volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Maspero's Re-appointment. 361
grave contained what seemed to be a sort of dried
porridge. I sent off for wood, which was difficult to
find in that neighbourhood, and made temporary boxes,
and having rolled the bodies in cotton waste laid them
in the boxes, and took them to Luxor, where I had
new boxes made of thick wood, and re-packed the bodies.
I unpacked the first man we had taken out of his grave
at Gebelen one Saturday in March, 1900, in the
presence of Lord Crawford and the Principal Librarian,
and when it was laid on a table it was as complete as
when I first saw it at Gebelen. But when it was examined
again on the following Monday morning it was
discovered that the top joint of one of the forefingers
was missing, and it has, to my knowledge, never been
seen since. The body was exhibited at once in the
First Eg5^tian Room, and for the first time the British
public saw a neolithic Eg5rptian.
In 1899 Maspero returned to Egypt, and again
became Director of the Service of Antiquities, to the
great satisfaction of all who took a genuine interest
in Egyptian Antiquities and Egyptian Archaeology. His
re-appointment brought me personally great relief;
as it had been carried through by the British authorities
in Cairo—that is to say, by the British Consul-General
I was able to do my work without their interference.
I had a long and very friendly interview with him in
1900, and discussed with him the possibility of acquiring
several large objects which we needed in the British
Museum to fill up gaps in the Collection. He said that
it was quite impossible for him to bring to Cairo, still
less to exhibit in the Egyptian Museum there, all the
large objects which were at that moment lying in tombs,
and which ought to be taken to some large Museum
where they would be properly housed and preserved.
He confessed that with his comparatively small budget
and staff it was wholly impossible for him to protect
all the tombs in the country. And he suggested that it
would be far better for the antiquities, and certainly
much more economical for the Trustees of the British
Museum, if they were to buy direct from him, as Director