Iron Age · c. 1070–715 BC · Qurna, Luxor, Luxor Governorate, Egypt
Cache of 22 painted coffins and sealed papyri found at Luxor, Egypt
The coffins still hold their mummies, date to Egypt's Third Intermediate Period, and most bear titles, chiefly 'singer of Amun', instead of their owners' names.
Official announcement
Qurna, Luxor, Egypt An Egyptian mission has found a rock-cut chamber holding 22 painted wooden coffins with their mummies still inside. The chamber also held eight papyri sealed in a pottery jar. It is at Qurna, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor.
The burials date to the Third Intermediate Period, roughly 1070 to 715 BC. Most of the coffins carry titles instead of personal names. The most frequent is singer or chanter of Amun.
A joint team from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Zahi Hawass Foundation made the find. The team was digging in the southwestern corner of the courtyard of the tomb of Seneb. Sherif Fathi, Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, announced the discovery. He said the ministry is supervising the restoration and documentation work now under way.
Coffins stacked in ten rows
Zahi Hawass is the mission director and a former Minister of Antiquities. He said the rectangular chamber was cut into the rock as a collective funerary store. The coffins lay in several layers.
Space in the chamber was limited. To fit the coffins in, the people who placed them stacked them in ten horizontal rows and set the lids apart from the boxes. The team also recovered a group of pottery vessels. It interprets them as containers for leftover materials from mummification.
The excavators regard the chamber as a secondary burial place. Afifi Rahim supervises the fieldwork. He said digging will continue in the surrounding area to find the original tombs from which the bodies were moved.
According to La Brújula Verde, Rahim suggested the transfer may have happened during a reorganisation of the Theban cemeteries in the Late Period. The same outlet reports that the original tombs may have been looted or reused in later periods.
The Third Intermediate Period covers the 21st to 25th Dynasties. These were the centuries after the New Kingdom, when Egypt was divided between Libyan dynasties, Nubian rulers and the priests of Amun at Thebes. Thebes was the ancient city on the site of modern Luxor.
Hawass described the assemblage as an extraordinary event. He said it gives insight into the ritual practices of a phase in which many aspects remain to be clarified.
Coffins give titles, not names
Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the team is working to identify the dead. It is also working to establish the circumstances of their burial. That is difficult because most inscriptions on the coffins give religious or administrative titles rather than names.
The most common title is chanter, or singer, of Amun. El-Leithy reads this as a sign that the group belonged to a body of musicians and reciters. They served the cult of the Theban god.
The wood is in poor condition. La Brújula Verde reports damage from damp and insects. The mission's conservators carried out urgent treatment before moving the coffins.
The conservators treated decayed wood fibres and consolidated painted plaster layers that were coming loose. They also cleaned off soil mechanically without harming the bright paint.
Every piece is being recorded in photographs and plans. These records will allow the team to reconstruct where each object lay in the chamber. They will also show how the burial layers relate to one another.
Rahim said the mummies offer anthropological material even without names. He said it should yield information on health, diet and the mummification techniques of the period.
Sealed papyri still unread
The eight papyri were found together inside a large pottery vessel. They vary in size, and some still have their original clay seals. Their contents are not yet known. The rolls must first be restored, conserved and translated in the laboratory.
La Brújula Verde reports that initial analyses suggest they may be versions of the Book of the Dead or other funerary religious texts. Administrative or literary records have not been ruled out.
The ministry says the coffins and papyri will go on display in Egyptian museums once restoration is complete. It names the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization or the Grand Egyptian Museum as possible venues. Part of the find may stay in Luxor for the museums on the west bank.
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