Technology helps uncover more of Egypt's ancient secrets

Published on Monday 9 February 2009 21:22

ALMOST a century after Howard Carter unearthed the tomb of Tutankhamun, archaeologists have discovered yet more of Egypt's treasures – a room full of mummies dating back thousands of years.

New technology and research is allowing Egyptologists to make fresh finds, and the country's foremost expert in antiquities said yesterday that he believed about 70 per cent of the ancient treasures had yet to be reclaimed.

The latest burial chamber, housing more than two dozen mummies, was found inside a 2,600-year-old tomb as part of the excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, said Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt's leading archaeologist.

At the bottom of a 36ft shaft, 22 mummies were discovered with a further eight wooden and stone sarcophagi nearby.

Archeologists have so far opened only one of the sarcophagi, finding a mummy inside, leading them to believe more are to be discovered.

The name, "Badi N Huri", was engraved into the opened sarcophagus, but the wooden coffin did not bear a title for the mummy.