Storeroom of Mummies Discovered at Saqqara
The burial vault, which Zahi Hawass has referred to as “Mummy Prison” or a “Storeroom for Mummies”, is located south-west of the step pyramid of Djoser. This location is very near to the tombs of Thinh and Iya-Maat found last December.
At least one of these sarcophagi is thought to be about 4,300 years old although others appear to date to the 26th Dynasty.
“We think it is Old Kingdom, maybe Fifth Dynasty,” said archaeologist Abdel Hakim Karar said.
This older sarcophagus, which is made of limestone and sealed with plaster is going to be opened later this week to see what is inside.
One of the wooden sarcophagi dates to a much later period. This one has already been opened and inside they found a man called Badi N Heri, or Badi en Hery but bears no title.
“This one might have been an important figure, but I can’t tell because there was no title,” said Abdel Hakim Karar.
Though eight of the mummies are in sarcophagi, (four of them sealed) most of the mummies were found in niches in the walls of the rock-hewn burial chamber located 36 feet underground. The tomb itself is said to date to about 640 BC, but some of the mummies found inside the burial vault are perhaps as old as 4300 years.
We don’t yet know why they are in a single room. It was not common for mummies of this late period to be stored in underground niches.
“Niches were known in the very early dynasties, so to find one for the 26th Dynasty, is something rare…” – Karar added.
“It is certainly rare to find such a large number of mummies in one spot,…These frequent discoveries prove that Saqqara is a virgin site of archeological history. We have merely excavated 30 percent of what is beneath the ground,…The remaining 70 percent promise to yield more exciting findings.” – Dr Zahi Hawass.
The original tomb, made of mud bricks and decorated with intertwining patterns belonged to a priest called Sangem.
According to MENA, the team found five holes with each containing four mummies, one of which of a dog. Many of the mummies are poorly preserved.
As Zahi Hawass said last year after the tombs of Thinh and Iya-Maat were found:
“The discovery of the two tombs are the beginning of a big, large cemetery” – Zahi Hawass.
Vliew a slide show of photos of the tomb and sarcophagii.
Sources:
Google
Alarabiya
Xinhuanet
Afrol
Monsters & Critics
Chicago Tribune
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Great Post.
Is this as unusual as it appears?
Could this be a deliberate collection of mummies of supposed significance deposited in 640 BCE, or simple reuse of an older tomb?
It’s difficult to know what to make of this at this early stage but it could be that the burial vault is contemporary with the Old Kingdom and had additional mummies added to in later times. A number of other sites at Saqqara have later burials located in much older sites.
There were the unopened coffins dating back to the sixth century BC as well as some dating back to the time of Ramses II (1279 to 1213 BC) that were also found in the vicinity of the pyramid of Unas in June last year.
Then there were the stone statues and wooden sarcophagi dated from the first millennium BC built inside former mastabas, that were found by the Louvre mission at Saqqara in October last year.
I look forward to reading more about this exciting discovery as more news comes out.
Thanks for the links
Saqqara is proving to be a very intersting and important site, the date range of material makes this more significant than VOC in many ways.
Its quite hard to get an overview, or grasp the scale of the archaeology & excavations at Saqqara. Its a shame that it is left to blogs like yours to piece it together, it would be great if Egypt could get it’s act together.
There is a big market for this info & it is an important resource to the economy, a well organised web site would greatly improve the situation.
Thanks for the kind compliments Geoff! I’ll pass on your recommendation to the boss, perhaps he’ll give me a raise.
I agree, VOK is pretty exiciting right now, but so is Saqqara.
Wow! Just when ya think the guy can’t get any more amazing, Zahi Hawass digs up a new find from the old kingdom! Who knows, maybe he will find the remains of pharaohs such as Khufu, Djedefre, Djoser, and more!