The American Archaeology Magazine has announced the gilded silver mask uncovered last July in the necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, one of the top ten important archaeological discoveries in 2018. The magazine chose the mask to be the cover’s image of January 2019.
Unearthed by German and Egyptian archaeologists, a painted and plastered wooden coffin identified its occupant as the second priest of the mother goddess Mut and a priest of the goddess Niut-shaes, a serpent form of Mut. Placed over the mummy’s head was a rare gilded silver mask, with inlaid calcite, obsidian, and onyx eyes. He lived and died during the 26th dynasty, the Saite-Persian period from 664 to 404 BC.
“It’s a mask the first of its kind inSaqqara since 1905, and since 1939 in Egypt,” said archaeologist Ramadan Badry Hussein of the University of Tübingen, and head of the German-Egyptian team that made the discovery.
The tomb complex where the archaeologists were working consisted of several burial shafts. Over one of them, they found the remains of a building constructed of mud brick and limestone blocks.
It has revealed tantalising new clues to how mummies were made during the Saite-Persian period of the mid-first millennium B.C. The rectangular building, composed of mudbrick and limestone blocks, contained large vats where bodies and linens were prepped for preservation. At the bottom of a 40-foot-deep shaft, the team found an embalming chamber where hundreds of ceramic bowls and cups were stored. Many of these vessels had labels listing specific oils and substances, along with instructions for how they should be used in the mummification process.
“Gilded silver masks had deep religious meaning,” Mr Hussein noted. “Egyptian religious texts indicate that the bones of the gods are made of silver and their flesh is made of gold. A mummy mask of silver and gold is a step toward the transformation of the deceased into a god.”
According to Mr Hussein, the archaeological mission is now preparing a research and restoration project of the mask.
Watani International
16 December 2018