Talking Pyramids

A 3300 year old tomb belonging to the mayor of Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt has been rediscovered at Saqqara, just south of the Unas pyramid causeway.

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.

With the tomb of Ptahmes though, there were clues scattered all over the world. Some of the artefacts that had been looted in the 19th century now reside in museums in the United States, the Netherlands, Italy, and even in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. These artefacts all contained information about the tomb, giving their own clues. Pillars that were removed from the tomb, for example are now kept in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.

The expedition’s spokeswoman Heba Mostapha on the damage caused by these early tomb raiders:

“Part of the destruction we found in the grave was because its pillars were used to build churches in the Christian period and it was looted in the 19th century in the period of Mohammed Ali Pasha,”

Even though the tomb was already looted in the 19th century, when the rediscovery was finally made by the team from Cairo University’s archaeology department they found a range of artefacts including several stelae, amulets including an eye of Horus, shabtis, fragments of statues of Ptahmes and his wife and/or daughter. Scenes of people fishing in boats made of bundles of papyrus reeds can be seen on the walls as well as offerings to deities and the deceased, and his family worshipping a trinity of gods, Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu.

Though the tomb is very large at 70 meters in length with passages and rooms branching from it, the team have not yet found the mummy of the mayor himself. The search continues for the main burial chamber of the tomb where the team hope to find the body of Ptahmes and perhaps also the body his wife.

The pillars now reside in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (State Museum of Antiquities), Leiden, as do these seated statues from the tomb of Ptahmes.

Sources:
Dawn.com
NPR has photos of some of the items found such as the sacrifice table, an unfinished funeral painting of Ptahmes.
Photos of the pillars from the tomb of Ptahmes by Hans Ollermann, All rights reserved.

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Tags: ptahmes, Saqqara