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Archaeologists Have Uncovered A 3,500 Year Old Ancient Egyptian Tomb

Archaeologists Have Uncovered A 3,500 Year Old Ancient Egyptian Tomb

Egyptian authorities are praising this as a big find.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

A team of archaeologists has discovered the burial chamber and tomb of an ancient Egyptian royal goldsmith and other carefully preserved bodies. The discovery happened at the Draa Abul Naga necropolis, near the city of Luxor which is roughly 400 miles (700km) south of Cairo.

It's understood the tomb contained the remains of goldsmith Amenemhat and his wife, while another shaft led teams to find another mummy and her two sons. According to the BBC, the chamber dates to around the 16th to 11th century BCE, meaning it could possibly be 3,500 years ago.

Egypt tomb
Egypt tomb

Credit: PA

Egypt tomb
Egypt tomb

Credit: PA

Tests have revealed that the female mummy died around the age of 50, which defies life expectancy rates of that time. UCL researchers estimate the average age of death of men in that period was 34 and 30 for women, providing they were lucky not to succumb to an infection during childhood, which was very common. The woman's two sons died in their 20s and 30s.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani says: "We found many objects of the funerary equipment inside and outside the tomb. We found mummies, coffins, funerary combs, funerary masks, some jewellery, and statue.

"The work did not finish yet."

Egypt tomb
Egypt tomb

Credit: PA

Egypt tomb
Egypt tomb

Credit: PA

About a dozen cemeteries were found in Luxor earlier this year near the southern city of Aswan, which date back to around the same time as the Draa Abul Naga necropolis tomb.

Mr al-Anani is hoping that the Egyptian-led discovery will allow them to find more tombs: "I believe, inshallah, for the coming season, we are going to do our excavations. We are going to do our excavations in this area.

"So I believe we can find one, or two or maybe four if we are going to be very lucky, four of them in this area."

There's a reason why discoveries like these are so valuable to Egypt. While they are priceless and help historians piece together what happened during that time, it also results in a big wave of tourism. According to the Daily Mail, tourism revenues skyrocketed 170 percent for the first seven months of 2017, which amounts to $3.5 billion (£2.65 billion).

Sources: BBC, UCL, Daily Mail, Telegraph

Featured Image Credit: PA

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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