Ahatmose Wrote:
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> To my way of thinking doesn't it seem extremely
> likely that the pharaohs, who went through such
> pains to hide their burial chamber, meant to sleep
> undisturbed through eternity. Personally I have
> always felt that this is an affront to the very
> fabric of their beliefs and for Egypt and others
> to condone it is unconscionable.
>
> At least so say I
>
> db

They were rather flexible in their beliefs when they chose to be. In the UK, if your body is not in a private cemetery, you can be dug up and disposed of, or have your coffin lid smashed in, if it has not already rotted, to make way for fresh burials after 70 years. The incidences of intrusive burials is so great in Egypt that we can see that reverence for the dead does not really outlast living memory of the person. Kings and nobles last longer, and yes, a king would expect to remain in his tomb forever, but few did.

It seems that once the tomb was sealed after all the rituals, the fate of the king's body was not so precious as you might think. For while they certainly wanted their name to live on, and their body to remain intact, once the magic had been activated, that was it, it was permanent, even if the king were expelled from his tomb it would not effect his afterlife. That is why the caches could be made without them thinking that the universe would come to an end, as they still lived in the Duat. The body was needed as an "anchor", but as long as it was intact, that is not burned or dismembered and the parts thrown away, and named, the rest does not matter as much as we think it should. They are fine in the museum, though would prefer to be fully wrapped, and worshipped, and in that Sadat was right when he had them covered up.