Newly Excavated Egyptian Tomb Sheds Light on Greco-Roman Era

A newly excavated Roman-era tomb found at Al-Bahnasa, site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, offers insights into Egyptian funerary practices during the Greek and Roman periods (332 BCE–641 CE). The find, announced by the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, was made by a team of Egyptian and Spanish researchers led by archeologists Esther Pons of Spain’s National Archaeological Museum and Maite Mascort of the University of Barcelona.  

Among the contents of the tomb were several mummies elaborately wrapped in decorated linen; alongside them the team found three gold amulets shaped like tongues and one made of copper, objects that would allow the dead to speak in the afterlife. The archaeologists also noted traces of gold leaf on some of the mummies, suggesting elaborate funerary rituals.

In a statement, Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said the discovery adds to a growing list of important finds at the site; other Greco-Roman-era objects unearthed at Al-Bahnasa by the same team have included terracotta statuettes of Isis-Aphrodite, a form of the Egyptian goddess Isis that incorporates features of the Greek deity Aphrodite.

The area around Al-Bahnasa is known for yielding papyri dating from Greek and Roman times; found buried with one of the mummies was a papyrus containing a passage from the section of Homer’s Iliad known as the “Catalogue of Ships,” which lists the Greek forces that fought in the Trojan War. According to Hisham el-Leithy, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the discovery “adds an important literary and historical dimension to the site.”