Minister of Antiquities Khaled Al-Anani officially announced on Saturday the success of the Egyptian archaeological mission headed by Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in uncovering " El-Assasif cache", which includes a distinctive collection of 30 colored wooden coffins of men, women and children, in a good condition.
The well-preserved coffins, discovered "as the ancient Egyptians left them, were found grouped in two levels, the first level included 18 coffins while the second included 12 ones.
Al-Anani described these coffins as the first large human coffin cache discovered since the end of the 19th century.
“Today, after more than a century, Egyptian archaeologists add another new cache in Luxor,” the minister said.
Among the most famous previous discoveries are two caches of royal mummies including Deir el-Bahari cache in 1881, another cache discovered inside the tomb of King Amenhotep II KV35 in 1898, and the gate of the priests cache where dozens of mummies of priests were discovered in 1891.
During the conference, Al-Anani thanked the archaeologists, restorers and workers who exerted efforts and endured difficulties for the archaeological work.
Al-Anani pointed out that he is proud of working with the archaeologists in Luxor, as this is the first cache discovered by Egyptian archaeologists.
The announcement ceremony was attended by archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass , Governor of Luxor Mustafa al-Ham, prominent businessman Mohamed Abul Enein, the honorary president of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, and Elham Abul Fateh, the general manager of “Sada ElBalad” satellite TV channels network, amid international and local media coverage.
Meanwhile, Waziri said that they began discovering the cache about two months ago when the excavations started this season to complement the work of the previous season, which began in 2018, and resulted in the discovery of many tombs, including the original entrance to the TT28 tomb and two tombs belonging to the Ramessides era.
During this season, which began two months ago, " El-Assasif cache" was discovered including 30 wooden coffins for priests and children belonging to the 22nd Dynasty of the tenth century BC, 3000 years ago.
The cache is located above the TT28 tomb. The discovered coffins provide evidence on the different stages of the process of manufacturing coffins at that time.
Dr. Eltayeb Abbas, Director General of Archaeological Affairs at the Grand Egyptian Museum, said that the coffins will be transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum where a hall has been dedicated to display the entire collection.
Follow the latest news on Google News
