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BlindBanshee t1_ixf0ck5 wrote

Reply to comment by MadRoboticist in Ancient Egyptian mummification was never intended to preserve bodies by IslandChillin

I was under the impression that no bodies/mummies have ever been found in the pyramids.

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SandSlinky t1_ixf62mk wrote

Probably because they were looted.

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BlindBanshee t1_ixfnf1x wrote

Every single one? I find that hard to believe.

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MartianSands t1_ixgok1o wrote

After 4 or 5 thousand years? I don't. The tombs which get discovered untouched tend to be dug into cliffsides or buried, as far as I understand it. They only survived because people forgot where they were.

Difficult to misplace a pyramid

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BlindBanshee t1_ixgy4s8 wrote

In the same way that a pyramid is hard to misplace, wouldn't it be easy to guard?

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MartianSands t1_ixgyl98 wrote

There's no way they've been consistently guarded for all that time. People have been nicking masonry from them, I'm certain they could get lightweight valuables in and out as well

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jongeheer t1_ixh0o2a wrote

Well, seems like a good time to for instance read up on the Mehdi's who legit removed all pharao remains from the tombs in Luxor to keep them safe in a 'mummy stash', proving that tombs were indeed being raided and guarded, and that even the guards would remove objects as to not let them fall into the hands of looters.

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Plop-Music t1_ixfb1ip wrote

sarcophagi were though

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BlindBanshee t1_ixfnivl wrote

It's possible that what they found in Khufu's pyramid was a sarcophagus, but considering bodies have never been found I'm inclined to believe that pyramids had a different purpose.

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MadRoboticist t1_ixfv70f wrote

Then you would be at odds with basically every Egyptologist. The pyramids weren't just stand-alone constructions. There is a full complex of buildings including mortuary temples and other buildings associated with funerary rites.

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BlindBanshee t1_ixg0847 wrote

I never claimed to be an expert, but it seems weird that we're not finding mummies in pyramids if that was the whole purpose for their existence.

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jongeheer t1_ixh0tz1 wrote

ITT: a 21th century internet user that finds it odd that 'we' haven't found any precious item in a structure that is 5000 years old.

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vulgarchaitanya t1_ixgbgd5 wrote

Not an expert, but what if the reason we are not finding mummies is that they have either ascended heaven or someone is making a mummy army in secret to rule over the world?

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Plop-Music t1_ixhm4fs wrote

It's not weird in the slightest. Mummified bodies in Egypt and elsewhere have been stolen out of their tombs for millenia. Because people would pay a lot of money for them. That's what's believed to have happened here. The British weren't the first people to do that, it predates the existence of the UK. But some of the sarcophagi that were left behind were too big to steal, they couldn't get them out of the pyramids. Which indicates that they were there first, long before the roof was finished, which seems to point to the fact they were important and necessary to be inside the pyramid, maybe the main reason for the pyramid's existence in the first place.

The reason there were little to no hieroglyphs on the walls is because that's a practice that didn't start until the next age centuries later.

But as others have said, the pyramid's of giza are basically a big graveyard, there's tons and tons and tons of tombs and mastabas surrounding them, which were used to bury people. And those weren't the tombs of lowly workers who died making it, you had a to have a good deal of money at the time to have one, especially on a site that was so important.

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Individual-Gur-7292 t1_ixh8nwq wrote

The burial of Neferuptah was found intact inside her pyramid at Hawara.

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BlindBanshee t1_ixhfhfp wrote

Right on, so we've got one body so far. There are and were quite a few pyramids out there yeah? Lot of them not even in Egypt. Are you suggesting that based on this one body all pyramids MUST be tombs?

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Individual-Gur-7292 t1_ixhfnzq wrote

I was replying to your impression that no bodies/mummies have ever been found in pyramids.

What do you propose they were instead?

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BlindBanshee t1_ixhh0w4 wrote

I'm not mad, if you've got other mummies to show please share. I don't think I ever said that the tomb theory wasn't plausible, I just find it interesting that there aren't mummies being discovered in pyramids. Or at least, that's the rumor.

You've informed me of this queen that was discovered and I have no reason to doubt the validity, I've heard of her and her being discovered in the pyramid.

I'll just state again like I did in the beginning, if it's so obvious that ALL of the pyramids are tombs then why are we finding so few bodies? I'm skeptical that every single one was just looted. And there are a lot of pyramids that have nothing to do with the Egyptian pharaohs, are they all tombs too? Every single one? As far as what else they could be I don't know, but I'm curious.

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MadRoboticist t1_ixhnn2x wrote

Mummies have been found in dozens of pyramids. They are mostly destroyed or partial due to damage during looting. Pyramids are basically giant "Rob me" signs, so it's really not weird that they were almost all looted. There are plenty of Egyptian records noting the pyramids and other tombs had been looted. It was not only pharaohs that built pyramids, other nobles and officials had pyramids and mastabas built as well. It's not like egyptologists just decided that pyramids were tombs one day and that was the end of it. There has been well over a century of research that supports that conclusion.

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