In Luxor, a large burial chamber has been uncovered in one of the city’s ancient necropolises that has remained undisturbed for at least 2,600 years.
Inside was a depository of 22 coffins and 8 mummies that seemed to belong to a special female temple caste who sang sacred songs at festivals and during religious rites.
The words “Singer of Amun” was found repeatedly on the coffins, and suggests the burial chamber was designed especially for these unique and respected women.
The discovery was made in the southwestern sector of the Asasif necropolis inside a tomb chamber carved directly into bedrock. The coffins were arranged in 10 horizonal rows, where they were found with a variety of other funerary objects.
Most exciting of all were 8 sealed jars arranged within a large ceramic vessel that still had their original clay seals, and which therefore may still contain organic remains, either of funerary substances like oils and resins or even biological material from the mummies.
They were described as an “information goldmine” and are due to undergo state-of-the-art conservation and laboratory analysis.
Dating has been carried out amid the frantic and “urgent” preservation work of protecting the flaking pigments and splintering wood of the coffins, which seems to indicate they spanned 400 years of Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period, roughly between 1070 and 664 BCE.
Amun was a powerful deity worshiped at the ancient temple of Karnak, and these “singers” would undoubtedly enjoyed special religious and social privilege alongside their temple responsibilities. Evidence of how female officials lived and died among Egypt’s religious castes is “rare” said the excavators from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Zahi Hawas Foundation for Archaeology and Heritage.
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The careful layout of the tomb, where it was clear the arranging of the coffins was done to conserve space and fit as many deceased inside as possible, indicates the coffins had likely been moved there from their original location. Motives remain unknown
Mr. Sharif Fathi, Minister of Tourism and Archaeology said in a statement that this discovery is a new addition to the record of outstanding archaeological discoveries that Egypt is witnessing and reflects what archaeological research works have received from the full and continuous support of the Egyptian state.
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Luxor is sometimes described as the world’s largest open-air museum, and excavations there turn up new discoveries all the time.
REVEAL This Unopened Tomb And Its Secret Singers With Your Friends…