Graeco-Roman tombs+mummy unearthed in Egyptians oasis (pics inside)
This is quite promising but i'll post more coverage as usual to clear my mind by thoughts
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists carrying out excavations at the site of a planned youth center have found 14 tombs dating back to the third century BC, including one with a female mummy adorned with jewelry.
The Greco-Roman tombs, in Bahariya Oasis, 300 km (190 miles) southwest of Cairo, were discovered during probes that indicated they may be part of a much larger necropolis, Egypt's Culture Ministry said in a statement Monday.
A 97-cm (38-inch) tall female mummy, found in the stair-lined interior of one of the rock-hewn tombs, was cast in colored plaster inlaid with jewelry and eyes.
Archaeologists, who dug at the site ahead of the planned construction of a youth center, found the tombs contained other treasures as well. The area has now been turned over to Egypt's antiquities authority.
"Early investigations uncovered four anthropoid masks made of plaster, a gold fragment decorated with engravings of the four sons of Horus, and a collection of coins, and clay and glass vessels," the ministry's statement quoted Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass as saying.
The four sons of Horus -- Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef -- were ancient Egyptian gods. The engravings show the influence of Egyptian religion well into the Greco-Roman period.
The gods were believed to protect the stomach, liver, intestines and lungs of mummified bodies.
Bahariya Oasis is home to Egypt's famed Valley of the Golden Mummies, where a collection of 17 tombs with about 254 mummies was discovered in 1996.
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10351345
Now i'll start with the coverage.... waiting for pics too
The future home of an Egyptian youth center became a hotbed of archaeology as diggers unearthed 14 tombs dating back to the third century BC, including one with a female mummy decorated in jewelry.
The Greco-Roman tombs, located in the Bahariya Oasis 190 miles southwest of Cairo, were discovered during probes that indicated they may be part of a large necropolis, Egypt’s Culture Ministry said in statement on Monday.
The female mummy -- about 38 inches tall -- was found in the stair-lined interior of one of the tombs, cast in colored plaster inlaid with jewelry and eyes.
The archaeologists also found other treasures as well. “Early investigations uncovered four anthropoid masks made of plaster, a gold fragment decorated with engravings of the four sons of Horus, and a collection of coins, and clay and glass vessels,” the statement said.
The four sons of Horus -- Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef -- were ancient Egyptian gods. The engravings show that Egyptian religion was carried well into the Greco-Roman era. The gods were believed to protect the stomach, liver, intestines and lungs of mummified bodies.
Bahariya Oasis is home to Egypt's famed Valley of the Golden Mummies, where a collection of 17 tombs with about 254 mummies was discovered in 1996.
The current site has been turned over to Egypt’s antiquities authority.
Source:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...ered_in_egypt/
Discovery news' turn actually
A bejeweled mummy dressed in Roman robes has emerged from the sands of Egypt's Bahariya Oasis, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Monday. Entombed in a decorated gypsum sarcophagus, the 38-inch tall mummy belonged to a woman or girl who died in the Greco-Roman period about 2,300 years ago.
Unearthed in a rock-hewn tomb at a modern construction site near the town of Bawiti, in Bahariya Oasis, some 185 miles southwest of Cairo, the mummy points to the existence of a large Greco-Roman necropolis nearby, Mahmoud Affifi, director of Cairo and Giza antiquities, said in a statement.
Indeed, Egyptian archaeologists uncovered 14 Graeco-Roman tombs at the site dating to the third century B.C.
They also found four anthropoid masks made of plaster, a collection of coins, clay and glass vessels of different shapes and sizes, and a sheet of gold depicting Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef -- the four sons of the ancient Egyptian sky god Horus.
According to Affifi, the tombs have a unique interior design. They consist of a long stairway leading to a corridor which ends in a hall. Each corner of the hall contains mastabas (rectangular structures found above many Egyptian tombs) that were used in burning the deceased.
Set in a depression covering over 1,250 square miles in Egypt's Western Desert near the city of Bawiti, the Bahariya Oasis consists of colonies of palm trees and hot springs, with black hills in the background. There is no trace of pyramids -- tombs par excellence -- or of mausoleums.
Yet it is here that in 1996 Dr. Zahi Hawass discovered 17 tombs with 254 golden masked mummies.
Called the Valley of the Golden Mummies, the site has turned out to be the biggest ancient Egyptian cemetery ever uncovered -- holding perhaps as many as 10,000 mummies buried more than 2,000 years ago.
Picture: The gypsum sarcophagus portrays a lady in Roman costume wearing some of her jewellery. Courtesy of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Source: http://news.discovery.com/archaeolog...ypt-oasis.html
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