MARCH 2007

Egypt: Middle Kingdom Archaeology


www.minia.edu.eg/.../Mallawy1/pages/A1.htm

Japanese team finds ancient Egyptian coffins

Sat Feb 10, 4:28 PM ET

CAIRO (AFP) - A Japanese archeological team has discovered three painted wooden coffins in Egypt, including two from the little-known Middle Kingdom period dating back more than 4,000 years.

The sarcophagi were found in tomb shafts in the vast Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, Zahi Hawass, the director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Saturday."It is significant because of the discovery of two sarcophagi from the Middle Kingdom," said Japanese team leader Sakuji Yoshimori.

The Saqqara burial grounds which date back to 2,700 BC and are dominated by the massive bulk of King Zoser's step pyramid -- the first ever built -- were in continuous use until the Roman period, three millennia later.While the vast cemeteries have yielded numerous discoveries from the Old and New Kingdoms, artifacts from the Middle Kingdom of around 2,000 BC are comparatively rare.

One of the Middle Kingdom coffins, inlaid with black glass, was found inside a brilliantly painted outer box and dedicated to a man called Sabak Hatab. The other sarcophagus was for a woman named Sint Ayt Ess.

The third, which dated back to the New Kingdom's 18th dynasty of around 1,500 BC and contained a mummy, was coloured black and decorated with images of the four sons of the god Horus.

The Japanese began work in the area in the late 1990s and are comparative newcomers to excavations in Saqqara, which is already host to teams from Poland, Italy, Germany and France as well as Egypt.