Cairo (dpa) – It has been said one only needs to stick a spade in the ground in
Egypt to find hidden archaelogical treasures. This is probably not too great an
exaggeration – the ancient pharaohs, Greeks and Romans all have left thousands
of traces of their existence.
But what at first appears an archaelogist’s dream is on second glance a
nightmare: many of the items discovered could face destruction within the next
100 years.
At a recent conference in Cairo, some 1,500 Egyptologists, archaeologists and
specialists discussed how best to preserve the antiquities.
Representatives of the Egyptian antiquities administration have made no secret
of the fact that they would like to see an emergency plan for the whole of the
Nile Delta, where the situation is particularly dramatic.
“There is one thing at which Egyptians are very productive and very, very good:
they have many children. The children need schools, hospitals, land and the
Nile Delta with all its nature. As a result, every monument in the Delta is in
danger,” says Gaballa Ali Gaballa, general director of the Egyptian antiquities
administration.
Rising water tables on the Nile and the damp air both play their part in the
steady destruction of the antiquities. But the discussions have also brought to
light that “the Egyptian patient” is also suffering in other places.
“Monuments in Upper Egypt will also fall apart if nobody bothers to attend to
them,” says Rainer Stadelmann, who for many years headed the German
Archaelogical Instute (DAI) in Cairo.
There is no simple solution to the rising water table there. The bases and
columns of temples are already white from the salt.
Fikri Hassan of London University is aware of another phenomenon. Jeeps and the
availability of the Global Positioning System (GPS) mean that even the most
remote of archaeological sites in the desert are no longer safe
from “plundering and destruction”.
Demands by the Egyptian antiquities administration to do more for the
preservation of antiquities were cause for controversy at the conference. Zahi
Hawass, the top official overseeing the pyramids, went as far as to suggest a
temporary stop to all archaeological digs and to concentrate solely on
preservation.
Gaballa compared the excavated monuments to babies, which one person gave birth
to and another was made to bring up.
The new director of the DAI, Guenter Dreyer, made it clear that already “more
than 50 per cent of our budget goes on preservation.” “Preservation costs more
than excavation,” said Dreyer. “But we are here as a research
institute.”
According to Dreyer, the financial gap can only be closed by injections of
money and donations and ex-director Stadelmann made it clear that the Egyptian
intelligentsia and business interests are currently doing too little.
They should set up a private local organization for the preservation of their
own Pharaonic and Islamic antiquities, he said.
Another controversy revolves around drawing up an archaeological map, on which
all antiquities and sites would be registered and which, Gaballa says, would be
of vital importance when vetoing construction projects.
In Alexandria, for example, a viaduct costing 200 million pounds (50 million
dollars) was built until it was discovered that a necropolis, well known in
history, was on the same site.
However, Dreyer is not convinced of the effectiveness of such a project.
“Several hundred people and much energy would be required for this. In the end
one knows that there are still more archaeological sites, but one doesn’t have
the funds to research them. To increase the number of sites which we cannot
afford is not very productive.”
