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.

Related posts:

1. Ancient Egypt News for Sunday 20-12-09
2. Storeroom of Mummies Discovered at Saqqara
3. Report on the Mummies’ Trip to the Hospital

In the video Lisa Bruno, head conservator of objects at the Brooklyn Museum, discusses the nature of many of the animal mummies in the Brooklyn Museum’s collection. She begins her presentation, however, with the scanning of the human mummy, Demetrios, who was scanned at the North Shore University Hospital in October 2007. Found in Hawara, Egypt, by the 1910 British school of archaeology, he was transported to the Brooklyn Museum in 1911.

He is part of a group of about 14 Roman mummies that are called ‘Red Shroud Mummies’, due the outer cover of linen being painted with red paint. Samples of the paint from six of these mummies were analyzed and they were all found to be painted with a red led paint from a common source, a region in southern Spain. This finding reveals much about the nature of trade routes in ancient times.

Not only did the team find out from the recent CT scanning that he was actually male, not female as originally catelogued, but the age of Demetrious was able to be confirmed as being 59.

Animal Mummies from Brooklyn Museum.

Lisa goes on to describe many of the animal mummies in the collection showing X-rays and pointing out many interesting features. Some of the items discussed include a guilded Ibis mummy, a metal statue of Wadjet-Bast with some surprises inside, cats with long teeth and their relationship with the domestic cat, fake cat mummies, a look at a range of mummified birds including the intricate weaving on human-shaped bird mummies, crocodile mummies and a look at resin used in mummified animals as evidence of trade routes.

Read the full story over with photos at the Brooklyn Museum website: Animal Mummy Update

Photo of the Cat Mummy X-Ray courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Related posts:

1. Brooklyn Museum Plays Tag!
2. Brooklyn Museum Puts Collection Online
3. Mummies Go to Hospital – Live Coverage!

Shelley Bernstein, Brooklyn Museum’s technology geek, delivered a running commentary with photos as the four mummies were taken from the museum to the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

Tina determines the best route

As Tina puzzled over a fold-out street map to determine what the best route was that should be taken, one observer Ian suggested Shelly help Tina by using the GoogleMaps application on her iPhone instead. Apparently Tina wanted a real map so Shelley checked the current state of the traffic on the iPhone instead.

Here’s one of her tweets:

brooklynmuseum: Figuring out good route to bring mummies into hospital #mummyCT

In no time at all word had spread all over the world as more people came on to Twitter to follow the event. Others were able to do so because all of messages, or ‘tweets’ as they are known as, had the keyword “#mummyCT” added to them. Others wanting to engage also used that keyword, or ‘hashtag’.

Shelley mentioned that there was an interview with the doctors from the hospital on the radio station 1010 Wins and within minutes someone had found the link to the audio and posted it to Twitter for the rest of us to listen to as we watched.

Shelley reads the Twitter responses

brooklynmuseum: just heard drs in hallway talking about their 1010wins interview – cute, right? http://twurl.nl/ih1bvi (expand) #mummyCT

We then received a snippet of the discussion between Dr Ousid and Egyptian Curator Ed Bleiberg:

Dr: there’s often a lot of air around the linens, making organs easier to see…depends on how well preserved

Ed Bleiberg: we’re interested in the organs that may still be in there…

Dr. Ousid – scanning will only take 60 seconds per mummy…

Meanwhile, Paul measured the room and hallways to determine how to best allow the the art handlers and conservators to move the mummies into the building.

As word spread around the internet other Museums began tuning in to follow what the Brooklyn Museum was doing.

Scanning begins:

Lady Hor was the largest mummy in the scanner and there was some question over whether or not she would fit:

..first mummy in the scanner is Lady Hor (we think she’s female, hoping to find out!)…resin in the brain, somthing in the chest cavity, crossed hands – still looking at gender…dr looking at pelvis to try and determine gender…

Natron sacks were found inside of Lady Hor as well as four wrapped organs – consistent with what they were expecting. Then, as the specialists were looking closer at the scans for more information, Shelly announced to the world the news that would change history: Lady Hor was not a lady but in fact a man!

brooklynmuseum: it’s a boy! – scrotum and penis pretty well preserved, but the anthropoid coffins says “woman” but going for closer look #mummyCT

It's a boy!

What a discovery! It was like a plot from a movie and we were watching it unfold live before us…and that was just the first of four mummies to be put through the CT scanner.

Mummy number 2, otherwise known as “anon man” was then scanned. Until this CT scan very little was known about mummy #2 who lived roughly around the time 300-400 BC. The scan showed that he was well preserved, had no organs and showed the brain preserved in the skull, the nose not being cracked to remove the brain. It even showed a preserved beard as indicated by his portrait.

One of the mummies was then wheeled through the hostpital for a press conference, the hospital staff gathering around snapping pics with their cell phones.

Here is part of the press conference:

Ed at press conf: ongoing process to study mummies @brooklynmuseum to determ more info cause + date of death among other things

Dr Chusid reviews prelim findings such as diffs of methods of preservation w/ diff time periods.

Drs will be trying to make 3D reconstructions in a little while – we’ll try and share those a bit later.

Ed: we thought Lady Hor was a woman because there was no beard, but CT reveals a penis

Drs saying we won’t know everything today, but will be continuing to review.

Ed: @brooklynmuseum started doing non-invasive xrays of mummies in 1936 – much better quality in CT scans today

Ed: now pronouncing mummy names for reporters (forget it, i’m not going to even *try* and go there!)

A reed in his throat?

Reporters now asking about transgender practices in egypt re: “lady” Hor – Ed: “um, no” … and then gives lots of specifics.

Ed: may need to rethink what we know about beards, lots of talk about burial practice.

Ed talking about what he learned: “shows the basic humanity of the ancient Egyptians”.

Ed: “these are our best preserved human mummies, which is why we brought them”.

Ed: two mummies, including “lady” Hor will go back on view in the galleries June 30.

Ed on who the mummies were in society: inscriptions tell us a lot, so does the quality of the coffin and the materials used.

Next mummy #3, Thothirdes was scanned and then mummy #4, Pasebakhaienipet. There were a few surprises, probably the strangest was that a reed was found in Pasebakhaienipet’s esophagus, not his SARCophagus, his ESophagus!

Brooklyn Museum’s innovative use of social networks to engage with the public has once again proved to be a great success. I am sure other museums are taking notes and learning that these tools are a very effective way of sharing this sort of information with the public.

Keep an eye on the Brooklyn Museum’s blog for more information as there will be a series of updates on yesterday’s trip to the hospital.

More information:
Mummy #1: Lady (sic) Hor
Mummy #2: “anon man”, scan showing brain
Mummy #3: Thothirdes
Mummy #4: Coffin and Mummy Board of Pasebakhaemipet

Yesterday’s post: Mummies Go to Hospital – Live Coverage!
Twitter: the source of the live reports.
Flickr: the Set of photos of the event.
Audio: Egyptian Mummies to Get CAT Scans at L.I. Hospital
Related story: LI hospital CT scan may shed new light on mummies
Related story: Demetrios Gets CT Scanned
Related story: More on mummies…

Related posts:

1. Mummies Go to Hospital – Live Coverage!
2. Update on the Brooklyn Mummy Scans
3. Storeroom of Mummies Discovered at Saqqara

“It’s possible that we will find the cause of death, history of ancient disease, and be able to verify which methods of mummification were used,” said Edward Bleiberg, the museum’s curator of Egyptian art.”

The mummies, two male, two female, will undergo a 64-slice computed tomography scan that will allow radiologists to examine the mummies in great detail.

“It’s the same procedure for living people to look at coronary arteries for blockages of the heart, but obviously the mummy’s heart is not there anymore, unless they used something to preserve it,” said Dr. Amgad Makaryus, director of cardiac CT and MRI at North Shore. “I think the thing that strikes me is the way we are able to use the very most modern equipment to study these ancient people,” Bleiberg said. “It’s a fascinating juxtaposition of the very old and the very new to gain new knowledge.”

Source: LI hospital CT scan may shed new light on mummies

Shelley Bernstein, the Museum’s chief geek has informed me that they will be covering the trip live so I have knocked up a widget and embedded it in this page so that others can follow the journey.

Come back to this page at 7am EST, or 12pm UTC to follow the action live. You’ll have to refresh the page to see the latest photos.

Twitter: the source of the live reports.
Flickr: the source of the live photos.
Read more: LI hospital CT scan may shed new light on mummies
Audio: Egyptian Mummies to Get CAT Scans at L.I. Hospital
Related story: Demetrios Gets CT Scanned
Brooklyn Museum on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brooklynmuseum

Related posts:

1. Report on the Mummies’ Trip to the Hospital
2. Millions of Mummies and Sneferu’s Pyramid
3. Update on the Brooklyn Mummy Scans

This time the find involves four more anthropomorphic sarcophagi made of wood, together with some related grave goods. These goods include three wooden canopic jars, and four ushabti boxes containing 38 wooden ushabti figures. Unfotunately the sarcophagi are empty, having been robbed in antiquity.

“The tomb also contained three wooden Canopic jars, in which ancient Egyptians tried to preserve internal organs, and four boxes for ushabti figures, the miniature statues of servants to serve the dead person in the afterlife, the statement said.

The sarcophaguses did not contain mummies because the tomb was robbed in ancient times but have the original black and yellow paintwork showing ancient Egyptian gods, it said.

One of the ushabti boxes is in excellent condition and was unopened but most of the 38 wooden figurines inside were broken. It belonged to a man by the name of Tut Bashu, who was the original owner of one of the coffins.

Another sarcophagus belonged to someone called Ari Saraa. The statement gave no further details of the dead people but said the burials dated from the Ramesside period or the Late Dynastic Period — anywhere between about 1300 and 330 BC.”

Source: Yahoo, Reuters

*Update: The story has now been posted on the website of Zahi Hawass and it appears the location was incorrectly reported as being Saqqara when in fact they were disccovered inside an unidentified burial shaft located in the northern area of the Ramesside tomb of Ta in the Dahshur Necropolis.

Related posts:

1. Opening the Sarcophagi Discovered at Saqqara
2. Storeroom of Mummies Discovered at Saqqara
3. Sarcophagii and Statues Discovered at Saqqara

Yesterday international media were allowed into the tomb to film the opening.

Inside the chamber, 22 mummies lay covered only by sand in four niches dug into the chamber’s walls. Most were badly decomposed, showing only skulls and parts of skeletons, with decayed mummy wrappings. The sarcophagi were placed throughout the room.

A dog’s mummy — possibly of a pet — was also found along with mummies of children, prompting speculation the chamber holds the remains of a large family, with the richer, more prominent members, buried in the sarcophagi.

“Only the rich could afford to have sarcophagi made of limestone from Thebes,” said Hawass. Thebes is an ancient city on the west bank of the Nile, hundreds of miles to the south in what is today’s Luxor. “The owner of the dog could have asked that his faithful companion be mummified and accompany him into the afterlife.”

Hawass said he believes the mummy in the limestone sarcophagus belonged to a nobleman, but so far the mummies’ identities remain a mystery.

Watch the BBC video of the opening

The storeroom was found next to an even older cemetery dating to the 4,300-year-old 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, a few hundred yards (meters) away from Saqqara’s two most prominent pyramids – the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser and that of Unas, the last king of the 5th Dynasty.

The find reflected the fact that the area was used for burials in both the Old Kingdom and 2,000 years later when these mummies were buried.

The lid of the limestone sarcophagus opened Wednesday had been broken in antiquity “likely by workers carrying it down into the chamber” and resealed with mortar, Hawass said, tracing the crack. Hawass added that he plans to scan the mummy soon, a complicated process that requires the mummy to be removed from the tomb. He believes there could be gold amulets inside meant to “help the deceased in the afterlife,” a common practice in pharaonic times.

Also Wednesday, Hawass opened another sarcophagus in the storeroom, a wooden coffin with an inscription in hieroglyphics on the lid that exposed another mummy, but stopped short of opening a third, also a wooden one, because of its poor condition. All eight sarcophagi in the storeroom are believed to hold mummies, said Abdel Hakim Karar, chief archaeologist of Saqqara but so far only three were opened. The first sarcophagi was opened Monday.

Sources:
BBC Video 1 | BBC Video 2 | BBC Audio
Associated Press (Article contains several photoos of the opening)
Sky News (Article contains a video)
Xinhuanet (includes photo gallery)
MSNBC (story includes another video)
Guardian (another video)

Related posts:

1. Storeroom of Mummies Discovered at Saqqara
2. More Wooden Sarcophagi Found at Dashur
3. Sarcophagus of Isis-Nofret Discovered

The burial vault, which Zahi Hawass has referred to as “Mummy Prison” or a “Storeroom for Mummies”, is located south-west of the step pyramid of Djoser. This location is very near to the tombs of Thinh and Iya-Maat found last December.

At least one of these sarcophagi is thought to be about 4,300 years old although others appear to date to the 26th Dynasty.

“We think it is Old Kingdom, maybe Fifth Dynasty,” said archaeologist Abdel Hakim Karar said.

This older sarcophagus, which is made of limestone and sealed with plaster is going to be opened later this week to see what is inside.

One of the wooden sarcophagi dates to a much later period. This one has already been opened and inside they found a man called Badi N Heri, or Badi en Hery but bears no title.

“This one might have been an important figure, but I can’t tell because there was no title,” said Abdel Hakim Karar.

Though eight of the mummies are in sarcophagi, (four of them sealed) most of the mummies were found in niches in the walls of the rock-hewn burial chamber located 36 feet underground. The tomb itself is said to date to about 640 BC, but some of the mummies found inside the burial vault are perhaps as old as 4300 years.

We don’t yet know why they are in a single room. It was not common for mummies of this late period to be stored in underground niches.

“Niches were known in the very early dynasties, so to find one for the 26th Dynasty, is something rare…” – Karar added.

“It is certainly rare to find such a large number of mummies in one spot,…These frequent discoveries prove that Saqqara is a virgin site of archeological history. We have merely excavated 30 percent of what is beneath the ground,…The remaining 70 percent promise to yield more exciting findings.” – Dr Zahi Hawass.

The original tomb, made of mud bricks and decorated with intertwining patterns belonged to a priest called Sangem.

According to MENA, the team found five holes with each containing four mummies, one of which of a dog. Many of the mummies are poorly preserved.

As Zahi Hawass said last year after the tombs of Thinh and Iya-Maat were found:

“The discovery of the two tombs are the beginning of a big, large cemetery” – Zahi Hawass.

Vliew a slide show of photos of the tomb and sarcophagii.

Sources:
Google
Alarabiya
Xinhuanet
Afrol
Monsters & Critics
Chicago Tribune

Related posts:

1. Opening the Sarcophagi Discovered at Saqqara
2. Two 5th Dynasty Tombs Discovered at Saqqara
3. Largest Tomb Ever Discovered at Saqqara