Search goes on to sift the sands of time for treasure

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 12

Search goes on to sift the sands of time for treasure

PA Cairo The perpetually shifting sands of the Egyptian deserts may still hide treasures to dwarf the glittering prizes of the tomb of Tutankhamun. While the tombs of all the kings are known, the search goes on for the lost treasures they once held and, perhaps archaeologically more important, for clues about the day-to-day life of the ordinary Egyptian of the ancient civilisation.

Gaballa Aly Gaballa, professor of ancient Egyptian history at the University of Cairo, said: "There are lots of things still to be discovered.

“The ancient Egyptian civilisation lasted for at least 3000 years. By any stretch of the imagination, this is the longest, period in history for such a civilisation.”

The huge monuments of the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in “Upper Egypt” in the far south of the Nile Valley, and the Pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo have been marvelled at for generations. “But 90 per cent of the monuments have probably still to be discovered. “What has been found so far is chicken feed,” said Professor

Gaballa. The basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo contains twice as many monuments and artefacts than on display in the big public galleries, and their slow study will continually throw up further knowledge and clues.

More than 500 years before the birth of Christ, a Persian king who had conquered Egypt sent ah army of perhaps 10,000 men across the Libyan desert They never reached their destination and never returned to Luxor, and were believed at the time to have been lost in a huge sandstorm.

“That is in all probability what happened. Just think if they were ever to be found. They would be perfectly preserved ... their clothes, their armour ... everything. Just think what that would do for our knowledge,” he said. The search for new knowledge about one of history’s classic periods goes on.

There are more than 40 expeditions working every year in Egypt and there are often "accidental discoveries” like the nobleman's tomb near the Nile which was to be ransacked by black marketeers before the

Egyptian authorities were tipped off. Somewhere, Professor Gaballa believes, there are still big treasures to be found that will dwarf the Tutankhamun find with its 225 kg solid gold coffin and other objects. In historical terms, Tutankhamun was nothing ... a child who came to the throne when he was 10 and died when he was a teenager. He did nothing and yet because of the treasures he is the most famous pharoah.

“Think of the treasures that must have been in the tombs of the important pharoahs ... Amenophis 111, what did they have in the huge tomb of Rameses 11... where did it all go,” he questioned. Professor Gaballa agrees that the answer may never be known, but he asserted that unexpected finds are always being made. “In archaeology you never predict what is going to ■happen. You do not decide where you are going to search, you search where your studies point you.” The huge tombs and the famous treasures are merely the skeleton of ancient Egyptian history.

“We are not looking for treasures all the time. We just want to find a few shirts, a piece of papyrus. If you want to put flesh on the skeleton you have to know what the ordinary people were doing."

Professor Gaballa said that discoveries were always taking place in Egypt. “But you do not go to a site with preconceived ideas, you just keep your fingers crossed.

“Egyptian monuments are scattered all over the place and in the most unlikely places. Tutankhamun’s tomb, in the end, was found almost by accident.

While the serious studies continue, artefact thieves and professional and amateur smugglers alike pose a constant worry to those concerned with protecting Egypt’s heritage.

All sorts of laws and restrictions have been put in place but. Professor Gaballa said: “It will go on. It is like fighting drugs. There is plenty of money involved and when they manage to stop people smuggling drugs we will have managed to stop people smuggling artefacts. There is no limit to human ingenuity.”