The Silver Pharaoh Mystery

Introduction
For a period of over 5000 years tomb raiders have plundered the graves of Egypts
pharaohs !ith one e"ception # the tomb of the Silver Pharaoh enshrined in a cas$et of
solid silver% &etails of its discovery are still largely un$no!n because the discovery of the
tomb came as the !orld !as plunged into ''II% (o! the life and times of the Pharaoh
Psusennes I are being pieced together% )e lived in Tanis at a time !hen civil !ar divided
Egypt into north and south% *sing source material uncovered by the original e"cavation
the city and tomb have recently been re#e"amined by archaeologists and a medic has
sub+ected the Pharaohs remains to another analysis%
The Story
In February ,-.0 /dolf )itler had advanced into Europe% Egypt !as remote from the
battlefield but at Tanis in the &elta a French team !hich had been digging for more than a
decade !or$ found that they !ere under increasing pressure from the approaching !ar%
The e"cavations !ere led by French archaeologist Pierre Montet%
Montet dug at Tanis hoping to find lin$ !ith )oly 0and% Through the ,-10s the team
uncovered the remains of vast temple dedicated to /mun !hich !as protected by
massive mudbric$ !all in !hich Montet believed that tombs might be discovered% /t a
spot close to mud bric$ !all at south !est corner an enormous tomb comple" !as
uncovered revealing a !hole series of burial chambers% 2ut !orst fears confirmed during
the initial investigations of the first of the clearly royal tombs because there !as a hole in
the roof !hich must have meant that tomb robbers had entered it% The tomb datd to
c%35024 and !as the 55nd &ynasty 6Third Intermediate period7 royal tomb of 8sor$on
II%
*ndeterred Montet ordered !or$men to e"tend the e"cavation to around ,0 yards a!ay%
/ second tomb comple" alongside the one that had been ransac$ed !as discovered% 8n
the ,5th February the team found !hat appeared to be an intact tomb% and it is surprising
that the tomb robbers missed this !hen it !as so close to its neighbours% Montet entered
the antechamber and found the cartouches of the pharaoh Psusennes I a virtually
un$no!n pharaoh !ho lived from c%,0.9#,00,24% The name Psusennes is the )elleni:ed
version% In ancient Egyptian his names !ere Paseba$haenniut /a$heperra Setepenamun
meaning ;The Star /ppearing in the 4ity <reat are the Manifestations of =e chosen of
/mun;% )e !as the son of the founder of the 5,st &ynasty the Pharaoh Smendes 6Third
Intermediate Period7% Psusennes I ruled north of Egypt !hilst most of the real !ealth and
po!er !as concentrated in the south% So !ho !ere the northern $ings> Montet had the
chance to fill out $no!ledge about this elusive period in the north%
The dooor!ay of the tomb !as still tightly sealed !ith a bloc$ of granite !hen Montet
found it and this too$ si" days to shatter% 'hen the tomb !as entered it !as ?filled !ith
marvels !orthy of ,00, $nights@ A including ob+ects of great beauty and value% /t first
there !as no sign of a mummy or cas$et because these !ere sealed !ithin a huge stone
sarcophagus !hich almost fulled the chamber and !as both sculpted and covered in
hieroglyphs% The lid alone !eighed half a ton% /nother stone sarcophagus !ithin it !as
richly carved and it too$ another si" days to remove them to locate the inner cas$et%
The cas$et !as left sealed until the visit on the 53th February of Bing Farou$ of Egypt so
that Farou$ could !itness it being opened% 'hat confronted them !hen they revealed the
final coffin !as a solid silver cas$et !hich is completely uniCue% 'ithin the remar$able
silver cas$et Psusennes !ore a death mas$ of solid gold% /lso discovered in the tomb
!ere huge Cuantities of lapis la:uli !hich !as imported from /fghanistan and !as very
valuable% The value of the ob+ects isnt +ust in the precious metals but in the Cuality of the
craftsmanship% The !ealth of the tomb the silver coffin and the golden mas$
demonstrated that this is no small#time !ar lord or regional ruler but !as an indiviudal of
po!er !ho commanded considerable !ealth%
Montet had only days to e"amine the contents of the tomb because )itlers invasion of
France !as only a short time a!ay% )e ordered the tomb to be shut !ent bac$ to France
and !ouldnt return for five years% The ob+ects !ere !ere moved to 4airo Museum for
safe#$eeping%
&ouglas &erry 6!ho had analysed the remains of the body of Tutan$hamun7 !as as$ed to
loo$ at the remains of the $ing in ,-.0% The remains !ere very badly damaged because of
the !etness of the &elta !hich decayed the body% The analysis conducted by &erry seems
to have been some!hat cursory because he missed a lot of evidence although he pointed
out that the Pharaoh died an old man% For 90 years his bones !ere stored almost
forgotten but the remains !ere recently revie!ed by &r Fa!:i <aballah to determine the
Pharaohs state of health and his lifestyle% /ll of the soft tissue had gone but the bones
indicated that the Pharaoh !as 5ft 5 around ,1 stone and !as po!erfully built% )e died a
very old man possibly approaching 30 !hen the average lifespan at the time !as usually
around 15 years of age% These results !ere confirmed by e"amination of his teeth%
Psusennes reigned for .D years meaning that he ruled long enough to be able to ma$e a
difference one of the longest ruling Pharaohs% 8ne of the Pharaohs vertebrae had been
fractured in a !ay that usually indicates hard !or$ !ith the upper limbs%
/ forensic artist Melissa &ring !ho has !or$ed !ith the F2I !as set to !or$ on the
s$ull and produced a really evocative image of ho! he may have loo$ed% Eou can see it
on the (ational <eographic !ebsite%
The silver cas$et !as e"amined by Fon Privett archaeologist and silversmith% Silver is
harder and less malleable than gold reCuiring it to be heated every no! and again to
ma$e it continually !or$able% The craftsmanship !as much more demanding than that
reCuired for !or$ing gold% In all 500lbs of pure silver !ere used !ith some of it formed
into sheets so thin and delicate that they !ere damaged during the removal of the cas$et%
8ther parts of it !ere cast% The silver cas$et is one of great treasures of Egyptian
Museum%
The turmoil that e"isted in the time of Psusennes !as seeded under =amesses II% over 500
years previously% 2efore =amesses II the only t!o cities of importance !ere Thebes
60u"or in *pper Egypt7 and Memphis 6near 4airo in 0o!er Egypt7% =amesses II created
a ne! capital in the (ile &elta Piramesse 6near Gantir7 in a frontier :one% This may have
thro!n Egypt off balance after his reign% Trouble began in Thebes !here the only figure
!ith enough authority to challenge a pharaoh !as the high priest of Barna$ a political
and business leader% Bings !ould !in the favour of the priests responsible for care in the
afterlife by giving them !ealth and putting them into the position of such po!er that
they !ere eventually able to challenge the pharaohs for po!er% / )igh Priest sei:ed the
south and the pharaoh !as banished to the &elta !ith a chec$point at Memphis% The
)igh Priest Pened+em 6c%,090bc7 had four sons one of !hom became pharaoh in the
north and had the title )igh Priest in the north and made political marriages and alliances%
8ne of the ob+ects from the tomb of Psusennes indicates that he too !as a )igh Priest as
!ell as a pharaoh and he appears to have benefited from Pened+emHs legacy%
The e"act location of Piramesse !as a mystery to archaeologists at the time that Montet
!as !or$ing in Tanis% It had been home to one Cuarter of a million people but no#one
could find it% Montet began to thin$ that Tanis !as Piramesse and !ent on record to say
so mainly because he found stones !ith the names of =amesses II at the site% 2ut Montet
had made a mista$e% )is theory sounded good because Tanis !as a riverside city !hich
records sho! Piramesse !as too% 2ut the (ile had many &elta branches and they moved
over time due to flooding and siltation and MontetHs findings !ere eventually Cuestioned%
Instead ,5 miles a!ay ne! evidence pointed to a long lost branch of the (ile !here
=amesside pottery !as found and <round Penetrating =adar !as used !hich found the
foundations of a huge city comple" complete !ith temple military installations stables
and vast numbers of other structures% *nder the crops of today !as an ancient city% It is
thought that the (ile became so badly silted up that it s!itched direction leaving
Piramesse literally high and dry and completely unsustainable% So Psusennes had the
great temples dismantled and moved ,5$m a!ay to Tanis an ama:ing feat
demonstrating his organi:ation and authority%
Pierre Montet died in ,-DD
4omments about the sho!
The story is put into conte"t !ith a brief history of Egypt from the beginning giving $ey
dates !hich is useful% the sho! highlights problems filling gaps in timeline particularly
during the so#called Third Intermediate periods 6!hich the sho! simply calls the
;intermediate period;7 and the problems that those gaps cause for archaeologists in terms
of the evidence needed to construct histories% The sho! also gives a brief description of
relationship bet!een Egypt and holy land%
/lthough actors are used to dramati:e some of the narrative this is confined to the
archaeological investigations and there arenHt any of those infuriating reconstructions of
the Pharaonic period that so many sho!s insist on ma$ing%
The account of the discovery of the tomb is e"cellent and the details about the pharaoh
!hich resulted from the ne! e"amination of the body are on considerable interest but
there is remar$ably little information about the Pharaoh in the conte"t of Tanis and the
role that Tanis played or ho! Psusennes actually accumulated his !ealth% There is also
nothing about !here the silver and gold !ere sourced% It !ould have been interesting to
$no! !hat if any the relationship 6political social economic7 !as !ith *pper Egypt
during his reign% I found the absence of ho! 0o!er Egypt actually functioned during his
reign to be the most frustrating part of the sho!%
There are very fe! images of the finds from the tomb or the tomb itself !hich is a real
shame% Even the footage of the silver cas$et !erenHt brilliant% This is a real do!nside of
the sho!%
8n the other hand there are lots of of great images and footage of Tanis and some lovely
<P= images of the Piramesse city beneath the fields of crops%
There are as usual far too many comparisons !ith Indiana FonesII
Egyptology e"perts Cuoted
Peter 0acovara
Selima I$ram
Fa!:i <aballah
Fon Privett
Melissa &ring