Professional Documents
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Anth Final Research Project
Anth Final Research Project
Anth Final Research Project
people gladly worshiped the ground he walked on. His jealous brother Set plotted
against him and wanted to be king. Set nailed him inside a box, pored lava on the
box, then threw the box in the Nile River. Osiris wife, Isis went out to find his body in
the Land of Byblos and took it back to Egypt. Set then found the box and ripped
Osiris body into fourteen pieces and scattered them all over Egypt. Isis once again
over the judgment of souls (Figure 2), and would decide whether you go to the
Blessed Land or condemned to Amit (Gods of Egypt| Osiris |Touregypt.com). In pictures
he is usually seen as a man with green skin and a beard associated with the
pharaoh, wearing a crown with two large ostrich feathers, and legs partially
wrapped like a mummy. In his hands he holds a flail and a symbolic crook. Osiris has
green skin to symbolize death and the power of resurrection, also alluding to
vegetation when he was king (AncientEgyptonline.com| Osiris).
Site Discovery
To begin with, in the 1880s an archaeologist named
Philippe
Virey found the site without finding Osiris Tomb. The two
chambers may have escaped Vireys attention and no one knew
the significance of the site (Griffiths|2015|dailymail.com). The
Osiris Shaft is located under the causeway of Khafre (Figure 3),
and it is
about 30 feet deep (Figure 4). In ancient times people used it for
swimming, and even to the present day many people, including archaeologists,
have been in the shaft without knowing. In 1933 a man named Selim Hassan wrote
about his excavations in Giza and talks about finding
the opening to the shaft. He states that the eastern
side had yet another shaft, about 10.00 m. deep, but it
was flooded. He tried to pump out the water, but says
Figure 3 (messagetoeagle.com|
Osiris tomb)
Excavation
Henceforth, Dr. Zahi Hawass Director of the Giza
Pyramids and Saqqara went to the shaft in 1999
with a team to see if the water had gone down
and to explore the shaft. To determine the date
of the shaft they decided to send divers down
into the water of the shaft before draining it, to
collect any extant artifacts. Many artifacts were
found leading Hawass to believe the shaft led to Osiris. The team decided to run
pipes down the shaft to pump the water from the lowest level up to the plateau, this
took months. Hawass was then able to search all of the shafts and chambers that
had been below Khafre the whole time. In the side chambers he was able to find
many pottery sherds, ceramic beads, and small servant figurines. Analysis of the
pottery and bones dated this level to 500 BC or the 26 th dynasty. The lab analysis
they used was carbon dating. Badly decomposed skeletal remains were found in the
sarcophagi in Chambers C and G (Figure 5). Based on the style of the artifacts, along
with the sarcophagis shape they were dated to Dynasty 26. Two schist amulets in
the form of Osiris were also found in the tomb. Scarabs and amulets in the shape of
djed pillars date the tomb to the Late Period. In Level 3 was red pottery with traces
of white paint, which can be dated by the style to Dynasty 6, from the end of the
Old Kingdom (Osiris shaft: Giza pyramids|Hawass|1999: 390). This pottery represents
Figure 5 (ancientnearest.org|
Osiris shaft)
complex. Zahi Hawass was on a FOX Television Special called "Opening the Lost
Tombs: Live From Egypt" and in that television special he stated, We have found a
burial chamber with four pillars. In the middle is a large granite sarcophagus which I
expect to be the grave of Osiris.., the god (Figure 6). Support for Hawass theory
can be found in New Kingdom texts, which suggest that underground shafts and
chambers were linked with the realm of the god Osiris (Hornung|1990: 115-134).
Furthermore, the tomb was described by having a statue of Osiris standing in a
chapel with a vaulted ceiling and in front it descends about 30 feet into another
room. In this room is another shaft that leads down another 20 feet to the deepest
part of the tomb. A burial chamber lies below the statue, linking the dead with
Osiris. Archaeologists of the Ministries of Antiquities led an excavation in 2015 and
said that the symbolism of Osiris is throughout the building, including a staircase
leading to the underworld, the statue on its island and an empty corridor
symbolizing a river (Griffiths|2015|dailymail.com). They dated this by other tombs that
matched with the time period, along with carbon dating. They say it is to date to the
25th dynasty 760656 B.C. or 26th dynasty 672525 B.C.
Excavation comparison
Figure 7 (Ministries of Antiquities, Osiris' tomb)
Hawass and his team did a great job excavating this site, especially under the
conditions they had to work under. And in comparison to what Ive learned in class
and Hawass excavation, there are a couple things I would do differently. However,
in all honestly they are more like nit picking.
First, Hawass and his team sent divers down to collect artifacts without telling
them where or what they thought the divers should look for (Osiris shaft: Giza
pyramids|Hawass|1999:381). For example, if I was the director of the excavation I
would have done a plethora of research on the culture and would know what was
found in previous tombs. I would ask the divers to go down and tell me what the
layout looked like beforehand, then I could give them a sense of direction of where
to look or what to look for. There could have quite possibly been artifacts that were
never found or ruined when they had to pump the water out of the shaft. In
addition, the divers were also not instructed to measure where the artifacts were
found (Osiris shaft: Giza pyramids|Hawass|1999:381). I know that measuring where the
artifacts were located would be a hard task to do under water, but from what Ive
learned in class, measuring and recording where the artifact was found is an
important part of excavating.
this wasnt Osiris skeletal remains then who was in the sarcophagi in the chambers
C and G? If I was excavating this shaft I wouldnt have told a worldwide network one
statement, then put to record something different. Even though Osiris was said to
be He who is permanently benign and youthful, he was also said to have died
around the 6th dynasty (AncientEgyptonline.com| Osiris). With that being said, I still
dont understand how Hawass claimed it was Osiris grave on FOX Television when
he even stated sarcophagi was dated to the 26 th dynasty (Osiris shaft: Giza pyramids|
Hawass|1999:390). In short, there were a couple things I found confusing in this