The museum will be ready in 2012, but the opening has been delayed till 2015.
Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said in a press conference held in the Conservation Centre earlier this month: "It’s not politics, it’s culture, so the project must take its time to be implemented well.”
"We are facing difficulties because of the sudden change in the schedule. I hope that well-managed co-ordination, a good information-sharing system and a clear division of responsibility among the concerned organisations and agencies will improve things," Nakamura said.
The database for the artifacts must also be finished before the GEM opens, because the selection of the artifacts for display and their transfer to the museum can only be done on the basis of accurate information about the place of storage and the size of the artifacts.
The Egyptian side created a database for the artifacts, which will be transferred to the GEM. But there were mistakes and duplications in the entered data, due to a lack of rules governing the procedures for data entry.
Therefore, JICA decided to create the Archaeological Database Department (ADD), in order to reconstruct the database.
The ADD is visiting other museums and storehouses at archaeological sites, in order to identify the artifacts registered in the database, confirm the registration numbers and sizes, and also take photos of them, which is standard procedure.
Atsushi Suzuki, an IT expert who is revising the database, has a lot to say about it.
The JICA-GEMCC project is now employing almost 20 staff, engaged in revising the database. Suzuki is working with the manager, who is Egyptian and an Egyptologist, managing the staff and the database.
“After discussions with the manager, I have developed a simple database. We had problems with duplication and inputting errors," he told this newspaper.
"Even if we go to a site, it takes time to find the artifacts because of the wrong information. Sometimes an artifact is completely different from what we are led to believe.
“It's like we’re training every day. I believe that, in the near future, the Egyptian staff in ADD will be able to handle the work without JICA experts,” he added, smiling.
As I ended my tour of the JICA-GEMCC project, Nakamura stopped me and said:
“I’ve written a poem to express my feelings about working here. I feel really honoured and privileged to be working to preserve Egypt’s wonderful treasures.”
He gave me a copy of his poem and it went like this:
‘Receiving the light
From the world far past
On the plateau of Giza
I devote my profound delight
For preserving human heritage.’
