Posted on 02/10/2007 11:37:43 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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.
Undated picture handed out by the Egyptian Antiquities Department shows a sarcophagus dated from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. 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.(AFP/HO)
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Egyptian coffins ping
WOW! That sarcophagus would make an interesting conversation piece in my living room.
"WOW! That sarcophagus would make an interesting conversation piece in my living room. "
Drinks and snack bowls keep rolling off it though.....
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That's OK, just take a plunge router and notch out a couple of cup holders then stain it to match the surrounding area,...I think I saw a show on DIY that did that very thing on on eof those other older sarcophagi. Nothin' to it. ;^)
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
You're most welcome, the area this was found in has even further 'treasures' to be revealed, due to the dryness of that area, a lot of the finds will be well preserved if they haven't been looted and contaminated.
That's in better shape than my furniture. Helluva find.
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They certainly don't make sarcophagi like they used to.
Beautiful
What a cheat! They were in EGYPT!
And, they ain't ball players, neither!
Yeah, it's not that surprising. "Rugby team finds hamburgers in McDonalds."
Hmmm, I thought the mummiform (man-shaped) type of coffin that we associate with Egypt didn't appear until the XVII dynasty, a few years before the New Kingdom started. The Middle Kingdom sarcophagi that I've seen elsewhere were simple rectangular boxes, with hieroglyphics and a pair of eyes painted on the outside. Do you think the picture from that article was mislabeled?
And I resent them saying that the Middle Kingdom was a little-known era. It may not have been as glamorous as the Old Kingdom with its pyramids, or the New Kingdom with all the accomplishments of its pharaohs, but the best Egyptian literature was written during the Middle Kingdom. Nowadays, if you learn hieroglyphics, it's likely you'll be given Middle Kingdom texts to study/practice with. And we certainly know more about the Middle Kingdom than we do about any of the intermediate periods, or the archaic era before the first pyramid was built.
after I posted this last night I spent a little time browsing for more info on egyptian wooden coffins, you may well be correct on the ostentatiousness of the one pictured and its origins time-wise,, I saw a couple other pieces that were much less ornate and box-like.
:') I think there are some things which may have skewed previous data; the Middle Kingdom only lasted 400 years, built with mud brick and very soft stone (and pilfered Old Kingdom work in larger, harder stone), doesn't appear to have been a wealthy era for Egypt, and ended in a pretty grim manner.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/02/10/10103261.html
Published: 10/02/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)
http://archive.gulfnews.com/images/07/02/10/10_rg_egypt_ap_4.jpg
Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Three ancient Egyptian sarcophagi unearthed
Gulfnews: Three ancient Egyptian sarcophagi unearthed
Cairo: Three ancient sarcophagi have been found south of Cairo, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement on Saturday.
The three Egyptian coffins were found "in a very well preserved condition inside three burial shafts" at a site south of the Saqqara pyramids.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the council, said that the first sarcophagus dates back to Egypt's 1500 BC-1000 BC New Kingdom and is a black anthropoid.
It carries paintings portraying the four sons of the falcon-headed god Horus and its inscription says it to belongs to a person called "Waya-ly."
Anthropoid or person-shaped coffins were particularly important to Ancient Egyptians, who believed them to act as a substitute body for use after death.
The second and the third sarcophagi date back to the Middle Kingdom, 4,000 years ago, and are decorated with black pieces of glass.
more links here:
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/digital_egypt/hawara/description.html
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
"Non-royal tombs of MK at Hawara
"The Middle Kingdom tombs north of the pyramid at Hawara have suffered the same near-total destruction as the Labyrinth itself. Petrie produced a plan of several rectangular buildings in this area, remains of tomb superstructures alongside burial shaft openings. The closest parallel in time and layout would be the tombs north of the pyramid of Senusret III at Dahshur. These allow us to sketch a speculative reconstruction of the Hawara Middle Kingdom tombs. One of the smallest but best-recorded tombs in this northern area is that of a woman named Satrenenutet. The surviving finds from her tomb are preserved in the Petrie Museum, and the notebook and publication permit a reconstruction of the original appearance."
The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt
by Wolfram Grajetzki
more detail
Source: http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/rifeh/mk/tombbrother.html
I'd like to see the Menkaure sarcophagus that went down on the Beatrice. :') Also, weren't there anthropoid cases of a sort used in some of the surviving 4th dyn interments under the Giza plateau?
Some more light...
The Great Pyramid of Menkaure at Giza
by Alan Winston
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/menkaurep.htm
"...In the antechamber, Vyse unearthed the remains of an anthropoid wooden coffin with, Menkaure's name Within were human bones. Most scholars today believe this coffin was inserted, perhaps in an effort of restoration, into the pyramid during the Saite period late in Egypt's ancient history. However, the bone fragments were even more recent as revealed by radio carbon dating, that shows [t]hat they probably date to the Coptic Christian period of some two thousand years ago. There is a rectangular indention in the west section of the antechamber floor, suggesting that a sarcophagus may have once been intended for this room."
Wooden coffin with the remains of a skeleton from Tarkhan, Egypt, 1st Dynasty, around 3000 BC
Wooden coffin with the mummy of Ankhef, 12th Dynasty, around 1900 BC, Asyut, Egypt
Outer coffin of Gua, 12th Dynasty, 1985-1795 BC, Deir el-Bersha, Egypt
Wooden coffin of the Libyan Pasenhor, Late Third Intermediate Period, 730-680 BC, Thebes, Egypt
Painted wooden coffin of Bakrenes, 25th Dynasty, around 680 BC, Thebes, Egypt
Wooden coffin of a child, Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 BC
Mummy case and portrait of Artemidorus, Roman Period, around AD 100-120, Hawara, Egypt
Red granite sarcophagus, with 'Palace facade' panelling, 5th Dynasty, 2494-2395 BC, Giza, Egypt
http://www.ansamed.info/en/egypt/news/ME09.@AM12230.html">http://www.ansamed.info/en/egypt/news/ME09.@AM12230.html
Archaeology: Egypt; Three Sarcophagi Found In Saqqara
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 12 - Three wooden sarcophagi from the Middle and New Kingdoms have been found in Saqqara necropolis by Japanese excavators from Wassida University during routine excavation work. Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass explained that three sarcophagi were found in a very well preserved condition inside three burial shafts located south of saqqara. He added that the one that goes back to the New Kingdom (15 century BC.) is an Anthropoid black sarcophagus painted with scenes featuring the four sons of horus and belongs to a person called "Waya-Iy". The two other satcophagi date back to the Middle Kingdom (20 century BC.) the first belongs to a person called Sebek Hetep and the second to a lady called "Snet-It-Ess". Both sarcophagi are decorated with black pieces of glass. The Japanese mission has been working in Saqqara since the early 1990s in an attempt to discover Middle Kingdom tombs south of Saqqara specially that all discoveries found in Saqqara dated back to the Old and New Kingdoms as well as the Late Periods and the Graeco-Roman era.(ANSAmed).
2007-02-12 12:23
King Menkaure, the goddess Hathor, and the deified Hare nome
Egyptian, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Menkaure, 2490–2472 B.C.
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