Drop the Mummy

DR. ZAHI HAWASS, Egypt’s most publicized Egyptologist and the secretary general of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), is renowned for the number of controversies he can stir. Brushing the controversies aside as nuisances “begun by backward people who are jealous,” as he told Egypt Today, Dr. Hawass keeps on working regardless of any setbacks.

Last month, in the midst of the controversy around the removal of King Tut-Ankh-Amon’s mummy from its resting place in Luxor, Hawass went to the Bahareya Oasis. Egyptians and Brits watched a live coverage transmitted by the television cameras of both countries as Hawass, holding his axe, opened a newly discovered tomb. “We had made a number of discoveries here years ago, but in 2002, I had decided to stop all work. We had found 234 mummies, which is quite enough. The Valley [of the Golden Mummies] is huge, and encompasses around 10,000 mummies. It is Egypt’s biggest burial area, and was used by Egyptians from all classes. I believe mummies should remain underground. But then I decided to start work again,” Hawass says.

Opening seven tombs that had already been pillaged in Roman times, Hawass and his entourage were hoping to discover something about the lives of average Egyptians from ancient times. “We had x-ray machines, through which we discovered that three of the mummies we studied had died of chronic headache. Many of the people had injuries on their arms and legs. A seven-year-old boy we found was wearing a golden cobra on his forehead to protect him in the next life. The people here had died at a young age, and the reason was probably the water, which we found to be too rich in iron,” Hawass explains.

A website set up by retired archeology professor Dr. Nasr Eskandar tries to belittle the importance of the Valley of the Golden Mummies, explaining that the importance of the mummification processes in the area is minimal. “This is ridiculous of course,” Hawass says. “This area was one of the richest in the country. They made the greatest date wine, which was exported to Rome and France. It is also the hugest burial area discovered so far, which means that it can give us complete information about the lifestyle of the time,” he points out.

Ahmed Saleh, the director of SCA’s Abu Simbel antiquities department watched with the rest of the world as Hawass made his discoveries in Bahareya on December 13th, 2004. “That was a real joke. How can a scientist hold an axe and just hack at a tomb on air? All scientists know that a lot of processes should precede the opening of a tomb. If you just hack away at it you lose important historical evidence. I am sad that this is what Egyptology has come to,” Saleh says.

With a masters degree in biomedical and forensic studies in Egyptology from Manchester, Saleh is one of the first Egyptians to specialize in the field.