Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology, Volume 3 , livre ebook

WONDERFUL
THINGS
WONDERFUL THINGS
A HISTORY OF EGYPTOLOGY

3: From 1914 to the Twenty-first Century




Jason Thompson







The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York
This electronic edition published in 2018 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com

Copyright © 2018 by Jason Thompson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978 977 416 760 7 eISBN: 978 161 797 864 7

Version 1
To the memory of Gaballa Ali Gaballa, Egyptologist and friend
Contents










Chronological Outline of Ancient Egyptian History
Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments

1 Egyptology and the Great War
2 Resuming the Field
3 Wonderful Things
4 The Pharaoh’s Curse
5 Winds of Change
6 George A. Reisner and His Colleagues at Giza
7 Farther South: Nubia and Sudan
8 New Dimensions in Prehistory
9 Interwar: The Library
10 Years of Uncertainty
11 Nazi Egyptology and the Second World War
12 An Egyptological Intermediate Period
13 Nubian Rescue: The Temples
14 Nubian Rescue: The Archaeology
15 Resuming the Field—Again: Saqqara and Lower Egypt
16 Resuming the Field—Again: Upper Egypt and Beyond
17 Language and Art
18 Writing Ancient Egyptian History
19 Women in Egyptology
20 Points of Departure

Notes
Bibliography
Chronological Outline of Ancient Egyptian History 1
Predynastic Period, c. 5300–2950 bc
Early Dynastic Period, c. 2950–2613 bc
First through Third Dynasties
Old Kingdom, c. 2613–2160 bc
Fourth through Eighth Dynasties
First Intermediate Period, c. 2160–2055 bc
Ninth through Eleventh Dynasties
Middle Kingdom, c. 2055–1640 bc
Eleventh through Fourteenth Dynasties
Second Intermediate Period, c. 1640–1550 bc
Fifteenth through Seventeenth Dynasties
New Kingdom, c. 1550–1069 bc
Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties
Third Intermediate Period, c. 1069–715 bc
Twenty-first through Twenty-fifth Dynasties
Late Period, c. 715–332 bc
Twenty-fifth through Thirty-first Dynasties
Ptolemaic Period, 332–30 bc
Roman Period, 30 bc –fourth century ad
Coptic or Byzantine Period, fourth century ad – ad 641

When Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any
longer, inquired anxiously, “Can you see anything?” it was
all I could do to get out the words, “Yes, wonderful things.”

—Howard Carter, opening the
tomb of Tutankhamun
Preface







When you lie down, guard your heart yourself,
For no man has adherents on the day of woe.
—from The Instruction of King Amenemhet I to his son Senwosret 1
This, the last of the three textual volumes of Wonderful Things , addresses the history of Egyptology from 1914 until the near present. It might seem strange that the preceding volume should cover a relatively brief span of thirty-three years while this one is devoted to a full century in which there have been immense and astonishing advances in Egyptology. Those advances, however, are to a very large degree predicated on institutional and conceptual developments of earlier ages, and especially those of what came to be known as the Golden Age of Egyptology, 1881–1914. So numerous and so far-reaching have been the changes during recent decades that the later chapters of this volume move toward general trends rather than attempt to encompass all the individuals, projects, and issues that have arisen. Also, in approaching the present it becomes less appropriate to focus on personality than in earlier times. Descriptions of quarrels between Egyptologists in bygone ages can be instructive, but more recent foibles of personality are best left to the next generation of historians of Egyptology when they can be examined dispassionately within their full contexts.
Exceptions to the reverse telescoping that runs through this volume are the two chapters about Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. That is in addition to substantial space given to Carter’s earlier achievements in the previous volume of Wonderful Things . But “Wonderful Things” is the overall title of the textual trilogy, and I felt it appropriate to accord some space to the events that inspired Carter’s words when he first beheld the tomb’s dazzling treasures—even if those words were later edited slightly. The saga of the famous discovery is worth recounting in some detail because it and the resulting controversies prefigured the different ways Egyptology and archaeology were subsequently done in Egypt.
The practice of providing parenthetical birth and death dates for Egyptologists employed in the previous volumes of Wonderful Things is discontinued here. Many people mentioned in the later chapters of this volume are still with us. It would be morbidly anticipatory to leave an open date for their Westward departure. “Know the grave doth gape for thee” were appropriate words to say to Sir John Falstaff, but they present a grim prospect for living Egyptologists, even if Egyptologists are more acquainted with mortality than members of most disciplines.
In Wonderful Things I have tried to show that the history of Egyptology is composed of many histories: of discoveries, ideas, sites, institutions, politics, and more. Individual artefacts often have extensive stories of their own. Above all, the essence of the history of Egyptology is the people who have made the discipline what it is. For a few, Egyptology was a way to fame, even fortune; for most, especially the minor characters who labored in obscurity, the rewards have been more modest but nevertheless fulfilling. Recalling his discovery of the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings in 1817, Giovanni Battista Belzoni wrote, “I do not mean to say, that fortune has made me rich, for I do not consider all rich men fortunate; but she has given me that satisfaction, that extreme pleasure, which wealth cannot purchase; the pleasure of discovering what has been long sought in vain.” 2 The discoveries that Egyptologists make nowadays might not include a fabulous tomb, though those are still to be found. Their finds might be discernment of a hitherto unperceived inflection on an Egyptian verb, new insights from reexamining records from past archaeological expeditions, or other nuances that will go largely unheralded. But they are all integral and important parts in the ongoing development of the seemingly inexhaustible field.
Yet, even as Egyptology embraces the future, it is Janus-faced, looking behind as well as ahead. Chris Naunton observes that “Egyptologists and archaeologists are increasingly aware of the benefits of understanding the processes by which information about the past has been acquired, interpreted and presented, and of the effect that the political, economical and personal contexts, and the era in which the work was undertaken, had on the results obtained.” 3 That is one of the reasons for the growing interest in the history of Egyptology not only among Egyptologists and archaeologists but also among the wider public who have fallen under the irresistible spell of ancient Egypt—or, as August Mariette might have put it, have been pecked by the Egyptian Duck. 4
Textual Note
Spellings of pharaonic names primarily follow those in John Baines and Jaromir Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt . Transliterations of Arabic names and words are generally given in simplified form without diacritics or ayns. Unless otherwise indicated, translations are by the author.
Acknowledgments







I again attempt to express some measure of the depth of my gratitude toward all those mentioned in the Acknowledgments to the previous two volumes. In many cases their encouragement, assistance, and valuable insights have continued to the present. To their number I should add Ronald E. Zitterkopf, from whose intimate knowledge of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, literary skill, and close reading of the final chapters of this volume I have benefited. Professor James P. Allen set me on the right path toward understanding of the development of language studies. It is not his fault that I probably then went astray in the marvelous world of ancient Egyptian philology. I cannot understand how I never mentioned my late, esteemed friend Professor Gaballa A. Gaballa, who helped me in so many ways. I recall all the pleasant days of hospitality he and Genny afforded me in their home in Maadi where a number of pages in this volume were composed. It is to Gabby that this volume is inscribed. And again and always my thanks to the American University in Cairo Press and its people who contributed substantially to the fabric of Wonderful Things and patiently guided its volumes through production.
1 Egyptology and the Great War







In such a time a m