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[-] muhyb@programming.dev 147 points 1 month ago

-Why there are pyramids in Egypt?

-Because Brits couldn't moved them to British Museum.

[-] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 13 points 1 month ago

Imagine doing a Gate of Ishtar maneuver but with the pyramids

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 12 points 1 month ago

It's not quite the same thing (particularly because of the motivation), but, uhh…I suggest you read about Abu Simbel, if you haven't already.

[-] damdy@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

To be fair. Most of the pyramids were raided far before the British took an interest and whatever they held has now been lost to time.

[-] muhyb@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

Eh, I meant the whole pyramids but fair enough.

[-] greenskye@lemmy.zip 39 points 1 month ago

What's the opinion on certain high risk countries where there's a high likelihood of the artifacts simply being destroyed? If I remember correctly ISIS and other similar organizations have burned or bombed several historical sites before.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 month ago

Museums should participate in cultural exchange, if a museum feels under threat then they have channels they can trust to protect their artifacts until they can be returned

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

if a museum feels under threat

If you run a museum in Afghanistan and are afraid that the Taliban is going to execute you unless you destroy some blasphemous statue, are you going to risk your life to send the artifact to the British Museum, or are you just going to destroy it? Yeah, some heroes will definitely risk their lives, but most won't.

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[-] makyo@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago

We have to be extremely wary of people who cite that because it's so easily used as a justification for artifact theft and can have deep roots in racism.

[-] nexguy@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

That's the question. Where is the line between racism and artifact protection?

[-] lath@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Presumably somewhere between racism and artifact protection.

[-] toast@retrolemmy.com 14 points 1 month ago

If you're suggesting a daring heist at the Smithsonian, I'm in!

[-] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Gonna play a game of comment roulette. How far do I have to scroll before I see someone say something like, "That can't be in their museum because they can't be trusted with it".

Spinning the chamber now.

Edit: turns out I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Now I sad.

[-] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

on the other hand how often things go missing in the British museum?

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago

Eurotrash gonna eurotrash.

[-] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

There are occasions when it's useful.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_cultural_heritage_by_the_Islamic_State

I'm not saying it always is but there are a lot of very unstable places run by people who just don't care about this stuff. And at the time it was stolen it was either the British museum, someone's private collection, or the Vatican.

[-] chuymatt@startrek.website 7 points 1 month ago

But who made them unstable?

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[-] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 19 points 1 month ago

i need someone to convince me why it is wrong to steal from the British museum gift shop

[-] jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 month ago

better a museum than on a shelf in someone's living room (no I won't be donating it)

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

They are my human skulls I found them fair and square

[-] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is why I always donate my finished books to my local library. I don't need them and, if I want to read them again, I can always just go check it out from the library.

[-] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago

Countries and borders are an arbitrary concept created during the peace treaty of Westphalia.

Those relics belong to dead people.

[-] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 month ago

Attributing modern concepts of borders to Westphalia is a Eurocentric worldview. What, you don't think they had the concept of statehood and sovereignty in Asia for at least a few thousand years prior to this?

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, it's definitely a little questionable when the people currently inhabiting the land have no direct connection to the people who made the artifacts. And then you got shit like this. Or this. Or this.

[-] ebolapie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Hot take: all artifacts should be located in the most geopolitically stable area possible

Hotter take: un peacekeepers should protect world heritage sites with weapons-free orders

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[-] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Countries and borders are an arbitrary concept created during the peace treaty of Westphalia.

Stealing this foolproof argument for when I next apply for a UK visa to go to British Museum. Thanks!

[-] pugnaciousfarter@literature.cafe 4 points 1 month ago

Those relics belong to dead people.

No, it belongs to a community. Does something stop belonging to a people if the original creators die? No.

That way nobody owns any land, because it belongs to the amoeba.

Returning the artifacts is meant to be a good will gesture, and a sort of a reparation (in lieu of the actual reparations) for all the horrible colonial era crimes that were propagated not more than even 100 years ago.

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[-] moobythegoldensock@infosec.pub 14 points 1 month ago

Gotta love how the first movie opens with him stealing an idol from an uncontacted Peruvian tribe, and the heroic music swells as he narrowly escapes with spears flying around them.

Granted, this takes place in 1936 and his actions were the norm for the period, but despite coming out in 1981 the movie plays this scene out rather uncritically.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

He narrowly escapes with his life after having the idol stolen from him by his rival, Belloq, who works for the Nazis and actually hired that Peruvian tribe to be his little private army. Belloq then orders the Peruvians to attack Jones and he barely escapes on his hired plane.

[-] moobythegoldensock@infosec.pub 3 points 1 month ago

Where do you get that he hired them?

The opening scene is them discussing that the tribe would kill them just for being in the area, and then Belloq taunts Jones saying he can’t warn them that he’s scamming them because Jones doesn’t speak Hovitos. No where does it say he hired them.

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[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Temple of Doom had way more questionable scenes in it with the banquet, the heroic British soldiers at the end and... Short Round. Did they really have to name him that?

Although the cultists were based on a real group and I actually saw something that looked like the heart thing in an Indian movie, so maybe that's based on something real as well.

[-] pugnaciousfarter@literature.cafe 3 points 1 month ago

I doubt it.

There are 1.4 billion people. I think there'd be a stereotype about them doing black magic if it was an ever prevalent thing.

To be fair to the movie, it isn't trying to say all Indians worship dark gods. It's just depicting a cult that happens to be in India.

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[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, but if the tribe made those traps that still work perfectly after hundreds of years, imagine how advanced they must be by now. Dr Jones was probably within miles of a hidden techno utopia and never had a clue.

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

scandalized stare

edit *innocent stare I meant

[-] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Well I'm British so... fuuuck that!

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Why are there pyramids in egypt?

Because they were too big for the british museum.

[-] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

Many ethnic minorities complain that their cultural heritage is exhibitioned in the capital far away. Countries are a social construct

[-] pugnaciousfarter@literature.cafe 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So it's better to keep it somewhere thousands of kilometres away where they'll never be able to see it as compared to being able to see it albeit with difficulty?

That's an internal problem for them to solve, not an excuse to hoard someone else's culture.

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[-] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Karen Allen, the perfect example of aging naturally and radiating beauty.

[-] Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Petite brunette women with green eyes have always been my thing. I realised recently that is entirely due to Karen Allen.

[-] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

She isn't even specifically my type, but her smile in this Indy 4 promo foto Karen Allen in Indiana Jones 4 promo photo was just absolutely captivating

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[-] wanderwisley@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

Britannia Jones and the stolen museum artifacts.

[-] SpaceScotsman@startrek.website 6 points 1 month ago

Honestly, "country of origin" will have straight lines drawn on a map that are so far removed from where the people who lived there originally considered their borders even that's probably not pinning it down well enough.

[-] Surenho@lemmy.wtf 5 points 1 month ago

The museum could pay rent per item to the country the artifacts originate from? Bad idea?

[-] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

if you want to compare Indiana Jones to real life, the movies say flat out that he is an unscrupulous grave robber and he is completely aware of the hypocrisy. its part of his character arc, where he's all about fortune and glory and doesnt believe in any of the mystical crap, until he is confronted with powers he didn't understand and fights to stop others from exploiting them. and at the end of the day it was a movie

[-] epicstove@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Laughs in British

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago
[-] kruhmaster@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Forgot the zoom on the bottom panels.

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this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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