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Egypt sarcophagus: Mystery black tomb opened in Alexandria
- TamoC 8y agoi can't believe people are still pushing the story about the curse. Not very nice from BBC to promote it,too.
- chrisseaton 8y agoThe rhetorical question about does it contain a curse, and the quote from Waziri, are clearly not serious. Nobody here is pushing or promoting that as a theory - that's an ludicrously uncharitable reading of this article.
- sschueller 8y agoA cursed tomb can be a another civilization's deep geological repository [1] of nuclear/toxic waste. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_geological_repository https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_geological_repository
- klmr 8y agoNot an ancient Egyptian tomb, no.
- LinuxBender 8y agoThat would not be far fetched, actually. Their technology clearly rivals anything we have today. 5 of the pyramids contain graphite waveguides that produce small amounts of focused nuclear radiation. The base contain piezoelectric water transducers. The Nile moved too far away to make them active however so they are quite safe for humans.
- ramblerman 8y agoGetting upset about this seems equally ridiculous tbh. It's just some lighthearted fun.
- LinuxBender 8y agoI would let people know about a curse. If I were a scientist, I would want to study the site and determine if any containers that have a functional virus, mold or other hazards to human and animal life. Perhaps I spent too much time watching Star Trek.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago>"Despite that, the site has now been cleared of people amid fears the sarcophagus could release lethal toxic fumes, Egypt's state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram says." In the previous paragraph the interviewee is claiming to have put his head in the tomb, from the pictures it seems like he was wearing nothing more than a dust-mask. So either they're lying as to why they've cleared the area, or analysis of the contents has shown something troubling? I'm surprised they didn't put a probe in to sample the internal gases prior to opening -- doesn't seem too much of a stretch to imagine a dangerous gas could have built up (eg from embalming chemicals), and the gaseous environment could surely give useful archaeological information in some cases (?).
- close04 8y agoThe dust masks are pretty standard when working in any such site. Nothing to do with protection against a potential chemical or biological hazard. It simply wouldn't help. But the site was most likely evacuated because of the smell and the fact that the local workers were reluctant to work in conditions that most of them considered to be dangerous. I would call it a needless precaution, definitely not a real danger. When a myth is too entrenched in people's minds fighting it will bring no benefit. It's easier to go along out of an excess of precaution and then go back to work when "all is safe".
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoDidn't a bunch of people that visited Tutanchamun's tomb die? Mold spores iirc, or is that an urban legend?
- stryan 8y agoThis was discussed in the article. The financial backer for the expedition died from an infected mosquito bite but nothing else went wrong. > "We don't know of even a single case of either an archaeologist or a tourist experiencing any negative consequences [from bacteria or tomb moulds],"
- alpaca128 8y ago
- turc1656 8y agoThis article got me wondering...how is the law structured around this sort of thing? Generally speaking, it's highly illegal to dig up and open a grave since we generally have respect for a person's final resting place and this has been codified into law. So what are the rules surrounding this? I assume special legal approval must be granted similar to what is required, for example, when a body needs to be exhumed as part of an ongoing investigation?
- candiodari 8y agoIn Europe, a burial site only is a burial site for 200 years. There are separate laws for archaeological digs.
- cbnotfromthere 8y agoAs there is no political entity called "Europe", by definition there can't be such rule / law.
- vorpalhex 8y agoThis is a case where a snarky reply is unneeded, and you could simply do some basic research. It looks like there is official permission in London to exhume some graves for re-use after 75 years, and it's generally accepted that a grave is only owned for a 100 years (that seems to come from the Burial Act of 1857 in the UK). In general it seems that yes, given sufficient time, the tricky legal problems of exhuming become quite a bit more simple.
- cosmon0t 8y agoThe "no one cares anymore" solution to put it simply
- antpls 8y agoI disagree. It doesn't make sense to say "in Europe" when talking about laws. Eventually "European Union", but the fact that the parent used "Europe" is a signal that it could be simply fake information or a misinformed claims. Saying "in Europe" is the result of lazyness OR misinformation. In both cases it results on an over-generalization, which can be dangerous. The "snarky reply" is being down voted while it is ACTUALLY TRUE and adds something to the conversation. For people without downvote right, the only way to disagree is to post a comment, which is then downvoted... See the problem there? It really makes you wonder how many facts, stories or anecdotes are voluntary or involuntary made up on HN.
- lolive 8y agoI wonder what cool story Lovecraft could elaborate from such a news.
- jsonne 8y agoI'm glad I'm not the only one who's thoughts went immediately to something like this.
- Udik 8y agoTurns out that the sarcophagus was full of surströmming.
- loxs 8y agoHuman surströmming
- unclepresent 8y agoHow did they make this tomb. Even ignoring weight factor, what type of saw could they employ to cut it from the block? Right now companies use diamond wire blades to cut granite and it is not so fast and easy. Can not imagine ancients Egyptians could produce even steel Also where have they got a granite in this part of Egypt... Aswan query known for having black granite deposits is 600 miles away.
- atombender 8y agoYou might be surprised by how much can be done with a mere chisel. As for transportation, Aswan is on the Nile?
- unclepresent 8y agochisel made from steel may be but even then... try it on concrete or rock just for experiment (I tried). But if chisel is made from cooper or iron ... good luck ... may be you have 10000 years in your life
- pvg 8y agoThis particular sarcophagus is from Ptolemaic-period Egypt, they had iron. But they managed to carve granite (and a bunch of other softer stones) before that, with copper and other tools. Not all of the techniques are known but a big part of the answer is that (unlike you!) they put long, sustained, organized effort into it'.
- reaperducer 8y agoRight now companies use diamond wire blades to cut granite and it is not so fast and easy The modern methods are done for speed and uniformity. If you're an ancient Egyptian, you probably have a lot more time to work on these things. Plus, you're probably not one person working on it. Don't think of one guy banging rocks together. Think of a dozen skilled artisans with pretty good hand tools, and a longer-than-eight-hours workday.
- 8y ago
- 2845197541 8y agoBut how did sewage water get in there?
- loxs 8y agoMost probably it's not "sewage" water but "corpse decomposition water"
- tamersalama 8y agoIf that's the case - then it's quite precious. Analysis of this water would reveal a lot.
- m23khan 8y agocorpse decomposition water won't last 2000+ years especially if not frozen. Probably the coffin was porous or had crack from where the sewage water seeped into the coffin from a nearby leaking sewage pipeline.
- personlurking 8y ago"The stinking reddish liquid turned out to be sewage that penetrated the sarcophagus through a small crack and completely flooded it from the inside." http://earth-chronicles.com/science/the-first-details-of-the-autopsy-of-the-black-sarcophagus-from-alexandria.html http://earth-chronicles.com/science/the-first-details-of-the...
- patrickg_zill 8y agoSo is there anything left of DNA, perhaps in bone marrow? I would "guess" there isn't.
- i6mi6 8y agoTo me it seems staged as hell. I believe it had been opened prior to “the opening”.
- soared 8y agoThis article is god awful, here is a slightly better one. http://earth-chronicles.com/science/the-first-details-of-the-autopsy-of-the-black-sarcophagus-from-alexandria.html http://earth-chronicles.com/science/the-first-details-of-the... According to that article they poured most of the red liquid into the street, which seems absurd to me.
- staticassertion 8y agoThe second paragraph of that is actually just one massive sentence :|
- TrainedMonkey 8y agoThis was also my first thought, however they claim that was just sewage: "The stinking reddish liquid turned out to be sewage that penetrated the sarcophagus through a small crack and completely flooded it from the inside. At the nearest inspection it was found out that in this ignoble vein the heavily decomposed remains of not one, but three people floated."
- felipemnoa 8y agoThe writing of the article you are linking is really bad. It seems like it was translated from another language into English by a machine.
- notatoad 8y agoYes, what a waste. They could have bottled the red liquid up into a carbonated energy drink instead. https://twitter.com/juliareinstein/status/1020357016806707201?s=09 https://twitter.com/juliareinstein/status/102035701680670720...
- Someone 8y agoWe know better nowadays. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia: ”Merchants in apothecaries dispensed expensive mummia bitumen, which was thought to be an effective cure-all for many ailments. Beginning around the 12th century when supplies of imported natural bitumen ran short, mummia was misinterpreted as "mummy", and the word's meaning expanded to "a black resinous exudate scraped out from embalmed Egyptian mummies". This began a period of lucrative trade between Egypt and Europe, and suppliers substituted rare mummia exudate with entire mummies, either embalmed or desiccated. After Egypt banned the shipment of mummia in the 16th century, unscrupulous European apothecaries began to sell fraudulent mummia prepared by embalming and desiccating fresh corpses. During the Renaissance, scholars proved that translating bituminous mummia as mummy was a mistake, and physicians stopped prescribing the ineffective drug.”
- bytematic 8y agoSo jealous of the people who get to make these discoveries. Even finding the small items of some ancient rural family seems so cool to me.