Belgians find tomb of ancient Egypt courtier

[Owlscrying]

May 20

CAIRO - Belgian archaeologists have discovered the intact tomb of an Egyptian courtier who lived about 4,000 years ago, Egypt's culture ministry said on Sunday.

The team accidentally found the tomb, one of the best preserved of its time, while excavating a later burial site at the Deir al-Barsha necropolis near the Nile Valley town of Minya, south of Cairo.

The tomb belonged to Henu, an estate manager and high-ranking official during the first intermediate period, which lasted from 2181 to 2050 BC and was a time of political chaos in ancient Egypt.

The archaeologists found Henu's mummy wrapped in linen in a large wooden coffin and a sarcophagus decorated with hieroglyphic texts addressed to the gods Anubis and Osiris.

The tomb contained well-preserved painted wooden statuettes of workers making bricks, women making beer and pounding cereal, and a model of a boat with rowers.

The statuettes (are of) the best quality of their time. They are characterized by realistic touches and unusual details such as the dirty hands and feet of the brick makers.

go

[Pax Unum]

fascinating discovery

[louie]

Lol, when i first read the headline, i thought they had found the tomb in Belguim, i was thinking, "now thats gonna shake up history" lol,lol,

good find though.

[Gatofeo]

Lemme see ... Egyptians are credited with inventing beer.

Belgium has one of the world's highest rates of beer drinking, per capita.

Belgium is noted for beer.

Belgium has one of the world's highest per-capita rates for breweries.

Okay, that explains what Belgians were doing in Egypt, they were searching for their roots!

I've been to Belgium. Twice. Wonderful country full of history. And beer.

And the beer's great too.

Did I mention Belgian beer?

Waiter! Bring me another Stella Artois! I want to toast ancient Egyptian breweries!

[greychupa]

Yeeey! Those folks are from my university!!

There were copies of the article all around in the buildings.

[Mad Manfred]

Lol, when i first read the headline, i thought they had found the tomb in Belguim, i was thinking, "now thats gonna shake up history" lol,lol,

good find though.

Exactly what I thought too...

[Altheia]

We rule!

[_Spawn_]

We rule!

We do sometimes... Nice find btw owls!