Quote of the Week: Von Igelfeld on German Archaeology

People were used to the Germans discovering all sorts of things; most of Mycenaean civilisation had been unearthed by Schliemann and other German scholars in the nineteenth century, and the only reason why the British discovered the Minoans was because they more or less tripped up and fell into a hole, which happened to be filled with elaborate grave goods. There was not much credit in that, at least in von Igelfeld's view. The same could be said of Egyptology, although in that case one had to admit that there had been a minor British contribution, bumbling and amateurish though it was.

Those eccentric English archaeologists who had stumbled into Egyptian tombs had more or less got what they deserved, in von Igelfeld's view, when they were struck down by mysterious curses (probably no more than long dormant microbes sealed into the pyramids). That would never had happened had it been German archaeology that made the discovery; the German professors would undoubtedly would have sent their assistants in first. (Alexander McCall Smith, 2003)

• Von Igelfeld on German Archaeology, source of the quotation
• Schliemann and Evans and Carter (oh my!)
• More Quotes about Archaeology from Writers