CAIRO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian-Australian mission from Macquarie University discovered the burial chambers of Middle Kingdom's two top officials in Upper Egypt's province of Minya, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said Tuesday.
The discovery was accidently made while the team was cleaning the interior of a tomb at Beni Hassan necropolis in Minya, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The burial chambers of the two top officials Ramushenty and Baqet II date back to 4,000 years ago, as the Middle Kingdom in ancient Egypt's history covers the period between 2055 BC and 1650 BC.
Ayman Ashmawi, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, said no funerary collection was found inside Ramushenty's main burial chamber, pointing out that it might have been removed by British Egyptologist Percy E. Newberry, who worked in Beni Hassan necropolis between 1893 and 1900.
Baqet II's burial chamber has the same design as that of Ramushenty's and its walls are decorated with well-preserved colored drawings.
A collection of food clay pots was found in two side burial chambers located to the east and west of Ramushenty's main chamber. Another collection of clay vessels was also found in Baqet II's chamber.
The Egyptian-Australian mission has been working in Beni Hassan necropolis in Minya since 2009.
Over the past couple of years, Egypt has witnessed several big archeological discoveries, including Pharaonic tombs, statues, coffins, mummies and burial sites, remains of a Roman-style Hellenistic gymnasium, ruins of a funerary garden, a pyramid's burial chamber and a huge statue believed to be of ancient King Ramses II.
