Tombs Cast Fresh Light on Egypt Pyramid Builders

Restoration of tombs at the pyramids of Giza is casting fresh light on the builders of the towering monuments, an Egyptian archaeologist said on Thursday.

Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza plateau where the pyramids are located, told Reuters work on tombs of workers and their supervisors, found by Egyptian archaeologists 10 years ago, had revealed two cemeteries designed as mini-replicas of the complex around the pyramids.

"This discovery proves that the builders of the pyramids of Giza were Egyptians and that they were not slaves as some archaeologists have claimed," Hawass declared.

"They prepared the tombs just like they did for the pyramids complex, with the funerary temple to the east of the pyramids and a causeway leading from it to an offering basin at the foot of the causeway," he said.

"They prepared these tombs to last forever just like they would do for the queens and kings. Slaves would not do that."

The tombs, located to the south of the Sphinx at the eastern foot of the three great pyramids, were built at the end of the 4th Dynasty in the reign of the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops).

The upper-level tombs were built of solid limestone for technicians, craftsmen and artisans, along with their families.

The lower-level tombs, made of less durable mudbrick and rock such as granite and basalt left over from pyramid construction, were built for the workmen who moved the huge stone blocks used for the great pyramids 4,600 years ago.

Sometimes workers were buried with the supervisors in the upper-level tombs.

Archaeologists have found curses inscribed in the tomb of a man named Pety and his wife, warning unwanted visitors that crocodiles would eat them if they entered the tomb.

ANCIENT MEDICAL TREATMENT

Hawass said that among the skeletons found at the site, 12 had broken arms, with wooden boards placed on them as splints. One was of a man with an amputated leg who lived for 14 years after completion of the pyramid. The skull of a man who survived for two years after that date showed signs of brain surgery.

"These discoveries prove to us that medical treatment took place at the time and workers received good care," Hawass said.

Workers were five to six feet tall and did not live past 35 years of age. Bilharzia, a disease still prevalent in Egypt that is caused by parasitic worms and transmitted from water-snails, was the commonest cause of death.

Archaeological evidence showed the workers wore clothes very similar to the traditional garb of Egyptian farm workers.

"Men used to dress in galabiyas, or flowing robes, tied around the waist and held sticks in their hands just as peasant workers dress today," Hawass said.

He said the cemeteries and settlements indicated that the workforce that constructed the pyramids was smaller than the 100,000 workers estimated by some researchers.

"Around 20,000 workers helped build the Giza pyramids based on the size of the settlements we discovered," Hawass argued.

Near one causeway, archaeologists found an unfinished double statue of a man and a woman with the man's right foot placed in front of the left, reversing the normal pattern.

"In ancient Egyptian times, statues were built with the man's left foot placed in front of the right symbolizing him leaving home to go to work, while the woman's two feet were placed side by side symbolizing her place in the home.

"This discovery shows that this statue was constructed by an unprofessional craftsman and had a flaw, which explains why it was placed in the workers' tombs," Hawass said.