Cairo, Mar 08: Three new finds, announced over the past week, show
that Sakkara remained a major burial place for Egypt's
elite long after the Old Kingdom period for which it is
famous, according to Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi
Hawass.
One of the most unique finds was a cache of wooden
statues dating back to about 2200 BC, which were unearthed
by a joint Egyptian-Australian team. The statues were found
inside a mud-brick tomb of the classic platform style that
contains a fine false door in wood and two tables for
offerings. False doors are a regular feature of the tombs
of the period.
The tomb containing a rare double wooden statue of an
ancient Egyptian scribe and his wife. The official was
Ka-Hay, who kept divine records, and his wife, Spri-Ankh.
Dr. Hawass said the tombs were rich in content if not
elaborate in design.
"This year we found a tomb, an Old Kingdom Tomb,
because the cemetery around here full of tombs dated to
dynasty five and dynasty six. Most of the tombs here are
not that rich of the construction, building, but they are
rich on the material that they discovered inside, because
this tomb belongs to someone who is dated to the Old
Kingdom and his name is Ka-Hey. He had a very interesting
title - he was the scribe of the documents of the royal
house," he said.
The scribe and his wife lived late in the 5th dynasty
or early in the 6th and were buried in the part of the
necropolis associated with the pharaoh Teti.
Another discovery announced this week, made by a
Japanese team of archaeologists, is a set of Middle
Kingdom sarcophagi typical of the 12th dynasty, who lasted
from 1991 to 1786 BC.
The sacrophagi are of a priest called Sobek Hat and his
female companion, both made of wood coated with painted
plaster and then inscribed with hieroglyphic writing.
Both have anthropoid coffins inside, fitting closely
around mummies, which have not yet been opened.
Dr. Hawass said the discovery was unique given the time
period from which they originate.
"What is unique about this discovery is what has been
found in the Middle Kingdom. One of them is this beautiful,
uh, this beautiful coffin. It looks like a box and it
belonged to someone, his name is Sebek-Hat. And inside this
box is still another anthropoid box, inside this one is a
mummy. And this really is unique. The other one is maybe
his wife, her name is Winen In-Es, she was the mistress of
the house," he said.
The others sarcophagi, said Hawass, dated from the
Middle Kingdom and are decorated in a style typical of the
12 and 13 dynasties.
The third discovery announced this week, made by a team
of Dutch archaeologists is the tomb of a royal cupbearer
from the time of the "rebel" pharaoh Akhenaten, the
18th-dynasty pharaoh, who ruled Egypt from 1379 to 1362 BC,
and who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favour of the
Aten sun disk and brought in a new and more expressive
style of art.
The well-preserved and coloured reliefs in the tomb of
Ptah Em-Wia, who may have worked for Akhenaten himself,
show several distinctive features of the period --
elongated heads, protruding bellies, domestic scenes and
lively movement. They also include scenes of monkeys
picking and eating fruit.
Akhenaten built a new capital called Akhetaten at Tell
el-Amarna, 250 km (160 miles) south of Cairo, and the find
shows that high officials continued to build their tombs in
Memphis near Cairo.
The Dutch team has been working in Sakkara since the
1990s to find tombs dating from the New Kingdom. They had
previously found the tomb of an Akhenaten-era priest
Maarten Raven, the field director of the Dutch mission
which has excavated the tomb over the past two months, said
he expected more tombs from the period to turn up in
Sakkara, which is famous for pyramids from more than 1,000
years earlier.
"Well, when you find something dating to the period of
King Akhenaten, that's always a fantastic find. We don't
have much evidence about the activities of Akhenaten or his
contemporaries in this area, the area of the capital,
Memphis. We know a lot about Luxor, We know a lot about
Amarna, but for Memphis we really have to gather new
information and that's why the discovery of these two
tombs, the one we found in 2001 and the one we have now is
really very important from an historical point of view,"
said Raven.
Dr. Hawass said the new discoveries indicate it is
likely that many more treasures lay hidden beneath the
sands of Sakkara.
Bureau Report