Robby Raccoon
Trash Digger
Last night I caught wind of a major fire at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The story was fresh off the internet press and only a couple images available, but judging by the fire pouring up through the roof and dancing devilishly with the cranes and helicopters, I was pretty sure the museum would be a near total loss.
Here's a line from the BBC this morning: "Most of the 20 million items it contained, including the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas, are believed to have been destroyed."
This museum is (was) probably South America's most important cultural, historical, and scientific museum: comprising collections gathered over its 200 years of existence and featuring unique items from around the world.
As I type this, it is still burning though fire-fighters have it "under control" now and are rushing in and out with whatever pieces they can get their hands on. So far no physical injuries are reported, thank the Lord, but the whole of archaeological, paleontologist, and historian cliques around the world are now waking up to the mental pain of such a loss.
All that South-American and world history once found is now forever gone in dust and ashes. Indeed, as Scripture states, from dust we were, and to dust we will go again.
Brazil's economy had been on the decline since the Olympic Games left it in 2016. Because of this, many budget cuts were made, and this is the end result. The museum's fire-suppression system seems not to have been functional and they were in great want of general containment systems, and the fire-hydrants outside the building have been verified to have failed so that fire-fighters had to draw from a near-by lake.
Once more, the loss cannot be stressed enough: I cannot fathom the insurance payout on this loss, and this is probably a greater disaster story than the ISIS attacks on dozens of historical/cultural heritage centers around the Middle East: sites thousands of years old blown up by dynamite and riddled with gun-fire by that hateful organisation.
The moral of this story is: don't put all the best artefacts in one place, and always have fire containment and suppression systems in any major collection. This solid stone building may not even be salvageable. How much less other places?
20 million artefacts gathered over 200 years: the best of the best now reduced to dust and ashes! I am going to declare the upper stories total losses, but it is my hope that their lower story and archives/storage rooms may still be salvageable.
Just imagine the clean-up of this and how many decades of restoration attempts will now occur, costing millions of dollars, to try ans salvage priceless antiquities that were in some cases thousands of years old?
Here's a line from the BBC this morning: "Most of the 20 million items it contained, including the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas, are believed to have been destroyed."
This museum is (was) probably South America's most important cultural, historical, and scientific museum: comprising collections gathered over its 200 years of existence and featuring unique items from around the world.
As I type this, it is still burning though fire-fighters have it "under control" now and are rushing in and out with whatever pieces they can get their hands on. So far no physical injuries are reported, thank the Lord, but the whole of archaeological, paleontologist, and historian cliques around the world are now waking up to the mental pain of such a loss.
All that South-American and world history once found is now forever gone in dust and ashes. Indeed, as Scripture states, from dust we were, and to dust we will go again.
Brazil's economy had been on the decline since the Olympic Games left it in 2016. Because of this, many budget cuts were made, and this is the end result. The museum's fire-suppression system seems not to have been functional and they were in great want of general containment systems, and the fire-hydrants outside the building have been verified to have failed so that fire-fighters had to draw from a near-by lake.
Once more, the loss cannot be stressed enough: I cannot fathom the insurance payout on this loss, and this is probably a greater disaster story than the ISIS attacks on dozens of historical/cultural heritage centers around the Middle East: sites thousands of years old blown up by dynamite and riddled with gun-fire by that hateful organisation.
The moral of this story is: don't put all the best artefacts in one place, and always have fire containment and suppression systems in any major collection. This solid stone building may not even be salvageable. How much less other places?
20 million artefacts gathered over 200 years: the best of the best now reduced to dust and ashes! I am going to declare the upper stories total losses, but it is my hope that their lower story and archives/storage rooms may still be salvageable.
Just imagine the clean-up of this and how many decades of restoration attempts will now occur, costing millions of dollars, to try ans salvage priceless antiquities that were in some cases thousands of years old?