It's amazing how different people visit VO: some seem to know and understand everything, others write that there was no Rome, that Tutankhamun's coffin is a fake, that “the Etruscans are Russians,” and so on. It seems to be not clinical cases, although who will sort them out. However, this is probably even good, because like-mindedness does not bode well for the country either. From it, its culture decays, and after that society itself dies. Well, and someone simply does not know something, because to know everything, and even outside the scope of their specialty, is simply impossible, and even unnecessary, when today there is Google.
But … Google also has its limits. For example, speaking about the pyramids of Egypt, the overwhelming majority of people mean only three "great" pyramids: Khufu / Cheops, Khafre / Khafre and Menkaur / Mikerin. In reality, the pyramids in Egypt - in Giza, Sakkara, Dashur, Meidum, Abydos, Edfu, etc. - dozens: both from stone and from raw bricks, in better or worse state of preservation. How many pyramids are there in Egypt is one of the most frequently asked questions. And you can answer it in such a way that according to the calculations of one French archaeological expedition - 118, but Egyptian archaeologists count no more than a hundred. And again, for some reason, everyone talks about only one tomb of Tutankhamun filled with gold, although there are already … two of them openly (including those not robbed !!!)!
But since I am not an Egyptologist, I asked my colleague Oksana Vsevolodovna Milayeva, who has been studying the history of Egypt for a very long time, about the most remarkable find of Egyptologists. And this is what she wrote …
Vyacheslav Shpakovsky
The "broken pyramid" of Sneferu, Khufu's father, is more mysterious, more mysterious, but … for some reason none of the pyramidomanes and pyramid-idiots visits it.
So, first of all, the pyramids and they can be considered in great detail, if the readers of VO want it. They were built by both the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom and representatives of the dynasties of the Middle Kingdom (the XII dynasty became the last dynasty of pyramid builders). But such widespread diseases as pyramidoidiotism and pyramidomania (and they really exist, and this is not a fiction!) Relate for some reason to these three structures, but on the pyramid of Sneferu (Cheops's father) for some reason no one was damaged by the mind, although he I built two of them, and one is not at all like all the others! And why no one knows so, that is, the secret seems to be right before our eyes. The last pyramid builder, Amenemkhet III, following the example of Sneferu, also erected two pyramids for himself in Dakhshur and Hawar, and, despite the external unpresentability, the interior decoration of the latter even today commands respect for the level of technical skill of the ancient Egyptians. And there are also such "pyramids", from which only the foundation and … pit, in which there is a quartzite sarcophagus, remained. Quartzite! And how was it made? But since there is a desert edge and a military base nearby, no one goes to this "pyramid", and not Egyptologists even know about its existence!
The gold mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun made of gold of high standard weighs 10, 5 kg.
Well, when they talk about the found burials of the pharaohs, then, first of all, they remember who? Of course, Tutankhamun! Actually, he became the most popular ruler of Ancient Egypt, although, according to the discoverer of the tomb, archaeologist Howard Carter, “the only remarkable event in his life was that he died and was buried …”. But after all, it is written about him in school textbooks, and the "yellow press" by no means can do without him - secrets, mysticism, "the curse of the pharaohs", revived legends. Doubts about the authenticity of the artifacts from his tomb are also becoming a constant topic of discussion - it is either a fake or not a fake (although who and why would need to forge tons of gold of a completely specific chemical composition, that is … to remelt existing ancient Egyptian gold items!).
But in general, when evaluating this luxury and wealth, we are guided by the concept of values from the point of view of modernity, which puts gold above silver. But was this the case in Ancient Egypt? In a country that did not have its own deposits of silver, unlike gold, the former was valued much higher, and the connection with the cults of the lunar deities provided it with additional value. Indeed, the Pharaoh would have great wealth, in whose tomb silver treasures would be found.
However, who knows about a sarcophagus made of … 90 kilograms of pure silver? Which of the Pharaohs did it belong to and when was it found?
XI century BC for Ancient Egypt, it was confusion, a weakening of the central government, which, under conditions of irrigation agriculture, predictably led to the destruction of a single economy. By the end of the reign of the XX dynasty, Egypt had once again disintegrated into Upper and Lower Egypt, and the entire state apparatus was destroyed. In the south of the country, power was seized by the high priest of Amon Herihor - an event about the premises of which is told in the wonderful Polish feature film "Pharaoh" based on the novel by Boleslav Prus, filmed back in 1965, but in the north there was a dynasty of pharaohs with the capital in Per-Ramses (Tanise - Greek, San El Hagar).
The city of Per-Ramses itself is another legend of Egyptian archeology. Its exact location has not been established, but sources praise its magnificence, comparing it with the ancient capitals - Thebes and Memphis. It is known that Ramses II the Great deliberately moved the capital to a new city, since it was of particular strategic importance for the rapid transfer of military contingents to the East, to the Levant. Subsequently, due to the shallowing of the Nile channel, the city was moved (about 30 kilometers) along with the monuments to the town of Tanis, in connection with which for a long time it was identified with Per-Ramses.
Of course, how everything was there in reality, no one knows. Cinema is not a source. But the documents testify to the barbarization of the Egyptian administration, and the army at that time. Libyan mercenaries, who formed the backbone of the Egyptian army and occupied key positions in the state, began to play a special role.
Egypt did not wage large-scale victorious wars at that time, which makes it possible to draw the obvious conclusion that the pharaohs were unlikely to have immeasurable riches. There was no inflow of gold from Asia, therefore, at first glance, the kings of the Tanis and Libyan dynasties were simply beggars compared to the rulers of the Ancient, Middle and New kingdoms. This conclusion seems quite logical and reasonable … but, nevertheless, it was far from the case!
Pharaoh Psunnes I Golden Mask
In 1929 - 51, in Tanis, as a result of the explorations of the French archaeologist Pierre Monte, burials of the kings of the XXI-XXII dynasties were found, which, in terms of their wealth and luxury, can be put on a par with the treasures of the tomb of Tutankhamun, widely known to the public. Moreover, no one was hiding or hiding anything! Explore the collection of finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun, exhibited in the hall of the Cairo Museum of Antiquities, enter the hall located next door, and there you will see the treasures of the pharaohs of the XXI Libyan dynasty. And what you see is in no way inferior in magnificence and artistic value to the predecessors from the brilliant period of the New Kingdom. But the collection of Tutankhamun has traveled half the world, and gold and silver finds from Tanis can be seen only here. Where does such wealth come from in an era of general chaos and ruin? And why is so little known about this?
But because the tomb was found in 1939, when the war was raging in Europe. Therefore, the discovery of Pierre Montet did not become a new high point of Egyptian archeology, but passed more than imperceptibly. In February 1940, the army of Nazi Germany stood on the doorstep of France, and Monte dropped everything and returned to his family, and again ended up in Egypt a few years later.
When Monte was digging in Tanis, he dreamed of one thing: to find the capital of Pharaoh Ramses the Great - the city of Per Ramses. It is interesting that Monte began excavations where several large expeditions had already worked before him. He started clearing the temples already freed from the sand, and … he found a burial chamber that belonged to Pharaoh Gornakht - the son of King Osorkon and the high priest of the god Amun. True, the robbers managed to take care of it. And then they found the roof of another crypt, the slabs of which were fastened with cement, which indicated that after the burial, no one else had been here. The Egyptologist's dream came true - he found an untouched tomb with a cartouche of Pharaoh Psusennes. Surprisingly, although he ruled for 46 years, little was known about him. But in the burial chamber, archaeologists found a sarcophagus made of pure silver with a headboard in the shape of a head … of a huge falcon!
Around the sarcophagus there were vessels made of bronze, granite, alabaster and clay; for some reason, the royal name of Pharaoh Sheshonka was written on the gold chased veil of the mummy! But how could Sheshonk - Hekaheper-Ra end up in the tomb of Psusennes when they were separated by at least 150-200 years ?!
Cartouche with the name of Pharaoh Psusennes I.
Under the veil, archaeologists have discovered a magnificent death mask of Sheshonka, minted from a solid gold leaf. This is the second death mask made of gold (the first, of course, is the mask of Tutankhamun) that has come down to our time and was found by the tomb robbers! It is very canonical and repeats the traditional elements of the Egyptian style: the face of a young man aged 23-28 with a necklace on his chest in the form of a golden kite. Beneath it was a massive chain of gold made up of pectorals (rectangular plates depicting religious scenes). The hands of the deceased pharaoh were adorned with gold rings and bracelets, his feet were shod with gold sandals, and even gold caps were put on his toes.
P. Monte with a silver sarcophagus of Psusennes I.
All this could have given Monte world fame, but still it was not the tomb of Psusennes, and he decided to try to crawl through the narrow passage with water seeping between the stone blocks … And his persistence was rewarded! It turned out that the burial of Psusennes was very close! The passage to it was closed by a fragment of an obelisk, which once stood nearby and served as the architect of the XXI dynasty … as a building material. And then Monte found the burial chamber itself, and the sarcophagus, around which lay vessels made of alabaster, porphyry, granite, and four more canopes, plates and dishes made of gold and silver, figurines of ushabti, and there were no traces of the robbers!
All finds were sketched in place, and only then were they removed to the surface. An inscription was found on the sarcophagus of pink granite that it used to belong to Pharaoh Merneptah, the successor of Ramses II (XIX dynasty). But the cartouche of the previous owner was carefully chopped off, and instead of the old name, a new one was knocked out - Pharaoh Psusennes I. So Psusennes was buried in someone else's coffin, albeit very beautiful: the lid on the outside was decorated with a sculpture of a full-length pharaoh, and at the head was a small figure of a kneeling the goddess Nut, who hugged the king's head with both hands.
The sarcophagus was opened on February 21, 1940, and the king of Egypt, Farukh, a great lover of archeology, was present. It turned out that the body of Psusennes was in three sarcophagi: the first was of pink granite, inside it was a sarcophagus of black granite, which contained an anthropomorphic coffin made of pure silver - "the bones of the gods", as this metal was called in Ancient Egypt. The weight of the sarcophagus was over 90 kg. And I must say that this coffin was just an incredible luxury, next to which even the well-known treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun pale in color.
We have already mentioned that due to the rarity of silver in Egypt, it was more valuable than gold. During the time of the pharaohs, up to 40 tons of gold per year were mined in Egypt (it is interesting that in Europe so much gold was mined only in 1840). True, under Psusennes I, silver in Egypt fell in price, but working with silver was much more difficult than working with gold. There were also fewer corresponding craftsmen, therefore the cost of their work was much higher.
The face of the dead king was covered with a golden burial mask of gold plates, welded together and still fastened with the help of several rough rivets. The thickness of the gold in some places is only 0.1 millimeter, which testifies to the high skill of the craftsmen who made it. The mask, as it should be according to the canons of Egyptian art, conveys a feeling of general peace and solemnity and … has nothing to do with the elderly Psusennes I, who died about 80 years of age!
Photo of the silver coffin of Psusennes I.
Interestingly, Psusennes bore both the title of Pharaoh and was the high priest of Amun. And this explains the nature of such wealth in an era of general economic and political decline in the country, not to mention the fact that the pharaohs then owned only Lower Egypt. By the way, Psusennes himself was one of the four sons of the high priest of the temple in Karnak Pinedjema, who sent him to Tanis, to the north, where he became a pharaoh and united in his hands not only secular, but also spiritual power, and the corresponding riches. Then Psusennes did not marry his daughter to anyone, but to his own brother, when he became the high priest in ancient Thebes.
Canopies for Pharaoh's entrails.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in the royal necropolis, with all its modest dimensions, literally poods of gold, silver, and items made of these noble metals were kept. There were genuine masterpieces of jewelry art: for example, wide necklaces adorned with pendants and pectorals made of gold, moreover, inlaid with carnelian, lapis lazuli, green feldspar and jasper. There were found bowls made of silver and even amber in the form of flowers or with floral motifs, various vessels for ritual libations, statues of goddesses made of gold. Especially a lot of lapis lazuli was found, and even more than it was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and this was one of the most expensive ornamental stones in Egypt, since it was brought from the territory of … modern Afghanistan. Six of Psusennes' necklaces consisted of gold beads or small gold discs with pendants and again lapis lazuli. One of them bears the following inscription: "King Psusennes made a large necklace of real lapis lazuli, no king has done anything like that." This is how he boasted to others and … needless to say, he had every reason for it!
