HA 355 Assignment #8

Elaine Kao
June 15th 2010

Eternal Preservation

The ancient Egyptians spent much of their time on building projects for their pharaohs.
Because of the belief that a pharaoh’s burial complex shouldn’t be proclaimed completed
before his actual death, many expansions and elaborations were made to the funerary
structures. The fact that later kings went back to older sites and took old building materials of
their ancestors’ tombs to build their own tombs may be due to a decreased supply to the
materials or a more economical building program. Due to the fact that the economy was
suffering at several points in the reign of certain kings, it is very possible that the current
pharaoh would choose to use pre-existing material to save on labour and time. Beautiful
sculptures of kings were reused as well, perhaps for the same economical reasons.

Another plausible reason for using bits and pieces from the previously built structures
may be seen as a way of revering the kings of the past, an attempt to continue their glory,
amplified by the current king. Of course, there are many examples of where the current king
simply uses, for example, a sculpture from a previous king’s burial complex, with that king’s
name erased and replaced with the current king’s name. Some instances of the old king’s name
remains in places perhaps overlooked and missed by the people who were in charge of
replacing the kings’ names, or perhaps purposely left so that the names of both kings remain
since completely eliminating the name of the previous ruler is rather rude and disrespectful.

It is important to preserve the history of the past because future civilizations can learn
from the events that helped shape the world today. Perhaps it is inevitable that history repeats
itself in one form or the other, but by studying past issues and events, new solutions may be
found. Another important reason for preserving history is for the beautiful artefacts and
architecture that were once constructed and created skilfully by the ancient peoples.
Understanding the way ancient civilizations functioned and thought is an interesting study in
itself and comparing different civilizations of different time periods and places gives a greater
view of the evolution of these unique cultures. As to what point in time we choose for such
preservation, there is no one answer. It depends on specific goals and what a particular
archaeologist is looking for and believes. It may also be a more political issue on some levels
which may complicate issues further. Ideally, preserving as much of the past as possible is
preferable, if a little impractical. It is probably impossible to control such extensive
preservation though. Therefore, preserving artefacts and examples of architecture that form a
comprehensive and wholesome picture of history would be sufficient.
 The extent to which we try to preserve history depends in part on resources available
for such an undertaking. With endless personnel, space and time, there would be no limit to
how much history we can preserve. The issue arises when we think about why we would need
to preserve everything that is found and discovered. Time is continuous so does that mean we
need to keep detailed records of everything, no matter how big or small? How could the future
civilizations of earth benefit from knowing how many Starbucks locations existed in Canada at
this particular time? In fact, that might be an interesting study one day if you consider the
possibility of some ancient civilization having such a widespread corporation across their
empire or kingdom. There is no definitive conclusion to such a question as ‘how far we should
go’ so we should just focus on analyzing the things we discover and try to fit them into our
world history. ‘Forever’ is a concept that may or may not exist. There are sayings that go,
‘nothing lasts forever’ but depending on individual opinions and beliefs, such a concept does
exist. The ancient Egyptians certainly did believe in eternity and the afterlife, as seen by the
care in which they prepared their pharaohs and everyone for their journey to the next life. It is
yet another question that will remain unanswered, probably forever.