According to Spanish press sources, a group of Spanish archaeologists has found tombs in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor that contain some 60 mummies. The Vizier Amenhotep Huy Project, a Spanish archaeological mission, found the tombs late last year in the southern Egyptian city, according to a video released on YouTube by the Spanish news agency Efe.
Francisco Martin-Valentin, director of the Madrid-based Institute of Ancient Egyptian Studies, and Teresa Bedman, the institute’s co-director, served as the mission’s leaders. An associated piece from Efe was also shared on Twitter by the Institute of Ancient Egyptian Studies.
According to Martin-Valentin, Amenhotep-Huy, who served as the vizier (a high-ranking official) under pharaoh Amenhotep III, is connected to the two tombs, which were constructed after the 18th dynasty (1550-1292 BC). The vizier’s tomb, a chapel with 30 columns, is connected to the recently found tombs by two rooms.
According to Martin-Valentin, “In the excavations of two secondary tombs existing in the courtyard of the main tomb of the Vizier Amen-Hotep Huy (Asasif no -28), stripped mummies—more or less complete—and parts of mummies have been found, which after the examination of our anthropologists testify to belong to about 60 individuals, originally buried in these tombs.”
The latest discoveries, according to Martin-Valentin, “suggest that the vizier’s tomb at some time became a necropolis.” From the archaeological context, he explains, “We can affirm that the individuals recovered belong to familial units of, or are connected to, the medium-high clergy of Amun of Karnak.”
A sarcophagus adorned with the god Amun is among the items from the vizier’s tomb that are now on show in a Luxor Museum exhibition. According to Martin-Valentin, the archaeological mission will pick back up at the end of September when six columns from the vizier’s chapel have been rebuilt.
