Photo: AFP images
In a historic archaeological display, Egypt has revealed 59 unopened coffins aged at around 2,500 years.
The wooden sarcophagi are believed to have belonged to priests and noblemen of the 26th dynasty and were discovered in the Saqqara necropolis just last month. While initially 13 coffins were discovered, a further 46 were later unearthed. While many Egyptian artefacts have been plundered, it is clear that these coffins have not been opened or seen in over two and a half millennia.
Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities revealed in a Facebook post that it was also clear that other coffins remained undiscovered in the same location.
بيان صحفي ٣ أكتوبر ٢٠٢٠ - الكشف عن 59 تابوتا خشبيا مغلقا بحالتهم الأولي داخل آبار للدفن بمنطقة آثار سقارة - 28 تمثالا...
Posted by Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities وزارة السياحة والآثار on Saturday, 3 October 2020
Dozens of other artefacts were also found during excavation along with mummified animals.
The team are now in the process of carefully opening the coffins and examining what lies inside. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani spoke of how well the mummies were preserved, saying to reporters:
"I have witnessed the opening of one of the coffins … the mummy seems as if it was mummified yesterday."
Privileged to attend the opening of a recently unearthed #sarcophagi in an #ancient #Egyptian city of the dead in #Saqqara. A credit to the Minister of Tourism & Antiquities HE Khaled El else involved in an amazing dig. 🇪🇬#Egypt #Archaeology pic.twitter.com/ardYiGROd5
— Amanciojsilvjr #Bitcoin# (@AmancioJSilvJr) October 4, 2020
That is 26 newly discovered #sarcophagi from high officials and priests from the 26th #Dynasty, approx. 2500 years old. @DiscoverMag https://t.co/bWqva9OosP
— 🌹R̶̥̟͉̟͍̟̠͔̉̆̈̿̅̋̒̇͌̃͘̚M̴̡̧̼̙͇̻̫̜̱̩̣̒̈́̓͌̒͊̌͌̀͝͝ ⨋ (@RoseLeoMusk) October 4, 2020
Saqqara sits south of Cairo near the Ancient Egyptian region of Memphite, the area being used as a vast necropolis for the city for more than 3,000 years. The area was designated as an UNESCO world heritage site in 1979 and has been the site of a vast amount of academic archaeological discovery and ruthless illegal plunder, by those seeking to make money from selling ancient artefacts.
In 2011 a team, including those from the University of Cardiff, discovered a vast grave of mummified dogs that included around 8 million bodies. It is thought that these animals were bred to be killed as sacrifices to the dog-god Anubis. Ancient Egyptians, who classed cats as sacred, were also known to breed cats to be killed during religious ceremonies.
Salima Ikram who was involved in the project said of that discovery:
"You don't get 8 million mummies without having puppy farms. And some of these dogs were killed deliberately so that they could be offered. So for us, that seems really heartless. But for the Egyptians, they felt that the dogs were going straight up to join the eternal pack with Anubis. And so they were going off to a better thing."
The 4,700-year-old pyramid of Djoser also sits nearby, which goes to show just how old the Ancient Egyptian society goes back in time.
In fact, to grasp just how ancient Egyptian society is, we must remember that there is a longer time period between the building of the Pyramids of Giza and the existence of Cleopatra than there is between Cleopatra and the modern day.
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