More tombs of workers unearthed near the Pyramids
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The Supreme Council of Antiquites announced the discovery by Egyptian archaeologists of another group of 4th dynasty tombs belonging to workers who built the great pyramids of Giza.
Egyptologists Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Salima Ikram commented on the importance of this discovery, which sheds more light on the living conditions of the ancient Egyptian working class and the distribution of wealth across social classes.
Contrary to popular imagination, the Pyramids of Giza, the remaining ancient wonder of the world, were not built by enslaved laborers.
The men who built the pyramids, numbered in the tens of thousand, were paid and fed by the administration officials in charge of the massive project, to the tune of 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms in northern and southern Egypt, according to Dr. Hawass.
Men were required to work on these pharaonic projects during the season of inundation of the Nile, when working hands were idle. Although this have been traditionally considered by scholars a “corvée” tax imposed on the working class by pharaoh’s officials, the fact is that these workers enjoyed better nutrition and those who died during construction were honored by being buried in mud brick tombs close to the pharaoh’s resting place.
The most important of the newly discovered tombs, according to Hawass, belonged to a man named Idu.
Source: The New York Times
Thanks to Stan Parchin
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