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This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m SarahLong.
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And I’m Bob Doughty. On ourprogram this week, we tell about recent discoveries made byarcheologists working in Egypt. The discoveries are said to provideimportant clues about people who lived thousands of years ago.
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Archeologists in Egypt uncovered the remains of twenty ancientpeople late last year. Some of the dead were family members who hadbeen buried together. The archeologists say the twenty people livedthousands of years ago during what is called the Greco-Roman period.That is when Greece, and later Rome, ruled ancient Egypt.
The human remains have lasted solong because they were specially treated before burial. Expertscovered them with a substance called embalming resin. The treatedremains are called mummies.
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The area where the twenty mummies were found is called the Valleyof the Golden Mummies. Untold numbers of human remains are buried inthe Valley. Its discoverers believe the area holds some of the mostimportant archeological finds since King Tutankhamun.
Last month, research scientists used a device called a C.T.scanner to examine the body of King Tut. The researchers want tolearn what killed this young ruler of ancient Egypt.
Scientists are using technology in the Valley of the GoldenMummies and other areas. They use radar to find burial areas andx-ray equipment to study bones. Experts also are performingexperiments on the mummies and the objects found with them.
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The Valley of the Golden Mummies is near the Bahariya Oasis,about three hundred eighty kilometers southwest of Cairo, theEgyptian capital. The remains of Romans have been found in theValley. The Romans lived there between two thousand and two thousandthree hundred years ago. The oasis provided them with water in thedesert.
The most famous archeologist in Egypt believes that Greeks mayhave developed the burial place at an even earlier time. Zahi Hawassis head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. He directsarcheological projects in places like the famous Pyramids at Giza.Mister Hawass has been directing archeology in the Valley and thenearby town of Bawiti for the past six years.
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The Valley of the Golden Mummies was discovered accidentally innineteen ninety-six. For this priceless find, science can thank ananimal. One day, a donkey was carrying an Egyptian security guardacross the desert. Then the donkey missed a step. Its foot slid intothe top of a burial place covered with rock and sand.
Researchers soon learned that many people are buried at theBahariya Oasis. The Valley covers an area of at least ten squarekilometers. At least ten thousand mummies are buried there. Someestimates place that number much higher. Mister Hawass says it isthe largest ancient cemetery ever found.
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At first, officials kept secret the finding of the Valley of theGolden Mummies. The Egyptian government wanted to prevent ancientobjects from being stolen. Three years after the discovery, MisterHawas led a team that found more than one hundred mummies. They wereremoved from four structures for the dead, or tombs.
Mister Hawass clearly remembers opening the first tomb. Goldshone brightly as the sunlight broke the darkness of thousands ofyears. Under the light, he saw the people of Bahariya. They lay infamily tombs. Husbands and wives were buried together. Often theirchildren were with them. Their remains were discovered insidepainted containers, called coffins. Some had golden head coverings.Money, jewelry, and drink containers were buried with them.
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On a later dig, Mister Hawass and his team found more tombs. Theyalso found wooden structures called stelae (STE-LE). Some wereshaped like a religious center, or temple. These stelae had picturesof gods like Osiris and Anubis. They ruled the underworld and thedead. Such pictures were often seen in tombs.
The archeologists unearthed three other tombs in two thousandone. In one place, they saw a uraeus ((you RAY’ us)) on the goldenhead-cover of a mummy. Mister Hawass identifies a uraeus as aspitting cobra. He says this creature represents a ruling family. Hesuggests that this probably shows the dead person’s desire to becomea ruler after death.
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Mister Hawass led the research team that uncovered the mummies inthe Valley of the Golden Mummies last year. The Discovery Channeland Britain’s Channel Five television broadcast programs of the workdirectly from the Valley.
Television cameras showed twelve mummies lying together. One weekearlier, researchers had found the remains in three separate burialareas.
Pieces of money were found near the mummies. Experts say ancientEgyptians believed they needed the money to enter the After World.The archeologists also uncovered small wooden statues of the dead.They also found jewelry, containers for cooking, and objects calledamulets. Amulets were worn to protect against evil.
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Not all the remains in the Valley of the Golden Mummies are underthe ground. Many individual bones lie on top of the sand.
Margaret Cox is a bone expert. Miz Cox says some of the bonesalready have provided interesting information. She talked about onehead bone, or skull. She said damage to the nose shows that thisperson probably suffered from the disease leprosy. Teeth connectedto the skull were in bad condition. Other physical evidence showsthat the person probably died violently.
The Valley of the Golden Mummies has many such secrets about thepeople who lived in Egypt under Roman rule. Mister Hawass says theburial area may have been used during the rule of Alexander theGreat of Macedonia. That began about two thousand five hundred yearsago.
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Mister Hawass and his team also dug in areas close to the Valley.In the town of Bawiti, they found a surprise under modern buildings.They found the burial place of a family that governed part ofwestern Egypt in ancient times. The remains were discovered in acontainer, or sarcophagus, made of limestone. The stone had to becarried to Bahariya from one-hundred kilometers away. Mister Hawasssaid this showed that the family was rich.
The sarcophagus holds the remains of Badi-Herkhib. Theresearchers say he was the older brother of a governor of Bahariya.The governor served during the period when the twenty-sixth familyof rulers led ancient Egypt. Artwork is found on both sides of thissarcophagus.
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The artwork shows the sign of Maat. Mister Hawass said she wasthe goddess of justice and truth. Ancient writing also is found theouter cover of the sarcophagus. Mister Hawass said the writing meansthat the dead man had performed spiritual ceremonies. Perhaps he didso at the temple of Bes. Mister Hawass identifies Bes as theEgyptian god of pleasure and fun.
Governing Bahariya seems to have been a family activity.Badi-Herkhib was the grandson of a former governor namedDjed-Khunsu. Djed-Khunsu lived more than two thousand years ago. Heserved in the administration of Ahmose Second. Ahmose ruled Egypt inthe twenty-sixth period of rulers. Djed-Khunsu’s own burial placewas found two years ago in another area of Bahariya.
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Mister Hawas says the sarcophagus and its writings show theriches of the Bahariya Oasis during that period. Many of the peoplebecame wealthy in the wine trade. This was especially true becausepeople wanted to take wine with them to the After Life.
The wealth from wine products made the people of Bahariya richenough to buy gold from mines in Nubia. He compared the Valley tothe wine-growing area of Napa Valley, in the American state ofCalifornia.
Zahi Hawass says he has uncovered three hundred-fifty mummiesduring his working life. But he expresses special pleasure in hiswork in the Valley of the Golden Mummies and Bawiti. He says he hasnot just learned about the lives of ancient people. Mister Hawasssays he has found the people who lived those lives.
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This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was ourproducer. I’m Bob Doughty.
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And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THENEWS program in V.O.A. Special English.