Just a few days ago we reported here the discovery of a mysterious black sarcophagus in Alexandria and of houses that probably housed officers responsible for feeding an army near the Giza Pyramids. And haven't you found another very, very interesting place in Egypt? This time it was an entire portion of an ancient necropolis that archaeologists were unaware of, and in it they found nothing less than the place where the ancient Egyptian priests mummified the bodies before burial.

Artifacts

According to Michelle Starr of the Science Alert website, the newly discovered complex is in the Saqqara necropolis and, fortunately for the team that found the site, does not appear to have been targeted by tomb hunters. At the site, the researchers identified several burial chambers and found three wooden coffins, a limestone sarcophagus, a mummy adorned with a silver-clad mask, and so many other artifacts.

Mask found in one of the burial chambers (Science Alert / Ramadan B. Hussein / Tübingen University)

The mask, in fact, besides being covered with silver, has eyes made of calcite, obsidian - a black glass of volcanic origin - and a dark stone that archaeologists believe to be onyx, and it is the first time since 1939 that such a specimen It is discovered.

Regarding the “owner” of the piece, the researchers concluded that he died during the 26th Dynasty - from 664 to 404 BC - but, unfortunately, the plaster fragment that bore his name was fragmented, so it was not. You can find out what his name was. However, archaeologists have established that the subject was a "second priest" of the goddess Mut, wife of Amon, and "titular priest" of the deity Niut-shaes, a serpent-shaped representation of Mut.

Lets go to what matters!

Most remarkable, however, was the discovery of the place that priests used to mummify the bodies before they were buried. The excavated complex consists of a network of burial chambers, and on one of them they identified a space built of mud bricks and limestone blocks - which was the site used for the preparation of corpses.

That was one of the burial chambers (Science Alert / Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

Inside this site, archaeologists found two large sinks with a ramp between them that were probably used to dry the bodies - through the use of a mineral called natron with preservative properties - and to prepare the flax bandages that would be employed to wrap the bodies. corpses later.

In addition, archaeologists have found several measuring vessels, pots and containers in this space - and the amazing thing is that they carry inscriptions with the names of the oils and ingredients that the priests used to embalm the bodies. Basically, the researchers came across a kind of workshop and all the recipes on how to replicate the work conducted there.

Canopic vessels found inside the chambers (Science Alert / Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

As they said, as these artifacts were all found properly labeled, they will be able to identify the chemical composition of the ingredients and find out what was used in the mummification! Archaeologists also found alabaster canopic vessels - which were meant to store the organs that were removed from the dead - and various ceramic funerary statuettes.

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