The philosophy of archaeology

Fikri Hassan:
The philosophy of archaeology
It is not the dead stones -- statues, tombs and temples -- of a bygone civilisation but real life that he seeks, and finds
Profile by Rehab Saad
I first saw Fikri Hassan at the eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, held last year in Cairo. He was among the renowned international Egyptologists invited to attend. Of course, I had heard about him long before that day, but I did not know he was so eloquent, and impressively knowledgeable. His lecture about the preservation of monuments in Egypt was both attractive and informative. He put his finger on all the threats: urban expansion, economic development projects, tourism, looting and the illegal antiquities trade, then moved smoothly to practical solutions -- such as the adoption of a cultural heritage management programme, to be implemented with the assistance of local and international organisations.
Although the topic is old news, and has been discussed extensively by officials, experts and scholars in Egypt and abroad, the audience filling the large conference hall to capacity were glued to their seats listening to this middle-aged professor who spoke with such conviction, yet in a simple, direct and stimulating way.
I was not surprised, then, to learn that this man is an archaeologist known worldwide who has done extensive research, elaborating theories, writing books and testing scientific methods on various digs. He is also Petrie Professor of Archaeology at the University College of London's Institute of Archaeology -- a most prestigious position. He is the first non-British citizen to occupy it. Reaching such heights of academic achievement implies not only exceptional competence as a scholar, but also efficiency, outstanding contributions to a remarkable field, lectures of quality and participation in scientific and civil society.
A year after the congress, I managed to obtain an appointment as Hassan was visiting Egypt on an excavation mission. His apartment overlooks Abdin Palace and its gardens. What a coincidence! Here is a man who is interested in the past, living in such a beautiful historical area. He explained that his choice was deliberate; he moved from his modern apartment in Madinet Nasr to this one in Abdin Square because he and his wife, archaeo-botanist Hala Barakat of Cairo University's Faculty of Science, were attracted by "a place rich in the authenticity of the past; a place that has history and a certain significance."
Because Hassan is an archaeologist, I thought our conversation would be all about his most recent research and excavations in Egypt. I found in him an extremely diverse character, however: the archaeologist is prominent, to be sure, but he encompasses the university professor too, as well as the geologist, the poet, the man of letters, the environmentalist and the artist. It is difficult to determine which of his many talents overrides the others: one minute he is talking about monuments, then he relates them to culture and history before moving seamlessly on to geology and then to social life and the arts. For him, everything is related.
Although Hassan is renowned as an archaeologist, he is not a graduate of the Faculty of Archaeology but of the Faculty of Science -- specifically, the geology department -- at Ain Shams University. He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1963 (he was only 19) and was then appointed as a lecturer in the university. In 1966, he received his master's degree in geology.
'Poets... recalled the grandeur of Ancient Egypt... and exhorted the Egyptians to emulate their great ancestors. However, the revival of the past remained on an abstract, intellectual level'
photos: Randa Shaath
This science was to prove extremely useful in Hassan's career, especially since it paved the way for his archaeological inclinations. "I was interested in the limestone in areas like the Muqattam and Helwan. This area was submerged some 40 million years ago. I wanted to know the shape and depth of the sea at the time. I was also interested in the Nile Valley and its historical geology, and this brought me into contact with Rushdi Said between 1966 and 1968, when I was still a lecturer in Ain Shams. We have communicated ever since because of our common interests," he explains.
Hassan's interest in the Nile led him to draw up charts showing the changes the river has undergone over the past century. These models highlight periods of flood and drought, and thus help us predict potential periods of future drought. "This piece of information is of paramount importance in land reclamation projects, for instance," says Hassan
Nile floods have had a great impact on Egypt's history. "During the five years preceding Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, the country was suffering from low floods, famines and social disorder. This was why the French were able to invade so easily."
As we spoke, I took in our surroundings. According to the couple, every piece of furniture in the house bears a story.
The shift from geology to archaeology occurred when Hassan met a professor interested in the pre-dynastic period, and who was working in Upper Egypt in the 1960s. "I worked with him between Luxor and Aswan: that was my first excavation season, from 1967 to 1968. We were doing a full geological and archaeological survey of the area. Then he offered to supervise my PhD," Hassan adds.
At the time, no other archaeologists were studying pre-dynastic history except for Soliman Hozayyen, who had worked in the 1920s with archaeologists Caton-Thompson and Elinor Gardener in the desert of Fayoum and Kharga oasis. Hozayyen was the first Egyptian to draw people's attention to the period.
Hassan's contribution to the field was oriented somewhat differently. "My study of pre-dynastic history was an attempt to know the origin of the ancient Egyptians. Where did they come from? How was this civilisation created? There were also specific periods that were completely unknown. The period between the age of writing and the stone age, for example, was a blank; this is, in fact, the period during which the characteristics of the ancient Egyptian state were formed. Before the science of pre-dynastic history was born, many mistakes were made. We did not know exactly when many events took place," says Hassan, sipping his favourite concoction of ginger, lemon and honey.
Thanks to the development of the field -- and thanks, also, to the adoption of certain statistical methods Hassan devised -- many ideas were changed or clarified. "I did my best to find out how Egyptian society moved from hunting and fishing to agriculture. It was not known whether Egypt was the first country where agriculture appeared. There was no evidence that it appeared in Egypt before the Levant, for example. Some claimed that a climate change had occurred, that drought brought migrants into the Nile Valley and prompted them to turn to agriculture and animal husbandry. This was not scientifically proven, however. These are the kinds of issues I had to study after I got my PhD in 1973."
As Hassan spoke about pre-dynastic history in his usual enthusiastic manner, providing examples and concentrating on getting his views across, he gave me the impression that archaeology is a very lively topic indeed: all about real people who happen to have lived in the past, with their own lifestyle, religion and identity. Because this period preceded civilisation as we know it, it is especially interesting. For example in order to find out why people moved from hunting and fishing to agriculture necessitated research into their diet as well as animal husbandry. It also required a survey of settlement areas and population density as well as whether people were nomads or sedentarised.
Archaeology has been closely linked to national identity in Egypt throughout its history. With Egypt's conversion to Christianity and later Islam, Hassan argues, the Pharaonic past slipped into a subterranean domain, becoming something of a latent culture. "However, an Islamic 'identity' was not an element of 'nationalist' ideology. Egyptians recognise that they belong to the Islamic community, but they regard themselves neither as Arabs nor as Ottomans," he says. For the Egyptians under Mameluke and Ottoman rule, the discourse and practice of Islam became a source of cultural affiliation and a refuge, Hassan believes. "It was not until 1919, in response to British colonialism, that nationalism in the modern European sense became a key element in the political rhetoric of liberation and independence. Egyptian nationalism was legitimated by an appeal to the common people as the source of political power, and by invoking the glory of Pharaonic achievements, which were the focus of scholarly learning and broad publicity in Europe since the late 19th century."
The European science of Egyptology made the language of Egypt known for the first time to the Muslim Egyptians, Hassan continues; a new sense of identity began to transform their perceptions of themselves, their country, and their place in the world. "Their sense of self became patriotic and national rather than religious and communal, and they formulated new and different views of the past and hopes for the future."
He believes that a common Pharaonic past bypassed sectarian issues and was a source of national pride, an antidote to the Egyptians' humiliation at the hands of foreign invaders, from the Persians in the sixth century to the British who occupied Egypt in 1882. "Poets, writers and journalists recalled the grandeur of Ancient Egypt (often with the pyramids as its paramount icon) and exhorted the Egyptians to emulate their great ancestors. However, the revival of the past remained on an abstract, 'intellectual' level and has scarcely penetrated the core of cultural practice and materiality," Hassan adds. "The attempt to root the people of Egypt in a Pharaonic past after 1919 was deeply shaken by the dominance of the rhetoric of Arab nationalism in 1960s."
In Nasser's haste to secure political ties with the Arab world he purposely underplayed Egypt's Pharaonic heritage, Hassan argues. "Following the political union with Syria which was quickly dissolved, Egypt was officially deprived of its historical name, Misr, and renamed the southern province of the United Arab Republic. This political discourse inserted Egypt within the folds of Arab nationalism." Hassan feels that President Sadat, in contrast, awakened an Egyptian identity that reached beyond Nasser's Arab nationalism to the Egyptian nationalism of the pre-revolutionary era. The agreement with Israel and a new economic policy, which eventually widened the gap between rich and poor, left people bereft of any sense of affiliation with the government, a Pharaonic past, or an Arab nation -- a vacuum soon exploited by Sadat's killers.
"The assassin reportedly cried: 'I have killed Pharaoh'," Hassan notes: "he meant 'tyrant,' which is the usage of this term in the Old Testament and the Qur'an."
According to Hassan, such events underscore the importance of understanding materiality in recent history -- the role of objects in cultural memory -- and specifically the role of archaeological objects (monuments, ruins, relics and other traces) in the dynamics of self-identity, "nationalism", "ethnicity" and group affiliation. Such understanding, he feels, is crucial if archaeology is to participate in the current transition to globality.
Just as Hassan regards archaeology as a living entity, he sees it as the bearer of a certain philosophy and theory. "Do we, as Egyptian Muslims, look at the Pyramids as we look at a mosque like that of Al-Hussein? Which is nearer to our hearts: the Pyramids or the mosque? Why? Are we born attached to the pyramid, the mosque, or the Nile? Do we learn it at home, in school or from newspapers?"
He has concluded that our attachment to certain monuments depends on two things: the cult and the discourse practiced there. Because Hassan is primarily a scientist, he regards modern technology as necessary for archaeology and new excavations. He does not hesitate: technology is the best way to verify a fact and to find answers. "Technology helps us see things that we could not see in the past. Radar allows us to see underground. We used new methods in our excavations at Kafr Hassan Dawoud, one of the largest late pre-dynastic cemeteries in the east Delta, situated along Wadi Tumilat, to identify the location of the tombs without digging. We also used geophysical methods there that helped us establish the existence and location of statues or buried cities. Moreover, radio-carbon dating helped us determine the different historical periods as well as pre-dynamic history," he said.
Such methods have shed light on Egypt's commercial relations with other countries, for example. The analysis of teeth and bones has allowed scientists to establish what kind of diet the Ancient Egyptians followed.
Although he teaches abroad, Hassan is as attached to his Egyptian roots as ever he was. He comes to Egypt from time to time on excavation missions or to discuss possible cooperation between UCL and the Egyptian government and/or academic authorities. In 1995, the former secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), Abdel-Halim Noureddin, invited him to initiate a programme of excavation, research, conservation and training at Kafr Hassan Dawoud. The programme included hands-on training backed up by lectures for Egyptian inspectors and international students. This training of Egyptian archaeologists is a key component of joint SCA-UCL activities. "To date, more than 750 late pre-dynastic/early dynastic graves have been excavated. These are interspersed with Ptolemaic burials, giving a combined of 1,057 graves. The early cemetery dates from Nagada IIc-d (c.3500 BC) to the early First Dynasty (c.3100-2850 BC), and is particularly important because it spans the critical formative period of nation-building in Ancient Egypt," Hassan explains.
Kafr Hassan Dawoud is but one of several projects Hassan is working on. He has managed to establish SCA-UCL cooperation on a cultural heritage management project in the Red Sea. He also helped set up a conference between the SCA and UCL in Abu Simbel that dealt with the protection of pre-dynastic archaeological sites in the deserts of Egypt and offered short courses in excavation, management and bio-archaeology. "UCL and Mansoura University are talking about cooperation in two main areas: an educational centre on the Egyptian cultural heritage and a centre for the archaeological study of the Delta," he notes
Hassan himself was brought up in a popular area, east Abbasiya, near Al-Hussein and Ezbekiya. The presence of so much history, and the fact that it was part of his immediate environment, fired his imagination. "This area is an extension of Islamic Cairo with its Fatimid and Mameluke monuments. It is the area that inspired Naguib Mahfouz. There is a connection between east Abbasiya, Al-Hussein and Ezbekiya, where the second-hand books market is located. They have been an important triangle in Cairo's history since the Fatimid era."
Since childhood, Hassan has loved reading, especially literature. He was more interested in the arts than in science, "but I discovered that, to be a man of letters, I needed to understand the age I am living in so as to be able to address people. At that time, science was of paramount importance. It was the age of science. This was the case all over the world, and I learned science to understand the language of the world. You could say I had to study science in order to become a man of letters," he says, smiling.
He still harbours strong cultural inclinations, however -- and still writes poems. In his latest effort, titled Love Poems of Ancient Egypt, he collected Pharaonic writing on love and rendered it in verse. He has also penned a children's book about water (in cooperation with the Ministry of Irrigation) and another book about pollution is in the pipeline. He has authored a number of scientific works, on demographic archaeology, Nile floods, climate change and ecology.
His most important contribution, however, may be his talent for bringing the dead to life.
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