3300-year-old tomb with pyramid entrance discovered
New York: Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,300-year-old tomb which had a 7-metre-high pyramid at its entrance in an ancient cemetery in Egypt.
The tomb, found at the site of Abydos, contained disarticulated skeletal remains from three to four men, 10 to 12 women and at least two children. Within one of its vaulted burial chambers, archaeologists found a finely crafted sandstone sarcophagus which was painted red.
There is no mummy in the sarcophagus, and the tomb was ransacked at least twice in antiquity, researchers said. The chambers uncovered would have originally resided beneath the surface, leaving only the steep-sided pyramid visible.
“Originally, all you probably would have seen would have been the pyramid and maybe a little wall around the structure just to enclose everything,” said Kevin Cahail, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, who led excavations at the tomb.
The pyramid itself “probably would have had a small mortuary chapel inside of it that may have held a statue or a stela giving the names and titles of the individuals buried underneath,” Cahail told ‘LiveScience’.
Now, all that remains of the pyramid are the thick walls of the tomb entranceway that would have formed the base of the pyramid. The other parts of the pyramid either have not survived or have not yet been found. It was not uncommon, at this time, for tombs of elite individuals to contain small pyramids, Cahail said.
The tomb was excavated in the summer and winter field seasons of 2013 and Cahail will be presenting the results at a meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, to be held in Portland next month. (PTI)
Princess Diana dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star’
London: Princess Diana was planning on moving to LA with her lover Dodi Fayed to become a star in Hollywood before she died in a fatal car accident in Paris, Kevin Costner has revealed.
The Oscar-winning star said at CinemaCon that the Princess of Wales had talked about starring opposite him in the sequel of his 1992 box-office hit ‘The Bodyguard’, the Daily Star reported.
The 59-year-old actor asserted that there was a very good chance they would have done it. Costner also slammed people who had shot down the story when it first emerged in 2012, saying it was a real hotbed of discussion with a lot of people saying that it was not true, but it was true.
She had not committed to the movie, but she had asked for it to be written with her in mind, he added. (ANI)
Man arrested for scaling White House fence
Washington: A man has been arrested for climbing over a fence at the White House, the Secret Service has said.
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said the man climbed over the fence around 4 p.m. Sunday and was immediately arrested.
According to Fox News, the Secret Service did not immediately release the identity of the man, and Leary said charges were pending. The incident can also be considered as a security breach. (ANI)