Richard added zest to the team as he was a Scottish eccentric of the type found at Highland gatherings around the world. At the formal level, Lewis, MA in Mining Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, was a hard rock engineer. Before achieving his second degree, he had specialised in geological hydraulics in the ultra deep gold mines of South Africa, an area of expertise of critical importance when it came to sorting out the unstable geology in the Valley. He was a no-nonsense engineer, complete with horny hands, brawny forearms and hair rising stories about rock bursts three kilometres down in the Roodepoort Deep gold mine outside Johannesburg. His lack of ancient site work was compensated by his intimate knowledge of rock mechanics.
Recently divorced and looking for something more interesting than working down deep holes chasing gold veins, he was the ideal man to ride shotgun on this project. ‘Hard rock disnae go wi’ a gentle woman’ he declared during his interview in London. Living in the New South Africa could be fatal and, whilst as a single man he was not personally worried about being killed, he admitted that attending too many funerals of friends or their family members had worn him down emotionally. Richard claimed to be able to drink any man under the table which led to some high spirited parties during his assignment. He had the knack of getting the best results out of indigenous labour, an absence of fear in the claustrophobic confines of tombs and his love of working with rock.
“Laddie, you have to listen to the rocks as they will talk to you. You get to know when they want to move or when they are happy being still. If you push them too hard, they will push back. Working with rock is like working with a horse. If you gentle it, then you can bend it to your will and once the rock knows who is the master you will never have any problems.” he confided at a fairly alcoholic party in London. When I chided him, his response was quick.
“You Sassenachs dinna understand rock. You play with cement and steel, laddie, but when all these playthings you make ootta these wee materials have crumbled into dust there will always be rock. Look around you, laddie. The Egyptians wore kilts like we Scots and they knew what they were doing when they used stone 3,000 years ago. Do you think anything you have built will still be standing in another three millennia?” I had not thought it a good idea to mention Roman concrete as discretion is still the best part of valour when dealing with a semi-inebriated Scot.
The man strode around in either tartan trews and waistcoat or a kilt and was of resolute conviction, like most Scots, that the bagpipes was the only musical instrument sweet to the ears of Mankind. He professed great virtuosity with the pipes and played a vast repertoire of Scottish melodies. Colleagues made no adverse comment within earshot but uttered unkind words elsewhere, though the Egyptians loved him as he could endlessly entertain them. Of course, they knew beyond doubt bagpipes and kilts were Egyptian developments, a claim they swore was verified by images on walls somewhere in the country. He mastered Arabic with an accent comprehensible only by his workmen. He is one of those rare site engineers who can make himself understood without the need to raise his voice or issue threats. However, his temper was volcanic when he encountered total stupidity. We respected him for his unerring judgement in his field and he many times averted disaster after listening to his rocks and determining their compliance to our ministrations.
Together with Elizabeth, the team now had depth in theory and practice, wouldn’t complain about site conditions and could happily work with the varying quality of our labour force. At our first site meeting, I spelt out the ground rules.
“Okay, people, let’s make a start. You know the pack drill. If you think you are doing or saying the wrong thing, you probably are. This is a Muslim country, so observe the law and local customs scrupulously, be careful around women, Arab or Western, and do not get drunk in public or come to the site under the influence. No souvenirs except those you buy in the bazaar. Even then, be careful of what you buy as you don’t want to end up being charged with dealing in stolen antiquities. Take nothing from any tomb, no matter how insignificant you think it is.”
“You were all briefed in London about the scope of our work. Right, have a look at this map. It shows the location of all sixty-three tombs in the Valley and the other twenty or so pits that have been classified. First, note the four tombs under active conservation. We are not permitted any involvement with a site currently being explored or conserved unless asked by the organisation holding a permit. I will introduce you to the people working on these tombs as I think you will find they have lots of valuable information to exchange with us. Several of the team leaders, like Jean-Claude d’Argent and Otto Schaden, have been working here for years and you will profit immeasurably by listening to them. Advice we give freely but you cannot work in any tomb outside our brief unless I personally approve it. Remember, although this is a project related to an archaeology mission, the Society’s bean counters view our mission strictly from a business perspective and I am accountable for every dollar spent.”
“The brief excludes tombs open to the public and these are marked off in red though our initial task is to survey the lot. In the filing cabinets, there is a mass of data you will find useful. Before you arrived, Elizabeth and I assembled whatever information we could find on each tomb, including its history and current condition. Some observations! I have already met the top men in the Council and we have come up with an informal list of strong possibilities. Read that as tombs the CEA believe need our attention and will get the green light. I have highlighted them in blue on the map. Naturally, the CEA people have an open mind on modifying the informal list but I think you will find their assessment is spot on.”
“A major part of our brief is to devise a method of protecting dormant tombs with some mechanism that seals them from further attack, natural or human. Elizabeth will give you a copy of the guidelines the CEA drew up some time ago. Familiarise yourself with the requirements which will draw upon our mechanical skills. I believe to we can develop possible solutions a bit further down the line.”
“Our third objective is to prepare potential project reports on the tombs requiring structural intervention. Each report must be comprehensive as it may become the basis of an approved operation. They must include full descriptions of the issues, your recommendations and the probable cost and duration of each project. Richard and I will hold your hand if you are in doubt or have any problems beyond your ability or experience. Do not be afraid to ask either of us about anything. Richard thinks he knows everything, though he would be wrong, whereas I do know everything but then again I was born south of the Scottish border.” This brought hoots of derision from both Richard and Roger.
“Elizabeth provides logistics back-up together with considerable experience in field operations but keep in mind, she is not your secretary. You make your own coffee in the office and do your own typing and filing.”
Richard asked “How long do we have to assemble this register? There seems to be a mighty lot of holes in the ground?”
“I have allowed three months for the field survey and developing bright ideas about tomb protection. As many of these structures are simple affairs the bulk of your work will be on the major tombs. I recommend an early start, before it gets too hot, and an afternoon break before resuming work around two o’clock. You will quickly learn the hours as the Egyptians know how best to work with the climate. We will meet at seven o’clock every day to review progress. Friday is your day off although you will find Richard, Elizabeth and me in this office most Fridays. Please feel totally free to put in the extra unpaid hours. The coffee pot is always on. Questions, please?”
We worked through the day, building a rapport and it was encouraging to see a team meshing early in a project. Towards five o’clock, I announced. “Field work starts at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. We will spend the first day or so familiarising ourselves with the topography and location of the tombs. Tonight, you will be my guests at dinner. We are going to spend a lot of time in each other’s company over
the next few months and I hope we will continue to work as well in that time as we have today. I have read your resumes and you all appear to relish working on ancient monuments. Richard is the exception. His expertise appears limited to demolishing the contents of whiskey bottles but we can live with that.” This evoked a protest of innocence from the offender and good natured laughter from his colleagues.
“The opportunity to work here should give you all a buzz. Keep in mind, you will toil in structures built three thousand years ago and these tombs were the graves of Egypt’s most vibrant pharaohs. What we undertake will perpetuate the work of architects and builders who had the honour of serving these men and if you view our project in the same light, our endeavours will achieve great success and international acclaim. Elizabeth, gentlemen, thank you and good luck. We will meet in the foyer of the Grand Hotel in Luxor in two hours.”
Before we could lift a spade, the Society and Council had to agree to our recommendations. When I was given this gem of information, I protested that we could be tied up for months, if not years, in negotiations between both parties. Abdullah re-assured me, with the active support of his good friend, President Kamal, and the power of my father’s persuasive personality, decisions would be made without the usual bickering and ego massaging that dogged so many field missions. Against this background, the assessment commenced. We had our work cut out for us even after taking out the tombs that were being explored or conserved when we started. That still left seventy-eight sites in the East and West Valleys, an enumeration including small or unfinished tombs, those identified but still not fully explored and a few known but lost again since first discovered. We tried but did not succeed in re-locating the lost tombs – that would be a task for future archaeologists.
The actual definition of tomb is a little misleading as some of the sites had never been used for a burial though the majority fell into the classic definition of ‘an excavation in earth or rock for the reception of a dead body’. We struggled to find alternatives to tomb as the word became almost a mantra. We tried crypt, mausoleum, vault and grave site. A mausoleum is, strictly speaking, a stately or magnificent tomb, a description certainly applicable to the larger tombs. Richard fancied crypt, a dark word, usually used to refer to an underground burial place in a church and vault is best used to describe a burial chamber and both words are highly favoured amongst fans of vampire fiction. Bats are common within dormant tombs but we did not encounter Count Dracula, though we rarely worked at night as the Valley took on an eerie aspect after sunset and did not encourage nocturnal exploration.
KV5 could be considered a catacomb, a word normally associated with dusty warrens full of grisly desiccated bones, spider webs and stacks of heaped skulls, lit with flickering torches. Grave or grave site lacked the dignity normally associated with royal tombs. Looking through our written reports, it is amusing to see the grammatical somersaults taken to get away from the repetitive use of tomb. Liz took to scribbling little images of ghouls and goblins in the margins of her notes and despite, the gravity of our work, a degree of grave humour crept into the reports.
When we started collating data, Liz had proven to be invaluable in the compilation of the site register. It was an arduous task that involved scanning dozens of books and scholarly articles and using her feminine wiles when ferreting around in the Council’s reference library to extract information. Working with Elizabeth was a pleasure since it involved much innocent flirtation tempered by her very clear headed and logical mind. Cleverly, she managed to find any excuse to visit KV7, a project limited in its benefits to our efforts but then again, most of the Frenchman working in Ramesses I’s’ tomb were young, unattached and frequent patrons of the nightspots in Luxor. Possibly, she needed to improve her language skills given the vast literature available from the days of French domination of archaeology in Egypt. I dared not ask.
The condition of tombs open to the public had drawn some bitter comment from Yousef and Abdullah, although they were not going to engage in tribal warfare with the Minister of Tourism. Not all of these tombs were permanently available to tourists and several were in need of restoration. Ideally, we concurred that, these should be closed, comprehensively conserved and then re-opened but Egypt is not a perfect world and the Council was doing the best it could under very trying circumstances.
The tomb of Seti I demonstrates the dilemma. Howard Carter’s early repairs were adequate but cracks had re-appeared in the walls and the underpinning needed more substantial replacement. The tomb, one of the biggest in the Valley, has walls covered in lavish, finely detailed, painted decorations. So grand was the tomb, Giovanni Belzoni, its discoverer, mounted an exhibition in Piccadilly in 1821, featuring a model and a reproduction of two of the more intensively decorated scenes. To achieve authenticity, Belzoni took wax impressions of the decorations straight off the walls, removing much of the original paint in the process.
Despite members of the team having their favourite projects, we produced the first edition of the Sad Tomb list- those in need of urgent intervention. It required some hard -nosed decisions as every site was worthy of endeavour.
Tomb
Designated Occupant
Dynasty
KV4
King Ramesses XI
20th
KV10
King Amenmesse
19th
KV13
Chancellor Bey
19th
KV14
King Setnakhte and Queen Tawroset
20th
KV15
King Seti II
19th
KV16
King Ramesses I
20th
KV20
Queen Hatshepsut
18th
KV36
Mahirpra
18th
KV38
King Tuthmosis I
18th
KV42
Queen Meryetre Hatshepsut
18th
KV46
Yuya and Tuya
18th
KV47
Siptah
19th
There was extensive work underway in four tombs at the time of our survey. Dr. Kent Weeks, investigating the massive KV5 complex, was clearing sections of the tomb, repairing flood damage whilst trying to discover the outer limits of the mausoleum which was by far the biggest tomb in the Valley.
KV5-Sons of Ramesses II
Jean-Claude d’Argent, the leader of a French team, was well advanced with the mammoth task of excavating, stabilising and restoring KV7, the tomb of Ramesses the Great. The tomb, open since the end of the Ramesside Dynasty, had been ravaged by floods, vandals and the instability of the shale layer into which the burial chamber was quarried. Jean-Claude had taken on a project deemed impossible by most archaeologists, a view I strongly disagreed with. The late Twentieth Century saw enormous developments in rock stabilising techniques and whilst a costly and slow business, the burial place of Egypt’s greatest ruler was worthy of the attention being lavished on it. The eight piers supporting the ceiling of the sarcophagus chamber had collapsed bringing down a considerable volume of rock, leaving it almost unrecognisable as a man made excavation. No doubt, a meeting with d’Argent would provide us with an opportunity to learn from his experiences as the project employed engineers well practised in overcoming structural damage. His success buoyed us up as it proved that the most daunting difficulties in restoration could be met and bested.
Over in KV22, the team from Japan’s Waseda University had been involved in well respected restoration works since 1989 and Otto Schaden had just begun the clearance of KV63, the tomb he had only recently discovered.
We had listed twelve possibilities, far more than we could manage. It was soon time to meet with Abdullah and Yousef for an exchange of views and a more intensive winnowing. At this point, we all had to be politically savvy. The strident demands from the Minister of Tourism to open more tombs and relieve some of the pressure on exist
ing sites did not necessarily make good sense from an archaeological or engineering perspective. The possibility of discord within government ministries loomed large and we needed the muscle of the Council to achieve a consensus on the final selection. A clash between vested interests could badly stymie the project and that was the last thing anyone wanted.
There were subtle issues involved. Trade-offs between the need to preserve the integrity of a tomb from a purely engineering point of view, as opposed to damaging or destroying the original monument, would need to be carefully considered. Worse still, two of our recommendations would compromise the original tomb architecture. This dilemma is fundamental to work anywhere in the restoration of ancient monuments. There are unresolved debates about such questions as should the Athenian Parthenon be rebuilt or or merely repaired? Was it better to leave piles of fallen masonry on the ground or re-construct the building as originally built? If a monument was designed with sixteen pillars and five had failed, should they be replaced or left at the site as it was? In Egypt, the wholesale removal and re-erection of the temples at Abu Simbel,the splendid restoration of Queen Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple and the rebuilding of monuments on the island at Elephantine demonstrated what can be achieved with radical salvage or reconstruction projects.
We took a pragmatic attitude to structural failure. Where it had occurred, we recommended replacement to avert further collapse which would be disastrous, not only because of the loss of irreplaceable artefacts, but a sudden collapse might result in death or injuries. There was also a lot of ugly structural steel and timber supporting more than a few chambers in tombs, which we could eliminate with less obtrusive alternatives.
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