Oldest Intact Sarcophagus Found in Egypt 23
soulctcher writes: "Archaeologists in Egypt have found what looks to be the oldest intact sarcophagus. To give an idea of how old, this particular sarcophagus is believed to be about 1100 years older than King Tut. You can read the full story over at Yahoo!
a history of embalming (Score:4, Informative)
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excuse ascii art please. Now, the peak of the curve is about at King Tuts reign. The latter part can be seen in Abussir (spelling?) and other later tombs, especially the hastly constructed ones around the time of roman interaction. The early part of the bell curve is represented by this find and many early specimans, many of which just don't exist. It took centuries for the Eqyptians to discover all the techniques, i.e. which vital organs to remove, what clay compound to embalm and fill with, what chemicals...etc. This is what makes this find truly amazing.
Re: a history of embalming (Score:2)
> This is what makes this find truly amazing.
What makes it amazing is that it wasn't hax0red several thousand years ago.
*MAYBE* the oldest (Score:2)
It's still cool, but it would be nice if Slashdot didn't remove such qualifiers as "may" - they're an important part of the story
Re:*MAYBE* the oldest (Score:1)
Why open it? (Score:3, Interesting)
I realize it must be almost impossible to resist opening it to see exactly what's inside but wouldn't it be really cool for a future generation to find something someday?
How about instead of opening it they bury it deeper? I suppose there is always the threat of plunderers and what not, but at some level, is an archeologist any better?
I guess I see it like a future race opening every casket in a graveyard simply because it's there and there might be another gold ring inside. I'd rather we didn't destroy everything until something like a holodeck can be built to preserve these sites in at least one sense.
Plunder (Score:3, Interesting)
The Egypt government has to decide who may do the excavations and what will become of everything they find. An archeologist may not sell the sarcophagus for his own profit. Of course the Egyptian obelisks found all over Europe are plunder, maybe plundered by archeologist, maybe by militaries. The point is not, who finds it, but who it belongs to. A plunderer is a kind of thief.
Not all archeologists are white. There are Egyptian archeologists working for Egypt's government. I can understand resentments against archeology, but this is about a sarcophagus found recently by Egypt archeologists. Egypt is not a colony anymore. What's the problem?
Re:Plunder (Score:1)
Now, I only know one famous Egyption obelisk in Europe (not that I say there aren't any others) and that is the one in Paris on the Place de la Concorde. This particular obelisk was a present from the Egyptian government to France. Actually they gave two obelisks but the transport costs were too high to get them both to Paris, so the other still stands in Egypt.
It's hardly plunder when it's a gift from a government. (Of course, I don't know what kind of government it was...might be that it was some colony government) Or would you call the Statue of Liberty plunder? It was a gift from the French government to the US after all.
Re:Plunder (Score:1)
If it was a gift from the Egypt government, you are right in that it's not plunder, of course. I am sorry for my mistake. I chose obelisk as an example, obviosly a bad example as you pointed out. I have to admit, that i don't know how many artefacts in european or american museums actually are plunder, if any, which does not effect the main point of my post.
Thanks for the correction
Re:Why open it? (Score:3, Informative)
I guess that modern archaeologists are probably quite a bit better, even if earlier generations were a bit haphazard in their techniques. These days there are non-invasive techniques like computerised X-ray tomography (CAT scans) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for examining the mummy itself, but I suppose you'd still have to open the sarcophagus.
Some more Egyptology resources (Score:2, Informative)
What was allegedly the first Egyptology site on the web(!) looks like a good starting point for Egyptology resources [cam.ac.uk]. They also have some comments [cam.ac.uk] on "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" :-)
Not opened yet... (Score:1, Funny)
General Rundown (Score:3, Informative)
The mummy is 4,600 years old, and although it may be the "oldest intact sarcophagus ever found" it isn't the oldest mummy ever found.
That said, it is still cool to find an intact sarcophagus. Shows that there are still important things to be found in Egypt and that their efforts to research that area are not misspent.
Re:General Rundown (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey now, I don't think a mummy is more culturally significant because in life it was a royal personage. A regular worker or manager mummy is pretty interesting too.
Although ancient people of any social rank are interesting to learn about, to me the very small middle class is extra-fascinating. Royalty left plenty of written and pictured records of themselves; and peasant life is oppressed peasant life. I can't identify with either. I can, however, identify with scribes, architects, and engineers of the ancient world, and it's them I would like to know more about. Therefore, this find is culturally significant to me.
Well it had to happen... (Score:1)