 CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities says that American and Egyptian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a previously unknown pharaonic king dating back to dating to roughly 1650 B.C. Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim says in a statement Wednesday that archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, cooperating with the ministry, uncovered the tomb of sixteenth-dynasty King Seneb Kay near the southern city of Sohag. The archeological team from the University of Pennsylvania was able to decipher hieroglyphics on the wall, which uncovered the king’s name, the Associated Press reports. Mohamed Ibrahim, a minister from Egypt’s Ministry of State of Antiquities, says the discovery may shed light on how local families lived during the Second Intermediate Period, considered one of the most pivotal phases in the country’s ancient history, Ahram Online reports. “This adds to our pharaonic history, and sheds light on an era about which we knew very little previously,” Head of Antiquities Ali al-Asfar told the AP.
– Amid fresh upheaval in Egypt, archaeologists are still making finds that shed light on the country's past. In the latest discovery, an American and Egyptian team has unearthed the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh who ruled during troubled times 3,600 years ago, reports the AP. King Seneb Kay—whose name was determined from hieroglyphics on the tomb wall—ruled when the country was divided among several rulers, and Egypt's head of antiquities says the find will provide new insight into a complex and little-known era. But while the find will provide knowledge, grave robbers appear to have made off with everything else of value thousands of years ago, the International Business Times reports. No funerary furniture was found in the badly damaged tomb, and even the body of the king, who had been mummified and laid to rest in a wooden sarcophagus, had been pulled apart. An archaeologist involved with the dig says the terrible state of the tomb reflects the state of Egypt at the time, when central authority had collapsed. (Click for another recent archaeological find—related to Aztec human sacrifice.)