Frequently Asked Questions

On this page Dr Maarten Raven, field director of the Dutch excavations at Saqqara, answers a number of the fequently asked questions he often gets as archaeologist in Egypt. Dr Raven studied egyptology, art history and archaeology at Leiden University before becoming Curator of the Egyptian department of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities in  1978. He joined the Saqqara excavations in 1975 where he first recorded pottery and objects, but  increasingly also dealt with architectural description, restoration, and epigraphy. He has been joint field director of the Dutch excavations since 1999.

What happens with the finds?  Are you allowed to take them with you?

No, all finds stay in Egypt. Of course we do not dismantle the standing monuments found by us, in the way our predecessors did in the 19th century. Instead we try to restore all loose relief blocks and architectonical elements to their original position. All small finds discovered in the desert sand (figurines, amulets, jewellery, pottery) are stored in Saqqara under the supervision of the local authorities of the Supreme Council for Antiquities. The most beautiful objects (such as a gold earring from the tomb of Horemheb, or the double statue from the tomb of Meryneith) are brought to the Cairo Museum. Divisions of finds (whereby the excavators were allowed to take part of the objects found) no longer take place in Egypt.

What happens with the site when you leave it? Are the monuments safe out there in the desert?

Yes, the whole plateau of Saqqara with its numerous monuments is well guarded, day and night, by armed watchmen of the Supreme Council for Antiquities. The site is surrounded by barbed wire, all painted chapels are locked, and the reliefs are largely covered by protective panels and reinforced by steel bars and concrete. There are numerous passers-by or people working nearby, so the place is closely supervised.

Are not you afraid of the curse of the pharaohs?

No, because such a curse does not exist. The ancient Egyptians never threatened to kill intruders to their tombs. Instead, according to their belief all people have to face a tribunal of gods in the hereafter in order to account for their sins. Most Egyptologists would be thrilled to meet these gods in person! On a more serious note: the myth of the curse stems from a very natural feeling of uneasiness that we are disturbing burials. But we are very rarely the first ones to do so; ancient tomb-robbers and 19th-century art collectors were there before us. In fact we restore a lot of damage these parties left behind. We piece together the skeletons dispersed by the robbers and rebury them where we can. Moreover, we publish the results of our work, and one of the desires of the ancient Egyptians was that their name might live forever. The Egyptians would not be so unhappy about our work…

Why do you not dig in Egypt the whole year round?

There are various reasons: in the first place the desert becomes unpleasantly hot in summer and virtually all work comes to a halt then. Second, we share a dighouse with a number of other expeditions and can only live there during a limited period. In the third place, the actual digging is only part of our work: interpreting what we found takes a lot longer and has to be done in the well-equipped libraries in Europe and the USA. Fourth, we all  have teaching obligations or office jobs to do, and excavating is only part of our obligations. Last but not least, we are only human and miss our families and friends while we are out there.

How do you know where you have to dig?

In the case of our expedition, this was very clear. We had a map of the area made in 1843 by Lepsius, showing the position of the tomb of Maya. Maya’s statues are in the Leiden Museum, so of course we were interested in relocating the original context of these art treasures. The only problem was that the map was not accurate and we found the tomb of Horemheb instead. Still, this helped us to find the core of the ancient cemetery, and we are still extending our excavations from that central element. – Other expeditions may have more problems in deciding where to dig, although there usually are indications on the surface of what is underneath, or something has already been found there by farmers or builders. There are also very sophisticated scientific techniques to scan the topsoil in the search for buried monuments (resistivity analysis, ground radar, etc.).