All posts tagged: Archeological Sites

Newly Excavated Egyptian Tomb Sheds Light on Greco-Roman Era

Newly Excavated Egyptian Tomb Sheds Light on Greco-Roman Era

Published by José Betancourt

A newly excavated Roman-era tomb found at Al-Bahnasa, site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, offers insights into Egyptian funerary practices during the Greek and Roman periods (332 BCE–641 CE). The find, announced by the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, was made by a team of Egyptian and Spanish researchers led by archeologists Esther Pons of Spain’s National Archaeological Museum and Maite Mascort of the University of Barcelona.   Among the contents of the tomb were several mummies elaborately wrapped in decorated linen; alongside them the team found three gold amulets shaped like tongues and one made of copper, objects that would allow the dead to speak in the afterlife. The archaeologists also noted traces of gold leaf on some of the mummies, suggesting elaborate funerary rituals. Related Articles In a statement, Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said the discovery adds to a growing list of important finds at the site; other Greco-Roman-era objects unearthed at Al-Bahnasa by the same team have included terracotta statuettes of Isis-Aphrodite, a form of the Egyptian …

Ruins of a ‘Unique’ Temple Complex Discovered in Northern Sinai

Ruins of a ‘Unique’ Temple Complex Discovered in Northern Sinai

Published by Jenni Sidey

An Egyptian archeological mission has announced their discovery of a temple complex at Tell el-Farama, the site of the ancient city of Pelusium in northern Sinai. The ruin feaures a large circular basin, around 100 feet in diameter, once attached to an easternmost branch of the Nile (now long dry). Surrounding the basin, which would have been filled with water, is a complex system of drainage channels; at its center is a square plinth that may have supported a statue of the local deity Pelusius. The archeologists—working under the Supreme Council of Antiquities—first discovered the complex in 2019, unearthing a Greco-Roman structure with benches inside it that they originally thought was a civic building. But according to Dr. Hisham Hussein, head of the Central Department for Maritime Antiquities and Sinai and supervisor of the excavation, ongoing excavation and comparative studies have changed their understanding of the site. Related Articles “We now know this was a sacred water installation used in religious rituals,” said Hussein in a statement, “not a political structure.” Stratigraphic evidence suggests that …

Researchers Confirm Location of Lost City of Alexandria on the Tigris

Researchers Confirm Location of Lost City of Alexandria on the Tigris

Published by José Betancourt

An international team of researchers has confirmed the rediscovery of the lost city of Alexandria on the Tigris in Iraq. Founded by Alexander the Great (356 BCE–323 BCE), whose brief empire stretched from Greece to the Indus River and encompassed swathes of Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia, it was a vital trading center until the 3rd century CE. News of the find was announced in January by the University of Konstanz in Germany, whose chair of Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeology Professor Stefan Hauser leads the archeological initiative documenting the site. Related Articles Alexandria on the Tigris (later renamed Charax Spasinou) was one of several major cities founded by the Macedonian general, the most famous of which is Alexandria in Egypt, today the country’s second largest metropolis. Unlike its Egyptian counterpart, however, it was lost to time; by the third century CE the Tigris River, which connected it to maritime shipping, had shifted westward, and the settlement was largely abandoned. In the mid-20th century, researcher John Hansman, reviewing aerial photographs, made …

43 Looted Antiquities Are Returned to Turkey

43 Looted Antiquities Are Returned to Turkey

Published by Jenni Sidey

Reflecting growing pressure by New York prosecutors on museums and private collectors, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and an American collector have returned dozens of looted antiquities to Turkey. As reported by the New York Times, a repatriation ceremony was held in New York on December 8. The repatriations are connected to a years-long investigation into antiquities trafficking networks by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit. The items returned on December 8 were all linked to plundered archeological sites in Turkey; according to the DA’s office, the items were stolen from those sites and then exhibited and sold by dealers using faked provenance records. Related Articles The objects included a 2nd-century marble head of Greek orator Demosthenes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a Roman bronze statue of an emperor from California-based collector Aaron Mendelsohn; and a group of 6th-century BCE terracotta reliefs from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Law enforcement seized the sculpture of Demosthenes—originating from a site near the modern Turkish city of Izmir—from …