A cache of pottery vessels discovered

CAIRO – 3 July 2018: The Ministry of Antiquities found a cache containing hundreds of pottery vessels, dating back to the beginning of the Greco-Roman era, the Coptic era and the Islamic era.




Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa el-Waziri, said that the discovered potteries were examined carefully in order to be documented and preserved in the storehouses.





Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, Ayman Ashmawy, said that it seems that during the Second World War between 1939 and 1945, the famous British archaeologist, Alan Rowe, along with Graeco-Roman Museum officials hid a number of pieces in the garden of the Greco-Roman Museum to protect them from being looted or damaged.



The discovered items include vessels which contain ashes of dead people; these vessels were used to bury the ashes during the Hellenistic period in the Greek era.
The items also include a large collection of liquid vessels of various shapes and sizes, as well as crockery and colored pots, a large number of dishes which date back to the Greek, Roman and Byzantine periods and large quantities of glazed pottery decorated with geometric and vegetal drawings dating back to the Islamic era.

Such an archaeological discovery is very important because it unveils archaeological collections which have not been studied before, making it a reference for future archaeological studies.

It is worth mentioning that Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a statuette of Osiris while performing restoration works on the eastern side of the King Djoser Step Pyramid in Saqqara on Sunday.

Waziri, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced that the statue was found in a small incision between the huge blocks of the pyramid’s eastern façade.
Waziri added that the statuette is for Osiris, the god of resurrection and eternity, and depicts Osiris wearing the double crown, and holding a feather in one hand and a scepter in the other.

The statuette's height is 63 cm and its width is about 15 cm. Head of the Saqqara archaeological site, Sabri Farag, said that a priest of Saqqara probably concealed the statue in this area. The statuette is currently under restoration.

A 30-ton archeological sarcophagus was also found below a building in Alexandria governorate, Egypt, by the security forces on Sunday.

Inspection of the sarcophagus revealed that it is made of black granite; the security forces coordinated with the Engineering Department of the Armed Forces, as well as the Tourism police to extract the sarcophagus.

Ashmawy, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector, said that the tomb was found at a depth of five meters beneath the surface of the land. It is noted that there is a layer of mortar between the lid and the body of the sarcophagus, indicating that it had not been opened since it was closed.