I don't think we're certain that the sarcophagus ever contained a mummy.
Of course some exploitation is beyond permissible. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries there was an artist's pigment called Mummy Brown. It was sold for many decades, a rich, transparent brown unlike other brown pigments. It was made from actual mummies scrounged from unknown sources in Egypt. These were not the remains of royalty, rather these mummies were those of common people. Apparently until the early 20th century there was an ample supply of these remains to satisfy demand. Eventually the availability of mummies diminished and by 1915 the pigment quality became erratic and subsequently disappeared from the marketplace.
Comparatively, respectful exploration of ancient tombs is a whole different program than things our species has demonstrated a willingness to do.
[1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/were-the-bones-of-soldiers...
Everyone is heartily sick of this, no explanation power and thus not helping anyone to overcome anything. The Rosamunde Pilcher, of looking at history.
Most of these tombs have already, since ancient times, been looted and desecrated and most things inside including any human remains have long since been removed. It looks like this tomb is also in this category as all that remains of note are on the walls which cannot be easily removed.
I seem to recall a story that even at the time when they were building pyramids in ancient Egypt that they had a problem with looters of the older tombs.
Additionally: The use of the word "Sealed" in the title is not present in the text and I propose is click bait for attention and an emotional reaction. Looks like that strategy still works.
In the Valley of the Kings, I think they had a problem with the builders looting the same tombs they had just built.
Cursory searching found overseer Paneb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paneb ... if I pieced it together right, he was in trouble for looting a tomb within 20 years of its construction.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Timur
EDIT: typos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Cemetery_and_Cr...
I have very vivid memories as a child of walking through Brookwood Cemetary in south east England seeing a big machine crunching up headstones. Vast swathes of the place was flattened. The cheat code here seems to be "topple testing" for health and safety reasons.
It's the UKs largest cemetery and in a shocking state:
‘Course space requirements are also a factor, if you have a family plot in a depopulated village in the countryside odds are good plots will be cheap and renewable forever.
For my part I've only ever seen even my dads grave once, and feel no need to go back there, though I understand why some might feel it matters to have the grave of someone they knew in person because of the emotional attachment.
I think it is a very common practice. Everyone will be forgotten eventually, no matter the fame.
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyr%C5%A1%C5%AFv_sad_(Brno-Vev...
Yagan’s murder by colonial settlers was, even by the day’s standards, an act of hideous violence. That his head was subsequently removed and dispatched to England as a biological curio, a specimen to aid the discredited voodoo science of phrenology – whereby racial intelligence and personality could purportedly be determined by cranial distinctions – added indignity to death.
Easy to write off as the bizzarro actions of those gosh darned old timey folks ...
A naked life size bronze of Aboriginal warrior Yagan, resting a spear across the back of his shoulders. It is quite evident that the head of Yagan is not the original one (rather oversized, has a far too long a neck and is an altogether different shade). I must say that because the statue’s head has been stolen twice (and given the way Yagan died), the sculpture now takes on a strange and ironic overtone.
but yeah, they just keep stealing that head.
I just got back from a triple to Naples where there's a church that had a secret skull collecting cult under it for decades, it's a tourist attraction now. Yes it is still full of peoples skulls.
So yes, it seems like there is a statute of limitations on our obedience to the dead.
Unless you believe as they did, I don't see a problem with opening up a tomb.
The fate of all things is to become dust.
I don't approve of putting bodies on display or storing skull collections in cabinets in universities, but before we ship them off to be buried again it's good to take DNA samples!
There is some educational value, of course, but it’s more just a relic of our “analyze everything, respect nothing” era.
If the past is another country, we certainly aren’t respecting the natives’ wishes.
Using a tomb to expand our knowledge of the ancient world seems like small potatoes in comparison. Overton window is already far off
Besides, only ashes remain of Napoleon and even the bodies that are there are entombed. They are necropoles, not shows. There isn’t much to see there.
St. Paul's in London has tombs in it, and it charges a fee! It's a super normal practice.
How else could you manage the amount of people who would go?
By the way, I don’t think you deserve downvotes for expressing your opinion.
She was of Greek origin, a descendant from Alexander’s general Ptolemy.
Ptolemy I Soter (305–282 BC)
[... 20 people ...]
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (51–30 BC)
Edit to append a topical story:
Birmingham native and civil rights activist Angela Davis, known as a part of the Black Power movement of the early 1970s, was shocked to learn that she is descended from a passenger on the Mayflower, one of the first settlers in America.
https://www.al.com/life/2023/02/civil-rights-activist-angela...
But Egyptians themselves weren't black either. There was one black dynasty from Kush, but "indigenous" Egyptians themselves weren't black.
You can see several of these here.
I suspect it was prior to recorded history.
https://i.postimg.cc/Pdw7sw-0W/image.png
The "possible standing figure" on the right seems plausible. Be interested in seeing what the actual painstaking restoration eventually reveals.
There are two standing figures to the right (correctly identified by ChatGPT), and at least two kneeling figures with upraised arms stacked toward the left (ChatGPT puts the bottom figure's arms inside the "legs" of its bunny-shaped green circle).
Scroll down in the article to see a close-up on the kneeling figures.
There is no text visible in the photos from the article, although if you go on to read the text of the article you learn that text was found elsewhere in the tomb, such that we can confidently identify the owner's name (among other things).
