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Oldest Intact Sarcophagus Found in Egypt

Posted by timothy on from the just-like-new-except-old dept.

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!

1 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. a history of embalming by littlerubberfeet · · Score: 4, Informative

    the quality of embalming techniques follows a rough bell curve. quality being on the Y axis
    quality --
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    Time--------->
    excuse ascii art please. Now, the peak of the curve is about at King Tuts reign. The latter part can be seen in Abussir (spelling?) and other later tombs, especially the hastly constructed ones around the time of roman interaction. The early part of the bell curve is represented by this find and many early specimans, many of which just don't exist. It took centuries for the Eqyptians to discover all the techniques, i.e. which vital organs to remove, what clay compound to embalm and fill with, what chemicals...etc. This is what makes this find truly amazing.

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