See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/335825894

Egyptology

Article · September 2005

CITATIONS READS
0 5,667

1 author:

Larry Ross
Saint Louis Art Museum
15 PUBLICATIONS   70 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

African American Jazz Musicians in the Diaspora Draft View project

The Science: An Anthropological Solution to the "Race" problem in America View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Larry Ross on 15 September 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Egyptology
________________________________________________________________________

WHAT IS EGYPTOLOGY?

Egyptology is defined as the study of Ancient Egypt from the Badarian, c.4,500 B.C.E, to
the Muslim invasion of Egypt in 641 A.D. (identified in Upper Egypt by Brunton and
Caton Thompson in 1928, the Badarian is contemporary with Fayum A in Lower Egypt);
this brought the “Great Tradition” cultural practices that had coalesced during Egyptian
civilization’s five-thousand-year existence to an end (e.g. pyramid building and other
related monumental architecture, worship of the pantheon of Egyptian deities, dynastic
succession, hieroglyphic writing, and mummification).
Egyptology should not be confused with “Egyptomania,” which refers to the
fascination with ‘all things Egyptian’ that took place after Howard Carter discovered the
tomb of Tutakhenaten (who ceremonially changed his name to Tutankhamun shortly
before his death), in the early 1920s. In this case, “Egyptomania” disrupted the systematic
study of the artifacts by trained Egyptologists; bizarre interpretations of ancient Egyptian
civilization remain with us today as a result (e.g. the popular book Chariots of the Gods
claimed that the pyramids were probably built by extraterrestrial beings, not by the
indigenous people of Africa). However, the general public’s interest is certainly
beneficial to Egyptology; few patrons can forget the impact of an Egyptian exhibit after
visiting a museum like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or The Cairo Museum.
Remarkably, Ancient Egyptian civilization continues to be compelling, and relevant, in
the postmodern world.

A HISTORY OF EGYPTOLOGY

Although Athanasius Kircher made a valiant attempt to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs

in the mid-1600s, the modern phase of the study of Ancient Egypt is believed to have
commenced after Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. Napoleon employed
a number of artists and scholars, an estimated 167 in total, who formed the Commission
des Arts et des Sciences that included Claude Louis Berthollet, Gaspard Monge, Jean
Michel Venture de Paradis, Prosper Jollois, Edmé François Jomard, René Edouard Villers
de Terrage, and Michel-Ange Lancret; more than thirty from the commission died in
combat, or from disease. A new organization that was to focus on the study of Egypt, the
Institut d’Egypte, was formed by Napoleon in August of 1798 with Gaspard Monge
serving as its president. Baron Dominique Vivant Denon (1742 – 1825) was urged to join
Napolean’s expedition by his protectress Joséphine de Beauharnais, who would later
marry Napoleon. Denon was a diplomat, playwright, painter, and reknown society
conversationalist; his drawings of and Medinet Habu are considered to be some of the
most important in the history of Egyptology. Baron Joseph Fourier (1768 – 1830), who
was an outstanding mathematician, facilitated the publication of Description de l’Égypte
upon his return to France, and he held a number of prestigious posts including Prefect of
the Isère départment in Grenoble, and Director of the Statistical Bureau of the Siene;
Fourier’s publication represents an early attempt at compiling the tremendous amount of
Egyptian material that was being discovered apace, making it widely available for other
scholars to examine.
The British invaded Egypt shortly afterward and took possession of the priceless
Rosetta Stone, which had been discovered in 1799 near a city known as RashÎd (meaning
Rosetta), in 1801 when the French capitulated. The Rosetta Stone was inscribed with
three scripts: Egyptian hieroglyphic, Egyptian demotic, and Greek, thus Greek served as
a conduit between the ancient Egyptians and the modern world. Thomas Young, a British
physicist who had mastered twelve languages by the time that he was fourteen-years-old,
is responsible for some of the first creditable decipherments of ancient Egyptian writing,
and he shared his findings with Jean F. Champollion, who later became famous as the
preeminent figure of the decipherment effort.
A multi-talented circus performer, strong-man, and artist, turned explorer, named
Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778 – 1823) conducted archaeological excavations at Karnak
between 1815-17, and he entered Khafre’s pyramid at Giza in 1818, making him the first
known person to enter the temple in modern times. In 1820, Belzoni published Narrative
of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and
Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia. Belzoni’s association with Henry Salt, the British
Consul General who had retained him to procure Egyptian antiquities for the British
Museum, often causes scholars to regard him as a treasure hunter; Belzoni’s lack of
‘scholarly’ credentials, and his questionable archaeological agenda, generates a measure
of concern and derision among Egyptologists. Girolamo Segato (1792 – 1836) went to
Egypt in 1818 as well, and he crossed Belzoni’s path, uncovering elusive artifacts that
had been overlooked; Segato was a chemist, naturalist, and draftsman, and he was the
first person to enter the Step Pyramid of Djoser, in modern times (the pyramid had been
plundered, presumably, in antiquity like most of the pyramids). Segato was a prolific
map-maker, in the service of Ismail Pasha, with his work leading him well into the Sudan
where he encountered the Kingdom of Chiollo and Wadi Halfa, during a forty-day walk.
Although most of Segato’s drawings were lost to fire, and his Egyptian treasures lost to
shipwreck, he published Saggi pittorici, geografici, statici, catastali sull’Egitto (Pictoral,
Geographical, Statistical, and Cadastral Essays on Egypt) in 1823, and Alante
momumentale dell’Alto e Basso Egitto (Atlas of Upper and Lower Egypt) with Domenico
Valeriano in 1837. In The Discovery of Ancient Egypt, Egyptologist Alberto Siliotti
contends that:

Although we can only judge his work on the basis of the extant documents, these are sufficient to throw
light on his essential characteristics. An attentive traveler, an explorer of the course of the Nile and the
eastern part of the Nubian Desert, an indefatigable and keen observer, a skilled draughtsman and
map-maker whose work heralded the age of the scientific plan and accurate scale drawing, he was a
talented and versatile person who was the first to enter and carry out a systematic study of Djoser’s Step
Pyramid at Saqqara. While the bad luck that dogged him in his Egyptian adventures means that it is not
possible to form a complete picture of his contribution to the development of Egyptology, there is no
doubt that he was one of the most outstanding explorers of the country in the last century. (Siliotto
1998, pp. 188)

The most noteworthy contributors to the establishment of Egyptology as an academic

discipline are Ippolito Rosellini, diplomat, explorer, and collector Bernardino Drovetti
(1776 – 1852), Emmanuel vicomte de Rougé, Jean Jacques Rifaud (1786 – 1845,
Drovetti’s artist), James Bruce (1730-94), Owen Jones, Samuel Birch, Ludwig
Borschardt, Heinrich Brugsch, Emile Brugsch (1842 – 1930), Adolf Erman, Hermann
Grapow, Carl Richard Lepsius, Somers Clarke (1841 – 1926), Emile Armélineau (1850 –
1915), Jean Capart (1877 – 1947), Gaston Maspero (1846 – 1916), Edouard Naville
(1844 – 1926), Victor Loret (1859 – 1946), Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, Sir Alan H.
Gardiner, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (Seriation at Abydos), James Henry
Breasted, Auguste Mariette, Amelia Edwards (1831-92), Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis
Budge (1857 – 1934), George Andrew Reisner (1867 – 1942), Howard Carter (1874 –
1939), Jaroslav Cerný (1898 – 1970), Dorothy Louise Eady (1904-81), and Walter B.
Emery (1903-71).
Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797 – 1875) went to Egypt in 1821 to study tombs in
the Valley of the Kings, the site of Karnak, and the sacred Gebel Barkal in Nubia, a
mountain that appears to be shaped like a uraeus (the cobra that fronts the Egyptian
king’s crown). Wilkinson made contributions to Egyptian epigraphy by copying
inscriptions, and being the first to identify the names of the kings with whom they were
associated.
Rosellini (1800-43) and his brother Gaetano accompanied Champollion on an
expedition to Egypt in 1828, and he directed the Italian committee as head archaeologist,
while Champollion directed the French committee; supported by Leopoldo II, grand-duke
of Tuscany and Charles X, King of France, their field study was called the Franco-Tuscan
Expedition. Naturalist Guiseppe Raddi, artists Alessandro Ricci, Alexandre Duchesne,
Albert Bertin, draughtsmen Nestor L’Hôte and Pierre Lehoux were major contributors to
the project. Champollion and Rosellini published the results of their expedition in
Monuments de l’Égypte et Nubie. (Note: this visionary title clearly suggests that these
scholars surmised that there was a significant relationship between Nubia and Egypt,
however its significance has been overshadowed until recent times; today, we know that
Nubia’s influence on Egypt was far greater than many Egyptologists had suspected. For
example, Nubian pottery has been unearthed and dated at 8,000 B.C.E., which provides
evidence that sedentary life in Nubia predates the Badarian, when Egyptian civilization
began to coalesce: a great deal of effort has been directed at creating a rigid separation
between the two areas, or populations. Importantly, metals like gold were virtually non-
existent above the Second Cataract (cataracts are the white-water regions of the Nile),
therefore it was mined at Buhen or other Nubian sites, and carted off to Egypt by the ton.
Thus, Egypt’s reliance on Nubian products was perpetual, from the emergence of
Dynastic Egypt around 3,250 B.C.E., until the invasion of the Persian Archaemenid
Dynasty in 525 B.C.E.)
Owen Jones (1809–74), a British engineer and draftsman, traveled to Egypt in 1832,
made substantial drawings of Karnak, and published Views on the Nile from Cairo to the
Second Cataract in 1843; Samuel Birch (1813-55) wrote the introduction to Jones’s
elaborate volume, which contained engraver George Moore’s lithographs of his original
drawings, accurately documenting the architectural details of the various structures that
Jones had encountered during his expedition. After collaborating with Joseph Bonomi
and Samuel Sharpe, Jones published A Description of the Egyptian Court in 1854.
Scottish artist David Roberts (1796 – 1864) went to Egypt shortly after Jones’s
expedition, in 1838; Roberts believed that Abu Simbel was the most impressive of all
Egyptian temples, and his various paintings became the most popular of his time.
Lepsius (1810 – 1884) led an expedition to Egypt from Germany, commissioned by
Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, in 1842; Lepsius was accompanied by artist Joseph
Bonomi and architect James Wild, and he published Denkmäler aus Ägypten und
Äthiopien, 12 vol. in 1859 (Egyptian and Ethiopian Monuments), which rivaled the work
published by Fourier in scale. Emmanuel vicomte de Rougé (1811-72) worked with
Lepsius to formulate a method for interpreting new Egyptian discoveries in a consistent
manner; de Rougé was also curator of the Egyptian section at the Louvre in Paris.
Brugsch (1827–94) collaborated with Mariette (a cousin of Nestor L’Hôte) in the
1850s, and his major contribution to Egyptology is his work on the decipherment of the
demotic script; Brugsch worked at the Berlin Museum as well, and he held a number of
posts related to Egyptology, including Founder and Director of the Cairo School of
Egyptology. Mariette (1821-81), an archaeologist known for virtually destroying
archaeological sites, went to Egypt in 1850 to look for ancient manuscripts, however he
excavated Saqqara and Memphis instead, working in Egypt and sending antiquities to the
Louvre until 1854. After returning to Egypt in 1858, he remained in Egypt and
established the Egyptian Museum, after convincing the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt of its
merit. Mariette unearthed the temple of Seti I, as well as other temples at Edfu and
Dendera; his work exposed material that dated back to the Old Kingdom, extending the
range of Egyptian history that scholars could analyze.
Amelia Edwards (1831 – 1892) was a successful journalist who went to Egypt in
1873, and she inadvertently became enthralled with what she saw. Edwards published A
Thousand Miles Up the Nile in 1877, and in 1882 Edwards founded the Egypt
Exploration Fund (now known as the Egypt Exploration Society) in order to rescue
ancient Egyptian monuments from decay, neglect, and vandalism. A wealthy British
surgeon, Sir Erasmus Wilson, supported Edwards’s efforts until her death, shortly after
she completed an American speaking tour that consisted of 115 lectures, in 1889.
Edwards strongly endorsed Sir Flinders Petrie in her bequest for the establishment of a
chair of Egyptology at University College in London; it contained a proviso that
“Flinders Petrie should be the first professor.” Petrie (1853 – 1942) is considered to be
“The Father of Modern Egyptology” by some Egyptologists. In conjunction, the
archaeological methods that he developed extended beyond the Egyptian sites, and they
are used by many of today’s archaeologists. Petrie excavated Naqada, Tanis, Naucritis,
Tell-al-Amarna, the pyramids of Senusret II and Amenemhat II, and the cemetery at
Abydos, from 1895 to 1899 (see Methods in Egyptology).
Erman (1854 – 1937) elucidated and emphasized what he believed to be significant
connections between ancient Egyptian language, the Coptic language, and Semitic
languages; three of Erman’s publications are considered to be among the most important
that have ever been written on Egyptology: Ägyptische Grammatik (Egyptian Grammar),
Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache (Dictionary of the Egyptian Language), and
Neuägyptische Grammatik (New Egyptian Grammar). Grapow (1885 – 1967) was a
protégé of Erman, and his publications focused on ancient Egyptian medicine. Gardiner
(1879 – 1963), a student of Erman, is well-known for his interpretation of the Narmer
Palate and his seminal 1927 publication, Egyptian Grammar, which is considered
required reading for Egyptologists today.
 Breasted (1865 – 1935) published the five-volume Ancient Records of Egypt in 1906,
A History of Egypt (1905), Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt
(1912), and A History of the Early World (1916) before his 1919 expedition to Egypt,
while he was a Professor of Egyptology and Oriental History at the University of
Chicago. With the financial support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Breasted established the
Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, in 1919.
Although a number of other archaeologists, artists, authors, and architects could
certainly be included among these important figures in the history of Egyptology, their
contributions to the discipline’s development must be acknowledged; many of the
Egyptologists who are working today will, undoubtedly, become part of this illustrious
historic record.

METHODS IN EGYPTOLOGY

The systematic study of Ancient Egypt has provided a wealth of information; however it
is of a relatively recent vintage. The Edict of Milan, which was issued in 313 A.D. by the
Roman Empire, established Christianity as the empire’s official religion. As a result of
this decree, representations of Egyptians gods and deities were attacked as symbols of
“devil worship,” and Egyptian artifacts were zealously destroyed by Christians:

Because they were now considered the work of the devil, the images of the ancient gods that had
watched over the fortunes of Egypt for thousands of years were defaced or destroyed. Tombs were
ransacked – their entire funerary furnishings burnt – to be used as dwellings by monks and hermits,
while the closure of the Egyptian temples, the last bulwarks of a civilization that was now drawing to a
close, meant that not only did age-old rites and traditions sink into oblivion, but also that knowledge of
one of the most distinctive features of Egyptian culture, hieroglyphic writing, was soon forgotten.
(Siliotto 1998, pp. 10)

By the time that Napoleon’s scholars arrived in Egypt in order to conduct systematic
studies, significant damage to Egypt’s artifacts had already taken place; therefore,
Egyptologists were forced to assess what remained with the understanding that looters,
vandals, zealots, and adventurers had gotten to the sites ahead of them. When Sir William
Matthew Flinders Petrie arrived in Egypt to excavate Abydos near the end of the
nineteenth century, he was horrified by the methods and practices that he observed at
Khafre’s temple, which is documented in Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin’s Ancient Egypt:

Mariette most rascally blasted to pieces all of the fallen parts of the granite temple by a large gang of
Soldiers, to clear it out instead of lifting the stones and replacing them by means of tackle… Nothing
seems to be done with any uniform and regular plan, work is begun and left unfinished; no regard is
paid to future requirements of exploration, and no civilized or labour-saving devices are used. It is
sickening to see the rate at which everything is being destroyed, and little regard paid to preservation.

During his excavation of the tomb of King Djer (c.3000 BC), Petrie found part of an arm wrapped in
bandages, later found to be wearing a set of four exquisite bracelets made of gold, lapis lazuli, amethyst
and turquoise. After carefully examining the jewellery, he entrusted the precious burden to James
Quibell, the Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Lower Egypt, to deliver to the Cairo Museum. However,
the museum’s assistant conservator was interested only in the jewellery, and threw away the arm and
the linen, thus destroying the earliest evidence for mummification. As Petrie remarked, ‘a museum is a
dangerous place’. (Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin 2003, pp. 40-41)
Mariette excavated the Serapaeum at Memphis as well, where the sacred Apis bulls had
been buried; Mariette’s methods included the use of dynamite, which inherently destroys
aspects of an archaeological site that may have been of importance. By intentional
contrast, Petrie invented Seriation, a method used by archaeologists to determine the
sequences of artifact development, change, and frequency (or lack of frequency) in the
layers of a site’s strata. For example, artifacts found in the lower levels of the strata are
considered to represent an earlier technocomplex or habitation period, in relation to the
upper levels of the strata; seriation is a Relative Dating technique. Petrie first used
seriation at Naqada, Hu, and Abadlya, and his method is now a widely used by modern
archaeologists; at the very least, in this way, Egyptology certainly contributed to the
study of humans as a whole. B.G. Trigger, B.J. Kemp, D. O’Connor and A.B. Lloyd
described Petrie’s method in their ground-breaking Ancient Egypt: A Social History,
which was first published in 1983:

In an effort to work out a chronology for the graves of the Amratian and Gerzean cultures, Petrie
developed his system of ‘Sequence Dating’, which constitutes the first substantial application of the
principles of seriation in archaeology. This system was based on fluctuations in the popularity of
different types of pottery from some 900 graves, each containing not less than five different types. On
the basis of these fluctuations, Petrie assigned each grave to one of fifty successive temporal divisions,
numbered 30 to 80. The time-scale is uncertain, so that it can only be said, for example that S.D.
(Sequence Date) 40 is theoretically earlier than S.D. 41; further, there is no reason to believe that the
interval between S.D. 49 and S.D. 50 is necessarily the same as between S.D. 60 and 61. It appears that
the nearer Petrie’s divisions are to the historic period, the shorter periods of time they represent. (B.G.
Trigger, B.J. Kemp, D. O’Connor and A.B. Lloyd 1998, pp. 4-5)

Petrie cut 900 strips of cardboard, each measuring seven inches long, with each
representing a grave that he had excavated; on each strip, Petrie recorded the pottery
types and amounts, as well as the other grave goods, which allowed him to compare the
graves contents, and develop a relative chronology. Petrie’s meticulous method
represented a watershed event in both Egyptology and Archaeology, and seriation has
undoubtedly enhanced the effort to analyze, preserve, and curate countless antiquities. In
conjunction with seriation, a variety of methods are now used by Egyptologists to locate
archaeological sites, including aerial photography, electromagnetic acoustic sounding
radar, resistivity measurement, and thermal infrared-imagery in order to locate geological
anomalies that merit further investigation; Polymerase Chain Reaction (PDR, a method of
DNA molecule duplication that yields more material for analysis) and CAT-scans are
now used to study the genetic relationships, or the lack thereof, between the human
remains that have been unearthed and the pathology of their diseases; computer programs
that allow users to create 3-D reconstructions of sites, and that allow users to type
hieroglyphs are widely used by researchers, epigraphers, and students of Egyptology
today. Relative Dating methods like Stratigraphic Palynology, and Absolute Dating
methods, including Thermoluminescence (TL), Radiocarbon (C-14, Electron Spin
Resonance (ESR) are among the methods that can now be used to date artifacts, faunal,
or floral material that is associated with Egyptian archaeological sites. These
investigative tools have definitely enhanced Egyptologists’ ability to study the world of
the Ancient Egyptians.
A new method that is available to Egyptologists yielded some compelling results in
August 2004. Gilles Dormion and Jean Yves Verd’hurt reported that they had found an
unknown corridor that leads to a burial chamber, in the tomb of Khufu, by using ground-
penetrating radar; if they are correct, they may have solved an age-old mystery as to
where Khufu was actually buried. However, as of now, Dormion and Verd’hurt have not
been given permission to excavate.

MAJOR SITES OF STUDY

Mariette’s discovery of the Serapaeum at Memphis, and Khafre’s temple at Giza were
major sites of study in the nineteenth century; Abydos, the center of the Osiris cult, was
found to be equally significant. The Abydos site continues to be one of the most
important in Egyptology; based on the archaeological excavations of Dr. Gunter Dreyer
from the 1990s, it appears that during the Gerzean, pharonic Egypt and hieroglyphic
writing began at Abydos, about 3,200 B.C.E. With the discovery of the tomb of King
Scorpion (Sekhen), Dreyer found that many of the markedly Egyptian cultural practices
that would become definitive, including the mastaba, the ivory sceptre, the symbol of
Horus, and the bulbous crown that symbolized a ruler’s dominion over Upper Egypt.
In conjunction, Dr. John Coleman Darnell and Deborah Darnell discovered the
Scorpion Tableau nearby at the Jebel Tjauti site, which appears to be the earliest known
example of the ‘smiting of the king’s enemies’ mural that later Egyptian kings would
commission (see Major Past and Recent Discoveries). Karnak and Thebes (Luxor) are
among the most studied sites of Upper Egypt, I conjunction with the Valley of the Kings,
Deir el Medina, Hierakonpolis (where many ancient kings claimed to have been born),
and Naqada; Dr. Kent Weeks is now conducting the Theban Mapping Project that is
focusing on KV5 where Rameses II built interconnected tombs for his sons, which
probably numbered over fifty. KV5 represents an architectural project from antiquity that
is completely unique; Egyptian kings were buried in the Valley of the Kings from about
1,500 B.C.E to 1,000 B.C.E., and the number of tombs located there is somewhat
staggering, to say the least. At least six kings from the Rammesside Period were also
buried there in the Valley of the Kings, along with Merenptah, Tawosert and Sethnakhte,
Seti I – II, Tuthmosis I, III, and IV, Siptah, Horemheb, Yuya and Tuya, and of course,
Tutankhamen. Deir el Bahri in Western Thebes, the site of both Mentuhotep II and
Hatshepsut’s tombs, continues to be a major site of interest to Egyptologists as well; the
location of Hatshepsut’s tomb, which was built nearly 500 years after Mentuhotep II’s,
exemplifies the later pharaoh’s desire to identify with and surpass her predecessor.
Some of the major archaeological sites of Lower Egypt are the illustrious Giza
Plateau, Bubastis, Sais, Heliopolis, and Tanis; in the delta region, natural preservation is
more problematic, however astonishing finds associated with the Twenty-First Dynasty
have been unearthed. The silver coffins that were made during the Tanite Dynasty and its
successors are exceptionally impressive, although this period in Egypt (Twentieth to
Twenty-Third Dynasties) may have been relatively chaotic, in view of the archaeological
and historical records.
The major archaeological site of Middle Egypt is Tell al-Amarna (Akhetaten in
antiquity), a city that was purposely built in the desert, in iconoclastic fashion, by king
Akhenaten for his worship of the Aten (this site may represent the first example of a
monotheistic king and state, however Akhenaten’s motive may have been two-fold. By
abandoning the pantheon of Egyptian gods and deities that were in place, Akhenaten may
have wanted all power to reside in him.)
 Many discoveries have been made as a result of re-studies of sites that were already
known; in this way, Upper, Middle, and Lower Egyptian sites provide perpetual
enrichment for Egyptologists. For example, the Abusir site was excavated by Ludwig
Borschardt (1863 – 1938) from 1902-08, however it is now being worked again, and its
remarkable complexes are providing today’s Egyptologists with more knowledge about
the lives of Raneferef, Sahure, and other kings from the Fifth Dynasty.
In conjunction, the modern-day boundaries of Egypt do not correspond with the
boundaries of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, or New Kingdom. Therefore,
Egyptian influence was prevalent below the First Cataract to areas south of the Third
Cataract, and the number of pyramids in Nubia (modern-day Sudan) actually exceeds the
number of pyramids that were built within the boundaries of modern Egypt. After
Tuthmosis I (c.1504 – 1492 B.C.E.) invaded Nubia, Amenhophis III built a well-known
temple at Soleb; Akhenaten built a temple at Sesibi, which marks the southernmost point
of the New Kingdom’s conquest of the Kushites.

MAJOR DISCOVERIES AND AREAS FOR RESEARCH IN EGYPTOLOGY

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 was one of the most critical of all discoveries,
because it allowed Egyptologists to communicate with the Ancient Egyptians; without
the Rosetta Stone, much of what Egyptologist believe would probably be dependent upon
conjecture. Therefore, the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing has clarified a great deal
about antiquity, and it represents a major benefit for all researchers.
Djoser’s pyramid, Egypt’s first stone building that consists of a series of stacked
mastabas, the pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza, the Red Pyramid at Dashur, and the
Kushite pyramids discovered at el-Kurru represent merely a few of the major
architectural achievements of this culture area. Karnak Temple, Abu Simbel, and other
examples of monumental architecture demonstrate the undeniable brilliance of Ancient
Egyptian mathematicians, engineers, architects, and workmen.
Recent discoveries in the Valley of the Kings are no less than remarkable, because
Egyptologists are learning so much more about a site that some archaeologists considered
to be exhausted, about a hundred-years-ago. In conjunction, the inadvertent discovery of
the blue lotus’s similarity to Viagra, in 2001, has transformed Egyptologist’s
interpretation of Egyptian paintings; the virtually ubiquitous use of the plant has medical,
sensual, and cultural implications that are now being studied.

INTERPRETATIONS OF THE EVIDENCE AND RECENT THEORIES

New theories about the mysterious Egyptian have now emerged that merit further
scrutiny. Dr. Bob Brier has been examining the circumstances of King Tutankhamun’s
early demise, and his physical remains; for Brier, foul play is evident, based on a cranial
anomaly and the political climate of the time. Some forensic scientists are not convinced,
however the evidence continues to be examined critically, and this research may broaden
our understanding of the Eighteenth Dynasty’s machinations, in significant ways.
In 2000, Robert Bauval hypothesized that the configuration of the pyramids at Giza
was aimed at replicating the heavens on earth; each pyramid represented a star, and it was
to be placed in alignment with the constellation now known as Orion. By superimposing
a scale model of the Giza Plateau upon a photograph of the constellation Orion, a
correspondence between the alignment structures and the stars can be observed. If Bauval
is correct, this would explain why the Egyptians invested so much effort in the building
projects that would propel them into the afterlife, at least in part.
Egyptologists cannot say exactly how the pyramids were built, and theories abound as
to how such a feat could have been accomplished, without the use of modern equipment.
Dr. Maureen Clemmons, a Professor of Aeronautics at the California Institute of
Technology, surmised that the Ancient Egyptians may have built their pyramids by using
kites and wind power. Overcoming a number of technical obstacles and setbacks in her
field tests in the Mojave Desert, and with the assistance of Morteza Gharib and Emilio
Graff, the team was able to raise a concrete obelisk that weighed about 3.5 tons in less
than five minutes using sails, wood, rope, and pulleys that would have been available to
the Ancient Egyptians. If Clemmons is correct, this would appear to be one of the most
cogent explanations for how so many tons of stone could have been moved in antiquity.
Are these theories mere conjecture, or will they eventually enhance our understanding
of the Ancient Egyptian, who scholars have been struggling for centuries to understand?
There are Egyptologists who take differing positions on these, and other, theories;
however, divergent theoretical orientations serve as the foundation for scientific inquiry,
and they often lead to breakthroughs, as Thomas Kuhn suggested in The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions.

PRESERVING THE EVIDENCE/SITES

The rescue of the temples at Abu Simbel represents one of the most remarkable efforts
known to Egyptologists. Rameses II built the two temples in Nubia, however the rising
level of the Aswan Dam, which was built in the 1950s, was about to flood their location
and submerge the monuments forever. Through the efforts of UNESCO, about
$36,000,000 was raised from international sources in order to move the temples to higher
ground, and the temples were salvaged between 1963 and 1970. Clearly, this was a
visionary undertaking, since the massive stone temples had to be dismantled in sections
for future reassembly.
Tourism is a major sector of modern Egypt’s economy; however numerous measures
have been enacted to limit the deleterious effects upon the visitation sites. Humidity
within the structures is now monitored, and the number of people who are allowed in per
day is regulated. The natural decay of structures, like the Amenhotep III temple at
Thebes, has been a recurrent problem since ancient times. Traffic and pollution have both
served to hasten the deterioration of the Sphinx and other ancient monuments. Thus,
human activities continue to be a threat to the cherished artifacts of this unique
civilization, and this has been recognized by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Chief Inspector of
Antiquities for the Egyptian government. Hawass in engaged in numerous restoration and
preservation projects at Edfu, Kom Obo, and Luxor in conjunction with building tourist
installations that are located a safe distance away from the sites, the use of Safe Zoning
which separates a site from a town, and Open-Air Museums. Taken together, these
measures will compliment the preservation efforts of the archaeologists who have permits
to work alongside Egypt’s vital tourist industry.
THE VALUE OF EGYPTOLOGY TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Egyptology offers exceptionally fertile areas of study for all four of Anthropology’s
subfields. Physical Anthropologists have gleaned a wealth of information about human
adaptation, disease pathology, mating, and medicinal practices from Ancient Egyptian
remains; as for Archaeologists, Egypt has exerted a substantial influence on their field
considering the impact of Seriation, which is widely used, developed by Egyptologist Sir
Flinders Petrie.
The vibrant cultural array of Ancient Egypt and Nubia, including their pantheons of
gods, philosophies, mating systems, and geo-political interaction spheres continue to be
of interest to Cultural Anthropologists, with no evidence of abatement. And for Linguists,
the discovery of a unique, unpointed (written without vowels) language with a full
compliment of written symbols has proven to be irresistible, at least since medieval
times.
An incalculable number of Anthropologists have drawn inspiration from Ancient
Egyptian civilization, and they will probably continue to do so, while preserving its
legacy for future generations of scholars and enthusiasts alike.

Larry Ross, Ph.D.

Further reading

Bongioanni, Allesandro & Croce, Maria Sole, Ed. (2001). The Treasures of Ancient
Egypt from the Cairo Museum. New York: Universe Publishing.

Capel, Anne K. & Markoe, Glenn E., Ed. (1996). Mistress of the House, Mistress of
Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt. New York: Hudson Hills Press, Inc.

Gardiner, Sir Alan. (1961). The Egyptians: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Hawass, Zahi. (2004). Hidden Treasures of Ancient Egypt. Washington, D.C.: National
Geographic Society.

James, George G. M. (1992). Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian

Philosophy. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc.

Johnson, Paul. (1999). The Civilization of Ancient Egypt. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers, Inc.

Oakes, Lorna & Gahlin, Lucia, Ed. (2003). Ancient Egypt. New York: Barnes & Noble
Books.

Phillipson, David W. (1993). African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.
 Shaw, Ian. (2002). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Siliotti, Alberto. (1998). The Discovery of Ancient Egypt. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books,
Inc.

Trigger, B.G., Kemp, B.J., O’Connor & Lloyd, A.B. (1983). Ancient Egypt: A Social
History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Watterson, Barbara. (1998). Women in Ancient Egypt. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing

Limited.

View publication stats