The Nubian salvage campaignsIn 1898, work started on the construction of the Aswan Dam which was to revolutionise traditional irrigation methods in Egypt. The dam reduced the annual Nile flooding and improved irrigation. However, it also changed the traditional way of life of the Nubian people and heralded the beginning of the end of the ancient monuments that abounded there.
"The question of raising the Barrage at Aswan at this time began to
be discussed again; and as there seemed some probability of the work
being carried out, Monsieur Maspero's help was asked in order to prepare this
report, and to make an estimate of the cost of the necessary repairs
and excavations, so that it could be compared with his own estimate.
The report is thus intended, in the first place, to show the archaeologist
how very many antiquities Lower Nubia contains, with a view to encouraging
scientific work there. In the second place it is intended to give
some idea of the work which will have to be undertaken in that part
of Lower Nubia which will be flooded when the Barrage is raised.
"In 1907 the Egyptian Government decided to increase the volume
of water... The decision was therefore taken that the height of the
dam at Aswan should be increased by seven metres, in order that a much
greater volume of water might be stored upstream of it. This involved
the submersion of the valley and the cultivated land on either bank
about as far as the village of Derr, and in the lower reach the desert
margins would also be inundated and the tributary valleys would be flooded
for half of the year. So small and impoverished a region as this, two
hundred and fifty kilometres in length, seldom more than a kilometre
wide, can never have supported a large population, but it had been long
inhabited, and it seemed likely that, enclosed by deserts on either
side, dwellers in it had opportunity to develop without interference
by invasion or immigration on any large scale. Funds were therefore
set aside by the Egyptian Government to provide a systematic archaeological
survey of so much of the valley as was to be submerged by the reservoir,
when increased to the new level, that is, to the height of 113 metres
above the Mediterranean Sea instead of 106 metres... The region extended from the
head of the first Cataract for some 250 kilometres to about the village
of Derr... The task was a formidable
one, and had to be carried out on a comprehensive scale, in order, once
and for all, to search the whole of this belt of country on either bank
throughout the entire reach which was to be affected...
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Check out some of the salvaged sites represented in our collections:
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"I visited the temples at Nubia, to check on their state of
repair and to decide what to do with them once the Aswan Dam had been
built. My inspection took seven weeks, from 3rd December 1904 to 21st
January 1905, and I visited every site that seemed to be threatened...
If we compare them to the sketches made of them and pictures taken
of them in the 18th and 19th centuries, we must admit that they have
been considerably damaged... it is time to do something about this
if we want to save them."
In
the third place it constitutes a statement of the condition of all
the monuments of Lower Nubia, with suggestion as to the best means
of preserving and safeguarding them... Beside this the water
will flood the large number of ancient sites which are not know, but
which very certainly exist. Practically all the temples can be strengthened
so as to be able to survive their flooding; and if the excavation
of every likely part of the desert is carried out, and a full publication
of all the material, both in temples and cemeteries, is made, the
loss to science will not be great. It cannot, however, be too clearly
understood how serious the loss will be if the most elaborate works
are not undertaken".
Under his [Dr. G.A. Reisner's] direction each site was carefully
exposed, each interment was photographed, every object was registered
and full records kept, in order that as much information as possible
should be preserved in addition to the collection of objects found.
Dr. Reisner's intimate acquaintance with early Egyptian art and civilization
was especially valuable in the study of this region, for it enabled
him to date each interment, and thereby provide a firm basis for anthropological
studies; for a thorough study of such a region involved not only the
collection of objects and reconstruction of the culture of the people
who had once inhabited the valley, but also the determination of their
race and ethnological affinities".