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I remember reading somewhere that along with the earthly possessions of the pharaoh, their favorite servants were also killed and entombed inside the pyramids.

Is this true?

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Hello saiy2k, and very Christmas! You posed two questions here, although without any claim: "were they killed and entombed?"; "were they entombed?" The answer to the last question is yes. As you know, each pyramid consisted of an inner chamber that entombed the deceased, the servants of the deceased, and artifacts to make living in the afterlife similar to what they were used to every day. Servants, horses, and pets were buried with the deceased. On the other hand, whether they were buried alive, is still debated nowadays. No claim, no on-topic, ty, ty, ty! – Carlo_R. Dec 23 '12 at 11:16
any reason for the downvote ? – saiy2k Dec 23 '12 at 18:29
saiy2k, I'm not the downvoter. However, showing your employer that you are working towards improvement of this question can help you earn some positive votes. And do not forget to cite the claim! – Carlo_R. Dec 23 '12 at 18:36
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_retainer_sacrifices This page suggests that it is indeed true that the lives of Servants of Pharaoh's were sacrificed in order to serve the kind in afterlife. but this practice prevailed only during the first dynasty... – saiy2k Dec 24 '12 at 8:27

migrated from skeptics.stackexchange.com Dec 24 '12 at 14:56

2 Answers

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About 2 or 3 pharaohs did kill their servants to make the Pharaoh's life was easier in the afterlife. After that, no more servants were killed, but were carried to the pyramid and buried to serve his pharaoh. The source is http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/humansac.htm

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Evidence for the population drop? – Felix Goldberg Dec 25 '12 at 22:56
This needs some source... – Lohoris Dec 26 '12 at 17:21
I got this from my teacher! – Daniel Palamarchuk Dec 27 '12 at 0:30
No, really I did – Daniel Palamarchuk Dec 28 '12 at 16:31
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@DanielPalamarchuk, sources are not only here to prove correctness, but also to allow for further reading. Adding the sources would only take several minutes of research, and you could probably ask your teacher for help. If you did, I'm sure you'd receive more up-votes. – Russell Dec 28 '12 at 16:36
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There was a few pharaohs who forced their workers killed, but the people didn't like their population being lowered, so they stopped killing the workers. When the workers died naturally, they would be buried in the pyramid to serve the pharaoh. The possible pharaohs who killed the their workers were King Aha, Djer, Djet, Merytnit, Den, Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qa'a Source: http://www.touregypt.net

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Can you give the names of those pharaohs? – Felix Goldberg Dec 25 '12 at 22:56
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As was asked of Paalamarchuk, could you provide sources and perhaps elaborate slightly on your answer? It would help you gain several up votes. – Russell Dec 28 '12 at 16:37

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