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archeologist have discovered a 2,300 - year - old underground cemetery that hold burials of the mummified remains of priests who idolise the god Thoth . One priest was incur tire an talisman that suppose " Happy New Year " in Egyptian hieroglyphics .
In ancient Egypt , priests presided over spiritual ceremony and ritual dedicated to the god or goddess they worshipped .
At least 40 limestone sarcophagi that held mummified burials were discovered in the cemetery. One of them is pictured here.
light upon at the ancient Egyptian web site ofTuna el - Gebel , to the west of the Nile River , the cemetery contains numerous burial rotating shaft , and archaeologists expect the excavation will take about five class to complete , tell Egyptian antiquity minister Khaled El - Enany during a press league on Feb. 24 . [ See Photos of Mummies Discovered at Another Ancient Egyptian Cemetery ]
" We found at least 40 sarcophagi , " in summation to large amounts of pottery , jewelry , ' lucky charms ' [ artifact meant to add good luck ] and over 1,000 shabti figurines , El - Enany said . Shabti figurines are often found inancient Egyptianburials and were meant to do the work of the deceased in the afterlife , Egyptologist generally think .
Though archaeologist do n’t know the identities of all the deceased , they know at least some of the interment go to priests who idolise Thoth , the god who ancient Egyptians believed was the artificer of writing .
More than 1,000 shabti figurines, many of them made out of faience, were discovered in the cemetery. Shabtis are often found in ancient Egyptian burials to do the work of the deceased in the afterlife.
One mummy , thought to be a high non-Christian priest of Thoth , was find with an inscription saying that his name is " Djehuty - Irdy - Es , " the antiquities ministry tell in a command . His mummy was decorate with a bronze collar in the shape of the Egyptian sky goddess Nut . Numerous patrician and red drop also decorated his mummy ; inside the casket , archaeologists also found four talisman , one of which was engrave with Egyptianhieroglyphicsthat translate to " Happy New Year . "
The date of the ancient Egyptian New Year variegate , but around 2,300 years ago , it often took situation in July , many scholars consider .
archeologist from Cairo University have been excavating the many burying ground at Tuna el - Gebel for about 80 years . In 2017 , they discovered another burial site at the website that contained a series ofunderground catacombs . Both the 2017 and 2018 excavations were lead by Mostafa Waziri , the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities .
This canopic jars held the inner organs of one of the mummies discovered in the cemetery.
primitively published on Live Science .
