The first discovery was carried out by an Egyptian mission in Komombo Temple while the second one was by a joint German–Swiss mission in Elephantine Island.

Komombo Temple discovery

During excavation works carried out at the north-eastern area of Komombo temple as part of a project to decrease the subterranean water, the Egyptian mission stumbled upon a limestone block engraved with hieroglyphic inscription, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities announces.

He explains that early studies carried out on the block reveal that it belongs to the reign of Greek Emperor Philip Erhadius, the step brother of Alexander the Great who succeeded his brother to the throne.

The block is 83 cm tall, 55 cm large and 32 cm thick. The inscription engraved on it shows the cartouche of Emperor Philip and prayer for the crocodile god sobek of Komombo. The upper part of the block depicts goddess Nekhbet and its lower part bears king Philip while wearing the red crown of lower Egypt.

Elephantine Discovery

The second discovery is a New Kingdom workshop for carpentry in Elephantine Island. The workshop was uncovered by a German Swiss mission led by Cornelious  von Pilgrim. Among the objects found in the workshop are two objects of particular importance. It is an assemblage of two metal axes made of bronze or copper. They were deposited in a small pit in one of the uppermost floors of the latest phase of the house. The phase can be dated in the time of Thutmosis III or in the early years of Amenhotep II.

Dr. Pilgrim said that after their discovery both axes have been carefully restored by the conservator of the mission in May 2017. One of the axes is a symmetrical axe with elongated lugs, a type that started to appear in Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period.
The axe was heavily corroded and is badly cracked. It is best paralleled with the group of splayed axes with straight sides that becomes a common form in the 18th Dynasty. This axe type was most probably used as a tool. The second axe found in the same deposit
is most exceptional and clearly of foreign origin. It is the first example of an axe of this Syrian type in all Egypt. It has a shaft-hole to mount the shaft into the axe, a technology which never was adopted by Egyptian manufacturers.