Archaeologists Uncover 3 Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagi

11:15 Feb 11, '07 / 23 Shevat 5767. (IsraelNN.com)

Japanese archaeologists uncovered three ancient Egyptian sarcophagi at a location about 30 miles south of downtown Cairo, announced the director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Saturday.

Zahi Hawass said two of the finds were significant in that they dated from the ?Middle Kingdom?, around 2,000 BCE. One of the two was inlaid with black glass and contained in a colorful exterior box dedicated to a man named Sabak Hatab. The second one was apparently built for a woman named Sint Ayt Ess.

The third sarcophagus dated back to the ?New Kingdom?, around 1,500 BCE, was colored black and decorated with images of four sons of an Egyptian god.

Excavations in the Saqqara necropolis, as it is called, have been taking place for decades. Teams from Poland, Italy, Germany, France and Egypt were joined by the most recent group, the Japanese, in the late 1990s.