noses

[@jaihind1304]

I can see a ghost in the video

[@jonathanekat3852]

Why would you argue knowing there true age? There is no inscription on it. No details written down anywhere in text and you can’t carbondate stone. It’s sometimes weathered and damaged and I would go as far as saying you can roughly estimate or rather be of the opinion but being able to tell 100% for certain is not possible.

[@TMPreRaff]

His hair, like the ancient Egyptians, has had its day.

[@righteousred723]

If you ever wonder why the sphinx gets its nose destroyed so often, it probably annoyed some people as much as that girl who started this video off

[@bautistasola135]

Where is the cat with face of woman

[@casanostra4113]

You mainly mean goddess Bastet (a woman with the face of a cat)

[@firstfruit8655]

Beautiful Black statues, the two with the nose removed! Sad

[@marioalberto34844]

If there was a god originally before... where did the idea of praying to other gods came from??

[@maphirisebapu]

Kemet

[@noinoi5949]

you know what they say about people with large frontal cortexes and Egyptian experts ...lol

[@peterkavanagh64]

To follow up the loin is wait till this animal has eaten . Some. And we then have some. Not a king representative. Just juxtaposed time and frozen ways

[@smd_]

i wish there was 360 view with you being able to move not just 360

[@felcho1790]

sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeshhh

[@OuijaDan]

It's such a shame that this video is such bad quality; I think I strained my eyes trying to look at everything closer. Just because you are a museum doesn't mean you have to use antique cameras! :)

[@MrWizardofozzz]

The sphinx is not a lion.. Lions have a trademark tuft at the end of its tail, that the sphinx clearly do not have.. Plus, 8 million mummified animals(nearly all dogs) were recently discovered in Saqqara.. i am going to make a guess that the sphinx was actually a dog and the head(solid one-piece of cement) was an African female's face..

[@uptalk144]

Sphinx was originally Anubis. The head was recarved thousands of years after it's creation. I believe the head was damaged during the Great Flood. The people who found it recarved what was left of it, hence why the head is so small in proportion to the rest of the body.

[@MrWizardofozzz]

@@uptalk144 Yes, that is basically what I am posting above.. It was originally a dog made of smaller stones and the head later fell off and replaced with ancient cement blocks(geopolymer).. All the pyramids were discovered to be made by ancient concrete(drexel university/pyramids).

[@uptalk144]

@@MrWizardofozzz That's a theory that's not completely proven. Pieces of stone at Giza are shown to have fossils embedded. If this were true, it is equally incredible. The ancient Egyptians used the power of demons to accomplish great feats. All of their gods are demons. Todays modern secret societies worship the same demons. This is why their is so much ancient Egyptian references on our money, washington, etc.

[@MrWizardofozzz]

@@uptalk144 Actually, the fossils in the stone were the evidence.. If you carve through stone, why do you see perfectly intact fossils..?? Shouldn't they have been hacked through..?? Y es, it was proven, not here to debate something proven long ago.. If you want the link, just ask but it's easy to find.

[@uptalk144]

@@MrWizardofozzz They are perfectly intact because that's what limestone is. If it was melted stone, there would be no evidence of fossils.