4,300 Year Old "Double Tomb" Discovered at Saqqara

From Isis via her cell phone - thanks Sis.

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Pyramid Construction Supervisor's Tomb Found
(More coverage on the story can be found at Yahoo News)

Egyptian archaeologists unveiled on Thursday two rock-hewn painted tombs belonging to a man who had a supervising role in the construction of pyramids -- and his son.

It's considered among the most distinguished Old Kingdom tombs.

Dating from around 4,300 years old, the burials feature vividly colored wall paintings -- as fresh as if they were just painted. They were found in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo by an Egyptian team working in the area since 1986.

Dr. , Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the leader of the excavation, said that the tombs belonged to a father, Shendwa, and his son, Khonsu.

Consisting of a false door with paintings depicting scenes of the deceased seated before an offering table, Shendwa’s tomb featured inscriptions with the different titles of the tomb’s owner. (Caption: The false door of the unearthed tomb of Shendwas, father of Khonsu who both served as heads of the royal scribes during the Old Kingdom, is decorated with a painting depicting the owner sitting at a sacrifice table, in Saqqara near Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, July 8, 2010. I don't recall seeing an offering table with this kind of monolithic BLOCK on it before!  What on earth is that?  Offering tables are usually either laid out with tall "bread" that is a take-off on the board game of Senet, or piled high with fruits, joints of meat, bread, dishes, bowls, etc.)
According to the inscriptions, Shendwa was a top governmental official during the Sixth Dynasty (2374-2191 B.C.). He was the head of the royal scribes and the supervisor of the missions managing the materials used for pyramid construction.

Beneath the false door, 20 meters below the ground level, the archaeologists found the burial chamber.

“When Dr. Hawass descended into the tomb he realized that it was intact and had not previously been plundered by tomb robbers. Unfortunately Shendwa’s wooden sarcophagus had disintegrated due to humidity and erosion,” Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement.

In the burial chamber, Hawass found a collection of limestone jars which included five offering vessels carved in the shape of a duck.

“The bones of the ducks were still intact,” said Hawass.

The most important object found in the burial chamber was a 30-centimeter-high limestone obelisk. “This obelisk is a symbol of worshiping the sun god Re,” said Hawass, adding that during the Old Kingdom, a period also known as the age of pyramids, the Egyptians used to erect small obelisks in front of their tombs.

Next to Shendwa’s tomb, the archaeologists found the burial of his son Khonsu. Beautifully painted, it also featured a false door inscribed with Khonsu’s titles. “It appears that Khonsu inherited the same titles as his father,” Hawass said.

The tomb also contained an offering table and a stone lintel engraved with 6th Dynasty symbols.

Above the false door, there was was a brightly colored relief showing of the deceased Khonsu in different poses, Hawass said.

The tombs lie in an area known as“Gisr El-Mudir,” west of Saqqara's famous pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. According to the archaeologists, the discovery of the two tombs could lead to unearthing a vast cemetery in the area.

Cache of Artifacts Found at Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Information from The Egyptian Gazette - undated, I presume today or tomorrow? - isn't Egypt several time zones ahead of us timewise? Another Cache Unearthed in National Museum Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed another cache near the Western gate of the National Museum in Cairo, Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said yesterday. Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the cache contained a table made of limestone, a fragment of a slab with hieroglyphic inscriptions, some stones, and the base of a pharaonic pillar, which date back to the pharaonic period around 1,300 years BC." This type of slab was quite widespread during the era of the Pharaohs, who used it to mark a special occasion,” Hawass said.“The slab shows the head of a cobra," Hawass said, adding that foreign archaeologists were in the habit of burying antiquities they had considered 'useless' in the Museum's garden. The antiquities will be analysed, said Hawass, who has been supervising a project for giving a facelift to the Museum. The project, which is near completion, includes upgrading the museum and adding new, showrooms, meeting rooms, a library, a bookshop and a cafeteria.

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I find this piece (identified in the article as: Unearthed: The slab that was unearthed near the Western gate of the National Museum in Cairo yesterday) utterly fascinating! I'm no expert, but I've looked at probably a thousand photographs and images of Egyptian artifacts during the past ten years as well as exhibits in museums, and I don't recall seeing this kind of "slab" with a cobra's head etched into it. This "slab" is set up in the form of an offering table that I've seen many times. There's that little "tail" (that's what I call it), with a trench in it that was meant to siphon off wine or beer that was poured as a libation by the deceased's descendants over the surface of the "table." Most of the offering tables were not very large, and it's impossible to tell what the dimensions of this one is from the photograph. I do not recall seeing such a slab or an offering table with a serpent on its face, though! The serpent reminds me of Egypt's two most ancient board games: Senet, with it's "serpentine" path that the pieces follow around the board that leads to each piece's promotion into the ancient equivalent of "Heaven;" and the even older Mehen, predynastic, with carved stone boards shaped in the form of a spiraled serpent. Perhaps this is a hybrid between an offering table and a gameboard? Unfortunately, the photograph is poor, and it's difficult to tell if there might be places on the board where pieces (offerings) might have been placed - but, am I imagining it? Are those squares I see along the left side?