Archaeologists uncover coffins that have been shut for 2,500 years; it’s Saqqara again

In 2020, archaeologists in Egypt unsealed a mummy coffin sealed 2,500 years ago in front of a live audience in Egypt. The mummy was wrapped in an ornate burial cloth, which had been decorated to resemble a deceased priest’s face.

Greg Lewis, New Zealand’s ambassador to Egypt, also shared a video of unsealing the mummy coffin on Twitter.

According to a press release by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, initially, three burial wells at different depths between 10 and 12 metres, with 13 coffins, were discovered in Saqqara.

Earlier in 2020, Archaeologists found 59 sealed wooden sarcophagi in the necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo near Memphis.

Saqqara is home to several pyramids, including the famous Giza Pyramids. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the 1970s.

Recently, another team of archaeologists in Saqqara uncovered a new trove of coffins that are believed to have been left untouched for 2,500 years.

The team found hundreds of statues of ancient Egyptian gods — Anubis, Amun, Min, Osiris, Isis, Nefertum, Bastet, and Hathor. Besides the statues, the diggers also unearthed 250 ancient sarcophagi.

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement that 250 coffins, 150 bronze statues, and other objects dating back to about 500 BC were found in Saqqara.

“The mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities succeeded in discovering the first and largest cache of 150 bronze statues from the late period in the cemetery of the sacred animals in Saqqara, as well as burial wells containing 250 closed coloured wooden coffins containing mummies, which will be displayed in the Grand Egyptian Museum,” Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in an online statement.

Photos of the incredible finds have been shared on Facebook by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Reports said the coffins were found in remarkably good condition in burial shafts. They contained mummies, amulets and smaller wooden boxes.

They will not be taken to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is currently under construction near the Great Pyramids of Giza.

“We also found a statue of Imhotep … and we hope we can find his tomb soon,” Head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa El-Waziri, told ABC News.

Imhotep was an Egyptian chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser, possible architect of Djoser’s step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure.

Unusually Arranged Skeletons And Artifacts Found Inside A 1,500-Year-Old Tomb In Berenice Troglodytica, Egypt

Archaeologists excavating in the city of Berenice Troglodytica, an ancient seaport of Egypt on the western shore of the Red Sea, have found a 1,500-year monumental tomb that contains unusually arranged skeletons. The grave is also filled with many beautiful artefacts.

After opening the tomb, researchers report they saw skeletons that looked as if the dead were buried in a huddled position – the bones of the lower limbs resting on the chest.

“This is not a natural position. In order to achieve it, the deceased had to be bound with ropes or tied with cloth,” research leader Dr. Mariusz Gwiazda from the Center of Mediterranean Archeology of the University of Warsaw told Science in Poland.

The rope was tied around the neck and legs, which caused the body to assume a crouched position. This type of funerary custom was described in the 2nd century B.C. by Agatharchides or Agatharchus of Cnidus, a Greek historian and geographer who said the tribes of the Eastern Desert practised it. Perhaps it was similar in this case, Dr. Gwiazda said.

Several of the dead were placed in four layers, one under the other. So far, archaeologists have not been able to determine whether the bodies were deposited at one time or whether they were added to the tomb from time to time.

The archaeologist emphasizes that the tomb was full of various types of equipment, which proves that it belonged to very important representatives of this ancient city.

The deceased were buried with beads made from onyx (a silicate mineral chalcedony) and carnelian (a brownish-red mineral) that came from Pakistan, India, and even Indonesia.

For the last journey of the dead, several silver rings, earrings and bracelets made of ivory were also placed in the tomb.

Dr. Gwiazda noted that very similar tomb fittings from the same period are known from Upper Egypt and Nubia. There, this type of burial is called royal.

At that time (from the 4th to the 6th century A.D.), Berenice was inhabited by the Blemians who became independent from the power of other Mediterranean empires. It was a little-known, nomadic Nubian tribe inhabiting the mountainous Eastern Desert. However, it controlled territory east of the Nile from present-day Ethiopia to Berenice at the time in question. The authorities administered the city and enriched themselves thanks to participation in trade between the Byzantines and communities living in the Indian Ocean region.

“The burial customs of the Berenice community have so far been shrouded in mystery. We wanted to fill this gap,” Dr. Gwiazda added. Researchers had good luck with this discovery because the tomb turned out to be unplundered, which is rare in Egypt, especially in the case of elite burials.

As part of the above-ground part of the tomb, next to the chest with human remains, archaeologists discovered traces of ancient funeral rituals.

Scientists report evidence of ancient funeral rituals of a platform and animal remains likely used for sacrifices. Several amphoras have also been found upside down.

According to the researchers, this means that they were emptied during ritual practices. There were also small water storage bottles similar in form to the Arabs still use today. They are famous because the fluids in them keep the temperature low despite the heat.

Inside the tomb, archaeologists encountered yet another surprise. They found the grave of a mother and a child from the same period. It looks as if the dead were cuddled up into each other, described Dr. Gwiazda.

This is probably not the end of exciting discoveries in this area because the tomb explored last season is adjoined on two sides by structures that are very similar in plan.

“Our latest discoveries show that in the 4th-6th centuries, Berenice was not a provincial port city at all. It was a city with long-distance contacts,”- said Dr. Gwiazda.

For many years, archaeologists working in Berenice have mainly studied Hellenistic and Roman relics found at the site. So far, no extensive research into human cemeteries from these periods has been undertaken. A few years ago, scientists managed to locate a 2,000-year-old animal cemetery in Berenice. Studies of the remains revealed that the then inhabitants of the city brought monkeys from India, which they treated as domestic mascots, and after their death, they buried them on the outskirts of the cities. Dog and cat cemeteries have also been found in the city.

The city of Berenice was founded in the 3rd century B.C. by the pharaoh Ptolemy II. In the first century A.D, the Romans who took power over Egypt made the city an important hub for trans-oceanic trade linking Black Africa, the Middle East and India. Initially, the port was used for shipping African elephants.

250 mummies in coffins among the latest discoveries from Egypt’s Saqqara treasure trove

Egyptian archaeologists have revealed another massive haul of priceless artefacts from the Saqqara Necropolis, a bountiful site near Cairo that likely still holds untold secrets.

On display Monday were dozens of newly-discovered, beautifully decorated coffins or sarcophagi, still sealed up with their owners mummified inside, along with dozens of bronze statues.

Monday’s big reveal, with artefacts lined up in front of Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser for journalists to admire, was the fifth by the archaeologists working at the site since 2018, and there are still many years of work left to carry out there.

The latest discoveries, including about 250 still-sealed sarcophagi, came from the “Cemetery of Sacred Animals” at Saqqara, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told CBS News.

There have now been more than 450 decorated, sealed coffins containing mummies in good condition discovered at the cemetery, all of them dating back some 2,500 years.

The cemetery site at Saqqara was previously called “Bubasteion,” a reference to the ancient Egyptian goddess Bast, who was worshipped in the form of a cat.

Many of the statues initially discovered there depicted the goddess. In 2019, however, the site has renamed the Cemetery of Sacred Animals after archaeologists discovered other mummified animals and statues of other Egyptian deities there, Dr Mohamed Al Saidi, the mission’s director, told CBS News.

The artefacts displayed on Monday included about 150 bronze statues of Egyptian deities of different sizes, including some portraying the gods Anubis, Osiris, Nefertem, Isis, and Hathor.

“Today’s discovery confirms that the temple wasn’t exclusively for cats, but for other Egyptian deities too,” Al Saidi told CBS News.

“We found two beautiful wooden statues with golden faces of the deities Isis and Neftis, named the protectors of the coffin,” he said of the artefacts pulled from one of the dig shafts at the cemetery.

“They were in a seated position [by one coffin], one of them by the head of the coffin and the other by the feet, in a position called ‘the mourners’ or ‘weepers’ for the deceased.”

Inside the same coffin, the archaeologists discovered a papyrus roll they believe maybe 10 yards long and containing chapters of the “Book of the Dead.” The papyrus has been sent to a lab at the Egyptian Museum for further examination.

The worksite is almost 440 yards long, and the archaeologists working there have only carried out excavations on the first 100 yards, so Al Saidi told CBS News the site likely still has a lot more treasures to reveal.

Egypt’s tourism industry is trying to get back on its feet after the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the war in Ukraine has dealt a fresh blow. Russians and Ukrainians represented a significant proportion of the foreign tourists visiting the country before those calamities struck.

Archaeologists Discover Another Buried Sphinx In Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists working on a groundwater reduction project at the Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan have discovered a sandstone sphinx, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on Sunday.

The discovery comes as a surprise as in the last few months, archaeologists working in Egypt have uncovered the remains of two Sphinx statues.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about how construction workers working near the Luxor Temple Complex stumbled across the remains of a buried Sphinx statue.

Initial reports by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquity suggested that the Sphinx uncovered at Luxor is similar in design to the Great Sphinx of Giza: It has the body of a lion and the head of a human.

The most famous Sphinx in Egypt is without a doubt the massive statue located on the Giza plateau.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is considered an ancient marvel not only because of its size and confusing design but because of the countless mysteries that surround this ancient structure.

Together with the three pyramids, the Great Sphinx found on the plateau of Giza – about 500 km from the place where the new statue was found – is one of the most emblematic monuments of Egypt.

Now, archaeologists near Aswan made another stunning discovery by finding another Sphinx statue.

Mostafa Waziri, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, explained that the piece probably dates from the Ptolemaic dynasty, as the Sphinx statue was found on the southeast side of the temple, in the same place where two sandstone reliefs of King Ptolemy V were discovered two months ago.

The Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled over Egypt for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC, and they were the last dynasty of ancient Egypt.

The Kom Ombo temple complex was constructed during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

Ptolemy V was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty from 204 to 181 BC. He inherited the throne at the age of five, and under a series of regents, the kingdom was paralyzed. It is noteworthy to mention that to famous Rosetta Stone was produced during his reign as an adult.

The sculpture, discovered at the Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan bears hieroglyphic and demotic inscriptions and has already been transported to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, where it will be carefully studied and restored by the archaeological mission to obtain more information about its origin.

After restoration, the newly-found Sphinx will be exhibited to the public.

How did the ancient Egyptians drill through granite?

A question that has always intrigued archaeologists is how past civilizations made their objects and monuments. Works such as the exquisite staircases of Machu Picchu, the geoglyphs of Acre, and the pyramids of Egypt raise questions about the use of technologies and tools.

The lack of understanding usually leaves room for hypotheses about contact with aliens or the idea that these people were beyond their time; dangerous arguments when it comes to a faithful understanding of the past.

The ancient Egyptians, known for their temples, pyramids, and hieroglyphic writing, have always been a challenge for researchers.

And a skill that still intrigues many people is the ability to carve objects in granite – rock much harder than limestone or sandstone.

So, what tools did they have to hand? How long did the carving process take? Had they been helped by fantastic beings? Check out some of the possibilities below.

Egyptian artisans, the working class responsible for all the grandeur that has come to us, used instruments depicted in paintings that resisted time, showing the use of axes, saws, and bows, among others.

The most accepted theory is that these builders used wooden, bronze, and copper tools to carve the granite, mastering strict rules that allowed a good job.

Around 3500 BC, many copper tools were used, adding to the skills of the artisans, which made it possible to carry out any and all work with accuracy.

But would wooden tools be enough to carve granite? That was the main question during the nineteenth century when archaeologists came across artefacts like these.

Only later studies, not focusing on the objects themselves but on the way in which they were used, came closer to a solution.

Methods

According to current archaeology, the ancient Egyptians drilled granite with a method that consisted of introducing wooden wedges into a natural crack in the rock and soaking them with water. As the wet wood expanded, the original crack widened, and after successive repetitions of the process, the rock split into smaller pieces.

Stone artisans, ancient and modern, use this natural process based on weaker parts of the rock. Another method used was successive incisions in the stone with metal objects, which, little by little, carved lines and designs, intervening in different ways in the rock.

However, such methods do not seem to explain everything. The English engineer, Christopher Dunn, is one of the great promoters of these issues, and since 1977, he has been questioning himself about the use of technologies in Ancient Egypt.

Talking to Egyptologists and visiting sites, Dunn was not convinced by the wedge and water method alone.

According to him, “the quarry marks I saw did not convince me that the methods described were the only means by which the builders of the pyramids worked their rocks.”

The tools displayed as instruments for creating many artefacts are physically incapable of being reproduced. For the engineer, the artefacts would only have reached such a degree of precision with the use of saw blades and objects with a hardness comparable to that of a diamond.

Discussions like these are still current, and perhaps Egyptologists have yet to find tools that better explain the construction of these objects.

But what we must keep in mind is that maybe we are the limited ones, relying too much on our own technologies and applying contemporary ways of seeing the world to the past.

Mysteries Of Ancient Egypt: The Unfinished Obelisk Of Aswan

Abandoned thousands of years ago in the quarries of northern Aswan, ancient Egypt, the Unfinished Obelisk are a mass of granite 40 meters long (138 feet) and more than 1,090 tons (1,200 short tons) that makes up one of the most important mysteries of the archaeological world.

Historical origin

The creation of the obelisk was ordered by Hatshepsut (1508–1458 BC), the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The history of its origin is uncertain, but it is believed that the obelisk started to be built, possibly, to complement what would later be known as the Lateran Obelisk – originally built in Karnak and later sent to the Lateran Palace in Rome.

One of the biggest factors that puzzle scholars are the fact that the unfinished obelisk is a third larger than other ancient Egyptian obelisks erected throughout history.

It is estimated that it could measure more than 40 meters (138 feet) and weigh around 1,090 tons (1,200 short tons), if completed – to better understand, imagine the weight of 200 African elephants.

It is believed that the creators of the obelisk started to excavate it directly from a rock, but during the process, they noticed cracks under the granite.

This fact would have been the main reason that led them to abandon the project, however, the lower side of the obelisk remains, even today, fixed to the rock.

Important discoveries

Although this project has not been completed, from an archaeological and historical point of view, this obelisk is important for understanding the ancient Egyptian techniques used in stonework.

During the investigations, researchers discovered marks on the workers’ tools, which even after hundreds of years, remain preserved. In addition, they found lines of ocher colours marking the location of the workers.

Another surprising discovery was made in 2005 in the Aswan quarries. At the time, the researchers found an unfinished and partially worked obelisk base.

In addition, they found sculptures made of stones that may be linked to the place of origin from which other obelisks were created.

Currently, all of these discoveries are on display in an open-air museum, managed by the Egyptian government, which is considered an archaeological and heritage site.

A sea of ​​unknowns

Obelisks created by the ancient Egyptians are a great topic of debate because they raise numerous questions that we are still unable to answer to this day.

How did they carve them into a single block? How have they transported hundreds of miles away? How did they lift the huge, heavy columns?

There are numerous theories that indicate that the obelisks were transported by boats on the Nile River, although it is difficult to explain how the granite masses moved to the boats, or how the boats supported such a weight.

Carving the monuments directly into the bedrock was a common technique, and masons used stone balls to remove any imperfections until the surface was smooth.

There are still samples of these Dolerite balls in Aswan that were harder than granite and did not crack or break after repeatedly hitting the surface of the granite.

“It would have been the largest piece of stone worked by man to date”

An ancient temple dedicated to Zeus unearthed in Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of an ancient temple built to honour Zeus-Kasios, a deity sporting the features of both Zeus and the weather-god Kasios, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Monday.

The ruins were unearthed at the Tell el-Farama archaeological site in the northwestern Sinai Peninsula.

In Greco-Roman times (332 B.C. to A.D. 395), this area was known as the city and harbour of Pelusium, which sat on the far eastern mouth of the Nile River.

Due to its strategic location, people used Pelusium for various functions, including as a fortress during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs;  and artefacts dating to the Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, Christian and Islamic periods suggest it was in use in various ways then as well, according to a 2010 paper presented at the Sinai International Conference for Geology and Development.

The archaeological team zeroed in on the temple after excavating around the remains of two pink granite columns lying on the ground’s surface, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement.

These columns once formed the temple’s front gate but collapsed in ancient times when a mighty earthquake rocked the city.

Researchers have been aware for several decades that there might be a Zeus-Kasios temple at the site.

In the early 1900s and later in the 1990s, archaeologists ascertained that the granite columns were likely brought on barges via the Nile from Aswan in southern Egypt to Pelusium, according to the 2010 paper.

Moreover, the late French Egyptologist Jean Clédat found Greek inscriptions at the site, indicating that a temple for Zeus-Kasios had been built there in Graeco-Roman times. However, archaeologists never did a formal excavation at the site, which is near an ancient fort and a church.

Now, archaeologists have discovered previously unknown remains of the temple, including granite blocks that were likely part of a staircase leading to the temple’s entrance on the eastern side of the building, Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement.

Several large blocks of pink granite were found in the streets around the temple site, indicating that later workers repurposed the temple’s stones for other projects, such as nearby churches.

Scientists are now documenting the newly analyzed blocks with photogrammetry, a technique in which many digital images are used to create virtual 3D images, which will help the team attempt to recreate the temple virtually, Hisham Hussein, the director of Sinai archaeological sites, said in the statement.

Inscriptions found on some of the granite blocks suggest that Roman Emperor Hadrian (ruled A.D. 117-138) renovated the temple, Hussein added.