New tombs found for Egypt's pyramid builders
Source: Agencies |
January 11, 2010, Monday
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EGYPTIAN archaeologists discovered a new set of tombs belonging to the workers who built the great pyramids, shedding light on how the laborers lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago, the antiquities department said yesterday.
The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.
The newly discovered tombs date to Egypt's 4th Dynasty (2575-2467 BC) when the great pyramids were built, according to the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.
Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in 1990, he said, and discoveries such as these show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.
"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," said Hawass. "If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."
Evidence from the site, Hawass said, indicates that the approximately 10,000 laborers working on the pyramids ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms in northern and southern Egypt.
He added that the burial sites were for those who died during construction.
The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.
The newly discovered tombs date to Egypt's 4th Dynasty (2575-2467 BC) when the great pyramids were built, according to the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.
Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in 1990, he said, and discoveries such as these show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.
"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," said Hawass. "If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."
Evidence from the site, Hawass said, indicates that the approximately 10,000 laborers working on the pyramids ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms in northern and southern Egypt.
He added that the burial sites were for those who died during construction.
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