Zahi Hawass in the NYT

Over this past weekend, the New York Times ran a profile of Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass. If you've watched any program about ancient Egypt lately on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, or probably anywhere else, you'll be familiar with Dr. Zahi, the ubiquitous spokesman for Egyptian antiquities.

For good or ill, and the Egyptology community seems divided on this, Hawass has transformed the image of Egyptian antiquities. An outgoing self-promoter who has adopted an Indiana Jones-style hat as his identifying marker, his exuberant extroversion has shaken the dust off archaeological exploration. Whether that is good for scholarship is for archaeologists to decide, but it has certainly been good for publicity, and that has doubtless spurred tourism and interest.

Never a man to bask silently in the glow of what was generally a positive profile in the New York Times, Hawass promptly (dated the day before the publication date of the profile) posted a response on his website.

He is certainly a showman. As it happens, some good friends of mine were acquainted with Hawass in his younger days, and I met him a time or two, never suspecting his future fame. When my nine year old daughter, an archaeology buff, was watching a Discovery Channel (I think) show about Hatshepsut a few months back, I casually mentioned that I'd known him slightly long ago. "You know Zahi Hawass! Why haven't you ever told me?" I explained that I never knew him well and he'd probably not remember me, but the fact that we'd crossed paths impressed her more than any of my professional accomplishments do. Because he is a celebrity, and I'm not sure there has been a real celebrity archaeologist since at least the days of Howard Carter of King Tut fame.