A collection of 110 tombs from the Boto I and II, Naqada III, and the Second Intermediate Period eras have been uncovered in Kom el-Khelgan in the Daqahliya governorate in the Nile Delta, Egypt.
Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that 68 of these tombs date back to the Boto I and II eras, five from the Naqada III era, and 37 from the Second Intermediate Period era.
Most of the tombs from the Boto eras are rounded and oval shaped burials containing skulls and skeletons of the deceased laying bending on their left side.
Other burials included newly born children buried inside clay pots.
Moreover, 31 tombs from the Second Intermediate Period era are rectangular shaped with a depth ranging between 20 to 85cm, and the rest are for young children buried in clay sarcophagi.
A funerary collection of clay pots – rounded and oval pots with holders – as well as stelae amulets and scarabs carved in faience and decorated with well-known motifs of the era, have also been unearthed, along with stone instruments and knives made of flint. Further excavations will continue at the site to discover more secrets of the historic region.
According to Waziri, this is the first time that pottery coffins dating back to the third Naqada period have been found in Dakahlia governorate sites.
This discovery was an added value to the history of the site, as it clearly confirms that the site witnessed intense settlement during the Naqada III era in addition to the Boto period, Waziri said.
For his part, Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the 68 tombs took the form of oval pits cut in the sandy island layer of the region.
The head of the mission and the Director General of the Dakahliya Antiquities Sayyed el-Talhawi, noted that some furnaces and stoves were found, in addition to remains of foundations for mud-brick buildings.
There are numerous archaeological missions operating in Egypt. However, the Egyptian missions headed by Mostafa Waziri, SCA secretary general, had the lion’s share of the important archaeological discoveries during the last period.
On February 12, 2020, the Egyptian archaeological mission of the SCA uncovered 83 tombs during excavation work in Umm Al-Khalegan area, Dakahlia.
