Hawass has been controversial to
say the least, but has had the power to do it his way and did. Even that passes in time and it is now time.
Nothing is going to be resolved
until a properly constituted government once again exists in Cairo .
We can hope for a better solution that still retains Hawass without
leaving him as the gatekeeper. It was
needed before the Arab Spring and perhaps we will see a working solution.
At least everyone knows that a
properly run operation produces ample revenues and prestige and tourists. Just who would ever visit Egypt
otherwise? The country has two
earners. One is the Canal and the other
is the pyramids and antiquity department.
I think we will have to wit a
year before it is all sorted out.
Archaeology Research in Egypt
Struggles to Restart
As the country struggles to refashion its government, archaeologists
are looking warily towards the future.
November 23, 2011
By Jo Marchant of Nature magazine
In a secluded stretch of desert about 300 kilometers south of Cairo , hundreds of bodies
lie buried in the sand. Wrapped in linen and rolled up in stiff mats made of
sticks, they are little more than bones. But their ornate plaited hair styles
and simple personal possessions help to reveal details about the individuals in
each grave. The bodies date from around 3,300 years ago, when the Pharaoh
Akhenaten renounced Egypt 's
traditional polytheistic religion and moved his capital to remote Amarna, to
worship just one god: the Sun disc Aten.
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 (see 'Archaeology
in turmoil'). 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
paleopathologist 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 (see `New
research in an ancient land').
Egyptian officials have said that their reluctance to allow work to
restart stems from securityconcerns;
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
paralyzed 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.
The antiquities service was set up in 1858 to stem a different kind of
chaos: the loss of artifacts. Early Egyptologists were little more than
treasure hunters, who carted off everything from jewelry 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 artifacts, 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 program 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 analyze artifacts.
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
artifact--even mud or pollen samples--from the country for analysis. Although
some see this as an understandable response to the history of artifacts 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 artifacts 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 (Z.
Hawass et al. J. Am.
Med. Assoc. 303, 638-647; 2010) 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."
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 traveling 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 traveling 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 artifacts 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 favors 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 marveling
at Tutankhamun's traveling 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.
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature.
The article was first
publishedon November 23, 2011.
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