Word: ancient
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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NOMADS: MASTERS OF THE EURASIAN STEPPE, Denver Museum of Natural History. The patterns of daily life among the ancient nomadic tribes of Central Asia are vividly reconstructed in this archaeological and ethnographic exhibit mounted by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. June 4 through Sept...
...Egyptian antiquities makes their preservation difficult enough. The pyramids were ancient when the Romans invaded Egypt, and the Sphinx, made of soft, easily eroded limestone, already had a 2,000-year history of deterioration and attempted repairs. But the ravages of time pale next to the destruction wrought by man. The burgeoning Egyptian population, which today tops 53 million, has combined with the hordes of tourists arriving each year to wreak more havoc in the past few decades than the effects of thousands of years of erosion...
...groundwater rises, it dissolves mineral salts from the soil and bedrock. Ancient buildings, many made of porous limestone, act like sponges, sucking this salty water from the ground. When the water evaporates, the salts are left behind; when this happens at the stone's surface, these crystallize into destructive white lesions...
...Sphinx. Its limestone, fragile to begin with, erodes rapidly when it comes in contact with water. "Even the ancient Egyptians knew this rock was not in good condition," notes Sayed Tawfik, chairman of the EAO. Repairs in the early 1980s used cement, which introduced water to the limestone and trapped existing water inside. More recently, workers have used dry limestone powder, similar in composition to the original rock, to strengthen the base of the Sphinx. One proposal from the Getty Institute's Monreal: place the entire statue under a protective canopy for several months at least, while exploring alternatives...
There need to be governmental changes as well. The EAO, now just a department within the Ministry of Culture, should be raised to full ministerial status. The agency cannot hold its own politically against the Ministry of Tourism, which favors expanded access to ancient sites. At the same time, the standing of Egypt's poorly paid archaeologists should be elevated...