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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Riches of Bahariya
By Zahi HawassI have just returned from several weeks during which I lived with 14 of my colleagues in Bahariya Oasis, working on the most exciting excavation of my life. It is an experience we all enjoyed immensely. Every day we rose with the sun and worked until sunset. We formed a community, and would gather in the evenings at the Al-Beshmo Hotel to discuss our plans for the coming day.
The change of scenery from the Great Pyramids of Giza and the thrill of the present discovery truly revived my archaeological spirit. By the time I left, we had already uncovered two more tombs in the burial ground with dozens of mummies of all shapes and sizes inside. Many of them were laid out in cartonnage coffins lavishly decorated with gold. The first two sections of the site were already most exciting, yet I was totally unprepared for the surprise I got when I moved to another area, where I saw for the first time a figure of the god Anubis depicted on both the left and right sides of the tomb's entrance. This is the only tomb in which I have ever seen Anubis, guardian of the underworld, drawn in this way -- literally guarding the tomb.
As with the other tombs already excavated in Bahariya, these new graves are cut out of sandstone and contain many mummies. Yet they also exhibit some remarkable differences. One of the tombs consists of a series of rooms, like catacombs, one chamber above the other. Inside it I found the mummy of a child, entirely covered in gold. My excitement knew no bounds. In another room, was a mummy completely covered with linen, similar to those of the New Kingdom which have provided us with the stereotypical figure that is known around the world, thanks to the "Curse of the Mummy" horror films.
I mulled this over one evening as I sat in the courtyard of the hotel. I recalled the first mummy we had discovererd during our work at the site. It had a headdress hung with rows of curls that terminated in spirals, framing the forehead and extending behind the ears on both sides. Braids encircled the curls, and it was these features that naturally led us to think that the mummy was that of a woman. This led us to the idea of analysing the mummy's decoration from top to bottom, just as one reads the scenes depicted on temple walls.
The scenes in the lower register of the mask depict two figures. The one on the left holds a standard crowned by a jackal signifying the god Wepwawat. The figure on the right, however, is wearing a uraeus on its forehead and holds a symbol in its hand. Although the precise meaning of this emblem is unclear, the figure could represent the god Horus. Between the two figures stands the god Thoth depicted in the form of an ibis, wearing the double crown with two horns.
I recalled another mummy adorned with a representation of the god Thoth in the form of an ibis. In that case, however, Thoth was flanked by two figures of the god Anubis.
These newly-discovered mummies can tell us a lot about the life of the people of Bahariya Oasis in the Roman era. They can also furnish us with a great deal of information about the art of mummification and beliefs concerning the afterlife. Evidently, the inhabitants of Roman Bahariya were very rich, for they could afford exquisite decorations and much gold on their elaborate cartonnage coffins.
l-r: One of the recently-excavated mummies at Bahariya Oasis; and Hawass
I can visualise the style of the embalming workshops in Bahariya. It would appear that there were many of these establishments, and skilled artisans seem to have constituted the greater part of the oasis' labour force. We know that Egypt's population under Roman rule was about seven million. I would therefore estimate that during this period Bahariya must have been home to roughly 30,000 people. Today, it is thought that about 450,000 people live there.
The main product of ancient Bahariya was wine, made from dates and grapes. It was exported all over the country and it was this trade, I believe, which accounted for the wealth of the oasis. Bahariya today is a very quiet place, and its inhabitants take life easy. This relaxed atmosphere is probably something they have inherited from their Roman ancestors.
Work on the tombs began in 332 BC, at the same time the temple of Alexander the Great was being built, about one kilometre away. This is the only temple in Egypt that is dedicated to the great conqueror. It is possible, in my opinion, that Alexander may have travelled to Memphis via Bahariya, and that the Bahariyans chose to honour him by building this temple for him, and for the god Amun whose oracle he had consulted in Siwa Oasis.
The Bahariya discoveries clearly demonstrate that the art of mummification enjoyed a golden age under the Romans, rather than entering upon a decline as many have proposed. An important feature of the Roman approach to mummification at Bahariya is that reeds were placed to the left and right of the mummy before the body was wrapped in linen. This technique strengthened the mummy and explains why more examples of the art have survived from this period than from the Pharaonic era.
On the morning of my departure, I made two important decisions. One was to transport five of the mummies (two women, a man and two children) to the Inspectorate of Antiquities at Bawiti, so as to allow visitors to see the best-preserved of these finds without having to disturb the tranquillity of the tombs. The other was to bring one linen-covered mummy back to the X-ray lab in Cairo for further examination.
With members of our team gathered round, workmen proceeded to take down the tents which had been set up one month before. The restorer wrapped the mummy chosen for tests and slid it into a wooden box, before placing it on the truck bound for Giza. Ashry Saker, a member of our team, turned to me and asked, "How will we identify this mummy?" "We'll call him Mr or Mrs X," I replied.
