Egypt announces discovery of 3,500-year-old Luxor tomb

Pharaonic tomb belongs to royal goldsmith who lived more than 3,500 years ago during the reign of the 18th dynasty.

Has announced the discovery of a pharaonic tomb in the southern city of Luxor belonging to a royal goldsmith who lived more than 3,500 years ago during the reign of the 18th dynasty.

The tomb is located on the west bank of the river Nile in a cemetery where noblemen and top government officials are buried.

Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany said the tomb is not in good condition, but it contains a statue of the goldsmith and his wife, as well as a funerary mask.

He said a shaft in the tomb contained mummies belonging to ancient Egyptian people who lived during the 21st and 22nd Dynasties.

The tomb was discovered by Egyptian archaeologists and could boost Egypt’s slowly recovering tourism industry.

In 2022, archaeologists unearthed several mummies, 10 colourful wooden sarcophagi and more than 1,000 funerary statues near the city of Luxor.

Ushabti figurines (small carved figurines) were often placed with the deceased in ancient Egyptian tombs to help with responsibilities in the afterlife.

Inside the tomb, archaeologists wearing white masks and latex gloves inspected the sarcophagi, which were covered with intricate drawings in red, blue, black, green, and yellow – and featured the carved faces of the dead.

It was opened to add more mummies during the 21st Dynasty, about 3,000 years ago, to protect them during a period when tomb-robbing was common.

Scientists Begin Unveiling the Secrets of the Mummies in the Alexandria ‘Dark Sarcophagus’

The massives stone coffin found in July contains a woman and two men, including one who survived brain surgery

In , archaeologists in Egypt revealed that they had found something creepily interesting in the city of Alexandria: a massive 30-ton, black granite sarcophagus.

Discovered on a building site, it was the largest stone coffin ever found in the city. Internet speculation ran wild, with people suggesting it was cursed, that opening it could lead to the end of the world, or that the massive 8.5-by-5-foot tomb contained a super-mummy.

Many were disappointed that when the coffin was opened it revealed three normal human bodies floating in a soup of red sewage (though it did spark a petition asking Egyptian authorities to let people drink the red liquid from the dark sarcophagus in order to “assume its powers”).

Now that the hoopla has died down, researchers have revealed the initial results of their scientific analysis. While it’s not as exciting as finding Alexander the Great, the residents of the tomb still offer interesting insights. 

Nevine El-Aref at Ahram Online reports that a team of researchers led by Zeinab Hashish, director of the Department of Skeleton Remains Studies at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, analyzed the skulls, pelvises and other bones.

The bodies include one woman and two men who appear to have been deposited at different times and stacked on top of one another. The fact that a woman is included in the burial overturns an earlier hypothesis that the tomb’s inhabitants were soldiers.

The age for the woman was between 20 and 25; for one of the men, between 35 and 39; and the other man, between 40 and 44. That last skeleton has a hole in its skull, which healed long before the man died.

“This means that the cavity might be a result of a trepanation,” Hashish tells El-Aref. “This surgery is the oldest surgical intervention ever known since pre-history, but was rare in Egypt,” Hashish adds in a statement.

The remains are believed to date either to Egypt’s Ptolemaic period, 332 to 30 B.C., when it was ruled by a Greek dynasty, or the Roman period, when it was under the control of that empire, from 30 B.C. to 642 A.D.

Trepanation was a surgical procedure practiced throughout the ancient world, from South America to Africa and Asia, and it continued being practiced into the 16th century in some places.

The surgery involved cutting a hole into the skull for religious reasons or as a medical intervention—to relieve headaches, swelling of the brain and hypertension. There are only a handful of examples from Egypt, which makes this find special, although it’s impossible to know why this particular person received the treatment.

Bones weren’t the only item found in the coffin. Researchers also found a small gold artifact and three thin sheets of gold, each square embossed with an image.

Owen Jarus at LiveScience reports that one of the images may represent the seed pod of an opium poppy inside a shrine, which may have associations with death, sleep and rebirth. Another shows an unhooded snake with its mouth open, which could be a symbol of the goddess Isis and represent rebirth.

“As a rule of thumb, it would seem that snake jewelry was primarily a female thing,” Jack Ogden, the president of the Society of Jewellery Historians tells Jarus. “But I am not sure whether one could suggest that the presence of a snake here suggests it was connected with the female occupant of the sarcophagus.”

The third gold panel shows either a palm branch or a stalk of grain, both of which are related to fertility and rebirth.

The Ministry also weighed in on the disgusting red necro-Kool-Aid found in the sarcophagus, confirming that it is likely sewage water that infiltrated the coffin and mixed with decomposed mummy wrappings, though they plan to analyze the stuff more closely to figure out exactly what it’s made of.

The team also plans to continue studying the bones, using DNA tests to figure out whether the people inside the sarcophagus were related to one another. They will also use CT scans to learn more about the bones themselves. Even if those scans are successful, it leaves one big question out there—why were these bodies buried in such a huge, black sarcophagus?

It also seems the danger of the sarcophagus unleashing a curse upon the world has passed, since the coffin has been open for over a month and most of us are still around.

“I was the first to put my whole head inside the sarcophagus… and here I stand before you … I am fine,” Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities told reporters after opening it in July. “We’ve opened it and, thank God, the world has not fallen into darkness.”

Archaeologists Uncover 18,000 Ancient Egyptian ‘Notepads’

Researchers excavating the ancient Egyptian city of Athribis have discovered more than 18,000 ostraca—inscribed pottery shards that essentially served as “notepads,” writes Carly Cassella for Science Alert.

Ranging from shopping lists to trade records to schoolwork, the fragments offer a sense of daily life in the city some 2,000 years ago. Per Newsweek’s Robert Lea, the trove is the second-largest collection of ostraca ever found in Egypt.

Ancient Egyptians viewed ostraca as a cheaper alternative to papyrus. To inscribe the shards, users dipped a reed or hollow stick in ink. Though most of the ostraca unearthed in Athribis contain writing, the team also found pictorial ostraca depicting animals like scorpions and swallows, humans, geometric figures, and deities, according to a statement from the University of Tübingen, which conducted the excavation in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

A large number of the fragments appear to be linked to an ancient school. Over a hundred feature repetitive inscriptions on both the front and back, leading the team to speculate that students who misbehaved were forced to write out lines—a schoolroom punishment still used (and satirized in popular culture) .

“There are lists of months, numbers, arithmetic problems, grammar exercises and a ‘bird alphabet’—each letter was assigned a bird whose name began with that letter,” says Egyptologist Christian Leitz in the statement.

Around 80 percent of the ostraca are written in demotic, an administrative script used during the reign of Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII (81 to 59 B.C.E. and 55 to 51 B.C.E.). Greek is the second-most represented script; hieratic, hieroglyphics, Greek, Arabic, and Coptic (an Egyptian dialect written in the Greek alphabet) also appear, testifying to Athribis’ multicultural history, per Science Alert.

“We will be able to make a case study of daily life in late Ptolemaic/early Roman time[s] once we have analyzed all the texts or at least a larger part of it, which will take years,” Leitz tells Newsweek.

Tübingen archaeologists began digging at Athribis—located about 120 miles north of Luxor—in 2003. Initially, excavations were focused on a large temple built by Ptolemy to honor the lion goddess Repit and her consort Min.

The temple was transformed into a nunnery after pagan worship was banned in Egypt in 380 C.E. More recently, the team has shifted focus to a separate sanctuary west of the temple.

According to the statement, Leitz and his team found the ostraca near a series of “multi-story buildings with staircases and vaults” to the west of the main dig site.

Prior to the excavation, reports Science Alert, the only comparable collection of ostraca discovered in Egypt was a cache of medical writings found in the workers’ settlement of Deir el-Medineh, near the Valley of the Kings, in the early 1900s.

“This is a very important discovery because it sheds light on the economy and trade in Atribis throughout history,” Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Egyptian antiquities ministry’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, tells Nevine El-Aref of Ahram Online.

“The text reveals the financial transactions of the area’s inhabitants, who bought and sold provisions such as wheat and bread.”

Ancient Cave Found in Egypt with Unique Predynastic Rock Carvings

The ancient cave was found in a mountainous area in Northern Sinai. The rock carvings are of a type not seen before in the region.

An archaeological mission from the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry discovered an ancient cave featuring a unique and diverse collection of carvings at Wadi al-Zulma, North Sinai.

The head of ministry’s Egyptian Antiquities Sector, Ayman Ashmawy, explained that the archaeological cave is located at the beginning of one of Wadi al-Zulma’s tributaries within a mountainous area of limestone that is difficult to reach – about 90 kilometers southeast of the city of al-Qantara Sharq, and 60 kilometers east of the Suez Canal.

First of its Kind in Sinai

The carved images found in Northern Sinai are different from those found elsewhere in the Peninsula. They are more akin to bas-relief and the figures tend to be projected out of the surface of the cave walls.

The rock art found elsewhere in the area, such as those at al-Zaranji were made by chipping away the rocky surface of the caverns and apply pigments to color the engravings. 

Ayman Ashmawy, told Egypt Independent that the newly explored ‘cave features an utterly unique assortment of carvings unlike those from the South Sinai valleys’. There are a great many more engravings than in the al-Zaranji cave.

The Director of Sinai Antiquities and head of the mission, Dr Hisham Hussein told Egypt in that ‘most of the scenes were carved along the walls of the inner cave and depict animals such as donkeys, camels, deer, mule and mountain goats’.

These enigmatic images could provide invaluable insights into the prehistory of Egypt.

According to a Tourism and Antiquities Ministry statement, the cave is 15 meters deep and 20 meters high. The ceiling is made of limestone, and the cave is filled with large amounts of animal waste.

Ashes found inside the cave indicate it’s continuous usage by locals as shelter, where they might have stayed with their flocks during rain or winter.

Archaeologists discover mummies with solid-gold tongues in Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered several ancient mummies with solid-gold tongues in their mouths.

The bizarre finding was made when preserved corpses were unearthed at the Quweisna necropolis in the central Nile Delta, about 40 miles north of Cairo, dating between 300 BCE and 640 BCE.

Experts investigating tombs at the site found several mummies with gold chips shaped like human tongues in their mouths, said Dr. Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Archeology, in a press release.

Experts believe the real tongues of the dead were cut out during the embalming process and replaced with a piece of gold resembling the organ so that the deceased could speak to Osiris, the ancient Egyptian “Lord of the Underworld.”

According to Waziri, several mummies were discovered with gold on the bone directly beneath the linen wraps used during the mummification process.

The mummies were said to be in a poor state of preservation.

Also found at the ancient cemetery were golden chips fashioned into scarab beetles and lotus flowers, as well as funerary amulets, pottery, glues and tar used in the embalming process, the remains of wooden coffins in the human form and several copper nails.

The necropolis at Quweisna first was discovered in 1989, leading to several rounds of excavations over the past three decades.

The golden-tongued mummies were found in a recently uncovered extension of the cemetery, which contained cadavers that were laid to rest during three different historic periods.

Each of the burial levels displayed evidence of different rituals and various ways of laying the mummies to rest, said Dr. Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Egyptian archeology sector at the Supreme Council of Archeology.

This is not the first time that mummies adorned with precious metals have been discovered in Egypt.

In 2022, archeologists dug up a 2,000-year-old skull with a tongue-shaped gold chip in its gaping mouth at a site near the city of Alexandria known as Taposiris Magna, which means “great tomb of Osiris.”

A New geological study shows that the great sphinx of Giza is 800,000 Years old

One of the most mysterious and enigmatic monuments on the planet’s surface is undoubtedly the Great Sphinx at the Giza plateau in Egypt. It is an ancient construction that has baffled researchers ever since its discovery and until , no one has been able to accurately date the Sphinx, since there are no written records or mentions in the past about it.

Now, two Ukrainian researchers have proposed a new provocative theory where the two scientists propose that the Great Sphinx of Egypt is around 800,000 years old. A Revolutionary theory that is backed up by science.

The authors of this paper are scientists Manichev Vjacheslav I. (Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) and Alexander G. Parkhomenko (Institute of Geography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).

The starting point of these two experts is the paradigm shift initiated by West and Schoch, a ‘debate’ intended to overcome the orthodox view of Egyptology referring to the possible remote origins of the Egyptian civilization and, on the other, physical evidence of water erosion present at the monuments of the Giza Plateau.

According to Manichev and Parkhomenko:

A strong argument was made by Ukrainian scientists in regards to the Sphinx, arguments based upon geological studies which support Schoch’s view regarding the Sphinx and its age.

Manichev and Parkhomenko focus on the deteriorated aspect of the body of the Sphinx, leaving aside the erosive features where the Sphinx is located, which had been studied previously by Schoch. Ukrainian scholars focused on the undulating terrain of the Sphinx which displays the mysterious pattern.

Mainstream scientists offer explanations for this sharp feature and state that it is based on the abrasive effect of the wind and sand, the undulations were formed because the harder layers of rock are better at withstanding the erosions while the softer layers would have been more affected, forming voids.

However, as noted by Manichev and Parkhomenko, this argument does not explain why the front of the Sphinx’s head lacks such features. In regards to the argument made by Schoch about the heavy rain period which occurred around 13,000 BC, the Ukrainian scientists recognized Schoch hypothesis partially suggesting that the erosive features of the Sphinx go further back than 13,000 BC.

Manichev and Parkhomenko argue are that the mountainous and coastal areas of the Caucasus and Crimea, which they know well, have a type of wind erosion that differs morphologically from the erosive features noted on the Sphinx. Essentially, they argue that such wind erosion has a very soft effect, regardless of the rocks’ geological composition.

“In our geological field expeditions in different mountains and littoral zones of the Crimea and Caucasus we could often observe the forms of Eolian weathering which morphology differs considerably from the weathering taking place on the GES. Most natural forms of weathering are of smoothed character, independent of the lithological composition of the rocks.”

They continue further and explain:

Manichev and Parkhomenko propose a new natural mechanism that may explain the undulations and mysterious features of the Sphinx. This mechanism is the impact of waves on the rocks of the coast.
Basically, this could produce, in a period of thousands of years the formation of one or more layers of ripples, a fact that is clearly visible, for example, on the shores of the Black Sea. This process, which acts horizontally (that is when the waves hit the rock up to the surface), will produce a rock’s wear or dissolution.

The fact is that the observation of these cavities in the Great Sphinx made the Ukrainian scientists think that this great monument could have been affected by the above-said process in the context of immersion in large bodies of water, not the regular flooding of the Nile.

Manichev and Parkhomenko suggest that the geological composition of the body of the Sphinx is a sequence of layers composed of limestone with small interlayers of clays.

Manichev and Parkhomenko explain that these rocks possess a different degree of resistance to the water effect and say that if the formation of the hollow were due to sand abrasion only, the hollows had to correspond to the strata of a certain lithological composition.
They suggest that the Great Sphinx hollows are formed in fact within several strata, or occupy some part of the stratum of homogeneous composition.

Manichev and Parkhomenko firmly believe that the Sphinx had to be submerged for a long time underwater and, to support this hypothesis, they point towards existing literature of geological studies of the Giza Plateau.

According to these studies at the end of the Pliocene geologic period (between 5.2 and 1.6 million years ago), seawater entered the Nile valley and gradually creating flooding in the area. This led to the formation of lacustrine deposits which are at the mark of 180 m above the present level of the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Manichev and Parkhomenko, the sea level during the Calabrian phase is the closest to the present mark with the highest GES hollow at its level. A high level of seawater also caused the Nile to overflow and created long-living water-bodies. As to time it corresponds to 800000 years.

What we have here is evidence that contradicts the conventional theory of deterioration caused by Sand and Water, a theory already criticized by West and Schoch, who recalled that during many centuries, the body of the Sphinx was buried by the sands of the desert, so Wind and Sand erosion would not have done any damage to the enigmatic Sphinx.

However, where Schoch clearly saw the action of streams of water caused by continuous rains, Ukrainian geologists see the effect of erosion caused by the direct contact of the waters of the lakes formed in the Pleistocene on the body Sphinx.

This means that the Great Sphinx of Egypt is one of the oldest monuments on Earth’s surface, pushing back drastically the origin of mankind and civilization.

Some might say that the theory proposed by Manichev and Parkhomenko is very extreme because it places the Great Sphinx in an era where there were no humans, according to currently accepted evolutionary patterns.

Furthermore, as it has been demonstrated, the two megalithic temples, located adjacent to the Great Sphinx were built by the same stone which means that the new dating of the Sphinx drags these monuments with the Sphinx back 800,000 years. In other words, this means that ancient civilizations inhabited our planet much longer than mainstream scientists are willing to accept.

Archaeologists discover a Perfectly Preserved 4,000-year-old tomb in Egypt

Archeological finds in Egypt never stop. This was made all the more apparent by the recent discovery in Saqqara of a vibrant tomb, home to some of the oldest pyramids in Egypt.

There are vivid wall paintings in the amazingly well-preserved tomb that look like they were made yesterday when in reality the tomb was created over 4,000 years ago.

To celebrate the discovery, Prof. Khaled al-Enani—Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities—recently led over 50 foreign dignitaries on a tour through the site.

It’s believed that the tomb, which is located within a large necropolis, was created during the Fifth Dynasty.

This period spanned the early 25th century BCE until the mid 24th century BCE and was known as a time when funerary prayers began to be inscribed on royal tombs. In this particular case, the exceptional tomb was created for a dignitary named Khuwy.

Several aspects of the tomb lead researchers to believe that Khuwy was a man of great importance. Architecturally, it has a tunneled entrance, which is a feature typically reserved for pyramids—the tombs of the pharaohs.

Artistically, the colors of the paintings are considered “royal colors” by officials. These clues bring into question Khuwy’s influence and his relationship with the Fifth Dynasty’s longest-ruling pharaoh, Djedkare Isesi.

Djedkare’s pyramid is located nearby in Saqqara and one theory is that Khuwy was a relative of the leader.

Others believe that the lavishness of the tomb was instead owed to the Djedkare’s reforms on funerary cults. Whatever the cause, what we’re left with are incredible examples of the artistry of ancient Egypt.

In addition to the tomb decoration, archaeologists also found Khuwy’s mummy and canopic jars—used to hold organs—scattered in several fragments.

Egyptologists hope that the newly discovered tomb will give them more insight into Djedkare’s reign, as the pharaoh’s own tomb was raided prior to excavation in the 1940s.

While Djedkare appeared to be held in high regard even after his death—he was the object of a cult until at least the end of the Old Kingdom—he is still a somewhat enigmatic leader.

Archaeologists find 4,500-year-old double tomb in ‘discovery whole world is watching’

Archaeologists have discovered a double tomb dating back to the time of the Pharaohs at the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities has announced.

Khaled Anany said the archaeological mission removed 450 cubic metres of sands to uncover the 4,500-year-old tombs amid the ancient cemetery containing well-preserved burial shafts.

Beneath the sands near the pyramids on the outskirts of capital Cairo, a striking Old Kingdom burial site was revealed to contain the remains of a priest and a noble, along with a fine limestone statute.

Egypt  reports the excavation mission in the south-eastern part of the pyramids plateau began in August 2022.

Egyptian media were told the newly discovered tombs date back to the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, when Pharaohs still ruled the ancient lands in the period between the early 25th and mid-24th century BC.

The General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri told a press conference the dig uncovered tombs containing two closed coffins, known as sarcophagi, as well as archaeological relics belonging to priests.

World-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass reportedly told the press conference the coffins contained the remains of a priest to King Khafra, and and a noble named Khuwy.

The officials told media the tomb had been reused during the 26th dynasty, the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (664-332 BC) before the Persian conquest.

The mission uncovered the ancient burial site while researchers were documenting a collection of pyramids that belonged to King Djedkare Isesi, who was the Fifth Dynasty’s eighth and final ruler.

In the burial site, archaeologists reportedly found an L-shaped offering room decorated with partially reserved reliefs.

The white limestone in the ancient cemetery had been reused to construct other buildings, leaving only the bottom part of the decoration preserved to be uncovered thousands of years later.

Another room used as a burial chamber was also reportedly uncovered and was found to contain a completely destroyed coffin.

The latest Egyptian dig also uncovered fascinating relics of the Ancients’ burial processes.

Local reports say the archaeologist found oils and and resin remnants used by Ancient Egyptians during the embalming process among the two sets of human remains.

Egypt been promoting its series of archaeological finds lately in hopes of boosting tourism interest in the country.

Travel to the region has suffered a slump due to unrest in the wake of Egypt’s 2022 revolution.

Archaeologists Discover 20 Sealed Ancient Egyptian Coffins

Archaeologists have unearthed 20 intact ancient coffins near the Egyptian city of Luxor, the country’s antiquities ministry announced this week in a statement lauding the find as “one of the largest and most important” in recent years.

According to CNN’s Oscar Holland and Taylor Barnes, researchers discovered the coffins in Al-Assasif, a necropolis on the Nile River’s West Bank. Once part of the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, the site stands in what is now Luxor.

As Lateshia Beachum reports for the Washington Post, the coffins—decorated in shades of red, green, white and black—were found stacked in two layers in a giant tomb. The wooden sarcophagi are particularly impressive due to their colorful, well-preserved paintings and inscriptions, as well as the fact that they are still sealed—a rarity in Egyptian archaeology.

Although the antiquities ministry did not specify what time period the sarcophagi date to, BBC News notes that the majority of tombs in the necropolis hold the remains of nobles and government officials buried during Egypt’s Late Period, which lasted from 664 to 332 B.C.

There are, however, some exceptions to this trend: namely, tombs dating to the earlier 18th dynasty. Spanning the period of 1543 to 1292 B.C., this royal line included such pharaohs as Ahmenhotep I, Tutankhamun, and Hatshepsut, the so-called “queen who would be king.”

For now, information on the find remains scarce, but as a ministry statement notes, more details will be shared at a press conference this .

The cache of coffins isn’t the only recent find to come out of Luxor. Last week, archaeologists announced the discovery of an ancient “industrial” zone in the Valley of the Monkeys, a sprawling site neighboring the famed Valley of the Kings.

According to a government statement, the team unearthed 30 workshops, many featuring pottery dating to the 18th dynasty. Each shop had a different purpose—for example, producing pottery or gold artifacts—but all were assigned to the general task of creating funerary goods for Egyptian nobles and wealthy individuals.

In addition to these workshops, the researchers found an in-ground water tank that likely held workers’ drinking water, a scarab ring, hundreds of inlay beads and gold foil used to decorate royal coffins.

“This is unprecedented,” archaeologist Zahi Hawass tells CNN’s Julie Zaugg and Nourhan Moustafa. “Up until now, everything we knew about the [Luxor region] came from the tombs themselves, but this new discovery will allow us to shed a light on the tools and techniques used to produce the royal coffins and the furniture placed in the tombs.”

The ministry also announced the discovery of a grave in the East Valley, or as it’s more commonly known, the Valley of the Kings. Per Ahram Online’s Nevine El-Aref, the tomb, called KV 65, boasts tools used during its construction.

Egypt is currently conducting the largest excavation of the valley since 1922, when Howard Carter stumbled upon Tutankhamun’s incredibly well-preserved tomb.

Archaeologists are hoping to find still-undiscovered royal crypts, including the final resting places of Queen Nefertiti, Tut’s widow Ankhsenamun, Amenhotep I, Thutmose II and Ramses VIII.