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Curse of the Mummy
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Mummies and the "curse" concept
Movie mummies are known for riches and a nasty curse. However, Hollywood didn't invent the curse concept.
- Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat believed that a lively stage show in which real Egyptian mummies were unwrapped inspired writers to pen tales of mummy revenge.
- Egyptologist Salima Ikram believes the curse concept did exist in ancient Egypt as part of a primitive security system. Some early non-pyramid tomb walls (mastaba) in Giza and Saqqara were inscribed with curses meant to terrify those who would desecrate the resting place.
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Egyptian mummies: tomb toxin threat
Some suggested that the pharaoh's curse was biological in nature.
- Lab studies have shown some ancient mummies carried mold, including Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus, which can cause congestion or bleeding in the lungs.
- Bacteria such as Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus may also grow on tomb walls, causing lung problems.
However, the idea that an underground tomb, after 3,000 years, would have some microorganism in it that would kill somebody weeks later is highly unlikely.
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Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs
Ancient Egypt has exerted power of influence on the world of learning for over two millennia.
The Greek historian Herodotus identified the pyramids at Giza as places of royal burial, bu...
Ancient Egypt: How the language fell in disuse
- Ancient Egypt was conquered, first by Persians, then by Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great in 332BC.
- The Ptolematic dynasty, named after Alexander's general, Ptolemy I, ruled Egypt for three centuries. It ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman occupation in 30BC.
- From AD 395, Egypt was ruled first by Coptic Christians, then by Muslims, until the time of Napoleon.
- Spoken Coptic descended from the language of ancient Egypt, but written Coptic was entirely alphabetic, like Greek. Still, the Coptic language provided approximate pronunciation for hieroglyphs.
An attempt at understanding hieroglyphs
Greek and Roman authors thought that hieroglyphs were symbols of ancient Egyptian wisdom. They dismissed any phonetic component in the hieroglyphs.
This misguided view of hieroglyphs as 'picture writing' obscured any attempt at deciphering it. Near the 18th Century, Danish scholar Georg Zoëga thought that some hieroglyphs might be phonetic signs.
Alexandria during the third and second centuries BCE
Alexandria, with its Great Library, was marked as the intellectual capital of the world.
During the third century BCE, the Musaeum, an educational and research institution,...
The start of the city Alexandria
Alexandria was founded in 331BCE by the Macedonian leader Alexander the Great. Alexander left Egypt a few months later, leaving his viceroy Cleomenes in charge.
Alexander passed away in 323 BCE, and one of his deputies, Macedonian general Ptolemy Lagides, took control of Egypt. Ptolemy executed Cleomenes and declared himself pharaoh. He started the Ptolemaic dynasty and made Alexandria his capital in 305 BCE.
Alexandria: A cosmopolitan city
The city's population grew to around 300,000 people. It remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, as well as Roman and Byzantine Egypt, for almost a thousand years.
Alexandria was designed by the architect Dinocrates of Rhodes, using a Hippodamian gridiron street plan. The city was cosmopolitan and diverse. It consisted of Greeks, Jew, and Egyptian Arabs.
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Egyptian Senet
One of the earliest known board games, Senet was played in 3100 BC and loved by Queen Nefertari and the Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Played using a longboard having three rows of ten squar...
The Royal Game Of Ur
- Also known as Twenty Squares, this 4500-year-old game, first unearthed in ancient Mesopotamia, is impressive in its complex rules and intricate design.
- The beautiful game board uses twenty squares and has a narrow bridge in the middle part, was played in Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and many other ancient civilizations.
- To finish the game as winners, players had to race their opponent to the opposite end of the board, moving pieces according to knucklebone dice rolls.
The Game of Mehen
- Named after the Egyptian serpentine deity, Mehen is also known as the Egyptian Snake Game and was played between 3100 to 2300 BC.
- Six players could simultaneously play this spiral board, each having a piece crafted in the shape of a lion or a sphere.
- The rules of this game are not very clear because it lost its popularity after the decline of Egypt’s Old Kingdom and is hardly found in archaeological records.