Kent Weeks Interview (page: 6 / 7) Living Legend of Egyptology	Print Interview

Regardless of the field -- it doesn't have to be archeology -- what personal characteristics do you think are most important for achievement, for success?

Kent Weeks: Number one: perseverance. And I think that, more than anything else, is crucial. That will compensate for a whole lot of things. In my case, I'm not the greatest philologist in the world. I can read Egyptian hieroglyphs, but I am by no means on a par with many of my colleagues. But if I persevere, if I work at it, I can finally make it out. I think that's important. Number two: a willingness to cooperate and be cooperative with your colleagues. I think a degree of collegiality, in a field like Egyptology particularly, is absolutely crucial.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I have no qualms at all about asking a philologist, to say, "Look, I'm having problems reading these texts. Would you please take on that aspect of this work for me? And we will give you full credit for having done this." In other words, I'm not trying to put my name on the cover of the book and exclude everybody else from getting any credit from it. I think that would be wrong-headed. It would be destructive, not just of the quality of the book, it would be destructive of our ultimate goal, which is to protect and preserve these monuments. That's the single most important goal that we have. I think that along with this -- and this has been a hard lesson for me to learn -- but I think it's extremely important to be kind and to be considerate. I have learned the hard way, over many years, that you don't make headway by being mean or nasty or vindictive. You don't make headway by ignoring people, or failing to inform them of what you're doing, or how what you're doing might be of value to them. Again, this goes back to collegiality. Again. We're all here in the same boat. I mean, my boat is an Egyptological one, let's say, and my ultimate goal is to protect these monuments, excavate this tomb and make sure that it's going to be there safe and sound and well documented for the next thousand years. I can't possibly do that alone. This is a group effort, and the older I get, the more I think that group efforts are basically what most of life is all about. Even if you're a poet, or a painter sitting in a darkened room -- or in the case of a painter, a well-lit room -- composing, nevertheless, what you're doing is ultimately the result of your interactions with other people. Those are extremely important. And the way in which you deal with those, and the way in which you help other people to deal with similar things in their own work, I think is crucial.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

What have you learned about achievement that you didn't know when you were younger? What has experience taught you?

Kent Weeks: I think probably the most significant things are the importance of a degree of self-confidence, a willingness. Certainly, everyone has self-doubts. Every day of the week we all have asked the question, "Are we doing the right thing?" But I think a degree of self-confidence is crucial. I think perseverance is crucial. I think a willingness to share with other people. And probably the single most important thing, in fact, revolves around other people. One cannot operate in a vacuum. Even Henry David Thoreau did not operate in a vacuum. You are interacting constantly with other people, contributing to their lives, they to yours. And to the extent that any of us are going to succeed in life, I think the way in which we interact with other people is probably one of the most crucial aspects of our lives. Now, the joy of knowing that is that it is also one of the most pleasant parts of our lives. We're very social creatures, we human beings. And the more we are able to interact with people, to talk to people, to benefit, to listen -- not just to talk to, but to listen to other people -- our lives are going to be a lot fuller, a lot richer.

Is there anything that you've thought about doing that you haven't done, that you would like to do?

Kent Weeks: There are several things I would like to do. Some archeological and some not.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Archeologically, I would love to finish off this work, which I seriously doubt I'm going to be able to do in my lifetime now, the tomb is just so big. And we have a moral obligation, not just to leave this tomb in proper shape, but to finish the archeological database of the whole Valley of the Kings that started this project to begin with. That's going to be several years, and it's going to mean a lot of fundraising and all the rest of it to be done. But were that done, I would love to go off and excavate a site in Egypt that has fascinated me for years, a site called Coptos, which lies right at the mouth of a valley that connects the Nile River with the Red Sea, through which -- for the last probably ten- to 15,000 years -- major caravans, trading expeditions have traveled. It was the main route in Roman times to India. The quarries in this valley were the source of much of the stone used to build St. Peter's. In ancient times, it was the route to Somalia and to the spice markets of East Africa. In more recent times, it has been a major route of invasion and trade. This city, which goes back probably into the Neolithic period, lies right at the mouth of this valley, and I think is stratified layer upon layer with a history of Egypt for the last 10,000 years, and a history of Egypt's relations with foreign countries for the last 10,000 years. I think it could be a spectacular site.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

Now, as far as non-Egyptological things, I'd like to do some more salmon fishing in Alaska. My son and I went up there last year, had a wonderful time. I would like to be able to have a little more time to finish a grandfather clock I started building about ten years ago and still haven't managed to put together. I'd like to do a whole lot more reading. I'd like to do some more traveling. And I'd like to do some more writing. I'm very interested in doing both books and television, or videos that would be designed for the younger reader, or the younger viewer.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I was eight or nine, I was fascinated by ancient Egypt. The frustration at going to our local public library in this small town and finding there were only six or seven books, it was terrific. I mean, you went so far, and bang! You had to stop. Now it's possible -- for example, with a map of the Valley of the Kings that we're doing, with a CD-ROM -- we could produce something that would provide all of the technical information on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings that a professional Egyptologist would need, that a conservator would need, or that a planner for tourism would need. But at the same time, we could include other materials, so you do a fly-through of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. You stop and look at a wall, zoom in on a figure of a god, push a button, and say, "Tell me about this god. Who is it?" In other words, it's not a CD specifically for the professional, neither is it a simple-minded CD that is great for the eight- or nine-year-old, but doesn't allow him to proceed. I would like to see something that would allow the eight- or nine-year-old to go as far as his imagination would carry him. To go through the simple material, learn it, but then move on into more complex, more detailed aspects of ancient Egyptian history, the history of the Valley of the Kings. I think that could be a really, truly exciting educational tool. And I think it could be a fun one as well.

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