An official from the Ministry of Antiquities and a specialist professor from Cairo University agreed in their interview with Sky News Arabia that this new archaeological treasure clearly reveals an aspect of the secrets of ancient Egypt, linked to the economy on which it is based. rested, and that there were the pillars of an integrated state and the mummification industry which did not happen randomly, but had foundations and rules. This part of the economy can be called a “loose economy”.
The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities revealed at an international press conference that the discovered treasure includes, in addition to the two embalming workshops, two tombs and a number of archaeological finds, and that the discovery occurred during the completion excavation works in the cemetery of the sacred animals (Pobastiens) in the area of ​​antiquities of Saqqara, for the sixth consecutive year.
According to what the ministry announced, the two workshops discovered are:
They date from the end of the XXXth dynasty and the beginning of the Ptolemaic era. Two Old and New Kingdom tombs were also discovered, in addition to a number of archaeological finds. The human embalming workshop, which has been revealed, is a rectangular mud-brick building, divided from the inside into several rooms containing two beds for human embalming. The dimensions of the bed vary from approximately two meters in length , one meter wide and 50 cm high, and it is made up of several stone blocks covered from above with a layer of mortar with slopes that end in a gutter. A large number of pottery utensils were discovered inside the workshop, including utensils in the form of meaning jars spread throughout the rooms, which may have been used in the mummification process. Some ritual tools and utensils, as well as a large amount of linen and black resin used in mummification, have been revealed, indicating that the mummification operations that were carried out in this workshop were intended for human beings. The animal mummification workshop is a rectangular building constructed of mud bricks, in the middle of which there is an entrance with a limestone floor from the inside, divided into a number of rooms and halls, where a large number of containers in pottery and some animal burials of various shapes and sizes have been discovered, and some tools have also been found Embalming animals, such as linen and some bronze tools. The workshop contains 5 limestone beds, which are embedded in the ground and are relatively different from those found in the human embalming workshop, and the study of the archaeological finds that have been revealed inside this workshop indicates that the workshop was most likely used in the mummification of sacred animals associated with the goddess Bastet. The two tombs that have been discovered, the first for a person named “Ni Hsut Ba”, who is one of the employees of the Old Kingdom era of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC) and holds many religious and administrative titles, the most important of which are chief of the ten of the south, director of the scribes, priest of the god Horus and the gods Ma’at, and the legal officer in charge of the incision of the canals and canals. The second cemetery is that of a character called “Man Khabar” from the New Kingdom era of the 18th dynasty (1400 BC). He had the title of priest of the goddess Kadesh, a foreign deity of Canaanite origin from the region of Syria who was revered in the city of Kadesh and worshiped in Egypt during the time of the 18th Dynasty. The deity of fertility and mistress of the stars of the heavens, of great charm.
What does this disclosure mean?
For his part, the head of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, Dr Ali Reda, told Sky News Arabia:
The discovery for the first time of the two largest and most complete mummification workshops reveals more of the mummification secrets of the Pharaohs. Second, it proves that ancient Egypt had a complete, self-contained state, and that mummification was not done by chance, but rather had a system, rules, and foundations. There were workshops, workers, priests and the whole industrial process of mummification, as part of the economy of the ancient Egyptian state. This discovery was made by Egyptian hands, not by foreign missions, which means that all the secrets that are reached about the nature of the ancient Egyptian state become entirely in our hands.
Professor of Egyptian Antiquities at Cairo University, Dr Ahmed Badran, agreed with him in his interview with Sky News Arabia that:
The importance of the discovery lies in the knowledge of the embalming workshops, which was one of the most important characteristics of the ancient Egyptian civilization, and which for a long time remained one of the secrets of this great civilization. In addition to revealing the tools and mummification materials used, the identity of the embalming workers, the competent administration, the burial methods used in ancient Egypt and the countries from which certain mummification materials were brought, such as Africa and Central Asia, are examined. This discovery now reveals to us a secret about the vital and important economy of ancient Egypt, which is the “graveyard economy” in terms of making colored and engraved wooden coffins and embalming bodies according to the ancient egyptian belief. The targeted cemetery economy was an institution consisting of several departments, with each department specializing in a specific cemetery-related work, burial operations, coffin making, body mummification, grave engraving, and writing. of papyri which are placed with the deceased, like the papyrus. to come out on the day known as the Book of the Dead. Added to this was the manufacture and supply of linen for embalming, oils, resins, glues, essential oils and natron salt, which means that it is a economy based on death, for which the ancient Egyptian prepared by making a cemetery. , sculpting a statue and mummifying the body because he strongly believed in the idea of ​​resurrection after death and eternity.
It should be noted that the Egyptian-German mission led by the late Dr. Ramadan Badri Hussein revealed the first mummification workshop in Saqqara, south of the King’s Pyramid and Nice, in 2016.
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