Chapter 2 2

Myths, relics, and ruins often lead us back to events in the past, and although these relics exist, there is no record of their origin and evolution.Although we know something about our ancestors, we still find many strange phenomena that cannot be explained when explaining the traditional customs, legends and ancient relics of the past. In order to unravel these mysteries of history, we, like amnesiacs, try to capture the fragmented memories that appear inadvertently, trying to use them as hints to recall those forgotten things. The past is always elusive.Every discovery anthropologists make brings us some new puzzles.If we have only limited data at our disposal, we will have to judge these monuments subjectively, which may lead to misinterpretation of those elusive things.Therefore, anthropologists always try their best to explain their findings with scientific and systematic information, so as to avoid making subjective and one-sided conclusions.Anthropologists must grasp a principle, that is, not to infer arbitrarily without grounds. Only by researching and exploring according to this requirement can convincing results be obtained, otherwise there will be unexplained historical blank spots.

The human imagination readily imbues new meanings into the ancient wonders and the motives for their creation.People's imagination can jump from one idea to another. When they see a lost civilization, they think of a sinking continent; when they see a super civilization, they think of ancient astronauts; when they see a symbolic mysterious knowledge, they think of it. to a special function.It is a general consciousness that we all have, a completely spontaneous consciousness of the wonderful. Our ancestors may have been smarter, more complex, and more creative than we originally thought.For the performance they created, we even need to conduct in-depth scientific investigations to explain clearly.We should develop our conscious behavior with a more open and cautious attitude to make it more scientific and discover more truths.

In July 1798, when Napoleon, who was on an expedition to Egypt, was fighting near the pyramids of Giza, he left a famous sentence to motivate his soldiers: "4000 years of history are pressing against you from the pyramid towers!" A painter, Vivan Denon, also accompanied this expedition as a member of the academic investigation team.When he returned, he made the following description of his impression of the pyramid. "Its fascination lies in the grandeur and simplicity of the shapes, but also in the great contrast and proportion of the human gesture and the work produced by the human hand. We want to try to understand what power is capable of moving, transporting , Pile up so many big rocks, why do human beings work, how much time does it take, what kind of tools are used, and the more we cannot be ignorant about these things, the more we will lament how difficult it is... everything is extremely mysterious. The architecture and structure of these buildings are all extremely mysterious..."

Since ancient times, the pyramids of Egypt have been ranked first among the "Seven Wonders of the World" because of their hugeness and mystery.For thousands of years, many people have challenged the mystery hidden in the pyramid, and countless tomb robbers, travelers, soldiers, archaeologists, scientists, etc. have entered the pyramid.As a result, although we have gained a lot of knowledge about this great structure, the mystery and mystery about the pyramids have not diminished in the 200 years since the time of Napoleon. No, it should be said that the more we understand, the deeper the mystery and increase its mystery.

■Early traces Since Champollion deciphered the elephant script, there have been many outstanding achievements in the study of ancient Egypt in the past few decades. They are inseparable from the following names, namely, the Italian collector Belzoni, the German bibliography Lepsias, the French antiquities collector Mariette, and Petri, an expert in measuring and interpreting antiquities in England. Archaeologist Howard Carter mentioned Giovanni Nitista Belzoni (1778-1823) as "one of the most outstanding figures since ancient Egyptology." Belzoni spent his early years in London He was a strongman in a circus in his hometown.Carter's evaluation mainly refers to Belzoni's personality, rather than his professional achievements.Everyone knows that amateurs have played an important role in archaeology, and Belzoni is the most special one among them.

In October 1817, Belzoni discovered a group of ancient tombs in the Biban El-Muruk Valley near Thebes, including the tomb of Sisos (Siti) I.Hisos I had conquered Libya, Syria and the Hittite country of Jati before Ramesses.The empty pomegranate is now in the Soth Museum, London.The mausoleum was actually an empty tomb as early as 3,000 years ago, and Belzoni did not find out where the mummy was transported.The excavation of the tomb of Sissos opened the way for many important later discoveries in the Valley of the Kings.Excavations have been carried out throughout the area for many years, and the most important harvests have been achieved in the twentieth century.

Half a year later, on March 2, 1818, Belzoni opened the second pyramid of Giza, the Tomb of Chavron, and went directly to the tomb where the king's body was placed.Pyramids are the greatest ancient buildings, and Belzoni's preliminary investigation led to the subsequent research on pyramids.The ancient history of Egypt was originally a mess, and the interior of the huge geometric shape contained traces of early human beings. Belzoni was not the first person to enter the Valley of the Kings; detection in the pyramids did not begin with Belzoni.Yet while Belzoni's goal was primarily gold rather than knowledge, he was at least the first to reveal problems in at least two burial chambers and pyramids that had not been resolved until recently.

After Belzoni returned to London in 1820, he held an exhibition in the Egyptian Hall built 8 years ago on Piccadilly. The main exhibits were Sisos's alabaster coffin and his tomb model.A few years later, Belzoni died while on an expedition to Timbuktu.He inscribed his name on the throne of Ramses at the Ramses Museum in Thebes. We can forgive him for this practice today, but the bad thing is that he set a precedent for destroying antiquities.After that, many people have followed suit over the years, such as the antique dealers Brown, Schmidt and the LeBlanc brothers.Archaeologists are very troubled by this kind of people.

Not only that, in the collection of antiquities started by Belzoni, the brutality of its methods is appalling, and the consequences must be a lot of destruction and little discovery.Even the occasional smattering of knowledge gained by someone is far from worth the damage they cause.Although Belzoni gained some sporadic knowledge during the collection process, he, like others, used hammers and brazing irons extensively.When encountering a sealed ancient tomb that needed to be opened, he smashed the top with a rammer desperately. Despite the brutality of Belzoni's methods - which would have horrified any modern archaeologist - Howard, Carter had great respect for him, and at one point Carter went so far as to say that Belzoni's excavations and "the methods employed "It's all commendable.This kind of statement seems to be incomprehensible, but we evaluate Belzoni can not be separated from the time in which he lived, and we must not forget that some important discoveries are mainly due to him, and people have done long-term investigation and research work starting from these discoveries. is still going on.

■Founder of the Unprecedented According to the suggestion of the traveler and naturalist Alexander Humboldt, King Friedrich William IV of Prussia allocated a large amount of money to fund the Egyptian expedition and selected 31-year-old Richard Lepsias Serve as team leader.Born in Naumburg, Germany in 1810, Lepsias studied historical linguistics and comparative languages. Lecturer at the University of Berlin at the age of 32; set off for Egypt a year later. The trip to Egypt was planned to take three years, that is, from 1843 to 1845. The time and conditions were unmatched by other expeditions.Their purpose is not to get a batch of things as quickly as possible, but to catalog and learn more about antiquities.With plenty of time, they could dig wherever there was hope.In this way, they stayed in Memphis for half a year and in Thebes for 7 months.

The first harvest of Lepsias were several remains from the Old Kingdom period.The Old Kingdom is the early period in Egyptian history, the period when the pyramids were built, dating from 200 BC to 2270 BC.He discovered traces and remnants of 30 previously unknown pyramids, thus bringing the total number of pyramids to 67.He also surveyed 130 flat-topped tombs, monuments overlooked by archaeologists before him.A flat-topped tomb is a slanted-sided rectangular building with a sacrificial chamber inside and a well leading to a burial chamber hewn in the rock below.These flat-topped tombs were built during the Old Kingdom, and the deceased were all people of status at the time.Lepsias discovered a batch of materials in Dele Amarna, which can preliminarily explain the life of the great religious reformer Amenophis IV.He was the first to measure the dimensions of the various monuments in the Valley of the Kings.He instructed people to reproduce the reliefs and countless inscriptions on the temple walls, and recorded many decorative patterns containing the names of emperors. Lepsias explored the range until 4000 BC.He sorted out everything he saw in the order of time, regarded Egyptian history as a whole, and understood all monuments as the product of a certain development process, which is unprecedented in these aspects. The cultural relics in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin are all harvested by Lepsias in Egypt this time.During this expedition, he conducted in-depth research on ancient Egyptian classics, and wrote 11 volumes of the masterpiece "Egyptian and Ethiopian Monuments" and many monographs, all of which were related to various ancient mysteries. Lepsias died in 1884 at the age of 74.His biographer, George Ebbers, was a noted Egyptologist who wrote many pharaonic legends that were popular with the sensual teenage girls of the early twentieth century. Lepsias is regarded by him as the founder of modern archaeology, which is well deserved.As a great classification expert, his two works can be handed down forever, one is "The Chronicle of Egypt" published in 1849, and the other is "The Kings of Egypt" published a year later. ■ Accidental discovery in 1850, 30-year-old French archaeologist Auguste.Mariette boarded the Cairo Fort.When he first arrived in Egypt, he was eager to see this long-famous country with his own eyes.As he moved slowly, he observed the surrounding scenery intently. At this time, he had already formed a picture of the ancient empire in his mind.From the minaret of the modern mosque, he saw the outline of the huge pyramid in the distance to the west of the desert.The past was beckoning to him.Although he didn't stay in Egypt for a long time, his perception in Cairo this time determined the path of his life. Mariette was born in Buren in 1821.He studied Egyptology from a very young age, and in 1848 he worked as a clerk at the Louvre Palace and was sent to Egypt to buy papyri.After witnessing the looting of Egyptian antiquities, he soon felt compelled to find a way to change the situation, and he was not very interested in haggling with antique dealers.But what can he do?The archaeologists, the tourists, the diggers, and everyone else who comes to Egypt is only "collecting" - literally looting around and taking them away; and the Egyptians themselves are assisting in this theft Activity.Workers employed by archaeologists often hide small artifacts in their pockets and sell them to foreign "fools" who will pay for them.Such arbitrary looting caused irreparable damage to many cultural relics.People pay attention to who gets more things, not scientific achievements.Despite the standard model set by Lepsias, Belzoni-esque looting abounds. Mariette had also set his sights on excavation, but he realized that the future of Egyptian antiquities was in jeopardy if protection measures were not taken.A few years later he did develop some effective management methods, and built a museum of Egyptian antiquities, the largest in the world.Mariette was the third of the four most famous Egyptologists of the nineteenth century, and like the two before him, research began with excavations. After he arrived in Egypt, he soon discovered a very strange phenomenon: no matter in the luxurious private gardens of Egyptian bureaucrats, or in front of some newer temples in Alexandria, Cairo or Giza, the carving style is obviously different. it's the same.Mariette was the first to ask the question: Where did these sphinxes come from? Any major discovery is accidental.While walking among the ancient ruins in the city of Saqqara near Cairo, Mariette happened to see a sphinx buried in the sand with only its head exposed. It was confirmed that it was built by Zose, the king of Egypt.Mariette was by no means the first to see this statue, but he first saw an inscription on the statue, which was a record about the sacred bull Apis of Memphis.This confirmed all the relevant materials he had read or heard or seen in the past.He had imagined that there might be a procession that had obliterated the Sphinx; and now it occurred to him that the location of this procession might not be known even at Saqqara.He immediately hired a group of Arab workers, gave each of them a shovel, and taught them to start digging. As a result, 141 Sphinxes were dug out!The excavation area opened up by Mariette is now called Serapiam, which comes from the name of the god Serapis. At that time, there were two temples at both ends of the line of the Sphinx, and Mariet also excavated them, and at the same time unearthed a batch of tombs of the god bull Apis, which has long been known in the local area. unique artifacts.These unearthed cultural relics provide a wealth of information for further understanding of some cultural images of ancient Egypt. They show that some idols in ancient Egyptian religion are both strange and vicious. Even the travel notes of the ancient Greeks also cited these idols as strange stories. In Egyptian history, it was a later stage for gods to have human form.The ancient Egyptian gods all appeared in the form of symbols, plants or animals, such as the goddess Helen, a cow perched on a twig tree; the god Nefertem lived on a lotus flower; Two arrows crossed.But most of the gods appear in animal form, such as Henon is a ram; Helus is a falcon; Bout is a snake. In addition to various animal gods, some animals also become objects of worship as long as they meet certain conditions.Apis, the bull of Memphis, is the most famous beast, and it received the most solemn worship etiquette. Ancient Egyptian religion believed that Apis was the servant of the "creator" God Tah. The sacred bull is a live bull, which is fed by the priest in the temple. After death, the body is protected with medicine. The funeral is grand, and then a bull of the same color is selected to replace it.The scale of the cemeteries of these beasts is no less than that of gods and emperors.Bubastis and Benny Hassan have the cat cemetery; Ambos has the crocodile cemetery; Ashmenai has the ibis cemetery; El Fontaine has the ram cemetery.Some fetish beliefs spread all over the country, and in the process of popularization, the forms of worship will undergo various changes; some are limited to certain areas, first flourished for a while, then disappeared, and did not appear again for hundreds of years. ■Life in Ancient Egypt Mariet stands in front of the tomb of Apis, the god.At the entrance of the catacombs there is a chapel for placing the remains before burial, which is comparable in size to the chapels in front of the flat-topped tombs of Egyptian nobles.A steep passage leads to the long burial chamber, which contains the corpses of countless sacred bulls dating back hundreds of years from Ramses the Great.Mariette found that each of the bodies occupied a chamber, many of which were lined up along the 320-foot-long passage.Including later unearthed tombs up to the Ptolemaic era, the total length of the tomb passage reaches 1,120 feet.So much for the worship of the divine cow! By the light of the flickering torches, the Egyptian workers scrambled to follow Mariette, trembling and not daring to speak aloud.Mariette looked at the tombs one by one.The body of the divine bull was placed in a sarcophagus, which was hewn and polished from a whole piece of black and red granite, each about 9.6 feet high, 6.4 feet wide, 12.8 feet long, and estimated to weigh 72 Ton. The lids of many sarcophagi had already been removed, so Mariette and subsequent archaeologists found only two sarcophagi with intact interiors, and the others had been brutally looted.When did this happen?No one can tell, and the person who robbed the tomb did not leave his name.Egyptologists have discovered more than once that those tomb robbers knew they would come.This annoys Egyptologists but there is nothing they can do about it.How many temples, tombs and ancient cities have been annihilated by the ever-moving quicksand, and the traces left by the tomb robbers have long been covered by the sand without a trace. So far, Mariette has entered the mysterious realm of ancient religion.He then carried out excavation work in Edfu, Carlank and Del El Barri, revealing unprecedented pictures of the rich and colorful life in ancient Egypt. Not far from Sirapium, Mariette discovered the tomb of the ancient Egyptian minister and landowner Ti.This mausoleum is much older than the tomb of the divine bull, where remnants of more recent human activity from the Ptolemaic period can also be found.The construction of the Shenniu Tomb was interrupted suddenly, and a sarcophagus was left at the entrance before it could be placed at the designated location.Ti's tomb was built shortly after the ancient emperors Cheops, Chavron and Maiselinus built the pyramids, and the decoration in the tomb is extremely gorgeous.Mariette is familiar with the customs of Egyptian tombs, and he knows that there must be a large number of funerary objects, carved crystals and narrative murals underneath.As he guessed, here, these things are really extremely rich.A large number of relief sculptures on the walls and corridors of the tomb record the life of the deceased, and their level of detail is far beyond that of the previously unearthed relief sculptures.This rich man surnamed Di seems to attach great importance to all aspects of his officialdom and family contact.After his death, he brought all his followers and all supplies to the ground symbolically.In the reliefs, Di himself is particularly prominent. His image is three or four times larger than other characters and slaves. This is to show the disparity between his power and status and others. The murals and reliefs are elegant in style, beautiful in lines and rich in content. They not only show the various pastimes of the rich, but also describe the productive labor of ordinary people. .There is a painting of shipbuilding 4,500 years ago, as well as felling trees, cutting boards, and labor with hatchets, hand rammers, and chisels.It can be seen that saws, axes, awls, etc. have been commonly used.An image of a goldsmith melting gold shows blowing air into a furnace to raise the temperature.There are also works showing the daily labor of carvers, stonemasons and cobblers. Many pictures show Ti's status and power.There is a picture of a group of people being driven like sheep to Ti's mansion to check out, and those who walk slowly are pulled by the collars by the guards.Numerous peasant women lined up to offer gifts to Ti, and groups of servants, some leading the sacrificial bulls; some were slaughtering.Some pictures show that Ti is eating, or Ti is with his wife and the whole family, or Ti is hunting pheasants, or Ti is traveling in the Nile Delta, or Ti is walking among the papyrus bushes. In Mariette's time, less attention was paid to the aesthetic value of these reliefs than to their actual content.Many details of the life of the ancient Egyptians can be learned from these works. They not only show what the ancient Egyptians did, but also specifically explain how they did it.Many cultural relics unearthed later greatly enriched the actual life content expressed in the decorative art of the tomb of Ti.Some of these artifacts belonged to the tomb of the ancient Egyptian minister Ptahhotep, and some were unearthed in the tomb of Melejuka about 40 years later, and their locations are all in Saqqara.From these cultural relics, we can further understand the many operating methods used by the ancient Egyptians to solve production and life problems. Although these methods are primitive, they are all carefully created.From this we can even see how amazing the construction of the pyramid is.In the eyes of Mariette and others, it is even more incomprehensible that the ancient Egyptians could build pyramids with such backward technology.In fact, the basis of ancient Egyptian technology was a large number of slave labor.In the decades after Mariette's death, people have been writing articles, making various imaginations and speculations about the secret methods of the ancient Egyptians using stones to build those giants. These articles can be seen in newspapers, travel notes, and even scientific books and periodicals.In fact, there is no secret at all about this matter.While Mariette was busy with the excavation of Selapiam, a man was born in London who later revealed the ancient Egyptian rhyme method of construction. It had been eight years since Mariette had first seen ancient Egypt standing on the citadel in Cairo before he was able to concentrate on something he had long wanted to do: he created an Egyptian museum in Braque Soon after, the Governor of Egypt appointed him as the director of the Egyptian Antiquities Office, and at the same time in charge of all unearthed work. The Egyptian Museum moved to Giza in 1891 and finally to Cairo in 1902, not far from the Nile Bridge.The Nile Bridge is an antique-style bridge built by Dugnon, whose quality reached the highest level in the early twentieth century.The Egyptian Museum is an administrative center and a collection of cultural relics of Egyptology.Since then, all cultural relics that have appeared in Egypt, whether discovered by accident or officially unearthed, must first be sent to the Egyptian Museum.Although Mariet is a foreigner, he has since stopped the phenomenon of Egyptian cultural relics being stolen and sold indiscriminately, allowing the Egyptians to keep their wealth.In order to express their gratitude to Mariette, the Egyptians established a statue of him in the museum courtyard.After Mariette's death, his body was transported to Egypt and placed in a marble coffin.