Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's antiquities ministry. Photo courtesy of Archeology.org/online
When a show of Egyptian antiquities, "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs," opened at the Science Museum in St. Paul just as Egyptians rose up against Hosni Mubarak, the country's long-dominant dictator, several Minnesotans wrote to the Star Tribune wondering what would happen to the country's antiquities.
Would they be looted from museums and archeological sites as happened in Iraq following the American invasion in 2002? Or would the Egyptian people protect them as they did initially by forming a human chain around the main museums in central Cairo to keep looters from entering?
Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's antiquities department, has been a zealous but apparently controversial protector of the nation's ancient heritage. Critics accuse him of self-aggrandizement at the expense of modernization while supporters insist he has done more than anyone in the past 150 years to protect Egypt's cultural hiritage and sprawling archeological sites.
Now Hawass has resigned, claiming that the "tourist police" assigned to guard the archeological sites have failed to protect them. He explains his reasons on his blog at the National Geographic.
Last week Hawass wavered about whether he would, or would not, resign rather than to collaborate with Egypt's new leaders. The New York Times's account of that farrago attracted a lot of well informed comments that appear to have come from experts in the field as well as merely concerned citizens. Some commentators suggest that Hawass' influence on Egyptian cultural policy has not been entirely beneficial. Others defend him. Fascinating.
