Mummies Unearthed Near Saqqara’s Pyramid of Djoser

WARSAW, POLAND—According to a Science in Poland report, archaeologists led by Kamil O. Kuraszkiewicz of the University of Warsaw uncovered dozens of poorly preserved 2,000-year-old mummies in the area of the so-called “Dry Moat,” which surrounds Saqqara’s Pyramid of Djoser. Kuraszkiewicz said the mummies had received basic embalming treatments and were placed in wooden coffins before they were buried in pits in the sand. Painted images that survived on one coffin, which was damaged in antiquity, show a multicolored necklace and an imitation of a hieroglyphic inscription. “Apparently, the artisan who painted it could not read,” Kuraszkiewicz said, “and perhaps he tried to re-create something that he had seen before. In any case, some of the painted shapes are not hieroglyphic signs, and the whole does not form a coherent text.” Two blue images of Anubis, an Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife, adorn the feet of the coffin, he added. Anubis, however, is usually depicted in black. Kuraszkiewicz suggests the blue coloring of the painting may reference the ancient Egyptian belief that the hair of the divine jackal was made of precious blue stone. To read about another recent discovery at Saqqara, go to “Mummy Workshop.”