Ancient Site the Tomb Robbers in Egypt Stumbled Upon

By Hazel Heyer, eTN
Egyptian antiquities authorities revealed early last week they caught ancient tomb raiders red-handed, leading them to ancient remains never thought to have existed in the area. The grave robbers launched their dig one summer night two months ago but were apprehended. Unaware of their finds, they helped authorities uncover the first necropolis ever found dedicated to dentists. They found the site early this month in Sakkara while digging the area located west of the First Dynasty tombs.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced that the necropolis includes three tombs built of mud brick and limestone. The first belongs to the chief dentist of the king E Emery who served during the reign of the Fourth Dynasty. It includes an entrance leading to a rectangular hall with two L-shaped chapels decorated with offering and daily life scenes.

Hawass said, "The most important scene is the curse inscription engraved on the false door showing a crocodile and a snake. Such an inscription was typically known in the old kingdom in order to scare off anyone who may enter the tomb," he told the eTurbo News.

The second tomb belongs to Ka-Me-Su the king's dentist who lived during the Fifth Dynasty. The tomb is a rectangular niche with a huge bust less statue
featuring Ka-Me-Su and his son. At the front is a rectangular hall with its western wall decorated with several false doors in the shape of the royal palace faГѓВ§ade.

The third tomb belongs to dentist Sekhem Ka of the Fourth Dynasty. It is located between the tombs of Ka-Me-Su and E Emery. It is a rectangular-shaped tomb with a limestone niche and an offering basin.

Hawass believes that since those dentists lived near the royal palace, they may have been based near the Pharaohs to treat the king and his family.
Obviously, the royals gave them the luxury to build their tombs in the shadow of the Step Pyramid.

Imhotep, an Egyptian architect who lived 4500 years ago, built this awe-inspiring pyramid. He began the pyramid as a single-storey structure; later he added five more levels. He then covered it with fine limestone. In front of the pyramid, he built a stone structure which contains a wooden box with two peepholes. Through the holes, one can see a life-size painted statue of king Zoser. Builders bore the hole presumably to allow the king’s ‘Ka’ (or life spirit) to communicate with the outside world.

The site of Sakkara is the central portion of the Memphite necropolis which stretches from the northernmost sites of Abu Rawash, Giza to Zawiyet el Aryan, Abusir, Sakkara, South Sakkara and finally Dahshur and Mazghuna in the south, for more than 30 kilometers.

Memphis was founded at the end of Dynasty zero or beginning of the First Dynasty. It was the capital of Egypt at least, since the early Second Dynasty to the Eighth Dynasty.

October 31, 2006   Posted in: Egypt