Chapter 15
Top Ten Breakthroughs in Egyptology
In This Chapter
Celebrating the highlights of Egyptology
Appreciating early and modern excavations
Looking towards possible new discoveries
Archaeological discoveries and academic breakthroughs punctuate the history of Egyptology, which makes this discipline one that is constantly changing.
Egyptology is bit like a jigsaw with an unknown number of pieces, no picture, and half the bits missing, which may make you wonder why anyone bothers with it! Egyptologists continue in their research because so many questions still need answers. Each fresh discovery opens up a whole new area of study and provides further insights into the lives of the ancients.
The greatest breakthroughs and discoveries of persevering Egyptologists – from the 18th century onwards – are the focus of this chapter.
Deciphering Hieroglyphs
All the excavations in Egypt in the early 19th century weren’t half as exciting as they could have been, because archaeologists were unable to read the hieroglyphic language inscribed on walls and coffins and thus were unable even to identify who had built the tombs and temples.
This frustrating state of affairs changed in 1826 when Jean-François Champollion published the first dictionary on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. At last the meaning of the inscriptions on architecture and objects could be deciphered. Egyptologists haven’t looked back since!
This amazing breakthrough comes down to the discovery and translation of the Rosetta Stone (see Chapter 11), a stela written in three languages: ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphs and demotic (a late cursive form of hieroglyphs).
Most historians could read ancient Greek, so with a lot of hard work and logical thinking, they gradually deciphered the other two languages and established a basic alphabet and list of common words. These linguistic tools were applied ad infinitum to any Egyptian inscription Egyptologists could get their hands on. Finally, researchers were able to identify who built certain tombs and temples, as well as identify the gods depicted on the walls.
Petrie’s Seriation Dating System
William Matthew Finders Petrie was a remarkable archaeologist and Egyptologist (see Chapter 19) in the 19th century. Not only did he excavate some of the most interesting sites in Egypt, he also devised a relative dating system that archaeologists the world over still use.
Petrie devised the system while working at Diospolis Parva, where he had excavated a number of pre-dynastic graves that he couldn’t link or match to king lists to provide a chronological date. Petrie wanted to put sites and contents into chronological order, so he wrote the contents of each tomb on a slip of paper and placed the slips in a long column. He kept rearranging the sheets until he believed he had a true chronological order based on the style and decoration of the artefacts in each burial.
Although a very simple system, seriation dating is very useful because researchers can create a relative date for the tomb assemblage by stating that one object is earlier or later than another one. The system is useful for arranging sites into some form of order when no written texts or datable objects are available. However, the problem with seriation dating is that it isn’t always clear how this sequence fits into the wider chronology of an area.
The Temples at Abu Simbel
Two temples stand at the site of Abu Simbel, 250 kilometres southeast of Aswan. Ramses II built both temples – one in honour of the sun god and the other in honour of Ramses’ wife, Nefertari (see Chapter 18 for more information).
Traveller Jean-Louis Burckhardt discovered the temples in 1813, although all that was visible was a colossal head of one of the statues on the façade. Wind-blown sand covered the rest of the three colossi.
In 1817, Giovanni Belzoni – an engineer, turned circus strongman, turned Egyptologist (see Chapter 19) – started to clear away the sand. Unable to find workers willing or strong enough to help with the task, Belzoni, who was 6 feet 7 inches tall, was able to do a lot of the work himself. Unfortunately, every time he cleared the temple façade, the sand built up again, making the process time-consuming and frustrating. Belzoni had to leave without locating the entrance.
In 1871, when his benefactor Henry Salt financed another trip to Nubia to collect antiquities, Belzoni briefly excavated in the Valley of the Kings and then returned to Abu Simbel, where he managed to locate the entrance. Belzoni was the first modern man to enter the temple – a great achievement for anyone – where he saw the towering images of Ramses II on the pillars and the barbaric scenes of the battle of Kadesh. This must have been (and still is) an amazing sight, albeit one tinged with mystery, because, at this point in history, no one could read hieroglyphs and so Belzoni was unable to identify who built the temple.
The Royal Cache of 1881
If it wasn’t for the discovery of the Royal Mummy Caches, the only New Kingdom royal mummy recovered today would be Tutankhamun. The mummies in the Royal Cache helped to fill in the jigsaw of Egyptology, providing insights into royal burial practices, diseases, and age of death. In the future, with the help of DNA testing, researchers hope to clarify family relationships among the mummies.
The discovery of the first Royal Cache was a combination of luck and detective work – and could very well never have happened at all. As early as 1874, rumours suggested that a wonderful tomb had been discovered in western Luxor, full of fabulous treasure. No one had seen this tomb, but papyri and other artefacts began to appear on the black market, clearly from a new royal tomb. Eventually the Egyptian Antiquities Service, under the leadership of Frenchman Gaston Maspero, started to investigate. By 1881, Ahmed Abd er-Rassul, from a notorious tomb-robbing family from Gourna (the village on the Valley of the Nobles), was brought in for questioning.
Maspero questioned er-Rassul vigorously, but the Egyptian denied all knowledge of a tomb; Maspero eventually let him go. He was later arrested again with his brother Hussein by the Egyptian police, who were not as gentle in their questioning as the Frenchman. Still er-Rassul and his brother denied all knowledge and were allowed to return to their village. Once they returned, disagreement reigned in the Rassul household.
The eldest Rassul brother, Mohammed, was the culprit who had discovered the tomb. Ahmed and Hussein felt they should be rewarded for their unpleasant time with the authorities, as well as enjoy a larger share of the loot from the tomb. After much arguing that eventually involved the whole village, Mohammed went to the authorities and confessed. After receiving assurance that no one would be prosecuted, he revealed the location of the tomb, secreted in the Deir el Bahri Valley, close to the temple of Hatshepsut.
Inside the tomb, the authorities discovered many New Kingdom royal mummies, including
Ahmose
Amenhotep I
Thutmose III
Sety I
Ramses II
Ramses III
These kings were all taken to Cairo where they are currently on display (except Ahmose, who in 2004 was moved to the Luxor Museum). In 1898, another mummy cache was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, which provided an additional ten royal mummies.
In order to get the full set of royal mummies of the New Kingdom, Egyptologists still need to find the remains of
Horemheb
Ramses I (The second body in Luxor Museum is believed by some to be this king, although this is not proven.)
Sethnakht
Ramses VII
Ramses X
Ramses XI
Perhaps another cache of mummies is waiting to be found, one that will uncover the secrets of these pharaohs and give Egyptologists a ‘full house’.
KV55: The Desecrated Tomb
KV55, or Tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings, has for many years caused much discussion in the Egyptological world. Edward Ayrton and his benefactor Theodore Davis discovered it in the Valley of the Kings in 1907.
A panel from a large wooden shrine that was originally used in the burial of Queen Tiye, Akhenaten’s mother, blocked the entrance corridor to the tomb. This led many Egyptologists at the time to believe the tomb was Tiye’s. When they later entered the burial chamber, they discovered a coffin containing a body. While some assumed the body was Tiye’s, all the names on the coffin had been erased, rendering the inhabitant unidentifiable. The body was sent to Grafton Elliot-Smith (an expert in Egyptian mummies) for analysis. Rather than being the bones of an elderly woman, they were from a young man. The plot thickened!
Egyptologists began debating whether the bones were Akhenaten’s or his successor Smenkhkare’s. Even now people do not agree, although due to similarities in head shape, the body is often stated and widely agreed to be the brother of Tutankhamun, and therefore probably Smenkhkare. DNA testing may make this identification clearer, but testing will not be carried out until results involving ancient DNA are more accurate.
Tomb 55 was thought to have provided the missing king of the Amarna period, an era that has intrigued Egyptologists for many years. Many bodies are missing from this period (Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their six daughters; Smenkhkare; and Ay), so any tomb from this time takes Egyptologists one step closer to a complete picture.
Tutankhamun’s Tomb
Tutankhamun’s tomb is one of the most famous and monumental finds in the history of Egyptology, because it is the only undisturbed royal tomb found in Egypt. All the other royal tombs were robbed in antiquity, and indeed so was Tutankhamun’s. Luckily, these burglaries were small, and the majority of Tutankhamun’s goods were found intact.
In 1914, Egyptologist Howard Carter and his benefactor Lord Carnarvon started excavating in the Valley of the Kings, just after another excavator, Theodore Davis, who had worked in the area for some time, claimed that ‘The Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted.’ How wrong can one man be?
Carter and his team did uncover a number of tombs in the Valley, and in 1917 Carter began to search for the missing tomb of Tutankhamun (a number of objects had been discovered showing the existence of a tomb in the area). However, by 1921 the team still had not discovered the tomb, and Lord Carnarvon considered withdrawing his funding. After much debate, Carter convinced him to fund one final season.
Luckily for Carter this final season was a cracker. On 4 November 1922 his team uncovered the first stone step of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The next day they cleared the steps to reveal the door, complete with ancient seals showing the tomb was intact. The first doorway was opened on 23 November 1922, and the second doorway within the tomb on 26 November. At the opening of this door, Carter and Carnarvon saw for the first time the wonderful objects hidden for three millennia. These include solid gold coffins, gilded shrines, scores of pieces of golden jewellery, and the famous solid gold death mask (see Chapter 4 for a photograph of the death mask).
The first chamber was officially opened on 29 November, and the burial chamber on 17 February 1923. The cataloguing of the objects started, and on 28 October 1925 the team finally opened the coffin and gazed at the face of the king who lived and died so long ago. Cataloguing and recording all the artefacts in the tomb was finally completed on 10 November 1930, eight years after the discovery.
KV5: The Tomb of the Sons of Ramses II
The existence of KV5 in the Valley of the Kings has been recorded since the early 19th century, but the entrance had long since been lost. When early explorers entered KV5, it was filled with rubble and debris almost to the ceiling, making progress difficult. In fact the tomb was abandoned as a lost cause. If only they knew what lay beyond the rubble.
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And what a tomb it was – the largest tomb complex in the Valley of the Kings and indeed the whole of Egypt. Built by Ramses II for the burial of his numerous sons, the tomb (so far) includes more than 120 corridors and chambers spread over two levels. The number of corridors is expected eventually to be more than 150.
At least six sons of Ramses II were buried in the tomb complex, and their skeletal remains have been discovered. They were originally mummified, but flash floods over the centuries aided the decaying process, reducing their soft tissues to gunk.
Every wall of the tomb was carved and painted, but over the centuries this decoration has fallen off, creating an amazing puzzle for Egyptologists to piece together. Tomb depictions on the walls show more than 20 sons, including their funerary rites, so probably more than the six discovered mummies were buried here. Many years of work remain on KV5 – along with many more discoveries to be revealed.
Akhenaten’s Talatat Blocks
During the reign of Akhenaten, a new building block was introduced, called a talatat. This word comes from the Arabic for ‘three’, which is appropriate, because the blocks were two hand widths long and one hand width high. Talatats could be handled by one individual, making building work easier and quicker to execute.
Akhenaten used these blocks when building a number of temples at the complex of Karnak in Luxor. During the reigns of Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb, these temples were dismantled and the blocks reused for other building projects, as a means of destroying all evidence of Akhenaten (to find out why go to Chapter 4).
However, Horemheb decided to use talatat blocks to fill the hollow areas of his pylon gateways at Karnak to give these structures more stability. He was quite methodical in his work, and as he removed the block from the temple, he placed it directly into the pylon, creating a reverse order of many of the images originally carved onto the blocks. (Little did Horemheb realise he was in fact preserving, not destroying, the memory of Akhenaten.)
Since the first excavations of the pylons at the start of the 20th century, more than 35,000 talatat blocks have been discovered. They are being kept in a number of storehouses in the Karnak complex until they can be reconstructed.
All 35,000 blocks are decorated, including some on two sides, and reconstruction has been a monumental task. In Luxor Museum, a small wall of talatat have been reconstructed and researchers are continually adding to the display as work progresses.
From the reconstructions already made by the Akhenaten Temple Project, Egyptologists, using a high-tech computer program, are about to get an idea of the buildings that Akhenaten originally constructed, including
A temple belonging to Nefertiti, Akhenaten’s wife, which had a pillared courtyard with up to 30 pillars, all bearing images of the queen.
A temple belonging to Akhenaten, which housed colossal statues of the king.
A possible ceremonial palace where the royal couple stayed before performing ceremonies or rituals in the temple. Images from the talatat show a window of appearances (see Chapter 4) at this palace, where the king and queen stood to reward their favoured officials. Sadly this window hasn’t yet been discovered, but you never know.
Palace of Cleopatra
In 1997, a French team in the Mediterranean discovered the sunken harbour of Alexandria and the two cities of Herakleion and Canopus just off the coast of Alexandria. This discovery started the underwater excavations of what was the city of Cleopatra. A devastating tidal wave caused by an earthquake flooded this area some 1,200 years ago.
The ongoing excavations have uncovered hundreds of artefacts, including colossal statues of kings and queens and of Hapi, the god of the Nile flood. These remnants, as well as smaller statues and architectural fragments including pillars and architraves, hint that the royal palace and gardens were situated close to the harbour.
As excavations have progressed, the position of Cleopatra’s palace, Antony’s palace, and a temple have been located. Just think, the setting of their romantic story and tragic demise has been identified.
In 2006, a proposal was put forward regarding an offshore underwater museum to display the city of Cleopatra. Many of the objects found underwater are left there in order to preserve them; when removed and dried, these items could disintegrate. The proposed museum includes a plexi-glass tunnel allowing the visitor to walk underwater in the footsteps of Cleopatra, Mark Antony, and Julius Caesar. Rather like the seal or the shark tunnel at the zoo – except no seals or sharks, just the eerily silent remains of a lost city.
Smaller articles like jewellery and coins have already been removed to prevent theft, and these will be displayed separately in an on-shore building.
KV63
On 10 February 2006, an American archaeological team discovered an 18th dynasty royal tomb, 5 metres from the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings – long after the Valley was said to be exhausted.
The American team was working on a nearby tomb when its members discovered a number of New Kingdom workman’s huts, built for those men who created the tombs in the Valley. Beneath these huts, they found the hidden entrance to the shaft of KV63. Some of the hut floors had never been disturbed, indicating that the tomb beneath was also undisturbed. The shaft is approximately 5 metres deep and leads through a 1.5-metre-high doorway to an undecorated 4 by 5 metre burial chamber. The blocking stones in the doorway were not original, which suggests that the doorway had been opened and closed a few times in antiquity.
The chamber contained seven wooden sarcophagi piled on top of each other and 27 large pots. A few of the jars had been opened and contained a number of items, including miniature vessels, natron (salt), scraps of material, seeds, wood, carbon, chaff, resin, and minerals – all items left over from a mummification (see Chapter 10). Researchers do not yet know whose mummification took place, although considerable evidence suggests the deceased was from the 18th dynasty, at the time of Tutankhamun.
By the end of May 2006, the sarcophagi had also been emptied and much to everyone’s great disappointment no bodies were found within them. Instead, researchers found a number of items, similar to those from the jars. One sarcophagus was full of linen pillows, and another contained a small golden coffinette, perhaps for the burial of a servant figure.
The whole tomb was probably used as an embalmer’s store and was entered frequently. Embalmer’s stores were common, and many royal burials included a cache of materials left over from mummification. If KV63 was such a store, at least one more tomb may yet be discovered. Perhaps it’s the elusive tomb of Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamun’s wife Ankhesenamun, or his grandmother Tiye. Who knows? Watch this space at www.kv63.com for developments.