A remarkable ancient Egyptian tomb has been discovered in the necropolis of Draa el-Naga, near Egypt’s famous Valley of the Kings.
The tomb consists of a small room at ground level and a burial chamber eight metres below containing four mummies. Its principal occupant was a goldsmith named Amenemhat from the 18th Dynasty (1550BC to 1292BC), the time of Tutankhamun, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. The tomb also contains skeletons, funerary artefacts, including 150 ushabti statues, intended to be servants in the afterlife, and four wooden sarcophagi, jewellery and funerary cones.
According to Zahi Hawass, one of the world’s leading Egyptologists and Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, the discovery of a tomb containing an identifiable nobleman such as this could be of great significance.
Of the 50 funerary cones discovered, 40 belong to four other officials from the period whose bodies have not yet been found. “This is a good sign,” said Mostafa Waziry, who is leading the excavation. “It means if we keep digging in this area we’re going to find four more tombs.” The find was hailed by the present Egyptian minister of antiquities, Khaled Alnani, as “an important scientific discovery”. Other discoveries include a Roman-era tomb, uncovered last month near the Upper Egyptian town of Minya, and more than 1,000 wooden funerary statues that were found in a 3,500-year-old tomb near Luxor. In April a pyramid was discovered at the Dahshur necropolis.