I finally changed my mind about ancient Egyptian tomb robbing after a talk at the Met

I always figured tomb raiders just took everything valuable and that was it. But a curator at the Met Museum last weekend explained how some robbers actually resealed tombs after looting them, and that's why certain chambers stayed intact for ages. Has anyone else run into evidence of this kind of careful pillaging in other sites?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan5452d ago

So these guys were basically polite criminals, returning the place to how they found it after taking the gold? That's almost respectable, like a bank robber who remakes the bed. I read about similar stuff in a National Geographic article about a broken pyramid in Mexico where they found a sealed jar of honey that was still edible, but the tomb nearby was clearly emptied centuries before. Makes you wonder if ancient looters had a code of conduct or just really liked a challenge.

baker.ben2d ago

Returning the place to how they found it" feels more like covering tracks than a code of honor.