With the approach of a new archaeological season, Jill Kamil takes a look at a number of projects either completed, in progress, or planned for the coming years The 16th-century fort at Quseir on the Red Sea coast, Egypt's gateway to the East for thousands of years, has been conserved and restored and an exhibition installed for visitors. The wall paintings in the monasteries of St Paul and St Antony on the Red Sea coast have been revealed in the natural pigments in which they were originally painted. The fragmented sarcophagus of Ramses VI has been reconstructed and is exhibited inside the tomb for which it was designed. The villa of a Roman aristocrat in Alexandria has been restored and its fire-blackened and disintegrated mosaics restored. Bab Al-Zuweila, one of Cairo's oldest and most magnificent structures, has been developed into a tourist-friendly mediaeval monument. Finally, the sabil-kuttab of Nafisa Al-Bayda, an architectural gem, has undergone structural repairs and conservation of the building's various architectural and artistic elements. What do all these have in common? They are among the many projects carried out in recent years by the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE), a non-profit institution dedicated to fostering the history, culture and civilisation of Egypt through a variety of programmes and projects, and the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP), a programme funded by USAID in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) for the restoration and preservation of antiquities. Egyptians have worked alongside foreign experts in all these projects, and they have benefited from their expertise and gained experience. However, that was not considered enough. Site management is today acknowledged as the single most important means to preserve, protect and, incidentally, to prepare archaeological sites for tourism, so it was with interest that I learnt, at a 'tripartite' presentation given at ARCE to round off last season's work prior to the summer, that a Site Management Training Programme had been launched. In the first of the presentations, ARCE's Robert ("Chip") Vincent said that the SCA had requested assistance in training for its staff and that "to this end ARCE is facing the challenge". He went on to explain that a team of professional trainees from Egypt and abroad had been chosen, and that an initial week-long course led by Naguib Amin on site management concepts was delivered in February 2006 to more than 30 Cairo-based SCA senior staff and decision-makers in order to help raise their awareness. "The course was repeated in Luxor to a group of 15 carefully selected SCA employees, mainly from the Luxor area," Vincent said. The short course was a preliminary step to a four-month long training programme on site management which is about to commence, and which will culminate in a site management plan for the Temple of Medinet Habu developed by the participants themselves. The house once occupied by the famous Egyptologist Howard Carter in Luxor has been refurbished and designated as the Luxor Site Management and Training Centre. In the first of the three presentations, Vincent summarised the restoration and consolidation of Shuneh Al-Zebib, the large early-dynastic mud- brick enclosure in Abydos. He mentioned the damage caused by wasps, foxholes, and by undermining in the Coptic period when it was used as a monastery. He also described the preparation for public access of the ruins of the Graeco-Roman port town at Marina Al-Alamein. "This project will create a walk through the pillar tombs, underground hypogea, forum baths, temple and houses," he said. "There will be an orientation centre, cafeteria, and lighting for night-time visitors," The focus of the second presentation by Jaroslaw Dobrowolski, the technical director of ARCE, was on Islamic buildings in historic Cairo and specifically on the rehabilitation of two 19th-century houses, Beit Al-Razzaz -- which, he said, would dazzle visitors when it was completed and opened -- and the Zawiya-Sabil of Farag Ibn Barqouq. "This includes the installation of protective sky-lights and the rationalisation of the shopkeepers' kiosks, which have been redesigned, rebuilt and reoccupied" Dobrowolski said. "The beautiful façade of the latter building will not be obscured." For his part, Michael Jones, the associate director of EAP (Egyptian Antiquities Project), detailed restoration carried out on the cave church of St Paul near Zafarana started back in 2002. "At that time the church was in an advanced state of decay caused by moisture and salts in the walls, and harmful cement on the interior and exterior walls apart from damage on the inside walls from soot, dirt and candle grease," he said. When the Italian team had finished work inside the church they completed the exterior work, which included replastering the exterior east wall and adding a roof to a small cell which had been uncovered when a mud-brick platform was removed on the east side of the church. The scope of the work carried out for the conservation of Egyptian antiquities -- known as the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP), the Antiquities Development Project (ADP), and the Egyptian Antiquities Conservation (EAC) -- covers all periods of Egyptian art and architecture, including prehistoric, Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic, Jewish and Islamic sites and monuments throughout the country. The ADP grant has now been successfully concluded. Projects originally initiated under the EAP are winding down; and the EAC has already held an open round of competitive proposals before it embarks on the implementation of a number of new projects. One of these has already begun at Luxor Temple in collaboration with the University of Chicago's Epigraphical Survey in Luxor (better known as Chicago House). Test cleanings on the Roman frescoes in the temple dating to about AD 300 have revealed fresco paintings of very high quality. "These were made when Luxor Temple was incorporated into the Roman legionary fortress under the Emperor Diocletian," Jones said. "The unique paintings which are now appearing are seriously endangered by atmospheric pollution. How to reveal them, and preserve them, is our challenge." Another project is to determine the best way to protect, present and promote a Roman settlement site that lies deep in the Eastern Desert. Sikait is an area of outstanding natural beauty and the settlement there supported an emerald mining area. As the new archaeological season starts this Autumn, USAID officials, together with members of ARCE along with key officials of the Red Sea region, will be inspecting the site and discussing conservation and necessary steps prepare the site for tourism. Much has been achieved since ARCE signed agreements with USAID, in 1993, 1995 and 2004, to conduct projects for the conservation of Egyptian antiquities. Much remains to be done. Of all the projects in the pipeline, however, perhaps the site management and training programme is among the most important. Upon completion of the plan for Medinet Habu, and following appropriate discussion and approval with the SCA, ARCE intends to implement the site presentation elements of the plan with the team of Luxor participants and with funds from the EAC.
