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Vandalism#Graffiti has been a feature of most archaeological monuments world-wide. Visitors to wonderful sites have always had the strange impulse to add their own mark on the spectacular and the unusual achievements of others. Graffiti has probably been etched on all of the Nile Valley temples, and some of it has become a sort of rather bizarre archaeology in its own right. However, I assumed that the relative isolation of the Eastern Desert archaeology would protect it from harm. Those of us who go to all the effort to visit these sites tend to be interested in recording the sites and conserving them, not in inflicting damage upon them. However, I know of two disturbing cases where sites have been vandalized. Michael Oakey, writing in the EDS Survey (Rohls 2000), has given a very depressing description of bad graffiti at one site: “In the last two years vandals - who surely possess no soul - have pecked havoc. Fresh, ugly, livid Arabic graffiti stampede all over some of the finest boat drawings” (2000, p.194). This is the only example of this type of graffiti of which I know, but it is a clear indication that the threat is very real. The other example of damage inflicted on rock engravings in the Eastern Desert was in Wadi Hammamat, where in a number of cases a waxy film coated a number of the hieroglyphic inscriptions. Whether this was some sort of ill-conceived attempt to preserve them, or was an attempt to take an imprint of the engravings I don’t know - but the residue that now covers the inscriptions is ugly, prevents them being seen clearly and may harm the inscriptions beneath if it is removed or if it weathers away, bringing part of the patination with it. Looking beyond the Eastern Desert, the Theban Desert Road Survey has recorded some profoundly disturbing vandalism at the site of Wadi el-Hol in their 1994 to 1995 season (Darnell and Darnell 1994-1995 WR). This is not merely malicious destruction, but is being carried out for profit. I quote it here at length: “As we indicated in the report of our second season, the site had recently been vandalized, and a number of inscriptions had been completely destroyed, when we first visited the site last March. When we returned in January, we surprised the thieves at work, smashing and cutting and digging their way through inscriptions and pottery deposits. As soon as they caught sight of us emerging from the jeeps, they fled, leaving behind a horrifyingly large array of tools such as chisels, mallets, saws, picks, razor wire, and a crowbar, which had been used to extract marketable pieces of rock inscriptions, destroying countless others in the process. . . . .Within several days thirteen thieves had been arrested, and several stolen fragments were recovered . . . When we returned to the Wadi el-Hol immediately after the end of the month of Ramadam, we found that that thieves, having been released on bail, had stolen another large piece of the Sobekhotep stela, damaged what remained of that stela with fire, and had destroyed several more graffiti” (Darnell and Darnell 1994-1995 WR). This, of course, was not the end of it. Their 1995-1996 Annual Report details more trouble at the same site: “Several more inscriptions were lost during the summer of 1995 (including the only Demotic text we have thus far discovered in the Wadi el-Hol - fortunately we photographed and copied this text during the 1993/94 season)” (Darnell and Darnell 1995-1996 WR). The fact that there appears to be a market for rock art puts all rock art locations within Egypt at risk.
QuarryingQuarrying has been identified as a threat to some areas. In the area of Wadi Ishish, not far from the Bili Cave area where a number of interesting archaeological finds have been made, quarrying has been so heavy that an attempt to survey the area by Vermeersch et al (2005, p.271) was abandoned. Fuchs (1989, p.152) says that the important rock art site ET-A/WB-4 in the Wadi Barramiya is in danger of destruction by the extension of an existing quarry nearby. Wilkinson (2000; 2003) also points to the related damage caused by the heavy lorries used in quarrying activities, including vibration, pollution and damage to land. Dirk Huyge, heading a Belgian mission working at a number of sites in Egypt, has highlighted the dangers of quarrying to the apparently unique collection of rock art images in the Qurta area of the Nile Valley. The art work has been carved into Nubian sandstone, which makes an excellent “canvas” but is very fragile and easily damaged by weathering and vibration. Unfortunately, the Nubian sandstone is being intensively quarried in the Qurta area, and the quarrying activities may be responsible for cracks appearing in some of the sandstone panels. Removing the panels from their current location is seen as impractical, potentially harmful to the images themselves, and would take them out of their original cultural and scientific context. For more about the Qurta rock art, which Huyge compares to Franco Cantabrian rock images, see his description on the Antiquity website:
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Copyright Andie Byrnes 2007 |
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As well as the difficulties described elsewhere with respect to completing survey and excavation work, a worrying aspect of Eastern Desert archaeology is that a number of sites are facing damage and even destruction. The key problems are listed below.