Zahi Hawass

Matt deMille

New member
goodeknight said:
Here's the problem, Yure: In Egypt, "International funding" for archaeological research is nothing compared to tourist dollars. Hawass is a great promoter not just of himself (whether you can stand him or not, you have to admit he's very watchable), but of Egypt and Egyptian history. So he's keeping interest (and tourism) alive. As for unveiling much more than we actually know, there are plenty of Egyptian antiquities and mummies gathering dust in the storerooms of dozens of universities and museums around the world. There are research opportunities right there, and Hawass doesn't oppose international teams coming in to do their research. He just doesn't want to see all the "goodies" going to other countries.

I lived in Egypt for two years and studied at the American University in Cairo. There are international research teams all over the country, but they're lost in a sea of tourists, and those tourists are spending big bucks to see the sites Hawass is so passionate about.

I am curious: Having lived in Egypt for two years and studied there, how much do you feel Hawass and others maintain the party-line in regards to orthodox Egyptology? I am interested in alternative histories and am certain that discoveries contradicting the accepted view (of Egyptology) are suppressed, either for reasons of national pride or maintaining the tourist industry, or both. What are your thoughts about that?
 

AtomicAnt

New member
Goonie said:
CNN has this little feature where you can ask various celebrities and well-known individuals questions. This time it's Zahi Hawass. You can post a question to Dr. Hawass here:
http://connecttheworld.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/14/tuesdays-connector-zahi-hawass/?hpt=T2

I wonder how he would do with Indiana Jones movie trivia? ;)
This guy has always seemed like kind of a stubborn fool to me. I don't know the policy towards swearing here, but I'll call him that instead of the other word I've had in mind.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
AtomicAnt said:
This guy has always seemed like kind of a stubborn fool to me. I don't know the policy towards swearing here, but I'll call him that instead of the other word I've had in mind.

I'm so torn. I love that you're reluctant to swear here (you should avoid it), but am miffed that you didn't read the rules.
 

AtomicAnt

New member
Attila the Professor said:
I'm so torn. I love that you're reluctant to swear here (you should avoid it), but am miffed that you didn't read the rules.
I did read the rules. I should have phrased it better, I didn't transcribe my true feelings towards him because what would be said could be constructed as swearing. It's a technicality and I don't want to get into it. I obviously wouldn't have dropped words starting with "f"s or anything; but its a word that is sometimes associated as a swear word. I wanted to play it safe. It's something I couldn't determine if it was PG-13 or not. :hat:
 

Goodeknight

New member
Matt deMille said:
I am curious: Having lived in Egypt for two years and studied there, how much do you feel Hawass and others maintain the party-line in regards to orthodox Egyptology? I am interested in alternative histories and am certain that discoveries contradicting the accepted view (of Egyptology) are suppressed, either for reasons of national pride or maintaining the tourist industry, or both. What are your thoughts about that?

Well, Matt, I'm probably a bit biased, as I think 'alternative histories' are interesting and fun but I really go for the mainstream 'accepted view of Egyptology.' "History" is always changing. When I was a kid, the pyramids were built by slaves. Now they were built by paid workers. New discoveries are always putting a different spin on things. I don't think there are new discoveries that are being suppressed, though you bring up an interesting point about national pride. Much better for national pride to have pyramids built by "workers" rather than "slaves."

That said, I believe theories about ancient aliens building the pyramids simply discount the minds and abilities of ancient Egyptians. Occam's razor. The simplest explanation is usually correct. Which is more plausible: Egyptians built big ramps of some sort and hoisted stones into place to make pyramids. Or: Aliens flew down from space and levitated blocks into place to build pyramids for their new friends.

Again, on the subject of revising history, there have been different explanations about how the ramps were built. One long, huge ramp? Or a small ramp that wound around the pyramid? Missing kings, what pharaoh was related in what to some other pharaoh, etc., etc. All questions with answers changing every day.

I do think maintaining the tourist industry is one major reason Hawass pushes so much for the return of Egyptian antiquities like the Rosetta Stone and bust of Nefertiti. And national pride should always be taken into consideration when someone is studying his or her own country's past.
 

Yure

Well-known member
Goodeknight: can't argue on his passion and on the tourist money... but if that's the scenario (and very plausibly it is), then that money gets in someone's pockets in spite of the spirit of research and archeology. The Cairo Museum is extraordinary, and yet some areas of it are treated like a dumpster where priceless antiquities are put on rough displays, in dusty rooms and in dim light just because they don't look as appealing and shining as a Tutankhamon funerary mask. And how many years passed since the first time Egypt government promised a new facility for the museum? Any major European and American museum with tickets (and sometimes not even those), lendings and good fundrising managed to improve dramatically in short periods of time, and yet one of the most beautiful museum in the whole world still makes you feel like you're stepping in a late 1800 setup. That's a shame.

By the way, I'm jut back (again :p) from Cairo and the nice guys from Egyptair let me keep a copy of their Horus magazine which featured an article by Hawass on the Sphynx. He talks pompously about what he did there, how he brought Clinton, Obama and Hollywood stars in the Sphynx tunnels, gives a slash here and there at the "pyramidiots", but also says some interesting stuff. If someone's interested I can scan it and post it here.
 

Goodeknight

New member
Yure said:
Goodeknight: can't argue on his passion and on the tourist money... but if that's the scenario (and very plausibly it is), then that money gets in someone's pockets in spite of the spirit of research and archeology. The Cairo Museum is extraordinary, and yet some areas of it are treated like a dumpster where priceless antiquities are put on rough displays, in dusty rooms and in dim light just because they don't look as appealing and shining as a Tutankhamon funerary mask. And how many years passed since the first time Egypt government promised a new facility for the museum? Any major European and American museum with tickets (and sometimes not even those), lendings and good fundrising managed to improve dramatically in short periods of time, and yet one of the most beautiful museum in the whole world still makes you feel like you're stepping in a late 1800 setup. That's a shame.

By the way, I'm jut back (again :p) from Cairo and the nice guys from Egyptair let me keep a copy of their Horus magazine which featured an article by Hawass on the Sphynx. He talks pompously about what he did there, how he brought Clinton, Obama and Hollywood stars in the Sphynx tunnels, gives a slash here and there at the "pyramidiots", but also says some interesting stuff. If someone's interested I can scan it and post it here.

Yeah, I'd like to see a scan of that article posted.

You're totally right about the Egyptian Museum. On one hand, I love the feeling of stepping back into the 1800s. Such a cool clutter of antiquities. But it's a lousy place for a priceless relic to call home. The mummy room is state of the art, but just about everywhere else the cases are old and the rooms are hot. Some stuff would crumble to dust if anyone tried to touch it. I believe it was at the Egyptian Museum that an 8' statue fell over in its case after its feet decayed to the point of collapse.
 

China Jim

New member
I was going to mention about his show but it seems to me someone beat me to the punch. Concerning Dr. Hawass only knowing about him from a occasional article and his times he has been on coast to coast am I thought of him as a pompus ass but after seeing him on the history channel I can see I was wrong I think that if many archeologist or historians such as I would defend historical monuments and archaeological finds as Dr. Hawass does in our interest and fields many areas of the historical sciences would be saved and preserved. I do understand that he is not unless he has the cold hard facts open to other ideas concerning the Egyptian people and the origins of there cultural heritage and while he may not posses as Dr. Einstein said the imagination he does have the rules he lives by as Indy says Archeology is the search for facts and Dr. Hawass exemplify this and to that I tip my fedora to him. I don't see Dr. Hawass as Indy like he reminds me more of my inspiration William Harper Littlejohn of Doc Savage fame a highly dedicated and tenacious Archaeologist who surprisingly enough specialization was Egypt. Well all for now I am as of this time working on a research paper on the Tarim Mummies of the Tarim Basin in Central Asia once I finish it and send it to my school I will cut and paste it for your edification.
Read,Study, Learn
J.M. Campbell
 

Yure

Well-known member
Here's the article, sorry for the delay. I hope the images aren't too big for the forum, since it's an article I figured it would be more easily readable for the users this way instead of a series of links/thumbnails.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 

Gabeed

New member
Hawass also had a fascinating article this month in the National Geographic regarding using DNA evidence to almost completely confirm that Tutankhamen was the son of Amenhotep VI, aka Akhenaten, and Akhenaten's sister. King Tut was an incest baby. :)
 

Yure

Well-known member
Yup! You preceded me... it's a great article with many wonderful photos, I have that too if someone wants a scan (but it would take its sweet time since it's 28 pages).
 

Stoo

Well-known member
goodeknight said:
Hawass also assisted in getting the mummy of Ramses I returned to Egypt after a museum bought the Egyptian collection from a museum of the bizarre in Canada at Niagra Falls. Good going there.
Someone recently told me about this story. Apparently it was at Niagara's "Freaks of Nature" (which I visited as a kid so I must have seen the mummy) for decades before it was moved to somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia to be studied & verified as Ramses I.

Dr. Hawass flew over to check it out and confirm if it was bona-fide or not. Supposedly, Zahi made a splashy entrance, walked up to the mummy, stuck his nose up close, took a whiff and said, "Yes, it's real. This is Ramses.":D
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Yure said:
Here's the article, sorry for the delay. I hope the images aren't too big for the forum, since it's an article I figured it would be more easily readable for the users this way instead of a series of links/thumbnails.

Thanks for sharing that article, Yure! Good read.

Gabeed said:
Hawass also had a fascinating article this month in the National Geographic regarding using DNA evidence to almost completely confirm that Tutankhamen was the son of Amenhotep VI, aka Akhenaten, and Akhenaten's sister. King Tut was an incest baby.

Yeah, it is interesting. I just started reading the other day, and it seems like a fuller examination of that special they recently had on the History Channel. Sorry, Discovery Channel.

Check out the previous thread here.
 
Zahi is soooooo awesome!....he is so into what he does!.....Thats how I want to be like if i was an Egyptologist.......You never know..someday.....I might become one........and maybe....even work with Hawass!(y) (y) (y) He Rocks:D
 

China Jim

New member
Chasing mummies last episode of the season

Last season episode of Chasing mummies Zahi's group went farthest into a tomb than ever before and something he discovered may be the answer on how they moved the blocks to construct the Giza pyramids along a series of steps on both sides were wooden rails now this is a presumption mind you so unless Zahi and his team wishes to expand upon this more power to them. I had the sudden eureka moment that the sleds they used to move the blocks upon the Giza plateau may have been pulled along oiled wooden rails now these rails could either been lubricated with animal fat or possibly a plant based oil allowing the workers to pull the sleds carrying the blocks to the area to were the Pyramids were being constructed at what say you my fellow adventurers is my idea credulous or incredulous ? I await your input
quote
"The true scientific mind is not to be tied down by its own conditions of time and space. It builds itself an observatory erected upon the border line of present, which separates the infinite past from the infinite future. From this sure post it makes its sallies even to the beginning and to the end of all things."
 

AnnieJones

New member
China Jim said:
I had the sudden eureka moment that the sleds they used to move the blocks upon the Giza plateau may have been pulled along oiled wooden rails now these rails could either been lubricated with animal fat or possibly a plant based oil allowing the workers to pull the sleds carrying the blocks to the area to were the Pyramids were being constructed at what say you my fellow adventurers is my idea credulous or incredulous ? I await your input
I never took that idea into consideration,but you could be right about that.It sure would have made it a lot easier.(y)
 
I went to the Field museum...and I saw this mummy there....his name was Harwa...He was a doorkeeper to the temple of Amun in the 7th century B.C....Just looking at his face made me have shivers through out my body.To think...he use to be alive thousands of year...looking at that face that used to breath live thousands of years ago ..just moves me...He was very well peserved!....I also saw i little 5 year old child mummy.....And a Pharaoh's son!......of course. he had a burial mask on.......but it was still amazing!
 
Top