After almost 109
years of searching, the tomb of Hathor’s priestess Hetpet has been uncovered.
Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.
“It is the first
discovery to be announced in 2018,” said Minister of Antiquities Khaled
El-Enany at a press conference held at the step of Hetpet’s tomb in Giza's
western cemetery.
El-Enany explained
that blocks of the tomb were unearthed in 1909 by a British explorer who sent
them to Berlin and Frankfurt.
“The tomb has
never been uncovered until October 2017 when the Egyptian mission started
excavation in the Giza western cemetery,” El-Enany said.
The minister
explained that the cemetery was previously excavated by several archaeological
missions since 1843, and the most distinguished and important ones were made by
renowned Egyptologist and former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass.
The newly discovered
tomb belongs to a lady named Hetpet, a top official in the royal palace during
the end of the 5th Dynasty.
Mostafa Waziri,
secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the head of the
mission, told Ahram Online that the tomb has the architectural style and
decorative elements of the 5th Dynasty, with an entrance leading to an “L”
shape shrine with a purification basin.
On its western
rear end there is a rectangular arcade lined with incense and offering holders.
There is also a naos with a yet missing statue of the tomb’s owner. The tomb
has very distinguished wall paintings in a very good state of conservation
depicting “Hetpet” standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or sitting
before a large offering table receiving offerings from her children.
“Scenes of
reaping fruits, melting metals and the fabrication of leather and papyri boats
as well as musical and dancing performances are also shown on walls,” Waziri
said. He added that among the most distinguished paintings in the tomb are
those depicting two monkeys in different positions. Monkeys were domestic
animals at the time.
The first scene shows a monkey reaping fruits
while the second displays a monkey dancing in front of an orchestra. Similar
scenes are found in other tombs. The first one is painted on the wall of a 12th
Dynasty tomb of Khnoum Hetep II in Beni Hassan in Minya governorate; the second
is found in the Old Kingdom tomb of Ka-Iber in Saqqara, though it displays a
dancing monkey in front of a guitarist not an orchestra.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article.