
4,400 year old Egyptian tomb discovered in the Saqqara pyramid complex - open-source-ux
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46580264
======
Hoasi
Letting a horde of journalists rush to photograph the tomb at once seems like
a terrible idea. That goes against the most basic precaution you could take to
protect archeological artifacts. What kind of professional archeologist would
let that happen?

~~~
canada_dry
I don't think I'm being overly dramatic to say that the antiquities governance
in Egypt is a bloated, top heavy and mostly useless bureaucracy which - in the
end - only has a cursory interest in archeology - aside from keeping the money
rolling in.

It's all about giving high paying, long term jobs to political allies and
family members and less about preserving one of the most fascinating cultures
the world has ever seen.

~~~
LyndsySimon
So... ironically very similar to the ancient Egyptian priesthood they
nominally protect?

~~~
shard972
I'm not an ancient Egyptian expert but considering their culture was obsessed
about the past to the point they created these ancient tombs, i would imagine
they had maybe just a little more respect for their ancestors.

~~~
Retric
Cultures change over 4,000+ years enough to be unrecognizable.

~~~
shard972
A few rounds of immigration from the romans and subsequent conquerers tends to
change your culture. Doesn't dismiss the fact that ancient Egyptians had a
culturural context that anchored to the past as opposed to the present/future.

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richardknop
I'm still wondering about the secret tunnel in the Great Pyramid of Giza with
double false door that was found with a robot. They never further researched
what's on the other side of the second false door.

Also it is known based on radar screenings there are some empty spaces under
the Sphinx, quite likely very ancient chambers. I wish they would dig bellow
the Sphinx to find out what's actually there.

I guess it would cost a lot of money and be time consuming and risky so they
won't do it (in both cases). Pity that we might not know what may be there.

~~~
brett40324
Checkout The Pyramid Code series. They bring to light research and theories
that tell quite a different story about what Giza may of been and was used
for.

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dandare
Shouldn't we keep a couple of these unopened for the future? Maybe open one
every time we make a radical progress in some measurement technique?

Is this already a thing?

~~~
JorgeGT
The inner part of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, said to contain
rivers of mercury depicting the rivers of China, etc., is still unopened:
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emper...](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emperor)

~~~
CamperBob2
Wow, that's a really interesting page. One of the most surreal photos I've
seen in a long time:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Xi...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Xian_museum.jpg/1920px-
Xian_museum.jpg?1544997864428)

~~~
realo
... yes, surreal indeed. Even more so when you learn that no two statue is the
same. Each has a unique face, hair, etc...

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cambaceres
If you are interested in learning about the ancient Egyptian civilization, I
recommend this book that I just finished (with basically no prior knowledge on
the subject)

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8536070-the-rise-and-
fal...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8536070-the-rise-and-fall-of-
ancient-egypt)

[https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Ancient-
Egypt/dp/0553384902](https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Ancient-
Egypt/dp/0553384902)

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limeblack
In college and high school I was taught they used radar years ago to find what
was thought to be all of the remaining tombs. Anyone know why this one hadn't
been found yet?

~~~
gammateam
My experience with “found” in egypt means “hasnt been completely sacked by
raiders 200 years ago”

I would love to be proven wrong this time

~~~
privong
The article states that the tomb has been, "untouched for 4,400 years". Other
articles (e.g., [0]) have explicitly stated that the tomb has not been looted.

[0] [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-
archaeology/egypt-u...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-
archaeology/egypt-unveils-one-of-a-kind-ancient-tomb-expects-more-finds-
idUSKBN1OE0HD)

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muratgozel
I felt like looking to google drive of an ancient man. I really would like to
read about the meanings of the objects found in those walls.

~~~
xaedes
It really looks in good shape (and color)!

Regarding the meaning of objects found I want to share this humorous story in
which future archaeologists find a motel room and they believe to have found a
great tomb similar to that of Tutankhamun:

"Motel of the Mysteries"

[http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/Motel...](http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/Motel-of-the-Mysteries-Macaulay.pdf)

~~~
muratgozel
haha, great example :) I generally think in the way the story points to. the
reason we tend to give sacred meanings to ancient findings is because of our
search for the meaning of life, I think. Finding details about their daily
life would be more interesting and useful, however.

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harshulpandav
'The tomb was found in a buried ridge'

It is commendable how researchers do not give up digging, quite literally. I
also understand this is intensely a resource (time and money) consuming
process. However I wonder why and how this was not discovered until now. Can't
we disperse autonomous devices/robots that discover hollow spaces deep
underground using SONAR or other vibration techniques?

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onetimemanytime
4400 years ago and we are rightfully in awe. What a way to leave a history.

Will my Geocities page be there 4400 years from now ? ;)

~~~
geuis
Doubtful your geocities page is around even now unless you backed it up or it
got slurped by neocities.

~~~
ZeikJT
Might already be on The Wayback Machine.

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ryanmercer
Aziz, LIGHT!

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EGreg
How do they possibly know the age of this tomb with certainty?

~~~
geuis
Often it’s a combination of radiocarbon dating and historical records. Though
probably not in this instance, there are sometimes records found in other
places that say this or that person lived at the same time as another, so that
can help to date things like this. Radiocarbon dating is highly accurate and
4400 years isn’t that long ago, so it’s generally accurate at dating organic
remains to within a few decades. It gets less accurate over longer periods of
time, but 4400 years is well within that window.

------
Alex3917
The YouTube channel Ancient Architects is pretty good at covering the latest
ancient history news:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9UGStJHZZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9UGStJHZZM)

~~~
vatueil
From a cursory glance at the channel's descriptions and video titles it looks
sort of sketchy, to be honest. Is that impression wrong?

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscI4NOggNSN-
Si5QgErNCw/abo...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscI4NOggNSN-
Si5QgErNCw/about)

> _Ancient history and civilisations channel brought to you by Matt Sibson,
> offering alternative interpretations on the most well-known ancient sites in
> the world. History isn 't always as it seems._

[https://www.patreon.com/ancientarchitects](https://www.patreon.com/ancientarchitects)

> _I find that most mainstream historical interpretations are full of holes,
> both historically and scientifically and I intend to look at all of the
> evidence and offer my own unique interpretation on ancient history and the
> countless ancient mysteries._

~~~
Alex3917
> From a cursory glance at the channel's descriptions and video titles it
> looks sort of sketchy, to be honest. Is that impression wrong?

I mean he's mostly looking for interesting stuff on Google Maps, then reading
whatever information exists about whatever he's finding. So what he thinks
things are sometimes changes from week to week as he reads new stuff. I
wouldn't say it's sketchy per se, you just need to understand what it is and
what it isn't. I think his own area of expertise is neolithic British
monuments, so he isn't an expert in most of the things he's talking about,
he's just an insanely smart guy who is very well read.

~~~
vatueil
Thanks for the response. Would it be correct though to say the channel does
not reflect mainstream academic views?

The creator of the YouTube channel describes himself on his Facebook profile
as a geologist with an interest in Neolithic sites, but he does not appear to
be an archaeologist, anthropologist, or any sort of professional historian:

[https://www.facebook.com/pg/MattSibsonAuthor/about/](https://www.facebook.com/pg/MattSibsonAuthor/about/)

> _Ancient history writer, geologist, currently re-writing the history of the
> Stonehenge landscape with new interpretations of Neolithic monuments._

While amateurs are capable of good work, and scientific consensus can change,
eccentric ideas are more often wrong than right. Matt Sibson may mean well,
but I would not consider his YouTube channel a reliable source given that the
videos appear to diverge from the scientific establishment on a wide range of
topics.

~~~
Alex3917
> I would not consider his YouTube channel a reliable source

I mean that's like saying Star Wars isn't a reliable source; you're judging
something on the basis of something it isn't meant to be in the first place.

Like when something like this tomb is discovered then he'll report what the
discovery is. And when someone proposes a possible location for Atlantis,
he'll report what that person is proposing. But saying that his channel is
unreliable become mainstream academics don't think Atlantis existed is
disingenuous.

~~~
albedoa
> I mean that's like saying Star Wars isn't a reliable source; you're judging
> something on the basis of something it isn't meant to be in the first place.

You described the channel as "pretty good at covering the latest ancient
history news". It is being judged in part on the description that you gave.
Unless you also describe Star Wars as pretty good ancient space news, then
your comparison is extremely weak.

