The ever ambitious Dr. Zahi Hawass is a colorful man who's enthusiasm for his job as the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme council of antiquities gives the good doctor full liberties as to Egypt's monuments and how they are to be interpreted during his reign. I say reign as the doctor has a habit of acting more like Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarek than the man of science he is supposed to be.
A few years ago I watched as Dr. Hawass did a TV show in which he had a stone sarcophagus opened and in front of the cameras began rifling the contents for something to show the camera it was very unscientific and hardly professional.
Last year in 2007 Dr. Hawass made another TV show "Secrets of Egypt's lost Queen" in which a number of obvious errors in judgment and material occurred. It was a minor error that Dr. Hawass as well as the staff at the Cairo Egyptian museum were unable to recognize that one of the mummies in the show was not who they were claiming she was while a graphic displaying two female mummies with a box inscribed for Hatshepsut laying between them in the tomb DB320 was a little more devious as a mistake (there is no record recording the position of these objects in the tomb).
In this show which should have been called "Secrets of Egypt's lost King" as was Hatshepsut's most important title the female pharaoh was identified by Dr. Hawass by a broken tooth and a number of publications followed all extolling the new discovery.
More than a year later Dr. Hawass's discovery of the mummy of Hatshepsut has not had his results independently verified. Dr. Hawass should not make claims that he cannot or does not want to back up. Egyptian antiquities protocol is probably being used not to verify as Egypt's mummies are to be examined now by Egyptians only.
In the fall 2008 issue of KMT a letter to the editor points out that the so-called tooth evidence is more than likely wrong. The tooth displayed has two roots when being the upper molar it should have three? If he did find the mummy of Egypt's greatest female King than he should be more than proud to prove it otherwise he is wasting his new labs time and misleading the Egyptological community.
Dr. Hawass's most recent "no free lunch" campaign has the doctor telling everyone who will listen that Egypt received no money for its 1976 tour of King Tutankhamen's treasures. This is not true as Egypt made millions of dollars off the revenues of the show.
The secretary general is a sincere scholar who colors his words and sees what supports his view of things and hopefully in the future will stop saying things which are untrue and have his discoveries properly verified even if he feels his discoveries are above common scholars and scientists to doubt.
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