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Archaeologists hail ‘dream discovery’ as sarcophagus is unearthed near Cairo
- EarlKing 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ncmncm 4y agoSo it appears grave robbers did get there first, but left the mummy case alone. It is good that they acknowledge tunnels were re-used by later generations, but unfortunate that they still think the Ramesses were not such generations. We will need to wait for another of our own generations to learn who really made, e.g., the many precision-machined 50+-ton empty stone boxes under Saqqara, and why.
- someotherperson 4y ago> We will need to wait for another of our own generations to learn who really made, e.g., the many precision-machined 50+-ton empty stone boxes under Saqqara, and why Are they empty? From memory those were used to house mummified bulls and there are inscriptions on some of them detailing that purpose.
- ncmncm 4y agoBy report all are empty now. There are crudely carved inscriptions on some that are very obviously not by whoever did the exquisite original work of making the boxes. Tagging work that was already ancient was a favorite activity of dynastic Egyptians. Ramesses II was especially fond of the practice, but for some reason not even he tagged pyramids. Some later generation of Egyptology will acknowledge that a cartouche carved into a piece of stonework only fixes a lower bound on its age, and cannot by itself identify who made it. You can feel with your fingertips the difference between the quality of the work that went into the tagging, vs the original work. The oldest and best work had originally no inscriptions, although they were easily added. Somehow the methods for doing the very best stone work were lost, early on. Early pillars were made all in one piece, later were stacked. It is hard to believe later generations were always just too impatient to bother doing top quality work.
- once_inc 4y ago> It is hard to believe later generations were always just too impatient to bother doing top quality work. I very much feel that this is an exact mirror of what we see today in modern construction: simpler, _cheaper_ materials, less time-intensive work to reduce the cost of construction. As time progressed in Ancient Egypt, people might have had different perceptions of what was desirable in construction of these landmarks. Perhaps the political will as lacking to keep building vast, high quality landmarks, or perhaps the pharaos found out building something for three decades is risky since you don't know if you will live that long.
- ljlolel 4y agoPerhaps ancients had a similar ratio of high quality and mostly low quality. It’s just that the only pieces that survived are the very large high quality rocks, all of their quick cheap stuff broke up quickly.
- mitthrowaway2 4y agoIt's not the lack of ancient low-quality work that surprises, but the absence of more recent high-quality work.
- dr-detroit 4y ago
- ncmncm 4y agoExactly. If they could still do high-quality work: mirror-smooth surfaced, extra-hard diorite, carved with exact bilateral symmetry, you would expect to find some of it done for highest-status people, even if it were no longer squandered on huge monuments.
- ncmncm 4y agoThat does not account for the entire lack of late, smaller, top-grade work. So, maybe 100-ton mirror-smooth columns no longer impress. Not making anything mirror-smooth, at any scale, or anything 100 tons even if no smooth, really calls into question whether you still can.
- dr-detroit 4y ago
- daniel-s 4y agoWhat's the difference between grave robbery and archaeology?
- Y-bar 4y agoThis is sometimes asked in jest, and sometimes as a serious question. It's a bit hard to know which leg you lean on. But in case it is an honest question I would say two major factors are: 1. The manner in which it is done and your motive. E.g. Are you taking care to preserve the grave and the buried? Are you primarily looking for things which has a monetary value? And what are potential descendants saying about you doing it? 2. The time which has passed. E.g. If it has become "forgotten" and not taken care of regularly it could maybe be seen more as a historic site rather than a grave.
- cm2187 4y agoI guess it depends on whether you think the respect is owed to the descendants or to the dead.
- Y-bar 4y agoWhy you you think it is an either-or situation? Can't we consider respect towards both?
- cm2187 4y agoIf respect is owed to the dead then archeologists shouldn’t violate their grave. And where is the limitation? Would that apply to prehistoric burials?
- Y-bar 4y agoAre you attempting to ask honest question here or are just taking a contrarian position against a view I do not hold? Are you unaware that it is fully possible to study a subject while also respecting it? It also seems to me that the questions you are asking are very black-and-white such as "And where is the limitation?" on an issue where there are many nuances.
- ourmandave 4y agoTwo things construction crews don't have to worry about in the U.S. Unexploded ordinance from WWII and accidently digging up pharaohs.
- pestatije 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33150272 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33150272
- cafard 4y agoNo pharaohs, and perhaps no unexploded WWII ordnance, but here and there WWI ordnance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Leach#Environmental_impact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Leach#Environmental_impac....
- lakkal 4y agoSome still washes up along the shores of the US: https://www.app.com/story/news/local/ocean-county/2018/03/31/beach-replenishment-munitions/33427167/ https://www.app.com/story/news/local/ocean-county/2018/03/31... No pharaohs have washed up recently, though, as far as I know.
- Hikikomori 4y agoOnly a nuclear bomb to worry about. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/us-military-missing-six-nuclear-weapons-180032 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/us-military-missing...
- sho_hn 4y agoConstruction in North America has destroyed a lot of the indigenous archeological record, however. It's more valid to say they didn't worry about it, but perhaps should have.
- Maursault 4y ago> Unexploded ordinance from WWII Common misconception, but municipal legislation so rarely detonates it's somewhat of an urban myth, even poorly constructed local bills from the WWII era.
- therusskiy 4y agoThis is a setup for what's coming in 2023
- nyc111 4y ago"These tombs [were] so frequently raided by tomb raiders that there was no guarantee that anything exciting would be down there." From a wider angle, what are archeologists doing? Aren't they raiding tombs too? They are disturbing someone's tomb. They claim a higher goal of revealing how these ancient people lived, but they are still tomb raiders.
- Stamp01 4y agoThe only thing keeping me from getting upset about this is the schadenfreude from imagining people digging up Elon in 3000 years.
- dandare 4y ago“There’s a long history of western archaeologists doing this work. So it’s great to see their own discoveries – and the fact that she’s a woman archaeologist, an Egyptian woman archaeologist, is even more welcome.” Give me a break