SnokenKeekaGuard

The unbroken seal on King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1923. That piece of rope and clay remained entirely untouched for 3,245 years before this photo was taken.

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/64158602

Feb 21 at 2:23pmWeb
Show threadPNW_DougFeb 21

This is one of my favorite pictures. The sense of time from it is palpable.

I love what it says about something as mundane as rope, that humans perfected it thousands of years ago and its form has remained essentially unchanged for millennia.

Show threadCruxifuxFeb 21

Yeah that was the thing that got me too. That rope looks immaculate. Like factory made even. It made me question if the picture was AI, which immediately annoys me whenever I have to even consider that possibility now.

Seriously cool though.

Show threadDultasFeb 21
For me it just speaks to how well those tombs were sealed. I have hemp and jute rope that don’t look that good after a few months use. Granted this was probably unused before installed and not worked as much, but still 3000+ years is a long time for natural fibers.
Show threadChicoSuaveFeb 21
The rope is so tight and even it looks mass manufactured.
Show threadBig TFeb 21
How are the door handles attached, they also look manufactured. Crazy what humans could do such a long time ago.
Show threadComradeRat [he/him, they/them]Feb 22
Some fun facts are that we’ve been using fire to make stone easier to work with for over a hundred thousand years, and we’ve been making complex adhesive mixtures for just as long. 77,000 years ago, people were making bedding from leaves that they (probably, we cant ask them) chose for their mosquito repelent qualities. It really is astounding how much stuff ancient humans did
Show threadMacFeb 21
Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the peace of the pharaoh.
Show threadEvilsandwichman [none/use name]Feb 21
I would’ve thought that rope would decay in all that time
Show threadpedzFeb 21

I dug a bit more to find the origin of the photo and found that it’s from a collection taken by Harry Burton. The series about Tutankhamun’s Tomb can be seen here. Some of them have been colourized.

The description says

3 January 1924 | Harry Burton’s photograph records the intact necropolis seal and cord fastening (Carter no. 238a) on the third (of four) great gilded shrines surrounding Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus in the Burial chamber.

Two photos seem to show doors like this.

January 1924 | Howard Carter opening the door of the second burial shrine (Carter no. 237), in Tutankhamun’s Burial chamber.

4th January 1923 | Howard Carter (kneeling), Arthur Callender and an Egyptian workman in the Burial Chamber, looking through the open doors of the four gilded shrines towards the quartzite sarcophagus.

Burton Photographs | Discovering Tutankhamun in colour

Griffith Institute - online resources for Griffith Institute Archive collections

Show threadwonderingwandererFeb 22
They deserved the curse for breaking that seal!
Show threadLedivinFeb 22
Wild to me that people dig around sealed, dusty, sandy tombs without any sort of mask on
Show threadErtainFeb 22
@SnokenKeekaGuard It blows my mind that the rope held up for millenia.
Show threadmelsaskcaFeb 22
Did the rope fall to dust when touched or was it still “binding”?