Old Kingdom tombs with 160 pottery vessels discovered at Qubbet el Hawa, Egypt

The team cleared a network of burial shafts and chambers carved into the rock. The architecture points to an Old Kingdom origin, yet the story of the site did not end there. Evidence from the layers inside the shafts shows later reuse during the First Intermediate Period and again in the Middle Kingdom. Changes in blocking stones, burial deposits, and object placement mark these later phases.

Inside two chambers, archaeologists recovered about 160 pottery vessels. Most date to the Old Kingdom, and many were found intact. Several jars still bear hieratic inscriptions, the cursive script used for administrative and daily writing. The markings likely recorded contents or ownership. Early analysis suggests the vessels once held liquids and grain. Such goods formed part of the funerary equipment placed with the dead to supply them in the afterlife.

The condition and number of the vessels stand out. Groups of jars were arranged in ways that reflect planned storage rather than random discard. For researchers, this offers direct evidence of how food and drink were prepared and labeled for burial in southern Egypt more than four thousand years ago.