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UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Carbon dating takes the age of the wood to some point in the period 3341-3094BC.
Ancient wood from the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt has been discovered by chance in a cigar box at a Scottish university.
Abeer Eladany, a curatorial assistant at the University of Aberdeen, was curating artifacts in the university museum shops when he came across a box with the old Egyptian flag in the Asian collection.
When he opened the chest, he realized that he had found a “needle in a haystack”.
“I couldn’t believe it when I realized what was inside this harmless-looking cigar can.”
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
The wood was found in this cigar box.
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Carbon dating takes the age of the wood to somewhere in the period 3341-3094 BC. C., said the university.
The fragments were discovered by engineer Waynman Dixon in 1872, who also found a ball and hook in the Great Pyramid of the Queen’s Chamber of Giza.
While the ball and hook are now in the British Museum, the location of the wood remains a mystery.
The wood is believed to have been bequeathed to Dixon’s friend, James Grant; after Grant’s death, his daughter donated the items to the University of Aberdeen in 1946.
After extensive searches in the university museum shop, the wood could not be found for over 70 years – until now.
Eladany says the rediscovery could shed new light on the Great Pyramid.
“It may be just a small piece of wood, which is now in several pieces, but it is enormously significant given that it is one of only three items that have been recovered from the interior of the Great Pyramid.”
