Roman-era Tombs And Mummies Found In Egypt

Roman-era tombs and mummies found in Egypt

Several tombs and mummies were discovered in the archaeological area in Minya, a governorate in upper Egypt.

The discoveries made by the Spanish archaeological mission from the University of Barcelona and the Institute of the Ancient Near East date back to the Roman era and the Ptolemaic Kingdom, an Ancient Greek state in Egypt, local media Akhbar el-Yom reported.

Professor of Antiquities at the Faculty of Antiquities, Cairo University, and Director of Mission Archaeological Digs, Hassan Amer said that the mission also succeeded in revealing several stone blocks belonging to a destroyed building, a large number of which were decorated with plant drawings, grape clusters, and craves of animals and birds such as pigeons and cobra snakes. He pointed out that the mission will complete its work at the site during the upcoming drilling seasons.

Head of the Central Administration for the Antiquities of Middle Egypt, Adel Okasha, also said that the mission found a large number of mummies wrapped in coloured rolls, some of which were covered with gilded and coloured funerary masks, and found inside the mouths of two of them on a gold tongue, a well-known rite from the Roman era in Al-Bahnasa in the Minya to preserve the deceased.

In 2022, 250 mummies in coffins were discovered in Egypt’s Saqqara treasure trove. The site was a vast burial ground with structures dating from the Early Dynastic Period to the Greco-Roman era, showcasing the continuity and evolution of burial practices over thousands of years.

Later in January 2023, a team of Spanish archaeologists uncovered sixty mummies in two tombs in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, the tombs were believed to have been constructed post the 18th dynasty (1550–1292 BCE) under the rule of pharaoh Amenhotep III, CBS News reported.