Photos: Egypt unveils ancient mummification workshops and tombs
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered two human and animal embalming workshops, as well as two tombs, in the Saqqara Necropolis south of Cairo, the government said on Saturday.
Located in the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, the sprawling cemetery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to more than a dozen pyramids, animal tombs, and ancient Coptic Christian monasteries.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters the embalming workshops, where humans and animals were mummified, “date back to the 30th Dynasty,” which ruled about 2,400 years ago.
Researchers “found several rooms equipped with stone beds where the deceased lay before mummification,” according to Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Each bed ended in gutters to facilitate the mummification process, with a collection of clay pots nearby to hold entrails and organs, as well as a collection of instruments and ritual vessels.
Early studies of one workshop suggest it was used for the “mummification of sacred animals”.
The discovery also includes the tombs of two priests dating back to the 24th and 14th centuries BC respectively.
The first belonged to Ne Hesut Ba, who served as chief of the scribes and priest of the gods Horus and Maat during the Fifth Dynasty.
The tomb walls are decorated with images of “daily life, farming and hunting scenes,” said Mohamed Youssef, director of the Saqqara archaeological site.
The second tomb, that of a priest named Men Kheber, was carved into the rock and contains images of the deceased himself on the tomb walls, as well as in a 1-meter-tall (3 feet) alabaster statue, Youssef told reporters.
Egypt has revealed a series of important archaeological finds in recent years.
Critics say the spate of excavations has prioritized finds that have been shown to attract media attention over hard academic scrutiny.
The discoveries were an important part of Egypt’s efforts to revive its vital tourism industry amid a severe economic crisis.
The government recently launched a strategy “aimed at a rapid increase in inbound tourism” at a rate of 25 to 30 percent a year, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa said on the site on Saturday.
Egypt aims to attract 30 million tourists a year by 2028, up from 13 million before the COVID pandemic.
The crown jewel of the government’s strategy is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the Giza pyramids.