Scientists have discovered near the city of Luxor an undisturbed tomb of a scribe of the 18th Dynasty, a high-ranking official during the heyday of Ancient Egypt, the press service of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said.
“This tomb is a typical burial place for a noble person. It is similar in shape to the letter T and consists of a square hall, an inner hall and a corridor. Apparently, it belonged to Ou Sarhat, the ruler of the city in the last centuries of the New Kingdom,”explained Mustafa Waziry, head of the Luxor Antiquities Center.
According to him, scientists have known about the existence of this tomb since the beginning of the 20th century thanks to its mentions in the chronicles of that time, but so far it has not been possible to find it. The entrance to this tomb, located in the eastern part of the necropolis, was found only in March of this year.
The tomb, according to Egyptologists, was built during the 18th Dynasty, but was later reused for the burial of other noble persons during the 21st Dynasty, whose sarcophagi, as researchers expect, they will find in the inner tomb, the entrance to which has not yet been opened.
Egyptian archaeologists next to artifacts found in an 18th Dynasty tomb in Luxor. Photo: AFP 2017 / Stringer
Despite the fact of its reuse, this tomb, as noted by Khalid El-Enani, Minister of Antiquities of Egypt, is an extremely important and interesting find, since most of the burial utensils, curtains and other objects have remained intact since the time of U Sarhat.
According to archaeologists, they managed to find in the tomb several well-preserved wooden chests painted with colored paints, a large number of funerary masks, several hundred figurines of "ushabti" depicting slaves buried in the afterlife, as well as a large amount of ceramics.
Further study of this tomb and the mummies buried in it, scientists hope, will help us learn a lot about the daily life and culture of the Egyptians, who lived under the rule of the "lord of two houses" during the heyday of their civilization.
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