The giant granite sarcophagus is covered with inscriptions dedicated to Ptah-em-wia, who was the head of the treasury of King Ramses II, Egypt’s most powerful pharaoh. Ola El Aguizy, professor emeritus of the school of archeology at Cairo University, discovered it in Saqqara, an ancient necropolis about 20 miles south of Cairo. Last year, El Aguizy, who is leading the archaeological expedition to the site, uncovered the surface tomb of Ptah-em-wia. Now he has found his underground burial chamber with the sarcophagus, which could reveal more about those who ruled Egypt after Tutankhamun. Professor El Aguizy is lowered into the shaft where the sarcophagus was discovered. In the center of the tomb’s courtyard, El Aguizy’s team identified the top of a vertical shaft, which suggested a passage to a burial chamber. But this shaft turned out to be so deep, at 8 meters, that it took a week just to remove all the sand, using a bucket attached to a hand-held rope winch. El Aguizy then squeezed into this bucket and made a perilous, slow descent down the shaft. At the bottom, she was surprised to find the sarcophagus. National Geographic cameras caught it all while filming the latest excavation season for an eight-part documentary series, Lost Treasures of Egypt, which starts in the UK on 2 October. Finding a complete sarcophagus in its original grave is incredibly rare. El Aguizy told the Observer: “The discovery of this sarcophagus in its original position in the burial pit was very exciting because it is the sarcophagus of the owner of the tomb, which is not always the case. Sometimes the sarcophagus is for a different person from a later period when the tomb was used in later periods. But this time it’s not the case.” He said Ptah-em-wia’s titles listed in the hieroglyphs emphasized his closeness to the king, proving he had “a very important role in the administration of that time.” He added that the sarcophagus is engraved with emblems of deities, including the sky goddess Nut on the lid, who covers the chest with open wings to protect the deceased. Her team will now study it to uncover the full story of Ptah-em-wia’s life. Peter Der Manuelian, professor of Egyptology at Harvard University, said: “Saqqara is one of the most important cemeteries, both royal and non-royal, throughout the millennia of Egyptian history. This Egyptian group added another important chapter to the history of the site.” Oxford University Press is to publish his book Manuelian Walking Among Pharaohs: George Reisner and the Dawn of Modern Egyptology, a biography of America’s greatest archaeologist, who led many excavations and realized the importance of Saqqara. Manuelian said of El Aguizy: “I’m always happy to see Egyptian archaeologists making these discoveries. The sarcophagus of Ptah-em-wia: the sky goddess Nut, with wings spread to protect the dead, is carved on the chest. Photo: Rebecca Naunheimer/Windfall Films “There is a long history of Western archaeologists doing this work. So it’s great to see their own discoveries – and the fact that she’s a female archaeologist, an Egyptian archaeologist, is even more welcome.” Tom Cook, the producer of the documentary series, paid tribute to El Aguizy and her “amazing discovery”: “She’s a grandmother, she’s in her 70s and she’s still going out there doing this really, really dangerous work.” Noting that a piece of the lid had broken off, indicating that ancient tomb robbers had stolen grave treasures, he said: “These tombs [were] So often raided by tomb raiders that there was no guarantee that anything exciting would be down there. So it wasn’t until they got to the last room that they realized something spectacular was really there.”
