Paintings reveal ancient secrets
A tomb excavation in Egypt has revealed brightly coloured paintings made 4300 years ago during what is known as the Age of the Pyramids.
The newly opened necropolis near Saqqara, about 30km south of Cairo, is adorned with depictions inspired by the nearby Giza pyramids, painted in special resins that have kept their hues over the millennia.
It was built for a nobleman called Khuwy, who lived in the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, which in total spanned from 2686BC to 2181BC.
The art of pyramid building had been perfected in the preceding Fourth Dynasty. The latest discovery could shed new light on the pyramids themselves. Historians regard this period as having been ‘‘written in stone’’, with events recorded only through monuments rather than texts.
It is hoped that Khuwy’s tomb paintings might shade in some of the finer details of the age.
The frescoes found inside the tomb show men in boats, servants bringing them food and drink, and birds, and all of them are skirted with decorative borders.
The reds and yellow pigments, in particular, have withstood the ravages of time well.
The tomb’s decorated entrance tunnel is of a kind that is usually seen only in the pyramids, and the paint used was reserved for royalty.
Researchers are investigating Khuwy’s relationship with Djedkare Isesi, the penultimate pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, who is buried in a nearby pyramid in Saqqara. He ruled for 40 years but little is known about him. His partially mummified remains are also in the tomb.
Saqqara, west of the Nile, is home to the biggest collection of tombs and pyramids in Egypt but it is overshadowed by Giza, 25km away.
Other sites excavated there have contained mummified cats, mice, dogs and falcons.
Djedkare Isesi was the first to build a pyramid to the south of the main necropolis in Saqqara. Today the 60m structure, which towers over a nearby village, is known locally as The Sentinel.
Khaled al-Enani, Egypt’s antiquities minister, led a group of 52 foreign ambassadors and cultural attaches on a tour of the site on Saturday. – The Times