Egypt's Oldest Mummy 'Covered In Layers Of Gold' Discovered By Archaeologists

The 4,300-year-old mummy was one of numerous artifacts found in the excavation outside of Cairo. Archaeologist and former Egyptian antiquities minister Zahi Hawass told on Friday that the 4,300-year-old mummy belonged to a wealthy and prominent 35-year-old man named Djed Sepsh, reports CNN.

"It is the oldest mummy, complete and covered in gold, ever found in Egypt," he said, adding that it was "the most amazing discovery."

The mummified man was reportedly found by Hawass and a group of 10 assistants 20 meters (66 feet) down at the Gisr el-Mudir enclosure, beneath the old Step Pyramid of Djoser in the village of Saqqara.

According to Hawass, the mummy was in one of the shafts the team entered and was in a 25-ton stone casket, the lid of which weighed five tonnes by itself.
The oldest, most beautiful mummy wrapped in layers of gold, with a band on the head and a bracelet on the chest, which shows this was a rich man, was discovered when the crew raised the lid, according to him.

Two graves were among the numerous other Old Kingdom items found, according to Hawass, one of which was from the time between 2494 and 2487 BC, when King Unas of the Fifth Dynasty ruled.
Additionally, a shaft contained three statues of a single individual, and nine other statues were discovered behind a fake door.
The statues are significant since they provide us with "knowledge for the first time about art in the Old Kingdom. It includes double statues, single statues, servant statues, all type of different statues," explained the archaeologist.

Next week, a second stone casket that like the one containing the wealthy man who was mummified will be uncovered.
According to Hawass, the finding indicates that the cemetery was for persons who were "second after the King" in importance.

According to the nation's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Step Pyramid was the first pyramid ever constructed by the ancient Egyptians. It was constructed between 2667 and 2648 BC during the early Third Dynasty.
The funeral temple of Queen Nearit, who was the wife of King Teti, the first ruler of the sixth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, was found in Saqqara, a massive necropolis about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of Cairo, in 2021.
Archaeologists found the tomb of King Ramses II's chief treasurer there the same year. Ramses II governed Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC.