Did ancient Egyptians really booby-trap the pyramids?
The ancient Egyptians have taken a number of measures to protect the pyramids. But do they already use traps?
The answer, told Egyptologists, live is a categorical non -.
We do not know where the idea of drawing inside the Egyptian pyramids is from. The tombs with traps have sometimes been represented in films (like Indiana Jones films) and video games (like Tomb Raider franchise). But it does not seem that the Ancient Egyptians Crazy traps used, such as a point with tips under a false floor or a rope rope that could leave a suspended intruder at all.
“Crazy traps are unknown to Egyptologists,” Rolf KraussAn independent scholar and Egyptologist who wrote a lot about the Egyptian pyramids, told Live Science in an email. Krauss said Booby Traps would not have been effective in stopping thieves who wanted to plunder a pyramid. He noted that the former tombs thieves worked in large teams and that a trap would not have obtained them all.
You “can catch one or perhaps two tombs of tombs in / with a trap,” said Krauss. “But what about others? A grave or a funeral construction large enough to hide a trap cannot have entered and stolen by one person; only a team could do it.” Instead, pyramidal manufacturers have used a range of architectural means to prevent people from stealing structures.
In relation: What did the ancient Egyptian pyramids look like when they were built?
In his book “Secure eternity: old protection of Egyptian tombs against prehistoric times to pyramids“(The American University of Caire Press, 2019), Clark wrote that one of the reasons for the pyramids was to build, was to protect the last rest of the pharaoh. Before the construction of flat roof pyramids, rectangular structures with slopping walls inward-which were easier to break, he said. Under the pyramids to go to the funerary chamber of the Pharaoh.
“The mass and nature of the resistant materials which included the superstructure of the pyramid provided a high level of protection to internal arrangements inside and / below,” said Clark to Live Science in an email.
Once the pharaoh is buried, the passages and the entrances to the pyramid were blocked. There are passages in the great pyramid which do not lead to the funeral chamber, but their exact objective is not clear; It is not certain that they were created to deceive the intruders.
“Very blocked passages and trees in certain pyramids could also present a danger for an intruder,” said Clark. “Unfortunately, it was made obvious in [Egyptian archaeologist] The excavation by Zakaria Goneim of the third pyramid of the Sekhemkhet dynasty in Saqqara in the 1950s. While the workers of Goneim cleaned the main passage in the pyramid, the embankment and the blocks in a construction tree above the main entrance corridor collapsed on them, killing one and wounding two. “”
In ancient times, the Egyptians used “blocks of sliding stone to close the funeral chambers”, ” David Ian LightbodyAn Egyptologist and auxiliary professor at the University of Vermont, told Live Science in an email.
Lightbody added that “magic protection spells” have been written on certain pyramids. Known as “Pyramid texts“They do not” curse “a tomb thief, but we thought they offer the pharaoh a magic protection while he was making their way through life after death. A line said,”Osiristake away all those who hate [the pharaoh]who speaks evil against his name “(translation of Samuel Mercer).
One of the most serious dangers for a thief was punishment for getting caught. Clark noted that a text from the 20th dynasty (around 1186 to 1070 BC) suggests that punishment for stolen a grave was cut off and ears, then be impaled.
Despite these measures, protections have often failed. Many pyramids, including Great pyramid Built for Pharaoh Khufu, were stolen in antiquity or for the Middle Ages (around 500 AD 1500). During the 18th dynasty (around 1550 to 1295 BC), the Egyptians ceased to build royal pyramids and rather buried pharaohs in the Valley of Kings, a decision which could have facilitated the graves. However, this has not yet prevented the flight; Most of the tombs in the valley have been stolen, with the tomb of Tutankhamun be a notable exception.
Ancient Egypt Quiz: Test your intelligences on the pyramids, the hieroglyphs and the King Tut
