ASWAN, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that a Greco-Roman–era tomb constructed in two sections has been discovered in Upper Egypt by a team of Egyptian and Italian archaeologists. “It is a mass grave that includes more than one family,” said Patrizia Piacentini of the University of Milan. The entrance to the tomb consists of an aboveground rectangular building made with sandstone blocks and covered with a vault made of mudbricks. This structure leads to a rectangular courtyard and four rock-cut burial chambers, where some 20 well-preserved mummies were found, explained Abdel-Moneim Said Mahmoud of Aswan and Nubia Antiquities. Artifacts found in the tombs include offering tables, stone panels engraved with hieroglyphs, a copper necklace engraved with a Greek inscription, pieces of colored cartonnage, and wooden statues of the human-headed Ba bird, which were created to represent a person’s non-physical being. To read about the discovery of a 3,800-year-old unopened tomb in Aswan, go to "The Unseen Mummy Chamber."
