Egypt announced Saturday the invention of an ancient treasure trove of over 100 intact sarcophagi, dating back quite 2,500 years ago, the most important such find this year.
The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled on-site amid much fanfare, belonged to top officials of the Late Period and therefore the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt.
They were found in three burial shafts at depths of 12 metres (40 feet) within the sweeping Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo.
Archaeologists opened one coffin to reveal a mummy wrapped in a very burial shroud adorned with brightly coloured hieroglyphics pictorials.
Saqqara, home to quite a dozen pyramids, ancient monasteries, and animals burial sites, could be a vast necropolis of the traditional Cairo of Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"Saqqara has yet to reveal all of its contents. it's a treasure," Antiquities and Tourism Minister Khaled al-Anani said at the revealing ceremony.
"Excavations are still underway. Whenever we empty a burial shaft of sarcophagi, we discover an entrance to a different."
The latest find came just over a month after archaeologists within the area found 59 other well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins, also dating back over 2,500 years ago.
'Beautiful, wonderful statues'
More than 40 statues of ancient deities and funerary masks were also discovered, the minister said.
Another two wooden statues were found within the tomb belonging to an ancient judge of the 6th dynasty, in step with Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
It was not immediately clear if the statues depicted any of the judge's members of the family but one statue is believed to depict a private, by the name Heteb Ka, who was "venerated by the king", Waziri said.
"The fantastic thing about the statue ... is seen within the intricacy of its eyebrows, moustache, and eyelashes. it's absolutely beautiful and wonderful," he added.
The sarcophagi are going to be distributed among several museums in Egypt, including the yet-to-opened Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) at the Giza plateau.
Situated near the famed Giza pyramids, GEM is planned to be inaugurated in 2021 after multiple delays.
Anani attributed the flurry of discoveries in Saqqara to extensive excavation works in recent years.
Another discovery within the vast Saqqara necropolis is anticipated to be announced in December or early 2021.
Archaeologists also hope to seek out an ancient workshop for manufacturing wooden coffins for mummies.
Waziri explained that ancient Egyptians wont to buy their coffins at this workshop.
"We expect it to be somewhere near the coffin's burial shafts," Waziri said.
Egypt hopes archaeological discoveries will spur tourism, a sector which has suffered multiple shocks ever since a 2011 uprising up until today's coronavirus pandemic.
No comments:
Post a Comment