The pyramids of Ancient Egypt remain a mystery thousands of years later: we are neither clear about how they were made (there are theories that point to ramps and master logistics to hydraulic systems) nor how they reached such a level of knowledge and skill working stone. Because between a pantheon carved in rock and a colossal pyramid like that of Giza there is a whole world of evolution. Well, at the site of Jabal al-Tayr (Minya) a team of archeology professionals has just found that middle ground.
The discovery. The Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt has found a funerary complex that brings together two tombs from the Early Dynastic Period and burials from the Predynastic and the Late Period. The first tomb has a particular geometry: the thickness of its walls becomes thinner as it ascends. The second
Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, tells Daily News Egypt that this solution could be the engineering precursor that made the stepped pyramid and smooth-faced pyramids possible. In short, it may be a clue to how the Egyptians began to understand how to support large masses of stone.
Why is it important. Because having burials from different periods in the same space makes it easier to analyze the evolution of funerary architecture in the centuries prior to the construction of the great pyramids. These preliminary studies indicate striking similarities between the design of these newly discovered tombs and the famous tomb of King Den at Abydos. According to El-Leithy, this resemblance reinforces the archaeological importance of Jabal Al-Tayr as a necropolis, both architecturally and for the Egyptian civilization itself: it was used continuously from the Predynastic Period to the Late Period.
Context. The evolution of Egyptian funerary architecture began with the mastabas of the first dynasties: a rectangular structure with a flat roof, built of adobe or stone, with a vertical well that went down to the funerary chamber. From the mastabas they went to the stepped pyramids. In fact, Djoser’s tomb at Saqqara began as a mastaba and was expanded to become a step pyramid, the first large stone structure in Egypt. The tombs of Jabal al-Tayr belong to the Early Dynastic Period, that is, to the time before Djoser, when the constructive solution that would make the pyramid possible was still being sought.
In detail. Mohamed Abdel Badie explains that they probably used the first tomb to extract the stone for reuse, but the preserved sections still contain important details about how it was built at the time, such as cut marks and remains of large pieces of wood that reinforced the walls. The second tomb has almost the same shape but is much better preserved because it was not looted. At the site they also found older burials where there were bodies in a fetal position wrapped in plant fiber mats and accompanied by ceramics from the Naqada II and Naqada III periods, prior to the formation of the Egyptian state.
Yes, but. This finding does not clearly demonstrate that the tombs are direct ancestors of the pyramids; at the moment it is a hypothesis based on the design and its resemblance to the tomb of Pharaoh Den in Abydos. The archeology team has yet to determine the exact date of the tombs, who lies there and what relationship they have to the known sites of Abydos and Saqqara.
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