Rethinking Ancient Egypt

Looking back at the cultures of ancient Egypt, one can’t help but notice the myths and legends surrounding the once great civilization. Egypt is well known for the pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, mummification, and hieroglyphs, but little is known of the accomplishments they made and the complexity of their societies. Their culture made significant advancements in neuroscience, medicine, and architecture. Advancements that many would say were beyond their time. I will attempt to shed light on a couple different viewpoints or claims that have been made in order to find the truth and hopefully put an end to any falsehoods. This paper will serve to delve deeper into Egypt’s history, not only from a mainstream Egyptologist’s perspective, but also from the perspective of multiple independent researchers and historians.

Egyptian background and religious culture

Burial, beliefs, and creation story. Ancient Egypt, from just before the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the end of the New Kingdom, was extremely rooted in religion. For them, life seemed to revolve around their faith. Given that the Egyptians, overtime, became a mixture of multiple races from different areas of the world, that faith was rarely ever accepted universally until the Pharaonic Dynasties. One example of this is mummification as well as secondary burial. We know, at the very minimum, that one of the earlier people’s that inhabited the area around the Nile river participated in what is called secondary burial. This type of burial included complete dismembering of body parts, even taking apart the spine. Then the limbs and other body parts were left out for animals and natural phenomena to consume the flesh. After this, the remaining bones were laid out next to each other and buried. Later, as the aboriginal groups were conquered by an Asiatic race, most likely originating from the Babylonian empire, traces and remnants of mummified skeletons are seen. Even when some Egyptians started practicing mummification, in the early days of its use, it was only used on members of the court or of the priesthood (Sayce 25). All of this, when perceived in the right context, gives us great insight into some of the beliefs of both the early inhabitants of the area as well as the ones that came later. Reviewing any cultures burial techniques will shed some light on parts of their religion. Although little is known about the beliefs of the early Egyptians, since written language didn’t come to the area until around 3000 BCE, by examining their burial practices, it is assumed that they did not believe that the soul would reunite with the body upon death. This is evident in the fact that, before burial, the body was completely dismembered.

As Egyptian history progresses, remnants of past beliefs merge with new ones and this also provides some insight into the otherwise-lost beliefs of the Merimde and Tasian cultures. The Merimde culture was a Neolithic culture that existed along the west bank of the Nile in lower Egypt beginning around 4800 BCE and overlapping with the Tasian culture that arose around 4500 BCE and existed on the east bank of the Nile river. However, there are remnants of earlier Tasian people’s inhabiting areas west of the Nile valley between 4700 and 4500 BCE (Wuttmann 2). The Tasian culture existed all the way up until the rise of the Protodynastic period and the First Dynasty around 3100 BCE. As Egypt’s Neolithic cultures began to combine, most likely through around a century of political unification (Colorado), so did their religious beliefs Mummifying the dead becoming the mainstream form of burial in Post Dynastic Egypt as well as the belief that when you die your body would move on to lead another life that would be a mirror of the life you led on this earth. This belief does not exactly coexist with the belief of the soul that would then separate from the body upon death. However, as the religion of the state starts becoming the dominant religion, we see the evidence of earlier beliefs that were adapted into the religion of the state. One of the common themes throughout Egypt at the time was the idea of the soul or, as they called it, the “Ba”. This can easily be thought of as a belief that was adapted into the mainstream religion being that the idea behind mummies is that your body and soul do not separate. Your soul or “Ba” was often depicted ascending on the wings of a bird into the heavens, but how would this be the case if your soul was supposed to stay united with your body until it’s ascension into the afterlife? It seems, that unlike other cultures, the Egyptians did not question contradictions as they were so prevalent in their belief system. This is more evidence that most of their religion was adapted from previous ones, most likely to comfort the people they were trying to rule (Sayce 26-27). Little is known of the religion and deities of early Egypt and what is known seems to only add to the confusion. Early Egyptian deities had the ability to take on multiple forms that were either human, zoomorphic (an animal form), or a mixture of an animal and a human. Mixed and zoomorphic forms moderately predate the anthropoid forms of the gods, but unlike most other early religions it does not seem that their gods were adapted from the use of totems nor does it seem likely that they worshipped animals. What seems most likely is that they were using animal characteristics as metaphors to suggest certain traits that the god embodied (Teeter).

It is just before the early dynastic period, 3100-2686 BCE, that we begin to see evidence of the earliest hieroglyphs. However, there isn’t much to go off until the First Dynasty when we start to see records of king Hor-Aha, king Narmer, and there is also an account from the historian Manetho that the first king of this dynasty was king Menes (Colorado). It is with the rise of the Pharos and the unification of upper and lower Egypt that we see the rise of a dominant religion in the region. Throughout Egypt’s history, many gods and goddesses are worshipped and none of them are confined to specific roles like the gods and goddesses of other belief systems such as the Greeks. As time progresses, their culture and religion start to change. We start to see the morphing of the gods into more anthropoid versions rather than zoomorphic. Now their gods will become organized in a more specific manner, although they still embody multiple characteristics and can still take on multiple forms. These forms were slightly different than the forms of the earlier gods. Now they will take on both the male and female traits as is seen in the accounts of Amun and Amunet. They were organized into family triads such as Amun, his wife Mut, and their son Khonsu as well as being organized into larger groups such as the ogdoad, made up of eight gods, and the ennead, made up of nine gods (Teeter). One of the more central concepts that did not change throughout the 3000 years of their history was the concept of Maat. Maat was the goddess that represented universal truth and balance. She was the daughter of the sun god Ra and the wife of the moon god Thoth and she had control over whether a human would make it to the afterlife or not. The idea of Maat was so central to their culture that high priest of Maat was also the chief judge of the nation and all the other priests and judges wore small pendants of Maat representing their judicial power and that they would always be truthful in their judgments. (Hill)

Another way to see how central religion was to Egyptian society is by examining their festivals, feasts, and rituals, the reasoning behind them, and how often they took place. As we enter the New Kingdom and last of the dynasties, festivals and rituals start to become more frequent. There existed a festival for almost every deity and occasion with some of the festivals lasting for 10 days or more. However, with the rise of the New Kingdom, we also see the rise of secrecy within their cults. Rituals were usually always performed in private by the priests of the high court, but until then people could at least somewhat participate in the festivities and weren’t kept in the dark on all the matters pertaining to the rituals. Little is known of the secrecy involved in the later rituals of the last dynasties, but we do know that they usually involved sacrifices and offerings to a specific deity during a specific time period. One of the most important aspects of Egyptian mythology is the connection of the king or pharaoh to the gods Osiris and Horus. Osiris was said to be the first king of Egypt and that he was murdered by his brother Set. After Set had killed Osiris, he dismembered his body and spread the parts around Egypt. Osiris’ sister/wife then decided to roam the country in search of her husbands remains. Once she had gathered all her husband’s remains, she then began to breathe “the breath of life” into Osiris and resurrected him. They then had a child and named him Horus. After this, Osiris went to the underworld where he would become ruler and Horus was left to challenge Set. Many challenges were set in place to see who the new ruler of Egypt would be, Set or Horus. In the end, the other gods took the advice of Osiris stating that the ruler of Egypt should not be a murderer and argued that Set had killed him, and that Horus had not killed anyone. In the end, Horus won and became king (University). This myth is where the beliefs that the king was descended from the gods comes from. Since the king was considered a direct descendant of their deities, this is most likely the reason their culture was so enveloped in religion.

Conspiracies

Uses of the pyramids of Giza. Mainstream Egyptologists over the years have put little thought or debate into this topic. For them, there is absolutely no way that the pyramids were used as anything other than burial tombs. When taking a closer look at why and how the pyramids were built, however, we see that there are some facts that don’t quite add up. For one, archeologists have not been able to find any mummies of any Pharaohs in any of the pyramids built. The reason given for this is that, most likely, the tombs had been raided before excavation had been done and this could be a viable answer. However, it is odd that in the five pyramids supposedly built by five different Pharaohs, they have not found a single mummy or any artifacts pertaining to these Pharaohs. Another interesting fact about the great pyramids of Giza is that there are no hieroglyphs found on the insides of any of them, except for some recent discoveries of some hieroglyphs inside the air shafts. Why would a culture spend so much time and effort, around twenty years, building one of the greatest structures the world has ever seen, while also paying extreme attention to detail, and then decide to leave the interior bare? Wasn’t this supposed to be a tomb fit for a god? Why do we not see hieroglyphs covering the walls like we do in the tomb of king Tut? Egyptologists say that this is because the Egyptians weren’t using hieroglyphs in the same manner during the dynasties of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, but this doesn’t seem like a very plausible answer given that hieroglyphs were still in use as well as the fact that the tomb was supposed to be fit for a god. This also doesn’t explain why the sarcophagus found in the “kings chamber” was so poorly constructed and free from decoration. The design of this sarcophagus that was supposed to be fit for a god king, doesn’t even match the design of ones that were created for people that weren’t royalty. They were much more intricate. It is also worth mentioning that one of the fifty royal mummies that have been found that can be linked to a Pharaoh, is that of king Tut and his mummy was not found in a pyramid, but instead at what is called the Valley of the Kings. This valley is also where the other forty-nine royal mummies have been found (Carter). Why would a culture that clung to their beliefs so strongly for around 3000 years, with the only deviation coming during the reign of Akhenaten, suddenly stop burying their kings in pyramids? Did the kings that came after the Old Kingdom decide that they were not as worthy as the ones that came before?

All this evidence paints the picture that the pyramids might have been used for something else entirely, but if this is the case, what would be the purpose behind these monolithic structures? Well, a team of scientists published a paper in the Journal of Applied Physics, in the year 2018, titled: “Electromagnetic properties of the Great Pyramid: First multipole resonances and energy concentration.”. This paper revealed some groundbreaking information as to what the great pyramids really could have been used for. Finally, there is some evidence to support the conspiracies that the pyramids were used as energy devices. In this article, they explain that “electromagnetic field distributions inside the Pyramid at the resonant conditions are demonstrated and discussed for two cases, when the Pyramid is located in a homogeneous space or on a substrate. It is revealed that the Pyramid's chambers can collect and concentrate electromagnetic energy for the both surrounding conditions. In the case of the Pyramid on the substrate, at the shorter wavelengths, the electromagnetic energy accumulates in the chambers providing local spectral maxima for electric and magnetic fields. It is shown that basically the Pyramid scatters the electromagnetic waves and focuses them into the substrate region.” (Mikhail). This study is certainly one of kind in this day in age, but the idea that the pyramids could create electromagnetic energy has been around for a long time. It is well known that limestone has dielectric properties and can impede electromagnetic energy (Olatinsu). The electromagnetic properties of granite are also well known (Yoshida). So, limestone repels electromagnetic energy and granite conducts it. If the pyramids can generate this energy, then the fact that the outsides are coated in limestone and the insides are coated in granite must be intentional because the limestone would keep the energy inside while the granite was conducting it. All this shed’s some new light on why the pyramids were built and what they were used for. This can’t all be coincidence.

Architectural dating of Egyptian monuments. Most people give little thought to when the pyramids were built. Almost everyone accepts the mainstream accounts that they were built around 4,500 years ago. However, delving deeper into this topic, we also find some discrepancies within mainstream views. To start, it is impossible to carbon date the stones that were used to build the pyramids. Carbon dating is only able to be used on plants and animals that are less than 50,000 years old (Baird). This means that the only even remotely accurate way of dating the pyramids, without papyri to give detailed accounts, is by dating the objects around the pyramids. But how do we know that the artifacts we are examining are from the people who actually built the pyramids? Without any written accounts of these fantastic structures, we are left to assume that the people we are examining were indeed, the ones that built these pyramids, but we do not know for sure. It is entirely possible that these people came to inhabit this land after the pyramids were built and there is one discovery that is in line with this view. John Anthony West and Robert Schoch set out to research the great Sphinx more in depth in 1990. They both agree that the weathering damage that has been done to the Sphinx does not match any weather patterns from the Old or New Kingdoms of Egypt. Many Egyptologists have dismissed this work and try to explain it by stating that the weathering could have been caused by the flooding of the Nile river. However, these explanations do not go along with the science of geology. There are certain weathering patterns on the Sphinx, that don’t exist on any other structures associated with the Old or New Kingdoms, that could only be caused by heavy rainfall. Flooding of the Nile does not account for this type of weathering. To further validate the claims that the Sphinx could have been built in an earlier time period, Schoch and West carried out seismic testing of the strata beneath the great Sphinx (Schoch). This testing aligned perfectly with their hypothesis, but Egyptologists still do not accept this. As a general field of study, Egyptology admits that there is almost no evidence of the building of the pyramids or the Sphinx, yet they refuse to entertain the thought that these things could have been built earlier. Are these scientists and historians so egotistical that they can’t entertain hypothesis that don’t fit the mainstream narrative or is there actually something to hide?

Conclusion

From centuries of archaeology focused all around one civilization, we have uncovered so much about this once great civilization, but it seems that there is still so much more to be discovered. We must be careful not to get stuck in the ways of the past that would hinder progression just because it doesn’t fit the narrative. This paper was written with the intention to hopefully shed some light on some of the mysteries and conspiracies surrounding ancient Egypt, but I believe it has done the opposite and only left more questions for Egyptologists to hopefully answer in the near future. Until then, I wish that there was enough evidence to put these conspiracies to bed, but there simply is not. The rate at which a scientific community has so quickly dismissed anything that doesn’t fit its narrative is cause for suspicion alone. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the “explanations” aren’t backed in actual science. Hopefully one day we will make some discoveries that will force us to look beyond what Egyptologist have so wrongly considered fact. They’re narrative has not been disproven, but it has also not been proven either. So why are they so confident in dismissing other theories? More research needs to be done without the shroud of ego that wants so badly to conform to mainstream ideas out of fear of acceptance.