ABSTRACT
The decipherment of hieroglyphs was perhaps the most important advance in the history of Egyptology, but an almost equally significant development was the gradual evolution of archaeology from the pursuit of hidden treasure into a scientific discipline. Even in antiquity, robbers had ransacked tombs, and there is an account by the fifteenth-century AD Arab writer, Ibn Khaldoun, that treasure-seeking was so widespread that it was classified and taxed as an industry. Once Mohammed Ali had opened up Egypt to foreign influences in the early nineteenth century, and Champollion's decipherment of hieroglyphs had made Europeans aware of Egypt's rich heritage, there was a great intensification of treasure-hunting. Collectors sought a wide range of antiquities including small objects such as scarabs, amulets and papyri as well as coffins, mummies and large inscribed blocks cut from the walls of tombs and temples. These antiquities were required for museums and private collections, and dealers and collectors employed excavators to undertake treasure hunts which would provide them with spectacular pieces. In addition, wealthy travellers and tourists to Egypt sought out curios to take home as souvenirs.
