Zahi Hawass profile

In today's NY Times, under the heading The Show-Biz Pharaoh of Egypt's Antiquities:

Dr. Hawass, who controls Egypt's vast archaeological trove as secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, is part Indiana Jones, part P. T. Barnum - intent on dusting off Egypt's holdings through a mix of entertainment, commerce and archaeology. . .

Yet there is not so much mystery to Dr. Hawass as there is controversy and debate. In the three years he has held his post, Dr. Hawass has upended the established order in Egyptian archaeology, instituting changes in preservation and conservation and securing a law that allowed the Tut treasures to leave the country. But he has stirred up enemies in the process, including opponents at home who consider him too close to the Americans and others in Europe who claim that he is quick to cut down those who cast a shadow over his media dominance. . .

An archaeologist by training, with a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Hawass's greatest gift may be for publicity, whether for King Tut or himself. He orchestrated the unveiling of a CT scan of the Tut mummy a few weeks ago, landing himself and the boy king on front pages around the world with computer images of how Tut may have looked. Unmentioned was that the endeavor was financed by the National Geographic Society, an educational partner in the Tut tour, which sank $1 million into the project and planned to break the news in its own magazine.

Hawass's own website is here. A rather more critical profile appeared in the Sunday Times on May 22, under the title "King Tut Tut Tut":

You might as well ask a eunuch to slag off an emperor. Quite quickly you get tired of asking: phone calls not returned; e-mails not answered; questions ducked. If you're lucky, you might get the odd side-of-mouth hint; but no names, no details.

"Nobody of any standing in Egyptology will come out to help you," said one well-known Egyptologist of his colleagues, "because they'd lose their jobs. Sadly, people are cowering round his ankles." He is right. The hugged ankles belong to the most powerful man in archeology, Dr Zahi Hawass, aka Big Zee, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). It is Hawass who holds the keys to the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, the Sphinx, Abu Simbel, everything. No Egyptologist
gets in without his permission, and few will chance his anger.

You can see why. Hawass is a one-man conflict zone who could start a war in an empty sarcophagus. In 2003, by some accounts (no fact passes unchallenged), Hawass expelled 14 expeditions from the country and, by his own account, denied access to hundreds more. He decides who digs where, and reserves for the SCA — in effect, himself — the exclusive right to reveal their findings. Such is the level of paranoia that some archeological teams are scared even of their own success.

"There are people digging out there," says another UK specialist, "who are praying they won't find anything significant. If they do, they know the dig will be shut down until a certain individual arrives to take over. There are artefacts that have been excavated, only to be put back until the certain personage gets round to visiting the site so that he can 'discover' them for himself." But exactly who are these people? Will they talk? Can any of this be proved? No surprise: noses are tapped, papers shuffled, but nobody steps up to the microphone or hands over the evidence.

Posted by David on June 13, 2005 2:57 PM