Archaeologists excavating an ancient cemetery in Cairo have found a cache of burial objects that could shed new light on funeral practices in one of Egypt’s most important religious centers.
According to Heritage Daily the discovery was made at the Banhsi Cemetery in Ain Shams, a district built over parts of ancient Heliopolis, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The site forms part of the sprawling necropolis of Heliopolis, the city that served as the center of the cult of the sun god Ra for centuries.
An Egyptian team from the Supreme Council of Antiquities uncovered the objects beneath a mudbrick tomb containing human remains. The group of items appears to have been deposited as part of a burial and includes a copper mirror, alabaster vessels that still contain traces of their original contents, and a vessel carved from black obsidian.
The cache also contained blue faience vessels, miniature ritual jars, amulets shaped like a duck and the Atef Crown, decorative stones, and several pairs of earrings believed to be made of gold. Some of the smaller ritual jars were decorated with fittings that archaeologists think may also be gold.
The finds add to a growing list of discoveries from the cemetery this excavation season. Archaeologists have previously identified mudbrick and limestone burial structures, fragments of coffins, inscribed limestone blocks, and a Roman-period coin. One coffin decorated with red-painted motifs contained skeletal remains that researchers believe may belong to a military figure.
Researchers say the cemetery is particularly important because it remained in use during the transition from the Roman period to the early Christian era. That makes it a rare record of how burial practices changed, or persisted, during a time of major religious and social transformation in Egypt.
Excavations at the site are ongoing, and archaeologists hope future work will provide a clearer picture of the people buried there and the role the cemetery played in the final centuries of Heliopolis.
