Huge ancient Egypt archaeology breakthrough as buried gold discovered

The burials in which the items were found are believed to be dating back to two different periods in ancient Egypt's history.

Archaeologists in Egypt made an important discovery as they found bronze coins and gold foil figurines in dozens of ancient burials.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced a team of experts uncovered the graves of more than 63 people in the port city of Damietta, on the country's northern coast.

Gold foil figures found in some of the burials (Image: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)


Some of these burials date to the 26th Dynasty, which lasted from 688 to 525 BC. Other graves appeared to be decisively more recent, likely dating to the Ptolemaic period from 304 to 30 BC, the statement added.

Making the discovery even more notable, archaeologists found buried with the deceased several gold foil figurines depicting "ba-birds". 

These images were used to accompany a burial in the Late and Ptolemaic periods and normally portray the body of a bird with a human head.

Damietta is a city in northern Egypt (Image: Getty)

Moreover, experts also uncovered gold foil figurines that appear to depict the eye of Horus, the ancient Egyptian god with a falcon head.

Figures and statuettes with this sign were very popular in ancient Egypt and were believed to have a protective power.

The outstanding research also brought to light 38 bronze coins found within a pottery vessel.

Highlighting the importance of the recent finding, Thomas Faucher, the director of the Center for Alexandrian Studies in Egypt who was not involved in this research, told Shining Science: "[The discovery] is significant, especially given the region's limited known material from this period." 

This latest discovery came just a few months after researchers found an ancient Egyptian tomb carved into the rock in the necropolis of Saqqara, some 20 miles south of Cairo.

The burial unearthed in January included the human remains dating back some 4500 years of an adult found with a vividly colored mask.

Further findings included a carved stone slab bearing an inscription identifying it as belonging to a man named "Heroides".

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