The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has announced the discovery of an ancient burial site at Saqqara’s Sacred Animal Necropolis. Work at the site has been ongoing since April 2018, and is currently in its third stage.
In a statement, the ministry said a shaft measuring 120 cm x 90 cm and 11 metres deep was found, with five still sealed stone coffins at the bottom. Also discovered in the same complex were four niches in a room containing wooden coffins and Late Period human burials.
A massive anthropoid wooden coffin bearing hieroglyphs written in yellow pigment was discovered in one of the niches. Other objects discovered around the coffin include 365 faience ushabti figurines, some of which bear hieroglyphs texts, and a small wooden obelisk about 40 cm tall.
All four of the miniature obelisk’s sides bear painted scenes depicting the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, and the god Horus. Wooden statues of the god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and three pottery canopic jars holding internal organs were also found.
The ministry added that all the small artefacts have been removed from the shaft for conservation work to be carried out.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities has made many discoveries at the Sacred Animal Necropolis in Saqqara in the past two years. The most important of these discoveries was the decorated tomb of Wahti and a small cache of sacred birds and animals from which many animal mummies, some extremely rare, were uncovered.
