More than 50 wooden coffins have been discovered in more than 20 burial shafts in the Saqqara necropolis by a team of researchers led by archaeologist Zahi Hawass. Many of the brightly painted coffins have been dated to the New Kingdom period, from 1550 to 1070 BCE. The excavations have also recovered games, statues, and masks dating to the New Kingdom period. These recent finds are the first artifacts at Saqqara dated to the New Kingdom period.
Also found was the funerary temple of Queen Neit, near the 4,200-year-old pyramid of her husband, the Old Kingdom pharaoh Teti. He reigned during the Sixth Dynasty, from about 2323 to 2291 BCE, in the Old Kingdom period.
(Photograph is a mummy dating back to the New Kingdom found at the funerary temple of Queen Naert. Photograph from Mohamed Hossam/EPA)
