3,300-Year-Old Tomb Discovered in Saqqara

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered many tombs dating back about 3,300 years in an ancient necropolis at the site of Saqqara. 

The largest tomb was for a man called "Banhasi,” who was the supervisor of the temple of Amun.

Lara Weiss, the curator of the Egyptian and Nubian collection at the Netherlands National Museum of Archeology in Leiden and author of “The Walking Dead,” said Banhasi’s tomb is very beautiful with exquisite carvings that show large traces of color. 

The inscriptions indicate that he had no children and that an employee arranged for offerings to Grave, according to Weiss.

She mentioned that human remains were found in the Banhasi cemetery, but they appear to be of people buried at a later time and will be studied in detail in 2024.

Another newly discovered tomb, whose owner is unknown, has statues carved in relief and appears to show four people likely belonging to the same family as Weiss noted that the statues appear incomplete.

However, according to her, the design of the statues is similar to those found in a nearby tomb belonging to a married couple named Maya and Merritt who lived some 50 years before this tomb was built.

A professor of Egyptology at Core University in Enna in Italy, according to Live Science, explained that the statues were performed on three-dimensionality, which highlighted the fronts of the four figures with a rare awareness for the art of ancient Egypt," adding that the inscription reminds him of the antiquities found in a cemetery near Memphis that date back to The Old Kingdom, that is, between about 2649 BC to 2150 BC, during which time the pyramids were being built in Egypt.

Contributed by Israa Farhan