CAIRO – Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old tomb belonging to one of ancients Egypt’s most powerful official at the Bubasteion Necropolis in Saqqara, Daily Mail reported
Hieroglyphic inscriptions inside the tomb identified the owner as Sakhnetio-Btah, a senior official who served as `keeper of the king’s secrets’ during the time of the Old Kingdom.
Experts believe it referred to a high-ranking official who handled confidential royal documents and decrees on behalf of an Old Kingdom pharaoh.
He also served as a royal chamberlain, priest of Maat and supervisor of the royal library.
In a statement, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the hieroglyphic inscriptions helped to determine the name of the owner of the cemetery and the number of his titles, including the keeper of royal secrets,
“It reflect the high status he held in the administrative system of the ancient state,” the ministry said.
Excavations uncovered painted funerary cartonnage, a wooden falcon statue, and intact ritual items including an offering table and purification basin.
The complex also features a network of burial shafts and a symbolic false door, which ancient Egyptians believed acted as a threshold for the soul to enter the afterlife.
More than 100 ushabti figurines, which were intended to serve the dead in the afterlife, were also recovered.
Among the most spectacular finds were three stone sarcophagi discovered sealed and intact in their original positions.
Preliminary investigations suggest that some parts of the burial complex were looted by tomb robbers in ancient times.
Despite this, many of the surviving finds remain in remarkably good condition.
Researchers believe the discoveries will help them better understand how the site was reused over different periods of Egyptian history.
Saqqara, located south of Cairo, is home to Egypt’s oldest pyramid—the Step Pyramid of Djoser—and remains one of the country’s most active archaeological sites for Old Kingdom discoveries.-MalayaDailyToday
