A French archaeological team has announced a rare discovery featuring 225 funerary statues inside a royal tomb in the city of Tanis, the capital of ancient Egypt during the 21st Dynasty, located in the Nile Delta. This discovery has been described as one of the most significant archaeological finds, helping to solve a long-standing archaeological mystery. French archaeologist Frédéric Py, head of the Tanis excavation mission, reported that the discovery was made on October 9th of last year within a narrow tomb containing a large, uninscribed granite sarcophagus. He pointed out that the statues were carefully arranged in a star shape around a semi-oval pit, with horizontal rows at its base, reflecting the meticulous burial rituals of that era. He added that the funerary statues, known as 'ushabtis,' were crafted to serve the deceased in the afterlife. The royal symbols inscribed on the statues led to the identification of the tomb's owner as Pharaoh Shoshenq III, who ruled Egypt between 830 and 791 BC. This resolves a long-standing archaeological puzzle, especially since there is another, larger tomb at the site bearing his name, but it does not contain his remains.
