French archaeologist Dr Alain Zivie shows some of the findings from the Tomb of the vizier Aper-el, which dates from the latter part of the 18th Dynasty, around 1353-1335 BC and are now stored at the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara. Dr Zivie explains that the difficulty in accessing the tomb meant that it was never raided in modern times, and only in ancient times when the thieves were not seeking antiquities.
Dr Zivie also explains what archaeology means to him, and stresses that he's "looking for history, for facts, for better understanding of this civilization, of this culture and this period".
The Tomb of Aper-el is a huge, rock-cut 18th Dynasty tomb on four levels of the royal vizier Apre-el (or Aperia), located in the royal necropolis of Saqqara in Egypt. Aper-el is believed to have advised two pharaohs - Amerhotep III and Akhenaten - in his lifetime. Hi died during the Amarna period - the controversial kingdom under one god instituted by Akhenaten - and his tomb represents one of the only examples of an Amarna ruin at Saqqara.
The tomb was discovered in 1987 by French archaeologist Dr Alaine Zivie. He found the entrance in an area known as Abwab el-Qotat (“Doors of the Cats”), where hundreds of mummified cats had been found interred. Inside the tomb were the mummies not only of Aper-el, but his wife, Tauret and son, Huy too, all still preserved in their beautiful coffins. Zivie found numerous other impressive small items too, many of which are now in display at the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara. The artwork in the tomb is a fine example of the art of the Amarna period.
The legendary 18th dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun died tragically young – at around just 19 years of age. The period of Egyptian history in which he lived was brutal indeed, and life expectancy was woefully low. Yet he passed well before his time nonetheless, especially for a royal living in the relative lap of luxury.
Speculating as to the cause of his early demise has been a popular pursuit among scholars ever since Tut’s tomb – in which lay his perfectly undisturbed mummified corpse – was famously discovered by Howard Carter in the 1920s. Theories range from him becoming infected with a fatal pandemic said to be sweeping the region at the time, to a rare bone disorder to complications from a simple accident which primitive medical practices at the time were unable to deal with.
The Pyramidion is the capstone put on the summit of a small mud-brick pyramid. Such pyramids were erected over chambers of rocl-cut tombs in Upper Egypt. In Lower Egypt, where some tombs were built in the form of small temples, a pyramid with its capstone was placed above the roof of the main chapel or on the ground alongside. This type of small pyramid belongs to the New Kingdom and later periods. It is different from the well known large pyramids reserved for the burials of kings and queens in the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
