A long-lost wood fragment from the Great Pyramid of Giza has been discovered at a Scottish university – hidden in a misplaced cigar tin with an ancient Egyptian flag, officials said.
The fragment of cedar wood – which dates back 5,000 years to the construction of the iconic pyramid – was first discovered in the late 1800s, but had been missing for more than 70 years, according to the University of Aberdeen.
The relic is one of only three artifacts ever recovered in the oldest monument on the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the largest of the three pyramids in the Giza complex in greater Cairo.
In 1872, engineer Waynman Dixon discovered the three items – dubbed “the Dixon relics” – in the pyramid’s queen room, the university said.
Two of them – a ball and a hook – are now housed in the British Museum.
In 2001, a record indicated that the wooden piece may have been donated to the university as a result of a bond between Dixon and a doctor named James Grant, who was studying in Aberdeen and went to Egypt in the 1860s to treat cholera patients.
Grant befriended Dixon in Egypt, where they both found the relics, the university said.
The discovery was widely reported at the time, with the British newspaper The Graphic publishing an article about it in December 1872.
Although they have a remarkable interest, not only because of their enormous age, but also because of the evidence they can probably afford as to the correctness of the many theories formed by Sir Isaac Newton and others regarding the weights and sizes provided by the builders of the pyramids, ”read the article.
“The position they were left in shows that they must have been left there while the work was going on, and in an early period of construction,” it added.
“After Grant’s death in 1895, his collections were bequeathed to the university, while the ‘five inch piece of cedar’ was donated by his daughter in 1946,” the university said in a press release.
“However, it was never classified and could not be found despite extensive searches,” the school added.
But late last year, assistant curator Abeer Eladany was looking at items from the university’s Asia collection when she came across the cigar box.
Inside, she found several wooden fragments, which she subsequently identified as a long-lost piece of wood from the Great Pyramid.
“Once I looked at the numbers in our Egyptian records, I immediately knew what it was, and that it was, in fact, clearly visible in the wrong collection,” said Eladany.
“I am an archaeologist and have worked on excavations in Egypt, but I never thought it would be here in North East Scotland that I would find something so important to the heritage of my own country,” she continued.
“It may be just a small piece of wood, now in several pieces, but it is hugely important given that it is one of only three items ever taken from the Great Pyramid,” said Eladany.
“The university’s collections are huge – they amount to hundreds of thousands of items – so searching was like finding a needle in a haystack. I couldn’t believe it when I realized what was in this innocent looking cigar can, ”she added.
Radiocarbon dating results – which have been delayed by limitations of the coronavirus – placed the wood somewhere between 3341 and 3094 BC, about 500 years earlier than historical records dating the pyramid to the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu.
“Finding the missing Dixon Relic was a surprise, but the radiocarbon dating was quite a revelation too,” said Neil Curtis, director of museums and special collections at the University of Aberdeen.
“It’s even older than we imagined. This may be because the date refers to the age of the wood, perhaps from the center of a long-lived tree, ”he said.
“Alternatively, it could be because of the rarity of trees in ancient Egypt, which meant that wood was scarce, treasured and recycled or cared for for many years,” Curtis said.
“This discovery will certainly revive interest in the Dixon Relics and how they can shed light on the Great Pyramid,” he added.