4 - 10 October 2001
Issue No.554
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 - 10 October 2001 Issue No.554 |
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Dig days
The guard with a stick
Despite our use of modern technology to protect ancient tombs, we nevertheless hear, with unfortunate regularity, about the theft of antiquities. A century ago, when families lived near or around antiquities sites, thieves would not dare approach a place they knew was under watch by guards.
One such individual, Sheikh Abdel-Mawgoud , guarded the Valley of the Kings with a stick. His eyes, it was said, never closed. He was ever alert to protect the treasures of the Pharaohs. He was a tall man, habitually dressed in a fine galabiya and with his head covered with an emma (turban). He had a dark face with strong features and piercing black eyes, and always held a long staff in his right hand, somewhat similar to the emblem of power carried by the high-ranking officials depicted in ancient reliefs. He was well-known among Egyptologists, and a friend of many of the most famous who excavated in the Valley of the Kings -- including Wilkinson, Baraize, and Winlock. All their discoveries were guarded over by Sheikh Abdel-Maugoud .
Maybe it was his strong personality that made him the most respected chief of the guards. He could control his men with a look. He was so effective that nothing was ever stolen from the royal valley while he was in command. He died at the age of seventy- five.
I first met him in 1969 when I went north from Edfu to visit Luxor. I had heard stories about Sheikh Abdel-Mawgoud from both Egyptians and foreigners, and found that he was indeed a man of exceptional qualities. I noted that the guards in the valley treated him with fear and respect.
By the time I went back to the Valley of the Kings in 1974, Sheikh Abdel-Mawgoud had died and his son Nagdi had taken over. The two cannot be compared. Nagdi was neither as learned nor as commanding as his father. Where Sheikh Abdel-Mawgoud had talked little, his son talked too much.
Lutfi Sherif, who at that time was the antiquities inspector of the West Bank in Luxor, had many stories to tell about father and son. He recalled the occasion when Japanese archaeologists from Waseda University were beginning their excavations in 1975. They were working on the West Bank at Malkata, where Amenhotep III had built a palace with a lake for his favourite queen, Tiye. The Japanese discovered Amenhotep's Sed festival chapel. It was built of mud-brick, adorned with scenes of the king capturing his enemies, and was one of the most beautiful of its kind.
Apparently a young guard hired by the team complained about his salary and asked for an increase, which was not granted. The next day, during a visit by the Japanese Emperor's brother Prince Mikasa and the director of Waseda University, the VIPs arrived to learn from the distraught members of the expedition that this guard had destroyed the chapel in revenge for not being granted a raise. Such a thing would never have happened in the time of Sheikh Abdel-Mawgoud . Lutfi Sherif naturally reported the incident to the police but it was too late, the damage was done.
Another incident in the Valley of the Kings in the days of Sheikh Nagdi occurred when a robber attempted to loot a tomb. He brought with him a special tool to pry apart the narrowly-spaced iron bars of the door grating. Having forced an elliptical opening wid outside, beyond his reach. At that point he was discovered. The guards, seeing that the thief was trapped inside and could not escape, went quickly to inform Abu El-Aioun Barakat, the Chief Inspector of the West Bank. He brought his camera and took a picture of the thief inside the tomb! Then he called the police, and they came and captured the burglar on the spot. Again, this sort of thing was unknown in the time of Sheikh Abdel-Mawgoud .
It was said that when he died his stick vanished. Now his son, too, has passed away. Times change. The monuments on the Theban necropolis are being protected today, not by a guard with a stick, but by modern technology.
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