The Egyptian-Dominican mission of the University of Santo Domingo from the Dominican Republic (located in central America) headed by Dr. Kathleen Martinez, working at the Tabosiris Magna Temple in western Alexandria, succeeded in uncovering 16 caches in stone-carved tombs (burial holes in the wall).
This style of building tombs was popular in the Greek and Roman eras.
Inside these holes, were a number of mummies in a poor state of preservation, which highlight the characteristics of mummification in the Greek and Roman times.
Also remnants of gilded cartonnage were found in those tombs in addition to amulets of gold foil in the form of a tongue that were placed in the mouth of the deceased in a special ritual to ensure his ability to speak in the other world is before the Osirian court.
Dr. Martinez explained that one of the most important of these mummies was two mummies that preserved the remains of scrolls and parts of the cartonnage layer, the first with remnants of gilding and bearing gilded decorations showing the god Osiris, the god of the other world, while the other mummy wears the Atef crown (a white crown made of white feathers) decorated with horns and the cobra snake is on the forehead, and at the chest of the mummy there is a gilded decoration representing the wide necklace from which the falcon head hangs, the symbol of the deity Horus.
On his part, Dr. Khaled Abu Al-Hamd, Director General of Alexandria Antiquities, said that during this season the mission found a number of archaeological finds, the most important of which is a funeral mask for a woman, eight golden flakes representing the leaves of a golden wreath, and eight masks of marble dating back to the Greek and Roman eras.
These masks show high accuracy in sculpture and depiction of the features of the owners.
It is worth noting that during the last ten years the mission found an important group of archaeological finds that changed our perception of the Temple of Tabosiris Magna, where a number of coins bearing the name and image of Queen Cleopatra VII were found inside the temple walls, in addition to many parts of statues that are believed to be the temple grounds were adorned in the past, in addition to revealing the temple foundation panels, which proved that it was built by King Ptolemy IV.
Contributed by Ahmed Moamar
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