Hawass on the subject of valuing Egyptian archaeologists:
When I became secretary- general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), I stated that we must restore Egyptian archaeologists before we can restore the monuments. Actually, at that time, it was clear that our archaeologists could not compete with our foreign colleagues. Therefore, we started training programmes that were taught by foreign specialists in the best excavation and museological techniques. We sent some of our bright young archaeologists abroad to learn the latest scientific methods, and when they returned not only did they implement what they had learnt but also they taught others. Now, a few years after we began this project, I am happy to report that we have many Egyptian archaeologists who are carrying out the best scientific excavations and salvage archaeology in the field.
At the same time that we started to expand on our archaeologists' skills and make sure that they were up-to-date in all the newest and best scientific methods we also raised their salaries and gave additional permanent pay for dangerous work. We have improved the healthcare for all our employees, and we are currently building an SCA sporting and social club. The SCA has dedicated one day a year, 14 January, as the Ahmed Pasha Kamal Day, named after the first Egyptian archaeologist to celebrate the accomplishments in archaeology and honour all the archaeologists who have dedicated their lives to the conservation and restoration of Egyptian monuments. Many archaeologists spent their lives on their work and never received the recognition they deserved. Some previous heads of the antiquities department did not value the dedication and hard work of these individuals. I always say that professors at the university cannot understand the work of the SCA. Therefore, it is important always to have the head of antiquities coming from the SCA and not from a university or another organisation.
Interesting. Hawass is talking in this piece about valuing the work of Egyptian archaeologists, but in the above paragraph he is effectively rejecting the notion that different levels and types of experience and perspective could be a good thing for the SCA and saying that only those who already work in the SCA should hold positions of authority. That sounds like a rather intolerant and insular policy to set in stone.
4 comments:
I always say that professors at the university cannot understand the work of the SCA. Therefore, it is important always to have the head of antiquities coming from the SCA and not from a university or another organisation.
???
somtime need a fress wind in the organisation...
greetings from Fred sierevogel
New leadership of the SCA, would be a fresh start for egyptology.
I agree with anonymous, but I also think that having a central authority on this is the right idea. A lot of time, professors, etc. are allowed to dig when they have a lot of research experience but little archaeological experience. It's still very much a crony system over there, and the result is that low profile monuments and mud brick monuments are ruined even before anyone bothers to study them by bad archaeological practice.
The policy is not all to bad in my mind. Look for instance at the situation in the german speeking uinversity landscape: NOT ONE SINGLE ARCHAEOLOGIST HOLDS A POST AS PROFESSOR (at least no as head of an institute). Though, many institutes have their digs in Egypt (or cooperations with the SCA). The result is, that archaeology is not a prime concern for many of the university institutes, they put their resources and finances to stuff that has grown out of the university clientele and is used to work back home at the desk (i.e. philologists). The digging in Egypt is done by subordinate egyptologists/archaeologists and as they are absent half of the year, they have a though stance back home compared with the full-time philologists who mingle with the "important" uinversity people and lobby for their philological work.
If the Egyptians would recruit the head of the SCA also from the university landscape, the outcome might be comparable, a debasement of actual archaeological work.
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