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 

6-foot Sekhmet statue unearthed in Mut temple

Dr.Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister State of Antiquities, announced that the A.R.C.E (American Research Center in Egypt) mission working in Mut temple in the Karnak complex in co-operation with Ministry of Antiquities, unearthed a granite statue of Goddess Sekhmet dated back to the time of Amenhotep III.

The 180cm tall statue represents Goddess Sekhmet in a human body with a lioness head crowned with the Sun disc and cobra holding an Ankh in her right hand and Lotus flower in her left hand. It was unearthed during the installing of floor tiles in the second court of the temple.

 

 

Mansour Boraik said “The statue id the first statue of Sekhmet standing to be found in Mut’s temple as the temple hosts a large number of statues of Sekhment seated representing Mut the wife of Amon Re.”

In May 2012, ARCE and Ministry State of Antiquities begun a project to restore and develop Mut temple and the surrounding area to open for public as it was closed since 1976 when ARCE started excavation and conservation work.

The project includes restoration of reliefs, establishing a visitor’s centre and a documentary about the role of Goddess Mut in Ancient Egypt to be screened at the centre.

The original plan for the project was a year and it is planned to be open for public in March in line with the opening of a part of the Sphinx Avenue between Luxor and Karnak temples.

 For more on ARCE work in Egypt in 2012 including Luxor, please click here