The Egyptian government is hailing the discovery of more than 20 wooden coffins as “one of the largest and most important” archaeological finds in the past few years. The coffins were found in Assasif, a necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River. Egyptian officials have not given the time frame from which the coffins date, but the site where they were found was once part of the ancient city of Thebes.

Thebes was the royal capital of the ancient Egypt. Early monuments can be traced as far
back as the 11th dynasty, which occurred between 2081 and 1939 BCE. Authorities said more details about the coffins would be divulged in a news conference Saturday.

Egypt is on a roll with its digging into the past. Last week, the Antiquities Ministry announced that archaeologists had found 30 workshops for the manufacturing and processing of funeral furniture for the tombs of kings in the Valley of the Kings, which served as the primary burial site for pharaohs from the 18th to the 20th dynasty.