Call Brendan Fraser! Like a million mummies unearthed in Egypt - Polidicks

[quote]American archaeologists are excavating a cemetery in Egypt that could contain over a million mummified bodies, according to the Live Science website. The remains of more than 1,700 people have already been unearthed in the cemetery, which is known as Fag el-Gamous ("Way of the Water Buffalo") and is located about 96 kilometers (60 miles) south of Cairo in the Faiyum region. Judging by the density of the burials and the large size of the cemetery, the archaeologists believe that it could contain over a million bodies. The mummies appear to be those of ordinary people, rather than dignitaries, who were buried around 1,500 years ago, when Egypt was controlled by the Roman and Byzantine empires. The people buried in the cemetery had few goods buried with them and were laid in the ground without coffins.[/quote] [url]http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.632624[/url]

[quote]Fag el-Gamous[/quote] Why can't we have cemetery names like this anymore?

so does this mean that regular people were capable of an afterlife? if it means that these were regular preserved mummies.

[QUOTE=Foxton;46760965]so does this mean that regular people were capable of an afterlife? if it means that these were regular preserved mummies.[/QUOTE] maybe only upperclass. But this is greatly important in re-questioning that.

[QUOTE=stupid07er;46760773]Why can't we have cemetery names like this anymore?[/QUOTE] "It's offensive"

[QUOTE=Foxton;46760965]so does this mean that regular people were capable of an afterlife? if it means that these were regular preserved mummies.[/QUOTE] These are 500+ AD mummies, not 1000-100 BC mummies. Probably mummified them for tradition since Egypt by 500 AD was mostly Christian.

this is very cool because 1,000,000 people aren't buried together all at once. it will show an archaeological record that conveys cultural, civic, and infrastructural changes over a large period of time. also, archaeology has the unique ability to illuminate the lives of ordinary people where the written historical record is often written for and by the literate upper classes, so it's a big discovery. probably best to be a bit skeptical though until the 1M claim is verified, it's just a hypothesis

[QUOTE=Kommodore;46761038][b]this is very cool because 1,000,000 people aren't buried together all at once.[/b] it will show an archaeological record that conveys cultural, civic, and infrastructural changes over a large period of time. also, archaeology has the unique ability to illuminate the lives of ordinary people where the written historical record is often written for and by the literate upper classes, so it's a big discovery. probably best to be a bit skeptical though until the 1M claim is verified, it's just a hypothesis[/QUOTE] turns out they were, the egyptians were just hardcore like that

If the Egyptian religion is correct, then tampering with these tombs and removing the mummies is fucking tons of people over.

[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;46761060]turns out they were, the egyptians were just hardcore like that[/QUOTE] Nah, this is around 500 AD, balls deep in Christian/Roman rule over Egypt, and I'd be surprised if a necropolis of 1 million people was achieved over a few short decades or years, both logistically, without appearing in the written record, and given that it's a statistically significant portion of the global population at that time.

[QUOTE=Kommodore;46761194]Nah, this is around 500 AD, balls deep in Roman Christianity rule over Egypt, and I'd be surprised if a necropolis of 1 million people was achieved over a few short decades or years, both logistically, without appearing in the written record, and given that it's a statistically significant portion of the global population at that time.[/QUOTE] no dude they totally buried a million people at the same time 500 AD this is when king puttputt was in charge right, they totally had enough people back then

i always forget about king puttputt

Assuming a million bodies by taking the 1,700 you've found and multiplying it by the square footage of the cemetery is a little optimistic. Also, isn't there kind of a moral issue here? What can you learn from digging up, say, a hundred thousand people that you couldn't learn from the 1,700 you already exhumed?

[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;46761225]no dude they totally buried a million people at the same time 500 AD this is when king puttputt was in charge right, they totally had enough people back then[/QUOTE] [img]http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140713083829/gfaqssb/images/9/9b/Putt-Putt.png[/img] ??? I guess he did travel though time after all.

[QUOTE=Explosions;46761078]If the Egyptian religion is correct, then tampering with these tombs and removing the mummies is fucking tons of people over.[/QUOTE] A million curses upon the world. Bring it on.

It's good we found a mass mummy excavation again. Weren't there so many damn ancient mummies back in the 19th century that they unearthed that they used to burn them instead of coal to fuel trains?

-snip-

[QUOTE=BenJammin';46762683]It's good we found a mass mummy excavation again. Weren't there so many damn ancient mummies back in the 19th century that they unearthed that they used to burn them instead of coal to fuel trains?[/QUOTE] [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_brown"]That and they used to be used for painting and in paint as well. I think there are quite a few famous paintings which apparently have used ground up mummy as part of the paint. [/URL]

[QUOTE=snookypookums;46762884][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_brown"]That and they used to be used for painting and in paint as well. I think there are quite a few famous paintings which apparently have used ground up mummy as part of the paint. [/URL][/QUOTE] they also used ground up mummies for 'medicinal' purposes, FWIW.

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;46762891]they also used ground up mummies for 'medicinal' purposes, FWIW.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gruesome-history-of-eating-corpses-as-medicine-82360284/?no-ist"]You're absolutely right![/URL] This makes for fascinating reading. We really are human Hoovers when it comes to curing what ails us.

[quote]The bodies, which were naturally mummified by the hot and dry desert conditions,[/quote] Just so people know, This doesn't mean they where give the full bells and whistles mummification process. Mummification is just the desiccation of the skin which discourages decomposition, something which happens when you get buried in hot and very dry sand. I think all this suggests is that there was a common burial ground for the normal population.

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;46761285] Also, isn't there kind of a moral issue here? What can you learn from digging up, say, a hundred thousand people that you couldn't learn from the 1,700 you already exhumed?[/QUOTE] Nope. They're dead, their family is dead, hell their entire family trees may very well be extinct. There's literally nobody to offend so there's no moral issue with using this discovery to shed light on the life of the average joe in Circa 500AD Egypt.

[QUOTE=Explosions;46761078]If the Egyptian religion is correct, then tampering with these tombs and removing the mummies is fucking tons of people over.[/QUOTE] They had their fun, it was one and a half thousand years. And they didn't really believe in old Egyptian gods around that time anyway, so... they brought it upon themselves, abandoning their poor gods like that.

There's probably plenty of room left in the desert to build a national meganecropolis of sorts. It's not like the desert is a place where millions of people live, after all there's barely any water out there.

[QUOTE=LSK;46762253][img]http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140713083829/gfaqssb/images/9/9b/Putt-Putt.png[/img] ??? I guess he did travel though time after all.[/QUOTE] Hes been to the moon, so I'm not taking any chances

Another thing they'd do with mummies in the 1800s is use them to power steam trains and whatnot, because of the natron that's used in embalming they burn exceptionally well, so peeps would use them for fuel and to make mummy bonfires with.