DIGGINGS; STATUES AND OTHER FINDS.




Initials PBS/VS/???/LGH



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: THE SAQQARA PLATEAU, THE LARGEST BURIAL GROUND OF ANCIENT EGYPT, IS THE SCENE OF SOME OF THE WORLD'S MOST RECENT IMPORTANT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES.

EXCAVATION ON THE PLATEAU IS BEING SUPERVISED BY THE BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGIST, PROFESSOR BRIAN EMERY, WHO FIRST BEGAN DIGGING IN THE AREA FORTY YEARS AGO.

PROFESSOR EMERY AND HIS TEAM HAVE RECOVERED SEVENTY STATUES AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT COLLECTIONS OF PAPYRI TO BE UNEARTHED FOR SOME YEARS.

THE STATUES ARE MAINLY OF THE EGYPTIANS GODS ISIS, OSIRIS AND HORUS. THE PAPYRI, WRITTEN WITH CARBON INK AND BRUSH, ARE IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND ARAMAIC, AND CONSIST OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND ACCOUNTS OF THE CULT OF AESCULAPIUS, THE GOD OF HEALING.

THE STATUS ARE DESCRIBED AN NOT VERY ANCIENT, AND PROBABLY ORIGINATED AFTER THE FIRST DYNASTY ABOUT 3,000 B.C.

IT IS BELIEVED THE STATUES AND PAPYRI WERE BURIED IN THE SAND DURING THE TIME OF CHRIST JUST BEFORE THE AREA WAS DEVASTATED.

PROFESSOR EMERY REGARDS THE STATUES AND PAPYRI AS CLUES TO A FAR MORE IMPORTANT ARCHAEOLOGICAL MYSTERY. THE LOCATION OF THE TOMB OF IMHOTEP A DOCTOR, WHO WAS LATER WORSHIPPED AS AESCULAPIUS. THE GREEKS AND ROMAN BELIEVED IMHOTEP WAS BURIED ON THE PLATEAU, NEAR WHERE PROFESSOR EMERY'S DIGGINGS HAVE BEEN MADE.

THE EXCAVATIONS MAY ALSO LEAD TO THE REDISCOVERY OF THE SERAPEUM WHERE THE SACRED COWS, WORSHIPPED BY THE EGYPTIANS ARE BURIED. THIS BURIAL GROUND WAS FIRST DISCOVERED IN THE 18TH. CENTURY BY A FRENCH EXPLORER.