Talking Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Pyramids

Giulio Magli was in the news a couple of years ago with his grand plan for Giza, the idea that the three Giza pyramids were arranged to form a line that points to Heliopolis, an important religious center sacred to the sun god.

Last March he was back with an extension of that idea, creating a grid that may indicate the location of the lost pyramid of Userkare at South Saqqara, directly south of Djoser’s Step pyramid.

Now he’s back with “The Cosmic Landscape in the Age of the Pyramids”, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Cosmology. Here is the abstract:

The pyramids of Egypt are to be counted among the most outstanding works of architecture in the whole of human history. The sites for their construction were chosen in accordance with topographical criteria which, while taking practical needs into account, were also profoundly and intimately connected with Maat, the cosmic order. As a consequence, the pyramid’s fields are criss-crossed by geometrical axes which were – and partially still are – easily perceptible on the ground. In the 4th and the 5th dynasty, such axes ideally connected the monuments with the temple of Heliopolis on the opposite bank of the Nile, while during the 6th dynasty new pyramids were ideally connected with older ones by means of meridian – south to north – alignments. In recent years, the present author attempted to provide a comprehensive analysis of this sacred landscape, and of its astronomical and symbolical interpretation in terms of the “cosmovision” of the ancient Egyptians. The present paper offers a brief but complete overview of the results of this analysis.

Read the full article in the Journal of Cosmology: The Cosmic Landscape in the Age of the Pyramids, by Giulio Magli

Photo from the New York Public Library.

In the past it has been a struggle to keep up to date with which sites are open to visitors and those that are closed. I keep in regular contact with sources in Egypt as well as travellers who have recently visited the sites. I have used news websites, blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and other online social networks and resources to keep the information on Talking Pyramids up to date. It’s not been an easy task.

Over the weekend, for example, I read that more pyramids are opening to the public. According to the report 14 pyramids at Abusir will be opening to the public, an example of how a lot of the information found online is contradictory and misleading. There are not even that many pyramids located at Abusir, and it is unlikely that all of the pyramids at Abusir will be opening to the public in any case.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the last 24 hours a bit more information on the discovery of what has become known as the ‘Father & Son’ tombs located west of the pyramid of Unas at Saqqara has been released as well as more photos and a video.

An obvious point I missed is the cartouche of Pepi II and the reference to his pyramid written on the right side of the false door inside the tomb: Nefer-ka-Re men ankh, which means ‘Pepi is Established and Living’. Other text on the false doors identified Shendwa and his son Khonsu as royal scribes and “supervisors of the mission,” indicating that they were in charge of delegations overseeing the supply of materials used in the construction of Pepi II’s pyramid.

The video shows the arrangement of the tombs and I was intrigued by the set of ritual instruments that included a pesesh-kef tool used in the ‘Opening of the Mouth’ ceremony, as well as a jar and cup. The stone plate in which these were placed has some pieces missing and it can be observed that the remaining ‘jar’ is solid and doesn’t have a hollow inside, making it practically non-functional as a jar.

Egyptologist Ann Macy Roth explains:


”In archaelogical and textual evidence alike, the psš-kf knife consistently occurs as part of the same collection of objects. In the Pyramid Texts, these objects are presented in a sequence that is the earliest attested form of the ‘opening of the mouth’ ceremony. The speeches accompanying the presentations suggest that the psš-kf and the objects associated with it were the equipment for a ritual mimicking birth and childhood, and that the role of the psš-kf in this process was to cut the umblical cord of a newborm baby.” 
- from “The PSŠ-KF and the ‘Opening of the Mouth’ Ceremony: a Ritual of Birth and Rebirth”

“The psš-kf does not normally occur in isolation. In the Old Kingdom, it was consistently grouped with a set of other objects.”, “the same assemblage of objects: the forked psš-kf knife, two hrts-bottles (one of black and one of white stone), and four or five straight-sided hnt-cups…”, sometimes including “ntrwj-blades”, which were finger shaped.” – 
from “Fingers, Stars, and the ‘Opening of the Mouth’: the Nature and Function of the Ntrwj-blades”, also by Ann Macy Roth

It would seem from the image taken from the video that the black stone components of this set are missing, possibly smashed as part of the funerary ritual.

Further reading:
Miniature ‘Opening of the Mouth’ ritual set
Egypt Unveils Discovery Of 4,300-Year-Old Tombs (contains a slide show with many more photos)
Archaeologists unearth ancient Egyptian tomb of father and son (with close up shots of the artifacts discovered).
Press Release – Two new tombs discovered at Saqqara from the website of Dr Zahi Hawass.

False door from the newly discovered tomb

Inside the father’s was found a beautiful false door (pictured right) with a typical depiction of the deceased in front of an offering table filled with provisions. The accompanying text gives the titles of Shendwa, including ‘cheif of scribes’, ‘overseer of missions’ and other standard titles.

“When I managed to get to the shaft I have found that it was intact as it was difficult to get to and even tomb robbers couldn’t get to it.” – Zahi Hawass

The official SCA press release:

“Two rock-hewn painted tombs considered as two of the most distinguished tombs ever found from the Old Kingdom were discovered last week at Saqqara necropolis. Cultural Minister, Mr. Farouk Hosni, announced today that the tombs were found during a routine excavation carried out by an Egyptian mission at an area called “Gisr El-Mudir” located to the west of the Step Pyramid of Djoser. The team has been working in the area since 1968. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, who is also the leader of the excavation mission, said that the tombs belong to a father, Shendwa, and his son, Khonsu. The father’s tomb consists of a painted false door depicting scenes of the deceased seated before an offering table. The door also bears the different titles of the tomb’s owner who was a top governmental official during the Sixth Dynasty (2374-2191 BC). He was the head of the royal scribes and the supervisor of the missions as well as other honorary titles. The tomb’s burial shaft is located directly beneath the false door, meters below the ground level.

When Dr. Hawass descended into the tomb he realized that it was intact and had not previously been plundered by tomb robbers. Unfortunately Shendwas’s wooden sarcophagus had disintegrated due to humidity and erosion. Beside the sarcophagus, a collection of limestone jars was found including five offering vessels carved in the shape of a duck. Upon opening the vessels, Dr. Hawass discovered that the bones of the ducks were still intact.

Inside the burial shaft a painted relief and a 30 cm tall obelisk made of limestone were also discovered. “This obelisk is a symbol of worshiping the sun god Re,” said Hawass pointing out that the ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom used to erect small obelisks in front of their tombs and inside the temples related to the tombs of the Queens’ pyramids. Next to the father’s tomb, excavators discovered Shendwa’s son Khonsu. It is a beautifully painted tomb with a false door bearing Khonsu’s different titles. It appears that Khonsu inherited the same titles as his father. Excavators located an offering table just opposite to the false door as well as a stone lintel on the floor. Hawass said that the lintel is engraved with symbols that belong to the 6th dynasty. On top of the false door, is a small lintel depicting a colored relief of the deceased in different poses.”

More:
Colourful ancient tombs unearthed in Egypt
2 new Pharaonic tombs unearthed in Saqqara
Image: SCA handout

Scientist have used new radiocarbon dating techniques to precisely lock down the historical chronology of ancient Egypt.

Plant material from various periods of Egypt’s ancient past were dated using the new techniques to verify the accuracy of our current understanding of ancient Egypt’s history.

Seeds over 4,500 years old that were discovered beneath the pyramid of Djoser were tested and the dates of his reign were accurately determined.

Seeds found beneath the pyramid of Djoser give a more accurate chronology

Thomas Higham, another member of the team who is also from the University of Oxford, explained that many items were found in ancient Egyptians’ tombs and other archeological sites “where we could independently determine their historical age”

“We also used seeds from a room underneath the Saqqara step pyramid dated to a specific year of the reign of King Djoser,” he said.

…

Dr Ramsey’s team was able to determine the exact period when this king reigned Egypt – from about 2691 to roughly 2625 BC, said the scientist.

The team found that this particular event took place earlier that previously thought.

“For the first time, radiocarbon dating has become precise enough to constrain the history of ancient Egypt to very specific dates,” said Dr Ramsey.

According to accepted chronologies, such as that developed by Professor John Baines and Dr Jaromir Malek, Djoser reigned from 2630 to 2611 BC.

In an interview with Cosmic Logic Oxford University’s Christopher Bronk Ramsey explains some of the complexities involved:

Cosmic Log: Because the slight discrepancy in dates seems to be systemic (consistently earlier based on radiocarbon data), what might the explanation be? Might there be a systemic factor in the carbon-dating process that puts the top of the curve consistently earlier, or are there selections of key dates (based on astronomical or other dating techniques) that throw things off systemically?

Bronk Ramsey: It depends on exactly what you mean here. Are you referring to the fact that the radiocarbon chronology is earlier than some of the historical chronologies? If so, I’d point out that the chronology is very similar to the consensus published by Shaw and for the New Kingdom. Our results for, e.g., Tutankhamun are both very precise and just where you would expect them to be.

If you are referring (as I suspect) to the fact that the radiocarbon dates lie, on average, just above the calibration curve in our fits, this is an issue that we investigated in some detail. This effect is also seen for material from the last few centuries (plant specimens taken by botanists in the 18th and 19th centuries). The reason for this is, we think, due to the fact that the amount of radiocarbon in the atmosphere varies in a regular way during the year. There is less in the winter and more in the summer. In Egypt, the plants in the Nile Valley tend to grow in the winter, when the floods come, and this means that the radiocarbon ratio is slightly lower than for plants in, for example, Northern Europe where the calibration data comes from. The effect of this is that the dates in Egypt are on average about 20 years older.

Read more at the sources below.

Sources:
Radiocarbon dating verifies ancient Egypt’s history.
How Old is That Mummy Anyway
Egyptian kingdoms dated
Constraining the Reign of Ancient Egypt: Radiocarbon Dating Helps to Nail Down the Chronology of Kings, Researchers Say

Photo by John Kannenberg. Some rights reserved.

Statue of Sneferu in the Egyptian Museum

That is the question being asked by researchers from Brigham Young University.

Last year Professor Kerry Muhlestein stated that he believed the team had uncovered evidence of a unified plan and suggested we need to adjust our understanding of what the intended purpose of pyramids was.

In January the team of professionals, professors and a few students from BYU set out to map Sneferu’s fourth pyramid using GPS and continue their excavation of an ancient cemetery located nearby.

Now the team is back in the news with the quest to find out why there are, by their own estimates, over one million mummies buried there.

“We estimate over a million bodies in this cemetery…it’s very very densely populated by mummies…only a small percentage of them have been unearthed…

We’ve been digging there for 30 years and we could dig there for a hundred more and still have only done a small percentage.” – Professor Kerry Muhlestein.

These burials are not contemporary with Sneferu’s reign however, with most being from the Graeco-Roman period thousands of years later. Nor was it a local cemetery as many of the bodies are believed to have been brought from other villages.

Muhlestein continues:

“It’s such a huge cemetery it’s hard to account for where all these people would have lived – the population centres around there don’t seem to substantiate that many burials…

Maybe these are people coming from a variety of communities, all around, being buried in this place. We’re not sure what would account for such a large number of burials…

It probably is at least partially responsible for why there’s a cemetery there…

It seems very reasonable to suppose that the pyramid designated that as a sacred place.

“Once that place is a sacred place it typically will remain a sacred place.”

As well as the pyramid at Seila, Sneferu has three other pyramids built. These include the ‘Red’ pyramid & the ‘Bent’ pyramid at Dahshur, and the ‘Collapsed’ or ‘False’ pyramid at Meidum.

Read more:
Talking Pyramids News
BYU ‘campus’ extends to pyramids of Egypt
Mystery of million mummies buried near Snefu’s Seila pyramid

Image from Wikimedia. Some rights reserved.

Ptahmes as depicted in his tomb

Until it’s discovery earlier this year, the tomb had been lost since 1885, when treasure hunters first raided the tomb, removing wall panels and other items. Shortly after the Egyptian sands once again covered up the tomb, hiding it’s location for 125 years.

“Since then it was covered by sand and no one knew about it,” said Ola el-Aguizy, the Cairo University archaeology professor who led the excavation. “It is important because this tomb was the lost tomb.”

It seems difficult to imagine how such a large tomb, reported as being 70 meters long, can be ‘lost’. The desert has a hunger for tombs and can gobble up large necropolises in no time at all. In the last couple of years at Saqqara alone there have been many finds as teams of archaeologists work to remove the sand. Looking at just the pyramids, we saw the rediscovery of the pyramid of Menkauhor which Lepsius had discovered and documented in 1842 only to be lost in again under the sand. That was followed by the discovery of the pyramid of Sesheshet, then the discovery of the pyramid of Behenu. There is also the quest to find the lost pyramid of Userkare, which Lepsius may also have mapped but has since been lost under the sands.

Read the rest of this entry »