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Oldest Intact Sarcophagus Found in Egypt
soulctcher writes: "Archaeologists in Egypt have found what looks to be the oldest intact sarcophagus. To give an idea of how old, this particular sarcophagus is believed to be about 1100 years older than King Tut. You can read the full story over at Yahoo!
I realize it must be almost impossible to resist opening it to see exactly what's inside but wouldn't it be really cool for a future generation to find something someday?
How about instead of opening it they bury it deeper? I suppose there is always the threat of plunderers and what not, but at some level, is an archeologist any better?
I guess I see it like a future race opening every casket in a graveyard simply because it's there and there might be another gold ring inside. I'd rather we didn't destroy everything until something like a holodeck can be built to preserve these sites in at least one sense.
Here before all but 8486 of you.
The Egypt government has to decide who may do the excavations and what will become of everything they find. An archeologist may not sell the sarcophagus for his own profit. Of course the Egyptian obelisks found all over Europe are plunder, maybe plundered by archeologist, maybe by militaries. The point is not, who finds it, but who it belongs to. A plunderer is a kind of thief.
Not all archeologists are white. There are Egyptian archeologists working for Egypt's government. I can understand resentments against archeology, but this is about a sarcophagus found recently by Egypt archeologists. Egypt is not a colony anymore. What's the problem?
This sig is a true statement, but I cannot prove it.
Re, ... it is not a very culturally significant mummy compared to the king tut mummy...
Hey now, I don't think a mummy is more culturally significant because in life it was a royal personage. A regular worker or manager mummy is pretty interesting too.
Although ancient people of any social rank are interesting to learn about, to me the very small middle class is extra-fascinating. Royalty left plenty of written and pictured records of themselves; and peasant life is oppressed peasant life. I can't identify with either. I can, however, identify with scribes, architects, and engineers of the ancient world, and it's them I would like to know more about. Therefore, this find is culturally significant to me.