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Archaeologists discover mummification workshops in Egypt's Saqqara

By Al-Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
27 May 2023 18:08

The location at which humans and animals were mummified, "date[s] back to the 30th dynasty" which occurred around 2,400 years ago in Cairo.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, displays a recently unearthed ancient wooden sarcophagus at the site of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, May 27, 2023 (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Two human and animal embalming workshops alongside two tombs, have been uncovered by archaeologists in the Saqqara necropolis of Cairo, according to the Egyptian government on Saturday.

Head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, relayed to reporters that the embalming workshops, the location at which humans and animals were mummified, "date back to the 30th dynasty" which occurred around 2,400 years ago.

The ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, which is a vast burial site, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is home to over a dozen pyramids, graves of animals, and ancient Coptic Christian monasteries.

Researchers "found several rooms equipped with stony beds where the deceased lay down for mummification", the country's tourism and antiquities ministry said, adding that the beds would end in gutters meant to ease the mummification process with a collection of clay pots to hold organs, instruments, and ritual vessels.

The other workshop is said to have been for the "mummification of sacred animals", which contained the tombs of two priests dating back to the 24th and 14th centuries BC, respectively, upon discovery.

The first belonged to Ne Hesut Ba, the head of scribes and priest of the gods Horus and Maat in the fifth dynasty. The tomb was decorated with illustrations of "daily life, agriculture, and hunting scenes", according to Mohamed Youssef, director of the Saqqara archaeological site.

The second tomb belonged to a priest named Men Kheber, which was carved in rock and features illustrations of the priest on the walls, alongside a one-meter-long (three-foot) alabaster statue, per Youssef.

Recent archaeological discoveries have been crucial to revive Egypt's vital tourism industry amid an economic crisis. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa stated at the site on Saturday that a strategy by the government has been launched "for a rapid increase in inbound tourism" aiming at a rate of 25-30% a year. The country aims to attract 30 million tourists a year by 2028, up from 13 million before the pandemic.

The crowning jewel of the government's strategy is the delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza.

Archaeologists have scored several wins this year most notably in Egypt but with multiple discoveries all around the world as well.

Most recently, archaeologists in Peru discovered a more than 1,000-year-old mummy on the outskirts of Peru's modern capital of Lima in the latest discovery dating back to pre-Inca times. The mummy was probably an adolescent and was found in an underground tomb wrapped in a funerary bundle, along with ceramics and rope and bits of skin and hair.

2,000-year-old Roman coins were uncovered by archeologists on the Swedish desert island of Gotska Sandön in March and Egyptian and British archeologists unearthed an ancient tomb in the city of Luxor which is believed to contain the remains of an 18th dynasty royal back in January.