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Nevine al-Aref – Ahram Online
A collection of rock-carved tombs was uncovered in the Al-Hamidiyah necropolis, East of Sohag on Tuesday 11 May. The tombs were uncovered accidentally during an archaeological survey carried out at the necropolis to document the area.
“The tombs have different architectural styles and are dug at several levels in the mountain. They include tombs with one or several burial shafts and some have slope corridors, which end with burial shafts. These tombs extend to time periods ranging from the end of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Ptolemaic period”, according to Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“Among the discovered tombs, the mission found a sloping tomb dating back to the end of the Old Kingdom. It consists of a false door and an entrance leading to a gallery with a burial shaft in the Southeast, which was reused in later times”, Waziri added.
The false door is inscribed with the remains of hieroglyphic text and scenes depicting the owner of the tomb performing sacrifices and people making offerings to the deceased.
Mohamed Abdel-Badiaa, head of the Central Department of Upper Egypt Antiquities, said, “the excavation work in the necropolis resulted in the discovery of many pottery vessels. Some of the vessels were used in daily life and others for funerary purposes as miniature symbolic deposits, known as votive miniatures”.
Small size spherical vessels with traces of yellowish paint on the outside were found. The mission unearthed several small-sized alabaster and pottery vessels, remains of a round metal mirror, human and animal bones, and many pottery fragments which represent amphorae dating back to the Late Period. Remains of limestone bearing inscriptions which may represent funerary plates of tomb owners dating back to the end of the Sixth Dynasty were also found.
The archaeological survey documented more than 300 cemeteries in the area, which stretches from Nag Al-Sheikhs in the South to Al-Kharandariyah in the North.
This collection of tombs belong to the rulers and employees of the ninth region of Upper Egypt, which is considered one of the important administrative centres of ancient Egypt. The importance of the area is owed to its location between the exiled capital and Aswan, as well as the vicinity of the city of Abydos, which is the centre of the worship of the god ‘Osir’.
The main centre of the region was the city of Akhmim, and the main deity of the region was the god ‘Min’. More graves are expected to be uncovered before the project is completed.
