The golden death mask of King Tutankhamun was one of the treasures found in his tomb. Is it true that all royal tombs in ancient Egypt had plush grave goods?
The Great Pyramid of Giza and other ancient Egyptian pyramids are incredible monuments, but the burial goods inside them were likely relatively modest compared with those buried in the tombs of later pharaohs.
The burials in the biggestpyramids might have looked simple in comparison to Tutankhamun.
From the time of Djoser to Ahmose I, pyramids were used as tombs. Most of the pyramids were destroyed hundreds of years ago, but a few royal tombs remain intact and provide clues about their treasures.
Who built the Egyptian pyramids?
The site of Hawara, which is south of Cairo, is where Princess Neferuptah was buried in a pyramid. Her burial chamber was excavated in 1956 and contained pottery, a set of coffins, some gilded personal adornments and a set of royal insignia that identify her with the Underworld god Osiris.
King Hor was buried with a similar set of objects, although he wasn't buried in a pyramid.
The tomb of Queen Hetepheres, the mother of the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid, is a bit more elaborate. The tomb at Giza had a bed and two chairs that were decorated with gold, along with pottery and miniature copper tools, Grajetzki wrote in an article published in January 2008 in the magazine "Heritage of Egypt".
The unfinished pyramid of King Sekhemkhet was found unrobbed at Saqqara, according to an Egyptologist who is the author of the book. The king's sarcophagus was empty, but archaeologists found 21 gold bracelets, a golden wand or sceptre and other items of gold jewellery in a corridor. These are impressive burial goods, but they don't come close to the wealth found in Tutankhamun's tomb.
The artifacts found in these royal burials suggest that the pharaohs were buried with grave goods that were more modest than those found with Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun's tomb was located in the Valley of the Kings, a remote valley near modern-day Luxor, which was used as a royal burial site for over 500 years during the New Kingdom.
This doesn't mean that he was poorer than Tutankhamun. His pyramid shows the opposite. He was buried following the customs of his day.
There were no large treasures found in the Egyptian pyramids. No tomb with a lot of grave goods has been found that is older than the time when pyramids were built. During the New Kingdom, when pyramid building ended, the amount of lavish grave goods buried with royal and non-royal individuals increased.
During the New Kingdom, people were able to put large numbers of ornate objects in their tombs. It's not clear why they wanted to do this.
While the burial goods inside the pyramids were modest compared with later ancient Egyptian tombs, some of the pyramids had lengthy hieroglyphic inscriptions on their walls.
The pyramid of Unis was the first to have these texts on its interior walls.
The function of the pyramid texts was to allow the deceased to become a spirit in the afterlife. The Egyptians believed that parts of a person's soul were separated from death.
Allen told Live Science that the appearance of these texts probably reflects a shift or innovation in the ancient Egyptians' ideas of the royal afterlife. The Pyramid Texts may have existed in the past, but they were written on the pyramid walls in the time of Unis.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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