Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 4,300-year-old mummy — possibly the oldest ever found in the country — during an unusual dig near Cairo, officials announced Thursday.
The mummy, known as “Hekashepes,” is at the bottom of a 49-foot shaft near the Step Pyramid in Saqqara, where the team is working to uncover a cemetery of Fifth and Sixth Dynasty tombs from the 25th century BC, Zahi Hawass, the team’s director, said in a release.
The large rectangular limestone sarcophagus of Hekashepes is still covered with plaster, the ancient Egyptians covered the tomb 40 centuries ago.
“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,” said Hawass, Egypt’s former antiquities minister, adding that the mummy was “the oldest” and “the most complete ever found in Egypt.
The discovery of Hekasheps was not the most exciting find during a yearlong excavation at Gisr al-Mudir, one of Egypt’s oldest stone structures.
The “most important” tomb archaeologists have identified belongs to Khnum-DZ-F, who was priest, inspector of officials, and overseer of the nobility at the pyramid complex of Unas, a pharaoh who ruled in the mid-24th century BC.
Egyptian antiquities workers found a 4,300-year-old mummy.
The team is working to uncover a cemetery of Fifth and Sixth Dynasty burials near the 25th century BC Step Pyramid at Saqqara.
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Zahi Hawass said that the mummy was covered with gold.
Egyptian antiquities workers view recently discovered artifacts at the site of the Step Pyramid.
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There, scientists found the tomb of a royal official named Mary, “keeper of secrets and assistant to the great leader of the palace,” who had the second largest tomb in the cemetery.
BC In the pyramid complex of the pharaoh Pepi I, who ruled between the 24th and the turn of the 23rd century, archaeologists found the tomb of a priest named Messi, with nine statues neatly arranged at the base of a false door. Ancient Egyptian people.
Hawass said the final mummy was found inside a stone sarcophagus next to an offering table and among a group of stone statues representing a man named Fetek.
“In addition, the expedition yielded many amulets, stone vessels, tools for daily life and statues of deities, along with pottery,” Hawass said.
The monumental discovery comes just days after officials said they found the remains of an ancient Roman city near the southern city of Luxor, containing dozens of burial sites from the New Kingdom era, from 1800 BC to 1600 BC.
With post wires
