First cemetery of Pharaonic dentists unearthed in Egypt

The first cemetery of Pharaonic dentists has been unearthed by an Egyptian antiquities mission at the Saqqara pyramid complex south of the capital Cairo, the Egyptian official news agency MENA reported on Sunday.

The cemetery, built with bricks, dates back to the end of the fourth dynasty and the start of the fifth dynasty (more than 4,000 years ago), the mission's leader Zahi Hawas, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement.

The statement said that the cemetery consists of three tombs of the king's three dentists, a chief one and two others who used to live near the royal palace to care for the teeth of the king and the royal family.

"It seems for the first time that the ancient Egyptians made a cemetery to the dentists and they are buried in the shadow of the Step Pyramid," Hawas was quoted as saying as he toured the site.

He said that the excavation continues at Saqqara, one of Egypt's most popular tourist site, 25 km south of Cairo.

Source: Xinhua