Egypt has unveiled the 2,500-year-old mummy of a high priest at an ancient cemetery south of Cairo. Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and an Egyptian team opened three sealed sarcophagi from the 26th Dynasty.
 |
| The sarcophagus of the high priest [Credit: Discovery Communications, LLC] |
One contained the well-preserved mummy of a powerful priest, wrapped in linen and decorated with a golden figure depicting Isis, an ancient Egyptian goddess.
The team also opened two other sarcophagi, one containing a female mummy decorated with blue beads and another with a father in a family tomb. The finds were revealed live on air on the Discovery Channel on Sunday.
 |
| The high priest mummy [Credit: Discovery Communications, LLC] |
 |
| The remains of the second mummy found at the site. This person would have been a singer in a temple dedicated to the god Thoth [Credit: Discovery Communications, LLC] |
At the burial site in Minya province, the team also found a rare wax head. “I never discovered in the late period anything like this,” Hawass said.
Egyptian archaeologists discovered the site a year and a half ago and the excavation is continuing.
“I really believe that this site needs excavation maybe for the coming 50 years,” Hawass told Reuters a day before the sarcophagi were opened. He expects more tombs to be found there.
In 1927, a huge limestone sarcophagus was found in the area and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the site was then forgotten, Hawass said.
 |
| The wax head of the high priest [Credit: Discovery Communications, LLC] |
But two years ago an unauthorized digger was found at the site and stopped, he said. That’s what alerted archaeologists and excavation began.
Author: Lena Masri | Source: Reuters [April 09, 2019]
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий