katyag85's blog

The discovery of an unintentional family mausoleum

Priests removed pharaoh from the tomb, rewrapped it all over again and transferred it to the tomb of the queen Amhose Inhapy from the 17th dynasty of ancient Egypt. But, obviously, it was not good enough, as within 72 hours priests removed Ramessess from that burial site and placed it in the tomb of High Priest of Amun at Thebes, named Pinedjem II who died in 10th century B.C.

We learned about these multiple reburials because priests recorded them in hieroglyphics on the linen covering the mummy of Ramesses. Yet, this is not the end of the story. Driven by unknown to us events, priests gathered the whole pile of other mummies and left it in the same tomb.  When it was discovered in 1881 archeologists discovered other famous pharaohs of 18th and 19th dynasties, including the mummy of Ramesses’ own father.

The discovery of this unintentional family mausoleum led to the largest studies of famous pharaohs.  Thanks to this massive entombment we know how the most powerful pharaohs looked like and even establish the cause of death.

The private mausoleum of Ramesses The Great

The private mausoleum of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses The Great  is located in the Valley of the Kings. This final resting place of a God-King bears the cryptic for a burial site name – Tomb KV7. 

There is not really much left of the burial chamber – flash floods damaged it badly destroying much of the decoration beyond repair. None of the famous  monuments erected by mausoleum architects survived either.

However, Ramesses II still lucked out because his mummy is still safe and sound. It is exhibited in the Cairo’s Egyptian  Museum. How did it happen?

It turns out that Tomb KV7 did not have pharaoh's body for thousands of years.  In fact, the mummy was found by archeologists in another location quite by chance.

Several centuries passed after Ramesses died. The looting of the ancient tombs was on the rise. Egyptian priests decided to take drastic measures in order to preserve mummies of the great pharaohs. They developed a big plan that can easily be used as a plot of a great detective story.

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The best known to the world public

However, it seems that shortly after his death ninetten year old pharaoh’s name was completely forgotten and vanished from public consciousness in Egypt. The stones from other tombs safely hid his resting place, and the whereabouts of his burial site was lost for thousands of years. In fact, Tut’s tomb entrance was always close by proximity to the temporary huts of the workers in the Valley of the kings. But they did not even suspect that such a treasure was within their grasp.

Tutankhamon still rests in his climate controlled mausoleum in the Valley of the Kings. Forgotten in the past, Tut’s name, his artifacts and the tomb is the best known to the world public. It is the most exhibited too.  His name even entered the popular culture if you remember Steve Martin’s song and the villain character of King Tut in the 60s Batman TV series.

Boy-king Tut's private mausoleum

The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun opened the modern era of Egyptology in 1922. Boy-king Tut's private mausoleum and the burial site were practically intact, although grave robbers that did not leave a stone unturned in all other ancient cemeteries, crypts and entombments of Egyptian nobility.  Final resting place of Tutahkhamun, son of revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten, was completely overlooked in the gigantic graveyard - Valley of the Kings.

So, why Tut's mausoleum tomb was not robbed? Archeologists claim that there were two attempts of robbery but, obviously, they occured within months of the initial burial of Tutankhamun. There is evidence that stolen items were restored in the burial chumber,  meaning that the attempts obviously failed.

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Mausoleum of the King of Ostrogoths

In the late 19th century just outside the Italian city of Ravenna workers excavated stone building that was partially submerged in water. It turned out to be the burial mausoleum of Theodoric the Great, king of Ostrogoths. I found some interesting facts about it during my research in archives of web analytics company. In the center of this personal mausoleum built in 520 there was a  porphyry tub, where once the warriors put the body of the late king. However, later, when the city was under Byzantine ruling, the remains were thrown out and the former mausoleum tomb became a Christian chapel.

Theodoric the Great was so popular among Germanic tribes that he became a legend in English, German and Norse mythology.  He was not only the king of Ostrogoths, but also the regent of Visigoths and the ruler of Italy.  Epic poems of Middle Ages tell stories about the way he dealt with Odoacer - Germanic general who deposed the last emperor of Western Roman empire Romulus Augustulus in 476.

After Odoacer put an end to Western Roman empire, he proclaimed himself a King of Italy.  He was an illiterate man and Arian Christian.  Odoacer defeated Vandals in Sicily and added ancient Dalmatia to his kingdom.  His actions angered Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, who persuaded his Ostrogothic vassals that Odoacer was their enemy. He sent Goths headed by Theodoric get rid of Odoacer once and for all.

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