In the first half of the 19th century, archaeology began to be born as an auxiliary science of history.
Human society has always been interested in its past, and the chroniclers of ancient Europe have noted the earlier times of Europe, but it was not until the Renaissance that Europeans were interested in the flourishing of European classical culture.
Brunelleschi, Michelangelo or Domenico. Fontana took part in the excavation of those Roman monuments, which unearthed the famous sculpture group".Laocoon and his sons", and the ruins of Pompeii, and so on.
Napoleon and his team of scientists embarked on a trip to Egypt, where countless treasures of ancient Egypt were discovered. Europeans started archaeology, and everyone began to delve into the history of the earth in search of treasures. It was in this context that a "Egyptian fever" spread from France to England and other European countries, becoming a fashion sought after by everyone, including the Italian Fellini.
In the 19th century, many Western "explorers" stole treasures in the name of archaeology, and brutal methods caused irreparable damage to many monuments, Giuseppe. Fellini Giuseppe Ferrini is definitely the "best". Giuseppe. Fellini Giuseppe Ferrini.
Giuseppe. Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1797, Fellini spent 18 years in his native Italy before running away from home to escape irreconcilable conflicts with his stepmother. He traveled all over Italy and taught himself to become a charlatan.
In 1817, as a military doctor, he joined the Albanian rebels, who were then fighting against the Ottoman Turks. In the era of war, no one cared whether he had formal medical training. Five years later, he joined the side of the Greeks, took part in the Greek uprising of independence, fought the Turks again, and fought the Turkish army in the Peloponnese. However, due to the arrival of reinforcements, his unit was taken by the governor of Egypt, Muhammad. Ali's son Ibrahim Pasha's native army was defeated. Fellini fled and did not return to Greece until 1827 to bury his love, who had died in battle.
It is said that this is the only one of Fellini's descendants**.
At that time, the Greek War of Independence was nearing its end, as the three European powers (Russia, France, and Great Britain) had decided to intervene and defeated the Turkish fleet in naval battles, and Ottoman Turkey had to sit down at the negotiating table. This time, the escaped doctor decided to take refuge in his former enemy, crossed the sea to Egypt, and got a job as a military doctor under Muhammad Ali, who was looking for talented people to build a modern Western-style army.
One of the things that the governor wanted to improve was the army, which included more effective military health care, so Fellini enlisted as an assistant, and the following year he was already the chief physician of an infantry battalion.
Therefore, he marched with the 1st Egyptian Regiment to Sennar, the capital of the Sultanate, which was assigned there. Sennar is located on the banks of the Blue Nile River in southeastern Sudan as the war of aggression waged by Muhammad Ali has extended the border to Ethiopia.
The trip lasted more than five months, during which time Fellini visited places such as Khartoum and Wadi Halfa, where there are a large number of archaeological remains that aroused his first interest in ancient civilizations. In fact, he had been unlucky while in Egypt, after a serious illness, after a period of darkness, he married an Ethiopian**, but lost his first child and was forced to fight a malaria epidemic in a precarious and deplorable hospital. He was later transferred to Khartoum and joined a medical team.
There he became acquainted with Kurchid, the governor of the Sultan, and accompanied him on several expeditions in Nubia in search of **, where he heard rumors about hidden treasures. Spurred on by the legend of the local workers about the possession of **, Fellini later decided to leave the army and devote himself to a treasure hunt, determined to either"Go home penniless, or carry a treasure like never before"。
Of course, **treasure** is so easy to find!
The Italians had a brainstorm and began to look for alternatives: the ancient Egyptian pharaohs amassed a lot of treasures in their heyday;You just need to find the treasure burial spot and dig it up.
In fact, there is a precedent for this: in the early part of the 19th century, the Frenchman Bernardino. Drovetti, Giovanni of Padua. Batista. Belzoni (an Italian fellow who took dynamite to dig the pyramids) and the Englishman Henry. It was for Muhammad that Salt was in charge. Governor Ali took the first steps in Egyptology while serving.
Fellini chose Meroe as his target, the kingdom of Meroe, once a territory under the rule of ancient Egypt, known as Kush at the time, who once took advantage of the chaos of the ancient Egyptian kingdom to occupy Upper and Lower Egypt and establish the famous black dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Kush dynasty. He was in Meroe with the Albanian merchant Antonio. Stefani collaborated on an expedition in which the latter financed the equipment in exchange for half of the profits earned.
In 1834, Fellini and the Albanian merchant Antonio. Stephani became an "archaeologist" and set his sights on the inaccessible pyramids of Meroe. Not the pyramids of Egypt, but the pyramids of Meroe, east of the ancient royal city of Kush, 210 kilometers north of Khartoum, where there are more than a hundred, and their volume is much smaller compared to the Egyptian pyramids, none of them are more than 30 meters high.
They were discovered in the first ten years by the Frenchman Frédéric Cailliaud, who was also in the service of Governor Ali and also in search of **.
On August 10, 1834, they set out for Meroe, accompanied by their wives, about 30 servants, hundreds of porters, and a large number of horses and dromedary camels, into the pyramids of Meroe. The two hired a large number of laborers, but the outcome of this venture was not ideal.
First, they tried to enter a half-buried temple, but were unsuccessful, despite poking open the wall to open an entrance.
Then they also failed on some sand-covered ruins, where they found a large obelisk decorated with hieroglyphs, but they had to abandon it due to its size. The gang violently tore apart the pyramids from top to bottom, but found nothing.
At the same time, diseases began to take their toll on workers and animals. A comparison of the illustration of the pyramid of Meroët in the book published in 1826 with the current situation shows how much damage the tomb robbers had. Above is the N6 pyramid of Meroe from the book published in 1826, and below is the site of the N6 pyramid of Meroe today. There's nothing in sight anymore.
Valerian Guillot Flickr Giuseppe. Fellini demolished some of the pyramids while searching for hidden treasures.
This is obviously because, unlike the Egyptian pyramids, these pyramids at Kush are tall and easy to tear down, but generally the burial chambers of such pyramids are underground, and it is impossible to enter the inner chambers from above, and most of the time they are found in nothing.
Frustrated, Fellini decided to change his mind and start with the largest pyramid, the pyramid in Wad Ban Naqa, which is now known as N6, and instead of digging it from the side, he completely bulldozed the pyramid N6 of Kandake Amanishakheto (the queen who ruled the Sultan between 15 BC and 1 AD) from the top and finally found the treasure.
Before and after its destruction by Giuseppe Fellini in the 30s of the 19th century, the Great Pyramid of Meroe N6, which belonged to Queen Amanishketo. The dotted line roughly follows the original contours of the structure. foto:wikimedia/incredibilia
Armani Shahto, the queen of Nubia, was a valiant warrior and one of the most prominent monarchs of the ancient Sudan-Roe pyramid Kushit (Kush) civilization. She is believed to have reigned from 10 BC to 1 AD. Her name was found in a manuscript by Meroe, in which she was named"Queen and ruler"。
Queen Armani Shahto repelled the Roman army sent by Emperor Augustus to conquer Nubia, hence her name in ancient Roman sources, as Queen Armani Shahto forced the invading Roman army to sign a fair peace agreement. Armani Shahto is known in some monuments.
She is mentioned in the temple of Amun in Kava, in a stele in Meroe, in an inscription on the palace building found in Wad Banaka, in a stele found in Castle-Ibrin, in another stele in Naka, and in the pyramids of Meroe. Fellini used nearly five hundred workers this time, and the thieves did not go empty, and this time the god of luck smiled, and they found the burial chamber buried in the ground, the walls of which were made of granite blocks, parallel to the outer staircase of the pyramid face. The room is 5 feet high, and a sarcophagus without mummies appears, accompanied by a funeral dowry.
Fellini and others have absolutely no idea whose tomb it is, but it is certain that it was a royal figure (today identified as the Kush queen Amanishakheto who ruled the area between 15 BC and 1 AD), and he thought there might be more treasures.
This poor N6 pyramid was destroyed, and even the foundations were dug up!Unsurprisingly, a beautifully decorated chamber was dug up two weeks later with some interesting items;Almost all of the items are bronze and not **, but at least they won't be left empty-handed again.
Suspicious of the loyalty of the locals, Fellini had to hide the items, and the locals flocked to the site when they heard about the discovery. Finally, the servants alerted Fellini and Stefani to the betrayal of the hired natives, and together they loaded the camels with what they found: a dozen bracelets of gold, silver and brass, sixteen knives and forks also of enamelled gold, dozens of rings, bracelets, crosses, necklaces, figurines of various stones, and so on.
They broke through the encirclement of the locals overnight, managed to reach the Nile, finally distanced themselves from their pursuers, and then went down the river to the area of the Fifth Falls after Giuseppe of Bologna. Fellini went to Cairo to present his report to the Governor.
The gold and silver, which belonged to Queen Amanishakheto of Kush, were then brought back to Cairo to be sold to recoup their investment. This report, with an enlarged detailed version, was later published in 1836, when Giuseppe. Fellini has returned to his hometown;The title is nell'interno dell'Africa - "The First Trip to the Interior of Africa".
Today's pyramids of Meroe are not clear which are Fellini's "merits".
After finding the treasure he was looking for, Giuseppe in 1836. Fellini returned to his hometown of Bologna. A year later, he completed the expedition report, The First Journey to the Interior of Africa, which contained a catalogue of his findings, which was translated into French and republished in 1838.
The First Trip to the Interior of Africa
However, he had trouble trying to ** these treasures. Most of the artifacts at that time had to be examined by experts from the British Museum, but people at that time did not believe that Black Africa could have such high-quality jewelry, and that there was a craftsmanship to make such fine jewelry, so they were considered fakes.
German Egyptologist Karl. Richard. The treasures were verified by Karl Richard Lepsius in front of the experts of the British Museum, who all believed that they were some fakes and therefore did not want any of them, and Fellini had to pay a low price for the stolen treasures.
These treasures were distributed in sales, donations, and auctions across Europe, and it is said that the investment was finally recovered. The collection includes 6 gold bracelets decorated with crystals and precious stones, a gold and crystal bracelet and a necklace made of precious stones, ceramics and glass.
Another necklace in the collection consists of 12 gold and crystal beads, 7 gold beads have been carefully beautified with crystals, a vase with two bronze stands, a perfume box with a wooden lid, a figurine of Lord Amun made of ** and red agate, two ** lion statues, a fox statue and another lotus statue, a chain of seven pieces of gold with a carving of a goddess, a gold chain with a carving of a beetle, and a six-piece gold chain with a key-like emblem of Lord Amun.
There are twelve sets of royal seals in the treasure, all of which are made of pure gold, and are carved with the god Amun and other gods in various positions, either wearing crowns, sitting on thrones, defeating enemies, and so on. Images of lions, sheep, beetles, and birds can also be seen.
The majority of these treasures were divided between the Egyptian Museums in Berlin and Munich. Some of them were purchased by King Ludwig I of Bavaria and are now in the Munich State Museum of Egyptian Art, while the rest were purchased by the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and can still be seen in both places.
Although it is a low price**, Giuseppe. Fellini still made a lot of money and was able to enjoy his old age in peace.
He died in Bologna at the end of 1870 and was buried in the Carthusian monastery cemetery in Carthauhaus, Bologna, where the remains of other famous people such as the singer Farinelli, the car manufacturers Alfieri Maserati and Ferrucio Lamborghini, Letizia Murat (daughter of the famous Marshal Napoleon) and Isabella are buried Colbran (wife of composer Rossini). (The above is the content of the local website, which cannot be verified).
Today, apart from the "exploits" of destroying more than forty pyramids, Giuseppe is hardly remembered. Fellini too.
Khartoum (Sudan) lost 57 priceless pieces of pure gold and jewels in broad daylight from the pyramids of Meroe in the early 19th century, and no one can say how these priceless treasures, of historical and artistic value, could be returned to their original countries.
Abdul, General Manager of the Sudan Public Antiquities and Museums Corporation. Rahman. Ali described the theft in the news a few years ago"It was the first well-documented robbery in human history"with"One of the largest thefts of antiquities ever seen in Sudan"。
Dr. Ali is confident that if Sudan meets the relevant conditions and agreements of UNESCO in this regard, then the treasures can be recovered in the future and the museum authorities will allow all the Sudanese people to exhibit the treasures at the National Museum of Khartoum.