14 DAY TRIAL // In what might be this week's absolute most depressing news from the world of archaeology, word has it that, not long ago, staff at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo managed to damage King Tutankhamun's burial mask well beyond the realm of “we can totally fix this.”
Even worse, it is understood that the folks who ruined this ancient Egyptian artifact did so while trying to repair another fault that was threatening its integrity. That's right, guys and gals at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo broke the mask while doing their best to unbreak it.
Strike one
Not at all surprisingly, details concerning this incident are few and far between. What is known is that the conundrum started when King Tutankhamun's burial mask, featured in the photo accompanying this article, lost its beard.
It is unclear whether this happened because somebody accidentally knocked it off or because some do-gooder thought the beard to be a wee loose and removed it looking to better attach it back in place and thus restore the ancient burial mask to its hard-earned glory.
Whatever happened, the fact remains that, after sporting a beard for millennia, King Tutankhamun's burial mask was suddenly left without one. Given what happened next, perhaps it would a good idea to simply let it keep this new look.
Strike two
Reports say that, rather than take the artifact to the conservation laboratory at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and let experts put it back together, a staff member decided to try and fix the burial mask themselves. In a nutshell, they used epoxy to glue the beard back on.
Now, epoxy might work wonders when it comes to repairing mundane objects like a broken sink or a chair missing one of its legs, but as it turns out, it should never be used to try and fix ancient Egyptian burial masks.
Long story short, this guy's or gal's decision to use epoxy to put the artifact back together is the reason the burial mask now has a layer of transparent yellow between its face and its beard and several scratches all around the damaged area.
Apparently, the museum staff member ended up scratching King Tutankhamun's 3,300-year-old burial mask while struggling to remove the epoxy that had no place being there to begin with a spatula.
Here's hoping they're out
For the time being, the identity of the museum staff member who ruined the burial mask remains a mystery. Besides, it is unclear whether or not this little stunt that they pulled will cost them their job.
If we're going to be honest here, we have to admit that whoever damaged King Tutankhamun's burial mask shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a museum artifact ever again. Not unless we want movie scenes like the one below to turn real.
