As the country struggles to refashion its government, archaeologists are
looking warily towards the future.
23 November 2011
The cemetery offers a window on a unique episode in Egyptian history, a
revolution that some see as the birth of monotheism. Barry Kemp, an
archaeologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, and director of the Amarna
Project, has been working with his colleagues to excavate the skeletons, and
says that they are starting to reveal “an alarming picture of a stressful
life”. Many Amarnans died young, with retarded growth and signs of multiple
injuries. Some young men had marks where their shoulder blades had been
pierced, perhaps as part of a brutal ritual.
Kemp can't say much more about the skeletons because he had to flee the
site in January, putting his team on flights out of the country and walling up
his storehouses as a present-day revolution sent the country into chaos.
Although the situation soon calmed — in fact, Amarna did not suffer a single
episode of looting — Kemp has spent months waiting for permission to resume
excavations. Other teams working in the country tell a similar story. “We've
lost a year,” says Frank Rühli, a palaeopathologist from the Centre for
Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who was
scheduled to start work in February on human remains at the pyramids of
Saqqara, near Cairo, and in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
The block on excavations has been the latest in a series of obstacles for
archaeologists working in Egypt — the home of perhaps one-third of the world's
antiquities, which reveal a vanished culture in unmatched detail.
Despite problems that have plagued Egyptology in recent years, the country
continues to attract foreign researchers because of its special attributes.
“Egypt is one of the few countries that maintained its borders and culture for
3,000 years,” says Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in
Cairo. “It's unique in its historic and cultural span.”
Key research areas include the origins of the country's civilization, how
Egyptian society stayed stable for so long and the influence of climate change.
Chris Naunton, director of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) in London, says
that rather than studying “old fashioned” tombs and temples, the EES is
increasingly interested in “settlement archaeology” and how people used the
land. One project, led by David Jeffreys, an archaeologist at University
College London, is looking at how the path of the Nile river has shifted over
time.
Techniques such as DNA analysis are encouraging archaeologists to focus on
human remains, which can provide information about everything from hairstyles
to the evolution of disease. Ikram is collaborating with David Lambert, a
biologist at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, to extract DNA from
mummies of ibises — sacred birds in ancient Egypt — to study rates of mutation
over time.
The country has a wealth of texts that can be cross-referenced with
archaeological finds, and a dry climate that beautifully preserves organic
materials. André Veldmeijer, assistant director of the Netherlands–Flemish
Institute in Cairo, is studying leather trappings from a chariot, rediscovered
last year in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (right). The find includes harnesses,
gauntlets and a bow case, complete with wear marks and an elaborate
red-and-green design, still bright after 3,000 years.
Egyptian officials have said that their reluctance to allow work to restart
stems from security concerns; they are now starting to grant permits for
excavations. But a broader problem is that Egypt's Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA), which coordinates all conservation and excavation activities
in the country, has been mostly paralysed since the departure of its
charismatic but controversial leader, Zahi Hawass. An ally of Egypt's deposed
president, Hosni Mubarak, Hawass was forced to leave office in July. Since
then, the agency has gained and lost three heads in quick succession, with the
latest secretary-general, Mustafa Amin, appointed at the start of October.
The uncertainty dashed hopes of a swift return to normality for
archaeological research, and unrest this week adds new concerns. “Everything is
up in the air,” said Kim Duistermaat, director of the Netherlands–Flemish
Institute in Cairo, last month. As Egypt struggles to determine its future
without Mubarak, archaeologists are wondering what their field might look like
without Hawass.
Rise of the pharaoh
The antiquities service was set up in 1858 to stem a different kind of chaos:
the loss of artefacts. Early Egyptologists were little more than treasure
hunters, who carted off everything from jewellery to entire monuments. Now, the
SCA conducts its own excavations and approves and supervises foreign
archaeological missions, as well as conserving and managing the country's
wealth of antiquities and archaeological sites.
The service was initially led by French scholars, and did not have an
Egyptian head until the 1950s. After becoming secretary-general of the SCA in
2002, Hawass catapulted what had been a fairly anonymous position into the
limelight. He mixed with celebrities from Diana, Princess of Wales, to US
President Barack Obama; fronted big-budget television documentaries; and even
starred in his own reality show, Chasing Mummies. The image of Hawass
enthusiastically unearthing treasures in his Indiana Jones-style hat became a
familiar sight, and it gave Egyptology its first Egyptian face.
Even as he raised his own profile, Hawass did the same for archaeology in
Egypt. His efforts attracted tourists and raised millions of dollars from
international touring exhibitions of Tutankhamun's treasures. He fought hard —
some felt too hard — for repatriation of artefacts, and pushed for Egyptian
teams to conduct high-profile science (see Nature 472, 404–406; 2011). He raised money for
state-of-the-art facilities in Egypt, notably persuading National Geographic in
Washington DC to donate a US$3-million scanner to the SCA in return for filming
a project to scan Tutankhamun and other royal mummies; US broadcaster the
Discovery Channel built two ancient-DNA labs in Cairo and donated $250,000
towards testing the mummies' DNA. Hawass also tackled corruption and supported
projects to develop archaeological sites, including building a suite of museums
and dealing with rising groundwater that is threatening to damage sites across
the country, including Giza's famous pyramids.
But critics claim that Hawass had a darker side: that as the years went on,
he exerted excessive control and sought mainly to boost his own fame at the
expense of other researchers and of high-quality science. Under Hawass, they
complain, archaeologists were prevented from announcing their own discoveries.
“This focus on him was something that really bothered people,” says
Duistermaat. “Even for foreign missions, you had to wait, even for weeks, until
Zahi would come down and 'excavate' it.”
Many archaeologists working in Egypt are reluctant to speak about Hawass on
the record out of fear that he could regain influence in the country. But in
private, several researchers say that Hawass was intolerant of opposition and
blocked excavation permits to those who published results or theories that
clashed with his own. Megan Rowland of the University of Cambridge, who has
just completed a master's of philosophy degree on the political significance of
Egypt's antiquities during the revolution, says that researchers who crossed
Hawass became targets of intense criticism or had their permits revoked.
“Egyptological research is subject to very heavy censorship,” she argues.
In media interviews over the years, Hawass has accused several well known
archaeologists of smuggling, scientific fraud or other improprieties. One
researcher targeted by Hawass was Joann Fletcher, an Egyptologist from the
University of York, UK. In a 2003 television documentary she suggested that a
particular mummy was Queen Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten — a finding that Hawass
says he did not vet, and which was at odds with his own ideas.
Hawass told the Australian television programme 60 Minutes, “It is
clear [Fletcher] made all this up because she wants to be famous.” Fletcher was
temporarily blocked from excavating in Egypt. She challenges Hawass's account
and maintains that she did not break any rules.
Researchers also face restrictions when they seek to analyse artefacts.
Despite Hawass's efforts, Egypt still has only limited capacity for
sophisticated testing, such as carbon-14 dating and DNA analysis. But it is
illegal to remove any archaeological artefact — even mud or pollen samples —
from the country for analysis. Although some see this as an understandable
response to the history of artefacts being illicitly exported, others complain
that it is devastating for archaeological science. “This is what makes us look
like fools at international conferences,” says one researcher, based in Cairo,
who does not wish to be named.
Just a year ago, it seemed impossible to imagine any change in this
situation. The position of SCA secretary-general has traditionally been
temporary, held for just two to three years. But Hawass had the support of
Mubarak, who extended his appointment.
The revolution changed all that. Hawass's hold on power started to slip
when he denied, incorrectly, that any objects were missing after Cairo's
Egyptian Museum was looted on 28 January. It was further eroded when he
underestimated the extent of looting at important sites, despite reports that
it was severe, and repeatedly voiced support for Mubarak. When Mubarak fell,
Hawass's days were numbered. After resigning and being reappointed in March,
Hawass finally left office in July.
He has barely appeared in public since, and has been under investigation by
the Office of the Attorney General for a range of alleged offenses including
stealing artefacts and diverting money from a touring Tutankhamun exhibition to
a private charity owned by Mubarak's wife, Suzanne. “It's laughable,” says
Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo, who has
worked in Egypt for 18 years. “Zahi would never steal antiquities.”
Today, Egypt's most famous archaeologist can be found tucked away on the
ninth floor of a faded apartment block in the Mohandessin district of Cairo.
Forbidden to leave Egypt while the investigation is ongoing, Hawass spends his
days writing books in this modest office, surrounded by trophies, medals and
photos of himself with celebrities. When Nature visits, he is charming
and full of energy, bouncing up from his desk every few minutes to locate
objects that will illustrate a point: his sweat-stained hat; his handwritten
manuscripts; and a tall pile of stuffed envelopes that he says will prove his
innocence in the attorney-general's investigation.
Hawass denies having close ties to Mubarak and calls the charges against
him “ridiculous and untrue”. Almost all of them have been dismissed, and the
rest will soon be resolved, he says. Regarding his leadership style and
appearances on television, Hawass says that it was important for him to
maintain a high profile “to Egyptianize Egyptian antiquities”. He denies taking
credit for others' discoveries, arguing that he was required to scrutinize all
results before they were announced to the media, to prevent unscrupulous
archaeologists from making false claims. “Many people announce wrong
information to get money,” he says. He acknowledges that people have been
banned from working in Egypt, but says that such decisions were made by a
60-person committee of the SCA and the sanctions were imposed only when
researchers did not have proper credentials or broke SCA rules, such as
announcing findings without approval.
Rather than harming Egyptian science, Hawass says that he raised standards,
cleaned up corruption and trained a new generation of researchers. Hawass sees
his work — and his ability to extract money from foreign television companies —
as a high-profile success for Egyptian Egyptology. “I'm very proud of the
results,” he says, describing the paper reporting DNA analysis of Tutankhamun
as “an incredible article”. High-profile projects like that, he says, help to
“raise the global interest in Egyptology”.
But foreign researchers have criticized the studies, complaining that raw
data were not shared, making it impossible for them to assess the quality of —
let alone repeat — the work. Some complain that the research was carried out
purely for television audiences, whereas less glamorous projects might have had
greater scientific value.
Back to business
Love him or hate him, Hawass's departure has unnerved Egyptologists. Asked
what they're hoping for from his successor, many researchers say that they want
more open discussion of ideas, more sharing of data and collaborations between
Egyptian and foreign teams.
But first, the SCA needs to get back on its feet. Researchers had hoped to
resume work as soon as the security situation calmed. But the agency has been
dogged by protests since the revolution, and Hawass's departure left it in
chaos. None of his successors at the SCA has yet managed to last more than two
months, and researchers say that progress has stalled.
“This is the first time in the course of five administrators I've lived
through as an adult Egyptologist that it can't function,” Ikram said last month.
As researchers waited through the summer, permits were left unsigned and
decisions unmade. When Nature visited in October, the agency's
headquarters in Zamalek, Cairo, was a hive of inactivity, with dozens of men
milling around its halls and the waiting room filled with bored employees
watching the clock until it was time to go home. “We've been sitting here for
six months,” said one, clearly frustrated.
Everyone now hopes that Amin, the SCA's latest secretary-general, can get
things started again. He holds a PhD in Islamic antiquities, and was previously
head of the SCA's Islamic and Coptic department. Researchers say it is too
early to comment on his leadership style, but because he does not specialize in
Egyptology, it seems unlikely that he will share Hawass's one-man approach — or
front documentaries about the pharaohs.
“He'll need people beside him,” says Atef Abu El-Dahab, the affable head of
the SCA's Egyptian antiquities sector. “First of all, me.”
“In October, the antiquities agency's headquarters was a hive of
inactivity.”
Amin has some huge problems to address before even thinking about boosting
the quality of research. His first priority is the security of Egypt's sites
and museums. Some looting is still going on, and the full extent of the losses
isn't known, says Tarek El Awady, director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
“We're still waiting for the inventories,” he notes. But the most serious
challenge is illegal building, with locals trying to claim archaeological land
at several sites.
El Awady says the underlying issue is that local people don't appreciate
the importance of the country's archaeological heritage. Rowland blames this
alienation on the Mubarak regime's “highly politicized approach to heritage
management”. She argues that Hawass had absolute power and focused on foreign
audiences, which left local people with no sense of ownership of their own
antiquities.
But El Awady defends his former boss. “He played an important role in
increasing people's knowledge of Egyptian heritage,” he says. Still, he adds,
the looting shows the importance of “building bridges between museums, sites
and local communities”.
Lost millions
The second major problem facing Amin is funding. The SCA had a healthy
income during Hawass's tenure, but the coffers are now empty, despite the extra
millions of dollars that should have come in from the travelling exhibitions.
“We have no money,” confirms El-Dahab. He says that all conservation and
excavation projects have been halted, and the agency is now borrowing millions
of dollars from banks and the government just to pay salaries.
There is no shortage of conspiracy theories as to what might have happened
to the cash, but El-Dahab says that it has gone to the many projects that
Hawass championed, including the construction of 22 local museums, conservation
and restoration work at important sites, and his efforts to deal with rising
groundwater.
Hawass denies any impropriety and defends his record. “I spent 1 billion
Egyptian pounds [US$167 million] a year” in support of Egyptian archaeology, he
says proudly. He adds that he had planned to bring in more funds through
tourism and travelling exhibitions, and blames the political situation — which
has drastically cut the number of foreign visitors — for the SCA's financial
crisis.
To make matters worse, many of the agency's employees have been angrily
protesting since the revolution for better pay and conditions, blockading SCA
buildings and obstructing tourists. The agency has a huge staff — a
spokesperson refused to even guess how many, but Egyptologists estimate that
there are perhaps 40,000 permanent employees and another 15,000 or so on
temporary contracts. But the SCA doesn't have the money to pay them, or enough
work for them all to do. El Awady says that a large proportion of SCA staff
should be let go: “We don't need all these workers.”
However, it seems certain that there will not be large numbers of layoffs.
The protesters forced out Amin's three predecessors, and Amin will need to keep
employees on his side. He is now negotiating with the government for the funds
to provide them all with permanent contracts. Amin also announced in October
that he will carry out a comprehensive inventory of all SCA-owned land, selling
or leasing any areas declared free of monuments and artefacts in order to raise
money.
He promises to revive restoration work at the pyramid of Djoser, Egypt's
oldest surviving stone building, and other major projects — if the government
gives him the money. Meanwhile, permissions for foreign research are starting
to come through. Kemp's group finally returned to the field earlier this month.
Ultimately, however, the future of archaeology in Egypt depends not just on
Amin, but on the outcome of Egypt's first democratic elections in decades,
scheduled to begin on 28 November. Researchers are wondering whether the new
political regime will take a nationalistic approach that favours Egyptian
researchers, or become more open to foreign researchers and international
collaborations.
And there is one more move that the new government could make. Egypt is
reliant on funds from the millions of tourists who come to see its antiquities
each year, and although visitor numbers have picked up slightly since the
revolution, they are still low. El-Dahab says that the number of tourists
visiting the country in September 2011 was only one-quarter of what would
normally be expected.
If there was one thing that Hawass was good at, it was bringing in
tourists, keen to visit after watching his exploits on television, or
marvelling at Tutankhamun's travelling treasures. So it is not inconceivable
that a new leader might yet invite the charismatic archaeologist back to the
SCA.
Hawass has previously denied any interest in returning to his old job, but
now seems to be repositioning himself. “I'm sorry to say it, but I'm the only
one who can bring the tourists back,” he told Nature. So would he offer
his services, if asked? “I will never come back unless there is a stable
government,” he says. If the upcoming elections can deliver that, the man in
the hat might yet rise again.
Journal name:
Nature
Volume:
479,
Pages:
464–467
Date published:
(24 November 2011)
DOI:
doi:10.1038/479464a
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