Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | Feb 2023

ART NEWS
The discovery of 60 mummies near
Luxor, Egypt, indicates an elaborate burial site
According to Spanish press sources, a
group of Spanish archaeologists has
found tombs in the ancient Egyptian
city of Luxor that contain some 60
mummies. The Vizier Amenhotep Huy Project,
a Spanish archaeological mission, found the
tombs late last year in the southern Egyptian
city, according to a video released on YouTube
by the Spanish news agency Efe.
Francisco Martin-Valentin, director of the
Madrid-based Institute of Ancient Egyptian
Studies, and Teresa Bedman, the institute’s
co-director, served as the mission’s leaders.
An associated piece from Efe was also shared
on Twitter by the Institute of Ancient Egyptian
Studies.
According to Martin-Valentin, Amenhotep-Huy,
who served as the vizier (a high-ranking official)
under pharaoh Amenhotep III, is connected to
the two tombs, which were constructed after
the 18th dynasty (1550-1292 BC). The vizier’s
tomb, a chapel with 30 columns, is connected
to the recently found tombs by two rooms.
According to Martin-Valentin, “In the excavations
of two secondary tombs existing in the courtyard
of the main tomb of the Vizier Amen-Hotep Huy
(Asasif no -28), stripped mummies—more or
less complete—and parts of mummies have
been found, which after the examination of our
anthropologists testify to belong to about 60
individuals, originally buried in these tombs.”
The latest discoveries, according to Martin-
Valentin, “suggest that the vizier’s tomb at
some time became a necropolis.” From the
archaeological context, he explains, “We can
affirm that the individuals recovered belong
to familial units of, or are connected to, the
medium-high clergy of Amun of Karnak.”
A sarcophagus adorned with the Pharaoh
Amun is among the items from the vizier’s
tomb that are now on show in a Luxor Museum
exhibition. According to Martin-Valentin, the
archaeological mission will pick back up at the
end of September when six columns from the
vizier’s chapel have been rebuilt.
- news@magzoid.com
We can affirm that the individuals
recovered belong to familial units of,
or are connected to, the medium-high
clergy of Amun of Karnak.
www.magzoid.com February 2023
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