Antiquities officials announced on Saturday that a palatial Old Kingdom structure and over 2,000 mummified ram heads from the Ptolemaic era were discovered at the temple of Ramses II in the ancient city of Abydos, located in southern Egypt.

Mummified ewes, dogs, wild goats, cows, gazelles and mongooses were found in the temple along with the ram heads, which are thought to be votive offerings indicating continuing reverence for Ramses II at the site about 1,000 years after his death, a statement from the tourism and antiquities ministry said.

It added that the discoveries would expand knowledge of the site throughout more than two millennia up to the Ptolemaic period. The Ptolemaic period spanned about three centuries until the Roman conquest in 30 B.C.

Abydos, located in the Egyptian governorate of Sohag about 270 miles (435 kilometers) south of Cairo, is one of Egypt's prominent though lesser visited archaeological sites.

It was a cemetery for early ancient Egyptian royalty and a pilgrimage center for the worship of the god Osiris, the god of the afterlife, resurrection and fertility. Osiris was believed to have been the first pharaoh of Egypt and was the brother and husband of Isis, another major goddess in the Egyptian pantheon

Excavations were carried out by a mission from New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Alongside the mummified animal remains, the team uncovered a sizable palatial structure with walls approximately 5 meters thick from the Old Kingdom's sixth dynasty, in addition to several statues, papyri, the ancient tree remains, leather garments and shoes.

The structure could help "reestablish the sense of the ancient landscape of Abydos before the construction of the Ramses II temple," the head of the mission, Sameh Iskander, was quoted as saying.