Egyptian, Russian specialist dig up ‘well-preserved’ Greco-Roman era mummy south of Cairo

CAIRO, November 17. /TASS/. An archaeological expedition by Egyptian and Russian researchers led to the discovery of an ancient coffin containing a well-preserved mummy in the village of Al Banat in the province El Faiyum, nearly 100 km south of Cairo, Egypt. The archaeologists dated their discovery to the Greco-Roman period, chiefly the last years of the epoch Before Christ (BC) and first decades of the Common Era. Chief Secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Vaziri announced that the wooden casket had been discovered during the course of excavations around a Coptic Christian monastery. According to Vaziri, the mummy was very well preserved and fully wrapped in linen. The chest of the coffin lid is decorated with ceremonial pictures, in particular, containing scenes from the life of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Isis, while a mask covers the head of the coffin, chiefly painted blue and gold. The object itself, however, requires an urgent renovation. The archeological group took immediate steps on site to ensure the conservation of the mummy coffin and tried to carefully avoid putting into contact with the surroundings. In the near future, the relic will be transported to a special center of Supreme Council of Antiquities located at El Faiyum, about 100 km to the south of Egypt’s capital city of Cairo. There, experts will work on restoring and conducting a detailed investigation of the rare and valuable finding. The backbone of this archaeological expedition to Al Banat is made up of scientists from the RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences) Institute of Oriental Studies. They have been working at the Egyptian province of Al Faiyum for seven years now. During that time, the Russian scientists have made quite a few discoveries, with the disclosed ancient casket ranking high on the list of rare relics found by the Russians during the course of field investigations in the land of Egypt. Read more