The Fiji Instances » Historical Egypt excavation uncovers 2,000 mummified ram heads at Abydos

CAIRO (Reuters) – Not less than 2,000 mummified ram heads relationship from the Ptolemaic interval and a palatial Previous Kingdom construction have been uncovered on the temple of Ramses II within the historic metropolis of Abydos in southern Egypt, antiquities officers mentioned on Saturday.

Mummified ewes, canines, wild goats, cows, gazelles, and mongooses had been discovered within the temple together with the ram heads, that are regarded as votive choices indicating persevering with reverence for Ramses II on the website about 1,000 years after his demise, an announcement from the tourism and antiquities ministry mentioned.

It added that the discoveries would increase data of the positioning over a interval of greater than two millennia as much as the Ptolemaic interval. The Ptolemaic interval spanned about three centuries till the Roman conquest in 30 B.C.

Abydos, situated within the Egyptian governorate of Sohag about 270 miles (435 km) south of Cairo, is one in every of Egypt’s main although lesser visited archaeological websites.

It was a necropolis for early historic Egyptian royalty and a pilgrimage centre for the worship of the god Osiris.

Excavations had been carried out by a mission from New York College’s Institute for the Examine of the Historical World.

Alongside the mummified animal stays, the staff uncovered a big palatial construction with partitions roughly 5 meters thick from the Previous Kingdom’s sixth dynasty, along with a number of statues, papyri, historic tree stays, leather-based clothes and footwear.

The construction might assist “reestablish the sense of the traditional panorama of Abydos earlier than the development of the Ramses II temple,” the pinnacle of the mission, Sameh Iskander, was quoted as saying.

(Writing by Adam Makary; Enhancing by Aidan Lewis)