Zahi Hawass

Le Saboteur

Active member
Mickiana said:
That's a good quote, China Jim. What's its source?

That's from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If I'm not mistaken, it's from The Poison Belt.

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 had a similar thought while watching that episode; don't know how viable it is, but it's certainly intriguing. The amount of fat/vegetable compound needed would be tremendous, and (to my knowledge) no such works have been uncovered yet. It would certainly make sense, but brute strength would do the job just as well.

It is interesting though, that the tomb of Sety I seemingly had these extra couple of inches built in to the steps. If they were indeed supposed to be a ramp -- I think they were -- then I suspect it might have been used first and foremost as a way of removing debris from the tunnel. It could've just as easily been used to ferry workers back and forth.

EgyptianPharoah said:
I look up to Him in Egyptology!....He is Awesome!

He came very close to being retired too. While his detractors would have loved it, I wonder how his fans would have taken the news. Apparently under Egyptian Law, civil servants are required to retire at 60 with the possibility of three one-year extensions. Dr. Hawass is (now) 63. Without a special designation from President Mubarek, he would've been removed from the spotlight that goes with being the head of the Supreme Council on Antiquities.

Zahi Hawass said:
There is a rule in Egypt that when a government official reaches a certain age, they retire. Therefore I was planning to retire next May. There are many good people at the Supreme Council of Antiquities who have experience and whom I hope could do a good job protecting Egypt?s history. However, I was concerned that the government would decide to appoint someone from the University to fill my position, who did not have experience in archaeology. Such a person might be impressed by the glory of the job and not focus on the monuments, and all the projects I have initiated would be abandoned.


Good interview here with the Heritage Key.

Zahi Hawass said:
This past week the President of Egypt signed a decree naming me the Deputy Minister of Culture. I was very honoured by his decision, as it shows his continuing support of my work to preserve the monuments of Egypt.

The blog post confirming Dr. Hawass' appointment as Vice Minister of Culture can be read here.
 

Dig Site 1138

New member
EgyptianPharaoh said:
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!

I love the Field Museum. I really need to go back to Chicago. That was the most impressive Egyptian wing I've ever seen. Better than the Smthsonian (which I also love), IMO.(y)
 
Protesters threaten job of antiquity council leader and archaeology projects

The last crusade for Egypt's 'Indiana Jones'?

By Stephanie Pappas updated 2/15/2011 8:09:49 PM ET 2011-02-16T01:09:49

The political upheaval in Egypt has thrown Egyptian archaeology into a state of uncertainty — expeditions have been disrupted and Zahi Hawass, the head of the country's antiquity council, is now coming under fire from protesters.

Known for his flamboyant style – including an Indiana Jones-style fedora – and his boosterism of Egypt's treasures, Hawass is the face of Egyptian archaeology. As secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Hawass is in charge of approving any archaeological research that goes on in Egypt.

And he's now the central figure in a war of words, with some archaeologists taking verbal shots at him for what they see as a corrupt system, and others, in interviews with LiveScience, defending his character and his actions.

110215-PyramidsPhoto-hmed-0445p.grid-6x2.jpg


Protesting Hawass
Hawass was given a Cabinet minister position shortly before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, and the association has not served him well in the aftermath of the regime change. On Monday, about 150 archaeology students and workers protested outside Hawass' office, demanding he resign, according to news reports.

Some of the protests have centered around Hawass' handling of a Jan. 28 break-in at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Hawass originally said that no artifacts had been stolen during the break-in; later, he announced that 18 items, including some belonging to King Tutankhamen, were missing.

But on a Facebook page calling for a protest at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, demonstrators also called for an end to "corruption" and "nepotism" in the SCA.

"Archaeologists demanding proper wages, contracts and end of corruption, end of zahi #Jan25," wrote Cairo archaeologist Nora Shalaby on Twitter Feb. 14.

Wage protests have occurred around Egypt in the wake of the successful bid to oust Mubarak. According to a news report Monday by the BBC, workers were striking in industries as varied as health care, banking, public transport and tourism.

Support for Hawass
Condemnation of Hawass is by no means universal. Several archaeologists contacted by LiveScience were unwilling to comment on the record about the protests. Those who did, however, praised Hawass' work.

"Since Zahi is so well known outside of Egypt, he's a good target for reporters looking for a sensational story," Peter Lacovara, the curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubain and Near Eastern Art at the Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, told LiveScience. But that narrative ignores Hawass' contributions to Egyptian archaeology, Lacovara said.

"No director since Auguste Mariette, who founded the service in 1858, has done more," Lacovara said. "He modernized the ancient, arbitrary and uninformed bureaucracy that had existed before and moved the offices from a dusty, remote slum into a modern office building in central Cairo and one that operated swiftly and efficiently."

The SCA does keep a tight reign on public information about Egyptian digs, said Jay VanRensselaer, a Johns Hopkins University photographer who has served as a dig photographer for Egyptologist Betsy Bryan since 1996. But VanRensselaer said he had nothing negative to say about Hawass, whom he called "very friendly and very kind."

"Zahi has done an incredible amount of good for Egypt and for the monuments and for raising appreciation in Egypt of what they have," VanRensselaer told LiveScience.

Future of fieldwork
VanRensselaer was in Luxor, Egypt, when the protests began. He caught a flight to Cairo on Jan. 28 and spent the night in the crowded Cairo airport, waiting for a flight out of the country.

"Sometime over the night they had shut off the Internet and cell phones so we didn't know what was going on," VanRensselaer said. When the phones came back on the next morning, he called his wife in Maryland – at 3:00 a.m. Eastern time.

"She said it was the one time a 3:00 a.m. phone call was very welcome," he said.

The entire Johns Hopkins team evacuated Egypt within a matter of days after VanRensselaer left. A team of University of California, Los Angeles archaeologists also left the country. Foreign researchers with field seasons scheduled for the future are now watching and waiting.

"We need to see how things settle out," said Stephen Davis, a professor of religious studies at Yale University who directs two ongoing digs at early Christian monastic sites in Egypt. Davis' field season is scheduled to start May 1, he told LiveScience, but he's "fully prepared" to adjust if his field season is delayed or canceled.

VanRensselaer said he has "complete faith" that the new Egyptian government will continue to allow foreign teams to work in the country. Yale's Davis isn't sure if the SCA will recover from the upheaval in time for his spring field season, but he's adopted a wait-and-see attitude about the possibility.

"I think to try to push for these answers too early is not the right approach," Davis said. "There's a lot of things happening that are bigger than my dig right now."

Time for new blood.
 
What a tangled web we weave...



Egyptian Archeological Sites Were Looted, Antiquities Minister SaysBy KATE TAYLOR
Important archeological sites in Egypt were looted during the antigovernment protests, Egypt?s antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, wrote on his blog on Thursday. The announcement contradicted earlier statements by Mr. Hawass that Egypt?s archeological sites were safe. Mr. Hawass wrote that tombs at Saqqara and Abusir and storage buildings at Saqqara and at Cairo University, among other sites, had been broken into. He added that he had formed a committee to determine and report on what objects were missing.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hawass?s long-running campaign to repatriate Egyptian antiquities is making legal waves in the United States. The Saint Louis Art Museum filed suit this week in an effort to prevent the United States attorney?s office in St. Louis from seizing a 3,200-year-old funerary mask that Mr. Hawass has claimed was stolen from Egypt, the blog Looting Matters reported. In its suit, the museum said that the American government had not gathered sufficient evidence that the mask was stolen, and that the statute of limitations had run out on the government?s right to seize the mask. The mask was discovered in Saqqara in 1952 by an Egyptian excavator, and Mr. Hawass has said that it was stolen sometime after 1959, when it was registered as stored at Saqqara. The Saint Louis Art Museum bought the mask in 1998, for about $500,000, from Phoenix Ancient Art, an antiquities dealership owned by the brothers Hicham and Ali Aboutaam. Since that time, Hicham Aboutaam has been convicted in New York of falsifying customs documents (for another object), and an Egyptian court has convicted Ali Aboutaam in absentia of smuggling and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. According to the museum?s complaint, the assistant attorneys from the United States attorney?s office in St. Louis held a meeting about the mask on Jan. 13, in which they announced their intention to seize it.
 

China Jim

New member
Does that mean no new season of Chasing Mummies?:(
This also means that John Anthony West and the rest of the Pyramid idiots will be getting out of Egypt soon since non Egyptians or non Muslims may be persona- non Grata there if the Muslim Brotherhood get power and and start force expulsion and desecration of the historical sites. Remember it was done once at the Library of Alexandria and history does have a habit of repeating:mad: it self.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
China Jim said:
Does that mean no new season of Chasing Mummies?:(
This also means that John Anthony West and the rest of the Pyramid idiots will be getting out of Egypt soon since non Egyptians or non Muslims may be persona- non Grata there if the Muslim Brotherhood get power and and start force expulsion and desecration of the historical sites. Remember it was done once at the Library of Alexandria and history does have a habit of repeating:mad: it self.

I don't think the Muslim Brotherhood has much support in Egypt, or that the Egyptian people are generally that fundamental.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
What a tangled web we weave...

Below is as equally important as what you elected to highlight. At the very least, the providence of this specific mask is dubious.

The Saint Louis Art Museum bought the mask in 1998, for about $500,000, from Phoenix Ancient Art, an antiquities dealership owned by the brothers Hicham and Ali Aboutaam. Since that time, Hicham Aboutaam has been convicted in New York of falsifying customs documents (for another object), and an Egyptian court has convicted Ali Aboutaam in absentia of smuggling and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

And for a bit of news that's sure to warm the cockles of Rocket's & Smiffy's heart, there's this from the 1st of March.

Kate Taylor said:
In a marked shift from his previous statements, Egypt’s minister of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said on Tuesday that his department was unable to protect Egypt’s historic sites and artifacts and that he was considering resigning.

Entire post can be read here.

And yesterday he said he wouldn't stay on if asked by the new "caretaker" government.

Kate Taylor said:
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief antiquities official for almost a decade and a cabinet minister since January, said Thursday that he would not stay on in a newly formed government.


CNN and Bikya Masr went a step further and said Dr. Hawass is quitting in protest over the police's inability/unwillingness/whatever to protect the nation's heritage.

Zahi Hawass said:
"The police cannot do enough, or anything to protect Egypt's antiquities and treasures, and I can't stand by while that happens," he said. "It is a protest really, that not enough can be done now to protect these sites and treasures.

The Eloquent Peasant has an excellent bit of commentary that's well worth your time. Check it out here.

Before announcing his intent to resign, Dr. Hawass updated his blog with an extensive account of all sites that were either damaged or destroyed when the revolt began.

Zahi Hawass said:
The tomb of Ken-Amun in Tell el-Maskhuta, near Ismailia, was completely destroyed. It is the only known 19thDynasty tomb in Lower Egypt.

At Giza, near the Great Sphinx, the looters broke into the tomb of Impy. Vandals also attempted to destroy other buildings and tombs in Giza, but they were unsuccessful.

In Saqqara, inscribed blocks and parts of the false door were stolen from the tomb of Hetepka.

Inscribed blocks were also taken from the tomb of Ptahshepses in Abusir.

A site in Northern Sinai was destroyed when looters arrived with a loader. (forklift?)

You can read up on the full list here.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Le Saboteur said:
And for a bit of news that's sure to warm the cockles of Rocket's & Smiffy's heart, there's this from the 1st of March.

It's a frosty morning here, but despite that, my cockles are now warmed!

Kate Taylor said:
Egypt?s minister of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said on Tuesday that his department was unable to protect Egypt?s historic sites and artifacts and that he was considering resigning.

...

said Thursday that he would not stay on in a newly formed government.

Like Belloq he jumped into bed with a corrupt government. But was this the opportunism of self-aggrandizement, or to be in a better position to protect Egypt's heritage?

Leaving that corrupt government (dissociating himself from it) is one thing, but he's doing that on other grounds:

Zahi Hawass said:
"The police cannot do enough, or anything to protect Egypt's antiquities and treasures, and I can't stand by while that happens," he said. "It is a protest really, that not enough can be done now to protect these sites and treasures."

Are these the words of a wise man with Egypt's heritage at heart? He's leaving because his position was powerless and also tainted. He could have justified his original decision to join this government by using it as a platform from which to campaign. His exit strategy is masked by the thin veil of a "protest", though in reality he's going to be just as powerless on the outside as he was on the inside.

Potential headline: Belloq Spits His Dummy!
 
Le Saboteur said:
Below is as equally important as what you elected to highlight.

No, not as far as I'm concerned. The first highlighted part is meant to reflect his situational ethics. When he had the power he claimed security was adequate for "repatriation" of certain relics.

Now that his own future is uncertain he's learned a new song.

The other highlighted text was meant to illustrate how he puts the cart in front of the horse. The mask is as safe as can be, instead of instigating he would have served Egypt’s interests best by strengthening its internal operations before causing more strife and turmoil.

If the government were to seize the mask, no one could view it. What's the point? It's not going anywhere. Put it into the Egyptian wood chipper? Put your own house in order first.

Funny how things work out when you live in a glass houses and throw stones.

Lesson learned? You can bet NO.

The rest is worth including, (as I have) but not highlighting. The interesting part you didn't quote, (which applies to the threads namesake) is how to qualify Hawass' accusations in light of his self serving rhetoric:"Mr. Hawass has said that it was stolen."

Hawass said many things he now "contradicts."

He's not trustworthy...well you can trust a snake to be a snake and as such you can trust Hawass to further himself at the expense of Egyptian antiquities, students...
 
Last edited:
"It used to be a self-service operation here,but those days are gone."

"I will destroy anyone who attacks me"

"No one in Egypt who comes from an ordinary family is revered as much as I am."

"They kept the Rosetta Stone in a dark, poorly lit room, until I showed up and asked for it back. Only then did they suddenly find the piece important."

"George Lucas came here to find out why my hat became more famous than Harrison Ford's."

"I'm not just famous in the United States, but also in Japan and, in fact, everywhere..."

Hawass reserves the right to announce all discoveries himself. Not everyone likes this. Some people feel that he is about as interested in serious research as Rapunzel was in having her hair cut.

He boasted that there were "10,000 golden mummies" at the cemetery in Bahariya, but only 200 were found. And he mistakenly declared a shabby find in the Valley of Kings to be the gravesite of a female pharaoh.

His own excavation efforts also appear to be somewhat bizarre. For some time, the master has been searching for the body of Cleopatra in a temple near Alexandria -- based on an idea suggested to him by a lawyer from the Dominican Republic.

"Are you sure about this?" a journalist wanted to know. Hawass replied: "Completely, otherwise I wouldn't have even mentioned it. After all, I don't want to embarrass myself."

When nothing was found, despite feverish excavation efforts, Hawass took a granite bust of Cleopatra's lover, Mark Antony, from a museum last year and pretended that he had just pulled it out of the ground.

Duncan Lees, a computer specialist who occasionally creates 3-D animations of grave shafts -- in other words, a relatively minor player -- calls him a "greedy guy" and a tyrant, who prefers to surround himself with "bootlickers."

Originally Posted by National Geographic

Q: Dr. Hawass, for many years you have been the image of modern Egyptology. Why are you leaving now?

A: "I am leaving because of a variety of important reasons. The first reason is that, during the Revolution of January 25th, the Egyptian Army protected our heritage sites and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, in the last 10 days the army has left these posts because it has other tasks to do. The group now in charge of the protection of these sites is the Tourist Police, but there are no Tourist Police to do this either. Therefore, what happens?

Egyptian criminals, thieves (you know, in every revolution bad people always appear...), have begun to destroy tombs. They damaged the tomb of Hetep-ka at Saqqara, the tomb of Petah-Shepses at Abu Sir and the tomb of a person called Em-pi at Giza. They attacked a storage magazine at Saqqara and we do not yet know how many artifacts are missing; they opened two storage magazines at Giza; one tomb dated to the 19th Dynasty, the only one in the Delta in fact, was damaged at Ismaïlia; and a store at El-Qantara East has been broken into and looted for antiquities.

People have begun to build houses and to excavate at night, everywhere, putting heritage sites all over the country at risk. I had to write a report and I sent it to the Director of UNESCO. That is why at the meeting of the Egyptian cabinet yesterday I had my speech prepared already and I said: "I cannot stay in Egypt and see antiquities being stolen when I cannot do anything to stop it!"

This situation is not for me! I have always fought to return stolen artifacts to Egypt. I did fight Ahmed Ezz as well, the man in the Parliament, who was the most powerful man, because he wanted to allow antiquities to be sold in Egypt again.

The second reason is that there are two crooks in the Antiquities Department, who have accused me of stealing antiquities and doing other illegal things all of the time. Their files talk about this. A third person started saying similar things, a university professor who was the Antiquities Director for almost 6 years before me, who never accomplished anything in that time. As a corrupt man, he even gave his signed permission to a rich lady from another Arabic country to take manuscripts out of Egypt!

These three people encouraged young Egyptians to protest against me personally, to shout outside my office that they needed jobs. Sadly, I cannot give a job to everyone, but I did find funds to provide nearly 2000 training positions. In response to the horrible rumors that I am stealing antiquities. How could this be?! How could a man who has given his life to protecting and promoting antiquities, be accused later of stealing them?!

Because of all of these things, I believe that if I stay in my position for another six months, I will never be able to protect the antiquities I love and I will never be able to work during this mess. All my life, I have been excavating, discovering, writing books and giving lectures all over the world. My work is responsible for bringing many tourists to Egypt, which helps our economy. But now I cannot do this! Therefore, I decided to resign".

Q: Your decision could have a very negative impact on tourism in Egypt and on the image of the post-revolutionary Egypt...

A: "I know. I agree with you, but what can I do? I cannot work during this mess. Antiquities are my life. I cannot see with this mess in front of me. I cannot work with these dishonest people trying to tell everyone else that they are honest. I was writing an article before you came about a situation similar to this that happened 4000 ago in Egypt. A nice man, his name was Ipuwer, tells us on a papyrus what he saw when he took a look at the state of the country. He describes chaos - how the poor became rich and rich became poor. The lady who had a mirror before cannot find the mirror now. She looks at her face in the water. People robbed the pyramids, they robbed everything. That is what is happening now too! It is something I cannot stop! I can work if there is discipline and honesty, but dishonest people have begun to appear and to attack the honest people. I can stand against them if antiquities are safe, but at the moment antiquities are not safe!"

Q: What are the conditions under which you would come back to lead the Ministry of Antiquities?

A: "I will come back if there is stability at the sites and if there are police, as it was before, to protect the sites, but now people come to them with guns. They stand in front of my security people, who run away, because they are not armed. In the past, the police refused to give them weapons. Therefore, everyday, in the morning, I am waiting for news. What has been robbed today? What has been stolen today? Since I cannot stop this, I cannot come back.

Q: Recently, you issued an urgent appeal to the young Egyptians of the revolution to protect the sites. What was the reason behind this?

A: "It was wonderful. This is something that really everyone should know. On Saturday, January the 29th, I went to Tahrir Square at nine in the morning. I walked among the young people there. They came to me and explained how they put themselves in front of the Egyptian Museum to protect it. When I checked inside, I saw that all the masterpieces of the Museum's collection were still there. That is why I originally announced that the Museum was safe. Sadly, we have since discovered that 18 objects were stolen and 70 were damaged, but the final report is still in preparation and we will know the real result soon. The Director of the Museum has told me that there are more missing artifacts, but none are major pieces. Thanks God, someone found a statue of Akhenaton giving an offering near a garbage can in Tahrir Square and returned it.

The Egyptian Museum is open again now. I would like people to go to it and see that it is safe. I have also been arguing with people who are now trying to tell me, "How can you ask for the bust of Nefertiti to be returned to Egypt, if your own people are stealing and damaging the monuments?". I say that if what happened in Egypt, with the police force abandoning the streets for two nights, had happened in Rome, for example, Rome too would be robbed, completely. Their museums would have been robbed as well. Thank God, all that happened that day here was not that bad."

Q: Frankly, Dr. Hawass, are you encouraging tourists to come back to Cairo and to the archaeological sites, or is this still not safe?

A: "Honestly, I have to tell you that if the Ministers of Tourism and of the Interior make a statement to give back the police their power, tourists could come to visit Egypt again. Until now, however, they have not done this. This means that visitors from abroad will have to wait until police officers and Antiquities Police are at every archaeological site once more."

Q: Until that moment, it is not safe?
A: "I can say this, yes."
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
"I will destroy anyone who attacks me"

"No one in Egypt who comes from an ordinary family is revered as much as I am."

"George Lucas came here to find out why my hat became more famous than Harrison Ford's."

"I'm not just famous in the United States, but also in Japan and, in fact, everywhere..."

Is that Zahi Hawass speaking or Colonel Gadaffi?! (Gadaffi: "My people love me." [And those who don't are just high on drugs])
 

Montana Smith

Active member
teampunk said:
i see very bad things for the future of egypt. without the safekeeping of archaeology sites, egypt has nothing.


They'll still have some pyramids and a sphinx. Those will be too big to fence even to a collector who has to have everything. ;)
 

teampunk

Member
Montana Smith said:
They'll still have some pyramids and a sphinx. Those will be too big to fence even to a collector who has to have everything. ;)
but without proper protection, no tourists will be there to see them. egypt's resources are it's ancient artifacts, they should have been protected.
 

Indy's brother

New member
Hawass has been convicted:


Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs Zahi Hawass has been sentenced to one year in jail on Sunday for refusing to fulfill a court ruling over a land dispute.
The Egyptian criminal court also said Hawass must be relieved of his governmental duties and ordered him to pay a LE1000 penalty.
Hawass failed to adhere to a ruling in favour of his opponent over a land dispute when he was in charge of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).
The SCA appealed the court ruling, arguing that the land includes monuments and therefore should be treated as government-owned land.
Hawass was recently re-appointed as antiquities chief in the newly-formed cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Indy's brother said:
Hawass has been convicted:

So there is nothing he can possess that the Egyptian Criminal Court cannot take away.

You missed out the really good stuff:

Apparently Hawass has been sentenced to one year of hard labor and a LE1000 fine. He was also relieved of his duties as minister. t.

Maybe he'll be breaking rocks for archaeology students!
 
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