The Ministry of Antiquities announced on Tuesday the discovery of three Ptolemaic tombs in the El-Kamin El-Sahrawi area, south east of Samalout Town, in Minia governorate.
Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Ministry Ayman Ashmawy explains that inside these tombs, excavators have unearthed a collection of sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes as well as clay fragments that date the tombs between the 27th Dynasty and the Greaco-Roman era.
“A fact suggests that the area was a great cemetery along a long span of time,” says Ashmawy.
Ali AlBakry, head of the mission, explains that the three newly discovered tombs have different architectural designs than the previously discovered ones.
He further explains that “the first tomb is composed of a perpendicular burial shaft engraved in the rock and leads to a burial chamber containing four sarcophagi with anthropoid lids. The second tomb consists of a perpendicular burial shaft and two burial chambers,” according to the statement of the ministry.
“This was the first time to find a burial of a child in Kamin Al-Sahrawi site,” adds AlBakry.
Excavation works at the third tomb has not finished yet.
AlBakry pointed out that studies carried out on bones show that the bones are for men, women, and children of different ages. This is a fact that affirms that these tombs were part of a large cemetery for a large city and not a military garrison as some suggest.
The first excavation mission started in 2015 when the mission unearthed a collection of five sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes as well as remains of a wooden sarcophagus.
The second session starts in October 2016 where five tombs were uncovered. Four of them have similar interior design while the fifth consists of a burial shaft.
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