Tanis mummies

[Kooshmeister]

I was doing some thinking. When Marion gets a big scare from all those mummies in the Well of the Souls....who were those people? They're not mummies in the Egyptian sense (i.e., wrapped up) despite Tanis being an Egyptian city.

I think sometimes dead Egyptian noblemen and kings were buried with their servants, but considering the Well of the Souls isn't a tomb, that rules that out. Plus they weren't actually in the Well itself, but an adjacent chamber. So who were they?

My theory, based on the easy accessibility of that chamber from the outside, is that they were Tanis citizens who hid in there from the sandstorm and were subsequently suffocated to death (think Fergie in Witness).

[keylan]

I hve never really thought about it but that is a good theory. If I remember correctly it is never stated the book as to who they were and they are diffenatly not regular egyptian mummies in the sence that we would consider them.

[Indy's Fist]

I imagine they were workers who either died or were killed and placed there to keep theives out of the chambers. I guess also that the builders of the well had no idea that it would be buried up to the top in sand as the idea of placeing an access to the well on the very top would make it hard for theives to get in. This raises another question. Why would they put an opening at the very top of the well? Sunroof?

[Attila the Professor]

I imagine they were workers who either died or were killed and placed there to keep theives out of the chambers. I guess also that the builders of the well had no idea that it would be buried up to the top in sand as the idea of placeing an access to the well on the very top would make it hard for theives to get in. This raises another question. Why would they put an opening at the very top of the well? Sunroof?

Could have been created in the creation of the Well in the first place.

Of course, we also know that Egyptian tombs and pyramids and the like are well known for multiple passageways.

[Insomniac]

Just a guess
I think it was probably a tomb for some military advisors who where to protect the ark and keep it safe even into there after life. I think it is a separate tomb because the one wall was already exposed by the germans (flying wing).
Many times when constructing tombs they ran into others in the processes and continued digging and patched up the hole and turned the other way.:hat: