Recent Discoveries at Saqqara

A review/overview of a couple recent discoveries at Saqqara: Newly-Discovered Pharaonic Tombs Near Cairo Are 4,300 Years Old The Saqqara necropolis is larger than first thought By Tudor Vieru, Science Editor 23rd of December 2008, 11:45 GMT A new pair of Pharaonic tombs that were recently dug up at the Saqqara necropolis near Cairo prove that the ancient burial grounds are far more widespread than previously thought. The two new tombs actually belonged to high-ranking officials in the old Egyptian dynasties. The nation's top archaeologist says that one of them was built in the honor of the master of the stone quarries, where building materials for the neighboring, larger pyramids were harvested from, while the other belongs to a woman who was most likely in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs. "We announce today a major, important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300 years ago. The discovery of the two tombs are [sic] the beginning of a big, large cemetery," Zahi Hawass, the archaeologist in charge of the dig told reporters on Monday, during a media tour of the ancient ruins. He added that the portion of ground that was just excavated, near two large pyramids that were the focus of the dig, was largely left untouched up to this point. The new discovery "shows that the blank areas of the maps of Saqqara aren't really empty at all. It's just that archaeologists haven't got round to digging them," added University of Bristol's Department of Archeology and Anthropology research fellow, Aidan Dodson, who is also part of the international team. The necropolis at Saqqara has been constantly excavated for the last 150 years, and yet, there are numerous discoveries made each season. Recently, Egypt's 118th pyramid was discovered here, bringing the grand total of such constructions unearthed at the site alone to 12. Carbon dating showed that while some of the funerary monuments were built millennia ago, others are as recent as the time of the Roman Empire, which means that the site has a very long standing tradition of housing important Egyptian figures. Official national estimates say that, thus far, only 30 percent of the monuments belonging to the history of Egypt have been uncovered, with the rest still under the hot sands. Archaeological work now focuses on several major sites, where the chances of finding structures are fairly large, as proven by the two new finds.