CAIRO — The Egyptian-Dominican mission of the University of Santo Domingo headed by archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, working at the Taposiris Magna Temple to the west of Alexandria, has discovered 16 burial chambers in stone-carved tombs, which are wall burial holes that were popular in the Greco-Roman era.
The mission also discovered several tombs that contained mummies in poor preservation condition, which is characteristic of mummification in the Greco-Roman era. Remains of gilded cartonnage were found in addition to tongue-shaped gold foil amulets that were placed in the mouths of the dead, a ritual that would allow them to speak in the afterlife before the Osirian court, according to ancient beliefs.
