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3,000-year-old tomb of singer found in Egypt

By Korea Herald

Published : Jan. 16, 2012 - 18:50

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The grave of Nany of the 22nd Dynasty, a singer of the Egyptian deity Amun-Re, which was discovered near the Temple of Karnak in the ancient city of Luxor by Swiss archaeologists. (AFP-Yonhap News) The grave of Nany of the 22nd Dynasty, a singer of the Egyptian deity Amun-Re, which was discovered near the Temple of Karnak in the ancient city of Luxor by Swiss archaeologists. (AFP-Yonhap News)
CAIRO (AFP) ― Swiss archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a female singer dating back almost 3,000 years in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said on Sunday.

The rare find was made accidentally by a team from Switzerland’s Basel University headed by Elena Pauline-Grothe and Susanne Bickel in Karnak, near Luxor in Upper Egypt, the minister told the media in Cairo.

The woman, Nehmes Bastet, was a singer for the supreme deity Amon Ra during the Twenty-Second Dynasty (945-712 B.C.), according to an inscription on a wooden plaque found in the tomb.

She was the daughter of the High Priest of Amon, Ibrahim said.

The discovery is important because “it shows that the Valley of the Kings was also used for the burial of ordinary individuals and priests of the Twenty-Second Dynasty,” he added.

Until now the only tombs found in the historic valley were those linked to ancient Egyptian royal families.