Rewriting History: More Than 100 Mummies & A Special Pyramid Found Near King Tut’s Tomb
Going on for two years now, several Egyptian archaeologists have been performing excavations at Saqqara, an archaeological site at Giza. Just recently, they made a massive discovery after uncovering 300 coffins and 100 mummies that are said to be representative of some of the generals and advisors of King Tut during his reign. Along with this precious encounter came the discovery of several artifacts, a series of interconnected tunnels as well as a pyramid that used to belong to an unknown queen who used to rule ancient Egypt.
One of the archaeologists working on this dig was Zahi Hawass, a prominent Egyptologist known for making several big discoveries related to ancient Egypt. During his excavation at Saqqara, he made an interesting observation: “most burials known in Saqqara previously were either from the Old Kingdom or the Late Period. Now we have found 22 [interconnected] shafts, ranging from 30 to 60 feet [9 to 18 meters deep], all with New Kingdom burials.” This implies that the mummies that were found were from the New Kingdom (sixth century B.C.E. to the 11th century B.C.E.) which is considered uncommon at Saqqara making this a unique discovery.
What made the discovery even more special was when the archaeologists opened the lids of the coffins and took a look inside, they found that the mummies were in good condition after centuries of being buried. Hawass marveled that this shows how the mummification process reached its peak during the New Kingdom. Inside the coffins were also many artifacts including ancient games like Senet, a soldier buried with a metal axe in his hand as well as statues of the god Ptah-Sokar.
When it comes to the other unique discovery of the mysterious Queen and her pyramid, according to Hawass, since uncovering the pyramid, they were able to learn that the queen’s name is Neith and that she was never part of the historical record of ancient Egypt.
Overall, such huge discoveries need to be celebrated and revered and that is why it has been announced that some of the uncovered coffins and antiques will be displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza which is planning to open up next year.
