Comments by "Vary Olla" (@varyolla435) on "The Fifth Dynasty of Egypt - The Cult of Ra, the Sun God" video.

  1. Pyramids were a creation of the Old Kingdom with some later being built during the Middle Kingdom. The Old Kingdom being the first never anticipated the eventual collapse of those dynasties - thus they built above ground tombs which later became magnets for robbers. The later Middle Kingdom seeing the "lost glory" of the Old Kingdom Pharaohs tried to duplicate that. The Valley of the Kings however came during the later New Kingdom. Following the collapse of the Middle Kingdom northern Egypt was conquered by outsiders for a century = the Hyksos. Finally the Egyptians drove the Hyksos out leading to the New Kingdom. So New Kingdom Pharaohs seeing Old and Middle Kingdom tombs long looted + how their capital at Memphis in the north was captured by the Hyksos = moved the capital to Thebes further south and adopted hidden underground tombs as a measure of protection. The New Kingdom period lasted around 500 years and contained a lot of Pharaohs.
    4
  2. While time was always a factor = so was cost and resources available at the time of the Pharaoh in question. The larger pyramids were built in times of plenty. You also need to consider what the video speaks to = the deification of the Pharaohs into Ra. You see in the 4th Dynasty the Pharaohs altering their names to include "Ra/Re" into them - much as later Pharaohs included "Amun" into theirs. So it appears the 5th Dynasty Pharaohs expended more effort promoting their cult status than they did for their tombs. As an aside. It appears Khufu died before his pyramid complex was completed - but his son Djedefre who followed him finished it for him. Khufu was believed to have reigned ~32 years per the "cattle counts" while fragments of his mortuary temple depict him performing the Sed festival. The Sed was performed to celebrate the 30th year of rule. One must also consider the age of ascension as well. It is possible that Khufu ascended to the throne at a younger age - meaning he might therefore look forward to a longer rule. The same could be said for Ramses II who ruled longer than any other. Pharaohs who rose to the throne at an older age might be more pressed to finish their tomb given this fact.
    2
  3.  @StoneInMySandal  Yup. As mummies were typically wrapped up with valuables they were usually destroyed in the process of robbing them. Also the religious beliefs of the Egyptians were predicated upon the spirit (Ka) having a "vessel" to inhabit - hence why they mummified their bodies in the first place. So in their mind no body = and the spirit of the dead person was essentially "erased" from the afterlife. Later on they further believed that the Ka could inhabit - if not a body - then a statue or similar object bearing the name of the deceased. For them the "object" became the person. That is why so many statues saw their noses hacked off as the Egyptians believed doing so prevented the spirit of the person from inhabiting the object as they "could not breathe". So mummies - especially later mummies - were often coated with resins which hardened with time. So the only way to unwrap the mummy was often to tear it apart. Tut's mummy was damaged when Carter literally had to rip off his gold burial mask as his inner coffin was full of hardened resins which had simply been poured over his mummy. Sometimes they simply set them on fire to collect any melted gold and valuables afterwards. There was recently a doco on excavations in the West Valley of the Valley of the Kings. Looking for hidden tombs Egyptologists uncovered a large scorched area = and nearby was part of a mummy's leg. So a tomb had been robbed and the mummy torn apart and burned looking for valuables. Facts. 🤔
    1