Contesting Antiquity in Egypt: Archaeologies, Museums, and the Struggle for Identities from World War I to Nasser

by Donald Malcolm Reid

The history of the struggles for control over Egypt's antiquities, and their repercussions, during a period of intense national ferment

The sensational discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun’s tomb, close on the heels of Britain’s declaration of Egyptian independence, accelerated the growth in Egypt of both Egyptology as a formal discipline and of ‘pharaonism'—popular interest in ancient Egypt—as an inspiration in the struggle for full independence. Emphasizing the three decades from 1922 until Nasser’s revolution in 1952, this compelling follow-up to Whose Pharaohs? looks at the ways in which Egypt developed its own archaeologies—Islamic, Coptic, and Greco-Roman, as well as the more dominant ancient Egyptian. Each of these four archaeologies had given birth to, and grown up around, a major antiquities museum in Egypt. Later, Cairo, Alexandria, and Ain Shams universities joined in shaping these fields. Contesting Antiquity in Egypt brings all four disciplines, as well as the closely related history of tourism, together in a single engaging framework.

Throughout this semi-colonial era, the British fought a prolonged rearguard action to retain control of the country while the French continued to dominate the Antiquities Service, as they had since 1858. Traditional accounts highlight the role of European and American archaeologists in discovering and interpreting Egypt’s long past. Donald Reid redresses the balance by also paying close attention to the lives and careers of often-neglected Egyptian specialists. He draws attention not only to the contests between westerners and Egyptians over the control of antiquities, but also to passionate debates among Egyptians themselves over pharaonism in relation to Islam and Arabism during a critical period of nascent nationalism.

Drawing on rich archival and published sources, extensive interviews, and material objects ranging from statues and murals to photographs and postage stamps, this comprehensive study by one of the leading scholars in the field will make fascinating reading for scholars and students of Middle East history, archaeology, politics, and museum and heritage studies, as well as for the interested lay reader.

Genres: Egypt

516 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2015

Reviews

[DAJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though there are an increasing number of studies of Western Egyptomania, discussion of modern Egyptians' attitudes toward ancient Egypt lags behind. Meanwhile, Egyptologists are realizing just how much their discipline has been bound up with, and even been an extension of, the identities of the nations that invest most heavily in Egyptology. And while "Egyptology" is the study of pharaonic and, to a lesser extent, Greco-Roman Egypt, there seems to be a growing awareness of the need to study the Coptic and Islamic periods of Egyptian history as well. Reid's book addresses all of these neglected subjects. Although it's a follow-up to his earlier book Whose Pharaohs?, which covers these subjects in the nineteenth century, this is the crucial one for studying Egyptian attitudes, because the first half of the twentieth century was when ancient Egypt truly became part of modern Egypt's identity.

The first part of the book begins with a rapid summary of the events covered by Whose Pharaohs? and then describes the evolution of pharaonism, the nationalist ideology that emphasized Egyptians' connection to the ancient civilization. A key chapter in this section discusses the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. The discovery came at a crucial moment, just after Egypt had achieved partial independence. Its new government clashed hard with the attitude of Egyptologists, who held an unspoken assumption that, aside from their obligation to conserve ancient evidence as much as possible, the remains of ancient Egypt were theirs to dispose of as they saw fit. This section also tells the story of how the "second generation" of Egyptian Egyptologists rose to important positions in the 1920s and 1930s. (The "first generation" consisted of a handful of fairly obscure figures whose scholarly careers fizzled out, the exception being the enormously influential Ahmed Kamal, who was largely responsible for inspiring both pharaonism and the careers of the second generation).

The second part discusses the archaeology of the three neglected periods of Egyptian history, which was slowly developing in this period, well after the explosive growth of pharaonic archaeology in the late nineteenth century. The third part discusses both archaeology and pharaonism in the 1930s and 1940s, when the former was starved for resources during the crises gripping the world, and the latter was increasingly giving way to forms of nationalism that emphasized Egypt's connection to other Arab and Islamic countries.

Reid certainly digs into the source material, dredging up evidence from obscure Arabic-language publications such as short-lived pharaonist magazines, editorial cartoons, and even postage stamps, as well as from the writings of far better-known Egyptians such as the famed Naguib Mahfouz and the despicable Sayyid Qutb. But with a book so wide-ranging, drawing together such an array of primary sources, the litany of Egyptologists, Coptologists, politicians, bureaucrats, and writers who are mentioned and quoted can be hard to engage with. Therefore, this is not a book to read straight through, but it is very valuable to draw upon when trying to understand Egypt and Egyptian archaeology.

[Omar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5