10 Egyptian Artifacts That BLEW Archeologists Minds
Ancient Egypt has been home to some of the world’s most incredible discoveries.
These discoveries not only show us how advanced Egypt was for its time,
but also how influential it was in developing modern-day technology, and in this video,
we’ll be going through some of the most impressive discoveries ever made in Egypt! Let’s begin!
10. Nefertiti Bust
Sometimes, beauty can transcend time. In 1912, a team of German archeologists came across a
number of statues depicting the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti, the wife of Egypt’s infamous
monotheistic king, Akhenaten. One of the statues that stood out, in particular,
was a bust of Queen Nefertiti’s face, and it was fully painted,
the archeologists described the bust as something that seemed alive. This bust
is considered the most realistic work of art to have ever come from ancient Egypt,
and was immediately taken to Germany to be put in a museum. Even the general public was
mesmerized by the sheer beauty of the ancient queen and the realism that the bust portrayed.
It’s important to note that Queen Nefertiti’s mummy has still not been discovered to this day.
9. The Seated Scribe
Most ancient Egyptian art tends to follow a sort of style and formula, but this statue follows
almost none of that. The Seated Scribe is a statue made of limestone, quartz, and copper
that was found by French archeologists in 1850 in Egypt. It features a slightly overweight man,
presumably a sort of monk, seated with his legs crossed wearing a kilt and holding a scroll.
People were particularly impressed by the eyes of this man, they were more detailed than any
other feature, and it almost seemed as if he were looking at us. This was quite a unique
piece of art, and some similar statues would later be found in the same area.
8. William the Faience Hippopotamus
If you’ve ever been to the Met museum in New York City, you’ve probably come across a picture of
this figurine. William the Faience Hippopotamus is the unofficial mascot of the Met museum,
and is considered the single greatest example of ancient Egyptian faience art.
If the Seated Scribe was unlike most Egyptian art, this was almost a caricature of what ancient
Egyptian art was expected to be. It was unique when it came to its striking turquoise color.
It was found in Egypt in the early 20th century, and unlike most Egyptian artifacts in the west,
it actually wasn’t looted, but was legally bought by the Met museum in 1917.
7. Rosetta Stone
While most cultures have always known about ancient Egypt, for the better part of the past
millennia, there was always one thing that prevented us from learning more about the
ancient civilization, and that was the ancient Egyptian language. Unlike Latin, or Greek,
humans had no knowledge of this language, and since it wasn’t related to any other language that
was still spoken, no one even had an idea of what the ancient Egyptian text could actually mean.
That was until Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. During his campaign, some of his soldiers came
across a stone with some inscriptions on it, the inscription was a decree meant to be sent
to Greece, containing text in Egyptian and a translation of that text in Greek.
Since Greek was already understood by linguists, they were easily able to figure out what means
what, and for the first time, decipher ancient Egyptian text. Since then, we’ve been able to
decipher and translate the entire language, and it’s all thanks to just one slab of rock.
6. Sacred Animals Cache
The archeological site of Saqqara has been home to a lot of recent discoveries in Egypt.
In 2019, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities announced a brand new discovery on the site,
a cache of over 100 animals. These were incredibly detailed works of art depicting some of the most
sacred animals in ancient Egyptian culture. There were over 70 statues simply depicting
different types of cats, which is how we presumed ancient Egyptians looked at cute cat pictures.
There were also over 20 mummies of cats discovered in the cache. Other animals found in the cache,
whether in mummy form or statue form, included mongoose, a calf, crocodiles,
and a cobra. There were also half human-half animal statues found within the cache.
5. City of Aten
This is one discovery that’s actually very recent, and has been described as the most significant
Egyptian discovery in the past 100 years! In 2020, archeologists who were studying a necropolis near
the city of Luxor started to find signs of a previous settlement in the area, the team was
led by Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s top archeologist. When they dug further, they kept finding more and more
buildings, until they eventually realized this isn’t just some small settlement, but an entire
ancient city! The city was known as Aten, and is thought to be at least 3000 years old.
On the site, the archeologists found streets, walkways, houses, and industrial buildings as
well! The city is thought to be an industrially and economically important city for when it was
built, and the people who lived there are thought to belong to the working class of ancient Egypt.
4. Deir el-Medina
For the longest time, humans just sort of assumed that the pyramids were built by
slaves who were often depicted as being chained up together and forced to carry
huge blocks to build the pyramids, or any other major structure in Egypt one by
one. The reality couldn’t be more different than this usual depiction. In the 20th century,
archeologists managed to uncover a massive workman’s village in a place called Deir
el-Medina. This village was where many laborers who worked at the Valley of the Kings resided.
Many other villages similar to this one have also been found. This village was shown to have all the
amenities an ancient Egyptian might need, proper housing, restaurants, bakeries, a trade market,
a temple, and what’s even more surprising is that the workers were shown to be extremely healthy and
well-fed, with no signs of abuse on their bodies, quite different from their usual depictions.
3. King Tut’s Tomb
Most of the tombs that were discovered in ancient Egypt by archeologists were
already opened or heavily looted, leaving just a shell of what they once were.
One tomb, in particular, was never discovered, and that was the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
King Tut’s tomb was finally discovered in 1922, after a waterboy accidentally tripped
on some stairs that happened to lead to the chamber where the tomb was located.
Archeologists were shocked to find a tomb that was completely untouched,
although they found that it had been breached at least twice in the past, no one ever took
anything out of the tomb. It was one of the most lavishly decorated rooms they had ever seen, and
everything found there immediately became iconic. From King Tut’s mask to King Tut’s mummy itself.
2. Oxyrhynchus Papyri
As we’ve mentioned, the Rosetta Stone was the key to finally deciphering the
ancient Egyptian language. But after it was deciphered, we didn’t have nearly
enough ancient Egyptian literature around to actually understand the civilization.
That’s where the Oxyrhynchus Papyri comes into play. Most ancient Egyptian texts were written on
papyri, and around the late 19th century and early 20th century, archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and
Arthur Hunt managed to uncover over 500,000 pieces of papyri in the ruins of Oxyrhynchus. Some of the
text on these sheets were rather interesting. They were over 1800 years old and contained ancient
Christian gospels that had been lost to time, some recipes, ingredients for a magical potion,
and even a contract for a fixed wrestling match. I guess pro wrestling is older than any of us
1. Khufu Ship
Believe it or not, travel by ship is still the most common form of travel in the world,
with global ship traffic being far higher than trains, planes, or personal cars. Ships have been
used for literally thousands of years, but have you ever wondered where it all began? What was
the first boat that was truly worthy of being called a ship? That would be the Khufu ship.
The Khufu ship is named after King Khufu, an Egyptian king that was famous for a structure
you might have heard of, the great pyramid. As it turns out, the pyramid wasn’t his only
great achievement. The Khufu ship is the oldest, largest, and best-preserved ship
ever found from the ancient world. There may have been ships that predate this one, but none of them
actually survived long enough for archeologists to find them. This ship is almost 150 feet in length
and is made entirely out of wood. It was found disassembled into 1200 pieces by archeologists
in Giza in 1954, and all 1200 pieces have been carefully studied and put back together
and today, the ship looks exactly how it did when it was originally made 4500 years ago!
That’s a wrap for this video. If you enjoyed it, make sure to give it a
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