2500-Year-Old Sarcophagus Opened for the first time in Middle Egypt

Remember the sarcophagus was discovered in September and we published the story behind its discovery?

well, the Egyptian archaeological team working at Ghorifa site in Tuna El Gebel opened the sarcophagus of “Djehuty Emhotep”, high priest of 26th Dynasty which was discovered by the team recently.

During the team’s fourth season of excavation at the site, a burial shaft was discovered.

After clearing the debris filling the shaft, limestone sarcophagus was found and a number of faience ushabtis.

The sarcophagus is in a good state of preservation and it has depictions of the sons of God Horus (Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qubehsenuef).

Preliminary studies show the name of the sarcophagus owner is “Djehuty Emhotep” of the 26th dynasty who held the titles of “Great of the Five” and “Supervisor of the Thrones”.

He is the son of Hersa Est whose sarcophagus was unearthed by the sane team in their first season at the site in 2018.

This discovery comes as an addition to the previous discoveries by the same team of various family burials of High Priest of God Djehuty and the high officials of the 15th nomes of Ancient Egypt besides 19 tombs contain 70 sarcophagi of different sizes and funerary furniture. More about it from September (https://www.facebook.com/luxortimesmagazine/posts/1454720771381096)

Dr. Mostafa Waziry explained that during inspecting the sarcophagus a number of amulets including heart scarab, winged scarab, Goddess Hathor amulet as well as other amulets represent Horus 4 sons.

The team also discovered another burial shaft 10 meters deep. Down the shaft, a big burial chamber that has rock-cut niches padded with stone slabs which the team will remove to reveal what’s behind them.