Abydos (Egypte): A 3,800-Year-Old Boat-Tomb Unearthed

Jay Bennett / Photo credit: Josef Wegner/University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Source - https://www.yahoo.com/news/3-800-old-boat-tomb-172438664.html

AbydosMore than 100 years ago, in 1901-1902, British archaeologist Arthur Weigall discovered a strange structure buried in the Egyptian sands west of the Nile river. He and a team of archaeologists exposed a barrel-vaulted roof, constructed around 1840 B.C., and they were just getting their first glimpses of the structure's interior walls when part of the roof collapsed as they attempted to excavate the sands beneath it.

The location of the structure has been known since Weigall first attempted to unearth it, but the contents of its interior and its purpose in ancient Egyptian society have remained a mystery until now.

Archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania led by Josef Wegner, associate curator of the University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, have returned to the ancient site and finished Weigall's excavation work. They revealed a 70-foot-long, 13-foot-wide grand hall of mud-bricks with more than 120 incised drawings of boats on immaculately preserved whitewashed walls.

More than 100 years ago, in 1901-1902, British archaeologist Arthur Weigall discovered a strange structure buried in the Egyptian sands west of the Nile river. He and a team of archaeologists exposed a barrel-vaulted roof, constructed around 1840 B.C., and they were just getting their first glimpses of the structure's interior walls when part of the roof collapsed as they attempted to excavate the sands beneath it.

The location of the structure has been known since Weigall first attempted to unearth it, but the contents of its interior and its purpose in ancient Egyptian society have remained a mystery until now.

Archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania led by Josef Wegner, associate curator of the University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, have returned to the ancient site and finished Weigall's excavation work. They revealed a 70-foot-long, 13-foot-wide grand hall of mud-bricks with more than 120 incised drawings of boats on immaculately preserved whitewashed walls.

Decaying wood discovered within the structure, as well as a curved floor perfect for the hull of a large boat, have lead the team of archaeologists to conclude that the 910-square-foot hall was intended as a burial chamber for the Egyptian King Senwosret III's funerary boat. Though the boat itself was not discovered, the scraps of wood suggest that an immaculate royal boat constructed from cedar once sat in the chamber, long since looted for its lumber-a valuable commodity that would have been imported from Lebanon to the sparse Egyptian desert.

"We were quite mystified," Wegner told National Geographicwhich helped fund the excavation. "We were expecting it to be a tomb."

Abydos2The discovery comes as a bit of a surprise as funerary boats were thought to have faded out of practice with Egyptian royalty prior to the construction of the newly uncovered burial chamber. Rulers were buried with boats, among other objects of value, to assist them in the afterlife, shuttling the dead to the Egyptian underworld Duat and providing a vessel for navigating the rivers that crisscross the subterranean realm of the dead.

Wegner participated in an archaeological dig as a graduate student in 2000 in the same region of Egypt, named for the ancient city of Abydos, that the new burial hall has been uncovered. Fourteen funerary boats were discovered in the 2000 excavation, but these Abydos boats date back to almost 3,000 B.C., some 5,000 years old compared to the newer burial hall constructed closer to 3,800 years ago. An additional ancient Egyptian funeral boat in the region of Abusir-which lies to the north of Abydos, also just west of the Nile-was discovered this past February.

The new find indicates that rulers kept up the practice of funerary boats longer than previously thought. By the time King Tut was laid to rest around 1,300 B.C., Egyptian kings simply had model-sized boats entombed with them for their journey to the underworld, along with many other lavish treasures.

Though the burial chamber and the boat that once lay within belonged to the fifth dynasty pharaoh King Senwosret III, he himself was likely not buried there. The chamber is a mere part of a larger mortuary complex with the actual tomb of Senwosret III believed to be nearby-a luxury he could afford as the ruler during one of ancient Egypt's most powerful and prosperous periods.

Senwosret III is known to have been a devout follower of Osiris, the god of the dead, whose mythical burial location was thought to be Abydos. Even as Senwosret III was constructing his own mortuary complex, he was having the nearby temple to Osiris renovated. Wegner believes that a massive funeral procession carried the body of Senwosret III from northern Egypt, where he almost certainly died, down the Nile in a large vessel with dozens of accompanying boats to his final resting place in Abydos.

When I die, bury me in my Sunday best-and don't forget my boat.

Source: National Geographic