'They were seated position, one of them by the head of the coffin and the other by the feet, in a position called 'the mourners' or 'weepers' for the deceased,' Al Saidi said.Īrcheologists also found a roll of papyrus - paper made from reeds - in the same coffin it hasn't been unrolled, but archaeologists think it may be up to 32 feet (10 meters) long and contain chapters of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a ritual text intended to guide a dead person's journey through the afterlife. Both goddesses are portrayed as a protector of a coffin, and each of the two statues has a face made from layers of gold leaf.

The archaeologists have also found two painted wooden statues of the goddesses Isis and Neftis, or Nephthys - a sister of Isis. (Image credit: Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images) Statuettes depicting the Egyptian goddesses (L to R) Isis (Iset) and Nephthys (Nebet-Het) found in a cache dating to the Egyptian Late Period (around the fifth century B.C.) are displayed after their discovery by a mission headed by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, at the Bubastian cemetery at the Saqqara necropolis, southwest of Egypt's capital on May 30, 2022. The latest discoveries include about 150 bronze statues of ancient Egyptian gods, such as Anubis, a god of the dead often depicted with the head of a jackal Osiris, the king of the dead Amon-Min, a fertility god usually depicted with an erect phallus Nefertem, the beautiful son of Bastet Isis, the wife of Osiris and goddess of fertility and Hathor, an extremely popular goddess who was deemed the protector of women. The Achaemenid Persians ruled Egypt as a province of their empire throughout the Late Period, but Egyptian culture flourished during their reign and many temples were built, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Today's news is the fifth major announcement of artifacts that have been found there - including 59 mummies found in 2020, as Live Science previously reported - and there are still many years of work left to carry out. The ancient burial ground has been the site of extensive excavations by Egyptian archaeologists since 2018. The necropolis at Saqqara is near the edge of a desert plateau about 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) south of Cairo.

Egyptian authorities revealed the discovery on Monday (May 31), lining up the mummies, statues and other artifacts in front of Saqqara's Step Pyramid of Djoser for the announcement.

Mummies with a gold sarcophagus