quote:A team of archaeologists unearthed what could be the "oldest" and "most complete" mummy ever discovered in Egypt, the leader of the excavation announced on Thursday.
Thought to be the remains of a man named Hekashepes, archaeologists found the 4,300-year-old mummy in an ancient tomb near Cairo from the country's fifth and sixth dynasty — which spanned from the years 2500 BC to 2100 BC, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former minister of antiquities, said in a statement.
"I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: A beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold," Hawass told reporters at the site of the excavation.
The centuries-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-meter shaft near the Step Pyramid at the Necropolis of Saqqara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saqqara, a "great masterpiece of architectural design," is located in Memphis, the first capital of ancient Egypt.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, a veteran Egyptian archaeologist, admires stone statues found by his team in a vertical shaft some 33 feet deep at the Gisr el-Mudir dig site in Saqqara, outside Cairo, Egypt, which date back to the "Old Kingdom," or the Age of the Pyramids. COURTESY OF ALI ABU DESHEESH
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^ Gold wrapping seems to be a common custom in Lower Egyptian burials, though most was stolen before discovery of the burials.
Among the items displayed by Hawass, a veteran Egyptian archaeologist, and his team on Thursday were 14 stone statues found in another a shaft, about 33 feet deep, dating back to the "Old Kingdom," or the Age of the Pyramids, between 2700 and 2200 BC — possibly even older than the mummy of Hekashepes.
Saqqara is still the hot spot for tomb burials not just the Valley of the Kings.
-------------------- Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan. Posts: 26260 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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