Clay figures showing activities of daily life dating back to 2,100 B.C. have been found by a Belgian excavation team working in the Barsha Monastery, 124 miles south of Cairo, as seen in this picture made available by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities May 20, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A tomb of an Egyptian courtier who lived about 4,000 years ago was discovered by Belgian archaeologists, Egyptian media reported on Sunday.

    "The tomb is one of the best preserved of its time," said Harco Willems, leader of the  team from Leuven Catholic University.

    The tomb was found accidentally while excavating a later burial site at the Deir al-Barsha necropolis near the Nile Valley town of Minya, 225 km south of Cairo.

     The tomb belonged to Henu, an estate manager and high-ranking official during the first intermediate period, which lasted from 2181 to 2050 BC and was a time of political chaos in ancient Egypt.

    The archaeologists found Henu's mummy wrapped in linen in a large wooden coffin and a sarcophagus decorated with hieroglyphic texts addressed to the gods Anubis and Osiris.

    The tomb contained well-preserved painted wooden statuettes of workers making bricks, women making beer and pounding cereal, and a model of a boat with rowers, Egyptian media said.

(Agencies)