(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 17 - A joint Italian-Egyptian
archaeological mission, headed by the University of Milan, has
discovered a Greek-Roman tomb excavated in rock west of Assuan,
in southern Egypt, the website of newspaper Al Ahram reported on
Friday.
Some 20 mummies, most of which are well-preserved, were found in the large tomb. Patrizia Piacentini, a professor of Egyptology at the university in Milan who heads the Italian mission, said it is a "common tomb of more than one family".
The archeologist added that many findings from the Greek-Roman period were also found, including tables for offerings, panels in stone written in hieroglyphs, a copper necklace with Greek incisions, a series of wooden statues of the bird with a human head "Ba" (personification of the vital principle) and parts of colored "cartonnage" (a material used to build funerary masks), the website also reported.
The tomb is composed of two parts, added the director general of antiquities in Assuan and Nubia, Abdel-Moneim Said Mahmoud: the first is a rectangular building including a hall built in sandstone covered by a vault in mud-bricks; the second leads from the entryway to a rectangular court excavated in rock in which are four funerary rooms.
During the archaeological discovery in the area, located near the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan, well-preserved sarcophagi were also discovered including some in clay and others in sandstone, concluded Al Ahram. (ANSAmed)
Some 20 mummies, most of which are well-preserved, were found in the large tomb. Patrizia Piacentini, a professor of Egyptology at the university in Milan who heads the Italian mission, said it is a "common tomb of more than one family".
The archeologist added that many findings from the Greek-Roman period were also found, including tables for offerings, panels in stone written in hieroglyphs, a copper necklace with Greek incisions, a series of wooden statues of the bird with a human head "Ba" (personification of the vital principle) and parts of colored "cartonnage" (a material used to build funerary masks), the website also reported.
The tomb is composed of two parts, added the director general of antiquities in Assuan and Nubia, Abdel-Moneim Said Mahmoud: the first is a rectangular building including a hall built in sandstone covered by a vault in mud-bricks; the second leads from the entryway to a rectangular court excavated in rock in which are four funerary rooms.
During the archaeological discovery in the area, located near the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan, well-preserved sarcophagi were also discovered including some in clay and others in sandstone, concluded Al Ahram. (ANSAmed)
