We Sure Are Digging Up a Lot of Ancient Dead People These Days

I don't know if it means anything, End of Days-wise, but we sure are digging up a lot of ancient dead people these days.

In Greece.

In Norway.

In Egypt.

In Spain.

The latter two are the most fascinating. From Smithsonian:

Saqqara, located around 20 miles south of Cairo, is one of Egypt’s richest archaeological sites. Home to the 4,700-year-old Step Pyramid, Egypt’s oldest surviving pyramid that’s about 200 years older than the more-famous Pyramids at Giza, the site was used as a burial ground for more than 3,000 years. Like the previous 59 coffins, the newly announced finds mostly date from fairly late in ancient Egypt’s history, from the Late Period (664-332 B.C.) and the Ptolemaic period when Greeks ruled as Pharaohs (305-30 B.C.).

During this period, Saqqara was far more than a cemetery, says Price. It was a pilgrimage site, he says, like an ancient Mecca or Lourdes, that attracted people not just from Egypt but from all over the eastern Mediterranean. Buildings such as the Step Pyramid were already thousands of years old at this time; people believed they were burial places for gods, and wanted to be buried close by. “Saqqara would have been the place to be seen dead in,” says Price. “It had this numinous, divine energy that would help you to get into the afterlife.”

Sounds like a plan. Save me a spot.

Just your friendly neighborhood necropolis.

And in Spain, internment seems to have been a bit less, ah, formal. From CNN:

Some 44 skeletons were uncovered during smaller excavations in the years following the initial dig, Pina Pardos said, and this year, more than 400 bodies have been found after local authorities ordered an extensive excavation of the area. "It's rare to do an excavation and to find 400 tombs. It's amazing," she said. All of the skeletons had been buried according to Islamic customs, positioned to the right and facing southeast toward Mecca, Pina Pardos added...

"We can see that the Muslim culture and Islamic presence in this area is more important than we thought," Gimenez said. "We can see there was a big Muslim population here in Tauste from the beginning of the presence of Muslims in Spain," she added. "It is very important -- the 400 Muslim tombs shows the people lived here for centuries," she said.

Knowledge marches on. However, there are a lot of horror movies that I wish now not to have seen.

Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.