Filling in historical blanks, searching for possible medical breakthroughs, and identifying cultural roots are some of the benefits Wilfred Griggs lists as goals of a BYU-directed archaeological project that he directs in Egypt.
But his true feelings after 15 years of digging through the Egyptian sand were expressed when he said in a Church News interview June 12: "The learning goes beyond the academic. It's a visceral thing."He explained: "The thing that really impresses me most in the cultural sense, the historical sense, as I work in this project is that I have learned how very much like these ancient people I am, or, if one wishes to turn it around, how much like me they were.
"Their life-styles don't appear to be appreciably different in terms of their sense of beauty and what meant a lot to them. The things we find buried with them - the little sentimental items, the treasured mementos, and the many layers of beautifully decorated clothing - show what their families thought of them."
Those treasures indicate that what was truly important to the ancient people were relationships with other people, personal faith, and concerns for things beyond this life, he noted.
"As I find evidence of these beliefs and feelings and lifestyles among the ancients, I feel more settled in my own sense of what humanity is about. I feel more kinship with people from other cultures."
Brother Griggs has been involved in the archaeological project since its beginning in Egypt in 1980. He is currently back on the BYU campus teaching classes, doing research and performing other duties after the most recent January-March expedition to Egypt. Studies are focused on the Fayum archaeological excavation southwest of Cairo. It includes the Fag El Gamous cemetery site and the Seila pyramid.
The BYU project was originally a joint effort with the University of California-Berkeley. However, after the first year, the UC-Berkeley professor who was directing the project left the school and there was no one there to step in and take his place. Egyptian officials asked Brother Griggs if BYU would continue the project and he obtained the go-ahead from the BYU administration. After working as associate director and field director during the first year, Brother Griggs took over as director in 1981.
He pointed out: "Director is kind of a funny word because in this project I do not really direct the other staff members - that is, my colleagues - who go with me to Egypt. They are very good at what they do. They know how to document, they know how to study, they know how to analyze. They do things that I can't do, so it would be foolish for me to try to direct them in their activities.
"I jokingly tell people that I'm the director which means that I pay the bills and I make sure we have the permissions. But, apart from that, we all work together and if I leave the project it doesn't stop."
The project team includes many scientists such as BYU professors Marvin Kuchar, a chemist who studies textiles, and Scott Woodward, a microbiologist who does DNA studies.
If he had his choice, Brother Griggs said he would wake up each morning and go to work at the Fayum excavation. "But that isn't the way it works," he added.
Instead, he has many administrative duties that he said he doesn't find distasteful. "When I go into Cairo or other government cities to take care of the necessary business relating to contracts, social insurance, clearances, permissions, those kinds of things, I very much enjoy the people I am with and I enjoy the experience."
Brother Griggs said the BYU team has great respect for its hosts. "We go to Egypt as colleagues, as friends, brothers and sisters. We go there to learn from them as well as to lend our training and capabilities to their culture."
Brother Kuchar said: "We don't do anything in secret. When we find something, we make sure the discovery is shown to the government inspectors. If we find an artifact, we give it to the inspector. We try to show great respect for the Egyptians. We don't make light of anything."
Brother Griggs believes that the feeling of respect goes both ways and mentioned some of the many ways Egyptian officials show how they feel about the BYU project.
"They express appreciation by letting us continue our work," he said. Another way the Egyptians expressed their appreciation was by allowing BYU to host the Ramses II exhibit in 1985. Brother Griggs said: "That was a direct result of this project and the trust they had in us and the kind of work we were doing. We were called by the Egyptian government and invited to take the exhibit."
Finally, the Egyptians have permitted the BYU project to extend its DNA studies to the royal mummies such as King Tut, Ramses II, Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The BYU scientists can recreate portions of DNA blueprints to identify information about genetic traits and/or abnormalities, ethnicity, health and disease, family relationships, and cultural practices.
The project is important for many reasons and on many levels, Brother Griggs said. "One, of course, is that the Church was thrown into matters Egyptian by Joseph Smith," he pointed out. He noted that the Book of Mormon was written in reformed Egyptian and that the Prophet had a great interest in Egyptian papyrus. The book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price that Joseph Smith translated has Egyptian connections.
There is a general Christian interest in Egypt as well, Brother Griggs added. Many early biblical manuscripts can be traced to Egypt because the climate of Egypt was conducive to the preservation of the manuscripts. "Any Bible-loving person is indebted to Egyptian scribes, Egyptian papyri and the Egyptian manuscript tradition just for transmitting the Bible to us," he said. There are also biblical connections in the Bible in terms of people such as Abraham, Joseph, the people of Israel, and even Jesus who was taken to Egypt as an infant to save His life.
Outside the context of religion, Brother Griggs said, Egypt has general significance in the world, playing a greater role in influencing western civilization than was previously thought.
"In the process of discovery and evaluation, Egypt continues to be seen as a fountain of materials, thoughts, ideas, and religious beliefs, that were filtered, altered perhaps, but in many ways transmitted through the Greeks and Romans and to our own European and then American cultural tradition. So Egypt just sits there like this great fountain or source of many different levels of interest for people culturally, generally religiously, or particularly in a religious way in our own faith."