Egyptian authorities have hailed the unearthing of several mummies by the country’s archaeologists, hailing it as an “important discovery”.
10 colourful wooden sarcophagi and more than 1,000 funerary statues were unearthed in a 3,500-year-old tomb near the city of Luxor.
According to the country’s antiquities ministry, the 18th Dynasty tomb, discovered in the Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis near the famed Valley of the Kings, belonged to a nobleman named Userhat who worked as the city judge.
“There are 10 coffins and eight mummies. The excavation is ongoing,” AFP reports Mostafa Waziri, the head of the archeological mission, to say.
The tomb was opened to add more mummies during the 21st Dynasty, about 3,000 years ago, to protect them during a period when tomb-robbing was common, Waziri said at the site.
The coffins were mainly well-preserved, though some had deteriorated and broken over the years.
A nine-metre shaft inside the tomb held the Ushabti figurines, as well as “wooden masks and a handle of a sarcophagus lid”, the ministry said.
Another room in the tomb was also discovered, though it has not yet been completely excavated, it said.
