It is quite astonishing that all these discoveries continue to be made. The Egyptians and archaeologists must sometimes sigh and think, 'Oh dear, not another one!'
When you consider the huge numbers of people, the physical labour involved, the numbers of skilled artists, the huge expense in funds and time needed, etc, it's difficult to get one's head round!
I remember a lecturer at uni telling me, with confidence, that Egypt was, as he put it, "dug out".
That was in 1980.
In the last four years alone, there have been over eighty major discoveries.
As for the ancient Egyptian burial customs?
By the late period, with the diminution of pharonic power, and the democratisation of death, meaning that even lower middle class folk could afford a decent embalming and stock coffin, the funeral industry became an economic mainstay of both artisans and priests.
The latter were responsible for the mass breeding of cult animals to be offered as prayers, whether real or faked mummies, to the gods...and making a nice little earner in the process.
The result is a vast number of animal mummies - estimated in the millions, and high quality human burials - at least on the outside.
On closer examination, mummification techniques were sometimes rushed, with costs cut. Plaster and bandages covered a multitude of sins.
Most of these modern finds will be CT scanned, any inscriptions deciphered, and returned to the tomb, which will be sealed and secured against grave robbers.
A few will be kept and displayed, along with the bronze statues, in the new Grand Egyptian Museum.
None will be unwrapped. That practice is no longer necessary. Only mummies which are found in a destroyed state are ever examined internally by hand nowadays.
