In the span of a month, the number of sealed coffins found at a dig in Saqqara in Egypt has ballooned from 13 to 59. The colourful coffins, which date back to Egypt’s 26th Dynasty, were found stacked together within or near three burial wells. The mummies are still preserved within the coffins, and hieroglyphic writing on the coffins indicates that many of the mummies were priests.
Coffins dating back more than 2,500 years have been unearthed from the 26th Dynasty of Egypt
© Getty
Beside the coffins they found the remains of 28 small statues. One of the most interesting is a nearly 35-centimetre bronze statue of the god Nefertem, shown wearing a headdress shaped like a lotus blossom. The headdress is made of red agate stone, turquoise and lapis lazuli. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Nefertem was associated with lotus flowers and was the son of Ptah, a creator god who was popular in Memphis, the first capital.