3,500 year old tomb discovered in Draa Abul Naga necropolis on Luxor's west bank

Egypt on Saturday announced the discovery in the southern city of Luxor of a pharaonic tomb belonging to a royal goldsmith who lived more than 3,500 years ago during the reign of the 18th dynasty.

The remains of three mummies and a wooden coffin were found inside the 3,500-year-old tomb discovered
at the cemetery of Dra' Abu el-Naga in Luxor [Credit: Egyptian Antiquities Ministry]

The tomb, located on the west bank of the river Nile in a cemetery for noblemen and top officials, is a relatively modest discovery, but one that authorities has announced with a great deal of fanfare in a bid to boost the country’s slowly recovering tourism industry.

The principal occupant of the tomb was a goldsmith named Amenemhat from the
18th Dynasty (1550BC to 1292BC) [Credit: Egyptian Antiquities Ministry]

“We want tomorrow’s newspapers to speak about Egypt and make people want to come to Egypt,” Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anani told reporters.

Numerous skeletal remains were also found in the goldsmith's tomb [Credit: Egyptian Antiquities Ministry]

El-Anani said the tomb was not in good condition, but it contains a statue of the goldsmith and his wife as well as a funerary mask.

An Egyptian archaeologist cleans the wooden sarcophagus [Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images]

He said a shaft inside the tomb contained pottery as well as mummies and coffins belonging to ancient Egyptian people who lived during the 21st and 22nd dynasties.

A statue of Amenemhat, the goldsmith, and his wife Amenhoteb 
[Credit: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]

The minister identified the goldsmith as Amunhat. The tomb was discovered by Egyptian archaeologists, something that a senior official at the Antiquities Ministry hailed as evidence of their growing professionalism and expertise.

“We used to escort foreign archeologists as observers, but that’s now in the past. We are the leaders now,” said Mustafa Waziri, Luxor’s chief archaeologist.

Source: The Associated Press [September 09, 2017]