Burial shaft dating back to Middle Kingdom uncovered in Fayoum

The archaeological mission working in the archaeological site of al-Khalwa area, Fayoum, has uncovered a burial shaft, located to the east of the Prince Waji’s tomb dating back to the Middle Kingdom, Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday.

Credit: Egypt. Ministry of Antiquities

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri said that al-Khalwa, located at southern Fayoum, contains a cemetery dating back to the Middle Kingdom era, namely Amenemhat III era (1842-1799 BC).

He added that the cemetery has the tomb of Prince Waji, the ruler of Fayoum in the Middle Kingdom, as well as the tomb of his mother "Nabat Mout", which lies to the east of it.

Meanwhile, Head of the archaeological mission Ayman Ashmawy said that the shaft contains three burial chambers, in which the mission found the upper part of a statue (40 cm height) made from sandstone of a person holding his hand on his chest along with the middle part of a basalt statue (30 cm height).

Credit: Egypt. Ministry of Antiquities

The mission also discovered inside the three burial chambers a number of pottery vessels and three heads of Canopian vessels, but some of them were broken into pieces.

Ashmawy pointed out that these chambers were likely to have been looted in ancient times and reused for burial in later eras.

Hani Abul Azm, the head of the Central Administration for Antiquities of upper Egypt, remarked that Waji's tomb was carved in rock and was discovered by the Italian mission of the University of Pisa in 1981 through the archaeological survey project in the area.

Credit: Egypt. Ministry of Antiquities

He added that the mission found a limestone statue inside the tomb, on which the name of the prince was written, a part of a wooden coffin and a pottery vessel. He explained that the statue is currently kept inside the museum store of Kom Oshim, Fayoum.

“The ceiling of the tomb was completely collapsed, maybe due to a massive earthquake in ancient times or the weight of the roof stones,” said Sayed Al Shoura, General Director of Antiquities Sector.

He said that Italian mission has built a new ceiling to protect the tomb’s inscriptions under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Source: Egypt Today [December 07, 2018]