An Egyptian archaeological mission discovered a sphinx-shaped statue made of limestone that could represent the Emperor of Egypt Claudius (10 BC – 54 AD), east of the temple of Dendera, in the south of that country, official sources reported on Monday.
The sphinx was found inside a hut that Egyptian experts say belonged to the emperor.: “The remains of the hut are a platform consisting of two levels and sloping floors, within which a water storage tank was found,” said the head of the mission, Mamduh al Damati, in a statement from the Ministry of Egyptian antiquities.
During the cleaning of that deposit, the limestone statue was found. His head, according to the photos released by the ministry, is practically intact. In addition, he wears the funerary headdress known as ‘Nemes’ with a cobra on his forehead and an outfit used by the Egyptian pharaohs when they were represented as deceased kings.
“Initial examination of the face indicates that it is likely to be that of Emperor Claudius,” said the head of the mission at the Egyptian University of Ain Shams.
(Keep reading: Egypt: Citizens Forced to Give Up Meat Due to High Prices.)
The excavations began in February and in a short time they managed to reveal a stone tablet dating from Roman times, written in hieroglyphics and demotic in the same place where there was a temple of the god Horus built in Roman times.
The Egyptian ministry stressed that the mission will continue the excavation work in the area in order to discover the path that links the temple of Horus with the temple of Denderaone of the best preserved in Egypt.
The announcements of these findings have a scientific but also a political/economic dimension: the Egyptian government wants to revive post-pandemic tourism. It aims to attract 30 million tourists a year by 2028. pic.twitter.com/ZGB4umtv9a
— Federico Kukso (@fedkukso) March 7, 2023
Last January another Egyptian archaeological mission announced the discovery of “a complete residential city” from the time of the Roman Empire during excavation work on the east bank of the Nile River, in the southern historic city of Luxor.
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