Archaeologists believe they will find more if they continue to dig.The tomb of an Egyptian nobleman has been excavated in Egypt. It was the final resting place of Amenemhat, a goldsmith from the 18th Dynasty (1550BC to 1292BC), an era he would have shared with king Tutankhamun, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. The dig site is located in the necropolis of Draa el-Naga near the city of Luxor, which is not too far from the famed Valley of the Kings.
The Guardian reports that the ground-level entrance leads to a tomb eight meters below, where archaeologists found four mummies, along with other skeletons, funerary artifacts, four wooden sarcophagi, jewelry, and 50 funerary cones. Of these 50 funerary cones, 40 have been determined to belong to officials from the period who have yet to be found. Archaeologists believe that this suggests that there could be more chambers waiting to be unearthed below.
The site was discovered by Egyptian archaeologists, a feat they are very proud of. Luxor’s chief archaeologist, Mustafa Waziri, said, “We used to escort foreign archaeologists as observers, but that’s now in the past. We are the leaders now.”
The Egyptian government hopes that this new discovery will act as a catalyst to restore their dwindling tourism department, which took a hit following the Arab spring protests, in 2011. The loss of tourism revenue has made it difficult to maintain the many sites of historical significance that litter the Egyptian landscape.
Zahi Hawass, one of the world’s leading Egyptologists and Egypt’s former minister of antiquities has spoken about the condition of the Antiquities Ministry:
“You need to maintain these monuments,” said Hawass. “I used to spend 1.3bn Egyptian pounds a year in the construction of museums and restoring the monuments. You don’t have this money now and the ministry is in a very critical condition.”
