2,000 MUMMIFIED RAMS HEADS FOUND IN EGYPT

More than 2,000 mummified heads of rams from the Ptolemaic era were found in the temple of Ramses II in the ancient city of Abydos in the south of Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism announced today. A team of American archaeologists from New York University also exhumed mummies of sheep, dogs, goats, cows, gazelles and mongooses in a locality known for its temples and necropolises, according to the announcement. These discoveries will make it possible to learn more about the temple of Ramses II and the activities that took place there between the construction of the temple during the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, between 2374 and 2140 BC, and the Lagid or Ptolemaic period, from 323 to 30 . BC. Rams’ heads were offered as gifts, indicating a “cult of Ramesses II that was celebrated 1,000 years after his death,” the scientists said. In addition to the remains of mummified animals, the team of scientists also discovered the remains of a palace with walls about five meters thick from the Sixth Dynasty, as well as several statues, papyrus, remains of trees, leather clothes and shoes. Abydos, 550 km south of Cairo, with its vast cemeteries and temples from the earliest period of ancient Egypt, was famous for its monuments to Osiris, the god of the underworld.