5 Intriguing Facts And Finds From Ancient Egypt
The Ancient Egyptians Were Around For More Than 3,000 Years
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The ancient Egyptians and their civilization lasted for close to 30 centuries. They had an impressive run, more than 3,000 years, and that came to an end when Alexander the Great invaded, and the Romans took over in 30 B.C.
Now, hundreds upon hundreds of years later, we are still coming across incredible discoveries from the ancient Egyptians.
Here Are 5 Intriguing Facts And Finds From Ancient Egypt
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They were advanced and awe-inspiring for their time. Their accomplishments span across architecture, medicine, writing, engineering, and art.
Here are 5 intriguing new facts and finds from ancient Egypt that we only recently came across recently!
They Caused The First Major Case Of Human Pollution
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Approximately 4,600 years ago, ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramid of Giza. Close by was the Khufu Harbor, the oldest known port in the world.
In this harbor, researchers found traces of metal contamination caused by humans, making it the first major case of human pollution.
“We found the oldest regional metal contamination ever recorded in the world,” Alain Verón, a geochemist from Aix-Marseille Université in France, said.
They Were Surgically Treating Brain Cancer Over 4,000 Years Ago
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A skull dating from 2687 and 2345 B.C.E. that belonged to a man who was most likely between 30 to 35-years-old proves that the ancient Egyptians were surgically treating cancer more than 4,000 years ago.
This means that cancer research was conducted 1,000 years earlier than we thought. The man’s skull contained evidence of a sizeable brain tumor and over 30 smaller metastasized lesions. Researchers identified cut marks around the areas where the lesions were.
They concluded that the marks were made by a sharp metal object, proving ancient doctors were attempting to learn more about cancer through surgery.
They Called In Sick To Work, Just Like Us
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A limestone tablet from 1250 B.C. that lives in the British Museum explains that employees called in to work and kept track of their days off.
On this specific tablet, there is a list of 40 different employees, along with the number of work days they missed and their reasons for missing work.
The reasons they skipped out on work were pretty fascinating and ranged from being sick to getting stung by a scorpion to having to wrap up a dead family member.
We Found The Long-Lost Sarcophagus Of One Of The Greatest Egyptian Pharaohs
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Ramses II ruled during the 13th century B.C.E., and he was unquestionably one of ancient Egypt’s greatest pharaohs. He expanded Egypt into the area now known as Syria, and he fathered more than 100 kids. When his time came, he was laid to rest in one of the most ornate coffins ever created by the ancient Egyptians.
But his sarcophagus has never been identified until now. Back in 2009, a piece of a sarcophagus was uncovered in the ancient necropolis of Abydos. Experts thought the stone coffin held two different occupants at different times.
One of those people was a high priest named Menkheperre, who lived around 1000 B.C.E. The other person’s identity remained a mystery until an Egyptologist from Sorbonne University in France, Frédéric Payraudeau, reexamined the inscriptions on that sarcophagus fragment. He pointed out that the hieroglyphs contained Ramses’ name, which meant Ramses once occupied that very sarcophagus.
We Discovered The Oldest Cheese
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In 2018, archaeologists were exploring a tomb in Alexandria, Egypt, when they stumbled upon several broken jars, one of which contained a solid white mass. It turned out to be the oldest specimen of cheese in the world.
The cheese was believed to be around 3,200-years-old at the time of its discovery. It was found during excavations of the tomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, during the 13th century B.C. The site was first uncovered in 1885, but then it became lost to time for more than a century.
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