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SAQQARA: Archaeologists in Egypt said on Saturday that they had found 59 well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins in recent weeks that were buried more than 2,500 years ago.
Opening one of the lavishly decorated sarcophagi before the assembled media, the team revealed mummified remains wrapped in burial cloth that bore brightly colored hieroglyphic inscriptions.
The dramatic find was unearthed south of Cairo in the sprawling cemetery of Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, a Unesco World Heritage site.
“We are very happy with this discovery,” said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Since the discovery of the first 13 coffins was announced almost three weeks ago, more have been discovered in wells at depths of up to 12 meters.
An unknown number of additional coffins may still be buried there, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said at the site, near the 4,700-year-old Pyramid of Djoser.
“So today is not the end of the discovery, I consider it the beginning of the great discovery,” he said.
The coffins, sealed more than 2,500 years ago, date back to the Late Period of ancient Egypt, around the 6th or 7th century BC. C., added the minister.
In recent years, excavations at Saqqara have unearthed treasures of artifacts, as well as mummified snakes, birds, beetles, and other animals.
Great find
The discovery of the coffins is the first major announcement since the Covid-19 outbreak in Egypt, which led to the closure of museums and archaeological sites for about three months from the end of March.
Dozens of statues were also found in the area, including a bronze statuette depicting Nefertem, an ancient god of the lotus flower.
Preliminary studies indicated that the sarcophagi likely belonged to priests, high-ranking statesmen and prominent figures in ancient Egyptian society from the 26th Dynasty, Anani said.
All the coffins would be taken to the Grand Egyptian Museum which will open soon on the Giza plateau, he added.
They would be placed in front of a room that would house 32 other sealed sarcophagi for priests of the 22nd dynasty, which were found last year in the southern city of Luxor.
The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has been delayed several times, is scheduled for 2021.
The museum will house thousands of artifacts, spanning various eras in Egyptian history, from the Predynastic period to the Greco-Roman period.
Egypt expects a surge in archaeological finds in recent years and the Grand Egyptian Museum to boost its vital tourism sector, which has suffered multiple shocks since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, most recently the pandemic.
