This is one of my favorite pictures. The sense of time from it is palpable.

I love what it says about something as mundane as rope, that humans perfected it thousands of years ago and its form has remained essentially unchanged for millennia.

The rope is so tight and even it looks mass manufactured.

I dug a bit more to find the origin of the photo and found that it's from a collection taken by Harry Burton. The series about Tutankhamun's Tomb can be seen here. Some of them have been colourized.

The description says

3 January 1924 | Harry Burton's photograph records the intact necropolis seal and cord fastening (Carter no. 238a) on the third (of four) great gilded shrines surrounding Tutankhamun's sarcophagus in the Burial chamber.

Two photos seem to show doors like this.

January 1924 | Howard Carter opening the door of the second burial shrine (Carter no. 237), in Tutankhamun's Burial chamber.

4th January 1923 | Howard Carter (kneeling), Arthur Callender and an Egyptian workman in the Burial Chamber, looking through the open doors of the four gilded shrines towards the quartzite sarcophagus.

I like how the knotting makes it kinda look like a fist. Something about using 5 with one a bit off from the rest.

I would've thought that rope would decay in all that time

How are the door handles attached, they also look manufactured. Crazy what humans could do such a long time ago.

Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the peace of the pharaoh.

Wild to me that people dig around sealed, dusty, sandy tombs without any sort of mask on

@SnokenKeekaGuard It blows my mind that the rope held up for millenia.

They deserved the curse for breaking that seal!

Did the rope fall to dust when touched or was it still "binding"?