Its a well-known fact that the ancient pyramids of Egypt were built as tombs and memorials for pharaohs, their families, and other aristocratic Egyptians from the elite classes, as the ancient Egyptians lived in a highly stratified society. But sometimes “well-known facts” can be completely wrong, and new research is forcing a reexamination of what Egyptologists thought they knew about burial practices in ancient Egypt. It seems that in at least some cases, pyramids acted as tombs for Egyptians from the laboring classes, opening the possibility that at least some periods of Egyptian history were more egalitarian that previously believed.
During pyramid excavations in the ancient Egyptian colony of Tombos, a team of Dutch and American researchers unearthed several skeletons that showed the kind of wear and tear on their bodies that is closely associated with a lifetime of strenuous manual labor. This was not the sort of activity one would have expected from the rich and privileged in Egyptian society thousands of years ago, and the researchers have concluded that these skeletons belonged to “low-status” workers who were put to rest side-by-side with Tombos’ wealthiest and most powerful movers and shakers.
“Pyramid tombs, once thought to be the final resting place of the most elite, may have also included low-status high-labor staff,” the researchers wrote in a article about their discoveries published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. “Across cemetery areas and tomb types, [our analysis] suggests a complex landscape of physically active and less-physically active people.”
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According to these experts, this surprising discovery could reshape the entire story of the Egyptian Pyramids.
Egalitarian Burials in a Notoriously Stratified Society: What Does it Mean?
The remains of multiple mud-brick tombs have been found at Tombos, some of which contain human remains along with grave goods including large ceramic jars and vases.
The largest pyramid complex that was explored by the Dutch and America researchers belonged to Siamun, the sixth pharaoh of Egypt during the 21st Dynasty, which lasted from 1077 BC to 943 BC. This pyramid included a large chapel courtyard and was decorated with clay funerary cones, which might have been put there as offerings to the gods.
Map of the excavation site, with location of tomb of Siamun highlighted. (Schrader, et.al/Journal of Anthropological Archaeology).
The researchers analyzed the skeletal remains carefully, finding wear marks on bones where muscles, tendons and ligaments were once attached. With this approach the scientists were able to distinguish people who’d performed little or no manual labor in their lives from those who’d performed it frequently, and intriguingly, both populations were represented among the skeletons. This showed the remains were a mixture of nobles who’d lived lives or luxury, and people who’d done actual hard work (and quite a lot of it).
This was a totally unexpected discovery, as the normal practice in ancient Egypt, at least as far as the experts know, was to reserve pyramids for the bodies of elites while low-status Egyptians or foreigners were buried elsewhere, in basic graves with no frills. But something different was apparently happening in Tombos, an outpost near ancient Egypt’s southern border.
According to the Dutch and American researchers, therir discovery challenges a “long-standing assumption in the field of Egyptology.”
“If these hard-working individuals are indeed of lower socioeconomic status, this counters the traditional narrative that the elite were exclusively buried in monumental tombs,” they concluded in their journal article.
“We are not suggesting that these tombs were designed, built, and funded by these high-labor individuals,” they continued. “Rather, we argue that people of high socioeconomic status and with formal titles, such as Siamun, commissioned these pyramids for themselves, close family members, and servants/functionaries.”
Some of the pottery that was recovered during the excavations. (Schrader, et.al/Journal of Anthropological Archaeology)
A Most Unusual Egyptian Settlement
In many ways, Tombos was a most unusual Egyptian settlement. Located on the Third Cataract of the Nile in what is now northern Sudan, and occupied from the time of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom through the Late Period (1400—650 BC), Tombos was established as an Egyptian colony on Nubian territory, following Egypt’s invasion of Nubia and seizure of its land. From the beginning it seems that Egyptian settlers mixed rather freely with the Nubian peoples of the area, as the colonized people were not treated harshly or subjected to any measurable level of oppression.
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Based on the archaeological evidence, it appears Tombos was a peaceful community where everyone got along reasonably well.
“Previous research has suggested that Nubians and Egyptians lived together in this colonial space and their social and biological lives became entangled,” the study authors wrote. “Osteological evidence suggests the population was relatively healthy, with limited indicators of physiological stress present on skeletal remains. Additionally, rates of interpersonal violence seem to be particularly low when compared to earlier Nubian communities.”
This perhaps was influenced by the makeup of the Egyptian population that settled in Tombos. The researchers say the Egyptians were largely composed of minor officials, professionals, craftspeople, and scribes, who would have been relatively privileged but would represent more of Egypt’s version of an upper middle class, as opposed to a super-rich elite. This group may not have felt so far removed from average laborers, even though they themselves were not required to do a lot of physically demanding work.
Mud-brick tombs in northern Sudan. (Matthias Gehricke/CC BY-SA 4.0)
The situation at Tombos was likely also determined by the policies of New Kingdom pharaohs. They governed their colonies, and the colonized, with a distinctly lighter touch than what had been the custom in the past, preferring peaceful co-existence over blatant oppression and the establishment of armed encampments to enforce law and order.
In such an environment, egalitarian ideas may well have taken hold, and in some instances elites may have been the ones who embraced or promoted such concepts. So while it is possible that the laboring-class Egyptians buried in Tombos’ pyramids were simply servants meant to continue their service in the next world, they might also have been people who had earned the respect and admiration of elites like Siamun for other reasons.
Regardless of the explanation, the discovery of the laboring-class pyramid burials in Tombos is truly eye-opening, as it reveals the existence of an unexpected practice that runs counter to all assumptions about how ancient Egyptian society functioned.
Top image: Mud-brick pyramids in northern Sudan.
Source: Bruce Allardice/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0.
By Nathan Falde
