From National Geographic (May 30, 2014), a great article about the tombs at Hierakonpolis:
Artifact Trove at Egyptian Tomb Illuminates Life Before Pharaohs.
Professor M. Och
ARTH 114 and ARTH 115: Introduction to Western Art, University of Mary Washington
I just finished reading the article on the tombs. Very fascinating.. It makes life seem so much more real when human aggression is thrown in the mix. It’s interesting to see how these people really believed the afterlife was something that could be ruined and taken away like that. I wish they had more information and hopefully they find more!
I have always been fascinated by ancient Egypt, and I found this article to be very interesting. Two points especially spiked my interest. The fact that over twenty people and even more people were buried with the young man is interesting. I wonder how they chose the people to sacrifice for the man who the tomb was for. It is also really neat how later Egyptian rulers came back to restore the damage that had been done to Tomb 72. Their ancestors must have been really important to these rulers, and they probably wanted to make sure they were going to continue to thrive in the afterlife.
It is hard to believe stuff like this is still out there! It is almost mind blowing that for all these years just now somebody stumbled upon these amazing objects. Whenever findings like these occur it really opens up the imagination as to what else may be laying around out there. Just fascinating!
One of the things that intrigues me about archaeology especially that of Egypt is how basic digs appear from initially looking at them. This area appears to just be a group of rectangular graves yet they yield so much more on Egypt’s predynastic culture. Another part is how the later royals allegedly came back to maintain the graves. I find that astonishing considering how much effort that went into destroying the remnants of past rulers for example Queen Hatshepsut and Akhenaten.
Ancient Egypt is by far my favorite base of study in art history. In my opinion, it almost seems as if art is starting at this point because that is where we have the start of dedicated works of art to certain persons, places, and religions. In Prehistoric Art, there are many abstract concepts of art, with animal and figural types being distorted and imagined by the artist in a sense. In Egyptian art, you really begin to see the face of humanity come out, especially in more life- like sculptures such as the Seated Scribe. It is wonderful to see that some of the work, be it architectural or sculptural, is still thriving today.
Egypt was the art I was looking most forward to learning about. The culture and customs of Egypt are so unique. I must have watched the movie the Mummy a thousand times. Its so fascinating that afterlife was so precious to them. They had to mummify the body a certain way and preserve the burial place. Even later royals came back to upkeep the graves. The ancestors and sacredness of the afterlife were so important. It shows how values are so different in every culture.
Egyptian culture is amazing. I have been interested in Egypt for as long as I can remember. What is so interesting is that when you think of Egyptian culture, you never think about what it started as. All you think about are the gorgeous pyramids and the kings and queens, never about what actually got them there. This article was very interesting in that you actually get to see into the early life of this massive empire.
I never knew much about the act of sacrifice. I didn’t know that the people who were sacrificed were of a high status, which I thought was very interesting. I also think it is very interesting that people tried to destroy the tomb for some kind of vengeance. It made me think of Greek and Roman beliefs that if you aren’t buried properly you can’t cross into the afterlife. It’s interesting to think that an act of vengeance would be to inhibit this person’s ability to pass on.
This article just goes to show that the age of exploration isn’t over. Theres so many things yet to be discovered. It also highlights just how important sacrifice was and continued to be. The whole idea of how much the burial matters is very interesting.
The cemetery and its artifacts are an amazing find that will definitely shed light on the shadowy past of pre-dynastic Egypt.
A possible reason for the desecration of the tomb and its occupant instead of looting could be that by manipulating the body itself you could somehow hinder their accession to the afterlife. The Egyptians were very superstitious and religious people who followed strict procedures to ensure a safe passage to the afterword. Since evidence suggests that this happened quite soon after the initial burial perhaps that was their thinking. No better way to get revenge than to mess up someones path to eternity and they cannot do anything to change it.
I think that sometimes people don’t quite understand how long Egypt has been around. Which is understandable, as it’s almost mind boggling how many centuries Egyptian culture has been around. Wooly mammoths didn’t go extinct until about 4,000 years ago, which is well past the beginning of Egyptian civilization. With the length of time Egyptian civilization has been around, it’s understandable that it has changed. This article provided a good look at a period of Egyptian history not usually covered. The article focused on one particular predynastic tomb and the things discovered in it. I think that the way one is treated in death says a lot about a culture and all the goodies found in this particular tomb speaks to the beliefs of predynastic Egypt. I think it would also be interesting to see how the items found in this young man’s tomb compares to later burials, to see if there is a recognizable progression.