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An ongoing excavation in Damietta, Egypt, has uncovered 63 tombs from more than 2,500 years ago, alongside a trove of gold artifacts, coins and pottery.
The artifacts could provide more information about the “secrets of ancient Egyptian civilization,” including the burial practices of the time, as well as the coastal city’s role in ancient foreign trade, according to Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquitieswhich announced the discoveries July 23.
Among the 63 tombs, excavators found funeral amuletscharms that were thought to protect the dead, and ushabti statuesalso intended to accompany the dead in the afterlife, dating from the 26th Dynasty of the Late Period (664 to 525 B.C). The excavation also revealed 38 bronze coins – contained in a ceramic vase – from Ptolemaic eraone of the dynasties that reigned after the death of Alexander the Great, from 323 to 30 BC.
The excavation site, known as Tal al-Deir, is referred to as a necropolis, the term used for an elaborate cemetery of an ancient city. The cemetery was especially important during the 26th Dynasty but it remained in use throughout Roman and Byzantine times, according to the ministry.
The discovered artifacts provide “a lot of information” about later periods of Egyptian history, said Salima Ikram, distinguished university professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, who was not involved in the excavation.
“Based on the type of objects, mainly the gold amulets, it can be seen that this was a rich necropolis and obviously the city attached to it had a great social (stratification) (a hierarchy of people in society that is determined based on on social and political factors)”, she added in an email.
At Tal al-Deir, archaeologists also unearthed a large tomb that contained graves of individuals of high social status, said Kotb Fawzy, an official at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities who is overseeing the excavation. in a statement. The bodies were buried with gold leaf figures representing religious symbols and ancient Egyptian idols.
Ancient Egyptian Burials Reflect Status and Wealth
The excavation and the mission to explore the necropolis have been going on for years. In 2019, the ministry announced the discovery of seven gold coins dated Byzantine period of Egypt (284 to 641 AD), as well as a collection of ushabti statues engraved with the name of Psametic King II of the 26th Dynasty.
Three years later, the ministry announced the discovery of 20 tombs that contained a treasure trove of gold-plated figures representing Egyptian deities such as Bastet, the goddess who often took the form of a cat and who was believed to guide people in the afterlife, and Horus, who was often depicted as a falcon and was a symbol of protection.
This 2022 discovery featured tombs that included simple pits and mudbrick tombs – an air-dried brick made from a mud mixture and other natural components – as well as some made from limestone that were supposed to be for the wealthier deceased. The recent discovery of 63 tombs consisted mainly of mudbrick tombs, as well as some simple burials, according to a statement from the ministry.
“One of the most interesting aspects of this ongoing, government-sponsored excavation in Damietta is that the burials document a wide range of burial techniques within the same cemetery precinct: from placing the deceased in a simple grave to burial within a mud -brick structure,” said Lorelei Corcoran, professor of art history and director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archeology at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, in an email. Corcoran was not part of the excavation.
“This, along with the discovery of gold leaf amulets in the shape of Egyptian deities and hordes of coins, also illustrates a dichotomy in the wealth and status of the individuals buried here,” she added in an email.
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