Egypt's famous archaeologist demands that Western countries return three important cultural relics

On September 7 local time, Egypt's famous archaeologist and former minister of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, launched an online petition, strongly demanding that Western countries return three extremely valuable Egyptian cultural relics.

These three cultural relics are: the bust of Queen Nefertiti of ancient Egypt, which is currently located in the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany. It is reported that in 1912, a German archaeological team discovered this famous painted bust at the Amarna site about 300 kilometers south of Cairo, Egypt, and shipped it to Berlin the following year. Nefertiti lived about 3,400 years ago. She was the queen of Pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt and one of the most famous queens in Egyptian history.

The other two cultural relics are: one is the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. It changed hands many times in the wars of the 18th century and was finally obtained by the British. The stone is inscribed with an ancient legal document in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Greek, which is of extraordinary significance for deciphering ancient Egyptian writing. The second is the zodiac relief of the Dendera Temple in the Louvre in France. This is an astronomical chart marked by the ancient Egyptians to show the positions of the stars, depicting the 12 constellations on the zodiac and the positions of the planets.

For many years, Egypt has been demanding the return of these cultural relics, but the three major Western museums have not responded. This action by Zahi Hawass has attracted widespread attention from the international community, and the issue of returning cultural relics has once again become the focus. These cultural relics are not only important symbols of Egypt's cultural heritage, but also carry the history and civilization of ancient Egypt. The ownership issue of them involves many aspects such as history, culture, law and international relations. People are looking forward to relevant countries being able to pay attention to Egypt's demands and properly resolve the issue of returning cultural relics through dialogue and negotiation, so that these precious cultural relics can return to their hometowns and continue to shine in their original cultural soil. At present, the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany has not responded to the petition for the return of the bust of Nefertiti.