An intact Old Kingdom tomb belonging to a high-ranking Egyptian official has been uncovered in Saqqara’s Bubasteion Necropolis, according to reporting cited by Archaeology Magazine. The excavation also revealed a series of interconnected shafts containing additional burials and objects.
The tomb belonged to Sekhentio-Ptah and includes a funerary chapel and a false door inscribed with his official titles. These titles identify him as Royal Chamberlain, Overseer of All the Works of the King, and Keeper of the Secrets of Royal Decrees.
Among the most significant finds was a complete group of alabaster ritual objects, including an offering table, an offering slab and a purification basin. The objects were found in their original locations, a circumstance Hisham El-Leithy of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said could help researchers examine Old Kingdom funerary rituals and practices.
The burial shafts contained human remains, three sealed stone sarcophagi, a wooden falcon statue, pottery, painted funerary cartonnage and more than 100 faience ushabti figurines. Some of the shafts are thought to have been looted during antiquity, according to El-Leithy.
The tomb and associated burials date to Egypt’s Old Kingdom, a period described in the report as approximately 2649 to 2150 B.C. The discovery combines an undisturbed official’s tomb with evidence from later or associated burials in the connected shafts, although the supplied reporting does not establish the identities of the individuals recovered from them.
