{"id":171072,"date":"2018-07-15T07:12:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T11:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=171072"},"modified":"2018-07-15T07:12:32","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T11:12:32","slug":"archaeologists-in-egypt-discover-mummification-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/15\/archaeologists-in-egypt-discover-mummification-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists in Egypt discover mummification workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Archaeologists<\/a>
Archaeologists in Egypt stumbled upon a new discovery dating back to more than 2,500 years ago near Egypt’s famed pyramids at an ancient necropolis south of Cairo. (Photo<\/a> by Mr. Theklan\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAIRO \u2014 Archaeologists in Egypt stumbled upon a new discovery dating back to more than 2,500 years ago near Egypt’s famed pyramids at an ancient necropolis south of Cairo.<\/p>\n

The discovery which includes a mummification workshop and a shaft, used as a communal burial place, is located at the Saqqara necropolis of Memphis, the first capital of ancient Egypt. Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its vast necropolis are home to a wide range of temples and tombs as well as the three renowned Giza pyramids.<\/p>\n

The latest find, announced at a press conference Saturday, belongs to the Saite-Persian Period, from 664-404 B.C. The site, which lies south of the Unas pyramid, was last excavated more than 100 years ago, in 1900.<\/p>\n

In the mummification workshop, an embalmer’s cachette holding a large collection of pottery vessels, bowels and measuring cups were found. Archaeologists believe the findings will reveal more about the oils used in the mummification process in the 26th Dynasty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in front of a goldmine of information about the chemical composition of these oils,\u201d said Ramadan Hussein, the head of the German-Egyptian mission, at the press conference.<\/p>\n

Among the artifacts found were fragments of mummy cartonnages, canopic cylindrical jars and marl clay and faience cups. Many will be displayed in the under-construction Grand Egyptian Museum, the first phase of which is expected to be inaugurated later this year.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists also found a gilded silver mask on the face of a mummy in a badly-damaged wooden coffin. The mask, the first to be discovered since 1939, belongs to a priest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe finding of this mask could be called a sensation,\u201d Hussein said. \u201cVery few masks of precious metals have been preserved to the present day, because the tombs of most Ancient Egyptian dignitaries were looted in ancient times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down the 30-meter-deep shaft is a host of burial chambers carved into the bedrock lining the sides of two hallways. There lie several mummies, wooden coffins and sarcophagi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s only the beginning,\u201d added Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani. He told reporters that the sites will likely yield more discoveries after further excavation.<\/p>\n

Egypt has gone at great length to revive its vital tourism industry, still reeling from the political turmoil that followed a 2011 popular uprising. The Antiquities Ministry has boosted discoveries in recent years in the hopes of bolstering tourism, a major pillar of foreign currency.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO \u2014 Archaeologists in Egypt stumbled upon a new discovery dating back to more than 2,500 years ago near Egypt’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":171073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[53315,2849,53316],"class_list":["post-171072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","tag-archaeologists","tag-egypt","tag-mummification-workshop","mauthors-menna-zaki","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}