Chapter 836 Gorgeous
"Open the coffin?" Bifang looked surprised. He looked around the damp tomb that had not been tidied up yet. "Isn't this too hasty?"
When it comes to archaeology, Bifang is a complete layman.
The reason why he seemed to know everything about the ancient Egyptian tombs and was proficient was entirely because he had learned history well in this area.
With the ability of the memory palace, Bifang can memorize more than 95% of the content of a book on Egyptian history after reading it.
Before every adventure, Bifang would do a lot of research.
The local flora and fauna, climate, and environment are the most basic, and above that there are local customs, which are designed to facilitate dealings with residents.
Further up are myths and history.
These contents can greatly enrich Bifang's live broadcast content. For example, when fishing, you can tell a local history, myth, or short story related to the river or fish.
However, even though he was a layman, Bifang instinctively felt that it was not appropriate to open the coffin right after entering. As far as he knew, the excavation of some large ancient tombs could even take months.
"I mean, don't you need to prepare anything?"
A middle-aged man with gray hair jumped into the pit, stepped on the accumulated water, checked the integrity of the coffin with gloves, and shook his head.
"There is no need to do that. You think opening a coffin is too mysterious. If the coffin itself is not a work of art but an ordinary coffin, many people would just pry it open with a crowbar as long as the internal decorations are not damaged. In many cases, the reason why they don't open the coffin is that the application process is too cumbersome."
"I have opened hundreds of coffins like this."
[Hundreds?]
[Fuck, this is a big guy]
[A professional coffin opener, right?]
"This is Mostafa Waziri, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. He is in charge of all the archaeological work. Basically, if he says it can be opened, it can be opened."
Ambassador Liao on the side whispered to Bifang about the other party's identity. Although they had met briefly before, Ambassador Liao was worried that Bifang had not remembered it, so he repeated it again.
"Last November he opened dozens of ancient coffins in public, with many reporters present."
Bifang was surprised: "Dozens?"
Is this wholesale?
"Yes." Ambassador Liao nodded. "There was a press conference held in a huge white tent opposite the Djoser Pyramid. I went to see it and it was really shocking."
On the main stage, dozens of sealed coffins and mummies were lined up in a grand display under the media's flash lights.
The most incredible thing is that at the press conference, there were cultural relics experts who "opened the coffin to perform an autopsy". They opened the coffin containing the mummy and used an X-ray machine to scan the condition of the mummy wrapped in layers of wrapping in public.
This action made Ambassador Liao drop his jaw in shock.
Rows of pharaohs' coffins were lined up like cabbages in a vegetable market, and then opened one by one.
"From September to November, for a total of more than three months, the archaeological team excavated more than 100 sealed mummies, sarcophagi, masks and more than 40 statues of Ptah-Sek, the main god of the Saqqara ancient ."
Waziri in the pit apparently heard the "whispering" of the two and said with a smile.
Bifang and Ambassador Liao had no intention of hiding anything from each other.
In this enclosed space dozens of meters underground, even breathing can be heard clearly.
[What the hell, more than a hundred bodies were dug up in three months? ]
[I didn't care and I opened it right away. Are feelings worthless? 】
[I am in China. Is there any gold in the ancient tombs in Egypt? Waiting online. It's urgent. 】
[What? You still want to go and dig it yourself? ]
The upper tomb chamber was already somewhat damp, and the tombs further down were even more so.
The air became much thicker, and the high humidity mixed with the high temperature made it almost impossible to breathe.
There were water stains everywhere, and the square pit where the wooden coffin was placed was filled with water nearly one centimeter thick.
"Clean up the surroundings."
Mostafa directed everyone, and the entire cleaning process was orderly. It was obviously a complete excavation team that had cooperated many times.
Objects submerged in the water were quickly rescued and moved outdoors one by one.
When the drone flew out of the cave, it could clearly see a huge white tent being quickly built, and the helicopter that had originally brought people over had also flown away.
Apparently there were more coming.
Several expensive gold utensils were covered with thick dust in the underground tomb, looking unattractive, but after being moved outdoors and wiped, they sparkled in the sunlight.
"Because of their age, most tombs are dark and damp like this, and the groundwater level may rise. In many cases, the ground is submerged in silt, and archaeologists can only reach their hands into the silt to search for buried antiquities to ensure that nothing is missed."
Mostafa Waziri handed over a stone sculpture, and it was obvious that his words were not only addressed to the people present, but also to the audience in front of the drone.
The reason why they decided to open the coffin immediately was that, on the one hand, opening a coffin was indeed not uncommon and did not require as much caution as people thought. However, opening it right after entering did carry certain risks and might cause damage to the objects inside.
But after the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities learned about the whole incident, it immediately decided to open the coffin directly on the spot, and in front of Bifang.
This is certainly not to present a world-friendly image or to please Bifang.
The fundamental reason is that even the dumbest person would realize that this is a great opportunity for publicity.
Why did they open dozens of pharaohs' coffins at the same time in November last year, allowing so many media reporters to observe and take pictures on the spot?
What if someone accidentally broke a golden mask or a bronze sculpture? Wouldn’t that be a huge loss?
With so many people and a noisy scene, this kind of thing is absolutely possible.
After all, all these activities are aimed at attracting more tourists from around the world.
Money, it’s all about money!
Tourism is one of the pillar industries of Egypt's economy.
According to a report by the International Travel and Tourism Association, the tourism industry accounts for 13%-15% of Egypt's GDP and directly or indirectly creates 12% of the country's jobs.
This amount is extremely huge. Such a brilliant tourism industry is naturally inseparable from the Sahara Desert and, most importantly, the pyramids in the desert.
Every successful publicity brings huge benefits and achievements.
Bifang was not an illegal person during his trip across the Sahara, but he reported every country he might pass through along the way. This is why after he was treated as a spy in Algeria, the local police released Bifang after a little confirmation.
It has been recorded above.
It's just that the local people's work efficiency is really slow.
In addition, Bifang once used an identity voucher on the Wilderness Traveler skill and obtained two certificates from the system. One was a hunter's certificate, which was universally used and could hunt most non-endangered species.
The second is a license. When Bifang goes to any corner of the world or handles related matters, he can quickly obtain approval from the local government, which opens the door to convenience.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism had already been informed of Bifang's glorious history of boosting the tourism economy with each of his previous adventures and had been keeping an eye on him, waiting for him to come to Egypt and then advertise.
What no one expected was that Bifang not only came, but also caused such a big event.
Still a great thing!
open!
Open hard!
Isn't it just a coffin?
The pharaoh has been dead for thousands of years. Shouldn't he be happy that he can still make contributions to future generations?
Therefore, Qiao also wanted to pry open the Pharaoh's coffin, but the only condition was that he had to do it in front of Bifang and the live camera.
Such was the notification Waziri received.
Otherwise, with his expertise, he would not be able to open the coffin right after he came down. He would have to wait at least a few days to figure out a clue first.
With everyone's busy work, a space was finally cleared in the deepest tomb.
"After everything on the outside is cleaned up, we will come to the most important step, which is opening the coffin."
Waziri's gloves were covered in mud and dirty water, so he took them off and put on a new pair of white gloves.
White gloves can clearly show whether something is dirty or not, thus preventing damage to the integrity of the antiques.
"The environment here is quite humid, and even the entire coffin is soaked in water. Sometimes the body inside has also rotted after many years."
"If it's just a skeleton, it's fine. Some have become a pool of deteriorated sewage due to environmental reasons, and many burial objects or clothes have already merged with the sewage. We can only carefully clean them out bit by bit. You definitely don't want to see that process. It's quite disgusting."
Waziri carefully tied ropes around the coffin, and then everyone worked together to lift it out of the pit and carefully moved it to a cleared space on the side.
Seeing that the coffin was finally going to be worked on, the audience in the live broadcast room were all extremely excited.
From the discovery of the ruins to now, this is undoubtedly the most anticipated.
Originally, the audience didn't think they could open the coffin and see the real person directly. After all, this was a cultural relic and Bifang couldn't act rashly. But they never expected that it would happen in the end.
【The big one is coming, the big one is coming! 】
[This is fucking exciting]
[Who else, who else! The best in the live broadcast industry, exploring ruins and opening the pharaoh's coffin! ]
[It may not be the coffin of a pharaoh, maybe just an ordinary nobleman]
[I don't want to listen, I don't want to listen, the person inside must be Pharaoh]
【As long as you are happy. 】
After Waziri and several other scholars lifted the coffin out of the ground, they took out a series of tools and began to tinker with it.
"The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of burial customs, which they believed were necessary to ensure their eternal life after death."
"The burial rituals and procedures involved mummification, chanting of incantations to liberate the soul, and burying with the soul special grave goods that they believed they would need for their afterlife."
"At the same time, the burial rituals used by the ancient Egyptians also continued to evolve and develop with the change of dynasties, economic and political developments, and other aspects. Some old customs were eliminated and some new customs were adopted."
"Although there have been appropriate 'reforms' to burial rituals in different periods, several important links in the burial process are still used, and there have been no arbitrary additions or deletions."
"While the details of these steps may have changed over time, the basic components of an Egyptian funeral, including mummification, funeral rites and burial goods, have remained largely unchanged."
"But we can intuitively judge its approximate period from these forms."
Bifang did not dare to go up and help.
Even when they were carrying the coffin just now, they didn't do any work that required physical effort.
For these professional things, the best approach is to do nothing.
Waziri next to him was explaining to the audience while checking the coffin.
For a scholar like him, live streaming is no different from giving lectures, both of which are about teaching people something.
"For example, in the predynastic period, the ancient Egyptians dug shallow pits in the desert to bury their dead relatives."
"At that time, due to limited conditions, coffins were not used. The dead were usually buried directly in a bent-side-up position, but this would accelerate the decay of the body."
"By the end of the Predynastic period, tombs with mud-brick walls and wooden roofs appeared, the prototype of the mastaba appeared, and people would use straw mats or baskets made of willow branches to protect the body. Sometimes wooden coffins or ceramic coffins were used, which were simple and easy to obtain."
"It was not until the ancient times that coffins gradually became widely used. Although archaeologists have not yet discovered the tombs of nobles or high-ranking officials at that time, we can see from some coffins of ordinary people unearthed today that most of the tombs were made of simple wooden boxes, and even reed baskets appeared."
"By the Old Kingdom, burials with the body stretched out in an upright position and in longer coffins became more common, with two styles: one with an arched lid and the other with a flat lid."
"Nobles or high officials sometimes used a stone coffin to cover the wooden coffin, similar to what we would call 'double insurance' today."
"Coffins are often carved or painted with false doors to allow the deceased's spirit to enter and exit smoothly."
"Flat-topped wooden coffins often had eyes carved or painted on the head of the deceased, so that the deceased could better see the rising and setting of the sun."
"By this time, the burial system of ancient Egypt was roughly formed. At the same time, the materials used in the coffins in the tombs became more diverse, and the types of words and patterns drawn by the ancient Egyptians on the coffins also gradually became more colorful."
"And during this period, when the pyramids appeared, we can see that this is a typical flat-topped wooden coffin."
The flashlight shone onto the flat coffin, and everyone could clearly see the striking eye pattern and the image of the sun rising and setting on it.
[But what are those human-shaped coffins that we often see? ]
[To be honest, I don’t understand these periods (dog head)]
[Playing the lute to a cow is a case of yes. 】
"The human-shaped coffin appeared during the Middle Kingdom, which is a long time ago. At that time, the coffins of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were a bit like nesting dolls. Not only was it a double insurance, but it was divided into three layers inside and outside, and the style of each layer had to be built in the image of the pharaoh, and the pharaoh's name had to be engraved on it."
Waziri couldn't see the barrage on the drone, so this answer was Bifang's answer.
Soon, the coffin became loose.
At this time, everyone held their breath, not daring to breathe, their pupils trembling slightly, and they did not dare to leave the ancient coffin for a moment.
Waziri even looked up at the drone, and after confirming that the camera was pointed at here, he exerted force with his legs and slowly pushed open the coffin lid.
A shriveled and decayed corpse with its arms crossed on its chest appeared in front of everyone, like Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld.
Not sure if it was an illusion, but Bifang suddenly felt a slight disturbance in the stuffy air of the tomb.
It was like a breeze that awakened a body that had been sleeping for thousands of years and brushed away the mysterious veil of history.
It allows people to stand on the shoulders of time and have a dialogue with history.
