Raids, Robbers, and Ruins: The Tale of a Theatrical Tomb Raider

Discover the story of the weightlifter-turned-archaeologist who filled the British Museum with Egyptian artefacts!

Illustration of the removal of the colossal bust of Rameses II, taken from Plates illustrative of the researches and operations in Egypt and Nubia (1820). Image via Wikimedia Commons.

DISCOVER

300 years ago, wealthy collectors began pouring out of western Europe toward Greece, Egypt, Italy, and the Near East, hoping to take stolen artefacts back to their private homes. Want an Egyptian scarab necklace or an Assyrian lamassu figurine to show your rich friends? No worries! They were there for the taking.

Soon afterward, museums saw the money-making potential of large excavations. Entire temples were torn apart and shipped back to England or France, tombs were unearthed and raided, emptied of their gold, ceramics, and the mummified corpses of the ancient pharaohs.

Of the people who engineered these massive excavations, the strongest, most energetic, and most eccentric, was surely Giovanni Belzoni.

1817 portrait of Belzoni as the Strong Man by George Cruikshank. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Belzoni was two metres tall, with abs as hard as rock and biceps bigger than your head. He was born in Italy with 13 siblings, and in 1803, on the run from the police, he joined a travelling circus in England, where he performed under the name “The Great Belzoni” as a strongman. One of his tricks was to carry a human pyramid of twelve people around the stage!

One day, the diplomat and collector Henry Salt offered Belzoni a job. Belzoni was an amateur engineer, and in the circus had used these skills to design a number of spectacles. Salt, however, had a much bigger project in mind: to remove the colossal statue of Rameses II from its temple, and transport it back to England.

17 years earlier, Napoleon’s world-conquering army had failed to move the statue, but Belzoni, with 130 men, a knowledge of hydraulic engineering, and sheer strength, did it. However, he did destroy two ancient temple columns to make room for the statue on the way out!

While waiting for the boat to take it back to England, Belzoni raided nearby tombs, was attacked by thieves, and was nearly shipwrecked. His careless methods, fights with rival excavators, and engineering accidents often damaged the artefacts that he was collecting. Belzoni writes in his journal about one time when he fell into a pile of mummies:

“When my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it…so that I sank altogether among the broken mummies, with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases.”

Though archaeology now is much more regulated, the legacy of figures like Belzoni is still visible today, with many artefacts irreparably damaged, destroyed, and scattered far from their true homes.

Until next time,

λεῖος πλόος!

Written by Alice Wallis

Hellenic Museum Volunteer

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Further Reading:

Belzoni, Giovanni Battista. Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia; and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea, in Search of the Ancient Berenice, and of Another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. J. Murray, 1820.

Fagan, Brian. Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists and Archaeologists in Ancient Egypt. 3rd ed. Westview Press, 2004.