Archaeologists Uncover Rare Egyptian Funerary Boat Near Pyramid

Archaeologists Uncover Rare Egyptian Funerary Boat Near Pyramid

The Abusir necropolis, located between the more famous Giza and Saqqara sites in northern Egypt, is known for its pyramids, built for the Fifth-Dynasty pharaohs Sahure, Neferirkare and Neuserre (c.2465–c.2325 B.C.). But a recent expedition there by a team of Czech archaeologists turned up an exciting find from an even earlier period of Egypt’s history: a more than 60-foot-long funerary boat found buried near a mastaba (tomb) dating to the early Fourth Dynasty, circa 2550 B.C. As ancient Egyptian boat burials were usually reserved for members of the royal family, mystery surrounds the identity of the tomb’s owner. Still, archaeologists hope the well-preserved condition of the boat will shed significant light on the burial practice, as well as on the shipbuilding techniques of ancient Egypt.

The practice of burying wooden boats alongside the tombs of Egyptian royals began in the Early Dynastic Period, just after the reunification of upper and lower Egypt around 3100 B.C. Egyptologists still debate the exact significance of the boat burials. Some believe the vessels were intended as barges to carry the deceased ruler down the mighty Nile River to the afterlife. Alternatively, the boats could have been intended to provide transportation through the unknown waters of the underworld. In any case, they clearly played a crucial role in the elaborate rituals surrounding royal funerals in ancient Egypt. Some pharaohs during the Old Kingdom (Third to Sixth Dynasties) even had several boats buried alongside them as part of their pyramid complexes.

In most cases, unfortunately, not much has survived of these wooden funerary boats. Either they were dismantled back in ancient times, and the pits where they were buried were found empty, or they disintegrated, leaving the pits full of brown dust. One notable exception was found back in 1954 in the Great Pyramid built for the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khufu in Giza. That vessel, which had been buried in pieces, was painstakingly reconstructed and put on display in all of its 144-foot-long glory.

The site where the funerary boat was discovered. (Credit: Archives of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, V. Dulíková)

Now, another funerary boat discovered buried in the sand near the Abusir necropolis is giving archaeologists hope that more such vessels may lie waiting to be found. During an excavation in 2015, a team from the Czech Institute of Egyptology uncovered the boat some 12 meters (39 feet) south of a large mastaba built of mud bricks. Despite the distance, they clearly linked the boat to the tomb due to the boat’s orientation and the pottery found inside it. Both date to around 2550 B.C., at the very end of the Third or the beginning of Fourth Dynasty.

Measuring some 62 feet long and made of wooden planks, the boat remains in surprisingly good condition after spending several millennia buried in sand. The wooden pegs holding the planks together can still be seen in their original positions, and even the battens covering the planking seams (made of plant fibers) survive, along with some of the ropes holding the boat together.

The funerary boat, and the tomb itself, does not appear to be linked to a pharaoh or other member of a royal family, as they were not buried close enough to a royal pyramid. Still, the tomb’s impressive size suggests the person buried within was a member of Egypt’s elite, with a significant connection to the reigning pharaoh. Though a stone bowl found in the tomb bears the name of King Huni, of the Third Dynasty, the identity of the tomb’s occupant remains unknown, due to the badly preserved state of the chapel area. (Interestingly, the oldest Egyptian funerary boat known to survive—a 20-foot-long vessel discovered at Abu Rawash cemetery back in 2012 and dating to around 2950 B.C.—also housed a non-royal, a high-ranking official during the First Dynasty.)

As Dr. Miroslav Barta, director of the Abusir expedition, notes in a press release: “[T]his is a highly unusual discovery since boats of such a size and construction were, during this period, reserved solely for top members of the society, who usually belonged to the royal family. This suggests the potential for additional discoveries during the next spring season.” The relatively well-preserved condition of the funerary boat found near Abusir also makes the find a particularly valuable one for Egyptologists, who will be able to see at close range how such boats were constructed. In 2016, the Czech team will join experts from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University in studying the techniques used to build the boat’s hull.

Pada 2:31:00 AM

Nuclear Missile Site to Become Tourist Attraction

Nuclear Missile Site to Become Tourist Attraction

From 1986 to 2005, the underground facilities built near F.E. Warren Air Force Base on the remote prairie of southeast Wyoming served as the command center for the Peacekeeper missile, the most powerful weapon in the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal. Some have credited the Peacekeepers housed there with helping to end the Cold War after decades of escalating U.S.-Soviet tensions. Now, the U.S. Air Force is working to restore one of the missile alert facilities, known as Quebec-01, into a state historic site. In a few years, if all goes as planned, visitors will be able to take an elevator ride 100 feet below ground and get an inside look at what it was like to work at ground zero of America’s Cold War-era defense program.

Quebec-01, located at F.E. Warren Air Force Base on the outskirts of Cheyenne, Wyoming, started out in the mid-1960s as an alert facility for Minuteman I, the pioneering intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed for the U.S. Air Force by Boeing. The mid-‘70s brought the arrival of the updated Minuteman III, with greater accuracy, range and target capability. By that time, the Air Force had already begun to develop the missile that would become the Peacekeeper, designed to replace the Minuteman ICBMs.

Peacekeeper missile, left, and two versions of the Minuteman missile sit at the entrance of Warren Air Force base near Cheyenne, WY. (Credit: Michael Smith/Getty Images)

During the course of the Peacekeeper’s development, the U.S. military debated whether to base the new missiles inside the same stationary missile silos as the older ICBMs or whether to house them on mobile railways in order to keep their Soviet counterparts guessing about their location. In the end, they decided to use the same hardened silos that had housed Minuteman missiles, and by the mid-1980s Quebec-01 had become a Peacekeeper site.

Each Peacekeeper was equipped with up to 10 independently targeted warheads. The missiles stood 71 feet high, with a diameter of seven feet, eight inches, and weighed 195,000 pounds. Traveling at a maximum speed of about 15,000 mph, they could reach a distance of some 6,000 miles. With their existence, U.S. signaled to its great rival, the Soviet Union, that the nation was prepared for full-scale nuclear war at any time.

The members of the U.S. Air Force who worked at the missile alert facility undoubtedly held one of the most stressful—but somehow also the most boring—jobs the military had to offer at the time. In their underground bunker, behind a steel-and-concrete door measuring some five feet thick, pairs of missileers (as they were known) worked 24-hour shifts every few days. They were responsible for safeguarding the missiles and for detonating them if necessary. Thankfully, that time never came.

Inside the Peacekeeper Launch Control Center Papa-1. (Credit: United States Air Force)

The missiles themselves were not in Quebec-01, but were housed in missile silos miles away from the facility. The missileers’ duties included drilling for launch, requiring two crewmembers to simultaneously turn launch keys located too far apart for either missileer to turn on his or her own. Though Quebec-01 was lined with concrete and equipped with massive steel blast doors to protect personnel from an accidental detonation, risk was an ever-present part of the job. Each bunker had an escape tunnel that led upward; the tunnel stopped short of the surface, however, and crewmembers were instructed to dig themselves out with shovels from that point.

In 2005, the Peacekeepers were decommissioned as part of the bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-II). Over the next decade, the Air Force disabled all five missile alert facilities at the Wyoming site, removing all remaining warheads and missile components. Officials also filled the missile silos with cement and disabled the facility’s underground alert systems. Now, in order to recreate the Cold-War experience at Quebec-01 for the public, workers are restoring and reinstalling all the facility’s equipment, and trying to make it look as it did when it was fully operational. The only things missing, of course, are the missiles themselves.

The government is also in the process of conducting environmental baseline surveys in order to ensure that the site will be safe for visitors, and particularly that there is no nuclear contamination in the soil. As the missiles were not built at the site, and strong solvents were never used at the facility, clean-up efforts have been focused on removing asbestos, lead-based paint and other contaminants common among older construction projects.

US Peacekeeper (LGM-118A) missile test firing. (Credit: Time Life Pictures/Us Air Force/Getty Images)

The Air Force plans to turn the site over to the Wyoming State Park & Cultural Resources agency next year, and it is expected to open to the public in 2019, with former missileers guiding tours and acting as docents. Quebec-01 will join a number of former missile sites-turned-tourist attractions, including the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site in North Dakota, the Minuteman Missile Historic Site in South Dakota and the Missile Site Park in Colorado. “The Cold War was a huge part of U.S. history, especially for the Baby Boomer generation who lived through it,” Milward Simpson, director of Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources, told Smithsonian.com of Quebec-01’s expected appeal. “Nuclear tourism is something that has an increasing interest in the public, and it’s extremely important that we preserve that history, especially since the Peacekeeper was one of the factors that helped end the Cold War.

Pada 2:30:00 AM

The Sumerians’ Amorite Wall

The Sumerians’ Amorite Wall

Weathered remains of a partially restored ziggurat and the ruins of the city of Ur. (Credit: David Lees/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

The world’s earliest known civilization was also one of the first to build a defensive wall. During the 21st century B.C., the ancient Sumerian rulers Shulgi and Shu-Sin constructed a massive fortified barrier to keep out the Amorites, a group of nomadic tribesmen who had been making incursions into Mesopotamia. This “Amorite Wall” is believed to have stretched for over a hundred miles between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq. It was likely the first extensive rampart not built around a city, but it only succeeded in fending off the Sumerians’ enemies for a few years. Hostile invaders either penetrated the wall or simply walked around it, and by the reign of Shu-Sin’s successor, Ibbi-Sin, Sumer found itself under attack from both the Amorites and the neighboring Elamites. After the destruction of the city of Ur around 2000 B.C., Sumerian culture began to vanish from history.

Pada 2:20:00 AM

The Long Walls of Athens

The Long Walls of Athens

Map of Athens, including the long walls. (Credit: Public Domain)

Athens was one of the most powerful cities in ancient Greece, but it was plagued by one major military weakness: it was situated some four miles from the sea. Around 461 B.C., the Athenians sought to correct this vulnerability by constructing a series of barriers to connect the city center to the vital harbors of Piraeus and Phalerum. When completed, these “Long Walls” created a siege-proof triangle of land that allowed the city to easily resupply itself from the sea, which was itself guarded by the mighty Athenian navy. The fortifications made Athens all but impregnable during the Peloponnesian War with Sparta and its allies, but the city was later forced to surrender after its navy was defeated at sea. The victorious Spartans are then said to have dismantled the hated Long Walls to the sound of celebratory music from flute girls. The barriers were later rebuilt, however, and continued to stand until 86 B.C., when they were destroyed by the Roman general Sulla.

Pada 2:19:00 AM

The Great Wall of Gorgan

The Great Wall of Gorgan

Great wall in Gorgan. (Credit: محک/Wiki Commons)

Also known as the “Red Snake” for its distinctive red-colored bricks, the “Great Wall of Gorgon” was a 121-mile rampart that extended from the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to the Elburz Mountains in what is now Iran. It was once thought to have been the work of Alexander the Great—it was even known as “Alexander’s Barrier”—but more recent research suggests it was built by the Sasanian Persians sometime around the 5th century A.D. When completed, it was one of the longest walls of antiquity and boasted more than 30 forts, a garrison of 30,000 troops and a network of canals that acted as both a water supply system and a defensive moat. Surprisingly little is known about the wall’s history, but most scholars believe the Persians used it to guard against the Hephthalite Huns and other enemies to the north.

Pada 2:19:00 AM

Hadrian’s Wall

Hadrian’s Wall

Photo of modern ruins of Hadrian’s Wall. (DEA/S. VANNINI/Getty Images)

Around 122 A.D., the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a stone barrier to protect Roman Britain from the Picts and the other “barbarian” tribes that inhabited northern England and Scotland. The result was “Hadrian’s Wall,” a 73-mile rampart that stretched from the Solway Firth on the western coast to the mouth of the River Tyne in the east. The wall was roughly 10 feet wide and 15 feet tall and was dotted with forts manned by frontier troops. Gates spaced one mile apart allowed the garrison to control movement in the region—the wall may have even been used to levy taxes—and defensive towers and ditches protected against raids from the north. Though briefly decommissioned in the 140s in favor of a more northerly barrier called the Antonine Wall, Hadrian’s Wall was later reoccupied and remained an imposing symbol of Roman power until their withdrawal from Britain in the early 5th century. 1,600 years of deterioration and looting for building materials have since reduced it to a fraction of its original size, but many portions still exist today and are among England’s most visited historical sites.

Pada 2:18:00 AM

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China

A general view shows part of the Great Wall. (Credit: ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Rather than a single unbroken barrier, China’s legendary Great Wall is actually a collection of stone, wood and earthen barricades that meander for thousands of miles from the Gobi Desert to the North Korean border. Construction on the fortifications began in the 3rd century B.C. under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but the most famous sections were erected between the 14th and 17th centuries A.D. to defend the Ming Dynasty against the steppe nomads to the north. These portions stand up to 25 feet tall and were built using bricks and a mortar made from slaked lime and sticky rice. Gates were positioned along key strongpoints and trade routes, and watchtowers were used to send smoke and fire signals in the event of an attack. The completed wall was once the largest manmade object in the world, but despite its grandeur, it often proved ineffective as a defensive barrier. The Mongol leader Altan Khan famously bypassed the wall and raided Beijing in 1550, and the Manchus later broke through in 1644 and brought about the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Pada 2:18:00 AM