About a year ago, my team conducted a survey and began excavations in an area known as the Gisr El-Mudir at Saqqara. “Gisr El-Mudir” means “bridge of the director” – the name refers to the fact that, many years ago, an expedition director used to pitch his tent nearby.

There is a large, Early Dynastic stone enclosure under the desert in this area, and it is very exciting to learn that there has also been an undiscovered Old Kingdom cemetery lying below the sand all these years, waiting to be discovered. A few months ago, we announced the discovery of two new tombs. One belonged to a man named Iya-maat, who directed missions sent to retrieve materials for the construction of the pyramid of Unas (ca. 2353-2323 BC). The other belonged to a 5th Dynasty woman named Thinh, whose title was “chief of all the singers.” We also recently discovered the  6th Dynasty mud-brick mastaba tomb of a man named Sennedjem. Behind the chapel of this tomb, which contains an inscribed false door, a shaft about 11 meters deep and 2.75 meters square was dug into the rock of the plateau. This shaft ends in a sizeable burial chamber. To the east, inside the chapel itself, another shaft was dug into the same burial chamber during the 26th, or Saite, Dynasty (ca. 2353-2323 BC).

To reach the burial chamber, you have to either climb down a narrow ladder, or ride a simple rope lift. Either way, it is dangerous, and quite thrilling! When you reach the bottom, as your eyes adjust to the dim light, you realize that you have stepped into a sepulcher that is filled with the remains of people who died some 2,500 years ago – we estimate that some thirty individuals were buried in this chamber during the 26th Dynasty!

The remains are placed in five niches, the floors of which are at about waist height. Three were carved into the eastern wall of the burial chamber, and two into the northern wall. It is strange to see the jumble of mummies in these niches. They have deteriorated badly over the centuries, and are now little more than skeletons. In one of the niches on the eastern wall, four bodies lie in a neat line, with the remains of a dog resting at their heads – perhaps this was a favorite pet? On the floor of the tomb, we found four limestone sarcophagi, and four anthropoid wooden coffins. The coffins are quite beautiful. One is inscribed with a formula known as the djed-medu, or “words to be spoken,” for a man named Padi-heri, who was the son of Djehuty-sesh-nub and the grandson of Iru-ru.

On Wednesday, February 9th, I opened the sealed lid of one of the limestone sarcophagi. It was amazing to see the press from around the world gathered inside the tomb to see what we would find when we looked inside. The lid was broken in antiquity, probably when it was lowered into the deep shaft, and repaired at the same time that the sarcophagus was sealed. The lid split along the ancient repair line when we opened it. When we removed the pieces, an intact mummy was revealed, wrapped in the typical style of the 26th Dynasty. We will take the mummy to the Egyptian Museum for a CT scan. In addition to what we may be able to learn about the health of the individual, we may be able to see the many amulets that were wrapped with the deceased in ancient to protect them on their journey to the next world. I am sure that there are many more discoveries awaiting us in this cemetery, and I hope that I will soon be able to share more news with everyone from this amazing site!