EGYPTOLOGY: The Treasures of Tanis

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Did you know about the incredible treasures found in an absolutely untouched tomb that can be compared with the finding of Tutankhamun? You probably heard about his famous gold mask, but did you ever hear about the gold mask of Pharao Psusennes I.? Or the amazing silver sarcophagus of Pharao Shoshenq II.? In the following article, you will discover breathtaking artefacts, that might be even greater than anything else - from a historical but also archaeological perspective.

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History of Research

_{Map of the location: Tanis}
In the end of the 18^th century (1798/99), when Napoleon started his military activities in Egypt he sent also scientific expeditions to this country. In the book Description de l'Egypte the site of Tanis was named first in 1809. Tanis is located in the delta and is the place of a huge temple area with a lot of tombs inside! This was a quite unique discovery since tombs normally are placed away from the sacred places.

1860 Auguste Mariette started the first excavation series in the Great Temple and found the famous 400-years-stela.

1883–84 Sir William Flinders Petrie continued excavations in that area and found a lot of inscriptions, obelisks and sphinxes. But in the time of 1939–46, when Pierre Montet was researching in Tanis, he made a spectacular discovery which was similar in importance as the tomb of Tutankhamun: he found the Royal Necropolis of Kings and Queens of the late period of 21./22. dynasty (see the following paragraph) with innumerable treasures in gold and silver. Unfortunately, this was also the time when Europe was shaken by World War II. So, this amazing news found only a subordinate place in the small columns of the newspapers. Montet and his research was mentioned a few times but was forgotten soon.

The Royal Necropolis in Detail

Tanis was the capital of Lower Egypt (delta) in the 21^st and 22^nd dynasty. The temple area is about 40x60 meters with a necropolis of around 20x12 meters. The following picture shows a 3D model of the sacred buildings with a temenos wall (a wall that surrounds a holy place) and the tombs that were found inside:

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_{Image 1a: 3D model of the Tanis temple area}

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_{Image 1b: Occupation of the tombs}

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The tombs belong to rulers of the 21^st and 22^nd dynasty which date back to 1070–840 B.C. and are part of the so-called 3^rd Intermediate Period. Some of the tombs seem to be re-occupied by later rulers. This was a common procedure, and until now it is not clear why they did this. There are many possible reasons, for example, they needed the space. Especially rock tombs were difficult to built and in times of trouble or the sudden death of a king, a suitable place was required to bury the ruler very fast and to make sure the tomb was safe from robbers. Other reasons may have been, to be buried together with a precedessor, to participate of his fame and honour. This can be assumed when rulers were found together at the same place. In some cases, the original burial was removed and the name of the first owner of a sarcophagus has been erased and/or replaced by a new name. This is often the case when the so-called „damnatio memoriae“ happened: the intentional destruction of a ruler’s name to prevent future generations to be reminded of him. It didn’t happen very often, but we know this for sure after the reign of Akhenaten and also of the female Pharao Hatshepsut. But in Tanis, we found a third kind of „mass graves“, of which some of their owners could be genetically proven as members of the same royal family. But also high military officials, like General Wendjebaujet were buried there. Scholars assume that this special place for the burials was chosen because of safety reasons in times of political tensions between the Theban priesthood and the so-called Tanites, an ethnical group that gained a strong political influence on the reign structures of that time. Other scholars claim the raising ground water level of the delta to be the cause. In any way, the surrounding temple walls had a protective function which worked obviously very effective. Most of the recovered artifacts can be seen today at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The Treasures

As I told you, in the beginning, the Egyptologists made amazing discoveries. Especially in the tombs of Psusennes I., which was completely untouched, Pierre Montet found a huge number of invaluable objects. An important discovery is that many objects were made of silver. Other than gold, silver was a very rare metal in Ancient Egypt, and therefore even more precious. The silver sarcophagus are typical for the 21^st and 22^nd dynasty. They are not made of pure silver but of so-called Electron, which is a natural alloy of gold and silver with a small part of copper. It is derived from the greek noun ήλεκτρον and actually means „amber“ or „white gold“, probably because of its colour. Electron was likely to be imported by tradesmen from Mesopotamia and Anatolia (today in Turkey). Beside the silver objects, some interesting objects were found like the toe- and finger-covers shown below. After embalming the dead body of Pharao Psusennes I., they added golden caps with rings and precious gemstones to the hands and feet.

_{Image 3: The mummy of Psusennes I. with the gold mask was first placed on a bed of the dig house directly after the discovery.}

_{Image 4/5: Part of the silver sarcophagus (left) and the gold mask of Psusennes I. (right).}

_{Image 6: Caps for the toes of the mummy of Pharao Psusennes I., made of gold.}

_{Image 7: Silver sarcophagus of Pharao Shoshenq II. with silver „mini coffins“ for his intestines.}

_{Image 8: Inner coffin of Pharao Shoshenq II. with a black-golden falcon head.}

_{Image 9: Gold mask and silver plate of General Wendjebaujet.}

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_{Sources:
Bommas, Martin, Amun von Theben als Ziel von Gottesnähe: Überlegungen zur Königsnekropole von Tanis, SAK 33, 2005, 65—74.
Brier, Bob, Treasures of Tanis, Archaeology, 58/3, 2005, 18—25.
Douglas, Derry, The missing tombs of Tanis, in: Manley, Bill (Hrsg.), The seventy great mysteries of Ancient Egypt, London 2003, 95—96.
Montet, Pierre, La Nécropole royale de Tanis. I, Paris 1947.
Montet, Pierre, La Nécropole royale de Tanis. II, Paris 1951.
Montet, Pierre, La Nécropole royale de Tanis. III, Paris 1960.
Petrie, W.M. Flinders, Tanis, II, London 1888.
Reeves, Nicholas, Royal Tombs At Tanis. Treasures of the Third Intermediate Period, in: Ancient Egypt. The Great discoveries. A year-by-year chronicle, London 2000, 189–193.}

_{Images:
Map and image in the editorial picture: Stierlin, Henri, Ziegler, Christiane, Tanis: vergessene Schätze der Pharaonen, München 1987.
Image 1a: Source
Images 1b, 2–9: Stierlin, Henri, Ziegler, Christiane, Tanis: vergessene Schätze der Pharaonen, München 1987.}

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