More re painted coffins

Monsters and Critics

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered painted wooden coffins that date to the era of Ramses II (1279-1212 BC), Egypt's antiquities chief said Thursday.

'These coffins were found in tombs of senior officials near Saqqara,' and some of them dated to the sixth century BC, said Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Head of the archaeological team, Ola al-Ogeizi, said several statues representing the owners of the coffins were also found in the tombs, indicating that more than one person was to be buried in each tomb.

State Information Service

A group of colored wooden sarcophagi of the ancient Egyptian Late Period, the 6th century BC, have been unearthed, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said on Thursday 26/6/2008.

"The sarcophagi, of some priests and senior employees, were discovered during the Cairo University's Archaeology College mission in the area of Saqqara near the upward path leading to the pyramid of King Unas," said Hosni.

Unas (also Wenis, Oenas, Unis, or Ounas) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, and one of the rulers of the Old Kingdom. His reign has been dated as falling between 2375 BC and 2345 BC. Unas is believed to have had two queens, Khenut and Nebit, based on their burials near his tomb. With his death, the Fifth Dynasty came to an end.

Zahi Hawwas, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the mission found colored vessels for intestines, a wooden box and remains of the colored wooden sarcophagus of Maie, a writer from the era of King Ramses II of the 19th Dynasty (1304-1237 BC).