quote: Ahmed Saleh, the director of SCA’s Abu Simbel antiquities department watched with the rest of the world as Hawass made his discoveries in Bahareya on December 13th, 2004. “That was a real joke. How can a scientist hold an axe and just hack at a tomb on air? All scientists know that a lot of processes should precede the opening of a tomb. If you just hack away at it you lose important historical evidence. I am sad that this is what Egyptology has come to,” Saleh says.
With a masters degree in biomedical and forensic studies in Egyptology from Manchester, Saleh is one of the first Egyptians to specialize in the field. Over the years, Saleh has initiated a number of media campaigns, not afraid to question Hawass’ decisions and ideas. His last but one skirmish with Hawass took place over the remains of the Atlanta mummy, which came back from the United States about a year ago. At the time, Hawass had announced that the mummy belonged to King Ramses I, and was preparing a royal welcome for the returning king. “I sent him my official opinion. This could not have been the mummy of Ramses I, because it had been lost in ancient times. He just ignored me, so I wrote to Akhbar al-Adab,” Saleh remembers. The result, he says, was two days’ deduction from his salary.
Nowadays, Saleh is awaiting his new penalty. It is because of the stir he started that the mummy of King Tut didn’t come to the Egyptian Museum. “When journalists called to ask my opinion I said the mummy should not be moved. The SCA had no clear plan of how it was going to move the mummy, which is in an already dilapidated state. In the past, the mummy was treated roughly and unscientifically, and any more handling may lead to more damage,” Saleh says.
. . . .
In 1925, a year after its discovery, a team of professors including Howard Carter tried to examine the mummy. On finding it stuck to the sarcophagus, they put it out in the sun to melt the materials keeping it together. They later used hot knifes to pry the golden mask off the face, the golden bracelets off the arms and toes. As a result, the head was separated from the body, the pelvis from the midriff and so were the arms, hands, legs and feet.
. . . .
Saleh points out that the government paid thousands of dollars to provide him with a degree in mummification that no one has asked him to use so far, ... Ahmed Youssef, Egypt’s most well-known expert on mummies, who is called upon all over England to help in the preservation of human remains. “Why not call on our internationally famed expert, have him look at the mummy and tell us where to go from there?”
Saleh fears that any handling of information by foreigners may lead to a twisting of history. He refers to the findings of Scott Woodward, an American microbiologist, who tried to find resemblance between Egyptian kings and prophets from the Talmud. “They are trying to say that our Egyptian history belongs to them,” Saleh accuses. Hawass is quick to refute this idea. “There is no Jewish conspiracy, and we will not be carrying out DNA tests.
Drop the Mummy, and Nobody Gets Hurt Recent controversy over moving King Tut puts Egyptologists in the spotlight By Manal el-Jesri
Mmmmmmm. Seems like Prof Ahmed Saleh wanted to prevent a further theft of the Egyptian legacy
Sundjata Member # 13096
posted
^Indeed. I'd actually just recently referred to him in another thread, concerning the King Tut issue..
quote:Within Egypt, Hawass has been brawling lately with critics who question the methodology of the CT scan of Tut's mummy, and the forensic re-creation of his face. Hawass curbed the authority and docked the pay of one persistent foe, Ahmed Saleh, an archeological inspector for the Supreme Council who complained, among other things, that the procedures used in the facial re-creation made Tut look Caucasian, disrespecting the nation's African roots.
Hawass insists he is not angry, vindictive or power mad; firm enforcement of the rules is essential to prevent chaos, he says, given the hundreds of ongoing archeological projects in Egypt and the continued threat of antiquities theft.
"Yes, it's inflammatory," Willeke Wendrich, a UCLA professor of Egyptian archeology, says of Hawass' willingness to attack perceived rule breakers in the press and ban them from excavating. "Maybe cooperation would be better served if he formulated things slightly differently. But it's counterbalancing what has been going on too long, a colonialist attitude that hasn't disappeared even now. I think the way he acts is partly his personality, but it's partly a reaction to a very arrogant treatment of Egyptians and Egyptian officials."
posted LOL I'm sorry but as sad as it is, I'm not at all surprised! Ahmed Saleh as not only an Egyptian Egyptologist and long standing SCA member but one that actually has expertise in biomedics and forensics-- making him far more qualified in the identification, handling, and everything else pertaining to mummies-- has been a thorn in Hawass's side for how long now. As a non-Egyptian, it was relatively easy to ban poor Fletcher, but what to do with Saleh other than to suspend him. His insistence on the veracity of Egypt's African identity was just one of the pains he caused Hawass not to mention his other criticisms of the 'Great' Hawass unprofessional work was right so!
I will say this: This won't be the last time we hear from Saleh.
Djehuti Member # 6698
posted
By the way, here is the thread on self-contradicting Hawass!
quote: Ahmed Saleh, the director of SCA’s Abu Simbel antiquities department watched with the rest of the world as Hawass made his discoveries in Bahareya on December 13th, 2004. “That was a real joke. How can a scientist hold an axe and just hack at a tomb on air? All scientists know that a lot of processes should precede the opening of a tomb. If you just hack away at it you lose important historical evidence. I am sad that this is what Egyptology has come to,” Saleh says.
With a masters degree in biomedical and forensic studies in Egyptology from Manchester, Saleh is one of the first Egyptians to specialize in the field. Over the years, Saleh has initiated a number of media campaigns, not afraid to question Hawass’ decisions and ideas. His last but one skirmish with Hawass took place over the remains of the Atlanta mummy, which came back from the United States about a year ago. At the time, Hawass had announced that the mummy belonged to King Ramses I, and was preparing a royal welcome for the returning king. “I sent him my official opinion. This could not have been the mummy of Ramses I, because it had been lost in ancient times. He just ignored me, so I wrote to Akhbar al-Adab,” Saleh remembers. The result, he says, was two days’ deduction from his salary.
Nowadays, Saleh is awaiting his new penalty. It is because of the stir he started that the mummy of King Tut didn’t come to the Egyptian Museum. “When journalists called to ask my opinion I said the mummy should not be moved. The SCA had no clear plan of how it was going to move the mummy, which is in an already dilapidated state. In the past, the mummy was treated roughly and unscientifically, and any more handling may lead to more damage,” Saleh says.
. . . .
In 1925, a year after its discovery, a team of professors including Howard Carter tried to examine the mummy. On finding it stuck to the sarcophagus, they put it out in the sun to melt the materials keeping it together. They later used hot knifes to pry the golden mask off the face, the golden bracelets off the arms and toes. As a result, the head was separated from the body, the pelvis from the midriff and so were the arms, hands, legs and feet.
. . . .
Saleh points out that the government paid thousands of dollars to provide him with a degree in mummification that no one has asked him to use so far, ... Ahmed Youssef, Egypt’s most well-known expert on mummies, who is called upon all over England to help in the preservation of human remains. “Why not call on our internationally famed expert, have him look at the mummy and tell us where to go from there?”
Saleh fears that any handling of information by foreigners may lead to a twisting of history. He refers to the findings of Scott Woodward, an American microbiologist, who tried to find resemblance between Egyptian kings and prophets from the Talmud. “They are trying to say that our Egyptian history belongs to them,” Saleh accuses. Hawass is quick to refute this idea. “There is no Jewish conspiracy, and we will not be carrying out DNA tests.
Drop the Mummy, and Nobody Gets Hurt Recent controversy over moving King Tut puts Egyptologists in the spotlight By Manal el-Jesri
Mmmmmmm. Seems like Prof Ahmed Saleh wanted to prevent a further theft of the Egyptian legacy
I think instead of brother Saleh getting emotional about the talmudic reference, he should really think long and hard about what is being said. It isn't that the pharaohs were Jews. The Jewish story is a MYTH. There never was a Jewish people in antiquity. The stories of the bible are concerning black africans i.e. egyptians and yes the Pharaohs were the prophets. Solomon = Amenhotep III, David = Thotmosis IV, Amos = Ahmos I of the 18th dynasty. We have been bamboozled in terms of history and religion. Good book to read on this is the Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt by Ahmed Osman (a Egyptian)
posted