Why Egyptology ? The study of the past The curiosity of man about his past can be traced back to his very beginning as a living creature. Gathered around the hearths the young members of prehistoric communities listened to their elders as they told stories of famous heroes, hunters or warriors, ancestors whose deeds lingered in the collective memory of their descendants for many generations and which symbolized the virtues highly regarded by the social group to which they belonged. Those heroes, brave, shrewd, strong, pious and god-fearing, were the human incarnation of the virtues considered by the dominant groups in those early communities as an appropriate example to offer their young in their search for models to which they could try to adjust their behaviour.
The study of the past in ancient times (if we can give it this modern and more dignified name), contributed to uphold the values and character traits which were considered positive for the group, regardless of the fact that such stories often implied the distortion or sometimes even the pure invention of concepts or situations of the present which were projected into the past as legends and myths.
The lack of effective means of communication and information, the absence of a critical attitude towards such stories and the imprecise nature of the sources, turned the past into a series of blurred images and events, taking place in a mythical world.
Kings and priests could therefore shape this imperfect knowledge into whatever was more convenient for their purposes. Even nowadays we can see this approach applied to politics and to the recording of contemporary events.
Fortunately, the study of the past is conceived today as a scientific pursuit where there is very little room for the invention or for the gross distortion of the historical record. Each fact recovered by the historian or unearthed by the archaeologist is passed through the sieve of a rigorous methodology and linked to other contemporary information to originate interpretations which are then analyzed and criticized by other specialists in order to determine their credibility and to integrate them into the body of what we call history.
George Santayana pointed out that the people who ignore the lessons of history are often condemned to repeat it and the horrors of events such the holocaust or the slaughter of many thousands of innocent victims in religious or racial persecution during the last few centuries seem to prove him right. Only through an interest in history and an inclination to learn from it, we can prevent in the future the repetition of many shameful expressions of collective madness.
The study of the past also allows us to verify the slow ascent of man towards superior forms of social organization, thus contributing to dispel the shadows cast by those who find it adequate to deny the progress of mankind over countless thousands of years and which is expressed today in more comfort, longer and healthier lives and more opportunities for those who want to build a better future for themselves and their families.
But the study of the past leads as well to the discovery of artistic or literary masterpieces, awe-inspiring monuments, graceful statues, exquisite jewels or inspired poems that underline the basic affinity between those remote ancestors and us, men and women of the beginning of the 21st century.
Primi per figuras animalium Aegyptii sensus mentis effingebant (ea antiquissima monimenta memoriae humanae impressa saxis cernuntur), et litterarum semet inventores perhibent; inde Phoenicas, quia mari praepollebant, intulisse Graeciae gloriamque adeptos, tamquam reppererint quae acceperant.
The Egyptians, before other nations, expressed their ideas by means of figures representing animals, and the oldest relics of human memory are thus sculpted on their stones, so that they claim to have invented writing. From there, the Phoenicians, because they were lords of the sea, brought them to Greece, claiming for themselves the glory of having invented other people´s achievements.
Tacitus, "Annals", Book 11.
EGYPTOLOGY
Five thousand years ago most of the world was populated by small groups of hunters-gatherers or by villagers discovering the benefits of a sedentary lifestyle, but on the banks of great rivers or other such favourable environments, in China, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt and in Mexico and Peru other people were building the foundations of great civilizations that changed the history of the world.
The ancient Egyptians conceived ideas, carried out projects and discovered techniques that when transmitted to other cultures added to the progress of mankind and contributed to the world as we know it today.
In Egypt we find the almost unique situation of a civilization evolving over thousands of years with relatively little outside interference, mainly through its own accomplishments and shortcomings, in short, an immense laboratory in which to test our theoretical frameworks and find out the laws that help shape the social, economic and cultural development of a community. A country in which favourable conditions have preserved a wealth of archaeological data not found anywhere else in the world.
Egyptology is the science that studies the development of the ancient Egyptian civilization since its remote prehistoric beginnings to the end of the Roman and Byzantine occupation of the country. Founded by the great French scholar, Jean François Champollion when he for the first time translated the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians in the early XIXth century, it has not ceased to develop and is taught today in the most important universities in the world.
Every year scores of archaeological missions led by Egyptian, German, American, French, British, Canadian scholars as well as from such distant countries such as Japan, Spain, Argentina, Australia and from other European nations, strive at an enormous expense of time and money to recover for us all the past of this great land.
The general public everywhere benefits from this activity not only through the books that are printed worldwide to discuss and explain the discoveries, through the frequent public lectures by specialists but also from the exhibitions that travel the world and through the advances in technology which allow us all to practically witness every step of the archaeologist’s work.
By being aware of what is being done in this field we make our lives richer and we discover little by little that all that is part of a common heritage that draws us closer together and for which we are all responsible so that it is preserved for future generations. Egypt alone cannot hope to face the challenge with any chance of success but if as during the 1960s efforts every nation contributes to this noble task, then the pyramids, the sphinx and other more perishable remains of a great past, will survive.
So whenever someone asks, "Why Egyptology?", we think that there are some very good answers we can give to help make it possible and to justify the expense and the trouble involved in these undertakings.
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