 |
 The Great Expeditions to the PyramidsBy Allen Winston |
 There are, in Egypt and
Nubia, some
300 pyramids that were built over a period of about 3,000 years. Most of these
were excavated in a period of just over three decades near the turn of the 20th
century. This was an explosive period of Egyptian excavation which arose after
the tight control of Egypt's first Director of Antiquities,
Auguste Mariette.
The period of his reign as the world's leading
Egyptologist
is sometimes referred to as Mariette's Monopoly, but after his death in 1881,
Egypt experienced a resurgence of activity by Egyptologists from not only Egypt,
but Germany, France, Britain and the United States.
When Gaston Maspero took over as Director of Antiquities he began granting concessions to scholars who directed large clearing operations funded by foreign institutions and benefactors, while still other Egyptologists continued to work as employees of the Antiquities Service. Maspero took particular interest in the young Flinders Petrie, an "insistent exponent of controlled method" and of the importance of digging for information. Petrie respected all the details of ancient material culture, not just the fabulous architecture and art objects. As George Reisner, Director of the Harvard-Boston Expedition once stated:
Nevertheless, this was a period of great expeditions that used huge numbers
of diggers and basket carriers, as well as miniature railways, to move enormous
accumulations of sand and debris from the pyramid complexes and there environs.
The quality of these large scale
Some expedition leaders developed specialties that are today considered integral parts of any archaeological dig. For example, Ludwig Borchardt, a German leader, pioneered architectural documentation and interpretation, while the American, George Reisner, developed stratigraphy as he made advances in archaeological photography. He also developed a comprehensive system of site and artifact documentation. Both Reisner and Petrie trained many young archaeologists, many of whom went on to direct their own excavations and become familiar names to future generations.
But work was taking place all about the pyramid fields, At
Saqqara,
C.M. Firth
and J.P.
Lauer were working on many different elements of
Djoser's
Step Pyramid
Complex. At Abusir, the
Germans under
Borchardt
were clearing the great 5th Dynasty
pyramid complexes and the
sun temple of
Niuserre, while the Americans were uncovering the
12th Dynasty pyramid temples
However, by the late 1930s, this frenzy of archaeological activity began to wane. In 1932, Reisner began to loose his sight, though he continued operations at Harvard Camp, dictating books and directing minor clearing operations that were necessary for his reports on the mastaba field. Between 1924 and 1928, Borchardt was carrying out only small-scale operations, compared to his previous activities, at Saqqara, Abu Ghurob and Meidum, while at Giza he participated in J.R. Coles survey of Khufu's pyramid.
This is not to say that work of considerable importance did not follow. For example, Walter Emery's work established much of the background to our understanding of pyramid building, and considerable work, and even extensive discoveries continue on today, even at locations such as Giza. The Great Expeditions to Pyramids and Other Sites
Resources:
|
expeditions varied. Unfortunately much was
destroyed during the period for ever, but much was also retrieved.
This was an exciting period for pyramid discovery. At
and cemeteries at 
There were a number of factors that actually lead to this decline of
archaeological work. Of course, there was the age factor of the great expedition
leaders. They were growing old, but at the same time, there was a new attitude
in the Antiquities Service towards foreign institutions brought on by a growing
nationalism. Of course, by the late 1930s, there was also turmoil in Europe that
culminated in the Second World War, which put a halt to Pyramid and other
archaeological work as a whole. After the war, people such as