Book: The Treasury of Ancient Egypt

A >> Arthur E. P. B. Weigall >> The Treasury of Ancient Egypt




This case of Philae and the Lower Nubian temples illustrates my meaning.
On the one hand there are those who tell us that the island temple, far
from being damaged by its flooding, is benefited thereby; and on the
other hand there are persons who urge that the engineers concerned in
the making of the reservoir should be tarred and feathered to a man.
Both these views are distorted and intemperate. Let us endeavour to
straighten up our opinions, to walk them soberly and decorously before
us in an atmosphere of propriety.

It will be agreed by all those who know Egypt that a great dam was
necessary, and it will be admitted that no reach of the Nile below Wady
Halfa could be converted into a reservoir with so little detriment to
_modern_ interests as that of Lower Nubia. Here there were very few
cultivated fields to be inundated and a very small number of people to
be dislodged. There were, however, these important ruins which would be
flooded by such a reservoir, and the engineers therefore made a most
serious attempt to find some other site for the building. A careful
study of the Nile valley showed that the present site of the dam was the
only spot at which a building of this kind could be set up without
immensely increasing the cost of erection and greatly adding to the
general difficulties and the possible dangers of the undertaking. The
engineers had, therefore, to ask themselves whether the damage to the
temples weighed against these considerations, whether it was right or
not to expend the extra sum from the taxes. The answer was plain enough.
They were of opinion that the temples would not be appreciably damaged
by their flooding. They argued, very justly, that the buildings would be
under water for only five months in each year, and for seven months the
ruins would appear to be precisely as they always had been. It was not
necessary, then, to state the loss of money and the added
inconveniences on the one hand against the total loss of the temples
on the other. It was simply needful to ask whether the temporary and
apparently harmless inundation of the ruins each year was worth avoiding
at the cost of several millions of precious Government money; and,
looking at it purely from an administrative point of view, remembering
that public money had to be economised and inextravagantly dealt with, I
do not see that the answer given was in any way outrageous. Philae and
the other temples were not to be harmed: they were but to be closed to
the public, so to speak, for the winter months.


[Illustration: PL. XXV. The island and temples of Philae when the
reservoir is empty.]

[_Photo by R. Glendinning._


This view of the question is not based upon any error. In regard to the
possible destruction of Philae by the force of the water, Mr Somers
Clarke, F.S.A., whose name is known all over the world in connection
with his work at St Paul's Cathedral and elsewhere, states definitely[1]
that he is convinced that the temples will not be overthrown by the
flood, and his opinion is shared by all those who have studied the
matter carefully. Of course it is possible that, in spite of all the
works of consolidation which have been effected, some cracks may appear;
but during the months when the temple is out of water each year, these
may be repaired. I cannot see that there is the least danger of an
extensive collapse of the buildings; but should this occur, the entire
temple will have to be removed and set up elsewhere. Each summer and
autumn when the water goes down and the buildings once more stand as
they did in the days of the Ptolemies and Romans, we shall have ample
time and opportunity to discuss the situation and to take all proper
steps for the safeguarding of the temples against further damage; and
even were we to be confronted by a mass of fallen ruins, scattered
pell-mell over the island by the power of the water, I am convinced that
every block could be replaced before the flood rose again. The temple of
Maharraka was entirely rebuilt in three or four weeks.

[Footnote 1: Proc. Soc. Antiq., April 20, 1898.]

Now, as to the effect of the water upon the reliefs and inscriptions
with which the walls of the temples at Philae are covered. In June 1905
I reported[1] that a slight disintegration of the surface of the stone
was noticeable, and that the sharp lines of the hieroglyphs had become
somewhat blurred. This is due to the action of the salts in the
sandstone; but these salts have now disappeared, and the disintegration
will not continue. The Report on the Temples of Philae, issued by the
Ministry of Public Works in 1908, makes this quite clear; and I may add
that the proof of the statement is to be found at the many points on the
Nile where there are the remains of quay walls dating from Pharaonic
times. Many of these quays are constructed of inscribed blocks of a
stone precisely similar in quality to that used at Philae; and although
they have been submerged for many hundreds of years, the lines of the
hieroglyphs are almost as sharp now as they ever were. The action of the
water appears to have little effect upon sandstone, and it may thus be
safely predicted that the reliefs and inscriptions at Philae will not
suffer.

[Footnote 1: Les Annales du Service des Antiquites
d'Egypte, vii. 1, p. 74.]

There still remain some traces of colour upon certain reliefs, and these
will disappear. But archaeologically the loss will be insignificant, and
artistically it will not be much felt. With regard to the colour upon
the capitals of the columns in the Hall of Isis, however, one must admit
that its destruction would be a grave loss to us, and it is to be hoped
that the capitals will be removed and replaced by dummies, or else most
carefully copied in facsimile.

Such is the case of Philae when looked at from a practical point of
view. Artistically and sentimentally, of course, one deeply regrets the
flooding of the temple. Philae with its palms was a very charming sight,
and although the island still looks very picturesque each year when the
flood has receded and the ground is covered with grasses and vegetation,
it will not again possess quite the magic that once caused it to be
known as the "pearl of Egypt." But these are considerations which are to
be taken into account with very great caution as standing against the
interest of modern Egypt. If Philae were to be destroyed, one might,
very properly, desire that modern interests should not receive sole
consideration; but it is not to be destroyed, or even much damaged, and
consequently the lover of Philae has but two objections to offer to the
operations now proceeding: firstly, that the temples will be hidden from
sight during a part of each year; and secondly, that water is an
incongruous and unharmonious element to introduce into the sanctuaries
of the gods.

Let us consider these two objections. As to the hiding of the temple
under the water, we have to consider to what class of people the
examination of the ruins is necessary. Archaeologists, officials,
residents, students, and all natives, are able to visit the place in the
autumn, when the island stands high and dry, and the weather is not
uncomfortably hot. Every person who desires to see Philae in its
original condition can arrange to make his journey to Lower Nubia in the
autumn or early winter. It is only the ordinary winter tourist who will
find the ruins lost to view beneath the brown waters; and while his
wishes are certainly to be consulted to some extent, there can be no
question that the fortunes of the Egyptian farmers must receive the
prior attention. And as to the incongruity of the introduction of the
water into these sacred precincts, one may first remark that water
stands each year in the temples of Karnak, Luxor, the Ramesseum,
Shenhur, Esneh, and many another, introduced by the natural rise of the
Nile, thus giving us a quieting familiarity with such a condition; and
one may further point out that the presence of water in the buildings is
not (speaking archaeologically) more discordant than that of the palms
and acacias which clustered around the ruins previous to the building of
the dam, and gave Philae its peculiar charm. Both water and trees are
out of place in a temple once swept and garnished, and it is only a
habit of thought that makes the trees which grow in such ruins more
congruous to the eye than water lapping around the pillars and taking
the fair reflections of the stonework.

What remains, then, of the objections? Nothing, except an undefined
sense of dismay that persists in spite of all arguments. There are few
persons who will not feel this sorrow at the flooding of Philae, who
will not groan inwardly as the water rises; and yet I cannot too
emphatically repeat that there is no real cause for this apprehension
and distress.

A great deal of damage has been done to the prestige of the archaeologist
by the ill-considered outbursts of those persons who have allowed this
natural perturbation to have full sway in their minds. The man or woman
who has protested the loudest has seldom been in a position even to
offer an opinion. Thus every temperate thinker has come to feel a
greater distaste for the propaganda of those persons who would have
hindered the erection of the dam than for the actual effects of its
erection. Vegetarians, Anti-Vivisectionists, Militant Suffragists,
Little Englanders, and the like, have taught us to beware of the signs
and tokens of the unbalanced mind; and it becomes the duty of every
healthy person to fly from the contamination of their hysteria, even
though the principles which lie at the base of their doctrines may not
be entirely without reason. We must avoid hasty and violent judgment as
we would the plague. No honest man will deny that the closing of Philae
for half the year is anything but a very regrettable necessity; but it
has come to this pass, that a self-respecting person will be very chary
in admitting that he is not mightily well satisfied with the issue of
the whole business.

Recently a poetic effusion has been published bewailing the "death" of
Philae, and because the author is famous the world over for the charm of
his writing, it has been read, and its lament has been echoed by a large
number of persons. It is necessary to remind the reader, however, that
because a man is a great artist it does not follow that he has a sober
judgment. The outward appearance, and a disordered opinion on matters of
everyday life, are often sufficient indication of this intemperance of
mind which is so grave a human failing. A man and his art, of course,
are not to be confused; and perhaps it is unfair to assess the art by
the artist, but there are many persons who will understand my meaning
when I suggest that it is extremely difficult to give serious attention
to writers or speakers of a certain class. Philae is _not_ dead. It may
safely be said that the temples will last as long as the dam itself. Let
us never forget that Past and Present walk hand in hand, and, as between
friends, there must always be much "give and take." How many millions of
pounds, I wonder, has been spent by the Government, from the revenues
derived from the living Egyptians, for the excavation and preservation
of the records of the past? Will the dead not make, in return, this
sacrifice for the benefit of the striving farmers whose money has been
used for the resuscitation of their history?

A great deal has been said regarding the destruction of the ancient
inscriptions which are cut in such numbers upon the granite rocks in the
region of the First Cataract, many of which are of great historical
importance. Vast quantities of granite have been quarried for the
building of the dam, and fears have been expressed that in the course of
this work these graffiti may have been blasted into powder. It is
necessary to say, therefore, that with the exception of one inscription
which was damaged when the first quarrymen set to work upon the
preliminary tests for suitable stone, not a single hieroglyph has been
harmed. The present writer numbered all the inscriptions in white paint
and marked out quarrying concessions, while several watchmen were set to
guard these important relics. In this work, as in all else, the
Department of Antiquities received the most generous assistance from
the Department concerned with the building of the dam; and I should like
to take this opportunity of saying that archaeologists owe a far greater
debt to the officials in charge of the various works at Aswan than they
do to the bulk of their own fellow-workers. The desire to save every
scrap of archaeological information has been dominant in the minds of all
concerned in the work throughout the whole undertaking.

Besides the temples of Philae there are several other ruins which will
be flooded in part by the water when the heightening of the reservoir is
completed. On the island of Bigeh, over against Philae, there is a
little temple of no great historical value which will pass under water.
The cemeteries on this island, and also on the mainland in this
neighbourhood, have been completely excavated, and have yielded most
important information. Farther up stream there stands the little temple
of Dabod. This has been repaired and strengthened, and will not come to
any harm; while all the cemeteries in the vicinity, of course, have been
cleared out. We next come to the fortress and quarries of Kertassi,
which will be partly flooded. These have been put into good order, and
there need be no fear of their being damaged. The temple of Tafeh, a few
miles farther to the south, has also been safeguarded, and all the
ancient graves have been excavated.

Next comes the great temple of Kalabsheh which, in 1907, when my report
was made, was in a sorry state. The great hall was filled with the ruins
of the fallen colonnade and its roof; the hypostyle hall was a mass of
tumbled blocks over which the visitor was obliged to climb; and all the
courts and chambers were heaped up with _debris_. Now, however, all this
has been set to rights, and the temple stands once more in its glory.
The water will flood the lower levels of the building each year for a
few months, but there is no chance of a collapse taking place, and the
only damage which is to be anticipated is the loss of the colour upon
the reliefs in the inner chambers, and the washing away of some later
Coptic paintings, already hardly distinguishable, in the first hall.

The temple is not very frequently visited, and it cannot be said that
its closing for each winter will be keenly felt; and since it will
certainly come to no harm under the gentle Nile, I do not see that its
fate need cause any consternation. Let those who are able visit this
fine ruin in the early months of winter, and they will be rewarded for
their trouble by a view of a magnificent temple in what can only be
described as apple-pie order. I venture to think that a building of this
kind washed by the water is a more inspiring sight than a tumbled mass
of ruins rising from amidst an encroaching jumble of native hovels.

Farther up the river stands the temple of Dendur. This will be partly
inundated, though the main portion of the building stands above the
highest level of the reservoir. Extensive repairs have been carried out
here, and every grave in the vicinity has been examined. The fortress of
Koshtamneh, which is made of mud-bricks, will be for the most part
destroyed; but now that a complete record of this construction has been
made, the loss is insignificant. Somewhat farther to the south stands
the imposing temple of Dakkeh, the lower levels of which will be
flooded. This temple has been most extensively patched up and
strengthened, and no damage of any kind will be caused by its
inundation. The vast cemeteries in the neighbourhood have all been
excavated, and the remains of the town have been thoroughly examined.
Still farther to the south stands the mud-brick fortress of Kubban,
which, like Koshtamneh, will be partly destroyed; but the detailed
excavations and records which have here been made will prevent any loss
being felt by archaeologists. Finally, the temple of Maharraka requires
to be mentioned. This building in 1907 was a complete ruin, but it was
carefully rebuilt, and now it is quite capable of withstanding the
pressure of the water. From this point to the southern end of the new
reservoir there are no temples below the new flood-level; and by the
time that the water is raised every grave and other relic along the
entire banks of the river will have been examined.

To complete these works it is proposed to erect a museum at Aswan
wherein the antiquities discovered in Lower Nubia should be exhibited;
and a permanent collection of objects illustrating the arts, crafts, and
industries of Lower Nubia at all periods of its history, should be
displayed. It is a question whether money will be found for the
executing of this scheme; but there can be no doubt that a museum of
this kind, situated at the virtual capital of Lower Nubia, would be a
most valuable institution.

In 1907 the condition of the monuments of Lower Nubia was very bad. The
temples already mentioned were in a most deplorable state; the
cemeteries were being robbed, and there was no proper organisation for
the protection of the ancient sites. There are, moreover, several
temples above the level of high water, and these were also in a sad
condition. Gerf Husen was both dirty and dilapidated; Wady Sabua was
deeply buried in sand; Amada was falling to pieces; Derr was the
receptacle for the refuse of the town; and even Abu Simbel itself was in
a dangerous state. In my report I gave a gloomy picture indeed of the
plight of the monuments. But now all this is changed. Sir Gaston Maspero
made several personal visits to the country; every temple was set in
order; many new watchmen were appointed; and to-day this territory may
be said to be the "show" portion of this inspectorate. Now, it must be
admitted that the happy change is due solely to the attention to which
the country was subjected by reason of its flooding; and it is not the
less true because it is paradoxical that the proposed submersion of
certain temples has saved all the Lower Nubian monuments from rapid
destruction at the hands of robbers, ignorant natives, and barbarous
European visitors. What has been lost in Philae has been gained a
thousand-fold in the repairing and safeguarding of the temples, and in
the scientific excavation of the cemeteries farther to the south.

Here, then, is the sober fact of the matter. Are the English and
Egyptian officials such vandals who have voted over a hundred thousand
pounds for the safeguarding of the monuments of Lower Nubia? What
country in the whole world has spent such vast sums of money upon the
preservation of the relics of the Past as has Egypt during the last
five-and-twenty years? The Government has treated the question
throughout in a fair and generous manner; and those who rail at the
officials will do well to consider seriously the remarks which I have
dared to make upon the subject of temperate criticism.




CHAPTER XII.

ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE OPEN.


In this chapter I propose to state the case in favour of the
archaeologist who works abroad in the field, in contrast to him who
studies at home in the museum, in the hope that others will follow the
example of that scholar to whom this volume is dedicated, who does both.

I have said in a previous chapter that the archaeologist is generally
considered to be a kind of rag-and-bone man: one who, sitting all his
life in a dusty room, shuns the touch of the wind and takes no pleasure
in the vanities under the sun. Actually, this is not so very often a
true description of him. The ease with which long journeys are now
undertaken, the immunity from insult or peril which the traveller now
enjoys, have made it possible for the archaeologist to seek his
information at its source in almost all the countries of the world; and
he is not obliged, as was his grandfather, to take it at second-hand
from the volumes of mediaeval scholars. Moreover, the necessary
collections of books of reference are now to be found in very diverse
places; and thus it comes about that there are plenty of archaeologists
who are able to leave their own museums and studies for limited periods.

And as regards his supposed untidy habits, the phase of cleanliness
which, like a purifying wind, descended suddenly upon the world in the
second half of the nineteenth century, has penetrated even to libraries
and museums, removing every speck of dust therefrom. The archaeologist,
when engaged in the sedentary side of his profession, lives nowadays in
an atmosphere charged with the odours of furniture-polish and
monkey-brand. A place less dusty than the Victoria and Albert Museum in
South Kensington, or than the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, could not
easily be imagined. The disgusting antiquarian of a past generation,
with his matted locks and stained clothing, could but be ill at ease in
such surroundings, and could claim no brotherhood with the majority of
the present-day archaeologists. Cobwebs are now taboo; and the misguided
old man who dwelt amongst them is seldom to be found outside of
caricature, save in the more remote corners of the land.


[Illustration: PL. XXVI. A relief representing Queen Tiy, from the tomb
of Userhat at Thebes. This relief was stolen
from the tomb, and found its way to the
Brussels Museum, where it is shown in the
damaged condition seen in Plate xxvii.]

[_Photo by H. Carter._


The archaeologist in these days, then, is not often confined permanently
to his museum, though in many cases he remains there as much as
possible; and still less often is he a person of objectionable
appearance. The science is generally represented by two classes of
scholar: the man who sits in the museum or library for the greater part
of his life, and lives as though he would be worthy of the
furniture-polish, and the man who works in the field for a part of the
year and then lives as though he regarded the clean airs of heaven in
even higher estimation. Thus, in arguing the case for the field-worker,
as I propose here to do, there is no longer the easy target of the dusty
antiquarian at which to hurl the javelin. One cannot merely urge a musty
individual to come out into the open air: that would make an easy
argument. One has to take aim at the less vulnerable person of the
scholar who chooses to spend the greater part of his time in a smart
gallery of exhibits or in a well-ordered and spotless library, and whose
only fault is that he is too fond of those places. One may no longer
tease him about his dusty surroundings; but I think it is possible to
accuse him of setting a very bad example by his affection for "home
comforts," and of causing indirectly no end of mischief. It is a fact
that there are many Greek scholars who are so accustomed to read their
texts in printed books that they could not make head nor tail of an
original document written in a cursive Greek hand; and there are not a
few students of Egyptian archaeology who do not know the conditions and
phenomena of the country sufficiently to prevent the occurrence of
occasional "howlers" in the exposition of their theories.

There are three main arguments which may be set forward to induce
Egyptologists to come as often as possible to Egypt, and to urge their
students to do so, instead of educating the mind to the habit of working
at home.

Firstly, the study of archaeology in the open helps to train the young
men in the path of health in which they should go. Work in the Egyptian
desert, for example, is one of the most healthy and inspiring pursuits
that could be imagined; and study in the shrines overlooking the Nile,
where, as at Gebel Silsileh, one has to dive into the cool river and
swim to the sun-scorched scene of one's work, is surely more
invigorating than study in the atmosphere of the British Museum. A
gallop up to the Tombs of the Kings puts a man in a readier mood for a
morning's work than does a drive in an omnibus along Tottenham Court
Road; and he will feel a keenness as he pulls out his note-book that he
can never have experienced in his western city. There is, moreover, a
certain amount of what is called "roughing it" to be endured by the
archaeologist in Egypt; and thus the body becomes toughened and prepared
for any necessary spurt of work. To rough it in the open is the best
medicine for tired heads, as it is the finest tonic for brains in a
normal condition.

In parenthesis an explanation must be given of what is meant here by
that much misunderstood condition of life which is generally known as
"roughing it." A man who is accustomed to the services of two valets
will believe that he is roughing it when he is left to put the diamond
studs in his evening shirts with his own fingers; and a man who has
tramped the roads all his life will hardly consider that he is roughing
it when he is outlawed upon the unsheltered moors in late autumn. The
degree of hardship to which I refer lies between these two extremes. The
science of Egyptology does not demand from its devotees a performance of
many extreme acts of discomfort; but, during the progress of active
work, it does not afford many opportunities for luxurious
self-indulgence, or for any slackness in the taking of exercise.

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