Dows Dunham Recollections of an Egyptologist

Meroe. Excavating at the West Cemetery. The workmen’s huts are at right.
place while we were working in the Sudan. A young man who had
been recently employed was seen by the older men to pick up a small
gold object in the course of the digging and secrete it in his clothing.
The older men promptly took it away from him and then reported to
Reisner, saying “This new boy has been caught stealing from the
‘Company’ (as they called the expedition). What is your pleasure?”
Reisner simply asked to which family the boy belonged, and when they
told him, he said, “This is your affair. You decide what to do.” The
next day the boy was discharged by his own family and given a railroad
ticket back to the village, which was a four-day journey from the camp.
The elders of his family sent a telegram to the village, saying that the
boy had been discharged for stealing from the expedition. When he
got home, he was completely ostracized - no one would speak to him
or give him anything to eat - and presently he went out into the desert
and killed himself. This was certainly drastic action, but it was undertaken
by the boy’s own people. There is little wonder that under this
system theft by our regular men was unknown.
While we were in the Sudan, we employed local people for the heavier
dirt lifting. The expedition never allowed these men to take part in the
laying bare of valuable finds and as far as possible kept them away when
there was a likelihood of important objects being discovered. The clearing
of tombs likely to yield objects of value was done solely by our
trained Qufti workers and by ourselves, for there was always the chance
that, with a large body of local people about, their cupidity might get
the better of them. I recall one example of such a situation while we
were excavating the great West Cemetery at Meroe in the winter of
1923. One day I was surveying the site, with a couple of local boys as
helpers. Several small groups of our Egyptian diggers were working on
tombs in scattered places nearby. Presently Said Ahmed walked over to
me and said in Arabic “We have found some lemon peel.” I looked at
him in surprise and received from him a very definite wink. He then
walked away without another word, looking back at me over his shoulder.
I realized that something was up, and making one more entry in the
survey book, I dismissed my helpers, saying that would be all for the day.
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