Submitted by IslandChillin t3_z1yao6 in history
MadRoboticist t1_ixf7j6i wrote
Reply to comment by Sikog in Ancient Egyptian mummification was never intended to preserve bodies by IslandChillin
I'm farely certain this isn't true. The Giza pyramids may not have had mummies, but they contained sarcophagi and other funerary equipment. And besides that, the pyramid complex contains other buildings including mortuary temples that pretty clearly indicate they were intended to be tombs. Not to mention there are Egyptian texts that refer to the pyramids explicitly as tombs and other pyramids have been found with mummies and are clearly tombs. I don't think there's any question among egyptologists that the Giza pyramids, like other pyramids, were tombs.
Sikog t1_ixgf2dn wrote
The claims that the Giza pyramids was used as tombs are not backed up by raw evidence, they are built very different from the later Pyramids that was used as tombs hence why I called it a modern theory, it's a theory because it lacks evidence.
It's strange and a big mystery that the largest pyramids of Giza contain no human remains, bodies, mummies or inscription in the walls like the later ones.
Later Pyramids were definitely used as tombs and have both texts and inscriptions on the walls referring them as tombs, I'm just mentioning the Giza pyramids here.
SandSlinky t1_ixhddg9 wrote
It's not much of a mystery, they were looted.
Sikog t1_ixheoho wrote
Sure they must have taken great lengths to cut down 100% the inscriptions on the walls and loot them, however nobody can deny that treasures very well might have been looted.
In the last 100 years we have discovered more chambers that were previously unknown and untouched yet they are still empty.
SandSlinky t1_ixhjs36 wrote
From what I can find, it wasn't unusual for pyramids in this time period to lack inscriptions, that mostly started later. The great pyramid also contains what very much looks like and is commonly agreed to be a sarcophagus.
As for other empty rooms, they might have been recently found by us, but could have been found before and resealed over this period of several thousand years. Or it's possible that they were initially made and then never used, I don't think this is uncommon in ancient tombs. It is also theorized that some of these rooms were meant to throw of robbers or were used during construction.
MadRoboticist t1_ixhldl9 wrote
Inscriptions on the walls of tombs was something that began with the 5th dynasty, after the great pyramids were built. No mystery there.
quintus_horatius t1_ixhaidf wrote
I've been inside the pyramids of Giza. They were very much a personalized tomb for a single, highly revered, person.
The outer shells of the sarcophagi are still present inside. You can't remove them without breaking them apart or disassembling the rest of the structure.
Just a tip: should you find yourself in Giza you too may visit a pyramid and go inside. It's hot and damp in the burial chamber, and you'll certainly be in a long line of people. Glad I did it, wouldn't do it again though.
Sikog t1_ixhcymv wrote
Maybe someone at some point wanted to be buried there I know they have different chambers in the pryamids, the sarcophagi or what we believe it to be is sure interesting.
A highly revered person would have treasures beyond imagination, inscriptions of the greatness of their era and most definitely human remains,mummies which does not exist at all, zero, absolutely null in the pyramids of Giza.
The pyramids of Giza differ so much from the other pyramids or tombs we have found, just because 9/10 pryamids were used as tombs it doesn't automatically mean the 10th are also.
I'm not saying I'm correct, but it sure is interesting that the pryamids of Giza lacks so very much of what the other tombs have.
Pyranze t1_ixhnt7j wrote
What else would it be used for? There are plenty of indications it was at least meant to be a tomb, even if it ended up not housing any bodies, so what is there to counter this? You literally cannot progress the field of history, or indeed most fields, if you require 100% certainty on everything, because we just don't have that, especially for something as far back as the pyramids of Giza. So unless you have an actual alternative theory of what the Giza pyramids were for we have to work on the most likely assumption, that they're tombs.
Sikog t1_ixhshfp wrote
We'll probably never know what it was used for because not much research is done anymore since the narrative is set, it's open for tourism and is more in maintenance and preserving then in research.
If you look at it objectively as for what it is, it is not a 100% sell that it is a tomb. Add some historical texts based on the daily talk on the streets 2600-500 bce, surrounding pyramids acting as tombs then sure maybe it makes more sense it's a tomb.
All I'm doing is challenging it for what it really is without pushing all the external parts to the core, it starts to challenge ones believes and people don't like that.
But let's call it a tomb for today, in 150 years it might be called something else that's the way history goes.
Pyranze t1_ixhvsgr wrote
The problem with challenging a supposed theory is you have to have alternatives to back it up, or else there's no value to it. Challenging a narrative just for the sake of challenging it isn't productive and wastes time that could be spent challenging areas that are actually up for debate.
Sikog t1_ixhzm4l wrote
I'm sure the Egyptians who built the great Pyramid of Giza are all laughing at us both in the afterlife, for only they know the real purpose it was built for.
MadRoboticist t1_ixhgh8o wrote
The Giza pyramids are not the beginning of pyramid history. The evolution of pyramid building is directly traceable from mastabas, to stacked mastabas, to the first attempt at pyramids, to the great pyramids, to the later pyramids. All of which were used as tombs. It doesn't make any sense that the Giza pyramids, which are smack dab in the middle of that history, would have a different purpose. The fact that mummies haven't been found in the Giza pyramids is just something conspiracy theorists use a jumping off point for wild theories that they had some other mysterious use. All archaeological evidence points to them being tombs.
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