A team of Egyptian archaeologists has discovered, in the temple of Bastet (the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, family, and love), two large and complete embalming workshops dating from the XXX dynasty and the Ptolemaic period and two tombs of the Old and New Kingdoms in the archaeological site of Saqqara, the main necropolis of the city of Memphis, on the banks of the Nile, located about 30 kilometers south of Cairo.
“The workshop for humans is rectangular in shape and designed to be divided into several rooms equipped with stone beds, two meters long and half a meter wide, where the deceased lay to be mummified,” said the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Mostafa Waziry, in a statement.
The second embalming workshop was intended for animals, is also rectangular in shape, made of mud with stone floors, and consists of a group of rooms for the different tasks of the “mummification of sacred animals” process. In both cases, they found a collection of clay vessels, including those used in mummification, as well as a collection of mummification instruments and ritual vessels.
Two Tombs Were Also Located
The new finding of this archaeological mission also includes two burials; “the first tomb belongs to a high official of the V Dynasty named ‘Ne Hesut Ba’ (2400 BC), chief scribe and priest of Horus and Maat,” said Sabri Farag, general director of the archaeological site of Saqqara. The second tomb belongs to a Qadish priest named ‘Men Kheber’ from the 18th Dynasty (1400 BC).
“The Old Kingdom tomb consists of a mastaba with a stone façade painted with the names of the deceased and his wife. Above it is a lintel with hieroglyphic text showing the various titles of the deceased and his wife, as well as paintings for the offering bearers, with scenes of daily life, cultivation, and hunting,” detailed Mohamed Youssef, director of the Saqqara site.
On the other hand, the tomb of the New Empire is carved in the rock with a door and a lintel with the names of the deceased and his wife, and inside it was found “a niche with a one-meter long alabaster statue of the owner of the tomb, who appears with a long dress, a wig and the lotus flower in one hand decorated with hieroglyphs written in blue,” he added.
They also found other statues, including a collection of wooden statues of a man named ‘Nesu Henu’ and his wife from the V Dynasty, in addition to a painted anthropoid coffin from the III Intermediate Period. The Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Ahmed Isaa, expressed his satisfaction with these discoveries, which he framed in Egypt’s National Tourism Strategy to increase the number of tourists by 25% to 30% annually and thus triple the capacity of seats on international flights.
“I assure you that Egypt, especially the archaeological site of Saqara, has not yet unveiled its secrets, and there are many more to be discovered,” said Issa, who stressed the importance of these missions to attract investment to the country, currently marked by a strong economic crisis.
Story written in Spanish by Lizbeth García in Cultura Colectiva News
Read more:
