Tomb of Ancient Egyptian 'Priest of Magic' discovered 4,500 years after it was sealed off

Secret tomb belonging to an Ancient Egyptian 'Priest of Magic' discovered 4,500 years after it was sealed off from the world
Archaeologists at Abusir Archaeological Cemetery at Giza have found the tomb of Shepseskaf ‘ankh
The vast tomb belonged to the Head of Physicians of Upper and Lower Egypt in the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom - 4,500 years ago
A large door covered in hieroglyphs revealed that its occupant was the 'Priest of Khnum,' or 'Priest of Magic'


A 'huge' limestone tomb belonging to an important Egyptian physician has been discovered.

Archaeologists at Abusir Archaeological Cemetery at Giza have unearthed the final resting place of
Shepseskaf ‘ankh that has been undisturbed for 4,500 years.

The generous size of the tomb, which is 69 by 45 feet long and 13 feet high, indicates the importance of the ancient medical professional, who was Head of Physicians of Upper and Lower Egypt in the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

www.dailymail.co.uk...


This is an amazing find do you think he may have been a royal himself Shepseskaf is pretty close to Shepseskare a king of that era both are of the 5th dynasty the article didn't give the year,I am just guessing at a family connection not a stated fact.

reply to post by Spider879

Sweet find. I'd love to be there when they open it up. It would be interesting to look around in an undisturbed tomb of someone like this. Egyptians often took names for meaning, so it's hard to say if he's family, but it's seems possible.

Nice find, I'd say a tomb of a physician/magician would have a lot more interesting knowledge then a noblepersons tomb. On a side note, now I know where that musical town in the U.S got its name from.

Peace.

reply to post by Spider879


Cool stuff.

I would've loved to be there to see what is inside when they opened it up.

Although, as he was a priest of magic maybe one of his acolytes had put a curse on there for anyone opening it up!



Who knows what other things are hidden deep beneath the sand dunes...

Very interesting find that comes at strange times in Egypt's history. Glad to see some excavations are still happening...

S&F

love to see the paintings in that tomb when they open it good find op

Two things...

1. S & F, Awesome find.

2. Any bets on finding information about sound resonance and other possibly related information?

Side note: I'm glad Hawass wont be part of the story, Never really trusted that guy....

reply to post by SLAYER69


Echoing exactly what you said ... especially the Hawass bit ... man was a menace.

Woody

reply to post by Spider879


What's the time limit on grave robbing?

I find it odd that people can call themselves archeologists and then can go around opening tombs.

By coincidence I just posted an article earlier today on uncylcopedia - a satire website I write on - about an Egyptian archeologist finding and opening the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. (if you care to read it you can find it in the Current events - UnNews - section of uncyclopedia). It pretty much sums up my feelings about this practice. Opening Dr. Kíng's tomb would be a worldwide scandal, but it's okay to play in the field of bones if the person is from a certain era. Hypocrisy, I tells ya.

EDIT: In fact I just linked the Daily Mail story to that article, thanks OP. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading about discoveries and ancient tombs as much as anyone, but I'd probably draw the line at going out and personally digging them up.

Aleister
reply to post by Spider879

 

What's the time limit on grave robbing?

I find it odd that people can call themselves archeologists and then can go around opening tombs.

By coincidence I just posted an article earlier today on uncylcopedia - a satire website I write on - about an Egyptian archeologist finding and opening the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. (if you care to read it you can find it in the Current events - UnNews - section of uncyclopedia). It pretty much sums up my feelings about this practice. Opening Dr. Kíng's tomb would be a worldwide scandal, but it's okay to play in the field of bones if the person is from a certain era. Hypocrisy, I tells ya.

EDIT: In fact I just linked the Daily Mail story to that article, thanks OP. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading about discoveries and ancient tombs as much as anyone, but I'd probably draw the line at going out and personally digging them up.

edit on 30-10-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

edit on 30-10-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

edit on 30-10-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

You know that's hard to answer on one hand I am a glutton for information about the ancients and the further removed from us the less emotionally connected most of us will feel,but with questions like you posed for me anyways I feel a tinge of guilt, on another site sometime ago we were discussing the lost Persian Army of Cambyses that tried to attack Oasis of Siwa in 525BC. for some reason I became somewhat emotional at their bleached bones un-buried in foreign land for 2500 yrs ,I even suggest that the current government of the modern state of Iran should make some kind of ceremony to honer them even if they could not be taken home and re-buried off-course I was taken to task by other members for being sentimentally foolish but my feelings for them had to do with me being ex-military where our motto is leave non behind..In other words I have no good answer.

reply to post by Spider879

As I said, don't get me wrong, for I too love the information that comes from digs like this. So it's a legit question, just how many years must pass before graverobbing is not only allowed, but honored. Hence the Dr. King reference, and if we tried to excavate Maggie Thatchers grave and look for artifacts I suppose a few people would complain.

EDIT: And an ATS question. And this is not against the Lou Reed thread, but why does that thread, with 13 flags and posted on the 27th, get to the front page while this one, with 34 stars and created on the 29th, isn't. Just curious as to how that works, what formula is used.

reply to post by Aleister


One way of looking at it is that they prepared their bodies for the after life. I think 4.500 years passing after their death sorta qualifies as an after life. Their life.




In all seriousness. It's not like bygone eras where the graves were looted and sold to the highest bidder and most if not all items squirreled away in private collections. This stuff will be most likely shown in public museums. Lots could be learned about our past from such discoveries. I tell ya what...

If any of his relatives start protesting I'll be the first one in line to support their cause.

reply to post by Spider879


Absolutely bitchen! Thank you for posting OP.

SnF

SLAYER69
2. Any bets on finding information about sound resonance and other possibly related information?

Wow. It didn't even cross my mind there could be some info or objects related to sound resonance in this tomb. Or that the tomb itself could be resonant. That would be interesting indeed.

reply to post by Klassified


Ever watch the Pyramid code?
If any of this is true there just may be a surprise or two stashed away in that tomb.


ETA: The part of the series discussing "Medical use of sound"

reply to post by Spider879


Doggoneit, So he did not Vanish after all.

reply to post by SLAYER69

Yes. This is a really good documentary. I have some background in sound and frequencies, so when I first heard of the Egyptians using harmonics medicinally, it was of definite interest to me. Especially because sound can be used to induce altered states of mind. I have done some reading on their uses of it. It's fascinating stuff, actually.

Zorgon once posited that one of the staffs that we see held by high ranking Egyptians in some stellae may actually be akin to a "microphone". It may sound far out there at first, but who's to say they didn't understand tuning fork type resonance, and/or the string between two cans concept? They certainly understood harmonics and frequency. So not much would surprise me at this point when it comes to the Egyptians.

I'm glad you thought of this in relation to the tomb. I sure didn't, until you mentioned it.

This is a fantastic discovery! Thanks OP.

I found a better article written by National Geographic that goes into more detail. I hope you don't mind me adding.
Link

A team of Czech archaeologists excavating at the site of Abusir, 17 miles (27 kilometers) south of Cairo, has discovered the large limestone tomb of a top royal physician from about 2400 B.C. The physician's name was Shepseskaf-Ankh, which means "Shepseskaf is living"—a tribute to the last king of the fourth dynasty during the period known as the Old Kingdom. As the Head of the Physicians of Upper and Lower Egypt, Shepseskaf-Ankh served the royal household during the fifth dynasty. He is especially associated with a king named Niuserre, who ruled Egypt for at least a decade. Miroslav Bárta, director of the archaeological team from the Czech Institute of Egyptology, is particularly pleased with the historical details contained in the tomb as well as its architectural preservation. "This microcosmos illustrates general trends that ruled the society of the day," he says. Niuserre "followed the policy of marrying some of his daughters to his top officials to keep their ambitions at bay," says Bárta. "This is exactly the moment when the empire starts to break down due to rising expenses and increasing independence of powerful families." It was also a time when Egypt's kings had run out of room at the royal funerary complex on the Giza plateau, the site of the grand pyramids of the fourth dynasty. They were now building smaller, rougher pyramids farther south. Shepseskaf-Ankh's tomb is the third physician's tomb to be found in the area. Other court officials and high-level priests were also laid to rest there, close to the rulers they once served. Shepseskaf-Ankh came from an elite Egyptian family. In one section of the tomb—surrounding a feature called a false door—he is identified by titles indicating his elevated status, such as Priest of Re in the Temples of the Sun, Priest of Khnum, and Priest of Magic. The spacious dimensions of his tomb—roughly 46 feet (14 meters) by 70 feet (21 meters), and 13 feet (4 meters) high—are another indication of his importance. The funerary complex features an open court and eight burial chambers for Shepseskaf-Ankh and his family. Being a royal doctor, it seems, could ensure your family's success not just in this world but in the afterlife as well. Abusir is part of the great royal cemetery that stretches between Giza and Saqqara in the desert west of the Nile. Although looting has increased there in the wake of the 2011 revolution, this discovery shows that some areas remain undisturbed by the recent turmoil. The Czech team next plans to excavate structures beneath the tomb to see what additional secrets they may reveal.

I also ran into this BBC article from 2011 on Ancient Egyptian Magic that adds context.
Link

Digital_Reality
This is a fantastic discovery! Thanks OP.

I found a better article written by National Geographic that goes into more detail. I hope you don't mind me adding.
Link

A team of Czech archaeologists excavating at the site of Abusir, 17 miles (27 kilometers) south of Cairo, has discovered the large limestone tomb of a top royal physician from about 2400 B.C. The physician's name was Shepseskaf-Ankh, which means "Shepseskaf is living"—a tribute to the last king of the fourth dynasty during the period known as the Old Kingdom. As the Head of the Physicians of Upper and Lower Egypt, Shepseskaf-Ankh served the royal household during the fifth dynasty. He is especially associated with a king named Niuserre, who ruled Egypt for at least a decade. Miroslav Bárta, director of the archaeological team from the Czech Institute of Egyptology, is particularly pleased with the historical details contained in the tomb as well as its architectural preservation. "This microcosmos illustrates general trends that ruled the society of the day," he says. Niuserre "followed the policy of marrying some of his daughters to his top officials to keep their ambitions at bay," says Bárta. "This is exactly the moment when the empire starts to break down due to rising expenses and increasing independence of powerful families." It was also a time when Egypt's kings had run out of room at the royal funerary complex on the Giza plateau, the site of the grand pyramids of the fourth dynasty. They were now building smaller, rougher pyramids farther south. Shepseskaf-Ankh's tomb is the third physician's tomb to be found in the area. Other court officials and high-level priests were also laid to rest there, close to the rulers they once served. Shepseskaf-Ankh came from an elite Egyptian family. In one section of the tomb—surrounding a feature called a false door—he is identified by titles indicating his elevated status, such as Priest of Re in the Temples of the Sun, Priest of Khnum, and Priest of Magic. The spacious dimensions of his tomb—roughly 46 feet (14 meters) by 70 feet (21 meters), and 13 feet (4 meters) high—are another indication of his importance. The funerary complex features an open court and eight burial chambers for Shepseskaf-Ankh and his family. Being a royal doctor, it seems, could ensure your family's success not just in this world but in the afterlife as well. Abusir is part of the great royal cemetery that stretches between Giza and Saqqara in the desert west of the Nile. Although looting has increased there in the wake of the 2011 revolution, this discovery shows that some areas remain undisturbed by the recent turmoil. The Czech team next plans to excavate structures beneath the tomb to see what additional secrets they may reveal.

I also ran into this BBC article from 2011 on Ancient Egyptian Magic that adds context.
Link

edit on 30-10-2013 by Digital_Reality because: Left out link

Win.. thanks for the add ons.

If they find anything related to acoustic resonance, or anything like that...light bulbs, what have you, it will find its way promptly to a museum basement and none of us will ever know about it.
Thats SOP.