Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt
CAIRO (Reuters) - A rare double wooden statue of an ancient Egyptian scribe and his wife has been found in their tomb south of Cairo, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Monday.
The double statue, dating from around 2300 BC, was among a total of five wooden statues found at the tomb in Sakkara, the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, said Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The official was Ka-Hay, who kept divine records, and his wife, Spri-Ankh. They lived late in the 5th dynasty or early in the 6th and were buried in the part of the necropolis associated with the pharaoh Teti, he said in a statement.
"It is a unique statue... In general double seated statues are made of limestone and are rarely carved in wood," he said.
The find was uncovered by an Egyptian-Australian team.
The tomb itself is a mud-brick structure of the classic platform style and contains a fine false door in wood and two tables for offerings, he added. False doors are a regular feature of the tombs of the period.
The archaeological team, now led by Naguib Kanawati of Macquarie University in Sydney, has been working at Sakkara since the early 1970s.
