A tomb hidden in plain sight at Saqqara has surprised archaeologists with its colour, detail and unusual double design.

A Spanish-Egyptian archaeological mission led by Spanish Egyptologist Josep Cervelló has uncovered an “intriguing and beautiful” tomb dating from the late Fifth Dynasty of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, 2494 to 2345 BC, in the necropolis of Saqqara, southwest of Cairo.

The find was made during this summer’s excavations, directed by the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

It is a mastaba with two funerary chapels, commissioned by Yunmen, a senior official of Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi, who also ordered that his father, Iti, a lower-ranking official, be buried there.

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the tomb dates from the end of the Fifth Dynasty, during the reign of Djedkare Isesi, and is in the Mariette necropolis, north of Saqqara.

According to the ministry, it contains “two funerary chapels belonging to two high officials, Younmin and his father, Ity”.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona said the tomb has shed light on figures of great historical, social and cultural interest.

The archaeological team said the discovery also came as a surprise because of the monument’s richness and beauty.

Among its most notable features are a high-quality architrave and funerary texts tailored to the personality and offices of its owner.

The Egyptian ministry said the scenes and reliefs are in an exceptional state of preservation and depict “agricultural activities and processions with offerings”. It said many of them “have retained their original colours”.

The decoration also includes depictions of donkeys and other animals.

According to Egyptian authorities, the discovery “provides new and valuable information about the architecture, art and administrative life of ancient Egypt at the end of the Fifth Dynasty”.

Archaeologists believe the double tomb may reflect the social rise of Yunmen, the son of a provincial official who went on to hold a senior position in the central administration and wished to share his funerary fate with his father.

The area has been known since the nineteenth-century excavations of Auguste Mariette, but had never been studied and documented in depth.

The research aimed to reconstruct the topography of Saqqara and understand the necropolis as a living space, where ancient Egyptians brought offerings and worked continually on the construction of funerary monuments.

The team also aimed to understand how the necropolis was organised and functioned, from its streets and squares to the movement of people and the rituals of worship.

Analysis of maps and reconstruction of the layout led the team to a previously unknown mastaba and to traces of two more nearby, which they hope to excavate in future seasons.

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