Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Roman-era tomb with golden tongues, Iliad papyrus unearthed in Egypt’s Minya
A Roman-era burial site unearthed in the central Egyptian province of Minya is offering rare new insights into ancient funerary rituals, after a Spanish archaeological mission uncovered golden tongues, decorated mummy wrappings and a fragment of Homer’s Iliad in the storied necropolis of Bahnasa.
The mission, from the University of Barcelona and the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, is led by Maite Mascort and Ester Pons Mellado.
Their latest excavation revealed a Roman-period tomb containing several mummies, some wrapped in linen adorned with geometric motifs. Archaeologists also found wooden coffins, three golden tongues and a fourth made of copper, along with traces of gold foil once placed on the mummies.
Hesham El-Leithy, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the discovery sheds fresh light on burial practices in Greco-Roman Bahnasa.
He highlighted what may be the mission’s most intriguing find: a rare papyrus rolled within one of the mummies, carrying a passage from Book II of Homer’s Iliad describing the “Catalogue of Ships,” the roster of Greek forces that sailed to Troy. The text, he said, gives the site an “important literary and historical dimension.”
Further excavations east of Ptolemaic tomb 67, unearthed in 2024, revealed a trench with three limestone-built chambers, though only small portions survive. In the first chamber, archaeologists found a stone slab and a large jar containing cremated remains of an adult, alongside bones of an infant and the skull of a felid, all wrapped in textile. A second chamber contained another large jar holding the burnt remains of two adults and bones of a similar animal.
To the south of the site, the team uncovered terracotta and bronze figurines, including depictions of Harpocrates as a horseman and a small Cupid.
Hassan Amer, professor of archaeology at Cairo University and field director of the mission, said excavations at tomb 65 yielded additional golden and copper tongues, Roman-era mummies and painted wooden coffins within an underground hypogeum. Many of the finds, he noted, were in poor condition after suffering looting in antiquity.
Nestled in the Minya desert, Bahnasa has long been known for its sprawling necropolis. But this latest discovery—blending art, ritual and even epic poetry—offers a tender reminder of how deeply interconnected the worlds of Egypt, Greece and Rome once were, and how each new find helps breathe life back into their shared past.