Footprints of 3000-year-old children found in ancient Egyptian palace ruins

(? Qantir Pi Ramesse Projects/ photographer Robert Steffield) The mysterious footprints of ancient Egyptian children appeared with rare painting fragments 3,000 years ago, in a place that seems to be the seat of a palace or temple.

These fingerprints were found in the remains of a large building in the legendary Piramse, the capital of Egypt during the reign of King Ramsey II.

Mahmoud Afifi, head of the ancient Egyptian cultural relics department, described the complex as a "real monument" and the "KDSP" and "KDSP" might be a temple or palace. He said that when they were excavating this structure, the archaeological team from ReMer-PelZeaas Museum in hildesheim found a structure about 8 feet and 26 feet. It's engraved with fine print.

"The size of children's footprint is 15- 17 cm (5.9-6.6 inches), which is related to children aged 3-5 years according to the Modern Children's Chart," Henning Franzmeier, the site director of the Qantir-Piramesse project in the Nile Delta, told Explorers.

Message: In the desert

Footprints from 800,000 years ago have been found, and archaeologists are not sure whether there is more than one child.

The size difference is not enough for us to distinguish clearly. "They are not well preserved either, so far we can't distinguish any other features of feet," said Franz Mayer.

Modern Qantir was built on an island at the easternmost tip of the Nile, 65 miles northeast of Cairo, and flourished during the 66 years of Ramses II's rule and more than a century after his death.

Franz Meyer said: "The city covers an area of about 10 square mile and is one of the largest settlements in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East in the late Bronze Age."

However, by the end of the 20th dynasty, the city began to decline. In 2 1 dynasty (BC 1075-950), the capital moved to the north of tanis 18 mile.

Some painting fragments found in the mortar pit. (Qantir Pi Ramesse Projects/ photographer Robert Stetefeld) The city's historic sites and temples were looted, and stones were recycled in tanis and other places. Abandoned and forgotten Pyrames has been lost in the desert for thousands of years.

Today, the city's glorious past, on the surface, can not find anything. However, through magnetic measurement, its remains have been confirmed. These instruments can detect the magnetic susceptibility differences of various substances on the ground.

"In this way, we can detect walls, especially those made of mud bricks," Franz Mayer said.

Helmut Becker, a geophysicist, and his colleagues in Bavaria made a big survey of the Monument Protection Office from 1996 to 20 12. The team conducted an extensive survey covering an area of about 1 square mile, which is one of the largest such surveys in archaeological history.

One feature of this record is the buildings excavated by Franz Meyer's team. The size of this building is about 820×490 feet, which is the same as the tomb of Ramses II in Thebes.

About the same size, the layout in the middle is definitely like a temple.

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The reason why the children appeared is still a mystery. Although there is no modern concept of prohibiting child labor, these footprints seem too small, even for those children who may have already worked. On the other hand,

It seems unlikely that the children of the royal family will stay and play in the mud.

Next season, Franz Mayer's team will dig more areas and more mud pits.

"We are planning to invite experts to analyze these footprints and hope to find more footprints," Franz Mayer said.

The pit where the footprints were found was also painted. Unfortunately, most fragments are so small that no patterns can be identified.

"However, strokes show that we not only deal with different facial regions, but also are most likely to deal with multi-color graphic representations," said Franz Mayer.

At present, the recognized colors are black, yellow, red and different shades of blue.

"Because they were found in mortar pits, they represent fragments, and we don't know where they came from," said Franz Mayer, but it was probably from a wall of the monument group.

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It was first published in Explorer magazine.