ARCE team is on fire. Second 18th Dynasty tomb to be discovered in aweek

Minister of Antiquities announced the new discovery of a new tomb by ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt) in Qurna on the west bank of Luxor.

ARCE team has successfully unearthed today the second tomb in a week to the East of TT110 where ARCE team was originally working on restoration and conservation of TT110 funded by USAID.

The newly discovered tomb dated to New Kingdom, 18^th Dynasty and it belongs to a person called “Satmut” and his wife who is called “Ta-kh-at”.

The tomb walls has many daily life scenes in a good condition except the deliberate erasing of inscriptions and texts which is probably happened in ancient times.   

This new discovery alongside the tomb discovered last week, will open the door to new discoveries in the near future which require more work to unveil new scientific and archaeological facts.

According to Egyptian archaeologist “Ali El Henawi”, team member of ARCE “The newly discovered tomb is located to the east of TT110 and share the same courtyard. The tomb door is to the south of the first tomb and it has an oblong hall with a shaft filled of debris. “

#Egypt #ARCE #USAID #Luxor #Archaeology #Egyptology #History #Discovery

Photos are courtesy of Ministry of Antiquities

ARCE unearth 18th Dynasty tomb in Qurna

The ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt) team working at TT110 had unearthed a new tomb in Qurna while cleaning the courtyard of tomb TT110. 

The discovered tomb is located to the east of TT110 and it belongs to an official called "Amenhotep" who held the title of "God Amun gatekeeper".

The tomb is a T shape tomb measures 5.1meters in length and 1.5 meters in width. There is also a side room connected by a hallway. The hallway is 2.5 meters length and 2.1 width and the small side room is 2 meters by 2 meters with a shaft in the middle of the room which probably leads to the burial chamber.

The tomb walls show scenes of the owner of the tomb with his wife in front of offering table and also daily life scenes such as farming.

The tomb walls show deliberate erasing of the God Amun name which indicated according to Mr. Sultan Eid, director of Luxor Antiquities, that the religious revolution at the time of Akhenaton affected this tomb directly.

 #Egypt #Egyptology #Archaeology #Discovery #LuxorTimes #ARCE

Photos are courtesy of MSA 

Marina to be opened in September

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Following years of restoration and development, the Marina el-Alamein archaeological site on the north coast, will be opened in mid-September.

Minister of Culture, Farouk Honsy, announced the projected opening tuesday and he added that a high tech lighting system had been installed through the entire site, which would permit visitors to view el-Alamein in the evening.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the site include Roman villas and baths, as well as Greco-Roman markets, remains of a church, tombs, streets and a Roman theatre.

Hawass continued that the site of el-Alamein was once the most important and well-known port during the Greco-Roman era and it is the first archaeological site on the north coast to be developed as a tourist friendly site.  

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Dr. Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, Head of the Central Administration of Lower Egypt, said that the entrance fee for the site will be 5LE for Egyptians and 2,50LE for Egyptian students in order to encourage local tourism. He added that the site is capable of hosting visitors at day and night, which is very unique. Abdel Maqsoud explained that the Graeco-Roman name of el-Alamein was “Locasiss,” which means “the white shell.” It got this name because of the softness and the white colour of its sand. The goddess of love, Aphrodite, was worshipped there and the statues found of her on the site show her emerging from a white shell, in reference to its name. Abdel Maqsoud added that the entire site of Mina el-Alamein had been redone as part of the SCA’s plan to develop archaeological sites along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. 

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Dr. Sabri Abdel Aziz, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Department, said that Marina el-Alamein is the largest archaeological site on the north coast and stretches a length of 189 feddans. Over the last ten years, the SCA has carried out several excavations at the site, in addition to restoration and conservation projects with the collaboration of the Polish Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE).