Egypt Tomb Find May Shed Light on Ancient Diseases, Says Ministry

This handout picture released by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on June 24, 2024 shows the top fragment of a sarcophagus discovered at the site of a discovery of 33 ancient tombs in Egypt's southern city of Aswan. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on June 24, 2024 shows the top fragment of a sarcophagus discovered at the site of a discovery of 33 ancient tombs in Egypt's southern city of Aswan. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
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Egypt Tomb Find May Shed Light on Ancient Diseases, Says Ministry

This handout picture released by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on June 24, 2024 shows the top fragment of a sarcophagus discovered at the site of a discovery of 33 ancient tombs in Egypt's southern city of Aswan. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on June 24, 2024 shows the top fragment of a sarcophagus discovered at the site of a discovery of 33 ancient tombs in Egypt's southern city of Aswan. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)

A new discovery of 33 ancient tombs in Egypt's southern city of Aswan could reveal "new information on diseases" prevalent at the time, the tourism and antiquities ministry said Monday.

The tombs date back to the Ancient Egyptian Late Period and the Greco-Roman Periods, which collectively lasted from the seventh century BC until around the fourth century AD.

The burials were found by a joint Egyptian-Italian archaeological mission.

Ayman Ashmawy, who heads the Supreme Council of Antiquities' Egyptian Antiquities Division, said studies of the mummies "indicate that 30 to 40 percent of those buried died in their youth, as newborns or as adolescents".

Patrizia Piacentini, professor of Egyptology and archaeology at the University of Milan, headed the Italian side of the mission.

She said preliminary studies on the remains showed that "some suffered from infectious diseases, while others had bone disorders".

The remains of several adult women showed signs of pelvic bone trauma.

Other mummies indicated "anemia, malnutrition, chest diseases, tuberculosis and signs of osteoporosis", Piacentini said in a ministry statement.

Since 2018, the mission has been excavating the area around the Aga Khan mausoleum where Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah is buried, on the west bank of the Nile River just across from Aswan city center.

Among the remains found were "an adult, perhaps a woman, and a child who may have died at the age of one or two", said Abdelmoneim Said, General Director of Aswan and Nubia Antiquities.

"The two bodies were still attached to each other inside a stone coffin," he added.



'Spectacular' Viking Burial Site Discovered in Denmark 

A Moesgaard Museum conservator holds a Viking Age ceramic bowl discovered at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg, a village seven kilometers north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
A Moesgaard Museum conservator holds a Viking Age ceramic bowl discovered at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg, a village seven kilometers north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
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'Spectacular' Viking Burial Site Discovered in Denmark 

A Moesgaard Museum conservator holds a Viking Age ceramic bowl discovered at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg, a village seven kilometers north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
A Moesgaard Museum conservator holds a Viking Age ceramic bowl discovered at a Viking Age burial site in Lisbjerg, a village seven kilometers north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, on June 13, 2025. (AFP)

In an accidental find, a 10th-century burial site believed to have belonged to a Viking noble family has been discovered in northern Denmark, packed with a "spectacular" trove of ancient objects, a museum announced Tuesday.

The discovery came when pearls, coins, ceramics and a box containing a gold thread were unearthed during construction work near Lisbjerg, a village located seven kilometers (four miles) north of Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city.

Archaeologists found the site contained around 30 graves dating from the second half of the 10th century, when the famous King Harald Bluetooth reigned, said the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus.

According to the museum's archaeologist Mads Ravn, the graves are most likely linked to a noble family from the Viking Age -- which lasted between the eighth and 11th centuries -- whose farm was discovered less than a kilometer from the burial site in the late 1980s.

"This could have been one of Harald Bluetooth's earls or stewards," Ravn told AFP.

Ravn noted that the king, who introduced Christianity to what is today Denmark, tasked nobles with managing certain regions.

Researchers also discovered some human remains, such as teeth and bones, at the site.

"People basically took what was important to them into the grave because they wanted to transfer it to the other world," the archaeologist said.

One of the graves, which scientists believe belonged to an important woman, contained a box filled with decorative objects and a pair of scissors.

The "magnificent" box is a remarkable find, according to Ravn, with only a few having been discovered before, including one in southeastern Germany.

"It's very rare, there's only three of them we know of," he said.

The excavations at Lisbjerg are due to be completed this week, after which experts will begin a thorough analysis of the objects recovered.

Wooden objects in particular should help them accurately date the burial site.

As a royal and commercial center, Aarhus was one of Denmark's most important cities during the Viking Age.