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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 March 2000 Issue No. 474 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 March 2000 Issue No. 474
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Tracing Egypt's ancient roots
By Jill Kamil
The International Congress of Egyptology (ICE), held every three years, has become an invaluable opportunity for scholars to meet, compare notes, and, in some cases, vent their concerns about the state of Egyptology. Where are we going? Are we aware of our responsibilities? How can we keep abreast of archaeological progress? The forthcoming ICE 2000, starting 28 March, is another chance to delve into the issues that hold priority today -- but what about the concerns that are still with us from before?
Two ICE congresses have taken place in Egypt and one paper from each stands out strongly in my mind: the late Labib Habachi's paper on damage and robberies of Egyptian monuments (delivered at the first ICE in 1976) and Fayza Haikal's concerns about Egyptian culture (from the fifth ICE in 1988).
When Labib Habachi, formerly the director of field work at the Antiquities Department and a member of the Institut d'Egypte, planned to lay the extent of the looting and pillage of monuments in Egypt before the public for the first time since the Revolution of 1952, many of his colleagues were appalled. At a private gathering at Habachi's house in Manshiet Al-Bakry before the congress, I clearly recall the heated discussions attempting to dissuade Habachi.
"What you plan to do is unpatriotic," one Egyptologist told Habachi. "It will reflect badly on the country. This is an international gathering and you cannot stand before a large audience and tell them that we are incompetent."
"Can't we? One step toward solving the problem is admitting we have one," was Habachi's curt reply. "The illicit trade in antiquities is now being talked about around the world. The time is ripe to present a case for Egypt."
"You plan to talk about tombs being desecrated and objects being smuggled out of Egypt," said another of his colleagues, "and that suggests that the government is careless in its control of our antiquities!"
"Well, aren't we?" Habachi responded. "I have travelled all over Egypt and seen examples of vandalism and theft everywhere. Papyri have been stolen from places like El-Kab, Saqqara, Luxor, Esna and Edfu... I was at Saqqara when 280 objects disappeared when the British were searching for the tomb of Imhotep."
On the illicit digging that he claimed had "long been going on" at Tell Basta, Habachi noted, "A great number of antiquities from that site are in foreign museums and private collections, even in the Cairo Museum. Stories are still circulating about how people became rich through a find in the ruins of Tell Basta."
"But we don't know this for sure," argued his detractors. "How can you accuse people of theft? ..."
"The trouble," Habachi broke in, "is that we suffer from the ostrich syndrome: so long as no one knows anything, no one can be accused of incompetence."
These were strong statements and Habachi's colleagues were aghast at what he planned to say. But amidst fears that his comments would put an ugly face on Egypt, Habachi was adamant that the problem needed to be laid bare.
"Tomb robbing, you know, was a highly organised crime, even in Pharaonic times," Habachi told a packed lecture hall. "And when robbers were caught, they were tried and punished. The famous Abbot and Amherst papyri give details of sixty priests and officials of the necropolis who were arrested for complicity in the desecration of tombs on the Theban necropolis in the New Kingdom."
Their punishment, depicted on the papyri, shows how seriously ancient Egyptians took the offence. "Well, if grave robbers in ancient times were brought to justice, let us do no less with modern tomb robbers," Habachi demanded.
Even Habachi could not have anticipated the standing ovation he received.
He made a plea for the strict control of antiquities and called for curators of foreign museums to refrain from buying objects before checking their status with the authorities in Egypt. He called on the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation (EAO) to ensure that storehouses were properly constructed and guarded. Finally, he insisted that everything be properly documented. "How can you know when something is missing when you don't know it is there in the first place?" he demanded.
After the presentation, an appreciative audience moved forward to congratulate Habachi. But despite the conference's success, Habachi did not expect action to follow quickly -- and he was right.
Only in 1980 was the Committee for the Preservation of Egyptian Antiquities founded and it was not until 1984 that Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni admitted what Habachi had long known about the extent of looting and the sad state of storehouses that had not been inspected for 25 years. Hosni has since admitted that some 3,000 artefacts have been stolen from Egypt since 1969.
Thankfully, some action has now been taken to combat a problem once hushed up and ignored. Efforts have been made to ensure that storehouses (particularly those at archaeological sites) are properly constructed and guarded and that authorities coordinate with Interpol to contain international smuggling.
Habachi dared to tell the truth about the state of Egyptian excavations. Twelve years and four congresses later, Fayza Haikal, professor of Egyptology at Cairo University, made an even bolder claim: she ventured to assert that excavation should not be our primary concern.
In Haikal's equally challenging paper, she argued that the number of excavations should be cut down and that attention should instead be shifted to more threatened sites, such as those in the Delta. Restoration and conservation should have priority, she argued, followed by full documentation of already collected material "because it is our duty to leave an organised heritage."
Numerous Delta sites are now being excavated and properly documented, but one proposal presented by Haikal seems to be lagging behind: her project of tracing the roots of modern Egypt. Haikal pointed out that Egypt is rapidly changing and that a new generation has entered into an internationalism "where the youth talk in new modern jargon and behave differently."
"This is the last generation that we can capture for a comprehensive study such as I envision," Haikal argued, underlining the value of identifying the traces of ancient Egypt in modern Egyptians' daily lives. Egyptologists have long been aware of similarities between ancient and modern Egypt, but Haikal urged that a comprehensive study of the legacy left by ancient Egyptians -- "in their expressions, behaviour, and in the very spirit of the people," -- be used to develop a kind of "encyclopaedia of survivals."
Here Egyptology blends nebulously with the drive to understand modern Egypt. Haikal, fuelled by a potent fear of losing Egypt's precious past, declared that now is the time to carry out a serious research programme "before modern terminology and ways of thinking and behaving completely obliterate Egyptian identity." A bit grim, perhaps, but something to chew on in the halls of ICE 2000. (see p.15)
