New Discovery in Egypt Scared Scientists

Bright Side

Archaeologists found a pit full of giant dismembered hands near an ancient Egyptian king's palace, hinting that warriors may have offered the king the hands of their defeated enemies as trophies. Another cool discovery is a 52-foot-long papyrus scroll from the Book of the Dead, found in a coffin near the Step Pyramid of Djoser. In Cairo, two massive statues from around 1150 BC were unearthed, believed to be of Ramses II and his grandson, Seti II, with the latter having a perfectly symmetrical face, which is super impressive for the time. They also discovered hundreds of baboon mummies, showing how much ancient Egyptians revered these animals and imported them from far-off lands.

Transcript

00:00A gruesome discovery took place in Egypt some years ago.

00:03You want to hear about it?

00:04Sixteen human hands, carefully buried in four eerie pits.

00:09They didn't look too much like human hands at first, since they were abnormally large.

00:14But they were.

00:15Weirdly, there were only right hands.

00:17No left hands were in sight.

00:19It turned out that it points to the practice of an ancient dark ritual.

00:24Old Egyptian art and tales talked of a ceremony

00:27where warriors would present the right hand of their adversaries

00:30as proof of victory and ask for gold in return.

00:35Egyptians believed in the afterlife,

00:37so cutting off someone's hand meant you cut off their power eternally.

00:41Guaranteeing this type of defeat was interesting to the winning party.

00:45Here, the fight was between Egyptians versus Hyksus,

00:48who lived in what was once known as Canaan.

00:52Egypt has always been the center of some history-changing findings.

00:56And some time ago, this papyrus was found.

00:59If we stretched it open,

01:01it would be just a tad bigger than the height of a skyscraper.

01:04The world's tiniest skyscraper, I mean,

01:07which is located in Wichita Falls, Texas.

01:09When humans didn't write on their Notes app,

01:14they wrote on this thing,

01:15made from the medulla of a papyrus plant.

01:18Around 2,000 years ago,

01:20ancient Egyptians wrote something reminiscent of a book

01:23where they described most of their funerary traditions

01:26and their visions of the afterlife.

01:28It's considered one of the most important texts from ancient Egypt

01:32and is still sold in bookstores to this day.

01:34This ancient manuscript was unearthed from a chamber

01:38located just south of the Pyramid of Dozier,

01:40located in Saqqara.

01:42Oh yes, Dozier is the oldest pyramid in Egypt

01:45and not the Giza pyramids like most people think.

01:48So recently, the site of Saqqara buzzed with excited archaeologists,

01:52who probably found one of Egypt's oldest complete mummies.

01:56They believed that this beautiful and well-preserved mummy

01:59was that of a wealthy man.

02:00He was discovered in a deep shaft,

02:03covered in layers of gold leaves.

02:06There are many symbols that show he was an important and wealthy man,

02:09like the band he wore on his head,

02:12the bracelet on his chest,

02:13and the fact that he was embalmed with a tunic,

02:16which was reserved for Egypt's finest.

02:19The most exciting part of the entire discovery

02:21was finding the resting place sealed with mortar,

02:25just as the ancient Egyptians had left it 4,300 years ago.

02:29Now, this may sound weird,

02:31but back in 2008,

02:33archaeologists discovered a missing pyramid.

02:36Now, it went missing because it deteriorated

02:39over the span of 4,000 years.

02:41Today, you can only see its base.

02:43It was a pretty important site back in ancient times.

02:47It is said that around the area of the pyramid,

02:49the ancients hosted a special type of ceremony,

02:52where high priests would carry mummified remains of sacred bulls.

02:56Now, here's a fun fact.

02:58Ancient Egyptians believed that Apis bulls

03:00were earthly incarnations of the city deity of Memphis

03:03and was connected to rites of fertility.

03:06It wasn't just any Apis bull, though.

03:09They needed to be all black,

03:10with a single white mark between its horns

03:13and a bunch of very specific characteristics.

03:16They were selected by the local priests

03:18and honored until they passed away.

03:20After that, they were mummified

03:22and buried in underground galleries.

03:26Meanwhile, this missing pyramid

03:28sort of disappeared around the 1800s.

03:31It was a German archaeologist

03:32who first found it in the village of Sakura.

03:35He called it the Headless Pyramid

03:37when he first found it.

03:38But then, years after the official discovery,

03:41the desert sand came along

03:42and covered the whole thing.

03:44There were some excavations

03:45between the 19th and 20th centuries,

03:48but they weren't too systematic.

03:49That's why scientists were so thrilled

03:51when they dug an entire pyramid's base

03:53after removing the 25-foot mound of sand

03:56that was covering it.

03:58Oh, and it turns out

03:59American archaeologists

04:01are excavating a cemetery in Egypt

04:03that could contain

04:04over a million mummified bodies.

04:07So far, archaeologists have dug

04:09around 1,700 mummies.

04:12One of the main differences

04:13from other classic Egyptian mummies

04:15is that these people weren't kings and pharaohs.

04:17They were commoners

04:18that most likely lived

04:20about 1,500 years ago

04:22when Egypt was controlled

04:23by the Roman and Byzantine empires.

04:25The name of the cemetery is cool, though.

04:28The Way of the Water Buffalo.

04:29Just in case you want to check it out

04:31on your next trip.

04:33Other than bulls and buffaloes,

04:35ancient Egyptians also liked baboons.

04:37Are you seeing a pattern here?

04:39In the beginning of the 20th century,

04:41archaeologists discovered a site

04:43filled with mummified baboons

04:45in a place called, guess what,

04:47the Valley of Monkeys.

04:48An animal wouldn't have been mummified

04:50if it wasn't considered important.

04:53Certain animals were more important than others

04:55since they were linked to specific deities.

04:58Jackals were connected to Anubis,

05:00the ancient god of the afterlife.

05:02And cats were likened

05:03to the female deity Bastet.

05:05Baboons were a pretty big deal

05:07since they were believed

05:08to be connected to Thoth,

05:09the deity of wisdom

05:10and advisor to Ra,

05:12one of Egypt's supreme deities.

05:13The archaeologists who studied these animals

05:17weren't too happy.

05:19They think these baboons were kept inside

05:21and were deprived of sunlight

05:22for most of their lives.

05:24They had extreme vitamin D deficiencies

05:26and they were poorly fed.

05:28Maybe Thoth got angry

05:29with these baboon keepers.

05:31Just a guess.

05:33Since there's never a boring day

05:34for archaeologists in Egypt,

05:36they also found human mummies

05:38with golden tongues.

05:40Since Egyptians were all about the afterlife,

05:42they believed that golden tongues

05:44might help a person speak

05:46once they pass to the other side.

05:48I mean, it's a long shot,

05:49but hey, why not?

05:51Some of these mummies were placed

05:53in wooden coffins with goods,

05:54such as necklaces, pottery,

05:56golden artifacts in the shape of lotus flowers

05:59and scarab beetles.

06:00And iPhones.

06:01Just kidding.

06:03A new temple was also unearthed recently in Egypt.

06:06Scientists believe it was dedicated

06:07to honor Zeus Kassios.

06:10That deity would be a cross between Zeus,

06:12the almighty Greek deity of the sky,

06:15and Mount Kassios.

06:16While digging around the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt,

06:19archaeologists spotted two pink granite columns

06:22poking out of the ground.

06:23And bingo!

06:25They believe these columns represented

06:26the temple's front gate

06:28and collapsed during an earthquake many years ago.

06:30And, speaking of deities,

06:33there weren't only super-serious deities.

06:36Recently, scientists unearthed a golden ring

06:38in a city south of Cairo.

06:40No, Frodo, it's not magical.

06:42It was a normal gold ring.

06:44But it had the depiction of the deity of fun,

06:47officially named best.

06:48This deity is often described in sacred texts

06:51as a happy chubby dwarf.

06:54Today, many tattoos we get

06:56are sorta deprived of any sense

06:58and are made of aesthetic purposes only.

07:00In ancient Egypt, though,

07:02women would get tattoos

07:03as a token of protection for childbirth.

07:06That's what scientists think, at least.

07:08Around the Nile region,

07:10scientists found some mummies

07:11that had well-preserved tattoos,

07:13which is a rarity

07:14since the skin deteriorates so easily.

07:17Two of these women tattooed their lower backs,

07:19and the drawings were simple.

07:20They were mostly pictures,

07:22including that same chubby dwarf

07:24we just talked about, Bess.

07:25He also had a side hustle

07:27as the protector of women during childbirth.

07:29Now, would you believe me if I told you

07:32ancient Egyptians invented robots?

07:34No?

07:35Well, that's because that's not entirely true.

07:38Sure, they were astronomers,

07:39mathematicians, and engineers,

07:41and somehow, they also squeezed

07:42an eccentric invention into that package.

07:45An automated deity

07:46some scientists called Hathor.

07:48This wooden statue

07:50had been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

07:52for years

07:53before someone noticed its secret.

07:55With the help of an x-ray machine,

07:57specialists discovered

07:58a mechanical operating system inside it.

08:01The pulley-like axis

08:02goes from the statue's shoulder

08:04to her left leg.

08:05When the system rotates,

08:06the statue raises and lowers her hand.

08:09Hey, pick me!

08:10Pick me!

08:11I got my hand up here!

08:12Pick me!

08:13Pick me!

08:14Pick me!

08:15Pick me!

08:16Pick me!

08:17Pick me!

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