Daily Archives: January 21, 2012

archaeologists have unearthed an ancient Egyptian noblewoman’s large stone coffin while they were digging a site near crumbling pyramid of Unas in Saqqara built during the reign of Ramses II. Named Sekhemet Nefret, the coffin is said to be built more than 600 years before the nobleman’s death and it is the first find from Egypt’s 27th dynasty. The stones of which the walls of the burial shaft was made are said to date from the even earlier reign of the pharaoh Djoser, who was buried in Saqqara’s distinctive step pyramid. The coffin was found empty and archaeologists believe that the body had been stolen by grave robbers. The inscription on coffin identified the noblewoman as the mother of a priest who presided over a cult devoted to Pharaoh Menkaure, the 4th-dynasty king who was buried in the third biggest Pyramid of Giza. This finding made archaeologists believe that noblewoman lived in the 5th-century B.C. and was buried in a coffin built in the 12th century B.C., in a shaft made with carved stone slabs from the 26th century B.C. The coffin is believed to have been used by Nefret’s family for burials well into Egypt’s 30th dynasty. Source: National Geographic News