quote:Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 4,300-year-old tomb with remarkable wall paintings illustrating everyday life. The tomb is located at Dahshur, a site with royal pyramids and a vast necropolis that's about 20 miles (33 kilometers) south of Cairo. When the team returns to the field, they plan to excavate the burial shafts to see if any mummies remain.
The mud-brick tomb is known as a mastaba, a rectangular structure with a flat roof and sloping sides. Inside, the team found wall paintings depicting scenes of life in ancient Egypt, such as donkeys threshing grain by trampling over it, ships sailing the Nile river, and goods being sold at a market, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions found on the tomb's walls say the burial belongs to a man named Seneb-Neb-Af and his wife Idet. The inscriptions state that Idet was a priestess of Hathor — a sky goddess associated with sensuality, maternity and music — while Seneb-Neb-Af held several positions in the royal palace that involved dealing with the administration of tenants.
Apparently there are many other tombs in the Memphite necropoleis that have yet to be excavated.
Posts: 26433 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
TBH, I would like to see them excavate more structures in Egypt other than tombs. For example, the Egyptian Houses of Life, which seem to have served as their libraries, would be neat to excavate. We could learn so much more about ancient Egyptian literature, culture, and knowledge if we found some of those.
If there's one tomb I want to see excavated, it's the one Antony and Cleopatra are supposedly buried in. Having Cleo's remains to study could resolve the controversy that flared up when the Netflix docuseries came out last year.
quote:Originally posted by Ibis: Was certainly a surprise, as I had assumed they had all been excavated by now.
One would think, but the Egyptians built so many tombs the majority of them actually haven't been excavated yet-- and that's the majority of tombs that archaeologists know of in the major necropoleis [Memphite and Theban], not to mention those of the minor necropoleis. There are many more tombs that have yet to be discovered.
Posts: 26433 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic