Egypt

Interview with Dr. Zahi Hawass

http://149.48.228.121/wgbh/nova/pyramid/excavation/hawass.html

This interview dates back to the late 1990s, but I had not come across it before, and it has some nice content. It is a low-news day so I have thrown it in on the offchance that it might be of interest to anyone. Hawass is talking about the monuments of Abusir and Giza, including the tombs of the pyramid builders at Giza: "We've uncovered titles of the craftsmen, draftsmen, tombmakers, the overseer of the east side of the Pyramid, the overseer of the west side of the Pyramid, and so on. We found that the average age at death of the workmen was very early, 30 to 35, while officials died at 50 to 60. We've also studied the bones in these tombs, which have provided much information. All the skeletons of men and women show signs of stress in their backs, because people were involved in moving heavy stuff. We determined through x-rays that someone had syphilis, and we found evidence of brain surgery on a workman, who lived for two years afterwards. The ancients even had emergency treatment for workers on site, because we discovered that they were fixing broken bones and even amputating legs that had been crushed by a falling stone."

See the above page for the full story.

- Who Built The Pyramids?
Ahram Online (Zahi Hawass) “Who built the pyramids?” This is a question that the public still asks me even today. My continuing discoveries at the site of the tombs of the pyramid builders at Giza (first found in 1990) clearly demonstrate that these...

- In The Field: More Re Giza Cemetery
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El Aref) On Monday morning on the Giza plateau workers were busy removing sand from the newly discovered tomb of Idu, overseer of the construction of the Great Pyramid. They were surrounded by a media scrum, gathered around admiring...

- In The Field: More About Giza Tombs
Egypt State Information Service A collection of tombs that belong to workers who built Khufu's pyramid has been discovered in the area of the workmen's tombs on the Giza plateau, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced on Sunday 10/1/2010. Hosni...

- Hawass: Cemetery Of The Artisans
http://www.gom.com.eg/gazette/comments/detail_4_48.shtmlAnother fleeting article on the Egyptian Gazette website - this time Zahi Hawass describes, briefly, working at the artisans' tombs: "One day, while working in the workers’ cemetery, we discovered...

- Dig Days: The Pyramid Builders Ii (zahi Hawass)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/687/her2.htm An article by Zahi Hawass in Al Ahram Weekly about the Pyramid Builders' Village at Giza. "The discovery of the tombs of the Pyramid builders has provided us with vital information about the workmen who...

Egypt