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Egypt dig unearths 3,600-year-old mummy

Posted at 11:06 AM, Feb 13, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-13 13:06:08-05

(CNN) — Archaeologists say they unearthed a rare find during a dig in Egypt: a sarcophagus that’s 3,600 years old — with a mummy still inside.

Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported Thursday that a team working on a routine excavation at a tomb in Luxor uncovered the painted, human-shaped sarcophagus.

It dates back to 1600 B.C., when the Pharaonic 17th Dynasty reigned in Egypt, the country’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said.

The sarcophagus belonged to a top government official, whose mummy was enclosed inside, Al-Ahram said, citing Egypt’s antiquities minister, Mohamed Ibrahim.

The sarcophagus is engraved with titles of the official, but archaeologists haven’t yet been able to identify him, Ibrahim said.

The Spanish-Egyptian team also found two other burials while digging at the Draa Abul-Naga necropolis on Luxor’s west bank, Al-Ahram reported, but both were empty.

“It is believed they were robbed in antiquity,” the newspaper reported.

CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

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