CAIRO: A Dutch museum’s team of archaeologists has been banned from carrying out excavations in the rich Saqqara necropolis in Egypt, after the museum organised an exhibition that drew condemnation from Egyptian government.
After the opening of “Kemet: Egypt in Hip Hop, Jazz, Soul and Funk,” the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden received an email from the foreign missions’ head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, claiming that the museum was falsifying history with its Afrocentric approach.
The museum’s managing director Wim Weijland said that the Egyptian government has denied the them a permit for the next excavation season at Saqqara, CNN reported.
A vast burial ground located about 20 miles south of the capital city of Cairo, Saqqara is home to oldest pyramid of Egypt, the pyramid of Djoser, and has been the location of many important discoveries in recent times.
The museum is busy in annual excavations there for over 40 years. Its most recent excavation operation took place earlier this year, between 19 February and 23 March.
Weijland said that the museum has been working at Saqqara since 1975. For the next season, it has been denied the permit for excavation.
He added that the reason for the permit’s refusal is the presumed falsifying history in the recent exhibition. The museum is trying to start the dialogue with the Egyptian government about the matter.
Ancient Egypt’s depiction
He said that the aim of the “Kemet” exhibition is to present and understand the depiction of ancient Egypt and the messages in music by black performers as well as to bring forth what scientific Egyptological research can reveal about ancient Nubia and Egypt.
Nubia is an ancient area in northeast Africa that stretches from the Nile River valley in Egypt to Khartoum in modern-day Sudan. The region was once home to the Nubian Kingdom of Kush, also called “Black Pharaohs.”
