Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Another cache found in the Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian Gazette

I'm not sure whether this is the same cache referred to a couple of days ago or a new one. Some of the details seem similar but there is additional information.

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed another cache near the Western gate of the National Museum in Cairo, Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said yesterday.

Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the cache contained a table made of limestone, a fragment of a slab with hieroglyphic inscriptions, some stones, and the base of a pharaonic pillar, which date back to the pharaonic period around 1,300 years BC.

"This type of slab was quite widespread during the era of the Pharaohs, who used it to mark a special occasion,” Hawass said. “The slab shows the head of a cobra," Hawass said, adding that foreign archaeologists were in the habit of burying antiquities they had considered 'useless' in the Museum's garden. The antiquities will be analysed, said Hawass, who has been supervising a project for giving a facelift to the Museum.

The project, which is near completion, includes upgrading the museum and adding new, showrooms, meeting rooms, a library, a bookshop and a cafeteria.

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