Infoesque

There's a post going around about how Ancient Egyptian murals are being whitewashed while getting restored. Is there any truth to this?

If you mean this post, then no. Just no. 100x no. 

You may have already seen @rudjedet‘s response, which should tell you how the Egyptology gang is currently feeling about this. I’m going to go through it bit by bit, though perhaps not the video because I think my blood pressure will go through the roof. 

Let’s preface the whole ask with this: Conservationists working on ancient art and artefacts, do not, and I repeat, do not, add paint where it is unnecessary. When they do make changes, as per conservation rules, everything is reversible. No conservationist makes changes that cannot be undone. Paint or otherwise. 

So, the tomb of Nefertari underwent conservation that began in 1988, and this is where the post says the ‘white washing occurred’. Let’s put it this way, the tomb had already been open for 84 years at the point of restoration (discovered and opened in 1904). It had been extensively photographed and documented before work began by numerous people. It’d be a really stupid thing to do to actively just paint over and then be like ‘lol nah those old photos of it are just wrong’. You can’t get away with stuff like that. Due to the nature of the limestone and surrounding water table, the tomb was already in a poor state. Sodium chloride, or table salt, had formed beneath the paint and plaster, thus causing it to flake off. Opening the tomb accelerated the process, and a fifth of the paintings were lost before work began. I will provide this quote from the man,  Paolo Mora, former Chief Conservator at the Istituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome, whose team carried out the work: ‘”Our goal," says Mr. Mora, "was to stop deterioration and consolidate what was possible. We did not add color. Nothing. It was cleaning, consolidation, and stop.”’ (Source)

So the post presents this comparison image, with the one on the left supposedly being the ‘before’ and the right being the ‘after’:

The claim is that the conservation team led by Mr Mora in 1988, painted over Ma’at’s skin to make her appear ‘white’. *please just at this point imagine me pinching the bridge of my nose and sighing, because that is what I did on reading this*  

Firstly, the image on the left has been darkened. Egyptian backgrounds are bright white, not a dirty yellow. So, I did a reverse image search for that particular image. That took me to this post from 2016 on Facebook, by @egypt-museum and provided this image:

This image is fairly obviously a facsimile/altered copy of a similar scene from the tomb of Nefertari. How do I know this? Well, for starters, the art is inferior to that of the tomb itself. If you look at the original comparison image more closely, you can see that there is far less detail in the image on the left. The hair is in the wrong place. The hieroglyphs are less detailed, and cruder. The image on the right looks like it has been painted onto plaster, as you can see variations in the colour, particularly on the dress of Ma’at, wherein more paint has been applied in some areas than others. On the left image it is solid. If you’re not convinced by this particular set of information, then I can offer this:

This is an image of the original scene (highlighted on the right), taken in situ within the tomb of Nefertari. I took this screenshot from this video, from this website, which was a project to digitally scan every inch of the tomb to provide a VR experience. Since photography is not allowed in tombs in either the Valley of the Kings or the Valley of the Queens, unless academic, most people wouldn’t know where the scene sits within the tomb. In this case, it is right at the front, mirrored either side of the entrance steps of the tomb. This means it’s high up. You can see that in the video itself, as in the top left corner you can see a white circle with arrows. If you pause the video you can actually move the video around to get a better look at it. This enabled me to take this screenshot:

You can see the image is over the stairs, on a small ledge, and has a niche before it, and the ceiling is covered in stars as in typical in Egyptian tombs. A clearer image is this one from Getty Images:

Now compare this shot of the scene in situ within the tomb, to the one that says it’s the ‘original’. The ‘original’ looks like it’s in a corner, yes, but that corner seems to sit on the floor. There are no stars on the ceiling in the ‘original’ image. There is no damage at all to the scene, even though this tomb is well documented to be damaged, and damage can be see on the in situ image. You’ll also note on the image deemed to be the ‘original’ that the wall on the right comes out towards the viewer, marking the scene as one in a niche, whereas the scene shown in situ in the actual tomb is shown to be stepped out from the preceding scene. They’re not even remotely showing the same place.

Even if none of that persuades you, please know that the Egyptian gods were said, by the Egyptians, to have skin the colour of gold and hair made of lapis lazuli. Humans are shown to have dark skin tones, but Gods often do not. There are exceptions, usually the Anthropomorphic gods and always Osiris, but by and large they are depicted with golden (not white) skin tones for a reason.

The image purported to be the ‘original’ is a copy that has changed the skin tones. It is nothing like the original that I have show here in its original context. So, that’s the first falsehood in the post. Let’s move on to the next one. 

This image, you kinda have to laugh at. The largest image shows a conservator from the British Museum doing work on the banquet scene from the tomb of Nebamun. What she’s actually doing here is strengthening the edges, as these scenes were removed from the tomb and then the tomb was lost (I know, even Egyptologists think this was a shitshow). You can see the full image here:

(Source - The British Museum)

They don’t look white to me. Am I missing something? Or do people seriously think Egyptologists and Conservators would take photos of themselves actively white washing paintings and put them on the internet? *bridge of nose pinch, sigh*

So, moving on to the top image in that set. This is a scene from the tomb of Thutmose IV: 

(Source - Getty Images)

You’ll notice that the image presented by OP has been darkened ever so slightly in an attempt to present a stronger case. That’s not going to help you here. Firstly, you can see the brush strokes and how the paint has been soaked up into the plaster, secondly, if this was ‘white washing’ as is claimed, then the ‘white washers’ appear to have missed 6 figures in their attempt. Seriously, there’s a nice close up of Thutmose IV and Osiris: 

(source - Getty images)

Yeah, seems totally white. Not a black guy at all. 

Here’s another image from the same section of the tomb: 

(Source - Getty Images)

Notice how it’s only the goddesses that are paler? Might there be an Egyptian art convention, and cultural reason for this to be happening? Yes!! Not only are the goddesses here portrayed with yellow/gold skin, as I said previously gods have golden skin, but it is typical within Egyptian art decorum for women, who typically spent more time inside to be depicted in a yellow colour, rather than the deep brown of the men. They’re not white! Far from it! If you’re seeing white people then you really know nothing about Ancient Egyptian cultural norms. Just look at this close up of one of the goddesses from that scene:

(Source -Getty Images) 

This goddess (Hathor) isn’t white. Nor has she been depicted as such, as you can see through the brush strokes in the paint by the original artisan. 

Here’s another image of one of the goddesses: 

(Source - Getty Images) 

Yeah, she looks white. I won’t deny that. But I can tell you that the Egyptians were not portraying her as a white woman. Again, this is the goddess Hathor for goodness sake. Can you see the red lines around the eye and eyebrow? That’s line art. When the Egyptians start a scene like this, they always do an ochre red line art, and then correct themselves as they move to the final product (except in the case of the tomb of Thutmose III, whose tomb is deliberately all in line art style). They change positioning etc. Notice how you can see it here? You wouldn’t if someone had come along and painted this woman ‘white’. 

 A really good book to read on the use of colour and how people are portrayed would be Heinrich Schäfer’s ‘Principles of Egyptian Art’, or you can freely ‘borrow’ Gay Robins’ ‘The Art of Ancient Egypt’ from this link (free account needed). Also, as a final note. Thutmose IV’s tomb has never undergone modern restoration. It was restored by Horemheb c.1319-1292, and there’s graffiti in the tomb noting this restoration. You can read about that here.

Moving on to the final image in that segment: 

I’ve done a reverse search on this image, and I cannot find the original papyrus it comes from, though I can tell you that the papyrus dates to the New Kingdom based on the woman’s mode of dress. But it is on papyrus, and that’s something I can talk about. Notice how her face skin tone is the same colour as the papyrus colour surrounding it? That’s because the face was never painted. Either because they forgot, or they didn’t want to lose detail in the face. It’s not been painted over to hide her blackness. They would have done a real crappy job, because the rest of her is still black. Are Egyptologists stupid or incompetent in these scenarios I wonder?

The next image I’ll discuss is the side by side comparison of the wooden Bust of Tutankhamun. Here’s the image OP provides:

According to them, the lips and nose have been thinned to make Tutankhamun appear more ‘white’. The fun thing about Tutankhamun is that the Griffith Institute at Oxford University, have the entire collection of Harry Burton’s original photographs from the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, just out there for anyone to look at. So I went through the photos to find the bust from the original excavation. I cannot post the full pictures here as the Griffith Institute state that the photos must not be reproduced under any circumstances without express permission from them. However, I will link to both of the photos, with their Burton photograph numbers here:

Burton Photo No. P0325  Burton Photo No. P0326

Both of those photos match the 2019 version, right down to the missing paint/varnish on the nose, and earring holes in the ears. You’ll notice the ‘1924′ version OP says is the original has neither of these. So, I did a little digging for the ‘1924′ photo. Reverse image search brought me to this image from Getty Images: 

If you click the link to the source I’ve provided, you’ll see the photo is entitled:

Now that struck me as odd, as Tutankhamun’s artefacts rarely leave Egypt, and have in fact only been to the UK twice: once in 1972 at the British Museum in London, and then again in 2019 at the Saachi Gallery in London. So I looked for a 1924 exhibition, and low and behold I found that there had been an exhibition in 1924 of Tutankhamun’s treasures as part of a ‘British Empire Exhibition’ at Wembley. This was an exhibition that recreated the entirety of Tutankhamun’s tomb in replicas to show visitors what had been found. The above image, and the one that is purported to be the ‘original’ is actually a photo of an artist finishing up a replica of the wooden bust from the tomb of Tutankhamun not the actual original bust.

The final image I’ll discuss is this one:

Honey, that’s a shitty banana leaf ‘papyrus’ replica of a scene from the tomb of Nebamun. The original remains untouched, and you can’t yell at Egyptologists for shitty racist copies of original art shops sell to people. The Nebamun image exists, and is on display in all its original glory. In fact, if you scroll back up to the section where I mention Nebamun in this post before, you’ll see these two guys just chilling and enjoying their banquet. This scene is on display at the British Museum. If we’re white washing we’re doing a terrible job of it by just having this where everyone can see it. 

The other two images are of Egyptologists and Archaeologists doing conservation work on tombs. Unless someone can point me to specific white washing in those photos, then they’re just there for nonsensical reasons. 

The video is hilariously bad. It’s painfully obvious that it’s an early 2000′s production, using actors to pretend to be Egyptologists, while saying terrible racist things. I mean just look at this woman’s face as she says ‘replace african names with arabic and european names’

That’s some really bad acting there bud. Everyone is looking shifty and pulling their best ‘evil plot face’ and I just cannot take it seriously. 

So, yeah, that post is bunk. If you’re not convinced by the evidence presented, then that’s fine. Just please look into it more, and ask yourself ‘do I believe that a very narrowly defined infographic by an unknown author is telling me the absolute god honest truth?’ Think critically, not reactionary. 

[I have a ko-fi for people who’ve enjoyed my posts. This one took 5 hours]