Megan ByrneAncient Tombs Found By Thieves
October 26th 2006 03:34
Thieves in Egypt recently led archaeologists to the 4,200 year old gravesite of three royal dentists. The graves were found in Saqqara, an ancient royal cemetery south of Cairo.
In an article Monday in the National Geographic News, Stefan Lovgren quoted Zahi Hawass as saying, “it seems for the first time that the ancient Egyptians made a cemetery to the dentists and they were buried in the shadow of the Step Pyramid“. Hawass is chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and an explorer-in-residence with the National Geographic Society. The Step Pyramid is thought to be Egypt’s oldest.
The archaeologists date the tombs to Egypt’s 5th dynasty, which ended in 2345 BC; they believe these graves honor a chief dentist as well as two others who treated the pharaohs and their families. The tombs did not contain the dentists' mummies
The hieroglyphs on the tombs shed light on the dead as well as their professions, clearly naming the chief dentist, Iy Mry, and the others as Kem Msw and Sekhem Ka. Among the symbols used to decorate the burial places, two that appear frequently are an eye over a tusk, commonly used to identify them as dentists. On one tomb the threat of being eaten by a crocodile and a snake warns would-be grave robbers.
On the interior walls of the mud, brick and limestone graves are depicted the dentist and his family playing games and presenting offerings to the dead. In general, according to Cathleen Keller, “conforming to accepted standards of elite representation”.
Ms. Keller, an Egyptologist at the University of California, Berkeley, went on to say, “Saqqara is probably the single most important private cemetery of the 5th dynasty. The fact that the tombs were built there reflects the prominent status with which dentists were held in ancient Egypt. These are people who on a fairly regular basis would actually touch the person of the king”.
"There are vast expanses of areas [at Saqqara] that have simply not been scientifically investigated," Keller said. "The fact that local looters found the tombs is an index to how much more there must be out there. Just about every expedition I know of that has gone out to Saqqara to look for tombs has found something."
In an article Monday in the National Geographic News, Stefan Lovgren quoted Zahi Hawass as saying, “it seems for the first time that the ancient Egyptians made a cemetery to the dentists and they were buried in the shadow of the Step Pyramid“. Hawass is chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and an explorer-in-residence with the National Geographic Society. The Step Pyramid is thought to be Egypt’s oldest.
The archaeologists date the tombs to Egypt’s 5th dynasty, which ended in 2345 BC; they believe these graves honor a chief dentist as well as two others who treated the pharaohs and their families. The tombs did not contain the dentists' mummies
The hieroglyphs on the tombs shed light on the dead as well as their professions, clearly naming the chief dentist, Iy Mry, and the others as Kem Msw and Sekhem Ka. Among the symbols used to decorate the burial places, two that appear frequently are an eye over a tusk, commonly used to identify them as dentists. On one tomb the threat of being eaten by a crocodile and a snake warns would-be grave robbers.
On the interior walls of the mud, brick and limestone graves are depicted the dentist and his family playing games and presenting offerings to the dead. In general, according to Cathleen Keller, “conforming to accepted standards of elite representation”.
Ms. Keller, an Egyptologist at the University of California, Berkeley, went on to say, “Saqqara is probably the single most important private cemetery of the 5th dynasty. The fact that the tombs were built there reflects the prominent status with which dentists were held in ancient Egypt. These are people who on a fairly regular basis would actually touch the person of the king”.
"There are vast expanses of areas [at Saqqara] that have simply not been scientifically investigated," Keller said. "The fact that local looters found the tombs is an index to how much more there must be out there. Just about every expedition I know of that has gone out to Saqqara to look for tombs has found something."
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