Family Times column

Judy Gibson

March 23, 2002

I’ve been thinking, lately, about curiosity.

Two things inspired this — first was the privilege of meeting Kent Weeks and his wife Susan in Egypt. Weeks found the tomb known as KV5 in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in 1989 — called the greatest find since the discovery of the unraided tomb of Tutankhamun. His book “The Lost Tomb” reads like a novel.

The second inspiration was an essay in Time magazine about Daniel Pearl, the journalist who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan by terrorists. Lance Morrow wrote that Pearl was the sort of journalist who had curiosity, “the noblest form of intellectual energy.” He also mentioned what novelist John Hersey said about Henry Luce, “He was amazed and delighted to learn whatever he had not known before.”

Kent Weeks, a beaming and happy person, told me he had been interested in Egypt since he was a child, that he’s been an archeologist for decades and “never wanted to do anything else.” He takes obvious pleasure in his lifework, appreciating his wife and her contribution as project artist. His love of Egypt and the Egyptian people — ancient and present — is evident. At the risk of waxing too eloquent, they seemed like a couple of angels there — always dressed in white (due to the heat, I’m guessing).

He and his wife rise early and drive their dated Toyota Land Cruiser out to the site for another day of discovery and hard work. Their home is in Cairo but when they are on site in Thebes (the ancient name for Luxor) they stay at the same modest family hotel where I stayed. When they introduced themselves to my friends and me on the roof of the hotel where we had gone to watch the sunset, my mouth dropped and I said, “The well known person.” He smiled and kidded modestly, “I don’t know – my wife knows me well.”

The story of the extensive Theban mapping project and discovery of KV5 — the agony and the ecstacy of it — is too lengthy for this column. For anyone interested I would recommend his book that was excerpted in a wonderful National Geographic article in 1998. They also have an interesting and well done website where one can take a virtual “fly through” tour of the tomb, the largest of all tombs discovered so far in the valley.

It was inspiring to meet someone face to face, so dedicated and committed to what he was doing — and a kind and positive person at that. I bought a copy of his book and asked him to sign it for my friend which he did graciously. I apologized for being a “groupie.” He said, “That’s O.K., groupies are my life.” I know what he meant since the work he is doing is costly and they need financial support from people who also believe in what they are doing.

Another interesting thing — I had no desire to join his group or go back to school to study archaeology. What I took away from that exciting encounter was a renewed dedication to my own curiosity. I, too, love finding out things.

This is a gift we can give our children — the love of pure learning and discovery. As parents we can model interest in the world around us and share exciting discoveries of our own. Nurture curiosity.

“The Lost Tomb: This is his incredible story of KV5 and its excavation” by Kent R. Weeks, Ph.D., Harper Collins, 1999.

This is a view of the Valley of the Kings in Thebes this February. The large opening into the hillside is an entrance to a tomb. People who have visited the area in the past will note the small number of tourists due to the aftermath of 9/11.

“Dr. Kent” Weeks as he is fondly called,

Susan Weeks, project artist, gluing together pot sherds. She works at the tomb entrance under the scrutiny of hordes of tourists. She was patient with them all including me. She talked a little to us while she worked and recommended a good tomb to visit.

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(photos of Kent Weeks and Susan Weeks courtesy of the Theban Mapping website)

We got on the wrong train from Luxor to Cairo on our return. It seems we should have waited for the next train but got on one that was in the station at the right time and found our assigned seats in car number 5.

After two more stops a bunch of Egyptians piled in and it quickly became obvious (although not through any language communication) that our seats were not ours. A patient Egyptian couple and others calmly repeated Arabic words to us over and over more slowly than the last time, hoping that we would finally understand. Finally a man who spoke English way back in the car interpreted – “This train not for you.” — We had gathered that but were reluctant to get off in the middle of Egypt in the middle of the night — (night train, of course). “No,” he said, “if you get off at next stop you can get train that is for you.”

At this point the conductor in a scruffy green jacket, obviously inebriated, came to help us with our stuff and we vacated our seats to stand in the little doorway to wait expulsion at — Qena.

When we disembarked at Qena we were relieved to see it seemed like a real train station and town. Scott said the worst that could happen is that we would have to find a hotel and then deal with the whole thing the next morning. Voice of reason — good guy!

Then I made the mistake of reading the Lonely Planet guide to see where we were — about 1 a.m. in the middle of Egypt. Wouldn’t you know this part of Egypt has a bad reputation for terrorist activity – the government had found it difficult to control the extremist groups in this area because of the ease of hiding and escaping into the desert. Tourist travel is not recommended.

Well, we did finally get the train that “is for you” everyone had been patient and kind. I thought of what would have happened we had taken someone’s seat elsewhere in the world, I don’t think “kindness” would have come to mind.

Nag Hammadi

Nag Hammadi, down the railroad track from Qena, is the site where a collection of thirteen ancient codices in a Coptic dialect was discovered in 1945. These are “primary Gnostic scriptures” texts once thought to have been destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define “orthodoxy.” These texts, along with the Dead Sea Scolls found about the same time but in Palestine, make up a body of work that were repressed or hidden for their preservation by two groups — the Essenes in Palestine and the ancestors of the Ancient Egyptians, probably a Coptic sect.

The Coptic Christians make up about ten percent of the present population of Egypt and many think they are the best remnant of the Pharaonic Egyptians left, with their sacred language a “survival” from ancient times.

When we were waiting in the train station at Qena, Scott saw what must have been a Coptic bishop also waiting for a train. Scott said people were coming over to kiss his hand.

So – Qena/Nag Hammadi — terrorist stronghold or sacred ground — Both, is my guess, which brings me to a fascinating book I found online (ain’t the internet great?) Jung and the Lost Gospels: insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. This book talks about how at the darkest times – comes the light,i.e. these texts found following World War II, the Holocaust and the atom bomb. Maybe now again we are having a dark time when there will be another leap forward. I also found, before I left, a wonderful book The Pharaoh’s Shadow: travels in ancient and modern Egypt by Anthony Sattin and only available from Amazon.co.uk. Sattin is in search of culture that has survived from ancient times in Egypt and the Coptic connection is well described.