An Egyptian sarcophagus unearthed by French teams

The researchers explored a set of stratified layers spanning more than 3,000 years, with a thickness exceeding eight meters.

Researchers have discovered a reburied sarcophagus from the Middle Kingdom in Luxor (Egypt), as part of research carried out after the discovery of sarcophagi on the same site in 2018 and 2019. This information was confirmed on Sunday by a member of the mission. The discovery took place on December 16, at the very end of a two-month mission. Frédéric Colin, director of the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Strasbourg, who participated in the mission, confirmed this discovery to AFP, referring to information from the regional daily The Latest News from Alsace (DNA). The excavation campaign was carried out jointly by the University of Strasbourg and the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO).

For the Egyptologist, this discovery is judged “outstanding” for several reasons. It makes it possible to provide a “lighting” on “an important anthropological question”namely “how the ancient Egyptians behaved towards the mummified body and burials of their ancestors when they discovered ancient coffins and had to expropriate them from their final resting place during major public works”. This is a reburial, which implies that ancient Egyptians sometimes moved coffins for reasons related to planning projects.

Discoveries made in Luxor in 2018 and 2019 had already revealed five New Kingdom sarcophagi, dating from the 14th to the 9th century BC, which were also reburials. This new mission aimed to better understand the nature of these previous discoveries. The aim was to determine whether the five sarcophagi discovered constituted an isolated tomb or were part of a larger, systematic set of reburials. The researchers excavated a set of stratified layers accumulated over more than 3,000 years, with a thickness of more than eight meters, over three excavation campaigns spread over more than six months of fieldwork.

This find took place at the end of the third campaign, and the beginning of the answer to the researchers’ question appeared on the last day of excavation. The researchers did not “just touched” the layer where the coffin was located, and its excavation will resume during the next campaign scheduled for October 2025. The Middle Kingdom sarcophagus, dating from the end of the 21st century to the end of the 18th century BC, was “protected in a custom-built wooden chest”. Its contents will be examined in 2025 “in collaboration with archaeoanthropologists”using 3D modeling to document all stages of the research, as has been done since 2018.