| Author | Message | ||
     Bill Houghton (165.247.16.222) |
All of the pyramids built during the Old and Middle Kingdoms were robbed despite the best efforts of the builders. However, I propose an alternative plan to thwart these robbers! If I was pharaoh, I would built my pyramid with a big vertical shaft whose entrance would be from the top of the pyramid! There would be only one big room at the bottom of the shaft and it would be located in the exact middle location of the body of the pyramid. After burial, the pyramidion would cover the top and weigh several tons. Also, the entire pyramid would be built using the hardest stone available which was granite. By this method, gaining entrance would be impossible because there is no normal entrance that other pyramids had. What do you think? | ||
| Ritva (212.246.17.130) |
Hi Bill, your idea is an excellent one, but I have an even better one. If I was a pharaoh, I'd build a pyramid and have myself buried elsewhere  | ||
| Lucius (195.29.134.56) |
Dear Bill, I think that your funerary priests would have a realy hard (not to say impossible) time burying you and performing all the nessecary rites then. You have to respect various ideas of pyramid architects, who were acctualy rather ingenious about protecting their dead kings. They simply could not know that would-be grave-robers and archeologists will start using gunpowder and dynamite. Dear Ritva, your proposal would, most likley, be an excelent cause for the ancient Egyptian revolution! Imagine that, after 20 (or 40 year) of painful labour of tens of thousand workers, you as a king come out beofre them and pronounce "You've realy put some work into that pyramid, guys, now go and dig a hole in the sand for me somewhere!" best regards Lucius | ||
| b.j.barnes (12.81.203.175) |
Hi All; If I were pharaoh I would build a great tomb like mentioned. Then, I would have left instructions to have ALL the priests involved in the burial destroyed. That way I could almost be sure my grave would be undisturbed as I recall reading most of the "tomb-robbers" were the priests themselves. What you think of that idea for insurance? Maybe not such a good idea? Yes? No? b.j. :o) | ||
| nicholas sangtidy (203.221.28.59) |
i don't know if the priests took them i think everyday people did it/very smart everyday people my name is nick | ||
| b.j.barnes (12.82.163.78) |
Nick read this-Quotes about tomb robberies from:The Khufu-Khafre Chasm "It is quite possible, acctualy, that the priests of king's funerary cult were the main pyramid robbers, especialy during such chaotic periods; and the fact is that the funerary cults of most kings did not last as long or as continualy as ther kings would like them to". By Lucius 3/14/02 "- One ought not fall into the trap of believing that only "commoner" thieves ransacked burials in Egypt. If the MK kings thought nothing of quarrying OK monuments for stone, why would they stop there? More importantly, what about the FIP? Theft can be officially sanctioned, particularly in a culture which permits this. In AE, the new god-king was perfectly able to appropriate whatever came before him. It was his, after all". Brent 3/13/02 | ||
| ned waller (24.53.132.133) |
In 1999 I went to Egypt to find answers to questions such as these. The most important thing I learned is that no mummy has ever been found inside ANY pyramid, except for some that were stockpiled; but no original burial. It is assumed that graverobbers took them, but this would be self-defeating. To be caught with a king's mummy would be incriminating, and perhaps bring on a curse as well.They certainly had no resale value. I have never seen any evidence that the pyramids were built for tombs. It is just an assumption. Has there been any discussion here about what might have been the real reason? | ||
| J.D. Degreef (213.177.133.9) |
Ned, Your information is wrong : human remains have indeed been found in a number of pyramids (I have drawn up a list on this BB a few years ago). The problem is indeed to prove that they had belonged to the kings who built the monuments. This is a problem in as far as, as you write, the Saite kings piously tried to restore the burials, and sometimes mistook (later) bodies found in the passages for the kings. This at least shows that they thought the pyramids were tombs ! Carbon dating is often too imprecise, especially when the bodies in question were indeed from the Old Kingdom, as shown by the "embalming" technique. So you can't say that none of the human remains found in pyramids were original, as there is yet no proof either way. But to me an Old Kingom body found inside a pyramid is most probably the king, as one in a modern tomb is probably the owner whose name is written on the stone. You may also have noticed the presence of sarcophagi in pyramids ! Besides, pyramids were no tombs in the modern sense (a container for the body and a place for people to remember the deceased). They were part of cult complexes where the deceased was worshipped as a power, what we call a "god", where his cyclic powerlessness was undone by rituals, allowing his regeneration, possibly so that he could have a positive action on the Universe. JD | ||
| Bill Houghton (165.247.19.55) |
All of the human remains found inside the pyramids were fragments. A complete body of an Old Kingdom or Middle Kingdom pharaoh has never been found. The closest and most complete remains were found from an obscure Sixth Dynasty pharaoh's pyramid. That mummy is now housed at the Cairo Museum and has never been on display to the public. There was a short article along with a few pictures of that body a few years ago in the KMT magazine. | ||
| Brent Benjamin (24.196.181.112) |
Ned, you might consult Batrawi's article on the human remains found in the Red Pyramid which he dated to the Old Kingdom. Also, don't forget the Step Pyramid. If there is an interest area for you, it is unfortunate that you couldn't have joined the Guardians Pyramid Tour in 2000. | ||
| J.D. Degreef (213.177.133.97) |
Ned, I can even e-mail you scans of the BATRAWI article, if your mailbox can handle them. JD |
