Contributor Hawass on the Go

Zahi Hawass is a contributing authors to A Contemporary Book of the Dead.

His life as an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist and the current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities takes to him to many exciting places.

Here is an update he sent to John.

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Zahi Hawass—going down!

The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities [SCA] for Egypt, Dr. Hawass goes down past the false door of Shendwa to check out the burial chamber at a depth of 20 meters [65 feet] —seven stories!

The burial chamber itself is about 30 square meters [1000 square feet] And Zahi—not bad form—for a man of 63, although he doesn’t look overly thrilled or comfortable with the task!


What Zahi Passed:


This is the false door from the newly discovered 4200 year-old tomb of Shendwa, showing his name, titles and a standard prayer.

Shendwa is shown above the door lintel. False doors—solid stone but looking like a doorway—were believed to be the way the deceased’s ‘spirit’ went between the worlds of the living and the dead.

he inscription to the right has a cartouche—a pill-shaped ring—with three hieroglyphs inside.

Those three symbols read Nefer-ka-ra—the throne name of pharaoh Pepi II, so archaeologists deduce from this that Shendwa lived during Pepi’s reign—over 4200 years ago!


More than food for thought

Royal scribe Khonsu, son of Shendwa, sits by an offering table above the false door in his tomb in Saqqara.

While priests and relatives were to bring him food, should they not, the food on the offering table would magically ‘come to life’ to sustain him.