The Radioactive Guardian of the Egyptian Afterlife

The pyramids were old for most of Egyptian history. Of the three great kingdoms that this old and powerful civilization spawned, it was the Old Kingdom who were known as the pyramid builders.

Such a labor-intensive investment in the afterlife was something which could be justified only in the initial enthusiasm of Egypt’s new religion. Although many of the gods of Egypt predate the first dynasties of Egyptian history, it was this first coming together of a united kingdom which led to its greatest and most enduring  monuments.

The great pyramids of Giza date from only the third dynasty, from an empire which boasts thirty one. Saqqara, that other great graveyard of Egyptian royalty, is even older. And even in these early Bronze Age times pyramids were only for the greatest and wealthiest in society, almost exclusively pharaohs.

The later phases of Egyptian history had their pyramids, to be sure, but these were different. One things of the pyramids of Meroe, taller and slimmer affairs with grand entryways: these are minor tombs by comparison, reflecting in miniature the architectural glory of their distant past.

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The truth is these necropolis sites are generally filled with other tombs, a graveyard surrounding the pharaoh’s grander resting place. The most common style of these tombs are called “mastaba” and are low, rectangular buildings with an interior which leads to a shaft. Often the body, if there is one, is far underground.

“If there is one”? Well, some of the oldest of these mastaba seem to have been not for a human occupant, but for something else. According to a new theory, these may have been built to guard the pharaoh in death, not to house his entourage from life.

They may have been filled with uranium.

The Deadly Curse

This theory, according to a new paper published by the Journal of Archaeological Science, suggests that we have been misunderstanding the entire concept of the necropolis layout in the oldest sites. The belief is that not all of the mastaba are intended to house honored dead.

Instead, it is suggested that some may have been designed to hold a radioactive substance. This invisible killer would have flooded the area around the pharaoh’s tomb with a deadly radiation, protecting the dead king in his “house of eternity”.

This would also account for the long-held belief about a “curse” on the tombs of the pharaohs. This idea comes to us through a (slightly garbled) later Islamic understanding of the dangers of the tomb, but even at this point it was clear where the danger lay: it was the haram el-mastabat, the forbidden mastaba, which were the danger.

This danger itself was explicitly recorded on some tombs as a warning: “they that break this tomb shall meet death by a disease that no doctor can diagnose.” Other inscriptions offer further clues, showing processions to entomb something apparently in jars in mastaba which surround the pharaohs pyramid. 

These entombments occur while the pharaoh is still alive and are not related to his own funeral. These processions are not for people, and the mastaba to house them are not tombs but bunkers.

It is theorized that this practice only occurred in the earlier phases of the Egyptian civilization, from around 3,000 BC to 2,500 BC. Only at this time do we find the mastaba arranged in this particular way to flank and guard the pyramid, only at this time do we find the specific warnings about illahat, evil spirits.

Only at this time do we find a very specific design of mastaba itself, looking for all the world like a bunker with this central shaft, leading deep underground and designed to hold… something, down there.  And only at sites from this time do we find mysterious sources of radiation, even today.

To be sure, this is not the case for the vast majority of such mastaba, although it is unknown how many of them have been tested for radioactivity. The paper itself focusses on two locations, the two oldest necropolis sites from the history of united Egypt: Giza and Saqqara.

Here, anomalous sources of radiation have been found in auxiliary chambers associated with burials from the earliest dynasties. Two sites are known, and comparisons with similar chambers elsewhere suggest these were filled with pots, stacked in storage and containing an unknown substance.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead offers what may be a further insight into the contents of these chambers. Osiris, the reborn god at the heart of the Egyptian pantheon, rises from the island of fire, his body filled with invisible magical energies.

This energy comes from “saffron cakes” and “milk” and the paper makes the link to (uranium) yellow cake, enriched to a higher concentration which resembles a “milky” substance. It goes on to identify the later “rays” of inscriptions from such pharaohs as the 18th dynasty Akhenaten with an understanding of these ancient energies, suggesting the Egyptians knew of the invisible rays and particles produced by radioactive substances.

This may be a step too far for some, but the systematic, mass-produced mastaba which can be found surrounding the tombs of pharaohs are certainly persuasive of something more than a graveyard for royal flunkies. Could these be the source of the spirits protecting the per D’jet, an eternal guard for the “house of millions of years”?

There is one more factor to consider. A survey of modern-day field Egyptologists revealed that an abnormally high number of them suffered from haematopoietic cancers. This higher rate has also been observed in the modern Egyptian population. The main cause of such cancers is radiation poisoning.

The bones of the ancient population of Egypt suggest similar poisonings occurred in the past. This damage found to the bone structure has heretofore been dismissed as due to a poor diet, or even evidence of famine. But the Egyptians themselves were clear as to the causes of this: ancient Egyptian texts speak explicitly of “poisonings.”

 The curse of the pharaohs is an enduring myth. What if there really is a curse, an invisible killer who guards the forbidden halls of the pharaoh’s final resting place, his House of Eternity?

Top Image: It is theorized that the mastaba tombs which surround the earliest Egyptian pyramids, including those at Giza, may be designed to contain deadly radioactive uranium. Source: MagisterDawn / CC BY 3.0.