Farouk Hosni minister of culture announced today that. three wooden sarcophagi from the Middle and New Kingdoms were found early this week in Saqqara necropolis by Japanese excavators from Wassida University during their routine excavation work.

Dr. Zahi Hawass secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) explains that the three sarcophagi were found in a very well preserved condition inside three burial shafts located south of Saqqara. Hawass added that the one that goes back to the New Kingdom (15 century BC.) is an anthropoid black sarcophagus painted with scenes featuring the four sons of Horus and belongs to a person called "Waya-Iy." Sabri Abdel Aziz head of the ancient Egyptian department in the SCA said that the two other sarcophagi date back to the Middle, Kingdom (20 century BC.); the first belongs to a person called Sebek Hetep and the second to a lady called "Snet-It-Ess."

Both sarcophagi are decorated with black pieces of glass Ossama El-Shimi director of Saqqara necropolis said that the Japanese mission is working in Saqqara since early 1990's in an attempt to discover Middle Kingdom tombs south of Saqqara specially that all discoveries found in Saqqara dated back to the Old and New Kingdoms as well as the Late Periods and "the Graeco-Roman era.

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