17 statues of goddess found

2006-03-13 09:53

Cairo - An Egyptian-German archaeological team has discovered 17 more statues of Sekhmet, an ancient Egyptian goddess who has the head of a lioness and the body of a woman, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said on Sunday.

The life-size statues were found when the team was doing restoration work on the temple of Amenhotep III, on the west river bank of the southern city of Luxor, Hosni said in a statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Last week, the team discovered six similar black granite statues which depicted Sekhmet seated on a throne and holding the "key of life" in her left hand. Two of those statues were broken, with only the lower parts found.

The condition of the 17 statues was not revealed, though the council's chief, Zahi Hawass, said in the statement that each figure will be removed from the site for maintenance.

Hawass said Amenhotep III's different names and titles were delicately engraved on both sides of the statues' thrones, reflecting the advanced stage of arts during the 3 000 years of the 18th dynasty rule.

Sekhmet was considered the goddess of war and recovery, which could explain why so many similar statues were found on the same site, according to Mansour Breik, the official supervising the Luxor antiquities.

- AP