EGYPTIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
Gaballa Ali Gaballa I first met Gaballa in 1963 when he arrived in Liverpool to study for his PhD under H W Fairman. We very soon became good friends, discussing and arguing about all the subjects that interest students, often in my Granby Street flat, and together with Mohy Eddin Ibrahim and a Libyan friend, Awad Sadawiyya, I learned a great deal about life in general and modern Egypt in particular. After Liverpool Gaballa Ali Gaballa at his son’s wedding we went our different ways but we stayed in close contact as our families in 2004. Photograph: courtesy of Genefer Ashley grew and I would catch up with Gub and his wife Genny whenever I went to Egypt. My early visits were usually as a guest lecturer with a tour group and if there was a free day Gub would take me off to see some of the less frequented sites. I particularly remember clambering down a dodgy stairway to the underground chambers of the Step Pyramid but there were several visits to the Fayum and the Delta. Gub had taught many students who had gone on to jobs in the Antiquities Organisation (later renamed the Supreme Council for Antiquities) and they were always pleased to see their professor to whom they were devoted. He knew well the problems faced by students as he had been born to a poor peasant family in the Delta village of Kufur el-Raml and had had to spend much of his childhood helping with the farm chores. The poor diet and general poverty probably contributed to his later health problems, but as a quick learner
he won scholarships which took him first to secondary school and then to university. This was not an easy escape route; he had miserable lodgings and his mother supplemented his meagre funds by sending him food regularly. His problems did not stop there: his country accent and rough clothing made him a figure of fun for the sophisticated set that he found in the Philosophy class and he became so disillusioned that he decided to drop out. Fortunately he was persuaded to change courses instead and so turned to Egyptology. Here he flourished and found a caring and understanding teacher in Ahmed Fakhry who supported and encouraged him with his studies. I tried several times to persuade Gub to write his memoirs, or at least to dictate something for the EES archive, but he was too ill to make the effort, or perhaps too modest. He rose to head the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation and received many honours, but he never let them go to his head: he knew that he had earned them through hard work and integrity and he was also proud of his country and of the education system which in his case worked amazingly well. I often stayed with Gub and Genny on my way to and from Dakhla and at our last meeting, in the home of his daughter Sarah in Altrincham after yet another course of hospital treatment, he was still the same Gub, with that wicked twinkle and distinctive laugh. Going to Egypt will not be the same. JOHN RUFFLE Gaballa Ali Gaballa was born on 10 February 1939. He was a former Head of the Egyptology Department, and Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology, at Cairo University, and served as Secretary General of the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation from 1997 to 2002. He died in Alexandria on 13 April 2012.
EES news and events Regular news updates are posted on our website, www.ees.ac.uk, which we would urge readers to consult regularly for up-to-the-minute information on all EES activities, including our current fieldwork and research. EES news can also be found on our Facebook page: http://tinyurl. com/eesfacebookpage and in the blogs noted below. If you would like to receive our regular e-newsletter, please e-mail: contact@ees.ac.uk The revised fourth edition of Who Was Who in Egyptology has just been published (see inside back cover) and a launch event was held at Doughty Mews on12 July 2012. The new edition, funded by donations from EES members, was edited by Morris Bierbrier (left), seen here with Jason Thompson (the biographer of Edward Lane, see also pp.43-44) who spoke at the event, and Chris Naunton
In March 2012, the EES Director, Chris Naunton, visited Egypt and held talks with officials of the Ministry of State for Antiquities and the British Ambassador. Chris also visited EES expeditions in the field (above with Jeffrey Spencer at Kom el-Daba). A full account of his trip, and of his earlier experiences filming for the BBC documentary on Flinders Petrie, can be found on Chris’s new blog: eesdirector.tumblr.com
At the Rijksmuseum in Leiden on 2 June 2012, Geoffrey Martin was presented with the first copy of The Tomb of Maya and Meryt I (see inside back cover) by Susan Royce (EES Treasurer) and Arnold Jan Stuart (Chairman of the Friends of Saqqara Foundation). The printing of the book was funded by generous donations from the Saqqara Friends and EES Members. For a description of the event see: eespublishers. tumblr.com. Photograph: Peter Jan Bomhof
The Society’s Cairo Representative, Faten Saleh, visited London in June 2012 to participate in meetings and discussions, visit major Egyptology collections and attend the EES Study-Day on 9 June. The Study Day Grand Designs: Amenhotep III and the landscape of Thebes was one of our most successful with over 200 people hearing talks from an international range of speakers.We took the opportunity of Faten’s visit to photograph the EES London and Cairo staff in Doughty Mews. Left to right: Roo Mitcheson, Faten Saleh, Joanna Kyffin, Patricia Spencer, Chris Naunton, Alice Williams and Rob Tamplin On 20 June 2012, the Society’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri featured at the British Academy in London, in a public event Training, Cheating, Winning, Praising. Athletes and Shows in Papyri from Roman Egypt, chaired by Dominic Rathbone. William J Slater, Margaret Mountford and Christopher Carey talked about their research on topics related to the Olympic Games (see Margaret’s article on pp.5-7). A fuller description of the proceedings can be found at: eespublishers.tumblr.com