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Spanish archaeologists find 4,400-year-old tomb in Egypt with original colours intact
Euronews.com • • world
Key Points:
- A Spanish-Egyptian archaeological team led by Josep Cervelló has discovered a well-preserved tomb from Egypt’s late Fifth Dynasty (2494–2345 BC) in Saqqara, southwest of Cairo, featuring two funerary chapels for Yunmen, a senior official, and his father Iti.
- The mastaba, located in the Mariette necropolis, contains high-quality architraves, funerary texts, and colorful reliefs depicting agricultural scenes, processions, and animals, providing valuable insights into the art, architecture, and administrative life of the period.
- The tomb’s richness and decorative quality surprised archaeologists, highlighting Yunmen’s social rise from a provincial official’s son to a central administration figure who chose to share his burial with his father.
- This excavation contributes to understanding Saqqara not just as a burial site but as a dynamic space where ancient Egyptians lived, worked, and maintained funerary practices, complementing earlier 19th-century discoveries by Auguste Mariette.
