Oldest mummy found in Sakkara

An Egyptian team unearthed the oldest mummy in Sakkara last week. The 5,000-year-old corpse is an example of the first attempts at mummification, dating back to the First Dynasty in 3200 BC, the first year in the reign of King Hor Aga.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni told a press conference that the team also found a mud-brick tomb intact, probably of the same period.

Inside the tomb was a splendid wooden sarcophagus, considered one of the oldest. The wood is cedar, which the ancient Egyptian imported from Lebanon. The team has not yet been able to open the sarcophagus.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawas said that a new department has been established to be responsible for excavations in the Pyramids plateau.

Three teams have been assigned to the area to unearth new information about the age of the Pyramid-builders, Hawas said, adding that the first site was beside the tombs of the first dynasty, which were discovered by the British archaeologist Walter, who was puzzled by what he had found at the time, believing the tombs to be royal burial chambers.

But five years ago, it was that proved first dynasty kings were buried in Abydos in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag, whereas the tombs in Sakkara had been built for officials that lived in the time of the First Dynasty.

Hawas said that several brick tombs were found three metres down. They were blocked from inside with a row of sun-dried mud bricks. On opening the tomb for the first time in 50 centuries, Hawas found the skeleton of a man wrapped in linen and in the foetal position. In life, the man was possibly a dwarf.

Saleh Bedeir, supervisor of bone studies in the new department, said the skeleton is being X-rayed to determine the age of the deceased and cause of death.