Human Legacy

Tunnel to Nowhere Photograph by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters Standing on wooden steps that protect a 3,300-year-old stone staircase, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass poses in 2009 in a mysterious tunnel that links the ancient tomb of Pharaoh Seti I to ... nothing.  After three years of hauling out rubble and artifacts via a railway-car system (rails visible at left), the excavators have hit a wall, the team announced last week. It seems the ancient workers who created the steep tunnel under Egypt's Valley of the Kings near Luxor (map) abruptly stopped after cutting 572 feet (174 meters) into rock. Hawass believes work on the tunnel began during the pharaoh's 15-year reign (1294-1279 B.C.), but after the tomb above it was already complete. Work may have stopped when Seti I died. Archaeologist Mustafa Waziri, regional director for the Egyptian antiquities council, said: "I think they were planning to make another burial chamber dow...

FIRST PYRAMID OF A PROLIFIC BUILDER

Contrary to some popular depictions, the pyramid builders were not slaves or foreigners. Excavated skeletons show that they were Egyptians who lived in villages developed and overseen by the pharaoh's supervisors. The builders' villages boasted bakers, butchers, brewers, granaries, houses, cemeteries, and probably even some sorts of health-care facilities—there is evidence of laborers surviving crushed or amputated limbs. Bakeries excavated near the Great Pyramids could have produced thousands of loaves of bread every week. Some of the builders were permanent employees of the pharaoh. Others were conscripted for a limited time from local villages. Some may have been women: Although no depictions of women builders have been found, some female skeletons show wear that suggests they labored with heavy stone for long periods of time. Graffiti indicates that at least some of these workers took pride in their work, calling their teams "Friends of Khufu," "D...

Lyrics from "Pharaoh, Pharaoh"                 s Pharaoh, Pharaoh

As well as the signs which stand for single sounds, Egyptian uses many signs that stand for two or three sounds   ka     an(k)h     d(e)wa

Just outside Thebes, the sun is rising on a small house near the Nile. Nafrini is already up - with a farmer as a husband, plus three small children, she's got a lot to do. She starts by preparing breakfast of bread and fruit for her family who, judging from the noise, are all now out of bed.  Like most Egyptian women, she's wearing a rough linen dress and has a reed necklace with an amulet to the pregnant goddess Tawaret - believed to help during the danger of childbirth.  Although they aren't wealthy, Nafrini and her husband, Sebi, can still afford a servant, Akana, who helps around the house and with the children. Once her husband has left for work, Nafrini leaves the kids with Akana and goes to the market. She needs to stock up the store cupboard - basics like lentils, chickpeas, lettuce, onion and garlic. She might buy meat for a special occasion, but it's much too expensive to eat every day.  When she gets back, she sprinkl...