Most MYSTERIOUS Secrets Of Ancient Egypt!
Curiosity
2018-01-30
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Check out the most mysterious secrets of ancient egypt! From hidden chambers in the great pyramids to other mysteries surrounding the sphinx, this top 10 list of mysteries from ancient egyptians is a must see!
10. Papyrus Around Mummies
It’s long been a mystery how ancient Egyptians went about their day to day business, because the only records that remain from the time are those deemed important enough to be preserved in tombs or on tablets. This all changed in 2017, though, when archaeologists took a closer look at the papyri that was used to encase the bodies of mummies.
Workers in ancient Egypt recycled their papyrus- after all it was quite an elaborate product to make- and waste not, want not! One of the most common uses was to decorate the boxes that mummies were kept in. Quite often scraps of papyrus would be stuck together with glue, similar to how paper mâché is made. Of course, the boxes are now important artefacts themselves, but researchers have developed a digital imaging technique that actually lets them see what was originally written on the paper, and the results are pretty amazing!! They were scraps of people’s shopping lists and tax returns, which gives a much deeper insight into how Ancient Egyptians lived their lives and how society worked. It turns out they were far more similar to us, today, than you might think, and had to worry about the same day-to-day concerns as people have in the 2 thousand years since they lived. We still need to buy groceries, and we still have to pay taxes!!
9. The Cairo Manuscript
There are many ancient Egyptian artefacts still waiting to be found across the country, but the Cairo Manuscript was one that was originally discovered in the 1800’s, before being lost again for another 70 years. It was re-discovered in an old storage box in Cairo’s Egyptian museum in 2015, and is simply stunning.
It’s the largest known Egyptian leather manuscript, and is about 8 feet (2.4 m) long! As a reference, I am 5 foot 6! Only the most important documents were written in such a way, because leather was seen as a very prestigious material. Unfortunately, it disintegrates much quicker than papyri, so it’s very rare to find leather manuscripts. It’s written on both sides, and is a religious manuscript that details a series of incantations that would have been recited by a priest, and images of rituals for funerary processions. There’s a strip of incredibly colourful images across the top, and it is thought to be at least 4,000 years old. This predates depictions of similar images that have been found on the base of sarcophagi that were uncovered from the necropolis of Hermopolis. The Cairo Manuscript is one of the most detailed and well preserved texts from so long ago, and further uncovered the rituals associated with Egyptian religion.
10. Papyrus Around Mummies
It’s long been a mystery how ancient Egyptians went about their day to day business, because the only records that remain from the time are those deemed important enough to be preserved in tombs or on tablets. This all changed in 2017, though, when archaeologists took a closer look at the papyri that was used to encase the bodies of mummies.
Workers in ancient Egypt recycled their papyrus- after all it was quite an elaborate product to make- and waste not, want not! One of the most common uses was to decorate the boxes that mummies were kept in. Quite often scraps of papyrus would be stuck together with glue, similar to how paper mâché is made. Of course, the boxes are now important artefacts themselves, but researchers have developed a digital imaging technique that actually lets them see what was originally written on the paper, and the results are pretty amazing!! They were scraps of people’s shopping lists and tax returns, which gives a much deeper insight into how Ancient Egyptians lived their lives and how society worked. It turns out they were far more similar to us, today, than you might think, and had to worry about the same day-to-day concerns as people have in the 2 thousand years since they lived. We still need to buy groceries, and we still have to pay taxes!!
9. The Cairo Manuscript
There are many ancient Egyptian artefacts still waiting to be found across the country, but the Cairo Manuscript was one that was originally discovered in the 1800’s, before being lost again for another 70 years. It was re-discovered in an old storage box in Cairo’s Egyptian museum in 2015, and is simply stunning.
It’s the largest known Egyptian leather manuscript, and is about 8 feet (2.4 m) long! As a reference, I am 5 foot 6! Only the most important documents were written in such a way, because leather was seen as a very prestigious material. Unfortunately, it disintegrates much quicker than papyri, so it’s very rare to find leather manuscripts. It’s written on both sides, and is a religious manuscript that details a series of incantations that would have been recited by a priest, and images of rituals for funerary processions. There’s a strip of incredibly colourful images across the top, and it is thought to be at least 4,000 years old. This predates depictions of similar images that have been found on the base of sarcophagi that were uncovered from the necropolis of Hermopolis. The Cairo Manuscript is one of the most detailed and well preserved texts from so long ago, and further uncovered the rituals associated with Egyptian religion.
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