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Tuesday, 23 August 2022

An 8-foot-tall statue of Ramses II’s head is going on display in SanFran + Robots can help solve the artifact repatriation problem

Bringing Ancient Egypt to San Francisco: Some 200 ancient Egyptian artifacts — including pieces that have never before left Egypt — are going on display at the Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition in San Francisco’s de Young Museum. The exhibition, which archaeologist and former antiquities minister / Egyptian Indiana Jones Zahi Hawass curated, includes a variety of sarcophagi, royal masks, sculptures, statues and even features a VR component, during which visitors can walk through the Abu Simbel and Nefertari’s tombs, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The centerpiece: An 8-foot-tall statue of Ramses II’s head, dating back to the 13th century B.C. The exhibition runs until February 2023.

Speaking of artifacts displayed in foreign museums: A robot sculptor could be the solution for mounting pressure on the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles — sculptures from Greece’s Parthenon Temple whose ownership has disputed for over 200 years — to Greece, the New York Times reports. Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, took the statues from the Acropolis in Athens in the early 1800s, when he served as ambassador to the occupying Ottoman Empire. The Institute of Digital Archaeology has developed a robot sculptor that uses 3D machining and has so far been able to create an uncanny replica of the Horse of Selene (the most famous of the 2500-year-old Parthenon Marbles sculptures).

If the British Museum accepts these replicas, the originals can be sent back to Greece, argues the institute’s executive director, Robert Michel. The only problem: The museum has not been open to the idea, refusing Michel’s request to scan the marbles. Earlier this month, Jonathan Williams, deputy director of the museum, in an interview with the Sunday Times said, “People come to the British Museum to see the real thing, don’t they?” While many museums across North America and Europe have been returning artifacts to their home countries, the UK has largely been holding out.


How to keep up with the Gen Z world of dating apps: Hop into the Metaverse. The dating app has bold plans to set up virtual environments for singles to mingle by hiring heads from popular game companies to achieve their vision for the future of dating, as it loses Gen Z singles to rival apps like Bumble or new startup Thursday, Financial Times reports. Downloads of Tinder dropped 5% in 2021, while Bumble increased signups by 20%, the salmon-colored paper reports, citing figures from market research firm data.ai. “If you’re looking for somebody who is a teenager and you’re thinking what are they going to use in a year or two when they are dating app eligible? That’s the audience we have to be looking at,” Gary Swidler, CEO of Tinder parent company Match Group, told the FT.

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