Middle-Class Egyptian

When I'm procrastinating, I quite often go to the National Geographic website and just browse around. Yes, I'm a big nerd, but it's fascinating stuff! Today, I decided to check out if there was anything new in the way of burials coming out of Egypt, and I came across an article describing the excavation of a middle-class official named Neferinpu. I don't know much about Egyptian burials, so I have only ever really been exposed to the burials, tombs, and pyramids of the Egyptian elites and rulers. I think this is pretty common, so I find it very interesting that a middle-class burial made it into National Geographic. According to the article, the location of the tomb itself had a lucky placement, keeping it safe from grave robbers. That is really exciting because it means that the grave has not been disturbed since the time of the burial, and everything is left just as it was originally placed.

Neferinpu: National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/56287376.html

Neferinpu was buried with the staff that marks his office. He had several material goods placed with him, and he was clearly considered important enough to be placed in his own tomb. From the sounds of it, his grave is not spectacular, but is definitely indicative of some level of wealth and respect. I find this fascinating, because it's just a step down from the higher class burials we are used to hearing about. He has a tomb and grave goods, but it's just on a smaller scale to reflect his lower status.

So why don't we hear more about middle class burials? After all, the elites only make up a small portion of the population, yet that is all that seems to be in the news. Perhaps it's because these graves are more carefully prepared, so they preserve better. While that is probably an important factor, I think it has a lot to do with our modern obsession with "stuff". If there isn't anything rich or extraordinary in the grave, why should we care? It's just a bunch of old bones as far as most people are concerned. I can kind of understand this view, because if every grave was published, it would be never-ending. But I think that the importance of the bones, and the significance of the lack of extravagance is often overlooked. As I said before, the elites only make up a small portion of the population, and are therefore not really good indices of what life was really like for those people. We need a more in-depth analysis of the common, every-day person of the past to better understand our histories, and Neferinpu is a great start!

 Stanek, S., 2008. Rare Middle-Class Tomb Found in Ancient Egypt [Online] (Updated 18 January 2008) Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080118-egypt-tomb.html [Accessed 24 March 2011].