The Egyptian pyramids delight and amaze with their greatness, considering that they were built when people did not have any technology. Archaeologists exploring them usually encountered empty tombs. What did the looters take out of the tightly sealed tombs of the pharaohs, and what did they encounter there?
Pyramid construction in Ancient Egypt BC
Archaeologists are engaged in studying the pyramids built in 5-3 millennia BC, and the artifacts or writings found fill in the gaps in understanding the life of the ancient Egyptians. One can ask the question: why did people do hard work on constructing pyramids? Wouldn’t it have been better to build a factory or another enterprise? Maxim Lebedev, an Egyptologist and researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who actively participates in many archaeological expeditions, knows a lot about this.
In the Neolithic era, labor productivity began to grow. An additional product was given away, and the resources collected from people needed to be found. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M .For the full article. If it was food, grain, or animals, it could simply deteriorate. It had to be spent, and it resulted in construction. It became an indicator of the superiority of both power and material sense because the monetary system did not yet exist, and even blocks were a way of calculation. The story that King Ethiopian forced his daughter to make love to workers to earn material for his construction site by taking payment in blocks. But she was so successful in this business that she bought blocks for her father and saved up to build her pyramid.
The Egyptians had a powerful cult of the gods, and the pharaohs acted as intermediaries in communicating with them. By exalting the pharaohs, they had to be immortalized to serve as a link with the gods even after death. Therefore, temples and pyramids were built, which should not have collapsed quickly.
Building the pyramids, the Egyptians could feel like a mission for a good cause, so there is an assumption that they worked voluntarily. Besides, it was beneficial for ordinary people. They received grain, dried fish, beer, and bread for food. Farmers could be hired for construction when the waters of the Nile flooded the lower reaches, and they were left without work and means of survival.
Drawings and household items in the tombs of the kings
The Egyptians imagined the afterlife in a complex dimension. They assumed their Pharaoh acquired a different essence after death, but his soul remained alive. It would rise from the body up to the narrowing part of the pyramid and go straight to the gods. The Egyptians imagined that a particular double of him appeared, who should not need anything in the afterlife. But he may need to remember what happened during his lifetime, so past events, his world, were painted on the walls.
These are drawings about spending time and work: how bread was baked, grain was cultivated, household items, family members, friends, and much more. It was believed that the soul would get acquainted with them and know how to live on. Moreover, under the deities’ protection, the Pharaoh in the afterlife would no longer be the high person he was on earth.
He had to work and to facilitate his work, servants, some favorite animals, household items, clothes, and jewelry began to be left in the pyramids. Images of dangerous animals and snakes were supposed to carry information for the deceased Pharaoh, but they were not supposed to scare the resurrected soul. Therefore, some drawings were crossed out, as if neutralizing the effect.
The chambers of the deceased pharaohs in the pyramids were filled with everything necessary, and the grandeur of the structures attracted the attention of robbers. It was implied that a large structure must have a lot of gold and jewelry. The pyramids began to be destroyed and plundered, although there was little value. There were very few gold products, and the first gold was not in pure form but with a large amount of impurities of silver, copper, and other metals. Combs, needles, small ornaments, and small knives could be made from it.
Gold will become the country’s wealth only after the capture of Nubia by Pharaoh Thutmose III, 1.5 millennia BC. And in the period 4.5–3 millennia BC. There was still no culture of worship of gold and jewelry because there was no estimated value or monetary unit. For this reason, Tutankhamun’s tomb turned out to be rich. There were already a lot of gold objects and jewelry in it, dating back to 1400-1392 BC.
Blocks in the corridors that tightly closed the entrance
The construction of the ancient Egyptian pyramids is very complex and closed. Architects have been racking their brains over the passages and chambers to make them as convenient as possible for burial and ensure inviolability. A system was invented to block the entrances directly to the cameras, which cannot be unlocked even now.
A corridor leading to the Pharaoh’s chamber was being designed on the rock wall next to the pyramid. The length, width, and height were taken into account. Blocks were cut out according to these sizes and tested, and only if everything converged were they placed directly into the pyramid structure.
The passages narrowed and sloped to the part where the chamber entrance was located. Blocks were placed in this corridor, stopped with pins and stones driven into the walls. They were in this position while the top of the pyramid was erected and the body was placed in the tomb.
After that, the retaining objects were knocked out, and the block shifted directly to the camera’s entrance under its weight. There could be several such blocks, and each subsequent hit the one in front, driving it deeper and denser. It’s like a corkscrew in a bottle.
The structure was tightly sealed, and the Pharaoh’s body was securely protected. But the looters found another way out if they could not walk down the aisle. The walls and partitions of the chambers could be made of limestone, which could be easily destroyed. Therefore, the thieves acted in a detour, knocking out a hole in the wall nearby. When they entered the cell, they took away objects of interest that might not even be of value to them.
What do the inscriptions on the tombstones in the pyramids mean?
The ancient Egyptians began to install protective objects and inscriptions in the pyramids that would not allow them to abuse the body of their king. The inscriptions contained threats of punishment for anyone who touched the tomb. This was supposed to put fear in the robbers and ensure the possible preservation of the camera’s contents.
In the chambers where the children are buried, archaeologists came across a large number of amulets that covered the body. This could protect the child’s soul in the afterlife since she was still weak and needed more protection. The shells of the “cowry” – the “Eye of the Choir” – were used as amulets. Such shells symbolize fertility; sometimes, many were in children’s tombs. They could mean an offering to the gods so that by giving the soul of a child, they could count on others to replenish the family.
Egyptian culture changed very quickly. From the simple first pyramid, which was 60 meters high (30 meters above the ground and the same amount—a vertical shaft), they reached the highest Cheops (pyramid of Khufu in Giza)—146.6 meters from the sample of raw bricks in buildings to the stone blocks that perpetuated the ancient civilization.
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