More than 5,000 years ago, the first kings of Ancient Egypt selected Saqqara, a sweeping area west of the fabulous capital city Memphis, as the site for their portals to the afterlife ― their tombs. The step pyramid of the Old Kingdom ruler Djoser and other surviving mastabas are above-ground nodes on an expansive network of subterranean sites. Through the millennia, Saqqara was deserted, revived, and adapted to changing mythologies, cults, and cultures that define the periods and dynasties of Ancient Egypt.

Absent the grand pyramids and temples of sites such as the Valley of the Kings, Saqqara has evaded much of the attention of archaeologists, tourists, and mercifully of plunderers; thus the sands of Saqqara still conceal a honeycomb of structures including hundreds of undisturbed tombs, miles of walls, and necropolises containing countless mummies, animal and human, all awaiting discovery. In the waning months of 2019, the first ever all-Egyptian archaeological mission opened a small storage chamber in the Greco-Roman Bubasteion, an ancient temple complex and necropolis at Saqqara.

Concealed beneath an Old Kingdom mud-brick wall, the Bubasteion Votive Cachette contained hundreds of objects dating to, and in some cases predating, the 26TH Dynasty (664 to 525 BCE). The stash included a unique pair of cobra-headed goddesses with jackal slippers, an astonishing five lion mummies, and an extraordinary panel illustrating the syncretic character of Egyptian and other polytheistic religions - Vestiges of an Ancient Egypt that still holds many secrets.