Archaeologists from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced the discovery of about two dozen mummies while unearthing a 2600-year-old tomb near Cairo.The discoveries are part of a vast necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, and is believed to be a storehouse for mummies dating back to 640 B.C. A total of 22 mummies were found stacked in the walls of a 36-foot deep shaft along with eight wooden sarcophagi, which are each believed to hold individual mummies themselves. Most of the mummies are poorly preserved and unidentified, and the reason for their storage here is unknown.
Saqqara has been under excavation for 150 years, with discoveries dating back more than 4300 years to the Old Kingdom as well as finds as recent as the Roman era. These mummies have been dated to the 26th Dynasty, which was Egypt's last independent kingdom before it was overthrown and ruled by foreign powers.
Egyptologists estimate that only about 30% of Egypt's monuments and archaeological finds have been uncovered, with the rest still buried at sites such as Saqqara.
These findings were announced February 8th by the Supreme Council of the Antiquties.
Source: Yahoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment