The variety of mummy-filled coffins present in a collection of burial shafts at Saqqara in Egypt retains rising, archaeologists with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities reported.
Firstly of September, the group had discovered 13 coffins with mummies inside. By the start of October, that quantity had risen to 59, and now the quantity is over 100, archaeologists reported in a press release issued Saturday (Nov. 14).
Individuals are “asking what number of coffins did we discover. The reply is I do not know but,” stated Mustafa Waziri, the secretary common of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, in a video launched by the ministry and the Smithsonian Channel, which is filming the excavations.
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Contained in the burial shafts, the group additionally discovered 40 statues depicting the deity “Ptah-Soker,” the ministry stated. This deity is an amalgamation of “Ptah,” who was the god of Memphis, and “Soker,” who was the god of Saqqara. Archaeologists additionally discovered 20 wood containers exhibiting depictions of Horus — — an Egyptian sky god with a falcon head. Moreover, two wood statues are inscribed with the title “Phnomus,” although the researchers are nonetheless attempting to determine who that particular person was in antiquity.
Quite a few shabti collectible figurines have been additionally discovered. Historic Egyptians believed that shabtis acted as servants for the deceased within the afterlife.
The assorted finds date again between roughly 712 B.C. and 30 B.C., in keeping with the ministry assertion. Throughout this time interval, historic Egypt was occupied and managed by overseas teams such because the Assyrians, Persians and Greeks. At occasions, Egypt would regain its independence solely to lose it to a different overseas energy. Excavations proceed on the web site, and the archaeologists look forward to finding extra coffins full of mummies and different artifacts, stated Khaled El-Enany, Egypt’s antiquities minister.
The Smithsonian Channel is filming a documentary referred to as “Tomb Hunters” and launched a press release claiming that a number of the artifacts date again 4,500 years — to across the time when the Giza Pyramids have been being constructed. The antiquities ministry assertion has not confirmed this declare.
Initially printed on Stay Science.
