In Pictures: Egypt’s First Archaeological Discovery of 2020 in Minya’s Tuna El Gabal

Sights & Travel

04/02/2020

In Pictures: Egypt’s First Archaeological Discovery of 2020 in Minya’s Tuna El Gabal

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written by

Mariam Nowar

(Image credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

Minya continues to reveal secrets about Egypt’s ancient culture, and the latest discovery proves that the archaeological site of Tuna El Gabal is brimming with heritage. Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled El Anany announced Egypt’s first archaeological excavations of 2020, which unearthed 16 cemeteries in the El Ghoreifa area of Tuna El Gabal in Minya Governorate, according to Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’s official Facebook page.

Led by the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, the archaeological mission uncovered tombs that belonged to the high priests of the Djehuty, along with senior officials of Upper Egypt’s capital, Ashmunin.

“This is the third season of the mission’s work, during which 16 tombs were revealed [to be] filled with about 20 sarcophagi and coffins of various shapes and sizes, including five anthropoid sarcophagi made of limestone and engraved with hieroglyphic texts, and five wooden coffins in good conservation condition, some of which are decorated with the names and titles of their owners, in addition to more than 10,000 ushabti figurines made of blue and green faience; most of which are engraved with the titles of the deceased”, said Waziri, according to Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ Facebook post.

Waziri stated that one of the stone sarcophagi belongs to the son of Psamtik, who held various titles including the priest of Osiris and Nut. Other sarcophagi belonged to Horus, which featured a scene of the Goddess Nut spreading her wings above inscriptions of the deceased’s titles, and another carried three vertical lines of hieroglyphic inscriptions that belonged to Epy.

Djef of Djehuty Luf Ankh’s sarcophagus was made of well-polished limestone, and is considered one of the most significant discoveries due to the inscriptions of the title “royal treasurer and bearer of seals of Lower Egypt and the sole companion of the king”, while another was inscribed with the title “the assistant.”

Over 700 amulets of different shapes, sizes and materials were also unearthed during the mission, which included heart scarabs, an amulet in the shape of a winged cobra, and amulets made of pure gold. Among the other artefacts discovered are pottery vessels and tools for cutting stones, such as wooden hammers and baskets of palm fronds. One group of canopic jars were made of limestone with inscriptions of its owner, the God Toth, and another made of alabaster that belonged to a man and a woman.

Take a look at the artefacts below: