2,600-year-old graves — filled with artifacts — uncovered in Egypt. See the discovery
On the northern coast of Egypt at the mouth of a Nile distributary river, the port city of Damietta overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.
Dating back to ancient dynasties and kingdoms, the city was a center for foreign trade and is now the backdrop of an archaeological discovery.
More than five dozen burials have been unearthed dating back thousands of years, according to a July 23 news release from the Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Most of the graves were brick tombs, officials said, but a few simple burials were also found.
The site is called the Tell al-Deir necropolis, officials said in a July 25 news release.
The graves date to the Late Period, which lasted 139 years from 664-525 B.C., according to the University College London.
The architectural planning of the graves is a model that was commonly used and spread across ancient Egypt during that time period, officials said, and it may help to establish some of the early history of the city of Damietta.
Within the tombs, archaeologists discovered funeral pyres, pottery and statues of Ushabti, figures designed to look like mummified people that were placed within the tomb. Based on Egyptian mythology, the statues would come to life with the person buried in the tomb when they entered the afterlife, and the statue acted as a kind of servant to the deceased, according to the Getty Museum.
In a pottery vase, bronze coins from the Baltic era were discovered, according to the release, highlighting the likely commerce and exchange that occurred across cities on the Mediterranean coast.
Coins dated to a later era, the Ptolemaic period, were also discovered, officials said. The Ptolemaic began in 323 B.C., lasted until the Romans and is generally considered the last dynasty of ancient Egypt, according to the University College London.
Officials did not disclose the presence or condition of any human remains found at the site.
Damietta is on the northeastern coast of Egypt in the Nile Delta.
Facebook Translate was used to translate the news releases from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 2:44 PM with the headline "2,600-year-old graves — filled with artifacts — uncovered in Egypt. See the discovery."
