Guardian of the dead: an image of a leopard found in an Egyptian necropolis

Archaeologists from the Egyptian-Italian mission based in the Western part of Aswan have presented new photos from the necropolis discovered a year ago. Among the findings, particular attention was drawn to the picture of a leopard painted on the plaster. This leopard is a kind of guardian of the dead.

The mission is led by Egyptologist Patrizia Piacentini from the state University of Milan. The necropolis was found at a depth of 5 meters under a layer of sand in Aswan. At the same time, the archaeological area covers approximately 25 thousand square meters to the West of the Nile river. There are more than 300 tombs scattered here, many of them dug into the hillside. The inhabitants of Aswan, who lived here from the seventh century BC to the third century ad, are buried in this cemetery.

In one of the tombs, known as agh026, scientists examined a room with 30 bodies. In addition to the remains, parts of sarcophagi, stretchers, pottery, and bedspreads were found. Here was found a drawing of a leopard placed near the head of one of the dead. Despite the fact that leopards are quite common in images, the peculiarity of this is that it is brightly colored. Fragments of plaster with the applied pattern are planned to be restored as much as possible in laboratory conditions.