The New York Times may have deteriorated as a source for news about current events, but still does a fine job of covering news about the ancient past and developments in the field of archeology. Thus we find this excellent article on plans to preserve the mortuary complex of the Second Dynasty's King Khasekhemwy, which dates to around 2780 BC.

Now, in an ambitious effort to preserve this ruin, archaeologists, engineers and teams of artisans and laborers are shoring up the walls and gates of Shunet el-Zebib, ravaged by time and the elements and in danger of imminent collapse.

Officials of the project said in recent interviews that the work over the last two years had been slow and careful, but was at least halfway completed. More than 250,000 mud bricks, made on the scene from an ancient recipe, have been laid to build up the high walls. It has cost $1 million, and an equal amount is being raised to finish the job.

“We are not trying to restore the original structure, producing a kind of Walt Disney thing,” said David O’Connor, an Egyptologist at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. “We are preserving and stabilizing it as it is in a way that reflects its nearly 5,000-year history.”

Dr. OÂ’Connor, director of the preservation work, has conducted excavations at Abydos that have exposed the ruins of eight such enclosures. He suspects there are one or two others yet to be discovered.

British archaeologists investigating the site more than a century ago described the enclosures as fortresses, but more recent excavations, particularly at the one dedicated to Khasekhemwy, revealed the association with royal mortuary practices. Even so, owing to a dearth of inscriptions, archaeologists remain largely in the dark as to just what went on inside these centers to memorialize the king in afterlife.

We still have more questions and answers about these mortuary complexes that date back nearly 5000 to the dawn of human civilization. And to offer you some context, these structures were already over 14 centuries old during the reign of Tutankhamen, and are about two centuries older than the Great Pyramid on the plain at Giza. While preservation of Khasekhemwy's temple will be expensive, the cost of allowing it to further deteriorate is incomprehensible in terms of the heritage of humanity.

Posted by: Greg at 11:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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