In 1986 Emile Amèlineau turns his excavations in a treasure hunt. This man, in fact, is not an archeologist , but he studies the Coptic language and doesn’t have the least experience in archaeological excavations; worse, he is financed by dealers of antiques, that don’t have the least interest in the scientific research but only look for pieces to sell on the market of antiques at the best offer. He is the one that guides the peasant-diggers. He has a regular permission to excavate in Abydos, the holy city of God Osiri with the great temple of Seth I, father of the famous Ramses II. Once he began the excavations there, he moved always more west in the desert until he met Umm el Qaab. Amèlineau discovers the tombs of the first sovereigns of the dynastic Egypt ì, the sovereigns of the I and II dynasty,that unified Egypt and founded the basis of the State, of the art and the thinking. With this discovery Amèlineau includes his name in the Egyptian archaeology history but also in inflamed letters, on the black book of science. For four years Amèlineau not only continues the excavations with no rules nor respect, doesn’t publish the reports, wildly ravages the tombs ( he had discovered and counted up to sixteen tombs), but, even worse, when he finds antiques that have a double, he saves some destroying the others to increase their value. Who should think these are exaggerations caused by the arguments after the excavations, can read the words by Amèlineau himself “… the ones that were broken and the ones I broke in crumbs…(report on the excavation, “Fouilles” 1987). And more, referring to the jars that for five thousands years had preserved the ointments, Amèlineau brags that “ the fat materials burn for days and days, as I have experienced myself”:
The devastation ends when, satisfied with the raids and destructions done and sure that he hadn’t left anything for the archaeologists that would have excavated after, he leaves the excavations. Amèlineau leaves an area of ruins devastated to the point of risking to lose any possibility to know better the sovereigns of the two dynasties. Yet the proof of the historical presence of these pharaohs had been well known for some time, as the archaeologist Quibell had excavated in 1984 in the area of the ancient Hyerakonpolis (near Edfu) discovering important documents with the name of king Selk, “The Scorpion” and Narmer, of whom he found the famous “palette” which is today in the Museum in Cairo.