THE TOP 5 MYTHS ABOUT ANCIENT EGYPT

Ever since a dream cruise down the Nile in 2015, journalist Lindsay Kriz has remained curious about the world’s misconceptions about ancient Egypt versus the realities of their ancient culture.

As the lazy Nile scenery floated by her cabin window, the TV blasted The Mummy Returns, featuring dog-headed demonic fighters. (It’s unlikely that many Egyptologists were consulted in the making of that movie.) Instantly, Lindsay was able to compare the reality and fantasies of ancient Egypt.

In the interests of setting the record straight—and busting a few misconceptions—here are Lindsay Kriz’s Top 5 Myths about ancient Egypt.

Myth No. 1 - ANCIENT EGYPT WAS SO GLAMOROUS”

Whenever the concept of Ancient Egypt comes to our minds, more than likely we conjure up images of the pyramids with a golden capstone, or perhaps Nefertiti in her jewels, sailing along the Nile, a cloud of fragrances surrounding her. While these images aren’t entirely inaccurate, the realities of ancient Egyptian health and hygiene are far more complex— and definitely less glamorous.

The ancient Egyptians are famous for their use of makeup for practical, cosmetic and therapeutic reasons, and in particular their use of kohl: a mixture of minerals that created a dark eye paint. Aside from simply loving the heavy eye-liner look, applying kohl around the eyes is thought to have helped reduce glare from the sun. It was also believed that kohl eyeliner could restore poor eyesight and reduce eye infection.

Because of their importance, cosmetics were often stocked in tombs for the afterlife. In his tomb at Giza (G 5150), the 5th Dynasty Overseer of Works, Seshathetep, listed these essentials:

"Incense, green make-up, black eye-paint, the best of ointment..."

Washing oneself involved a quick dip in the river and some soapy swabu paste , which contained scented ash or clay that was rubbed on the body, and helped the body stay relatively clean. Why relatively clean? One word: sand.

Sandals were a luxury item, so most Egyptians spent their days barefoot. As anyone who visits Egypt knows, sand gets everywhere. One could conclude that the average ancient Egyptian household then, was likely sandy and dusty.

There’s no doubt that royalty or those of higher rank had a better chance of keeping cleaner garbs than those of the lowest class, but a cleaner wardrobe did not mean a life of complete glamour. Ancient Egyptian teeth suffered greatly.

Because sand was, as we’ve said, everywhere, it inevitably made its way into the grain stores, and then into bread. Another unwelcome ingredient was grit—tiny stone fragments that were a by-product of bread makers grinding the grains between two stones to create flour.

Examination of many ancient Egyptian mummies shows that severely ground-down or missing teeth was a big problem; nerves were exposed to all kinds of infections. The female mummy thought to belong to Queen Hatshepsut, the woman who reigned as joint king, appears to have suffered from an infected tooth. It was this abscessed tooth, pulled and placed in a labelled box, that provided the key to the 2007 announcement that Hatshepsut had been found. The tooth, it seems, is a good match for the hole in her jaw. Despite Hatshepsut having metastatic bone cancer and being overweight with diabetes, in the end, it may have been the tooth that killed her.

So, at the risk of forever ruining your mental image of Nefertiti, yes, in her lovely diaphanous finery the queen may have been, but with a diet of grainy, gritty bread, her smile may have been missing a tooth or two!

Myth No. 2 -  "THE PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT BY SLAVES”

This misconception is what might be called today an “alternative fact”. And it has deep roots. The Bible, Torah and Koran all mention Hebrew slaves toiling at the pharaoh’s pleasure. It’s hard to imagine today that the pyramids could be built by people actually wanting to do it.

The idea was seemingly endorsed when, in 1977, newly-elected Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin spoke to the press at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. It was the first official visit of an Israeli delegation to Egypt, and Begin jokingly mentioned that it was the Jews who built the pyramids during their captivity in Egypt. Naturally, the Egyptian people were less than impressed; rightly proud of the part that their far-distant ancestors may have played in such a massive technical challenge.

While the holy books do talk about forced labor, nowhere does it mention pyramids. Anywhere. The Torah describes the building projects as arei miskanos l’paroh (Exodus 1: 11), which translates as either storage cities or treasury cities for the king.

Egyptologists don’t buy the “pyramids built by slaves” theory, but the drive to discover one of the sites mentioned in Exodus may have been a factor in the first dig undertaken in 1883 by the newly-formed Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society). In her book, Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, the Society’s founder, British Egyptologist Amelia Edwards, described the site that the Society selected:

"... a celebrated mound ... conjecturally identified with 'Raamses,' one of the twin 'treasure-cities' built by the forced labor of the Hebrew colonists in the time of the Great Oppression. ... by 'treasure-cities' meaning fortified magazines, such as the Egyptians were wont to erect for the safe custody of grain and military stores."

Egyptologists believe that while there was a small permanent workforce at any pyramid site, much of the hard work was done by a rotating system of national service. For men who had known nothing but their rural fields and families, the dusty, noisy, crowded environment of a pyramid site must have been overwhelming. After three or four months the men return home, with a nice tax exemption for their trouble. Of course, not everyone made it home.

The graves first discovered in 1990 show that the men who died serving their pharaoh were rewarded with burial near the ancient monuments, surrounded by jars once filled with supplies for the afterlife. Was it back-breaking work? Absolutely. But work that was done by free men and ordinary citizens— essentially, paid employees whose devotion to the king (or simply eagerness for gainful employment) sometimes cost them their lives.

Myth No. 3 - “EVERYONE WAS MUMMIFIED”

"After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box." – Italian Proverb.

In modern religions death is the great equaliser—no matter how lofty or lowly your position was in life (the game), no matter which side you were on, we all end up in the same place. In ancient Egypt, however, if you could afford it, you could take your earthly status with you. By that measure, more princes made it to heaven than paupers.

Ask a person today what they know about Egypt, and inevitably they will mention mummies. And while many mummies exist to this day, with an estimated 70 million mummies created in ancient times, most people were buried without an embalmer coming near them.

Mummification was pricey. For your body to be reanimated in the afterlife, it needed to survive in one piece in this one—for a long time. If you were royalty, rich or well-connected, you were fine, but this was far above the means for the majority of the Egyptian population.

The cost of the labor and materials was also way above what the average person could afford, although shoddy, cheaper mummies became more commonplace during Roman Egypt. And if someone of humbler means— simply buried in the ground—was lucky enough, they could become mummified by natural processes, which is how mummification may have been discovered by the ancient Egyptians in the first place.

And if you want to be mummified today, you totally can be—for a whopping $67,000. Even after thousands of years, this ancient practice is still reserved for those who can actually afford it.

Myth No. 4 -  “THE EGYPTIAN WERE OBSESSED WITH DEATH”

Based on what’s been left behind for us to study, it would appear that the ancient Egyptians were morbidly preoccupied with thoughts about death all of their short lives. Most Egyptians died by the time they were 40, so in a way, this is partly true; they knew they had to squeeze a lot into a short time. And if they wanted to enjoy a brilliant forever as a transformed spirt, then they needed to prepare well.

The whole point of mummification was for the newly-deceased to arrive in the afterlife with a well-preserved body, magically enabled so that it would function just as it had in life. The mummy also served as a home to an aspect of the soul which could enjoy “going forth by day” and the delicious offerings left for the deceased by grieving relatives.

No one really wanted to die too soon, but the comforting thing was that the ancient Egyptians did not see death as final, but rather as the end of part one. Life continued at a better, higher, more permanent level.The deceased could enjoy in their next life all the things they did in this one, which is why their tombs were as well-stocked as one could afford.

The ancient Egyptians’ supposedly gloomy outlook largely stems from remains from ancient times. With so much taken away by time, nature, and man, what is generally left for Egyptologists to study are places that were not inhabited by the living—typically tombs or temples.

With so many tomb and temple scenes bursting with vitality and a keenness to continue living and loving, it’s probably more accurate to say that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with life.

Myth No. 4 - “CLEOPATRA KILLED HERSELF WITH A SNAKE”

Cleopatra’s mystique has puzzled historians for centuries, but one thing is for sure: Egypt’s last queen was not just a charismatic leader, she was a brilliant strategist. During her reign, the Roman Empire repeatedly threatened Egypt with conquest. Her “alliances” with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony helped keep Egypt independent for 20 years.

Her brilliance would play a part in how she decided to exit this world. With her beloved Marc Antony dead, and Octavian’s forces capturing Alexandria, Cleopatra famously took her life rather than be paraded through the streets of Rome as a prisoner of war.

The story goes that the heartbroken queen took an asp from a basket and injected its venom into her skin. While this notion can never be completely disproved, one scholar has presented a different theory: Cleopatra killed herself by drinking poison: a deadly but efficient mix of hemlock, wolfsbane and opium.

Christoph Schaefer, a professor of ancient history at Trier University in Germany says that an asp bite would not only be excruciatingly painful, but would take too long—if it killed her at all.

With Caesar’s men literally at her front door, Cleopatra would have wanted to guarantee a quick and relatively easy death; a deadly concoction would’ve provided just that.

The Greek historian Strabo, who lived during Cleopatra’s time, gives us the earliest source for her suicide, and even he wasn’t sure whether it was “by the bite of an asp or... by applying a poisonous ointment.” While an asp death is a more romantic death for the ages, it’s highly possible that her death was delivered by a sip and not a serpent.

It’s very easy to romanticize ancient times—and ancient Egypt in particular, with its large monuments and larger than life rulers. So while this perfect image of Egypt might be hard to shake (and might even be preferable to many), the real Egypt, with all its smells, ailments and un-fun jobs, is just as fascinating!

By Lindsay Kriz & Jeff Burzacott in "Nile Magazine", UK, n. 7, April/May 2017, excerpts pp.15-25. Digitized, adapted and illustrated by Leopoldo Costa.