Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a 4,300-year-old mummy – possibly the oldest ever found in the country – during an extraordinary dig near Cairo, officials said Thursday.
The mummy called «Hekashepes» was located at the bottom of a 49ft shaft near the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, where the team was working to uncover a cemetery of Fifth and Sixth Dynasty tombs dating to the 25th century BC, Zahi Hawass, team principal, said in a statement.
The large rectangular limestone sarcophagus of Hekashepes was still sealed with the mortar with which the ancient Egyptians had covered the tomb over 40 centuries ago.
«I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,» said Hawass, a former minister of antiquities. Egyptians, noting that the mummy may be the «oldest» and «most complete found in Egypt to date.
The discovery of Hekashepes was not the most exciting discovery during the year-long excavations at Gisr al-Mudir, one of the oldest known stone structures in Egypt.
Archaeologists of the «most important» tombs discovered belonged to Khnum-djed-ef, who was a priest, inspector of officials and supervisor of nobles in the pyramid complex of Unas, a pharaoh who reigned in the mid-24th century Before Christ
Egyptian antiquities scholars have found a 4,300-year-old mummy.
The team was working to uncover a cemetery of Fifth and Sixth Dynasty tombs dating to the 25th century BC near the Step Pyramid of Saqqara.
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Zahi Hawass said the mummy was discovered covered in gold.
Egyptian antiquities scholars look at newly discovered artifacts at the Step Pyramid site.
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There, scientists also found the tomb of a royal palace official named Meri, «keeper of secrets and assistant to the grand chief of the palace», who had the second largest tomb in the cemetery.
In the pyramid complex of King Pepi I, a pharaoh who reigned at the turn of the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, archaeologists have found the tomb of a priest who may have been called Messi, based on a false door which was found near nine statues of the ancient Egyptian people.
A final mummy was found inside a stone sarcophagus next to an offering table and a group of stone statues depicting a person named Fetek, Hawass said.
«In addition, the expedition produced many amulets, stone vessels, tools for daily life and statues of deities, as well as pottery,» Hawass said.
The monumental discovery comes just days after authorities said they had found the ruins of an ancient Roman city near the southern city of Luxor, where they also found dozens of New Kingdom-era burial sites, dating from 1800 BC to 1600 BC.
With post wires