Egypt unveils 4,300-year-old mummy, tombs:
Egypt unveils 4,300-year-old mummy, tombs
Archaeologists discovered a Pharaonic tomb in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, with what may be the oldest and “most complete” corpse ever discovered there.
On Thursday, The team’s director, Zahi Hawass, told reporters that the 4,300-year-old mummy was discovered at the bottom of a 15-metre (49-foot) shaft in a newly discovered complex of tombs from the Old Kingdom’s Fifth and Sixth Dynasties near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara.
The mummy of Hekashepes was discovered in a limestone tomb that had been mortared shut and had a “gold-leaf covering.”
Hawass said:
“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,”
“This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date.”
One of the tombs discovered belonged to Khnumdjedef, who served as a priest, overseer of nobles, and inspector of officials during the reign of Unas, the final pharaoh of the fifth dynasty.
It was adorned with depictions of everyday life.
Another Tomb that was discovered, belonged to Meri,
“keeper of the secrets and assistant to the great leader of the palace”.
The third tomb belonged to a priest in Pharaoh Pepi I’s pyramid complex.
Hawass Further added that the final and last tomb belonged to a writer and a judge named Fetek.
According to the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, Fetek’s tomb had “the largest statues” ever uncovered in the region.
Several sculptures were uncovered among the graves, including one depicting a man and his wife, as well as several attendants.
The massive burial site at Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has more than a dozen pyramids, animal graves, and ancient Coptic Christian monasteries.
Separate information regarding a teenage guy mummified about 300 BC was revealed earlier this week by a team of Cairo University scientists.
The team of specialists was able to provide additional light on the boy’s high social standing by validating the careful characteristics of the amulets placed into the boy’s mummified body and the type of burial he received.
