Egyptian tomb holds singer Nehmes Bastet’s remains
Archaeologists working in Egypt have discovered the tomb of a female singer in the Valley of the Kings.
The tomb was found by a team from the University of Basel in Switzerland who came across it by chance.
The woman, Nehmes Bastet, was a temple singer during Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty (approximately 945 - 712BC), according to an inscription in the tomb.
The coffin found in the tomb contains an intact mummy from almost 3,000 years ago.
Professor Susanne Bickel of the University of Basel told the BBC that the coffin was opened on Monday and she was able to see the “nicely wrapped” mummy of the woman who was buried in the tomb.
The opening of the coffin was carried out by Prof Bickel and her Basel colleague, field director Elina Paulin-Grothe, together with the Chief Inspector of Antiquities of Upper Egypt, Dr Mohammed el-Bialy and inspector Ali Reda.
Prof Bickel said that the upper edge of the tomb was found on the first day of Egypt’s revolution, on 25 January 2011. The opening was sealed with an iron cover and the discovery was kept quiet.
Last week, after the start of this year’s field season, the feature was identified as a tomb - and one of the very few tombs in the Valley of the Kings which have not been looted.
