#Discovery | Egyptian #archaeologists unearthed a 4,200-year-old funerary temple for a queen and 50 coffins in an ancient city of the dead

#Egypt #Saqqara #mummy

https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/egyptian-archaeologists-unearthed-a-4200-year-old-funerary-temple-for-a-queen-and-50-coffins-in-an-ancient-city-of-the-dead/articleshow/80356924.cms

Archaeologists discovered a funerary temple in #Saqqara, Egypt belonging to a queen who lived 4,200 years ago.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

They also found burial shafts containing 50 sealed wooden coffins, as well as a scroll with an excerpt from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead."

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

A new finding provides the answer: Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities announced Sunday that excavators had uncovered a funerary temple near Teti and his wife's burial pyramids with a name on the wall: Queen Nearit.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

Additionally, they found 52 burial shafts containing more than 50 wooden coffins, or sarcophagi, that were at least 3,000 years old. It was the first time sarcophagi that old had been found at #Saqqara, according to the ministry.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

The recent discovery is the latest in a series of findings from #Saqqara.

Since September, researchers have found at least 160 human coffins buried below the sand, in shafts up to 40 feet deep. This latest trove brings that total up to 210 or more.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

Inside the all the #sarcophagi found so far, presumably, are linen-wrapped bodies of ancient Egyptians whose organs were removed before burial. The mummies stayed in the sealed sarcophagi for thousands of years.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

Egyptologists conducted an immediate, real-time X-ray of the mummy inside, which revealed a short, ancient Egyptian man who'd been in good health before he died around age 40 or 45.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy

Inside the burial shafts near Nearit's tomb, Hawass's team found a trove of artifacts in addition to the coffins.

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The archaeologists also discovered a set of board games, including one called "Senet," a chess-like game that Egyptians believed would let a dead person make it into the afterlife - if they won.

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These discoveries probably won't be the last #Saqqara offers up. As excavations continue there, more burial shafts - and the treasures therein - are still being uncovered.

#Egypt #Discovery #mummy