In 1992, Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and director of the Giza Pyramids Excavation, was excavating a cemetery southeast of the Sphinx that includes more than 30 tombs of craftsmen and artisans who worked on the pyramids. One of these belonged to a carpenter and boat builder named Inty-shedu. The main burial shaft contained a skeleton and two jars of beer. Two other burial shafts held only skeletons.
Inty-shedu's tomb was a rare find in many ways, but held an extra surprise: a serdab with multiple statues. A serdab (Arabic for "cellar") is a wall niche or small chamber containing a miniature portrait statue of the deceased person. The serdab figure was a kind of insurance policy for the tomb owner: If anything happened to his mummy, his ka (spirit) would recognize the serdab figure, allowing him to still enjoy eternal life. The serdab statue was sealed into its chamber, with a tiny slot where the ka could enter.
Inty-shedu did not have the usual single statue, but five serdab figures depicting him at different ages. Like a modern man who wants the loudest stereo or the fastest car, Inty-shedu wanted to stand out from the afterlife crowd.
But he also wanted to be one of the guys. In his adult statues, Inty-shedu wears a sporty moustache. Archaeologists know that moustaches were popular among workingmen, while kings and nobles were generally clean-shaven.
Inty-shedu's portrait statues, crafted in painted limestone, are vivid and lifelike. It is easy to imagine "magically activating" one of them, opening a jar of beer and sitting down with Inty-shedu to talk about business at the boat yard.
Eigners, including former slaves and descendants of slaves, rose to positions of power.
The Medjay (or Medjai) were desert wanderers from Nubia who were hired by Egypt as policemen, guards, and soldiers. The Medjay had reputations as fearless guards and brutal law enforcers. They punished criminals such as tax evaders and draft-dodgers, and guarded palaces, temples, and tombs all over Egypt. But no police force, even the fierce Medjay, was ever able to stop the robbers who looted just about every royal tomb in the land.
World History
