The Giza Plateau is immense, and it has not yet revealed all of its secrets. I was not the first scholar to work there, and I will certainly not be the last. During the first half of the 20^th century many great expeditions, American, German/Austrian, Egyptian and others, moved mountains of sand, revealed hundreds of tombs, and discovered artistic masterpieces that now enrich museum collections in Egypt, Europe, and the United States. Over the last 100 years it had become nearly impossible to keep track of the massive archaeological record of discoveries, artifacts, photographs, archaeological plans, drawings, notes and publications about Giza.

 

That is why I am very happy to support a Project initiated at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with the financial assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Giza Archives Project at the MFA, directed by Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian, strives to collect, digitize, and make accessible to the world community all the archaeological information about Giza. The Project is based in Boston because the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, directed by George A. Reisner (1867–1942), ran the longest excavations at the Pyramids from 1905 to 1947. The MFA in Boston houses the largest Giza archaeological archive in the world in its Ancient World Department, whose curator is my colleague Rita Freed.

 

Since its launch a few years ago, the Giza Archives Web site has posted hundreds of thousands of Giza items online for scholars and students of Old Kingdom culture to browse, study and even download for free. To date, people from over 70 countries have visited the Web site. By intelligently linking different types of data together, Web users can “reconstruct” the archaeological history of any tomb, statue, or monument at Giza. For example, type in a tomb number, such as “G 7101,” or an ancient Egyptian personal name, such as “Qar” (whose tomb I showed to President Obama during his visit in June 2009), and you will see hundreds of photos, objects, excavation diary pages, plans and drawings, published books and articles in free PDF files, and even unpublished manuscript pages. Powerful advanced search features can help students collect and study tomb wall scenes showing subjects such as musicians, livestock, festivals, or craftsmen at work. We owe most of this documentation to Reisner, who was one of the founding fathers of modern scientific archaeological method.

 

By systematically gathering so many archaeological materials, the Giza Archives Project helps the SCA to protect the site for the world community. We can track the history of any tomb or wall scene or inscription, and see how it has changed over time, which provides valuable assistance to our important conservation and restoration work. As time passes and the monuments suffer from the elements, these archival photos and documents only increase in value.

 

In recent years, and with my assistance, the Giza Archives Project has become an international collaboration. Since the site of Giza is greater and more important than any single expedition, the Project is cooperating with all the major institutions of the world that hold important Giza collections. These are located in Berkeley, Berlin, Cairo, Hildesheim, Leipzig, Philadelphia, Turin, and Vienna. Imagine how powerful the Giza Web site will be when all this material is online! The results from my own excavations may soon be collected here as well.

 

The Giza Archives Project is not only about the past, but continues to collaborate with ongoing expeditions at Giza, such as those directed by my friend Mark Lehner. New technologies are giving us access to Giza as never before. The Giza Archives Web site now includes satellite photography, zoomable plans of countless tombs, and even Google Earth-like aerial photos where you can click on any tomb to see its information. You can also view any one of the 1,300 interactive, 360-degree spinning panoramas from all over the site, both inside and outside the tombs, which is a great way to experience those tombs that must remain closed to visitors in order to protect them.

 

Future plans include experiments with 3D real-time models of the entire Giza plateau, with links to the archaeological data; geophysical surveys of the site in collaboration with the SCA; and even “augmented reality” computer applications that will bring all the Giza data right to your Smartphone or other handheld device. Visitors to museums, or tourists at Giza will one day have access to all the information that was once accessible only to scholars in libraries. I believe the Giza Archives Project provides a unique model for archaeological site management, preservation, and access, and I hope that similar projects and Web sites will follow this example for other sites, in Egypt and elsewhere.