Archaeologists unveiled Tuesday the tombs of a Pharaonic butler and scribe that had been buried in the sand for more than 3,000 years.

The tombs, along with the painted coffins of a priest and his girlfriend, were discovered early this year at Saqqara near the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser — the oldest of Egypt's more than 90 pyramids.

"The sands of Saqqara reveal lots of secrets," said Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, as he showed reporters around a 4,000-year-old tomb of mud bricks that belonged to a scribe of divine records, Ka-Hay, and his wife.

"It doesn't look great because it was built from mud brick and not built of limestone, but I really believe that this tomb is very important," said Hawass...

"This is a very, very lively scene," said Maarten Raven, the excavation's director and a curator at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands...

Click the picture above for six shots from Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

Pair of 3,000-year-old tombs are found in Egypt, Anna Johnson, AP via USA Today, New York, USA, February 20, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists unveil more than 3,000-year-old tombs of Pharaonic officials, Anna Johnson, AP via The Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Picture: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Dutch excavations at Saqqara, February 15, 2007.

Previously: Tomb from Akhenaton era discovered, February 15, 2007.

Previously: Dutch team's Saqqara dig diary updated, February 20, 2007.

Week three of the Dutch team's dig diary has been added to the Saqqara Online website. Select What's New and click Digging Diaries. The team is from Leiden University and is led by Maarten J. Raven

Finally, finally we are allowed to tell you what you wanted to hear: the name of the tomb-owner of the new funerary monument we discovered this season! The Egyptians have now sent out a press release and therefore it is okay for us to talk about it. The news has already been published in all Egyptian newspapers and has been shown on the Egyptian television. This is because it is a really nice find: another tomb dating to the time of Akhenaten!

Previously: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously: Picture: Dutch team finds 'heretic Pharaoh' era tomb in Egypt, February 14, 2007.

Previously:

Dutch excavations at Saqqara, February 15, 2007.

Tomb from Akhenaton era discovered, February 15, 2007.

Egypt's chief archaeologist displayed on Tuesday the latest discoveries from the Saqqara cemetery south of Cairo and said many more treasures clearly lay hidden beneath the sands.

The new finds, outlined in statements over the past week, also show that Saqqara remained a necropolis, from the Greek "City of the Dead", for Egypt's elite long after the Old Kingdom period for which it is famous, said Zahi Hawass of the Supreme Antiquities Council.

The finds include the tomb of a royal cupbearer from the time of the "rebel" pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favour of the Aten sun disk and brought in a new and more expressive style of art...

Maarten Raven, the field director of the Dutch mission which has excavated the tomb over the past two months, said he expected more tombs from the period to turn up in Saqqara, which is most famous for pyramids and tombs from 1,000 years earlier...

One of the other new discoveries, by a Japanese team of archaeologists, is a set of Middle Kingdom sarcophaguses typical of the 12th dynasty, who lasted from 1991 to 1786 BC.

The sarcophaguses are of a priest called Sobek Hat and his female companion, both made of wood coated with painted plaster and then inscribed with hieroglyphic writing.

Both have anthropoid coffins inside, fitting closely around mummies, which have not yet been opened...

A third discovery, announced by the Supreme Antiquities Council on Monday, was of a cache of wooden statues dating back to about 2200 BC, the heyday of the Saqqara necropolis.

The council said in a statement that the cache contained five statues, including a rare double wooden statue of the scribe Ka-Hay and his wife.

But Hawass said there were only three wooden statues, two of the scribe and a separate one of his wife...

Check out the pictures of these discoveries on Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow. Eighteen pictures at the time of writing.

Finds show longevity of Egyptian necropolis, Jonathan Wright, Reuters, UK, February 20, 2007.

The latest issue of the French language magazine “Toutankhamon” is out now.

Dossier Special - Ramsès II
Ramsès II : un architecte pour la Nubie

Dossier
Ramsès II le guerrer

Voyager
Le désert blanc : les plus beaux paysages d'Égypte

Égyptologie
Ramsès XI : le dernier des Ramsès
Akhenaton et ses petites-filles

Découverte:
Les trésors du musée Égyptien de Turin

Which approximately says...

Special File - Rameses II
Rameses II: an architect for Nubia

File
Rameses II the warrior

Travel
The white desert: most beautiful landscapes of Egypt

Egyptology
Rameses XI: the last of the Rameses'
Akhenaton and his small daughters

Discovered
Treasures of the Egyptian museum of Turin

Toutankhamon Magazine, Editions Neptune Diffusion, France, Issue 31, February / March 2007.

A mud brick tomb dating back more than 4,000 years has been discovered near Egypt's most ancient pyramid in the Saqqara complex south of Cairo, according to an antiquities official. The tomb was located by an Egyptian-Australian mission, Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, announced Monday.

Excavators found five wooden statues depicting the tomb's owner and his wife in a niche at the tomb's forefront. Among the wooden figures was a unique double statue of a seated Ka-Hay and his wife, Hawass said.

It also featured two offering tables and a wooden false door, which ancient Egyptians said the souls of the dead would use to leave their tombs...

Mud Tomb Found Near Oldest Egypt Pyramid, AP via PhillBurbs, Pennsylvania, USA, February 20, 2007.

cf. Mud Tomb Found Near Oldest Egypt Pyramid, AP via PhsOrg, USA, February 20, 2007.

cf. Mud brick tomb discovered near Egypt's most ancient pyramid, AP via International Herald Tribune, France, February 20, 2007.

cf. Archaeologists discover bench grave of Old Empire couple in Saqqara, dpa via Monster & Critics, UK, February 20, 2007.

cf. Rare wooden statue of ancient scribe found in Egypt, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Aussie archaeologists find rare wooden statue, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt, February 19, 2007.

The double statue, dating from around 2300 BC, was among a total of five wooden statues found at the tomb in Saqqara, 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.

"It is a unique statue. In general double seated statues are made of limestone and are rarely carved in wood," Mr Hawass said...

Click on the photograph above for eight shots from Reuters on Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

Aussie archaeologists find rare wooden statue, Adelaide Now, Australia, February 20, 2007.

cf. Rare wooden statue has archaeologists beaming, Independent Online, South Africa, February 20, 2007.

Previously: Archaeologists find rare wooden statue in Egypt, February 19, 2007.