Ancient Mummified Lion Cubs Discovered in Egyptian Tomb

Egyptian authorities have announced the rare discovery of mummified lion cubs, big cats, cobras and crocodiles near Saqqara necropolis which date back around 2,600 years.

The cache of ancient mummified animals includes dozens of mummified cats and birds, an enormous mummified beetle reported to be “three to four times” the normal size and 75 wooden and bronze cat statues.

The mummified large cats were found close to the remains of an adult mummified lion discovered beneath the Saqqara necropolis in 2004 and while two have been identified as lion cubs three more require further analysis to determine their species.

A Guardian report quotes an excited Mostafa Waziry, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, saying that if these three animals are identified as cheetahs, leopards, lioness’ or panthers, it will be “one of its kind” in ancient Egypt.

Animal Blood Sacrifices

Dr Salima Ikram is an Egyptologist and mummy expert at the American University in Cairo and she said the animal mummies date to the Ptolemaic period that ended in 30 BC.

At that time in ancient Egypt worshippers either held mummified animals as actual deities, or they mummified creatures in order to offer them to their gods. This, according to Dr Ikram would have more potency as it was a “blood sacrifice” compared to the perceived magical energies associated with stone or wooden images.

In April this year I wrote an Ancient Origins news article about a similar discovery when archaeologists uncovered dozens of mummified cats and mice among a stash of around 50 animals laid to rest in an ancient tomb about 390km (242 miles) south of Cairo near the Egyptian town of Sohag.

This tomb was built for a man named ‘Tutu’ and his wife who lived in the early Ptolemaic period, which ended with the Roman conquest in 30 BC and like the new discoveries greatly added to Egyptologists understanding of animal worship and mummification rites.

Evolution of The Cat Goddess

The tomb in Sohag contained a range of mummified animals and birds including more than 50 mummified mice and cats and even a mummified falcon which informed all creatures great and small were scarified and worshiped.

Following the ritual path and evolution of the cat goddess, according to G. D. Hornblower’s 1943 book The Divine Cat and the Snake in Egypt “ Mafdet’ was the first cat-headed deity worshiped during the First Dynasty (2920–2770 BC).

Regarded as protector of the Pharaoh’s chambers against snakes, scorpions and all things evil, Mafdet was often also depicted with a head of a leopard.

The later cat deity  Bastet was worshiped from at least the Second Dynasty (2890 BC) onwards and was depicted with a lion’s ( Panthera leo’s ) head and a wall painting in the Fifth Dynasty’s burial ground at Saqqara shows a small cat with a collar suggesting to archaeologists that African wildcats were tamed kept in the pharaonic quarters by the 26th century BC.

And reflecting real world occurrences, as time unfolded in ancient Egypt, the once wild cat goddess herself became tamer and was worshiped as ‘Bast’.

The Mummified Cats Might Lure Tourists

Egyptian officials hope that their recent announcement will help to boost the country’s image abroad and ultimately that these ancient mummified lion cubs and cats will encourage tourists to continue visiting Egypt as the country aims to bring back its 14 million visitors a year who came to the country in 2010, before the 2011 revolution which overthrew former autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

An almost final nail in the coffin of Egypt’s flagging tourist industry occurred after Metrojet flight 7K9268 was brought down close to the resort town of Sharm el Sheikh in 2015, but things are turning around, fast.

According to a report in Alborsaanews, last year Egypt saw a surge in arrivals with 11.3 million people visiting Egypt and this was in part inspired and caused by the UK lifting its ban on flights to Sharm el Sheikh that had been in place since 2015.

“It’s wonderful promotion for Egypt,” says Khaled El-Enany, Egypt’s antiquities minister, who told The Guardian that be believes these new mummies will spark curiosity among potential visitors to the country in the run-up to the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum close to the Saqqara necropolis.

2,400-Year-Old Goddess Statues Found Dumped in Ancient City on Lebanon’s Coast

Polish archaeologists studying the ancient city of Porphyreon in Lebanon have pieced together the broken parts of ceramic heads to remake what they think are statues of goddesses. One of the 2,400-year-old statues is about 24 cm (9 inches) tall and 15 cm (6 inches) wide.

While the broken pieces of the statues date from a time of Persian control, the women depicted are wearing a stephane or a type of ancient Greek headdress, says Mariusz Gwiazda of the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology in a story about the news .

He said he believes all four of the statues depict deities, but he can’t prove this because they don’t bear inscriptions, he . Two of the statues are nearly whole but the two others are quite incomplete. In all, the team found a dozen pieces of the statues.

Dumped Deities

The archaeologists found the ceramic shards in 2013 in what they believe was an ancient waste dump that had other pottery pieces, burnt animal bones and remnants of chickpeas, grapes and olives. Porphyreon is on the Mediterranean Sea in modern Jiyeh, 25 km (15.5 miles) south of Beirut.

The two ceramic heads that survived most-intact have red paint on their faces. Both had similar dimensions of 9 inches by 6 inches. Mere traces of two more ceramic heads survived the centuries.

It’s interesting to note that there are fingerprints on top of the head of the best statue, probably pressed there by the artist who made it when the clay was still wet.

That statue has three small holes on top from which it probably hung from a wall, Professor Gwiazda said.

Traits of the ceramic heads include a mix of Greek, Egyptian and Phoenician. The Egyptian influence includes a wadjet or a stylized eye on the chest of one of the female figurines.

Egyptians wore wadjets to ward off evil or illness, though other cultures absorbed them into their own cultures and religions.

The pottery specialist for the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology, Urszula Wicenciak, determined the clay used to fashion the ceramic figurines originated around Tyre, another ancient city of Lebanon. That said, they can’t be sure where the four heads were made.

Pottery Production Area

Ms. Wicenciak was studying to complete her PhD several years ago when the team identified a major pottery production center from the late Greek and Early Roman period.

The team found fine ware in a cistern, including local ceramics of glass lamp fragments and terracotta oil lamps.

A report on the 2009 season here says the terracotta lamps are particularly interesting because 197 fragments represent one type of lamp of a type found between Beirut and the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima. The report states:

‘Laboratory studies of the lamps recovered from the cistern should provide interesting data on clay sources, potentially leading to a discerning of groups or, better still, workshops producing this extremely popular form of lamp. Comparisons with the coarse ware characteristic of the regions should demonstrate how local indeed this type was.’

Ancient Egyptian High Priest of THOTH Found Drenched in Bizarre Figurines

THOTH! Archaeologists in Egypt are busy with a new cycle of excavation missions in the Egyptian deserts. Each month comes with a bunch of new announcements and new finds.

The latest in the series of discoveries features a newly found ancient necropolis from where at least 40 sarcophagi containing mummies have been located.

The most striking of all are the remains and funerary decorations believed to have belonged to a high priest of the Egyptian deity Thoth, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on February 24th.

The network of tombs was discovered some 150 miles south of the country’s capital, Cairo, close to the Nile and the city of Minya, roughly four miles north of the site known as Tuna Al-Gabal.

Archaeologists have dated the tombs to being about 2,300 years old, associating them with the late Pharaonic days and the early Ptolemaic era, according to a statement shared by the Ministry of Antiquities.

The finds from the underground tombs include at least 40 sarcophagi and other valuable relics–more than 1,000 ushabti funerary figurines, jewelry, and pottery among others

The ushabti figurines have frequently been retrieved from other burial sites in Egypt in the past, and they are thought to have been laid next to the dead to offer assistance in the afterlife.

What has excited everyone the most was the mummy adorned with a bronze collar, showing the deity Nut, protector of the dead in the Ancient Egyptian belief system.

Other artifacts collected from the resting place of this mummy reportedly include colorful beads with semiprecious stones, four amulets, and alabaster jars created to preserve the insides of the departed.

The mummy is considered to be that of a high priest of Thoth, a god that was worshiped in Ancient Egypt for its wisdom and was also associated with the Moon.

More remains seem to be associated with Thoth, and while the identities are not all confirmed, some remains could have belonged to family members of the high priest buried with the bronze collar.

Everyone must have been dazzled when deciphering the hieroglyphics inscribed on one of the four amulets collected from the high priest’s tomb. One of them intriguingly translated to “Happy New Year.”

Among ancient Egyptians, Thoth was connected to the invention of writing, a patron of books and libraries. Perhaps that is why he was still worshiped even in the Ptolemaic era, the last dynastic period of Egyptian history (305 BC until 30 BC), marked by its prominent scholarship center, the Library of Alexandria.

The common portrayal of this deity included an ibis-shaped head, and its worship commenced in Lower Egypt probably in the pre-Dynastic period, in between the 6th and 3rd millennia BC. Since the worship of Thoth lasted for such an extended period of time, some sources suggest that Thoth has been among the longest-worshiped deity figures in Egypt (and potential record-breaker at world level).

For many decades now, archaeologists and scholars have been able to study different sites discovered in the region of Tuna Al-Gabal. Apparently, the realm is rich with ruins and relics, since new findings continue to emerge even now in 2018. Archaeologists and restorers are to take five more years to study and recover all artifacts retrieved from the newly found tombs.

The latest round of excavations in Egypt began in 2017 and are led by Mostafa Waziri, who is the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Another necropolis, again in the Tuna Al-Gabal region, has been identified only last year, and it concealed 17 mummies.

Earlier in February of this year, Egyptian authorities also announced the discovery of a tomb that was built for an ancient priestess who served Hathor, one more important Egyptian deity associated with motherhood and fertility.

The find, very close to Cairo, was significant as it offered an authentic look back into the life of an ancient Egyptian woman of higher rank, some 4,000 years ago. Her mummy has not been found so far, only the tomb.

King Tutankhamun’s 3300-Year-Old Gold Coffin to Be Restored After Nearly a Decade

From the time that King Tutankhamun’s body was placed, the outermost sarcophagus had never left the 3300-year-old tomb.

Even in 1922, following the discovery of the tomb by the British archeologist Howard Carter, the outer coffin made from wood and gold stayed in the Valley of Kings — until now.

An almost 10-year redevelopment of Tut’s tomb was completed earlier this year by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. Now, The Los Angeles Times wrote, they are going to restore his golden coffin, removing it from its resting place and allowing experts to finally get a good look.

The intricate project is largely motivated by the impending opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in late 2020, which will overlook the Pyramids of Giza. In addition to the three coffins (one inside the other) that house Tut’s body, the exhibit will showcase the numerous relics discovered in his tomb.

The innermost coffin is made of solid gold, while the middle coffin is built from gilded wood and multicolored glass.

Carter’s discovery of Tut’s resting place in the Valley of the Kings was the first time that a royal tomb from the time of ancient Egypt had been discovered so remarkably intact. It contained a plethora of stunning royal treasures as well, such as a dagger made from a meteorite.

After the discovery, two of the three coffins were subsequently transported to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo while the outer coffin was left in the king’s tomb. Only in July, 97 years later, was the casket removed under intense security in order for it to be fumigated for an entire week.

With careful yet thorough restoration now underway, experts have had the rare opportunity to inspect the outer coffin up close and reveal photos for all to see.

Given the damage to the coffin that experts have now seen, however, Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany said it would take a minimum of eight months to restore it. The general director of First Aid Conservation and Transportation of Artifacts Eissa Zeidan said the coffin is about “30 percent damaged” due to the heat and humidity inside the tomb.

“The coffin is in a very bad condition, very deteriorated,” said Zeidan. “We found many cracks, we found many missing parts, missing layers.”

El-Enany confirmed as much when he said the coffin was in a “very fragile state,” with repair work on its cracks being the foremost priority. The 7-foot, 3-inch-long coffin has been safely kept in one of the 17 laboratories within the new museum.

Restorers have been working on numerous items found in King Tut’s tomb, of which there are more than 5,000 — all of which will be showcased at the Grand Egyptian Museum. With more than 75,000 square feet of real estate, it’ll be the biggest museum on Earth exclusively dedicated to one civilization.

Restoration of King Tut’s tomb came after years of tourists trudging through the majestic World Heritage site. Both the Getty Conservation Institute and Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities committed to the extensive revamp nearly a decade ago and finally finished in February.

Their efforts included installing an air filtration system to regulate the humidity, carbon dioxide, and dust levels inside. Lighting, as well as a new platform from which tourists can see the sarcophagus, were added too.

Of greatest concern were the strange brown spots on the tomb’s paintings, which suggested microbial growth in the room. These were found to have been mere discolorations due to fungus that had been there since the tomb’s discovery.

Thankfully, neither fungus nor anything else has taken down Tut’s tomb. Now, after a long period of restoration, it will live on for many more visitors to see. And after the most recent restoration of the outermost coffin, visitors will have the most complete picture yet of how the boy king was buried.

When work on the pharaoh’s gilded coffin concludes and the Grand Egyptian officially opens, it will be the first time in history that King Tut’s three coffins will be on display together.

Archaeologists Find Hidden Ruins of ‘Complete’ Roman Era City in Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists said Tuesday they had discovered a 1,800-year-old “complete residential city from the Roman Era” in the heart of the southern city of Luxor.

​The city, dating to the second and third centuries, is the “oldest and most important city found on the eastern bank of Luxor,” according to Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

​Archaeologists discovered “a number of residential buildings” as well as “two pigeon towers” – a structure used to house pigeons or doves – and a “number of metal workshops,” Waziri said in a statement.

​Inside the workshops, researchers found a collection of pots, tools and “bronze and copper Roman coins”.

​It is a rare archaeological find in Egypt, where excavations – including on Luxor’s west bank, where the famous Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings lie – are most commonly of temples and tombs.

​In April 2021, authorities announced the discovery of a 3,000-year-old “lost golden city” on Luxor’s west bank, with the archaeological team calling it “the largest” ancient city ever uncovered in Egypt.

​Egypt has unveiled several major archaeological discoveries in recent years.

Critics say the flurry of excavations has prioritized finds shown to grab media attention over hard academic research.

But the discoveries have been a key component of Egypt’s attempts to revive its vital tourism industry after years of political unrest, as well as after the COVID-19 pandemic.

​The government’s plans – the crowning jewel of which is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza – aim to draw in 30 million tourists a year by 2028, up from 13 million before the pandemic.

​The country of 104 million inhabitants is suffering from a severe economic crisis, and Egypt’s tourism industry accounts for 10 percent of GDP and some 2 million jobs.