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This ain't no Discovery Channel

Egyptophile Miroslav Bárta known for new theories on pyramid tools

By Benjamin Thomas Cunningham
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 3rd, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Bárta has always been fascinated by artifacts. He is currently looking for new finds at Abusir, in the desert near Cairo.
Photo courtesy of Czech Institute of Egyptology
Tombs still yield new cultural information.
Photos courtesy of Czech Institute of Egyptology
THE BÁRTA FILE

Education
2003: Habilitation (European post-doctoral degree) in Egyptology, Charles University, Prague
1993–97: Postgraduate studies at Charles University, doctorate in Egyptology in 1997
1988–1994: Master's degree in Egyptology and archaeology, Charles University
Excavations
Since 2003: Director, Western Desert Project, on behalf of the Czech Institute of Egyptology
Since 1995: Field director, South Abusir Project
Career
2003–04: Fulbright professor in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Since 2003: Associate professor in Egyptology, Charles University, Prague
2000–05: Vice director, Czech National Center for Egyptology
1994–2000: Scientific secretary, Czech Institute of Egyptology
Since 1996: Project coordinator, Abusir South project
Since 1993: Member, Czech Institute of Egyptology
Teaching
Faculty of Arts, Charles University
1998–99: (with Miroslav Verner) "Development of the Old Kingdom pyramid complexes," Egyptian archaeology 1, graduate course
1999–2000: (with Verner) "Development of the non-royal tomb," Egyptian archaeology 2, graduate course
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
2003–04: "Society of the Old Kingdom," graduate course
Awards
1999–2000: Award of the Swiss Foundation in Egyptology, Michella Schiff Giorgini
2004: Award of the Swiss Foundation in Egyptology, Michella Schiff Giorgini
2008: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung fellow, Berlin

When he was 14, Miroslav Bárta received a punishment that was to change his life.
Bárta, now a 40-year-old Egyptologist, remembers he was an unruly pupil at school. He was punished frequently by his teachers, who often made him memorize paragraphs of information.
One day, a history teacher made Bárta commit to memory something about the “bloody pyramid of Khufu,” as he calls it now, one of the three pyramids of Giza outside of Cairo, the last standing monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
He hasn’t looked back.
These days, Bárta is considered a worldwide authority on the artifacts and civilizations of ancient Egypt. Where he once memorized the information about the pyramid believed to have served as the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, Bárta now excavates tombs in similar pyramids in the desert.
Where Bárta once soaked up stories of archaeologists from earlier decades and examined the photos of artifacts they discovered, he now leads expeditions to new sites.
Where Bárta once studied history books on his favorite monuments, he now writes the books and articles that propose new theories about things like the tools used by people in those ancient civilizations.
In fact, Bárta is currently in Egypt hoping to find some major discoveries in an area he has worked in before — Abusir, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside of Cairo — on behalf of the Czech Institute of Egyptology. He calls Egyptology a “new discipline” in that two or three major discoveries can still change the thinking about how the ancient world worked.
“Every day, every minute, you can discover new things,” Bárta says.
Even if it all seems very much like a movie-set life, Bárta is down-to-earth sitting in his book-lined office in a Charles University building in Old Town recently. He shows off old black-and-white pictures of explorers tooling around the Egyptian desert and talks about the explosion of interest from average people in what he does — driven, he thinks, by Discovery Channel programs and Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones character.
Then he snorts and says modestly, “We don’t have such nice hats.”  
Bárta isn’t the first Czech to be involved in high-profile archaeology work. He follows in the footsteps of nationally known experts such as František Lexa, a researcher of Late Egyptian writing who founded the Czech Institute of Egyptology in 1958. Much of Czechoslovak work was done at Abusir. Bárta was able to do much of his studying with books from the late Jaroslav Černý, who bequeathed his massive library of Egyptian works to the institute.
But the researcher and professor has gained international recognition because of his work to explain the finds and the monuments.
“Everybody can make a discovery. It’s a matter of work and coincidence. The point is what you do after that,” Bárta says. “My goal is to provide a good background to the discoveries and a good explanatory framework and efficient tools to explain our campaigns.”
For example, pyramids and other monuments in Egypt and the other stonework found in them were made with stones shaped by metal tools, Bárta says. He estimates it took 700 pounds (317.5 kilograms) of copper tools to produce one sarcophagus chest used to bury an ancient king. Planning and building those monuments required huge metal-smith operations.
So where did those tools come from?
Bárta invited University of California San Diego anthropology professor Thomas Levy to Prague to lecture on the topic in 2002, after he read Levy’s book about Egypt and the Holy Land. Levy talked about his research on metal factories in the early bronze age of 2700 to 2300 BC in lands that are now in the countries of Israel and Jordan.
As it turns out, researchers involved with Levy’s project found axes and casting molds in Jordan that were identical to objects Bárta found while excavating the tomb of a bureaucrat in Abusir more than 800 kilometers away, Levy says.
“When I showed the material in the seminar, he jumped out of his seat and was very excited and suggested the parallel,” Levy says.
The two men became fast friends as Bárta discussed the metal-working connections in other lectures and papers that drew the attention of National Geographic and made the front pages of newspapers like The Los Angeles Times. Both men talk of someday carbon-dating the tools to prove that the theory is correct.
As Bárta became more well-known, Levy guided him on how to present his work.
“When I gave the first talk, Tom said, ‘You’ve got to make it more sexy. Use some of my slides to make it more lively,’ ” Bárta says, smiling.
Bárta next translated a story about Sinuhe, an Egyptian who traveled through the Holy Lands around 2000 BC, and then published his work in a book titled Sinuhe, the Bible and the Patriarchs. Levy wrote the introduction. The book’s cover is a color picture of an archaeological site.
“He tries to pull the archeology of Israel and Jordan into the journey of this individual, so it’s a more popular work,” Levy says. “He takes archaeological anthropology and tries to apply that to Egyptology.”
It’s that passion to explain things that has attracted the attention of donors such as Jiří Kovář, managing director of the Czech engineering company Unis, an equipment provider for oil refineries in the Middle East. Bárta showers Kovář with photos and drawings and books about the projects, while Kovář estimates he has donated probably 100,000 euros ($141,000/2.8 million Kč) to Bárta’s projects over four years.
“It’s useful to sponsor somebody if it’s for the public benefit, and this is a long-term project,” Kovář says. “The Czech name is very known in this Egyptology area, also because of him. There has been a long history.”
In recent years, Bárta has taken advantage of some high-tech methods to do his advance research, paying thousands of dollars for satellite imagery and mapping of the desert, pictures that often show tombs and settlements that were discovered again in the 1900s, then lost again to the sands of time.
Because the field is so vast, and so many new finds change how people think about the ancient world, Barta says he won’t be slowing down any time soon.
“Egypt is still the gateway. I’m used to working in the Middle East, so it’s no problem,” Bárta says. “As long as we have a positive impact, this is good.”

Benjamin Thomas Cunningham can be reached at bcunningham@praguepost.com


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