Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu (16 page)

“Well, Michael was thinking that since my father sent these to me right before he died, that they were significant in some way. Perhaps my father had a secret message hidden on one of them,” Anna said adding, “Strangely enough, some people have tried to steal these papyruses twice already.”

“Really?” David shook his head in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, maybe one of them is a
real
ancient Egyptian papyrus and worth lots of money,” Michael suggested optimistically.

David laughed, “No, no.” His smile disappeared when he saw their faces. “I’m sorry but these papyruses are merely cheap imitations of the real ones.”

There was a knock at the door. A heavyset lady, her hair pulled up into a tight bun, hurriedly opened David’s office door, causing a draft to blow the papyruses off his desk and onto the floor. Apologizing profusely in English, David introduced his secretary, who frowned as she rushed to pick up the scattered papyruses.

The secretary handed the scattered papyruses back to David before reminding him that his teleconference would be in
fünfzehn Minuten
(fifteen minutes). She hurried out, closing the door behind her.

Anna rose from her seat, “Well, David thanks for your help.”

“I wish I could have been more help,” he replied as he shuffled the papyruses back into a neat pile. Suddenly he stopped to stare at the papyrus on top of the stack. “Wait a minute, where did this one come from?” He snatched the questionable papyrus up and flipped it over. The familiar image of Osiris and Isis holding hands was on the other side. He flipped it back over to stare at the other image in shock.

“Look!” he announced, his voice filling with eagerness, “I missed an image on the back side of this one!” Michael and Anna were stunned. Hastily, David checked the backs of each of the other papyruses; however, they were blank.

I can’t believe we never thought to turn them over,
thought Michael, astonished at the how close they had come to missing something.

David picked up his magnifying glass and concentrated on the newly discovered image.

Shocked, he declared, “I believe this is Pharaoh Khufu’s cartouche. I don’t recall ever seeing it before.”

“Pharaoh Khufu?” Anna exclaimed.

“Khufu, or Cheops as ancient Greeks called him, was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty,” David explained. “He reigned for 50 years and built the Great Pyramid.”

David was closely examining the papyrus again, “That’s odd. The drawing appears to be a pencil rubbing from something etched into stone.”

Seeing their confusion, David tried to explain, “Basically, it’s similar to what people do at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in the United States. People place a thin piece of paper over the name of their loved one and then rub a pencil over it.” He glanced up at Michael. “I’m sure you’re familiar with this practice.”

“Oh yes, of course,” Michael recalled. “Actually, I’ve visited there and seen people doing that.”

Satisfied, David continued, “It looks like whoever made this got only part of it.”

“How can you tell?” Anna was squinting.

“We’ll readdress that momentarily,” David said. “The hieroglyphic text is impossible to read and most of the scenes look difficult to interpret.”

Anna sighed in frustration, prompting Michael to put his hand on her shoulder.

“Anyway, we can try and see what we can understand. It is my job after all.” David looked sympathetic, “Patience, my dear Anna, patience.” He got up from his desk and walked over to a cluttered bookshelf. After looking for a few moments, he snatched a book from a lower shelf saying triumphantly, “This should do it!”

He started flipping through its pages. “Here,” he said, pointing at a picture, “Look at this, it closely resembles the picture on this papyrus.” Both Anna and Michael had their eyes glued to the book as David continued, “It represents the royal title, Lord of the Two Lands, meaning the Pharaoh of both Upper and Lower Egypt.

The next image appears to be the royal pharaoh cartouche bearing the name of Pharaoh Khufu.”

“What have scholars determined about Pharaoh Khufu?” asked Anna, intrigued.

David flipped through several pages in his book before stopping at the desired page and reading out loud:

Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops as the Greeks called him (ca. 2585
–
2560 BCE), whose name means ‘he who crushes the enemies,’ was the second ruler of the Fourth Dynasty, which was founded by his father King Sneferu. Ancient Greek historians credit him with a reign of approximately fifty years. He was known to have had at least four wives, with whom he had several children each. Khufu continued the policies of expansion initiated by his father and extended the Egyptian borders to include Sinai and Upper Egypt. Khufu built the Great Pyramid, a monument that makes him one of the most famous pharaohs from ancient Egyptian history. Supposedly, Khufu was buried inside the Great Pyramid with all his treasures, but neither his mummy nor his treasures have been found. It is believed that the Great Pyramid was robbed during ancient times, shortly after Khufu’s mummy was buried within his pyr
amid.

“Wow, I wonder what the connection between my father and Pharaoh Khufu could possibly be?” Anna wondered.

“That’s impossible to say, but let’s look further,” said David as he flipped earnestly through the pages. “This scene is from the Book of the Dead and is related to the afterlife and the soul of a deceased pharaoh.”

“The Book of the Dead?” Anna looked puzzled. “You’ve mentioned that before.”

“That’s the book that explains the procedures that the dead must undergo to reach the afterlife,” Michael explained.

“It’s the afterlife in today’s language, but the ancient Egyptians would have said ‘to gain admittance to the eternal realm of the god Osiris,’” David further explained. “This next image also closely resembles one of the scenes from the Book of the Dead; it shows a pharaoh adoring the god Osiris. That’s definitely a pharaoh, because he is wearing the crown of the Upper and Lower Egypt.

“Here, look,” he added, pointing out another picture, “you can see the crown of the Upper and Lower Egypt much better in this image.

David studied the papyrus intensely for a few more minutes before speaking in a reverent hush, “I would say that based on the royal cartouche bearing his name, this is none other than Pharaoh Khufu himself.”

“Wow,” exclaimed Michael. “Are you sure?”

“If this pencil rubbing was made from an authentic artifact from that time period, then I would say so with about a ninety-five percent certainty. It would be a difficult thing to make a fake piece out of something as elaborate as this.”

Michael and Anna looked at each other wide-eyed. It was possible that Anna’s father had been on the verge of some incredible discovery.

“Let me briefly explain ancient Egyptian life and spirituality,” David continued. “Ancient Egyptians believed that in addition to the body itself, human beings were made up of different spiritual elements: the body’s shadow and two other forces, ‘ka,’ the divine energy giving life to the body, and ‘ba,’ a person’s unique personality. It was crucial that these elements remain intact for participation in the afterlife. Although Egyptians loved life and didn’t want to die voluntarily, it entirely consumed Egyptian religious thought.” Sitting behind his cluttered, yet impressive desk, David looked like a college professor giving a lecture.

“Egyptians believed in the afterlife, with death viewed as a pathway into eternal existence. So, they buried their dead with all the tools they might need in the next world. The mummification and burial rituals were designed to preserve the integrity of the deceased.”

“OK, then who is Osiris?” Anna interrupted inquisitively.

“He is the god of the underworld,” answered David. “He’s depicted as a mummy with his hands coming through the wrappings to hold his shepherd’s crook and flail. He always wears a tall white crown. Sometimes it has two plumes on either side, but sometimes it has ram’s horns.” David closed his book on ancient Egyptian life.