Even though we know a lot about life in ancient Egypt, there's still a lot people get wrong, including who actually built the pyramids, what happened to the Sphinx's nose, and who Tutankhamun How a king met his maker. Below, we’ll clear up some of the most common myths about ancient Egypt, adapted from an episode on YouTube about misconceptions.
1. Myth: The pyramids were built with forced labor.
Depictions of Egyptian slave work in popular culture have long perpetuated this myth. It actually goes back to the Greek historian Herodotus, sometimes called the father of history, but it may actually be based on a misreading of his work. Herodotus talks about 100,000 Egyptians being forced to work, but he only explicitly mentions these workers building roads, not the pyramids themselves. Even if he meant for his audience to infer that the workers themselves were forced to labor on the pyramids, contemporary experts disagree. In 2003, Egyptologist Mark Lehner talked about his decades of research in Giza and how most archaeological clues point to the existence of an Egyptian working class who worked on the pyramids like construction workers working under the supervision of foremen . The builders of the pyramids had their own quarters and were well fed. Lehner found large amounts of beef bones from young animals, suggesting a diet rich in what we today essentially call prime beef.
There also seems to be a sense of camaraderie among the workers. In the early 20th century, Harvard researcher George Reisner discovered Egyptian graffiti that labeled groups, such as the Friends of Khufu or the Drunkards of Menkaure, who presumably knew how to unwind after a long day. When these builders died, their belongings were buried near the pyramids occupied by the pharaohs—a sacred place that enslaved people might not have been allowed to occupy.
Still, it was hard work, and thousands of pyramid workers got their hands dirty. So if not slavery, what is it? Dr. Lehner believes that the ancient Egyptians had a strong sense of civic responsibility, not unlike the Amish today. Just like the Amish might collectively build a barn because of the benefit it would have to the community, Egyptians of that era might volunteer to work on a pyramid because it was contributing to the greater good. Some Egyptians may also have been paying debts to higher-ranking Egyptians, called bak. Again, not exactly slavery, since even lords themselves owed money to other lords.
How did they do it? Historians still aren't entirely sure. But the stone was most likely quarried from a nearby quarry and transported through sand that was moistened to facilitate sliding. One theory is that once the stones arrived at the construction site, it was possible to move them into place using ramps and a system of ropes and pulleys.
2. Misconception: Napoleon knocked off the Sphinx’s nose.
Giza is also home to the Sphinx, perhaps the most famous Egyptian iconography in the world. Measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high, it is a monument to the Egyptians and Pharaoh Khafre, who is believed to have ordered the construction of the Sphinx near the Great Pyramid of his father, Pharaoh Khufu. Unlike the Pyramids, the Sphinx is not made up of massive blocks of stone—it is a giant carved limestone. It is notable not only for its beauty, but also because the Sphinx's nose is missing.
Legend has it that Napoleon Bonaparte did this during the French campaign in Egypt in 1798. He ordered his soldiers to fire a cannon at the Sphinx and knock out its trumpets. Great story – but it’s simply not true.
A 1737 painting by the Danish explorer Frederic Louis Norden shows the Sphinx with its nose missing - an advance before Napoleon The city was more than 60 years old. Instead, it is more likely that a Sufi *** named Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr broke his nose in the 14th century. He was ***ing against idolatry in Egypt when he was disgusted when he saw Egyptian peasants offering sacrifices to the Sphinx to ward off floods. He may have been executed for rhinoplasty surgery, although historical records are unclear on this.
Another misconception about the Sphinx is that its body is always visible. Not so. The body was actually covered in sand for an undetermined amount of time—perhaps thousands of years—until the 1800s. Despite attempts, it was not fully visible in modern times until archaeologist Selim Hassan excavated it in the 1930s.
No, we don’t know what the Sphinx looked like before it lost its nose. The Egyptians did not record this.
3. Misconception: King Tut was murdered.
King Tut came to rule the habitat around the 14th century BC after the death of his father, King Akhenaten, when Tut was only 9 years old. What did a child know about ruling Egypt? not much. But he had advisors, so it basically worked.
Then, at the age of 19, he died, was mummified, and placed in a sarcophagus. In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's tomb, which led to decades of investigation. He was baffled in 1968 when researchers performed X-rays and found bone fragments in his skull, suggesting he might have suffered a blow to the head. Some believe King Tut may have died in his chariot, or perhaps a political rival who was disenchanted with the young king decided to depose him. One theory is that it was his trusted advisor Ay who coveted his throne and feared that King Tut would lose control once he became a man.
As the widely accepted theory goes, King Tut died and his widow, Queen Ankhesenamun, wrote to the enemy Hittites, asking them to send a prince to fill the void. . She wrote:
"My husband is dead. I have no son... If you give me a son, he will be my husband. I will never single out my servant for him to be mine husband! ... I'm afraid!
The Hittites sent a prince, but he was murdered on the way, although this seems to lend some credence to the foul theory. Science proved otherwise.
When his body was scanned in 2005, scientists determined that the damage to Tutankhamun's skull was not inflicted either by biotics or by Carter's handling of the mummification. Improperly, either the Egyptians drilled a hole in Tutankhamun's skull to extract his brain, as they had done before. Later research revealed that King Tut had a number of health problems, including malaria and a broken femur from a fall. A broken thigh caused an infection in the leg that later turned into gangrene. It's possible that infection, rather than assassination, caused his misfortune, although there is no general knowledge of this. They want to study Tutankhamun more. , but the 2005 scan was held by Egyptian antiquities authorities, who were in no rush to share it.
4. Myth: Only wealthy Egyptians were mummified.
Mummification is one of the most interesting aspects of ancient Egypt. Many wealthy pharaohs were buried in elaborate gold coffins after being mummified from treated linen, with their brains inserted through the nose or another newly created hole in the skull. Their dried bodies were preserved for the Egyptians to hope for a fruitful afterlife, where the souls could live and harass British archaeologists.
On the other hand, civilians' organs were chemically preserved. The material liquefied and was probably buried in a shallow grave, with their families grieving in piles of dirt. Right?
It turns out that mummification can be done by almost anyone. , there was a kind of funerary gold rush in ancient Egypt during the reign of Tutankhamen, with mummification craftsmen vying for business as mummies were affordable and the expert practice was not just reserved for the elite.
The entire process takes about 70 days, from removing the organs and placing them in jars to using natron (a type of salt) to remove the liquid, and another 35 days while the wrapping material is soaked in the plants. In the embalming fluid.
So what benefits did the pharaohs and other upper-class Egyptians enjoy after death? The main thing was to pay careful attention to the heart, which the Egyptians believed was an essential organ for the afterlife. It is not uncommon for the body to be removed so that the privileged can enjoy eternity without peasants.
Beyond that, mummification comes down to the individual doing the packing. Preferences. Some people filled the skulls with linen or resin, whose golden color represented the divine power of the sun. Sometimes animals were mummified, such as sacred bulls or even cats.
5. Myth: Egyptian tombs were designed to represent the divine power of the sun. Trap.
Movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and video games like Tomb Raider have become a cottage industry for adventurers who stumble upon a long-abandoned Egyptian pyramid or Tomb to obtain priceless treasures. Smart graverobbers will send others ahead of them to ensure any falling boulders or giant buzz saws are triggered before they enter.
Sadly, few archaeologists are in trouble. In fact, with the possible exception of some rare and debatable exceptions, the Egyptians never set traps in their tombs. This misunderstanding probably stems from the fact that they did go to great lengths to protect the dead from disturbance using huge, nearly immovable stones that slipped into place and blocked the entrance to the tomb.
If anyone does loot a tomb, it is usually one of the builders, as they know the layout and can navigate it easily. Few builders would build an elaborate trap because they knew they would be extracting valuable possessions from a corpse in a short period of time. If someone was crushed to death by a boulder inside, it would be an accident related to tomb robbing, not a booby trap.
6. Misconception: Hieroglyphs are ancient emoticons.
We see many references to emojis being a modern version of hieroglyphics, or sacred carvings, a form of Egyptian writing that used pictures as a form of communication.
Seeing the hieroglyph for a house, you would think the author meant a house. They can, but it can also mean the sound "pr" in English. The Egyptians used hieroglyphs not only as logograms to represent entire words, but also as phonetic symbols to represent sounds, and as decisive words that could clarify the meaning of a word. In other words, hieroglyphics are not necessarily word-for-word translations.
Early Greek and Roman scholars believed that hieroglyphs were symbolic in nature. For example, an eagle might represent agility. The Rosetta Stone was not discovered until shortly after Napoleon's raid on Egypt in 1799. This rock was essentially the key to deciphering hieroglyphics into Greek writing. The Egyptians also used demotic, a form of cursive writing that was cruder but faster than carving pictures on walls. And there are no vowels, which makes everything a little trickier.