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Hello everyone, this is the first of what I hope will be many, I don't know if I'd
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call them podcasts, but just audio recordings of me discussing different topics from history.
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Just a little bit about me, I have a degree in Egyptology, I have some experience in archaeology
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in Egypt, I did a double major actually in Egyptology and history from the University
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of Toronto. My interests include obviously ancient Egyptian history, huge interest in
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World War II, the fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic, a little bit of Greek
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history and really just myths relating to history or bringing to light the realities
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surrounding commonly held and unquestioned beliefs relating to history. So this might
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be the Exodus in Egypt or beliefs in Atlantis or King Arthur or just commonly held beliefs
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regarding the pyramids, the pyramid of Khufu or otherwise known as the Great Pyramid in
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particular has a huge amount of just unquestioned commonly held myths that I would like to
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address in this first, I don't know if I'd call it an episode, but this first installment.
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So bear with me, this is my first time doing this, I am not a professional in any means
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with regard to audio recording and I'm sure as we go along I'll get better. And hopefully
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if this is something that people are finding interesting I'll invest in some better audio
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recording equipment. As it stands right now I'm just using a pretty popular headset.
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So anyways, let's get going here. First issue I would like to address is the belief that
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the pyramids of Egypt actually don't contain anything that would indicate that their primary
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use was funerary in nature or basically no bodies were ever found in them and the idea
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that they were used as tombs, sorry, is absurd. This simply isn't true. In support of the
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Egyptologist's position that they were used as tombs there is a huge amount of evidence
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which we're going to go over here. So really with only a little bit of effort we can scratch
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the idea that no mummies have ever been found in the pyramids. The Egyptians themselves
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left a record of looting pyramids and in these accounts they describe, the ancient Egyptians
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themselves are describing, what's commonly known in their time about the function of
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the monuments. So I guess that falls into a realm of literary evidence which I'm going
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to address later but I want to first address the archaeological evidence in support of
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the pyramids being used for purposes of an internment. With the transition from, I'm
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going to assume that people listening kind of understand already the development of the
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pyramid and really what occurred was early Egyptians were buried in basically pits and
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through time they transitioned into what's known as a mastaba which in Arabic refers
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to like a bench because they look like benches. Basically it looks like a cake almost, like
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a rectangle, actually like a brick, looks like a brick. And in the third dynasty during
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the reign of King Josur his vizier whose name was Emhotep which I'm sure a lot of people
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are familiar with came up with the concept of basically stacking these bricks on top
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of each other with each step progressively becoming smaller which in turn developed the
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shape of a pyramid. Now through time, through his successors these step pyramids as they
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were called were kind of filled in and better perfected. So with the transition of the mastaba
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to the pyramid complex of Josur it's at this time even within this first pyramid that
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we actually have evidence of human internment. So in 1821 there was investigations conducted
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at Saqqara where this pyramid sits. Now I might be mispronouncing this guy's name but
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it was Mentuli. So his work involved the clearing out of the network of intrusive tunnels
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in the burial chamber of Josur's pyramid and there he found the remains of a gold
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gilded sandal and a human skull. So more than a hundred years later one of the great
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Egyptologists Dr Jean-Philippe Lauer who recently passed away unfortunately discovered
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pieces of skin, bone from a human left foot and an upper arm. So while it's impossible
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to determine whether or not these remains belong to the king what is clear is that
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even within the first pyramid built in Egyptian history there is evidence for a funerary
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function. What strongly suggests that these are indeed the remains of Josur is the fact
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that to the northwest of the burial chamber there's a massive evidence of tomb robbery
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including a disturbed wooden chest bearing the name of Josur's Horus name which was
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Najedeket. So Josur's successor constructed one of the more enigmatic pyramid complexes
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in Egypt and it wasn't until the 1950s that the pyramid of Sekenket was discovered. If
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inscriptions on the perimeter wall have anything to say about it this pyramid complex too
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was designed by Emhotep so Emhotep is kind of still sticking around serving under multiple
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kings. The pyramid was originally excavated by Ghonim and when the burial chamber was
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breached he found a fully intact and sealed alabaster sarcophagus. The type of sarcophagus
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stone here is worthy for further consideration because only two royal sarcophagi are known
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to be made out of alabaster and that's the sarcophagus of Khufu's mother Hetafredes
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the first who was Sneferu's wife and Sedi the first who was the father of Ramesses the
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great. So it can be broken down even further sorry to say that only one alabaster sarcophagus
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is known in 3000 years of Egyptian history to house the remains of an Egyptian king.
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Because the sealed nature of the sarcophagus the researcher Ghonim was convinced that
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it must hold the remains of the king despite the urging for caution on behalf of his good
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friend Lauer. It was with a lot of fanfare and press, state officials, television teams
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and other members of the media gathered to watch what they believed to be a momentous
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history or sorry a momentous moment in history and as they removed the lid everyone was
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shocked because it was completely empty. The empty sarcophagus in the pyramid of Sekhamket
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has been used to shore up arguments claiming that pyramids were not used as tombs but what
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should be considered is the presentation of the sarcophagus in the burial chamber
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with dried offerings still on the alabaster lid and the discovery of third dynasty golden
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bracelets and other jewelry in a vertical shaft just before the burial chamber along
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with 26th dynasty Demotic papri. It is obvious at least to Lauer that the tomb had long
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ago already been looted otherwise why would those golden bracelets be strewn about haphazardly
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in that vertical shaft. So in 1967 Lauer was heading the investigation of Sekhamket's
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pyramid complex where focus was then converging on the recent discovery of the so-called
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south tomb in the complex of Sekhamket. And Jozer's pyramid complex has one of these
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as well so you can kind of see a developing standardization of what will slowly evolve
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into a standard pyramid complex later in the fifth dynasty. Anyways it was here just before
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entering the burial chamber that Lauer discovered a wooden coffin with the remains of a male
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child about two years of age. It's likely that this was Sekhamket's son but for our
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purposes here what we have that's more important is a contemporary burial within a pyramid
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complex so it's obvious the ancient Egyptians at this time were associating pyramids with
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burial places. So you're probably asking where the heck is Sekhamket's mummy? Dr IES
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Edwards and Dr Lauer both believe that during the onset of the first intermediate period
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which comes after the old kingdom, well I'll probably discuss that in a later edition.
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During the onset of the first intermediate period as society was breaking down and essentially
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the authoritarian aspect of Egyptian society kind of broke down so the old kingdom priests
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still in the service of Sekhamket's cult might have removed his remains for burial. Just
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as we find later in the new kingdom when the priests of Amun removed the remains of kings
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from their tombs in the valley of the kings at Diyarbahri, sorry to Diyarbahri where
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Hatshepsut's temple is. So the dried offerings that I mentioned earlier that were on top
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of the lid were in the opinion of Dr Edwards and Lauer a respectful gesture left by the
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priests to the revered but not long deceased king or actually long deceased king by that
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time. So with the first two pyramids built we already have pretty significant evidence
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for their use as a funerary or in a funerary function. So the next pyramid for which there's
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direct physical evidence for a primary internment is in the red pyramid. Now this is in the
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there were pyramids built in between Sekhamket's pyramid and the red pyramid but I'm going
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to stick with pyramids in which there is direct evidence of a primary internment. So like
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I said this would be the red pyramid which was undoubtedly constructed by Sneferu who
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is the father and founder of the fourth dynasty. He's Khufu's father and Khufu would later
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go on to build the great pyramid at Giza. So in 1950 a badly damaged and mummified
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human remains were found in the red pyramid. So these remains were examined by Dr Ahmed
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Batari. I'm going to see if I can find the original report of these remains. It has
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some pictures. I remember reading it 15 years ago. I wonder if I can find it online. If
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I can I'll post it in the links. Dr Batari I might be mispronouncing his name. B-A-T-R-A-W-I.
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Concluded that these were indeed the physical remains of Sneferu and he came to this conclusion
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based on the fact that the style of wrappings were very consistent with fourth dynasty
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mummification techniques. In fact during this period of the old kingdom it would have only
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been the members of the elite who were mummified and the quality of these wrappings were such
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that really would have had to be a member of the royal family. Additionally the fact
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that these remains showed evidence of being burnt it tends to indicate that it did belong
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to a significant member of the royal family because in the process of looting tombs robbers
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who are stressed for time and kind of freaking out a little bit what they would do because
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they knew that the mummies often held amulets of huge wealth in their wrappings they would
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just grab these mummies and rip them to shreds. Often they would set the wrappings on fire
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to just quickly access everything that's contained in the wrappings of the mummy itself.
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So we're going to see in a little bit that there is direct literary confirmation of
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this practice occurring in the middle of new kingdoms where we actually have the recorded
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confessions of tomb robbers during their trials who indicate that such practices were done.
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So in the red pyramid constructed in the fourth dynasty by Sneferu we have evidence
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of human remains I believe it was a foot I believe it was a left foot in a style of
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wrappings that were consistent with royalty in the fourth dynasty. Remember the fourth
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dynasty is the old kingdom so the concept of the afterlife at this time was not diversified
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or democratized so like it was the afterlife was reserved for the elite of society so
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the fact that there's even a mummy in there tells us that this individual was already
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at the very top and then if we add all the other pieces to the puzzle that we're trying
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to put together here it really really is indicative of a royal mummy especially one contemporary
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with the period in which the pyramid was constructed not everyone's going to have access to the
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interior chambers of the pyramid. So when we put it all together it really is indicative
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that these remains are likely to be Sneferu and that's what I mean I'm going to as I
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go along here I'm going to try not to make any definitive claims because it really is
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impossible for us to know but weighing the evidence I mean it strongly suggests that
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these remains belong to Sneferu. So a really really interesting figure coming along late
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or in the same dynasty is someone named Queen Kentkawa's so there is more than one but
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Queen Kentkawa's one and two were both figures of incredible importance in the early fifth
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dynasty so in the fourth dynasty we have Sneferu actually yeah some people kind of disagree
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whether Sneferu founded the fourth or if it was his predecessor Huni but for anyway
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let's just say Sneferu was the founder of the fourth dynasty and his sons were Khufu
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and Khufu's sons was Khafre who built the second pyramid. So the fourth dynasty is
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really a huge concentration of pyramid builders who built some of the biggest pyramids in
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Egypt. I hope I'm not going too far off topic here but after Menkare who is the son of
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Khafre who is the son of Khufu who is the son of Sneferu we have in the fifth dynasty
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a whole bunch of kings building at pyramid sites outside of Giza and outside of Saqqara
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and Dashur where previous kings had built. So Queen Kentkawa's actually had a pyramid
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built at Abusir and for our purposes here it's really no less significant and it's
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hugely interesting. So in the ruins of her burial chamber they found a demolished pink
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granite sarcophagus, burial equipment and pieces of her mummy wrappings. The tomb of
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her son King Nefere doesn't disappoint us in this regard either. In this ruler's burial
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chamber archaeologists found remains of alabaster canopic jars that's where they would put
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their organs that they would be needing in the afterlife. Remember everything except
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the brain was stored. The brain wasn't understood to have much value and the high moisture
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content of the brain sped up the process of decomposition so they got that out of their
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body really quick and they believed as I'm sure most of you guys know that the heart
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is where the seed of intelligence and morality was contained. So anyway this is the 5th
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dynasty now and in the burial chamber they found the remains of these canopic jars and
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most importantly significant portions of the king's mummified remains. So anatomical analysis
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of these remains showed that the king was about 23 years old when he died which fits
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quite nicely with our understanding of Egyptian chronology at this point in time. So for
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those people who say there's no evidence of any kind of remains found in Egyptian pyramids
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I mean come on it can't get more blatant than this. This is an Egyptian king with canopic
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jars like leaving aside the fact that there was remains just finding these canopic jars
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just screams out that there was a funerary function here. And about 50 meters south
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of Kent Kawas the second's pyramid is a really enigmatic monument known as Lepsis pyramid
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number 24. While the name of the owner of this pyramid isn't quite known yet, Quarry
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Marks referencing the vizier Tashepsis date the pyramid to the reign of King Nasri. And
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within the ruined burial chamber here among the damaged and scattered remnants of burial
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equipment which includes a scaled down copper object used in the opening of the mouth ceremony.
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And it really comes into fruition in the new kingdom the opening of the mouth ceremony
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it's related to the cult of Osiris and basically it establishes a point in time when the king's
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soul can leave the mummy and come back and receive offerings. But anyway the tool used
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in the opening of the mouth ceremony was found in this burial chamber and the remains
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of a 23 year old unidentified female. So undoubtedly this female is the owner of the pyramid. It's
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just not known whether or not she was a consort of the king or possibly the king's brother
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who is Nefer-Re. So still in the 5th dynasty we're going to move along a little bit here.
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We come to the pyramid of Jedkere. I was going to go in a little bit about his name but I'll skip that a little bit. So this pyramid was excavated most fully in the 1980s by Mahmoud Abdel-Masri.
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The remains of a male named Abdel-Rizik and it was an Egyptian team of archaeologists who discovered in Jedkere's burial chamber the fragmentary remains of his sarcophagus, again canopic jars, and the mummified body of a man who was aged about 50 years old.
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Debris patterns within the pyramid and the intact nature of the plugging stones undoubtedly suggest that this must be the body of the king because it was inaccessible to any potential tomb robbers.
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The last king of the 5th dynasty, and this is as far as the study of pyramids goes, this guy is super important. The last king of the 5th dynasty was a dude named Unes who constructed a pyramid that was to include the famous pyramid text which would later evolve into the coffin text which would later evolve into the book of the dead.
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So this pyramid as well was excavated by Lauer who, remember I mentioned as an Egyptologist who specialized really at Saqqara itself and the pyramid of Unes is not far from the pyramid of Jozer, the first pyramid built.
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But anyway, the pyramid of Unes was excavated by Lauer, a French Egyptologist, and he discovered there the remains of the king's skull, his right arm, and a shin bone.
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And also within the burial chamber were the wooden handles of knives used during the opening of the Mouth ceremony.
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At this time, just a bit of a tangent here, we begin to see a transition from a royal cult associae to a royal cult associae.
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And the pyramid texts themselves are hugely Osirisian.
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At this time, just a bit of a tangent here, we begin to see a transition from a royal cult associated with the sun god Ray to more of an integrated royal cult involving Ray and Osiris.
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And the pyramid texts themselves are hugely Osirian in nature and dedication.
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So it's not too surprising that we begin to find these tools related to the cult of Osiris like the opening of the Mouth ceremony becoming more and more widely found.
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So moving on from Unes, we come to the pyramid of Tedion.
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This pyramid is really cool. You can't go in the pyramid of Unes today without special permission just because, one, the importance of the pyramid texts inside being the first examples of pyramid texts known, but also it's really not that safe.
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There are collapse hazards. But a later pyramid built by Teddy you can enter and the pyramid texts in here are just phenomenal, phenomenally beautiful.
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So Teddy was the first ruler of the sixth dynasty and we also come across evidence of looting involving the use of fire to access those precious metals hidden in the wrappings of the mummified king that I mentioned earlier with the king's nephew in the red pyramid at that short.
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So under the rubble in the burial chamber here, we find the burnt remains of the king's arm and the shoulder.
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The significance of burning cannot be understated. Intrusive burials generally would not warrant such like dedicated attention from thieves.
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And as such, the presence of like isolated charred human remains should, you know, setting off alarm bells.
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There's there's good reason for these thieves who, if later New Kingdom texts or anything to go by, had very good reason to suspect or to know even where the royal burials occurred because often it was the workers themselves who constructed these monuments that later came back and robbed them.
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So Teddy's mother, this is a pyramid recently found at Cheshet was her name.
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She was buried near her son at Saqqara, like I said, in the pyramid of her own and excavations on her pyramid have been going on for a couple of years now.
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But it wasn't even known to be a pyramid until late 2008 or 2009.
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And in February of 2009, the burial chamber was finally entered and the remains of the fully intact mummified remains of Queen Cheshet were discovered.
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The tomb had been looted in antiquity, so the excavating archaeologists were, as can be expected, extremely pleased with their findings.
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I'll attach a news article actually describing the history of the site and current excavations with some pictures as well.
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But again, the ancient Egyptians right from the very beginning associating pyramids with a funerary function and including burials.
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And as we go on, I mean, this is just going to repeat and repeat and repeat.
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So people who make the claim, you know, there's no evidence of the pyramids ever being used as tombs in Egypt.
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It's simply not true. It's fabricating mystery when, you know, a little bit of research is all it takes.
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So the daughter of Eunice and the mother of Pepe was Aiput.
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And she has a pyramid that was recently in the news a couple of years ago.
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So it was first investigated at the turn of the century, again in the 1920s.
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And around 2010, it was under investigation by a team of archaeologists led by, of course, Dr. Zahi Awas.
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And when first explored this pyramid's burial chamber, produced a collection of assorted funerary equipment, including five limestone canopic jars.
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Remember their function. So it's not a coincidence that they're being discovered in pyramids.
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Fragments of a cedar coffin were also found. An alabaster headrest, gold bracelet, a necklace, copper utensils, an alabaster tablet with the names of seven sacred oils, and the bones of a middle-aged woman believed to be the queen.
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It's generally believed to be the second king of the sixth dynasty, although some kings lists, well, they don't all agree with each other, but some kings lists insert a king by the name of Ysarqara between Teddy and Pepe the Second.
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Sorry, between, yeah, between Teddy and Pepe the Second.
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It is Pepe the Second. Geez, did I say Pepe the Second? Pepe the First.
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It is Pepe the First pyramid that I'm going to quickly discuss now.
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So his burial chamber also included a wonderful collection of burial goods, as well as the first example of pyramid texts found by Egyptologists.
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Now remember, Unas, I said, was the first example of pyramid texts in pyramids.
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Pepe's pyramid was the first pyramid in which pyramid texts had been found, but it was built later than the pyramid of Unas.
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So included in the finds were 14 shards of yellow alabaster canopic jars, scraps of linen with the inscription, it said, linen for the king of upper and lower Egypt.
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I guess I should have turned my cell phone off before I started recording this, sorry.
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Sorry, the inscription on the linen said, linen for the king of upper and lower Egypt. May he live forever.
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There is pleated linen, a left sandal, a flint knife, fine linen wrappings, and a portion of a mummy.
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Within the context of the chamber, the mummy is likely to be that of the king.
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The next burial chamber that we're going to discuss actually has a mummy.
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I'm going to include a picture of this dude. It's pretty fantastic.
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It remains. Menenre, the first burial chamber, contained less burial goods, but this mummy is almost fully intact.
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It's a young boy with hair styled in the manor, worn by children in Egypt. You know, that little side knot.
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And it is recorded that Menenre died very young after a short joint rule with his father, Pepe I.
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So this mummy is almost positively the remains of that young boy king.
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So with the death of Menenre's brother, Pepe II, Egypt enters into this period of brutal civil war and famine and strife.
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It's known as the first intermediate period.
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Generally speaking, for the average Egyptian, conditions changed probably not a lot.
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And the breakdown of centralized control under the power of the king really served to democratize, or democratize, sorry,
31:55.680 --> 32:00.680
aspects of Egyptian culture normally reserved for only the elite.
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For those in power, though, the effects were absolutely brutal.
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And it was through a long and brutal civil war between the Heraclea Politan, I can never pronounce this,
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Heraclea Politan and the Theban kings that order was finally restored by Mentu Hotep II in the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.
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So the Egyptians of this newly established Middle Kingdom continued to build pyramids and be interned within them.
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Had the Egyptian pyramid not served a significant mortuary or funerary function for so many centuries,
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there's no reason to believe the kings of the Middle Kingdom would have resumed the construction of major pyramids with such a similar function.
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So how then can one not associate pyramids with a funerary function?
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Is it simply because the magical draw of dramatic theories attached to Khufu's pyramid are too entertaining to pass up?
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Kafray's pyramid is only three meters smaller than Khufu's.
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Were it three meters taller, would all those shows on TLC, Discovery, and the History Channel hinting at some lost civilization
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or unknown technology be directed to Kafray's monument instead of Khufu's?
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With each pyramid being so undeniably connected in terms of architectural evolution, I could spend hours actually discussing that evolution.
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Can we reasonably isolate Khufu's pyramid in particular, but I guess all the Giza pyramids, or the three pyramids at Giza,
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people tend to reach in and pull these three pyramids out and disconnect them entirely from their archaeological, architectural, funerary context.
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And then from these three, pull out Khufu's and isolate that and point with wonder at all these individual features that in their own might be interesting,
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but when viewed in a wider context of Egyptian society, really isn't all that fantastic or unique.
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So anyway, let's recap very quickly and look at the whole picture in terms of primary physical evidence suggesting a funerary function for the pyramids.
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There are hundreds, hundreds of intrusive burials in the pyramids as well, and I wouldn't really consider them primary burials,
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but they do speak volumes about how widely understood the function of the pyramid was.
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If the ancient Egyptians did not believe that the pyramids served as tombs, they wouldn't have made so many intrusive burials into the pyramids
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to further the mechanism that it served. I could go into more detail about that.
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The pyramids weren't tombs and tombs only, they actually served a function that was related to the whole solar cult and belief in the afterlife and the means by which the king got there.
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So I'm just going to recap very quickly the pyramids that we're aware of that have evidence or do not have evidence.
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So, Joser, we have evidence. Succumcat, evidence. Cabba, nope. Lapsis, no. Medoum, no. Celia, I don't know if I'd call that a primary pyramid, but no.
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Zaviet el Metien, no. Senki, this is another one of Sneferu's likely, no, but it probably wasn't a major pyramid, it was probably a satellite.
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Negada, no. Kula, no. Edfu, no. Elephantine, no.
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Okay, the last seven were likely all built by Sneferu and served different functions, either trial pyramids or efforts to learn certain techniques or satellite pyramids or Sirdabs,
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which I won't really go into that, but they served a function that's understood outside of the burial function, which would have been occurring in primary pyramids.
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So, any. From Elephantine, the Bent Pyramid, no, because it was likely abandoned, right?
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The Red Pyramid came next from Sneferu, and there we do find evidence of primary interment, remember that charred foot.
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Khufu, no, but with a pyramid like that we wouldn't expect it, it's kind of a come loot me sign.
36:59.680 --> 37:11.680
Dijed Frey, no. Caphré, no. Baka, no, we're not even sure if he was a king, with a lot of certainty.
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Menkare, no, but there is a very interesting secondary burial from the Seyya period in the 26th dynasty, really cool wooden coffin with awesome hieroglyphs.
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Yuserkaf, no, Sahur, Sahure, sorry, no. Neferirkare, no. Kankawa, the second, yes. Neferefre, yes. Nusere, no. Lepsis 24, yes.
37:43.680 --> 38:03.680
Menkahur, which is the headless pyramid at Saqqara North, no. Dijed Kare, yes. Unus, yes. Teddy, yes. Sheshet, yes. Kuyt, no. Aiput, yes. Pepe, yes.
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Enikinti, no. Menenre, Merenre, I'm getting all these names, I'm getting tongue tied. Probable, yes.
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Pepe the second, no, there's no evidence for primary interment and with his reign, actually the guy lived to be well near his 90s, with his reign ending in the onset of the first intermediate period, you know, it's possible.
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People saw his death as the ushering in of some apocalypse occurring in Egypt because, really remember, the Egyptians believed that the king embodied the essence of Maat, which was the mechanism through which the universe itself found balance.
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So, after so long a reign, he dies. Rural authority just crumbles. But anyway, getting off topic here. So that's the archaeological evidence for the pyramid serving as tombs.
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And let's just very briefly go over literary evidence. Admonition texts in the Middle Kingdom are set in large part during the period of unrest that I just mentioned in the first intermediate period.
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So again, this resulted from the fall of the Old Kingdom and decentralization of royal authority in Egypt. So, as such, these admonition texts or lamentation texts, they provide details about the general state of affairs in Egypt during this time and are witness to the widespread conditions of the period.
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While fascinating in their own right, a few of the accounts are particularly relevant for discussion here. As Egyptian state lost overall control of the security of the populace, the monuments and the cultic upkeep of these former heads of state or previous kings were exposed to those same diminishing conditions.
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So it's during this period that the majority of looting likely took place. And the literature set during this period reflects this fact. So, from the Lamentations of Empower, which is Papyrus 3.44, it states,
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So,
41:20.680 --> 41:48.680
There's kind of a lot to understand in how things are mentioned here. When it's referencing the hawk, like C1 buried as a hawk is blank, this is essentially saying, look at this state of the king, because the hawk is a reference to the king as the embodiment of Horus, who is represented in Egyptian iconography, religion, and culture, I guess, as a hawk.
41:50.680 --> 42:08.680
What the pyramid hid is empty, it should be obvious, the pyramid's been looted. And when it mentions, men rebel against the serpent stolen as the crown of the sun, who pacifies the two lands. This is a direct reference to the king.
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The serpent is a Uraeus, stolen as the crown of the sun, who pacifies the two lands, relates to the absence of royal authority. There was, well there was five, sometimes seven crowns, but the one probably most people are familiar with does have that serpent on the forehead.
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If you think about the Sphinx, the Sphinx has that serpent, that's the Uraeus, which was, there is also a vulture, but anyway, it represented one aspect of Egypt, the two together, upper and lower Egypt.
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So again, I apologize for the unprofessional way I'm recording this, like I said, this is my first time, and I'm learning as I go with free recording software, a headset, and a coffee.
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So, just to continue here, En-Tef, whose Horus name, so kings, I'm assuming people kind of have a little bit of a background here, kings have more than one name, sometimes actually five names.
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There is a throne name, a golden Horus name, a Horus name, but anyway, En-Tef had a Horus name that translated to, he who has brought calm to the two lands, right, upper and lower Egypt were the two lands, hinting that there was a need for calm during the period.
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So he was a Theban ruler, which is in the south of Egypt during the first intermediate period, and from his tomb comes a script called the Song of the Harper.
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So just to quickly go over it here, it says, He who is happy, this good prince, Death is a kindly fate, a generation passes, another stays, since the time of the ancestors.
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The gods who were before rest in their tombs. The gods, they're the previous kings, right, the kings were gods.
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So the gods who were before rest in their tombs, blessed nobles too are buried in their tombs, yet those who built tombs, their places are gone. What has become of them?
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I have heard the words of Emhotep and Harjef. Harjef was considered like a sage.
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Whose sayings are recited in whole. What of their places? Their walls have crumbled, their palaces are, sorry, their places are gone, as though they had never been.
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None comes from there to tell their needs, to calm their hearts, until we go where they have gone.
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So Emhotep was, I remember before, the vizier of Jozer and Sekomket during the third dynasty. His tomb has never been located. Man, that would be such an awesome find.
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But this song may actually tell us why. Harjef was the son of Khufu. I would really like to do another one on just specifically the sons of Khufu, because man, they are interesting.
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So Harjef was the son of Khufu and was buried in a large double mastaba at Giza. He was considered to be a great sage, like a moral, yeah, like a teacher of moral philosophy and personal development, really.
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Emhotep and Harjef were considered by the Egyptians to be like some of the greatest teachers of their kind. Patahotep was a later one as well. I think it was the fifth dynasty.
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Yeah, his tomb was the fifth dynasty. But anyway, their works would have been as familiar to the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period as the teachings of Jesus are today, or some other religious leader that's commonly known.
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The song of the Harper is saying that these tombs have been destroyed and their soul can no longer come and go. It was believed that their souls were nourished through the offerings left at their tombs and their coming and going of their soul through false doors and other mechanisms.
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But the song is essentially saying that their tombs have been ransacked and no one bothers to continue with the cultic activities necessary for the survival of their soul, which was divided and yeah, okay, I won't go into that yet.
46:41.680 --> 47:09.680
So if the tombs of even these most revered men could be destroyed, what do you think could have happened to the tombs of kings whose existence maintained the spiritual, cultural, and even geographical integrity of Egypt itself through the king's integration as mot, the order of the universe, right?
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So it's like, could you imagine if we knew where the tomb of Jesus was and society had broken down to such a level that people were ransacking it? That's essentially what's going on in this First Intermediate Period here.
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And with this level of disharmony, the chaos itself would be seen as the result of a poor king who is failing to serve in the manifestation of mot, which is that balance, truth, and harmony of everything.
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So in a period of unprecedented turmoil like the First Intermediate Period, the blame would fall on not only the current king, but also those old ones because the hawk referenced above, which is the king as Horus, was constantly manifested by the king, right?
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So every king was the same Horus whose duty was to uphold mot. So in other words, the tombs of the most respected men in Egyptian history to that point were being vandalized.
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The tombs of the kings would have been in serious trouble. In the Leopold Amherst Papyrus, which dates to the 20th dynasty, a tomb robber by the name of Amun Nefer admits that, here's a quote,
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He went to rob the tombs, and we found the pyramid of King Sekemre, the son of Re-Sebekhemsef, this being not at all like the pyramids and tombs of the nobles, which we habitually went to rob, unquote.
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Well, the account from the Leopold Amherst Papyrus is a reporting of looting in the New Kingdom royal tombs during the 20th dynasty, and there's, I would love to do another one on that as well.
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There's a whole trial. These guys were found robbing royal tombs, and their trial transcripts actually survive. It's really incredible.
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But even though it's looting New Kingdom royal tombs during the 20th dynasty, it's depicting a problem that was rampant throughout Egyptian history.
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The first intermediate period provided ample opportunity and a sense of moral justification to loot the tombs of previous kings.
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It could almost be seen as a way to get back or to make things right with the universe to restore order since these kings failed in their duty to maintain Ma.
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So there is no wonder at all why the tombs or the pyramids of some of the greater Old Kingdom kings were seen as such a massive target.
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That's a bit of the literary evidence and a bit of the physical evidence. I didn't realize how long this would take to go through. Holy crap, we're almost at an hour.
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But there's also a kind of graphic evidence, like the iconography itself of the pyramid or the development of the Egyptian pyramid complex.
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The complex as a whole served a function, right? It wasn't just, well, let's plop down a pyramid here and put a body in it, and we'll look at how great he was, look at the size of the pyramid.
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The pyramids were literally resurrection machines. I know you've probably heard that before, but they were.
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They weren't the only monument connected to the burial and rejuvenation of the king either.
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So connected to the pyramids were a series of temples deeply rooted to the cultic activities dedicated to the maintenance of the king's soul and the preparation of the king's burial.
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So to neglect the inclusion of the pyramid complex as a whole, as these alternative researchers often do, it's to entirely disregard the Egyptian understanding of the world and how it relates to the afterlife.
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And while the structures surrounding the pyramid changed over time to reflect the religious development, like the evolution of religious convention, the changes were never without functional cause, related to the primary purpose itself of the complex, which was the eternal residence of the king and the means by which he underwent this literal transfiguration.
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And the maintenance of his cult to provide internal sustenance.
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We actually have evidence of Sneferu's cult existing like really far into the New Kingdom.
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I think, I want to say the Bent Pyramid, but it might have been the Red Pyramid where his mortuary temple had kings continuing to come provide offerings a thousand years after his death.
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So as the cult of Ray, sorry, I just need a little sip of coffee here.
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As the cult of Ray began to, remember, raise the sun god, right, and just to add something to consider as we go through anything on Egyptian history, the names of the kings themselves reflect certain conditions present in Egypt at the time.
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So as the cult of Ray began to gain prominence at the beginning of the fourth dynasty and the temples and structures connected to the pyramid began to reflect the shift to a more Ray dominated theology, you begin to see the integration of Ray into kings names, right?
53:17.680 --> 53:27.680
So Sneferu, you know, there's not the pyramids were definitely solar structures related to the solar cult.
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But you see, Sneferu doesn't really have that integration of his name.
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Khufu doesn't really.
53:36.680 --> 53:39.680
But then you have the Djedfray, right?
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Who does?
53:40.680 --> 53:41.680
Yes.
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Menkare?
53:40.680 --> 53:41.680
Yes.
53:40.680 --> 53:46.680
So it's, I mean, you got to consider all of these things at once, right?
53:46.680 --> 53:50.680
To get that whole context of understanding for what's going on.
53:50.680 --> 54:01.680
So the pyramid complex of the third dynasty typically reflects conventions established for royal Mastabbatums of the second dynasty and primarily the second dynasty.
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Typically reflects conventions established for royal Mastabbatums of the second dynasty and primarily dedicate their function to the continued activities of the earthly king in the afterlife from this perspective.
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But as the cult of Ray established itself, which was no doubt due to the growing influence of the priesthood at this time in Heliopolis, which was just to the northeast of Giza.
54:36.680 --> 54:43.680
Yeah, so as a cult of Ray established itself, we get to see the beginnings of an established canon, right?
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An orthodoxy reflecting this cultural shift.
54:47.680 --> 55:02.680
So by the time Sneferu built his North pyramid, the Red pyramid at the Shura, there was already a basic foundational framework for a functional pyramid complex within this cultural religious context.
55:02.680 --> 55:08.680
The previous North-South orientation of the complex was replaced with an east-west.
55:08.680 --> 55:15.680
A valley temple was added and connected to the mortuary temple by means of a causeway.
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Again, on the east side of the pyramid to meet the rising sun, right?
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With only minimal changes, this form was to become the standard until the Middle Kingdom when the cult of Osiris began to override the cult of Ray.
55:31.680 --> 55:44.680
And thus you see a cultural catalyst for shifting traditions and architecture, right?
55:44.680 --> 55:47.680
You can't just look at one thing by itself.
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You have to understand the whole picture of what's happening to understand the mechanism of change behind anything happening.
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It wasn't just art for art's sake or architecture for architecture's sake.
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It wasn't, you know, I'm going to outdo you and here plop giant pyramid on the greatest.
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No, these served a function within their societies, within their belief system.
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The Nile itself was always seen by the Egyptians as a symbolic barrier between life and death, right?
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So on the east side, where the sun rises, that's where you find all the towns, the palaces, and the Egyptians of everyday life.
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On the west side, where the sun sets, that's where you find all their tombs.
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So even the layout of their communities reflected a deep-seated understanding of cosmology.
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And it's an important point to remember because if the pyramids weren't tombs, they wouldn't be located on the west side.
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Or at least they would be located on both banks, right?
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So it's just another thing to take into consideration when you add pieces from physical evidence, which, you know, body, there's not much to argue with there, right?
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You add on the literary evidence, the religious context, you know, different elements of the pyramid structure itself serving a funerary function.
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And even, you know, where they're being built is no coincidence.
57:34.680 --> 57:51.680
Not to, you know, make this first effort at, I don't know, a podcast or whatever, take too long, but just to briefly go over, I guess, the ceremony surrounding a king's death.
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So, and to see how it integrates into the layout of the pyramid, let's say in the fourth dynasty or specifically during the reign of Khufu, because all these ceremonies shifted, right?
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I mean, our funerals now don't even resemble those 300 years ago, right?
58:10.680 --> 58:25.680
And with the ancient Egyptians, we're talking about thousands of years of cultural stability where practices continued with minimal change for literally thousands of years.
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That's insane.
58:27.680 --> 58:30.680
But anyway, another tangent.
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When the king died, the procession, his body would take from this world of the living on the east side of the Nile to the world of the dead on the West Bank, where he would eventually return to the gods and some aspect of them would be reintegrated into the sun itself as Ray and also as Horace
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and the next king.
59:02.680 --> 59:08.680
But this procession would take them through the pyramid itself, the pyramid complex.
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The temples in this complex symbolically represent this passage after death.
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The body would be taken across the river, and this isn't speculation, right?
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Like, we understand this is what occurred.
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The body would be taken across the river to the land of the dead, where it would begin its process of rebirth through ceremonies provided in the mortuary temple.
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So this is the temple furthest to the east of the pyramid.
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From there, it would go through a process, sorry, it would progress through the causeway.
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Herodotus, if you've ever read him, he actually witnessed the, when he visited Egypt, he toured through Giza and wrote about how magnificent the causeway of Khufu was, that actually he compared it to being just as splendid as the pyramid itself.
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So I can't imagine how insanely on-spiring that causeway must have been, and now there's like nothing left.
01:00:04.680 --> 01:00:09.680
Except we do have remains of one of Khufu's cartouches from the causeway, but anyway.
01:00:09.680 --> 01:00:19.680
So the funeral procession would go from the mortuary temple, after being unloaded from a bark which crossed the Nile.
01:00:19.680 --> 01:00:31.680
So it would go through the causeway, and you can just imagine these priests chanting, walking with the mummified remains of the king, and into the valley temple.
01:00:31.680 --> 01:00:41.680
There it would undergo a further ceremony in the pyramid itself, and from there the rebirth with the gods.
01:00:41.680 --> 01:00:52.680
So it's a very basic detailing of the funeral procession, but what needs to be understood is that the pyramids associated, temples and causeway, aren't there haphazardly.
01:00:52.680 --> 01:00:58.680
They reflected in stone the path of the king's spirit that it would take in the afterlife.
01:00:58.680 --> 01:01:09.680
So the pyramid complex as a whole is a physical representation of the ancient Egyptians religious beliefs associated with the cult of Re.
01:01:09.680 --> 01:01:14.680
So just to, I guess, briefly finish up here.
01:01:14.680 --> 01:01:29.680
In attempting to ascertain like the function of Egyptian pyramids, you can't remove them from its archaeological, architectural, cultural or religious context.
01:01:29.680 --> 01:01:37.680
The pyramids are not single monuments of stone removed from the culture that built them and the context in which they sit.
01:01:37.680 --> 01:01:51.680
The complete picture involving some understanding of who the Egyptians were and what they believed is absolutely necessary to understand the history and function of these incredible monuments.
01:01:51.680 --> 01:02:07.680
In response to the question of whether pyramids were used as tombs, I've only provided here a small, small amount of information, and in no way should this be considered a detailed overgoing of the evidence.
01:02:07.680 --> 01:02:22.680
But it's my hope that if you've asked yourself the question, you'll use some of the information I've provided here as a launching pad to further your own deeper understanding of the ancient Egyptians and the monuments that they built.
01:02:22.680 --> 01:02:25.680
So I hope everyone found this interesting.
01:02:25.680 --> 01:02:36.680
Again, for the third time, I'll apologize for the lack of professionalism and I guess, equipment, quality equipment to record them.
01:02:36.680 --> 01:02:41.680
But this is something I would like to continue in the future, and hopefully there is enough interest.
01:02:41.680 --> 01:02:46.680
I have a massive interest in history as a whole, not just Egyptology.
01:02:46.680 --> 01:02:53.680
Like I mentioned earlier, World War II is also a big one of mine, and I am a firefighter as well.
01:02:53.680 --> 01:03:02.680
And recently wrote quite a detailed analysis of the Reichstag fire in 1933 that kind of launched the Nazis in the power.
01:03:02.680 --> 01:03:06.680
So maybe I'll go over that one next time.
01:03:06.680 --> 01:03:20.680
I kind of approached the issue of whether the Nazis could have been responsible for the Reichstag fire and look at timelines of the fires progression based from perspective of modern fire science.
01:03:20.680 --> 01:03:23.680
But so yeah, that's that's one I could do in the future.
01:03:23.680 --> 01:03:27.680
I also mentioned the sons of Khufu.
01:03:27.680 --> 01:03:34.680
I think I already have something I've written previously on them.
01:03:34.680 --> 01:03:38.680
And Napoleon is another huge interest of mine.
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We tend to have a very British perspective of Napoleon and his campaigns and his reforms and such.
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I wouldn't mind going over the Battle of Waterloo from a more balanced perspective, and maybe even integrate some interviews with researchers who have made a name in these fields.
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I know some of you might be familiar with Robert Bouval.
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He and I have been talking.
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He's the guy who came up with the Orion correlation theory, which suggests that the alignment or positioning of the three pyramids at Giza were very similar.
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They were laid out to reflect the orientation of the belt stars of the constellation Orion.
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He and I have been discussing getting an interview going.
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So these are just some basic ideas for the future if there is some interest.
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So anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed it.