Hawass Fired (again)
He had it good for a very long time. He established himself as the Indiana Jones of Egypt. He had TV shows that screened globally. He dominated and controlled the pyramids and anything else ancient in Egypt. He (seemingly) had alternative authors at his mercy – love me or no access. And he was about to have his own range of clothing:
http://www.artzulu.com/project/zahi-hawass
With all the upheavals in Egypt recently, it has been a tumultuous period for Zahi Hawass. He was arrested, resigned, and re-appointed. Now, seen as part of the Old Guard, he is finally gone for good.
[Zahi Hawass] was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Zahi Hawass, long chided as publicity loving and short on scientific knowledge, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak’s regime.
Presumably his successor, Abdel-Fattah el-Banna, will have a different approach. But don’t expect new projects and access this year, this is certainly a job for cautious types. Hall of Records before Dec 2012? I guess it is possible!
UPDATE: Seems as though was not a great choice. Read about him at Norah Shalaby’s blog. And now he has had his appointment cancelled, after protests by archaeologists and archaeologists and Ministry of State for Antiquities employees.
Zahi Hawass has a passion for archeology that I haven’t seen for a very long time. I learned a lot from him and hoped to learn more. His leaving will sadden lots of people. I think he was onto some great discoveries and I wanted to be there to see them all. He could be very brusque and quick to anger, but it was his passion for the antiquities that kept me wanting more.
I for one will not be missing “Zahi” , but I do not wish to discredit those whom do.
I just had issues of His portraying a (live) archeological find, that was obviously set up before hand for filming,(All) and His insistance of their being nothing unusual about the pyramids , and only the genious of the Egtptian peoples built it. Of coarse Mr. Hawass is an “Egyptian” very “proud” and a very condescending arrogant one at that.I always susspect there was a ‘bias’ going on there in the work being done in “Giza” and other key areas.
The work being done on the ascending shaft , and the 2nd seal door penetration project in the great pryramid of “Giza” has as far as I know stopped since the unrest in the area. I believe restart, should be a priority over the political problems,and religious pressure of the region, but I dont hold much hope for awile..at least. I support the Egyptians in their peacefull ventures..
However I believe there is a cover up of archeological information in the area due to radical religious political pressures. “Summarian ties in Egypts past seem to be a sensitive issue..with current political trend there. 12,000 year old ruins in Turkey are rewritting history any way? “out of Africa is not even relevent anymore.
“Zahwi” does inspire interest with His albeit ‘overly’provocative nature and zeal, if You are not picky about the content claims, (“it’s entertaining”)..All the nations who have held old age father of civilization claim status are now all made children by comparison to the Turkish find. and they are clamouring to get at the new info, but “Quietly” I bet LOL! “Gobekli Tepe” is a must Google..and supports proscession theory, and a redate of pyramids to 7-10 thousand years.as some erosion experts have correlated.
Hope Zahi gets a grade B Euromovie acting job..more to his style..