According to an official press release given by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, an Egyptian archeological mission has uncovered a collection of burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic period in Minya’s archeological site of Tuna El Gebel.
The discovery, which includes the finding of 50 mummies, was announced on Saturday and is the result of a collaboration between a mission from the Ministry as the Research Centre for Archaeological Studies of Minya University.
All the mummies and grave goods were divided into found in four burial chambers nine meters deep in the Tuna El-Gebel site.
The cache of tombs was revealed to the press as well as to officials such as Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Tourism, Dr. Mostafa Waziri Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Major General Kassem Hussein, Menia Governor, members of parliament in Minya.
Minister of Antiquities, Khaled El Enany announced that the discovery was the first of the year 2019 and it would be considered the third discovery announced in the governorate of Minya since he took office.
It is most likely that the newly discovered tombs constitute a familial grave, possibly belonging to an elite middle class family.
Many of the differently-aged mummies of men, women and around 12 children were in good condition. Some bore traces of Demotic handwriting, with fragments of colored cartonnage covering near the feet; some of the children mummies were also wrapped in linen.
According to Waziri, the mission had found ostraca and fragments of papyri in the grave which assisted in the dating of the grave to the Ptolemaic, early Roman and Byzantine periods.
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