Three
years ago, an antiquities guard was riding his donkey. The leg of the donkey
fell down and a hole was discovered because of this event. The Inspectors of
Antiquities of Bahria started an excavation in this area and found the
beginning of a cemetery of mummies.
In
March 1999, I took a team of archaeologists, architects, restorators,
conservators and engineers and started the largest expedition ever done in
Egypt.
We
established a large camp in the area which is located about 6 km from the town
of El Bawiti, the capital of Bahria Oasis. We conducted a survey and found out
that the cemetery extended about 6 km square.
We
started the excavation in four tombs only and found 105 mummies inside of them.
The mummies are in good condition which shows the richness of the people in
that time.
They
are of four kinds:
- Mummies which are guilded, covered with
a very thin layer of gold;
- Mummies covered with cartonage and
scenes depicted, such as gods and goddesses. For example, Anubis of the
embalment, Osiris, Isis, and the four children of Horus as well as the god
Toth. All these gods are connected with the judgement;
- The third type are mummies inside
anthropoid coffins (these are coffins made of pottery with human faces);
- The last style are mummies wrapped with
linen.
Lots
of artifacts were found near the mummies, such as statues of mourning ladies
made of pottery. Other artifacts, such as different types of pottery in the
shapes of God Bes, the dwarf god of pleasure and fun.
Also,
other artifacts including bracelets, earrings and coins were found. The study
of these coins reveal that this find is dated from the Greek Period to the
Roman Period.
The
Tombs consist of an entrance, delivery room and two burial chambers. One of the
mummies is a guilded lady with her head turned toward the face of her husband
with love and affection. Others are buried as a family group, with their
children. The mummies of the children were covered with gold. Another woman has
a crown with four decorative rows of red-colored curls. The third and fourth
rows are missing significant pieces. Beneath the crown the hairstyle is similar
to that of Terracotta statues. Behind the ears appears the goddess Isis on one
side and Nephthys on the other - these protect the deceased with their wings.
The
decorative scenes show an abbreviated form of the judgement of the dead. In
these scenes we see the god Osiris on his throne while Anubis weighs the heart
of the dead against the feather of Maat. Meanwhile, Toth records the result of
the weighing process and reports it to Osiris.
Anubis,
who is portrayed on the mummies, played an important role in several ways.
First is his well attested role in the judgement scenes - it is he who operates
the scale on which the heart is weighed against the feather. Second is his
performance of the embalming - a basic condition for rebirth. Anubis protects
the body of the deceased and assists in its revival. Therefore, we find Anubis
in the representations on coffins and mummy masks performing mummification
rites.
The
Uraeus appears on the head of some of the mummies belonging to non-royal
persons, this probably indicates desire of the deceased to have a
transfiguration similar to that of a king.
In
the Roman Period, different elements appear - such as crowns and the use of a kings
or gods beard of Uraeus, were taken from the royal cult and used by the public.
We
expect to find at least 10,000 mummies in this cemetery. We preserved mostly
all the mummies in situ, but we did move only a few to a room in the Bahria
inspectorate to show them to the public.
A
Festival of Mummies was discovered recently by an Egyptian team at Bahariya
Oasis, located about 380 km west of the pyramids. Four tombs were excavated,
and found inside them were 105 mummies, many of them beautifully gilded. These
mummies, many sumptuously decorated with religious scenes, represent the very
best of Roman-Period mummies ever found in Egypt. These ancient remains are
around 2000 years old, but they have withstood the test of time remarkably
well.
The
story of the discovery began about three years ago, as I was excavating in the
site of the tombs of the pyramid builders. I was cleaning
the
skeleton of a workman who once was working in constructing the great pyramid
My
assistant Mansour Bouriak told me that there was a very important discovery at
Bahariya. I stopped cleaning the skeleton. I said Mansour: is this one of your
latest jokes? Mansour said: Ashry Shaker Chief Inspector of Bahariya is here
and wants to tell you about the discovery.
Ashry
said, "We have found beautiful mummies. You have to leave these skeletons
because lots of mummies have been found." He added, "Yesterday the
Antiquities guard Aiad was riding his donkey along the side of the road that
leads to Farafra Oasis, some six Kilometers south of the town of El-Bawitty,
the Capital of Bahariya. The donkey tripped, hitting its leg on the edge of
tomb." I told Ashry to start excavate this tomb, and I would visit the
site the following week.
When
I went in May 1996 to see them, I could not believe that such beautiful mummies
could exist. Their eyes were looking at me as if they were real people.
Another
mummy discovered reminded me of the mummy used by Hollywood in the movie Curse
of the Mummy. The tombs with the mummies were a stunning cache. In 1996, the
Bahariya Inspectorate of Antiquities did not have sufficient funding nor enough
qualified
excavators
and conservators to properly preserve the mummies. Therefore, we kept this
discovery secret; we did not announce it because we were afraid that thieves
could smell the taste of resin that was put inside the mummies.
I
felt that this site should be excavated to preserve the mummies and also to
know the size of the cemetery.
I
led a team of archaeologist, architects, restorers, conservators, draftsmen, an
electrician, and an artist. We camped in the desert and stayed in a very nice motel
near the site. It was a nice change to leave the pyramids and excavate mummies.
Mummies
conjure up so many images in people's mind. Most people know about mummies
through scary movies. They inevitably evoke horror movies. But the significance
of this find is that it is the first exciting thing that has brought
Egyptomania to the modern world. To me this is personally very exciting, but I
am not overawed by the scary reputation of mummies. To me it is a science and
this remarkable find gives me the chance to find more out about people from
another place and time.
The
story of our discovery begins back in 1996 when an Antiquities guard of the
Temple of Alexander the Great was crossing the desert on his donkey. Suddenly
the leg of the donkey buckled and it fell. There was a small hole in the desert
floor where the donkey had fallen. The guard left his donkey in the area and
ran to Mr. Ashry Shaker to report the incident.
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