Egypt: The discovery of a huge funerary building and samples of portraits at the archaeological site of Gerza in Fayoum
The Egyptian archaeological mission working in the collection of Gerza in Fayoum succeeded in uncovering a huge funerary building from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, in addition to a number of models of Fayoum portraits, during the tenth excavation season of the mission this month.
Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities today, Thursday, that what was discovered at the site shows the diversity and difference in the accuracy and quality of the mummification process during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, which refers to the economic level of the deceased, from high-quality mummification to Simple burials.
He also noted that a rare terracotta statue of the goddess Isis Aphrodite was found in one of the burials inside a wooden coffin, in addition to a group of records made of papyrus with inscriptions in Demotic and Greek script indicating the social, economic and religious conditions of the inhabitants of the region during that period.
Dr. Adel Okasha, Head of the Central Department of Egyptian Antiquities in Central Egypt, indicated that the discovered building is a huge building built in the style of funerary houses, with a floor made of colored lime mortar and decorated with interchangeable tiles, and preceded by a pillar shed from the south, inside which the remains of four columns were found. The building has its own narrow street.
He added that with the multiplicity and diversity of artifacts revealed and recorded by the Egyptian mission, the portraits of mummies, or what is known as Fayoum portraits, are among the most important archaeological discoveries that were found during the current season, as the discovered models are the first models that have been found since the last discovery. Portraits found by the English archaeologist Flinders Petrie more than 115 years ago.
Dr. Bassem Jihad, the supervisor of the central training unit and head of the mission, said that the mission also succeeded in uncovering a number of coffins of different styles, some of them in the human form and others in the Greek form with a gabled roof.
He pointed out that the Egyptian archaeological mission began excavation work at the Gerza site since 2016, during which time it succeeded in uncovering many fixed and movable archaeological finds, which represent the main features of this distinguished site, which were represented in many tombs that reflect both the architectural development From the third century BC until the end of the third century AD, as well as the mixture of architecture and artifacts between the ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations, and among these models are six huge tombs built of mud bricks that represent mass graves in the Catacomb style.
It is noteworthy that the village of Gerza, which was known as the village of Philadelphia in the Greek era, was established in the third century BC as a central village within the agricultural reclamation project implemented by King Ptolemy II (Philadelphia) in the Fayoum region, with the aim of securing food sources for the Egyptian kingdom, and as a village that included the Egyptians and The Greeks, which is reflected in the cultural output.
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