"Festive" coffin with 3000-year-old mummy of high priest's daughter found in Egypt (photo)
In Egypt, archaeologists have discovered an ancient cemetery that is more than 3000 years old. The daughter of the high priest was buried here and mummies have been preserved.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Antiquities of Egypt, the cemetery was found in the necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel in Minya province. This cemetery was created during the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (16th-11th centuries BC). High-ranking officials and priests were buried there.
Read more: One of the oldest human sculptures discovered in Turkey (photo)
In addition to the mummies, stone and wooden coffins were unearthed here, some of which contained mummies, amulets, jewelry, and funerary figurines.
The researchers were most interested in the "festive coffin". It contained the mummy of the daughter of the high priest, the high priest of the ancient Egyptian god Djeguti, often called Thoth.
Read more: Scientists find out when people started burying their dead
This deity, usually depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a peacock, was a key figure in ancient Egyptian mythology and played several prominent roles. For example, Thoth was credited with the invention of writing and is also believed to have served as a representative of the sun god Ra.
Next to the coffin of the high priest's daughter, archaeologists found two wooden boxes with canopic jugs, as well as a complete set of "ushabti" statues.
Canopic jars are vessels that the ancient Egyptians used to store organs removed from the body during the mummification process, such as lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach. They were to be stored for the afterlife.
The Ushabti statues were figures used in the funerary practice of ancient Egypt, which were placed in tombs in the belief that they would serve the deceased in the afterlife.
Earlier, scientists learned that cavemen could hibernate.
If you want to get thelatest news about the war and events in Ukraine, subscribe to our Telegram channel!