One of the recently discovered tombs at the site, located just south of Cairo
Such a gesture could offer new insights into religious beliefs at the time. He was also wearing a tunic with a belt, perhaps an ancient attempt to “preserve … the living appearance of the deceased,” says Francesco Tiradritti, an Egyptologist at the Kore University of Enna in Italy who was not involved with the excavation, to Live Science. In addition to the layers of gold around him, the mummy wore a band on his head and a bracelet on his chest, signifying that he was a man of great wealth, Hawass tells CNN’s Amarachi Orie and Mia Alberti. Instead, Hawass clarifies to Live Science’s Owen Jarus, it is “the oldest complete mummy covered with gold.” While some news outlets have described the discovery as the oldest known Egyptian mummy, that claim isn’t true. “I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,” says Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s famous (and controversial) former antiquities minister, to the Associated Press’ Mohamed Wagdy. The mummy, the remains of a man named Hekashepes, was found in a sealed stone sarcophagus at the bottom of a 33-foot shaft.
Archaeologists have announced a host of new discoveries at the Tombs of Saqqara in the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, including a 4,300-year-old mummy covered in gold leaf.
