MENU
Pin It

Spanish archaeological expedition in cooperation with the antiquities ministry to discover new tomb in Aswan. Newly discovered mummies in South Aswan from the Late Period 650-525 B.C. The tomb is said to belong to the Late Period (664 BCE  332 BCE) in Ancient Egyptian history, according to an official statement released by the Ministry of Antiquities. The tomb is believed to belong to two ruling families that lived in Aswan during the Middle Kingdom of Pharaonic Egypt, according to the research conducted by the Spanish expedition. A wooden coffin was also discovered. The preserved mummy inside is believed to be a person who lived during the Late Period in the area of Koba El-Hawa in Aswan. Several tombs of the rulers of Aswan during the period between 2000 - 1700 B.C. were discovered in this area. The area includes tombs belonging to Upper Egyptian rulers during the Middle and Old Kingdom.


One of the famous tombs belongs to “Hor Khof”, who is known as the only ruler whose autobiography was documented on the walls of his tomb. A tomb for King “Hakanab I”, whose temple was discovered behind the Museum of Aswan in the beginning of the 20th Century, was also found there. Alejandro Jimmenz, head of the Spanish expedition, said that the archaeologists have performed full documentation on the mummy of King “Haka Abe III”, which they had discovered during earlier visits to Egypt. Mummies for the members of the king’s family were also discovered, including that of woman named “Ja Ot Anktot”, and another mummy, the king’s brother, “Sarnbut”.

 

Pre-dynastic tomb uncovered in Egypt's Edfu

The tomb held an unidentified mummy and an ivory statuette, a find that Egypt's antiquities minister says should help shed light on the pre-dynastic era A British-Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Al-Kom Al-Ahmar area of the Upper Egyptian town of Edfu has discovered a pre-dynastic royal tomb of an unidentified king, the antiquities ministry reported. The unearthed tomb contains the deceased mummy and an ivory statuette depicting a man with a barb, said Ali El-Asfar, head of the ministry's ancient Egyptian antiquities section. El-Asfar described the statuette as unique and likely featuring the tomb's owner or a protective deity from the time period. He also said that early studies carried out on the mummy suggest that the deceased died young, when he was 17 to 20 years old. "It is a very important discovery," said Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, adding that it would add more to Egypt's history as well as reveal more of the customs, religious beliefs and funerary rituals of people before the pre-dynastic era”.

 

Ancient Egyptian tomb lost for decades rediscovered in Luxor

Tomb number TT 209 in Assasif area on Luxor's West Bank was recently rediscovered by Spanish excavators. The tomb was first discovered in 1904 by Sir Robert Mond, but Mond didn’t describe the tomb's architectural style or identify its occupant. The tomb was then abandoned and became buried beneath the sands. Egyptologists looked for it subsequently, but their efforts failed. Ancient Egyptian tomb lost for decades rediscovered in Luxor mentioned in A Topographical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes, by Alan Gardiner and Arthur Weigall, published in 1913. The occupant was first known as “Hatashemro.” Then in the 1950s, he was mentioned as “Seremhatrekhyt.” Later studies revealed that Seremhatrekhyt was a title and not the occupant's name. During the 1980s, the tomb was buried under the sands and not found until the Spanish mission of Laguna University, directed by Miguel Molinero Polo, rediscovered it. Recent preliminary studies show that the tomb dates to the 25th Dynasty and belonged to a person called “As-m-ra Ashemro.” Rediscovery - being of great importance because it adds a new name to ancient Egyptian history as well as revealing more about the 25th Dynasty. Ongoing study of the tomb will reveal the different titles of the tomb's occupant as well as a comprehensive plan of the architecture of the tomb.

Ancient parasite highlights humans' role in spread of disease The discovery of a schistosomiasis parasite egg in a 6,200-year-old grave in Syria may be the earliest evidence that agricultural irrigation systems in the Middle East contributed to a vast spread of disease. Schistosomiasis - also known as bilharzia, snail fever, or Katayama fever - is caused by flatworm parasites that live in the blood vessels of the bladder and intestines. The infection can lead to anaemia, kidney failure and bladder cancer. In a study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, researchers said it may have been spread by the introduction of crop irrigation in ancient Mesopotamia, the region along the Tigris-Euphrates river system that covers parts of what is Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey. The infection, in which the parasite burrows through the skin of people wading or swimming in waters where it hides in freshwater snails, has become progressively more common over time and now causes a huge burden of disease across the world.

According to the World Health Organisation, schistosomiasis affects almost 240 million people worldwide, and more than 700 million people live in endemic areas. The egg was found in the pelvic area of the burial grave, where the intestines and bladder of the person would have been. The discovery, at Tell Zeidan in northern Syria, was made by a team of archaeologists and biological anthropologists working at Cambridge, The Cyprus Institute in Cyprus and the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute in the United States. The researchers took soil samples from the head and foot areas of the grave to act as control samples and found they contained no parasitic eggs. This suggests the grave site was not contaminated with the parasite more recently, they said. Piers Mitchell of Britain's University of Cambridge, who led the research team, said the egg may be among the oldest evidence of man-made technology inadvertently causing disease outbreak. "The individual who contracted the parasite might have done so through the use of irrigation systems, those were starting to be introduced in Mesopotamia around 7,500 years ago," he said in a statement about his findings. The oldest schistosomiasis egg found previously was in 5,200-year-old Egyptian mummies.

 

 

 

 

Sign up NL 2