Her friendly aspect is now represented by Bastet, with Sakhmet displaying the wild, destructive aspect of the lioness goddess. During the Middle Kingdom, the protective qualities of Sakhmet fade into the background and she becomes increasingly a wild and dangerous goddess. Although there is no evidence for a link with Bastet in the Old Kingdom, the plentiful evidence from the Middle Kingdom and later suggest that this link did in fact exist earlier. Together with lion-headed Shesemtet, she already appears in the Pyramid texts in the role of mother-protectress of the king. There is very little evidence for a cult of Sakhmet in the Old Kingdom. Her name means 'the powerful one' and refers to her wild and dangerous nature, which over the years became gradually more important. Iconographically, she is hard to differentiate from other goddesses with lion's heads. In the New Kingdom she acquired the sun disk, uraeus, ankh-sign and papyrus sceptre as attributes. She is usually depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness and a closed mouth. "A huge archeological discovery is scheduled to be announced in western Luxor on December 9, in addition to the opening of the mortuary of the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor after its restoration and development," Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany revealed last week.One of the most important Egyptian goddesses, who was worshipped from the Old Kingdom down to the Late Period. "The mission discovered about 287 statues of goddess Sekhmet since it started working in the site," Fathi Yassin, Director-General of West Bank Antiquities in Luxor, was quoted as saying.Įgypt has witnessed several big archeological discoveries this year in different parts of the country, including Pharaonic tombs, statues, coffins and mummies, highlighted by the remains of a Roman-style Hellenistic gymnasium, remains of a funerary garden, a pyramid's burial chamber and a statue believed to be of ancient King Ramses II. The Egyptian-European archaeological mission, at the Colossi of Memnon area within King Amenhotep III Temple conservation project, began excavations in the site in 1998.
"The mission is now carrying out the works of archaeological cleaning and conservation of the discovered collection in preparation for their display when the project is completed," she said.
Hourig Sourouzian, head of the mission, said the statues found in the upper layers of the ground were in good condition of preservation, while those found in lower layers were in poor condition. The head is crowned with a sun-disk and an uraeus adorning her forehead, he added. The statues portray goddess Sekhmet sitting on the throne, or holding the symbol of life in her left hand, or standing and holding the papyrus sceptre ahead of her chest, he said. "All the discovered statues were carved in black granite with a maximum height of about two metres," Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities was quoted as saying. The discovery was made near the Pharaonic King Amenhotep III Temple on the west bank of Upper Egypt's Luxor city, Xinhua quoted the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry as saying. Cairo: An Egyptian-European archeological mission has discovered a collection of 27 statues of ancient Egyptian lioness goddess Sekhmet, authorities said on Sunday.
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