Roman-Era Tomb at Al-Bahnasa Yields Mummies, Amulets, and a Homer Papyrus
A burial chamber at Al-Bahnasa, the ancient site of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, has produced an unusually layered discovery: mummies wrapped in decorated linen, gold and copper amulets, traces of gold leaf, and a papyrus bearing a passage from Homer’s Iliad. The Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced the find, which was made by an Egyptian-Spanish team led by Esther Pons of Spain’s National Archaeological Museum and Maite Mascort of the University of Barcelona.
The tomb adds fresh evidence to what archaeologists already know about funerary practice in Greek and Roman Egypt, a period spanning 332 BCE to 641 CE. Among the most striking objects were three gold amulets shaped like tongues and one made of copper. In ancient belief, such tongue amulets were meant to allow the dead to speak in the afterlife, a detail that points to the ritual care invested in burial and passage beyond death.
Researchers also observed traces of gold leaf on some of the mummies, suggesting that the interments were treated with particular elaboration. The presence of decorated linen reinforces that impression. Rather than a simple burial, the tomb appears to have been assembled with symbolic precision, combining material display with protective and devotional objects.
The papyrus found with one of the mummies may prove equally important. It contains a passage from the “Catalogue of Ships,” the section of the Iliad that lists the Greek forces assembled for the Trojan War. For a site already known for papyri from the Greek and Roman periods, the fragment adds a literary dimension to the archaeological record.
Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said the discovery joins a growing list of significant finds at Al-Bahnasa. Hisham el-Leithy, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said it adds “an important literary and historical dimension” to the site. The area has previously yielded Greco-Roman objects including terracotta statuettes of Isis-Aphrodite, underscoring how deeply Greek and Egyptian traditions intertwined there.
As excavation continues, Al-Bahnasa is emerging not just as a burial ground, but as a place where ritual, text, and cultural exchange survive in the same archaeological layer.
