Secret tombs of the mummies of the Egyptian pharaohs

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Almost a century and a half ago, a secret tomb was almost accidentally found in Egypt, containing dozens of mummies of Egyptian pharaohs and their family members, as well as thousands of items of material culture of ancient civilization.

Unfortunately, the science of that time was poorly developed, so the excavation of finds practically led to the destruction of important archaeological evidence. Subsequently, the tomb had to be cleared and re-examined. More information about these events, as well as what was learned from the study of human remains and funerary decorations, is described in the blog of the Center for Egyptological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On July 6, 1881, a unique discovery took place in the history of the study of ancient Egypt. An intact tomb with the mummies of the greatest pharaohs was discovered: Thutmes III, Seti I, Ramses II, Ramses III - a total of 40 mummies of Egyptian kings and members of their families, as well as masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art (5900 items). According to one of the versions, the transfer of the royal remains and objects of the funeral cult to the cache TT 320 was a political act aimed at legitimizing the power of the high priests of Thebes.

This find instantly became a real sensation. However, the retrieval of items invaluable for science from the cache was carried out in incredible haste, without any documentation. Thus, at the end of the 1990s, Egyptology did not have any reliable information about the tomb itself. This became the reason for numerous mysteries, which could only be solved by archaeological excavations of the monument.

In 1998, the Center for Egyptological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology of the University of Münster, began a comprehensive study of the cache of royal mummies. In the course of five seasons of field work, the researchers managed to clear the tomb from stone rubble, draw up its exact plan, and make many important finds. The study of the cache and the objects found in it made it possible to seriously revise many questions of ancient Egyptian history.

The "cache of royal mummies" was located in the Theban tomb No. 320. The entrance to it is hidden in the rocks of Asasif, northwest of the Hatshepsut temple in Deir el-Bahri. Here the Egyptian priests have preserved for many centuries the mummies of the once powerful pharaohs of Egypt - Thutmes III, Ramses I, Seti I, Ramses II and others. According to Egyptologist John Romer, "This tomb still remains one of the most extraordinary finds in history."

In the 70s of the XIX century, unique ancient Egyptian monuments began to appear on the local black market in Luxor: figurines, bronze vessels, papyri. Local authorities are interested in the source of these items. Suspicion immediately fell on the three brothers of Abd el-Rassulov - Muhammad, Ahmed and Hussein. They were taken into custody and demanded to indicate the location of the find. Despite interrogation with partiality, the brothers remained silent, and then police surveillance was established outside the village of Qurna, where Abd al-Rassouls lived.

A huge number of law enforcement officers, as well as their interference in all spheres of life of the inhabitants of Qurna, did not meet with the understanding of the peasants. The anger of the Kurnaites fell upon the families of Abd el-Rassulov. After a stormy explanation with relatives, who demanded that the brothers confess, Muhammad Abd el-Rassoul agreed to escort the archaeologists to the cache.

Muhammad's story of the discovery of the tomb is fairly typical. His brother Ahmed roamed the Luxor mountains in search of a goat that had strayed from the herd. Finally, he heard her bleat from one of the tomb shafts. Descending after the animal and following it along the dark corridor, Ahmed saw the royal sarcophagi and many burial utensils, which provided ten years of comfortable life for the brothers and their numerous relatives. Unsurprisingly, even under torture, they did not want to betray their source of income.

In July 1881, the director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Gaston Maspero, went on vacation, leaving Emile Brugsch, the staff photographer of the service, as his deputy. When the message came that Abd el-Rassoul was ready to cooperate, Brugsh himself went to Luxor, without notifying Maspero. Descending into the tomb shaft, he was amazed at what he saw. Dozens of sarcophagi with the remains of pharaohs and queens and burial items were still preserved in the tomb, despite the fact that Abd el-Rassouls ruled in it for many years.

Within five days, Brugsch and his assistants removed most of the items from the cache. The hot July sun, warming the rocks of Asasif, the smell of the sweat of dozens of workers who raised the finds, and the stench from torches made the work in the tomb unbearable. It seemed that everything was opposed to such an active disturbance of the peace of the royal persons. As a result of the violation of the microclimate, the mummies began to "come to life" - their withered bodies began to move under the influence of heat and moisture.

The most memorable was the "awakening" of Ramses II: the right hand of the mummy suddenly rose, terrifying the workers. In a matter of seconds, the tomb was empty, and Emil Brugsch probably had a hard time getting the porters back to their places. The subsequent removal of items from the cache was carried out hastily; during the lifting of things, many sarcophagi were badly damaged.

The monuments were immediately carried on hand to the Nile, where they were loaded onto a steamer of the Antiquities Service. Before the ship was sent to Cairo, the local customs required the cargo to be declared. When filling out the declaration, a difficulty arose: if the funeral implements and sarcophagi could hardly be called “handicraft items”, then to which article should the mummies be classified? And yet a way out was found. The mummies of the greatest kings of Egypt were taken out of Luxor under the guise of … dried fish!

In 1882, Gaston Maspero finally demanded an account from Brugsch about the circumstances of the entry into the tomb and the sequence of retrieval of the mummies and equipment. The "report" did not bring any clarity, and in January 1882 Maspero himself went down into the mine with the aim of re-examining it. But after the ill-fated "opening", the mine and the corridors of the tomb were flooded with rainwater, which led to the collapse of the already fragile walls and ceiling.

For this reason, all attempts to study the cache, subsequently undertaken by various scientists, were unsuccessful. For a century, historians had to be content with only a description of the tomb and the order of the location of the sarcophagi in it, recorded from the memoirs of Brugsch.