Amateur archaeologists curse pharoahs' guardian

By ALEX DUVAL SMITH in Paris

Dr Zahi Hawass is one of the most powerful men in history - at least of archaeology - and he is angry.

The 57-year-old is secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities but, as any Egyptologist will tell you, this is the least of his titles.

The self-styled guardian of the pharaohs, commonly referred to as the "Big Zee", is the minder of 4000 years of history, 500 kings, scores of legends, thousands of tourists and hundreds of competing archaeologists.

Yet the theatrical, outspoken and Stetson-wearing Egyptian with a string of academic credits to his name and the power to dictate what the world is told about Ancient Egypt is being challenged relentlessly by two plucky French amateurs.

Retired estate agent Jean-Yves Verd'hurt and architect Gilles Dormion have for two years been applying for permission to poke a 15mm lens through a floor of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

They believe they will find the burial chamber of Cheops (Khufu), the pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty who built the seventh wonder of the world, the 150m-high Great Pyramid.

The Frenchmen's challenge to the Big Zee's authority has ruined the image of Egyptology as the gentlemanly pursuit of studied introverts.

What has emerged since the Frenchmen went public in September with their accusations is a backstabbing world of academic ambition, national pride, tourism dollars and television ratings.

"Dr Hawass treats Egypt as his private hunting ground," says Verd'hurt.

"They are speculators, amateurs!" comes the retort from Hawass.

"If we are useless amateurs," says Verd'hurt, "then surely the best way to show us up would be to grant us permission and see us fail."

The two Frenchmen - who for 15 years have spent all their savings and holiday time on digs in Egypt - were at the podium at the revered Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists in Grenoble, France, in September. Before the congress they outlined their research, based on architectural measurements of the pyramid, described in a book, La Chambre de Cheops.

The book suggests that Cheops and his architect spent 20 years building the Great Pyramid and faced a series of structural problems. Eventually they positioned the king's funeral chamber in an as-yet undiscovered part of the structure, beneath the so-called Queen's Chamber.

The Frenchmen say a radar scan of the floor of the Queen's Chamber has revealed a 1m-wide cavity that they believe is a corridor leading to Cheop's own resting place. To prove their claim, Verd'hurt and Dormion say, they would have to make only a tiny incision in the floor of the Queen's Chamber, into which they would feed a 15mm camera lens that would emerge in the cavity.

They used the technique in 2000 at Meidoom Pyramid, where they are credited with discovering a corridor and two chambers.

But at a rowdy press conference in Grenoble during the Egyptologists' congress, Hawass dismissed the findings and said he had hundreds of applications similar to the French pair's to deal with.

"Applications have to come from an institution and they have to be convincing. We Egyptians have to keep our dignity.

"I am the guardian of the pyramids. Egyptian blood was spilled in the building of the pyramids. I cannot allow amateurs to tamper with the blood of Egyptians."

Later, at his presentation at the congress, Hawass announced that he intended to take a National Geographic team with a "pyramid rover" - a camera-mounted robot - into the Great Pyramid next year.

Observers have detected a sense that Hawass is tired of being bullied by foreign archaeologists and perhaps, in particular, the French.

It was Frenchman, Jean-Francois Champollion, who in 1822 deciphered the writing on the Rosetta Stone, found by his countryman Pierre-Francois Bouchard in 1799.

France has considered itself to have a leading role in Egyptology ever since.

Today, Egyptology is a worldwide science and almost 300 digs are under way by archaeologists from 12 countries.

They range from the hot spots of Thebes and Giza to Deir-el-Medina, where French archaeologists believe they have found an artisans' commune that, under Rameses III, staged the first strike for better working conditions.

"There is so much here that there is room for everyone," said Jean-Pierre Corteggiani of the French Institute for Oriental Studies, one of the academics supporting Dormion and Verd'hurt.

The French amateur team say Hawass' hostility towards them is principally motivated by his links to National Geographic, which has paid for several of his digs and to which they believe he may have offered filming rights to high-profile digs.

Television has changed the face of Egyptology through its funding of digs and ability to raise the profile of individual scientists.

TV films mean TV ratings. No longer are we satisfied with gasping at the fabulous gold mask of Tutankhamen or the sublime beauty of Nefertiti.

Television producers touting their documentaries know that digging up warts-and-all tid-bits gets them noticed and can even earn them the odd plug in a newspaper.

During the 20th century, Akhenaton went from being heralded as the inventor of monotheism - because only one god, Aton, was worshipped during his reign - to being trashed as a mentally retarded, impotent and blind homosexual.

Much colourful speculation surrounds Rameses II - said to have fathered 100 children, reigned for 66 years, died at the age of 90 and have had red hair.

Acres have been written about Nefertiti; endless speculation surrounds the apparent fairness of her skin. There is the view that she murdered her rival, Kya.

Others say that Kya, not Nefertiti, was the mother of Tutankhamen - a suggestion that could be verified by DNA, if only the Egyptian authorities would allow it.

For the time being, we will have to be content with a CAT scan of Tutankhamen's head. Hawass announced last week that this would be done by an Egyptian team in hope of establishing whether the king was bludgeoned to death 3000 years ago or whether British archaeologist Howard Carter inadvertently chipped the skull while uncovering his remains in 1922.

One of the dreams of Egyptologists is to find Nefertiti's mummified remains.

Last year the Discovery Channel said Joanne Fletcher, a mummification expert from the University of York, had located Nefertiti among three female mummies found in 1898 by Victor Loret in Amenhotep II's tomb.

Hawass has rejected Fletcher's research as "pure fiction" and the work of "a new PhD recipient".

Rivals suggest she rushed into the claim because Discovery Channel wanted a selling-point for its film.

Amid all the speculation and ratings wars, Jean Leclant, a hieroglyphics expert who has spent 37 years trying to read the writing on Egyptian burial chambers, said: "We are all looking for the pieces of a puzzle which remains a gigantic enigma.

"But you have to tackle Egypt with kid gloves. Too many people cannot see the line between romantic adventure and scientific research."

On his personal website, Hawass - once a Fulbright Scholar who obtained his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania - suggests he wants to give back Egyptology to Egyptians.

Two years ago, almost as soon as he was appointed, Hawass introduced restrictions on foreign teams, including a ban on all new excavation projects from Giza to Abu Simbel.

Verd'hurt said he hoped the French Government would step in so they could proceed with their plan.

But that's the last thing other French scientists want. Jean Yoyotte, of the College de France, said: "I am afraid this sort of pressure will have a negative impact on other applications for digs from French teams."

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