CAIRO, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that sealed coffins estimated to be 2,500 years old have been found in a 36-foot-deep shaft in Saqqara. Traces of paint survive on some of the coffins. Mustafa Waziri of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that at least 13 coffins had been stacked on top of each other in the shaft, which also has three sealed niches. The excavation team will continue to investigate the burial site and attempt to identify the names and titles of the deceased. To read about the elaborately painted tomb of an Egyptian dignitary that was found in Saqqara, go to "Old Kingdom Tomb," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2019.
Intact Coffins Discovered in Saqqara
News September 8, 2020
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2022
The Treasurer's Tomb
The Pursuit of Wellness September/October 2021
Self-Care
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2021
The Mummies Return
-
Features July/August 2020
A Silk Road Renaissance
Excavations in Tajikistan have unveiled a city of merchant princes that flourished from the fifth to the eighth century A.D.
(Prisma Archivo/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Features July/August 2020
Idol of the Painted Temple
On Peru’s central coast, an ornately carved totem was venerated across centuries of upheaval and conquest
(© Peter Eeckhout) -
Letter from Normandy July/August 2020
The Legacy of the Longest Day
More than 75 years after D-Day, the Allied invasion’s impact on the French landscape is still not fully understood
(National Archives) -
Artifacts July/August 2020
Roman Canteen
(Valois, INRAP)