Hi Jammer,


Romer's 'Ancient Lives' looks at the activities of the tomb builders in the Valley of the Kings - how they also robbed the same tombs they built - a fascinating tale. The poor robbers were punished by being banished to work in the quarries, where Romer also finds their writings of despair. Anyone who thinks that working in the quarries was easy needs to think again.


One of the earliest and clearest examples of a tomb robbery where the robbers knew exactly where to dig their tunnel, is M17 - the huge early Dyn 4 mastaba next to the Maidum pyramid. The remains of an unknown male (Huni, or a son of Huni or Snefru) were interred in the tomb before the superstructure of the mastaba was even built, so it does not have an entrance passage, making it all the more difficult for the robbers to know where to dig. They did know however, so they were either the very workers who built the tomb, or if the robbery was later, they had access to archives that had a plan of the tomb's interior layout.

CT