Surprising discovery: wood came out of pyramids in Scotland

Wednesday 16 December 2020

Perplexing discovery
The wood from the pyramid originated in Scotland

At the University of Aberdeen, a curator comes across an ancient piece of wood. It turns out: The artifact comes from the Queen’s Room of the Egyptian Pyramids of Cheaps. The piece came to Scotland, possibly through the friendship of two explorers.

A 5000-year-old piece of wood from the Great Pyramid in Egypt was found in a Scottish university cigar box – due to an accident. It is one of only three parts that were ever brought out of the so-called Queen’s Chamber, the University of Aberdeen said. The piece is made of cedar wood and is estimated to date between 3341 to 3094 BCE. It is believed that it was used in the construction of the mausoleum.

The archaeologically significant artifact was discovered by an Egyptian employee while he was investigating the Asian collection of the museum’s collections. Abir Aldani noticed that the box was supposed to come from North African Egypt and therefore did not fit into the Asia collection.

When he checked the serial numbers, the curator realized that it was the missing piece. According to the announcement, it was only a small piece, but it was of considerable importance.

The other two pieces from the Queen’s Chamber are a type of ball and hook, both of which are in the British Museum in London. The artifacts were found by Scottish railway engineer Weinman Dixon when he discovered an unknown shaft unknown in the Great Pyramid in 1872. The fact that the lumbering finished in Aberdeen may be due to James Grant – he studied medicine at university and later befriended Dixon in Egypt. Together they discovered the Great Pyramid of Chops.