More than 30 ancient graves were unearthed in the Egyptian city of Aswan, a site that has in the past offered a bounty of archaeological discoveries, since it has for millennia acted as a commercial nexus point.
The find was announced this week by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which said that Italian experts also took part in the dig.
Per the National, the 33 tombs that were found date to ancient Egypt’s Late Period, the Ptolemaic period, and the Roman period, meaning that the graves could be as old as the 7th century BCE and as recent as the 7th century CE.
Human remains were found inside some of the tombs, and archaeologists believe that some of the people buried within died young. Patricia Piachenti, a professor of Egyptian archeology at the University of Milan and an expert who worked on the dig, said she believed some of the people in the graves had died of orthopedic diseases.
One tomb even contained the bodies of two people, which the archaeologists believe may be a woman and a child. Further studies will be undertaken to determine the relationship between these people. Clay figurines, wooden coffins, and other items were also found during excavations.
Abdul Moneim Saeed, an Egyptian archaeologist who worked on the dig, said that the people buried here likely belonged to the middle class. Upper-class people would have been buried elsewhere in the necropolis.
