Brian M. Fagan - The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt

REVISED AND UPDATED

The Rape of the Nile has a special place in my heart, for it was the first truly general book on archaeology that I ever wrote. It all began with an article commissioned by Archaeology Magazine about the theatrical strongman and tomb robber Giovanni Belzoni, one of the great adventurers of early archaeology along the Nile. Patricia Cristol, then an editor at Charles Scribners Sons, asked me to write a biography of Belzoni. I pointed out that there was already an excellent study in print, and, almost as an aside, offered a history of Egyptian tomb robbing instead. To my astonishment, she sent me a contract for such a book, which put me on the spot, as I knew nothing whatsoever about the subject. For two years, I found myself in a fascinating and long-forgotten world of heroes and villains, of larger-than-life figures whose antics seemed stranger than fiction. Writing The Rape (the title was Scribners Sons idea) gave me an abiding fascination with ancient Egypt and the archaeologists who worked along the Nile. The book appeared in 1975 to considerable acclaim, and has been translated into eight languages, as well as appearing in a reprint published by Moyer-Bell in 1992. I was nervous when the book appeared, for I assumed that Egyptologists would disapprove of a history written by an outsider. In the event, I have been flattered by their polite words and civilized tolerance of the errors that inevitably crept into the book. A colleague told me some months ago that the book was a venerable classic of Egyptology, which is both flattering and slightly alarming.

No question, however, that the original version and the reprint are entering their dotage. A great deal has happened in Egyptology since 1975 new discoveries, fresh insights, and a generation of important conservation work and basic research, combined with ardent specialization. When I wrote the original edition, the literature on the history of Egyptology was scattered in obscure journals and was relatively inaccessible. The past thirty years have seen a flood of biographies and historical studies, which throw new light on early Egyptology, especially during the nineteenth century. I was delighted when Karl Yambert of Westview Press asked me to prepare an updated edition. He gave me a chance to revisit one of the most fascinating projects I have ever undertaken. In the event, the task was a demanding pleasure that involved extensive rewriting and expansion of the original work.

I was pleased to discover that the basic narrative format worked well and that my original story was, on the whole, reasonably accurate. As a result, I decided to maintain the original structure, keeping Giovanni Belzonis remarkable career as the central part of the book. The major changes have been in the later chapters, where a new generation of research has produced fresh insights into such important figures as JeanFranois Champollion, John Gardner Wilkinson, and Howard Carter. As before, I have made no attempt to be comprehensive, focusing on the high points and the major developments rather than describing every important archaeological discovery. I should also stress that this is a narrative of discovery, not of intellectual trends, which are of less interest to a general audience. I have added comprehensive notes to this edition, which provide a guide to further reading for each chapter, as well as references and occasional details on people and sites to provide richer detail to the narrative.

The Rape comprises three parts. Part I, Tombs and Treasure, begins with the Greeks and the Romans, with that gossipy traveler Herodotus, who wrote the first outsiders account of ancient Egyptian civilization. I describe the thriving tourist trade in Roman Egypt and the activities of Islamic treasure hunters, as well as a long-lasting international trade in mummies, fueled by a belief that pounded-up ancient corpses were powerful medicine and an effective aphrodisiac. European travelers had sailed as far south as the Second Cataract by the late eighteenth century, and most of the major archaeological sites were known. However, Egypt was still difficult to access until General Napolon Bonaparte and his savants revealed the glories of the ancient Nile to an astounded world in the first years of the nineteenth century.

Part II, The Great Belzoni, tells the story of a circus strongman who became an adept tomb robber and nascent archaeologist by accident. His flamboyant career along the Nile has all the ingredients of high adventure: diplomats competing for antiquities, loyal followers and ruffians, fisticuffs and gunfire. The tall Italian found the tomb of the New Kingdom pharaoh Seti I, cleared the entrance to the Abu Simbel temple, was the first modern visitor to enter the pyramid of Khafre at Giza, and removed obelisks, statuary, papyri, and small artifacts by the ton, thanks to his expertise with levers, weights, and hydraulics perfected in acts of legerdemain on the stage. Belzoni towers over Egyptology as a larger-than-life figure. His adventures, which ended with his lonely death in Benin, West Africa, are the stuff of which archaeological romance is made. At the same time, Belzonis discoveries inadvertently helped lay the foundations for the scientific Egyptology of today.

Part III, Birth of a Science, begins with the decipherment of hieroglyphs by the French linguistic genius Jean-Franois Champollion, and the arrival of a small group of antiquarians and artists in Egypt who were interested not in looting, but in copying and inscriptions. Notable among them was John Gardner Wilkinson, who lived in an ancient tomb at Thebes and wrote a classic,